Disclosure: Our editorial staff write reviews independently. We may be compensated if you sign up for a service through our affiliate links.

Our rating(4/5)
The all-round-value of a Wix eCommerce website is hard to beat, but not without limitations.
Wix is a popular website builder and ecommerce platform that’s extremely adaptable. Known for its visual drop-and-drag builder, you can build a complete online store with no prior experience.
  • Highs: Lots of features for the price. Very user-friendly. Beautiful templates. Competitive pricing.
  • Lows: Payouts take about 2 weeks. Card details required for trial. Service complaints. No website export.
  • Best for: Merchants with a limited product range who want the easiest way to build an online store.

How Wix eCommerce works

Wix is a popular website builder appealing to bloggers, freelancers and businesses alike. It allows you to create a website through step-by-step guidance and a very user-friendly editor. No coding skills are required because it is all visually presented and explained.

For a subscription cost, you can use the ‘Business’ (ecommerce) features to sell products on your website.

Wix allows you to create a site in two ways:

  • Wix Editor: First choose a template, then customize pages manually and make use of tons of features.

  • Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence): Wix asks a few questions about the type and style of shop you want – then it creates a store for you.

Wix Editor is what most people imagine Wix to be. This is the drag-and-drop editor where you adjust anything to exactly what you want, add tons of elements and app integrations and choose between many templates.

That said, Wix ADI is the easiest to use as it creates a basic website after a few questions, whereafter you can adjust the existing elements that were tailored for you. If you’re not comfortable with the full creative control of Wix Editor and you want a website very quickly, ADI is definitely the way to go.

In the US, Wix allows the following payment methods on your ecommerce website:

Wix Payments

MastercardVisaAmerican ExpressDiscoverDiners ClubJCB

Other payment options

2Checkout, Affirm, Afterpay, Alipay, Braintree, Evergreen Payments Northwest, Paysafecash, PayPal, Pinwheel, Sezzle, Square, Stripe, manual payments (cash, check, wire transfer)

These incur transaction fees on top of the website subscription.

Instead of Wix Payments, it is possible to use another online payment gateway such as PayPal, Stripe or Square, or accept alternative payment methods like Alipay. This would mean that credit card payments are processed and charged through your chosen payment processor, not Wix. Alternatively, you can add instructions on how to pay by wire transfer or cash.

Customer shopping online

Ecommerce platform comparison:

Which is best for a small business?

Wix eCommerce pricing and payments

It’s free to create a Wix account and build a website – up until you need certain features. To sell things and have a professional-looking website without Wix advertising, there are three ecommerce subscriptions to pick from: Business Basic, Businesses Unlimited and Business VIP.

Plan Monthly* Yearly* 2 years* 3 years*
Business Basic $30/mo $23/mo $20/mo $18/mo
Business Unlimited $35/mo $27/mo $23.50/mo $22/mo
Business VIP $56/mo $49/mo $42/mo $38.50/mo

* Excluding tax.

Wix eCommerce plans
Monthly* Yearly* 2 years* 3 years*
Business Basic
$30 /mo $23 /mo $20 /mo $18 /mo
Business Unlimited
$35 /mo $27 /mo $23.50 /mo $22 /mo
Business VIP
$56 /mo $49 /mo $42 /mo $38.50 /mo

* Excluding tax.

The more you pay upfront, the cheaper the monthly rate, i.e. pay-monthly is most expensive, and the rate for three years paid upfront is lowest on a per-month basis. Just beware: amounts paid are non-refundable so you commit to the months paid for. The subscription should be canceled before the end of the current term as otherwise it will auto-renew.

To test Wix, you can sign up for a free account, but this does not include ecommerce features. To test an online store, you need to pay for a Business subscription, but then you can cancel within 14 days for a full refund.

You have the same available payment options and card rates on all plans, but you can only accept one currency for payments. The minimum amount that can be accepted is $1 USD.

Charges
Wix Payments processing fee 2.9% + 30¢ (any card)
Wix Payments chargebacks No chargeback fee
Wix Payments refunds Wix keeps original processing fee (2.9% + 30¢)
Charges
Wix Payments processing fee 2.9% + 30¢ (any card)
Wix Payments chargebacks No chargeback fee
Wix Payments refunds Wix keeps original processing fee (2.9% + 30¢)

Wix Payments has a reasonable transaction rate of 2.9% + $0.30 and no monthly fees. Chargebacks incur no fee, but your customer may get their transaction amount back from you if the dispute was successful. Processing a refund costs the original transaction fee, i.e. the customer receives a full refund whereas you do not get the original transaction fee refunded.

