Wix has numerous ecommerce plans that allow creators to sell online easily, but is Wix for ecommerce? From selling your own physical products, digital products, print on demand or to drop ship. Wix as an overall website builder solution is feature rich and a good choice for anyone looking for an all in one solutions.
Their ecommerce features do have some catching up to do for serious merchants, but for new and small store owners they are an ideal choice. If you’re looking to blog, sell your own digital products or leverage drop shipping and print on demand then we highly suggest you checkout Wix. Get started now with a free account.
Wix ecommerce overview
Wix is a sophisticated all-in-one solution that combines a domain name registrar, web host, content management system, drag and drop builder and various ecommerce solutions like payment processing a point of sale software solution for one price.
Overall, expect good design with a focus on SEO and integrated drop shipping and print on demand via the Wix app store. Payment options could be better.
Pros:
- One company, one support channel.
- Integrated apps to make drop shipping and print on demand easy.
- Beautiful templates that come with pre-made store functionality.
- Excellent value for the money as they don’t have any transaction fees to cut into your profits
- Can sell digital products, physical products, drop ship or do print on demand.
Cons:
- No option for gift cards.
- Not ideal for products that can be customized as on the product page you’re a bit limited.
- Translation app is limited and works well for small websites, but not ecommerce stores that also have a blog.
- The basic plan does not include state tax calculations.
Rating:
Wix ecommerce plans and pricing
Wix is not a low cost solution, expect to pay over $300 a year for an ecommerce plan. However, if you’re looking for a user-friendly way to get your ecommerce store up and running, Wix has multiple pricing packages that may work for you.
You also get a “free” domain name for the first year if you decide to register through Wix. After the first year, .com domains are $15 a year. Wix also upsells WHOIS protection at $10 a year. So total cost for getting a domain name at Wix is $25. I suggest you instead use Namecheap for your domains instead of Wix, but if you want ease of use then Wix is a decent option for domains.
Business Basic
Wix’s Business Basic Plan costs $17 per month and includes the basics (hence the name) of what you need in order to sell your own digital products or a small amount of your own physical products. The domain name registration fee is waived for the first as well as 20 GB of storage space on their cloud server.
Last, you don’t get access to Modalyst, their drop shipping app on the basic plan or the ability to use multiple currencies. If you don’t intend on drop shipping and have a small inventory of products to sell then the Business Basic plan is a good start.
This plan is ideal for a blogger looking to sell digital products or someone who already sells a small selection of products online and does not need anything overly complicated.
Business Unlimited
The business unlimited plan costs $25 per month and it’s unlimited in the sense you don’t have any of the limitations of the basic plan. That means you get more storage than the basic plan, multiple currencies, can dropship with Modalyst and can leverage Print on Demand with Printful.
In general, this is their best ecommerce plan because you can build out a store that can actually make money through blogging, drop shipping, and selling digital products. It’s more feature rich and ideal for most ecommerce entrepreneurs.
Business VIP
The VIP plan is priced at $35 a month and is exactly the same as the Business Unlimited plan except the resources provided to your account are simply increased. That means more storage space, more hours of video, more drop shipping products and more sales tax transactions.
At this level you also get access to custom reports to help make business decisions but there are numerous third party tools that you can add on to any ecommerce plan to get the same information. However, if you need a bump in resources it is an added benefit.
How to create an online store with Wix
Creating an online store with Wix can be accomplished in a few days as a solo creator. Simply sign up to Wix for free and begin designing one of their great templates (or create your own store from scratch) to your liking.
When getting started with any Wix account, they also offer an “ADI” option which is their artificial design intelligence options. Basically, it’s a questionnaire you fill out and Wix helps you select design elements and pages that are important to you.
Please note that the free version is limited. You can’t sell anything or integrate drop shipping or print on demand unless you upgrade. For that you have to upgrade your account. We suggest the business unlimited plan as it has all the features you need to sell.
Sell on Instagram and Facebook, drop shipping or print on demand
One notable feature we liked was the ability to sell on both Facebook and Instagram with Wix. You can also leverage a company called Modalyst to drop ship on your website. The integration seamless and works without needing any complicated setup.
You can also use Printful to add print on demand products to your Wix store. We’re quite impressed with how easy it is to get started selling on Wix. No, you don’t need your own products to get started, but if you do have your own inventory of products or you’re wanting to sell digital products with Wix, that’s easy to setup too.
