Creating a Weebly eCommerce store to sell online is simple. Weebly is specifically designed to make selling online easy and affordable: Square Online’s online selling tools are included in all plans, starting with the free version. It takes just a few steps to set up a Weebly store, from creating a free account and designing your template to adding and optimizing products and launching your Weebly eCommerce site.
Follow our step-by-step guide that shows how to make a shop on Weebly:
1. Create a Weebly Account
To get started, go to Weebly and click “Create Your Website” (the blue button in the middle of the home page). You’ll just need to enter your name and email address, create a password, and set your location. Then, agree to all terms and conditions and choose “Continue” to proceed to onboarding.
Remember that when you set up your Weebly eCommerce site, you’ll actually be choosing the Square Online publisher. This is because Weebly is owned by Square, so online stores built with Weebly have access to all of Square’s payment processing tools and point-of-sale features for eCommerce sites.
2. Select Weebly’s Square Editor for Ecommerce Sites
From here, choose the type of website you want to create. Creating a business website will take you to the Square Editor, while creating a personal site will take you to the classic Weebly editor.
Create a business website if…
- You are planning to sell products or services online
- You need to have an appointment and booking system
- You need to create a website that has the brand your company
Create a personal website if…
- You want a portfolio
- You’re building a blog
- You don’t need to accept payments
Although the classic editor has very outdated templates, Weebly’s website builder has a drag and drop editor that allows you to create a more personalized website. On the other hand, the Square editor doesn’t give you access to a library of templates. Instead, it configures its template based on your answers to onboarding questions and provides a section-based editor for easier and faster website creation.
If you’re curious about how the classic editor, you can always start with it to try it yourself (and then switch to the Square editor). Unfortunately, the reverse doesn’t work; To use the classic editor after creating a Square website, you’ll need to create a new account.
3. Answer questions to create your online store template
To create a Weebly online store, click to create a business website to go to the Square editor. This will direct you to the second set of onboarding questions. Answering questions like how many employees you have and what products you sell will help Weebly determine what kind of website you’re trying to build.
4. Create your Weebly eCommerce store
Now that your Weebly store template has been created, you’ll see a panel with a checklist of what you need to do to set it up. The first step is to design your Weebly eCommerce store; To do this, click “Edit Site” in the upper right corner of your screen.
On the next screen (the edit screen), the first thing you’ll see is a way to upload your logo. You can skip this step for now if you don’t have a logo ready to go. If you still need a logo, you can hire a designer on Fiverr to create one for you for as little as $5. Alternatively, there are free and paid logo design sites that you can use to create your own.
Next, the next steps in designing your website layout involve choosing a style (for example, colors, fonts, and buttons). shapes). These take effect throughout your site. Remember that color affects your site’s buttons and footer (the bottom banner). You also have the option to choose a button style for your website. Press “Done” to go to the next step.
5. Get or connect your domain name
Everything so far has been 100% free, and still can be, but you’ll have to compromise your website’s domain name and URL, and your site will show Brand Weebly and Square. We don’t recommend this as a credible option for business use, but if you need a free way to create an online store, the free Weebly eCommerce plan is an option.
If you don’t already have a domain name custom, you can find and register a domain at this point. If you prefer to purchase a domain separately from your hosting and site builder plan from a major domain registrar like Google Domains or Domain.com, or if you’ve already secured a domain, enter it in the second field.
Click the third option to continue setting up a free account. The caveat is that your URL will be a subdomain and you’ll have Square branding on your site, which isn’t a very professional look for a small business.
To register a domain through Weebly or to connect a domain, upgrade to one of Weebly’s paid plans starting at $12 per month. Weebly has a Personal plan that allows you to connect an existing domain you own for just $6 per month, but it’s still Square-branded and therefore not appropriate for a professional website.
