Digital Economy Blog

Exploring different website creation platforms and the relative services each provides

Recently, I have been learning about the various online platforms which aid in the creation of websites. I was quite surprised by how easy it was to create my own website! Within ten minutes, you can develop your own website and even have physical products to sell! To gather information on how these online platforms work, I set up a fake website on both SimpleSite, Wix, and Shopify to test the accessibility of each.

SimpleSite

SimpleSite's easy-to-use features allow users to personalize the theme of their homepage, but also, by using the design wizard, one can simply customize the website to their own liking. SimpleSite also offers greater flexibility in terms of content. Whether you are displaying your portfolio, or wanting to promote your newest product range, SimpleSite will find a theme to suit! 

Additionally, the platform is mobile friendly. All pages are able to adapt seamlessly to whatever screen size readers are viewing them from. Consequently, users will be able to browse and read the content on the website without worrying about missing videos, images, or text that has been chopped out.

Wix

Wix facilitates the now well-known business model of Drop shipping. This process is becoming extremely favourable with business start-ups as users can sell products without owning inventory. Therefore, this significantly reduces overheads as it is the suppliers who are packaging everything together and shipping them directly to customers.

Wix also offers a wide range of features, including ecommerce, social media integration, and Google Analytics. Furthermore, one of the main advantages of using Wix is that it is extremely user-friendly. The platform is designed to be intuitive and easy to use, so you will not need to waste any time learning how to use it. Even if you have no prior experience with website building, you will be able to create a professional looking website with Wix!

Shopify

One of the best things about Shopify is its immense App Store, with over 1200 apps to help its users across a variety of different tasks. These include automation, traffic boosting, sales boosting and email marketing. 

The platform is easy to use and manage. Shopify is undoubtedly one of the most user-friendly ecommerce platforms available for beginners. It is designed with simplicity in mind, while still ensuring tech provisions are cared for. Moreover, users can avail of a basic plan which will help get your website started, eliminating the need to pay for expert advice, as the platform is incredibly supportive to its users.

Conclusions

Personally, in my opinion, SimpleSite works best. Although you are limited to only 15 products, for start-ups, selling a whole host of items could have a disproportionate effect on your sales and your profits inevitably. Also, not being very tech-savvy myself, I found that SimpleSite's platform was more accessible than Wix' and Shopify's. I get the impression that both these platforms cater for the more established retailers whereas SimpleSite creates the foundations for your business, from the idea to the product!

Here are the 3 sample websites I've created on the respective platforms above:

https://comfyloungewearuk.simplesite.com/

https://20089718.wixsite.com/comfy-loungewear

https://comfyloungewearuk.myshopify.com/