Tax, shipping rates, transaction fees
Now that your store is ready to accept orders, all that’s left is setting your tax and shipping rates. If you’re from the US or any country where Avalara works, you can offer real-time shipping rates. You’re also able to set automatic VAT for the EU and state sales tax for the US.
Wix, depending on your stores country comes with multiple payment options. For US based store owners you get quite a few modern options. For other countries you can expect credit card support, direct deposit or PayPal at a minimum.
Last, there are no transaction fees. A big selling point as Wix is already a bit expensive. If you’re actually able have success with your marketing efforts you won’t have to worry about Wix eating into your profits.
Drop shipping with Modalyst and Wix
Modalyst is a company that allows you to setup drop shipping for your Wix ecommerce store. Drop shipping is where you the retailer do not keep goods in stock, but instead fulfill orders by purchasing products from a supplier.
The way it works with your Wix ecommerce website is that you install Modalyst through Wix’s app system on your website. Then you select relevant products and sync them to your store. Once someone makes a purchase of a product, that order gets routed to your Modalyst account. You in turn order directly from the supplier to fulfill the order.
This process allows you the retailer to offer your customers a wide range of product inventories at lower price because you will typically be ordering in bulk once your store starts to get traffic and sales. Please note that Modalyst is not available on the business basic plan.
Print on demand with Printful and Wix
Printful is a company that allows for print on demand products to be added to any type of website. Best of all, Wix has their own custom integration with Printful so all you need to do is install the app on your Wix website, create a Printful account and then sync all your designs to your store at the click of a button.
You can offer shirts, mugs, hoodies and more on your website. You do need to have some ability to design however as print on demand is best for artistic, creative people who enjoy the process of creating art.
In combination with Modalyst, you can offer a wide selection of interesting products on your store. Everything from merch, to drop shipping products as well as your own in-house products.
Selling your own digital products
One thing creators forget is that with a Wix ecommerce plan, you can sell your own digital products and you can custom design those sales pages for those products with the Wix editor. Unlike using WordPress where you need to use a 3rd party solution like Send Owl or E-Junkie to accept payment and deliver the product, everything is integrated with Wix.
This option is ideal for any blogger looking for a long term, all in one solution where they can publish content, get that free search traffic and then offer various digital products like ebooks, audio or video as a download.
Please note, with Wix it works the same as Gumroad in that if people buy your product they get access to download all the video content or PDF documents through a personal account on your website.
Wix ecommerce FAQ
We get asked a lot of the same questions with regards to Wix ecommerce, particularly on our free tutorial videos on YouTube. So let’s get to the most asked questions regarding Wix and ecommerce.
Q: How do you send the product to your customers with Wix and Modalyst?
When you drop ship you don’t have any inventory. When a sale comes in, you have to purchase the item from the supplier and they fulfill the order. With Wix and Modalyst everything is integrated so orders are automatically sent your your Modalyst account. You do need to manage the order process however.
Q: What’s the difference between Wix and Shopify?
Shopify is ideal for mid sized stores that will leverage Amazon FBA or have their own inventory of products. Wix is better if you’re wanting to do a combination of content marketing through blogging, selling your own digital products and/or drop shipping and doing print on demand.
Q: What’s the difference between Wix ecommerce and their website plans?
The ability to sell your own products, drop ship and leverage print on demand. In our Wix review for blogging, we mentioned various creative ways to monetize your website like content locking blog posts. But if you’re wanting to your own stuff you’ll need an ecommerce plan.
Q: How do I cancel my account?
To cancel an account with Wix you first need to go to your plan and turn off the automatic renewal. Next, you need to navigate to Wix.com/refunds and complete the on screen process. If it’s within the 14 day trial, you’ll get your money back no questions asked. Outside of this window, it’s at the discretion of Wix.
Wix ecommerce conclusion
Their ecommerce plans are unique and offer content marketers an array of ways to monetize a website. If you’ve been looking to make money blogging, Wix is a unique choice. They offer the ability to drop ship products, have your own print on demand products, sell your own digital products with one account.
Wix is not ideal for large stores and anyone looking to sell with Amazon FBA. They are a much better option for someone, or a team of people who want to engage in content marketing through blogging and email marketing but then leverage ecommerce to monetize their website.