6. Customize your template
Now you essentially have a blank slate to customize and make uniquely yours. Changing images and text on each page is easy. You have two menus: one on the left of your screen, and the main editor. The menu on the left is how you navigate your website – just click the dropdown menu above to be taken to your pages.
Once you’re on the page you want to edit, just click the element in the editor and add your content. You also have the option to change elements from the menu on the left.
For example, to change an image on your home page, just click where it is in the editor. The menu on the left side will allow you to upload your own images, or you can get free images for website use from sites like VistaCreate and Pixabay.
Learn how to customize each element of your template:
Add pages
Delete pages
Customize header and footer
Edit navigation
Edit SEO settings on each page
7. Add products and set up your store
The next step in creating a store on Weebly is to add your products. For this, you’ll need quality images of your products, descriptions, prices, and information needed to calculate shipping rates.
How to Add Products to a Weebly Store
Set Up Shipping
Set up taxes
Set up online payments
8. Extend Functionality with Weebly Store Apps
As it stands, your website and online store are ready to start accepting orders now, but you can make it even better with apps. On the Square App Marketplace, you’ll find apps (ie plugins) that you add to make your site and store more functional. Some of these include major email marketing software integrations, as well as other marketing apps, advanced inventory, and label printing tools.
Connecting an app to your online store will require you to create an app. It has every app you want. and then follow the instructions to log in to both your store and app account. You’ll need to grant permissions for the integration to work, and you’ll be able to manage your apps from the dashboard.
Here are some of the most popular (and most useful) apps for Weebly eCommerce stores:
- Mailchimp: This popular email marketing platform makes it easy for you to send customer newsletters, automate welcome messages, and send out special offers. You can also create landing pages to sell a specific product, service, or membership. It allows you to add your Weebly store products to the home page so that visitors can shop directly from that page.
- SKU IQ: Sell from multiple POS ) can be a pain, but SKU IQ consolidates all your data across all channels. This makes omnichannel selling much easier and avoids the risk of entering incorrect or duplicate data.
- CommentSold: Sell live and reach your customers where they are online: social networks. Buyers can simply comment “Sold” on a post and the item will be added to their cart for processing through Square Payments.
- On the spot: This Google-owned app can be use free. It ensures that your products can appear in Google search results and in your Google business profile. It’s a great way to boost the search engine optimization (SEO) of your Weebly eCommerce store.
- Ecwid: Planning to sell on Facebook and Instagram? This Weebly eCommerce app is a must-have: it lets you sell from Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, in person, and more, simultaneously and from any device.
There are tons of apps to choose from. Chances are there are some vendor apps you’re already using, as well as apps you’ll probably want to use to help you sell more effectively through your Weebly online store.
9. Choose a plan
When you’re ready to launch your store, select one of Weebly’s premium plans by clicking “Upgrade” in the top right corner of your dashboard. There are five Weebly eCommerce pricing plans, and all are relatively affordable compared to the competition.
If you pay annually, the highest priced plan tops out at $72 per month. The higher you go with a pricing plan, the more functionality you get. All but the most expensive plans are subject to Square’s eCommerce transaction fee, which is 2.9% plus 30 cents per order. The $72 per month plan charges 2.6% plus 30 cents per order.
For businesses just testing the waters, the free plan may be enough to get you started.However, to give your brand credibility with an online store on a custom domain, remove third-party ads from Square and get a free domain name and unlimited storage, start with the Professional plan for $12/mo.
For more information on available plans, click the tabs below.
Free
Personal
Professional (minimum recommended plan)
Performance
Premium
For a deeper look at each of the plans, read our full Weebly review.
10. Start Your Weebly Store
At this point, you should have a great-looking website thanks to the easy-to-use website builder. You’ve learned how to create a store on Weebly, set up payment processing with Square, add your products and choose the apps you need most, and now it’s time to launch your online store and start selling on Weebly.
Set up your Weebly eCommerce store for success
Just because your Weebly ecommerce store is online doesn’t guarantee that customers will come. Now is the time to market your business to drive traffic to your website. There are several website marketing tactics you can use to help grow your business, including SEO, social media marketing, contests, and cross-channel selling.
