Wix E-Commerce Review 2023: Pros, Cons and Alternatives
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Wix is a website builder for individuals and businesses alike, but this review focuses on Wix’s e-commerce website builder capabilities. In that space, Wix stands out for its appointment booking and ticket sales tools. It also offers special features that make Wix a good fit for hotels, restaurants and fitness businesses.
Wix’s customization options don’t end there — and it actually offers so many choices that Wix may become overwhelming. If you run a smaller e-commerce business with few staff members, you might prefer a simpler option. Also, if you primarily make money by selling physical products, other platforms have more advanced tools for inventory management and shipping than Wix.
Here’s what you need to know about Wix e-commerce to decide if it’s right for your business.
FEATURED
Wix e-commerce: Deciding factors
Price when billed annually |
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Payment processing | Wix offers its own payments solution, Wix Payments, which charges 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction for online purchases. In-person payments using Wix’s point-of-sale system cost 2.6%. If you choose a different payment gateway, Wix doesn’t charge additional fees. |
Key features |
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Online marketplace integrations |
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Wix e-commerce’s key features
Wix e-commerce stands out for what it offers to event-based businesses — appointments, reservations, ticket sales and more.
Appointment booking
Appointment booking comes built into Wix websites. You can offer different types of services, accept payments online or in person and sell packages where customers buy several services at once. Business owners can also add certain staff members to certain appointments.
If your appointments take place virtually, you can enable video conferencing. And your clients have access to an appointments page of their own, where they can see upcoming appointments and cancel or reschedule if they need to.
Ticket sales
Wix is one of few online store builders that can facilitate ticket sales without a third-party app. You can create multiple types of tickets with different prices, including free or pay-what-you-want pricing. Wix charges a 2.5% service fee, which you can absorb or pass on to your customers. Ticket sellers can even create a seating map that shows guests where they’ll sit.
If your business offers memberships, you can use Wix to make discounted tickets part of your loyalty program.
Special tools for fitness businesses and restaurants
Wix Fit offers special templates for gyms and fitness studios, plus features like class packs, streaming and on-demand workouts, and class schedules that your staff members can see and manage. And Wix’s restaurant website builder can help you take online orders without paying fees to third-party apps, plus offer reservations and manage phone orders.
Your own custom app
Branded App by Wix can help you build your very own app without learning how to code. Whatever functionalities you’ve installed on your website — an e-commerce store, blog, appointment booking — should appear in your app too, and any purchases customers make within the app should sync up in your e-commerce dashboard.
Note that you’ll have to pay an additional fee to list your app in Apple and Android app stores.
Wix e-commerce pricing and features by plan
Here’s what you’ll find in each Wix plan that supports e-commerce websites. The website builder also offers other plans, but they don’t support payments, product listings or sales on other online platforms.
Business Basic: Best for service or event-based businesses
Wix’s entry-level e-commerce plan includes basic product sales features, like unlimited listings and Facebook and Instagram sales. But it stands out for its advanced event hosting, ticket sales and appointment booking capabilities, plus special tools for restaurants, hotels and fitness businesses.
Price: $27 per month.
Features:
Unlimited product listings.
50 GB of file storage space.
Five hours of video.
Free domain for one year.
Product listings on social media, including Facebook and Instagram.
Unlimited service or class listings and appointment booking, including SMS reminders.
Unlimited event hosting and ticket sales.
For restaurants: online ordering, reservations and menu displays.
Hotel room listings and room pricing.
Dedicated features for fitness businesses, including memberships and class packs, a mobile app for members, online classes and SMS and email reminders.
Business Unlimited: Best for subscription businesses
Upgrading to Business Unlimited unlocks a few more product sales features, like subscriptions and recurring payments, plus additional online storage space.
Price: $32 per month.
Additional features at this level:
100 GB of storage space.
10 hours of video.
Sell subscriptions and take recurring payments.
Display products in customers’ local currency.
Product listings on other online marketplaces.
Up to 1,000 product reviews using KudoBuzz, a third-party app.
Up to 250 products available for dropshipping using Modalyst, a third-party app.
Business VIP: Best Wix plan for product sellers
Wix’s priciest e-commerce website plan offers unlimited online storage space. Its extra features for product sellers — product reviews, sales tax calculation, dropshipping and more — are powered by third-party apps and may come with caps of their own, however.
Price: $59 per month.
Additional features at this level:
Unlimited storage space.
Unlimited video hours.
Automated sales tax for 500 transactions per month.
Up to 3,000 product reviews using KudoBuzz, a third-party app.
Unlimited dropshipping powered by Modalyst, a third-party app.
Customer loyalty program powered by Smile.io, a third-party app.
Wix pros
Standout features for service businesses
Wix offers a wide variety of features for service businesses, including restaurants, hotels and fitness businesses. These include appointment booking with built-in reminders, the ability to sell memberships and class packs, hotel room reservations and online ordering for restaurants. Better yet, all are included in the Business Basic plan — you’ll only need to upgrade if you need additional storage space or product-selling and shipping features.
Option to choose your own payment processor
Wix offers its own built-in payment processor, but if you prefer a different one, you can use it at no additional cost. This is the best of both worlds — the option to choose your own payment processor if you want to, but the ease of using a built-in one if you don’t.
Custom app builder
Building your own app — without needing to learn how to code — could be a valuable tool for helping build customer loyalty. If that’s something your e-commerce business might want to do in the future, it may be worth creating your website on Wix now.
Wix cons
Feature list may be overwhelming for small businesses
Wix’s offers tons of tools for restaurants, hotels and fitness businesses. But setting up and managing all those features on your own requires staff time and energy. It’s OK if you’d rather use a simpler website builder with only the core features you need so you can keep your team focused on other priorities.
Limited features for selling physical products
Wix relies on third-party apps to provide features that other e-commerce website builders offer natively. For example, you’ll have to use third-party apps to work with any shipping carriers besides USPS or to receive low-stock notifications. In general, third-party apps introduce an extra layer of complexity that’s worth avoiding if you can.
Storage space limitations
Wix’s Business Basic plan comes with 50 GB of file storage and five hours of video storage. That may be sufficient for some businesses — but if your company plans to rely on high-res photos or video tutorials, you may run out of space and have to upgrade quickly.
Alternatives to Wix
Squarespace: Simpler to use
Squarespace is an easy-to-use website builder that’s also a good choice for companies selling services or appointments. Like Wix, Squarespace can facilitate native online appointment booking, including reminder emails and intake forms. But if you don’t need the other features on Wix’s lengthy list, Squarespace may be easier to manage for small, resource-limited businesses. Read NerdWallet’s review of Squarespace.
Shopify: Better for product sellers
If your business sells and ships physical products, consider Shopify. It offers advanced inventory and order-management tools, discounted shipping rates and omnichannel commerce, plus built-in payment processing with Shopify Payments.
Square Online: Offers a free plan
Square Online’s free plan offers unlimited product listings, local deliveries, coupons and other basic e-commerce features. If you’re just starting out and want to test your market before investing in building a full website, Square might be a good way to do so. Read NerdWallet’s review of Square Online.
A version of this article was first published on Fundera, a subsidiary of NerdWallet.