Wix payouts are very slow. Every transaction accepted first has to go through a “settlement period” of 1-2 days, at the same time as a “pending period” of 2-5 business days. Thereafter, it is added to your following scheduled payout time. When Wix then sends the payout to your bank, it takes 3-5 business days for the money to appear in your bank account. In the fastest-case scenario, a transaction may reach your bank account in 5 business days, but it is equally feasible it would take two weeks.

Image: Wix

Wix Store checkout

Wix checkout example.

Conveniently, Wix Payments keeps customers on your site for the entire checkout process. If you use PayPal, customers may be directed away from your site during checkout, which is known to decrease conversion rates.

Other online payment gateways have different costs, which may include a monthly fee.

Alternatively, you can send Wix Invoices containing a payment link for the client. The invoice payment uses the Wix Payments system at the usual 2.9% + $0.30 processing charge.

eCommerce features

Many Wix ecommerce features are included on all the Business subscriptions. The following are just a snapshot:

Product catalog: Store products are added from your Dashboard, not the website editor. This means if you change your website theme, the core information about your products can be transferred to the new layout.

You can add product descriptions, variants, ribbons (e.g. Bestseller, New Arrival) displayed on product images and stock levels. When an item is sold out, it will show an “out of stock” label in the online store, but you don’t get email notifications when something is low or out of stock.

Image library: When you upload pictures, Wix automatically generates suitable tags based on analytical data – pretty cool since tags are important for SEO and product searches.

You can also add images from stock image libraries including Media from Wix (free), Shutterstock (costs apply) and Unsplash (free). Videos can be added, but note that there are total runtime limits.

Abandoned carts: Shopping carts that potential customers have abandoned can be viewed, so you can email customers to close the sale. This is a proven way to increase conversion as these people have already been tempted to buy, but perhaps needed more time to think.

SEO settings: Search engine optimization (SEO) is important for getting found in search engines, and Wix has made that easy for those without much experience.

When you go to SEO settings, it shows exactly what information to input and how it will look in Google search results.

Image: Mobile Transaction

Wix online store SEO

SEO is made easy with explainers and visual examples.

Social media selling: Integrations with Instagram, Facebook, Amazon and eBay allow you to display and advertize products and services on social media. Customers can then click through to pay on your website.

Subscriptions, bookings, reservations and ordering: Recurring payments are possible through Wix subscriptions (requires higher plan than Basic). This allows you to sell a range of services with a weekly on monthly membership.

You can also set up a reservations system synced with Google Calendar (e.g. for hotels), accept bookings and sell event tickets. Restaurants and other food-and-drink businesses can set up an online ordering menu for pickup or delivery.

Marketing and promotions: Add promo codes that customers can submit at the checkout, set up discounts or run email marketing campaigns. Advanced marketing features may require additional apps.

Mobile responsiveness: In the website editor, you can easily switch between desktop and mobile view to check how the page looks on different screen sizes. The mobile page can even be edited directly if something doesn’t look right. This is extremely important  for ecommerce today, since most people shop on their cell phones, and having a website that’s difficult to navigate on a small screen will lead to lost sales.

Contact form and live chat: Close sales while customers are on your site by adding a live chat. It’s common for many to leave an online shop if there are doubts, but the proactiveness of asking “can I help” when they’re still browsing could increase sales.

You can also add a contact form for those who’d rather send you less urgent questions.

Customer reviews: Let customers leave reviews on your website so others can make more informed decisions. You can also add a widget on your site that pulls reviews from other websites.

Image: Mobile Transaction

Wix Editor button options

Lots can be changed on every web page.

Shipping and dropshipping: Wix can calculate shipping costs at checkout and connect with various shipping apps for advanced shipping management. Online stores do not need their own inventory management, though – with Wix’s dropshipping providers, you can source products from a range of suppliers. When your customers then order, the supplier will fulfill the order and ship items purchased in your online store.

Sales analytics and reporting: Analyze sales in real time from your Wix dashboard. Generate reports on website traffic, sales by category, customer data and more. Integrations with accounting software can be established for in-depth bookkeeping. You can also download the Wix app on your phone to monitor orders and communicate with customers through a chat.

