What is an Online Store Builder?

By Simon  |  6 Feb 2017 18:00:00

An online store builder is the name give to a system which lets someone easily create an ecommerce website. Modern systems (like Sellr.com) allow you to select a base design (theme) for your website, and then enter text and drag and drop images onto the pages to make them exactly as you want.

There are a few basic requirements of an online store builder.

1. Choice of themes
2. Tools to modify and customize the theme
3. Ability to easily add items for sale
4. Ability to accept and manage orders
5. Integration with payment systems such as PayPal to process payments
6. Sending of confirmation emails to customers.

Crucially though, the best online store builders are easy to use. It has to be easy to get an online store up and running in the shortest amount of time, and for it to be easy to use from the merchants perspective.

Examples of online store builders in the UK are Sellr.com, Ekm.com and Shopify.com

Sellr.com is relatively new having been around since 2014 and has been created by the makers of the well known RomanCart system (used globally by over 55,000 merchants) to provide a great website experience for users on all different devices. This is called a 'responsive website'. As you can never predict whether a customer will be on a teblet, mobile or desktop computer it is really important that the website looks great on all of them.

Ekm.com, also known as Ekmpowershop is one of the 'old guard' having been around since about 2002. This has been a popular system for UK merchants.

Shopify.com is a Canadian system  which notably spends a huge amount of money on marketing to gain customer share. Many merchants in the UK have found that it is not great when it comes to setting up VAT and other UK centric settings.

Most online store builders will have a free trial for a certain period, usually 14 days. We would recommend that you sign up to a few of them and find out which one meets your needs if you are thinking of selling online. As part of your test though, phone their support line and make sure you get the response and reception that you would like if you have to phone up with a question of a problem.

The UK is a great place to be selling online. If it's something that you are thinking of, then you should get started right now and become part of the ecommerce boom!