- Blogging for SEO : Blogs are a great way to provide content to your audience on a regular basis, incorporate keywords into your website, and link informative articles to products. Regularly adding quality content for your audience will help build your website’s authority with search engines. It offers more ways to find your site in online search, and internal links help increase the authority of your product pages.
- Social Media: Every business must find the right best social media marketing platforms to use based on your target audience. You can also create targeted social media ads to make sure your products and services are in front of your target audience.
- Multi-channel selling: Square integrates with Google, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok for social selling and with others (including Amazon and Etsy) through the Square apps.
- Contests: You can use contests and giveaways to attract more visitors and build your email list for marketing campaigns. Create a contest that challenges customers to share a photo of your products. Or build your social media presence with a “like and share” contest. Use relevant hashtags and augment your campaign with paid ads to ensure your contest reaches people in your target audience.
3 Examples of Stores Using Weebly for Ecommerce
Weebly (and therefore Square Online) is one of the best eCommerce platforms available for small businesses. Not only is it more affordable for online sellers than most of its competitors, but it’s easy to use and you can set up a Weebly store in just a few hours. It also has features that will help your business grow and scale.
Here are some sample stores built on Weebly/Square:
1. Beauty Marked Vintage
A Chicago-based retailer, Beauty Marked Vintage sells online nationally and internationally. They have a simple home page with a large banner image and a button that directs you to the store. The store is categorized, so it’s easy to shop around. Don’t forget to add categories to your products to make it easier to sort and manage your store.
2. The DashBar
The DashBar is a beauty salon and spa located in Miami. It offers many beauty services that you can access directly from the main page. Clicking on one takes you to the appointment booking system integrated into the website. To get additional information and improve the customer experience, they also incorporated a chatbot on their site. You can easily do this with an app from the market.
3. The Funny Farm
The Funny Farm is a restaurant based in California. They make it easy for customers to order online with a personalized menu. When you click to order online, a popup asks if you want the food delivered or for pickup. Like The Funny Farm, you can integrate Square for Restaurants or the popular free restaurant app GloriaFood. Learn more about why Weebly is our top pick for the best restaurant website builder.
FAQs
Is Weebly eCommerce free?
Yes. Unlike most other site builders, Weebly’s eCommerce is completely free. However, to make your brand look professional (i.e. a site hosted on a custom domain with no third-party ads), you’ll need to purchase at least the Professional plan ($12 per month). As a bonus, this plan also gives you more advanced analytics, unlimited storage and bandwidth, and marketing tools to help your online retail business grow.
Which is better: Shopify or Square ?
Shopify and Square offer both online and in-person point-of-sale (POS) solutions.Square’s POS and online store are free to use (albeit on a subdomain with ads), but Shopify’s plans start at $29 per month. Transaction fees differ between the two, as do many of the features. Square is best for those just starting out and small operations, while Shopify is best for serious, large ecommerce operations. Decide for yourself in our Shopify vs Square article.
How much does it cost to sell on Weebly?
Using Weebly for eCommerce is free, but you still have to pay transaction fees for every product you sell. On all plans, it’s 2.9% plus 30 cents per order, except for the highest tier Premium plan, which charges 2.6% plus 30 cents per order.
Conclusion
A Weebly e-commerce website and store includes all the benefits of Square Online, including payment processing and apps. You can create an online store and start selling products and services in a matter of hours. Build your store on Weebly with the free plan, then upgrade to a paid plan when you’re ready to launch.
Try Weebly
You might also like…
- Not sure if Weebly is the best fit for your online store? Instead, check out some of the best Weebly alternatives.
- Check out our quick guide on building a business website.
- Whether you’re building a site from scratch or want to kick off To get more out of your existing website, download our free Basic Website Checklist to ensure your site is set up for success.
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