Multi-language website: Wix Multilingual is a handy integration that translates your site from English to a choice of other languages. This way, you don’t need to hire a translator to gear an online store towards international customers. Note that this feature only works with Wix Editor, not ADI.

Blog: Your website isn’t just an online store – you can add a blog section for articles that can increase traffic on your site. In fact, add any page needed to make your website great.

Design options: Wix is honestly great for playing around with designs in the visual editor. You can pick from a long list of text fonts, add shapes, add images and videos, edit or add sections anywhere you like, pull sections to the right size, choose the look of buttons, menu layout, and so much more. Even as a non-designer, you can have fun playing around with everything until you like what you see.

All the Business plans include:

  • Unlimited products
  • Ability to accept payments online
  • Ability to connect your own domain
  • Customer accounts
  • Abandoned cart delivery
  • Free domain for one year
  • Removal of Wix ads
  • $300 ad vouchers

The differences between the three Wix Business plans are mainly:

Wix Business feature Basic Unlimited VIP
Storage 20 GB 35 GB 50 GB
Videos on website <5 hours <10 hours Unlimited
Auto-sales tax 100 transactions/mo 500 transactions/mo
Product reviews by KudoBuzz 1000 reviews 3000 reviews
Dropshipping by Modalyst Up to 250 products Unlimited products
Advanced shipping
Sell on marketplaces
Subscriptions
Multiple currencies
Smile.io loyalty program
Priority support
Custom reports
Wix
Business
feature
Basic Unli-
mited
VIP
Storage 20 GB 35 GB 50 GB
Videos on website <5 hours <10 hours Unlimited
Auto-sales tax 100 transactions /mo 500 transactions /mo
Product reviews by KudoBuzz 1000 reviews 3000 reviews
Dropshipping by Modalyst Up to 250 products Unlimited products
Advanced shipping
Sell on marketplaces
Subscriptions
Multiple currencies
Smile.io loyalty program
Priority support
Custom reports

Some of the key differences here are site storage and customer support. Although you can have unlimited products on your site, the images and possible videos are likely going to take up a lot of space with a larger product library. If you’re reliant on getting help from Wix, you can save time with VIP’s prioritized support, although other Business plans come with 24/7 support.

The cheapest plan, Business Basic, lacks advanced ecommerce features like the option to accept subscriptions, foreign currencies, set up automated sales taxes, access to all marketplace integrations, and more. These may not be relevant to all businesses, so the choice of plan does in part depend on your type of online store.

Editing the website

Without looking too overwhelming, Wix Editor is the most advanced of Wix’s two types of builders. Here, your website is displayed and divided into clickable sections to work on. You can literally click anything, which will show the associated things that can be edited.

Image: Mobile Transaction

Wix Editor example website

Wix Editor has detailed editing options with lots of optional features.

Wix ADI has a good amount of editing freedom, but it is streamlined to include only the most important editing options. This makes it a lot easier for someone not skilled in web design to create a professional website, as it is easy to get overwhelmed with more choices.

Image: Mobile Transaction

Wix ADI editor

The Wix ADI builder has fewer editing options, but looks less intimidating.

Both editors are very user-friendly, because everything has written explainers to say what that thing is for. When clicking on something, it shows the options for that section of the site, for example options for changing the text, adding a link and adjusting the size of the visual element.

Any time you want to switch between ADI and Editor, you can do that, so you’re not stuck with the limited options presented in Wix ADI, if that’s how you started.

Website templates

Wix has a good mix of website themes so you can create a website in any unique style (in contrast, Squarespace’s designs are more recognisable, though beautiful).

There is, however, a difference in templates between the two ways to set up a website.

Out of Wix’s 976 templates in the Wix Editor, 122 are suitable for an ecommerce store. That’s not bad, especially since they’re really quite nice and professional.

Image: Mobile Transaction

Overview of Wix templates

The Wix Editor online store builder lets you choose between 120+ ecommerce templates.

If you’re building with Wix ADI, you only get the few choices created upfront after answering questions about your style. From that, you can adjust the page elements – even add more sections and features – from the ADI editor.

If you start with ADI, you can switch to Editor any time to have more freedom adjusting the design.

Image: Mobile Transaction

Wix ADI theme examples

The Wix ADI builder suggests a few ecommerce examples based on your requirements.

