We’ve said it once, and we’ll keep saying it, e-commerce does not need to be hard. That’s why we launched our new eCommerce offering – shopBuilder – earlier this year so that Irish small businesses can start selling online quickly and easily.
There are lots of choices in platforms to choose from when building an online store. Christmas is fast approaching, and now Ireland is on lockdown again, so it’s never been more important for SMEs to be selling online. Irish consumers WANT to buy from Irish-based business. Make it easy for them with a new shopBuilder website.
One popular platform for building an online store is Wix; a do it yourself website builder based in Israel. We’re here to tell you why you should not consider Wix at all but instead use our new shopBuilder product instead.
First, we should be clear that you can use a shopBuilder store on an existing Wix Website, it drops in with a simple line of code. So, if you’re already using Wix but don’t want to pay for their commerce solution, you can drop shopBuilder onto a blank Wix page very easily. Get directions on how to do that here.
Wix is expensive for eCommerce
It’s simple, shopBuilder is for selling things. Wix seeks to be an all-encompassing marketing platform. eCommerce is a secondary feature, and it costs extra. It’s also more expensive than shopBuilder with plans starting at €17 a month and going up to €35 a month.
Limits on sales tax/VAT calculations
The basic plan with Wix doesn’t automatically calculate VAT and sales tax; this is an extra feature requiring a more expensive package. Calculating VAT properly is a big missing feature for Ireland and shopBuilder does this out of the box.
Already have a website?
If you already have a website built with our siteBuilder product or WordPress or another platform, you can drop shopBuilder in with one line of code and have a fully functioning e-commerce store. You can’t ‘drop-in’ Wix into an existing website. With Wix, you have to build the website with Wix and build the online store with Wix – double lock-in!
No Currency Conversion
If you want to sell around the world, it’s important for the currency to appear to the end-user as their currency. With Wix, this is only included in more expensive packages. In shopBuilder, it’s merely an inexpensive add-on that you can drop-in if you need it.
Wix charges transaction fees
Wix really wants you to use their credit card processor called Wix Payments. This means that not only will you be paying them a high monthly fee; you’ll also be paying a chunk of each transaction to them. You can sidestep this by using your own credit card processor, but they don’t support as wide a range of payment processors as shopBuilder does.
Wix is BIG
Wix is a billion-dollar global corporation. They have millions of users, spread out across the world. You can’t be everything for everyone and provide good customer service, which leads to our next point.
Irish Support for Irish Problems
With shopBuilder, you get award-winning Irish Support for Irish problems from Blacknight. When you call us, we pick up the phone and do our best to solve any problems you may encounter with shopBuilder (and there won’t be many!). Don’t just take our word for it; check out our reviews on Trustpilot.
Add-ons are extra and expensive
Wix has an entire add-on ecosystem that is designed to extract more money from you to make your site functional in a way that a site built in shopBuilder will already be. Instead of paying for add-on after add-on to Wix, get shopBuilder where you pay one fee, and you’re ready to go.
Wix Templates Look Like Wix
This is more of an aesthetic gripe. But Wix websites looks like… Wix websites. They do the job but they all kind of look and act the same. You can be more unique with your shopBuilder website and be less fussed with tweaking the design in endless combinations. It’s important to just get online and get selling.
Difficult to Use Editor
Wix is a many-headed beast now that it’s trying to be all things to all people. Its editor interface is bloated and complicated to use. It doesn’t make building an online store easy at all. shopBuilder is as easy as it can get, with a few clicks and settings, you’re selling online. Endless customisation options creates confusing complication you don’t need with Wix.
No POS Support
Do you need to integrate your online operations with the POS that you use in your physical store? You simply cannot do it with Wix; they do not support integration with any Point-of-Sale Systems. shopBuilder has POS support built right in.
Interested in getting your shopBuilder store up and running, you can purchase right now here or get in touch with our sales team, and they’ll get you sorted out.
About the Author: Jonathan Thomas
