Online store builder

The best online store website builder for a small business is the one that gets you from a product list to a store taking real orders, and keeps up as your shop grows. Run each option through these 6 checks:

• Building from a description: give the builder your real products and who buys them. A good first draft has product pages, a cart and a checkout you would publish, not just a pretty homepage.
• Payments built in: shoppers should pay at your checkout by card or wallet without you wiring up a separate payment provider. Check which payment methods are included and what you need to verify before payouts start.
• What you can sell: physical products, digital downloads and subscriptions each need a different checkout. Confirm one store can sell everything on your list.
• Easy changes: you will update prices, photos and stock often. Make one real change, such as a new price and photo, and time it.
• Built-in store infrastructure: hosting, security, a custom domain, SEO settings and analytics should come with the store, not as add-ons you install and pay for separately.
• Room to grow: your first store may be a handful of products. Check whether the same project can later add customer accounts, order tracking or a chatbot that answers shoppers.

Base44 meets these checks in concrete ways. You describe your store in plain language and get product pages, a cart and checkout, then change prices, photos or products by asking. Base44 Payments is built in from the Builder plan, with cards and digital wallets at checkout, and one store can sell physical products, downloads and subscriptions. Hosting, SSL, SEO tools and analytics are included. Start with the AI website builder on the free plan, describe your store and judge the result yourself.

Create your own online store in six steps, starting with what to sell and ending with a test order on the live store:

• Decide what you sell. Pick a few products to launch with and know who they are for. Starting small keeps photos and descriptions manageable. In Base44, tell the chat those few products and who buys them.
• Describe your store. Write who you sell to and the look you want. In Base44, paste that into the chat, or start from a clothing store website template and change it by asking.
• Add your products. Each one needs a clear photo, a price and facts like size or materials. In Base44, ask the chat to add each product, then swap in your own photos.
• Switch on payments. Decide how shoppers will pay and check the fee per sale first. In Base44, move to a paid plan, ask the chat to turn on online payments and verify your business.
• Write your shipping and returns policy. Shoppers look for it before they buy, so state your shipping costs and how returns work. In Base44, ask the chat to add a policy page that shows your costs before checkout.
• Publish, then test an order. Checkout runs on the published store, so go live first, then order as a shopper would, on your phone too. In Base44, publish, ask the chat for any fixes and share your store.

Base44, an online store creator, handles the building and the hosting, so your time goes into products and photos.

Yes. Base44 is a free online store builder: you can build a store and publish it at a free base44.app web address, but taking payments needs a paid plan. On the free plan you can:

• Build every page: home, product, about and policy pages, whatever your store needs.
• Add products: names, prices, descriptions and photos for each item.
• Click through as a shopper: check how your store reads before anyone else sees it.
• Go live for free: your store gets a base44.app web address, so anyone you share it with can visit.

Each request you send the chat uses message credits, and the free plan includes 25 a month, so a larger store may need an upgrade before it's finished. Payments and a custom domain also need a paid plan. See plans and pricing for what each plan adds.

Tell the chat to turn on online payments and Base44 Payments, the payment provider built into Base44 and powered by Wix, connects for you. You need a registered business and a bank account in one of the supported countries, which include the US. Set it up in this order:

• Upgrade your plan: payments are not available on the free plan. The Base44 Payments setup guide lists what you need.
• Turn on payments: type "Enable online payments" in the chat and Base44 connects the provider.
• Add your products and prices: ask the chat to create them, so checkout has something to sell.
• Publish your store: checkout only runs on the published store, so shoppers can't pay before this step.
• Test an order: while the Payments card in your dashboard shows Test, place an order as a shopper would and check the confirmation page. The Payments card is where you see and switch between test and live payments.
• Go live and verify: switch the Payments card from test to live and complete business verification. Payouts reach your bank account once verification is done.

Shoppers can pay with:

• Cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay: wallet buttons show only on supported devices.
• PayPal: available for businesses in the United States.
• Pay later: services such as Affirm, Klarna and Afterpay, depending on your country. Accept the ones you want in the Payments dashboard.

A service fee applies to each sale: 2.9% + $0.30 for most US cards, and American Express differs. If you prefer Stripe, Base44 supports it too. To go live you connect a Stripe account of your own, and you manage products and prices in your Stripe Dashboard. Some products can't be sold with Base44 Payments, so read its prohibited-products policy before you list anything unusual.

Physical goods, digital downloads and subscriptions can all live in one store, so an online shop builder like Base44 doesn't box you into one kind of shop. Each kind asks for something different:

• Physical products: candles, prints, clothing or furniture. Shoppers expect clear photos, sizes and a shipping cost before they pay.
• Digital products: planners, printable templates or study guides. Tell buyers where the file arrives after they pay, so nobody is left guessing.
• Subscriptions: a monthly box or a members-only library. State the price, the billing period and how to cancel.

Want a head start on furniture, lighting or decor? Browse home decor website templates. Once the shop is running, Base44 works as a full ecommerce platform: manage orders, run marketing campaigns and add an AI chatbot that answers your customers' questions, all from one place. Base44 Payments does not allow every kind of product, so read the prohibited products and services policy before you list anything unusual.

Most online sellers gain from owning a store, even if they also sell on a marketplace. A marketplace brings you shoppers, while your own store is where you control:

• The brand: your name, your look and your product pages.
• The prices: what you charge and when you run a sale.
• The customer relationship: who bought, and how you reach them again.

According to Eurostat's e-commerce statistics for 2024, 85.7% of EU enterprises selling online use their own website or app, against 45% that use a marketplace. In other words, a store you own is the usual base of an online business, and a marketplace is one more channel next to it. With Base44 you tell the chat what you sell, and your own storefront is ready to run alongside any marketplace listing.

It depends on how many products you add and how ready your photos and descriptions are, because Base44 builds the first version of your store from your description. What takes the longest is the work only you can do:

• Product photos: usually the longest part, because each photo has to show your real item and every product needs its own.
• Product facts: a store with 5 products needs far less of this than one with 50, and each product still needs its price, size or materials written down.
• Business verification: the one wait you can't speed up, because payouts to your bank account only begin once your business is verified, even while the store takes orders.

To go live sooner, start with a handful of products in a simple online store builder like Base44, then add more once the store is open.