A downside is that once you’ve selected a template to work with, you can’t just switch it to any other theme; only to a theme “associated with the template”. So at the start, choose carefully. Otherwise, you may have to build a new site from scratch.

Domain and hosting

All websites are hosted (i.e. stored) on a server somewhere. Normally, you pay a monthly or annual fee for that privilege, either to a dedicated hosting company or website platform. With Wix, hosting is included on all subscriptions including the free plan.

As a downside, you cannot export a website built in Wix to an external website platform such as WordPress or Shopify. Consequently, any online store created in Wix stays in Wix, so you need to be sure it’s the right platform for the long term, or be prepared to build a new site from scratch when you decide to move to a more scalable platform in the future.

All the Wix eCommerce plans allow you to:

  • Use your own domain name (URL purchase is required if you don’t have one)
  • Create a website without Wix ads
  • Use your own favicon (icon in browser tab)
  • Use unlimited bandwidth (for page loading)

To compare, the free plan only uses URLs in the format ‘username.wixsite.com/siteaddress’, displays Wix ads on all pages as well as a Wix favicon in your browser tab. All those things would make any ecommerce website look less professional, even untrustworthy.

Integrations and apps

Wix websites can integrate with 250+ apps, including tools like a search bar, social media and analytics. Some of these apps are created by Wix, either free of charge or requiring a Premium plan. Other apps are external, for example MyReviews which displays customer reviews on your site. The external apps may be free or have separate costs.

Wix App Market is divided into helpful categories like accounting, dropshipping, bookings, CRM, chat, forms, marketing, music, photography, social media and video.

Image: Mobile Transaction

Wix App Market

Wix App Market has over 250 apps with different features for the website.

If you’re clueless about what apps are best, there are helpful recommendations and curated sections for online stores, blogs, hotels and travel, restaurants and events.

There is a Wix Point of Sale system that the online store can integrate with, but this is still only available to select US merchants. You could try contacting Wix for more details about Wix POS, as the company may not otherwise offer it to you.

Customer service and Wix reviews

Common to all Wix users is the English-language callback support available 24/7. You can also request an email response via the website. Phone support is reserved to pressing issues related to billing, charges, subscriptions, domains, mailboxes, live sites, the editor, account and site settings.

Phone support is reserved to pressing issues related to billing, charges, subscriptions, domains, mailboxes, live sites, the editor, account and site settings.

On the Business VIP plan, you get ‘priority response’ where your questions on the Wix Answers page are pushed to the front of the line for a faster response. You also get ‘VIP support’ where you jump the queue on the helpline.

There is no live chat support. Most queries can be dealt with through the help section, which actually covers a lot of answers.

If you decide to hire help to manage more complicated aspects of the site, Wix can link you with appropriate professionals.

If you’re unlucky to have a payment issue, that might be challenging, though. Many customer reviews complain about Wix ignoring their payment and subscription issues, or having to wait for ages on the helpline.

We should mention that Wix has over 200 million users globally, so a larger volume of poor reviews is natural as with most other large ecommerce platforms. It is concerning, though, to see some customers left completely ignored.

Our verdict

Wix eCommerce is one of the most user-friendly online store platforms for small businesses. It’s super-easy – even fun – to get started, comes with lots of customizations and the online store can be optimized to rank well in search engines (even with no SEO experience).

The many ways you can sell online, for instance through bookings and takeout ordering, suit a wide range of business types, not just retail shops. Retailers that plan to grow quickly should perhaps look at Shopify, whereas new or small businesses with no clue of how to start would love a Wix store.

Large inventories can be problematic since you don’t get email notifications when stock is running low, and Wix isn’t really built to scale large retail stores. Other ecommerce platforms have better stock management tools, but Wix works okay if you can keep an eye on sales every day or pay for an extra integration.

Customer support is generally not highly rated, so problems may be met with a lengthy resolution process. Furthermore, the lack of option to export a Wix store makes it problematic to leave the platform, unless you’re happy starting from scratch elsewhere if you want another platform down the line.

The checkout includes a good selection of payment methods with competitive rates. It’s only really large companies with a high sales volume that can get lower rates with other payment processors. That said, the extremely slow payouts would be a hindrance to those reliant on a smooth cash flow.

Although there’s a free Wix plan, selling online does require a Wix Business subscription. However, this is well worth the money considering it includes web hosting, an integrated payment system and a platform allowing anyone to build a full-fledged online store with confidence.