- Highs: Beautiful templates. Very user-friendly. Competitive pricing.
- Lows: Payouts only on Mondays. Card details required for trial. Many complaints about service.
- Best for: Merchants who want the easiest way to build an online store without compromising on features.
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 user-friendly editor. No coding skills are required during setup as everything is clearly and visually presented.
For a subscription cost, you can use the ‘Business’ (ecommerce) features to sell products on your website too.
Wix allows you to create a site in two ways:
- Wix Editor which is most customisable with a wealth of templates and features
- Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) that asks you a few questions about the type and style of shop you want, whereafter it creates a store for you
Wix Editor is what most people think of when they think of Wix. This is the drag-and-drop editor where you adjust anything to exactly what you want, add heaps of elements and app integrations, and choose between many templates.
On the other hand, Wix ADI is the easier option for complete beginners. It creates a basic website, where you can then adjust any existing elements that were tailored for you. If you’re not comfortable having full creative control with Wix Editor, ADI is definitely the way to go.
In Australia, Wix allows the following payment methods on your ecommerce website:
Wix Payments
Also accepted
PayPal, Square, AliPay, Fat Zebra, Oceanpayment, offline payments e.g. cash or cheque
These incur separate fees on top of the website subscription. You can also accept the Chinese AliPay and Dutch iDeal. These are worth accepting if you target those markets from Australia, as they are preferred by many in those countries.
Wix Australia pricing and payments
It’s free to create a Wix account and build a website, but with restrictions. To sell things and have a professional-looking website without Wix advertising, there are three ecommerce subscriptions to choose from: Business Basic, Businesses Unlimited and Business VIP.
| Plan | Monthly* | Yearly* | 2 years* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business Basic | US$22/mo | US$18/mo | US$17/mo |
| Business Unlimited | US$34/mo | US$28/mo | US$25/mo |
| Business VIP | US$44/mo | US$38/mo | US$33/mo |
* All prices include GST.
| Wix ecommerce plans | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly* | Yearly* | 2 years* | |
| Business Basic | |||
| US$22 /mo | US$18 /mo | US$17 /mo | |
| Business Unlimited | |||
| US$34 /mo | US$28 /mo | US$25 /mo | |
| Business VIP | |||
| US$44 /mo | US$38 /mo | US$33 /mo | |
* All prices include GST.
The more you pay upfront, the cheaper the monthly rate, i.e. paying month-by-month costs the most, while the rate for 2 years paid upfront is the lowest cost on a per-month basis. Just beware, amounts paid are non-refundable so you are locked in to whichever long term contract you choose.You also have to cancel the contract before the end of the current term to avoid auto-renew charges.
You have the same available payment options and card rates on all plans, but note that you can only use one currency for payments.
The platform’s own Wix Payments is not yet available in Australia so merchants will need to take advantage of PayPal, Square, or a number of other smaller companies (FatZebra, Oceanpayments) for transactions.
| Fees and charges* | |
|---|---|
| PayPal fees | Check your PayPal account |
| Square Reader transaction fee | 1.6% |
| Oceanpayment | From 2.9% + US$0.30 |
| Fat Zebra | Differs based on card type and country |
* GST not included.
| Charges* | |
|---|---|
| PayPal fees | Check your PayPal account |
| Square Reader transaction fee | 1.6% |
| Oceanpayment | From 2.9% + US$0.30 |
| Fat Zebra | Differs based on card type and country |
* GST not included.
PayPal, on the other hand, has different fee options depending on how you accept it, and payments go into the e-money account within a few hours. If the payment method is PayPal (not debit or credit cards directly), it costs 2.6% + AU$0.30 per transaction plus applicable crossborder and currency conversion fees. The latter being relevant when, for example, an international shopper purchases your Australian-based item in AUD with their local currency balance on their payment card.
If you accept credit and debit cards into your PayPal account, fees depend on your monthly sales volume, type of payment card accepted and which of two fee structures you choose. This could be anywhere between 1.75%-3.6% + AU$0.30 without currency conversion and up to 4.6% + a fixed fee with the highest currency conversion fee. You may also have to pay AU$25 +GST per month to have PayPal’s debit and credit card acceptance activated (there is no monthly fee for accepting PayPal only).
Image: Wix
Wix checkout with blue button for card payments and yellow PayPal button.
Note that PayPal directs customers away from your website during checkout, which is known to decrease conversion rates.
If you want to accept AliPay, you can set this up for free through Stripe, but only if the currency in your Stripe account matches that used in Wix. AliPay doesn’t openly say what currency they accept. These payments cost 2.9% + US$0.30 per transaction (regional differences apply) and it takes 2-7 days for transactions to clear through Stripe.
Moreover, you can accept card payments in person with a Square Reader at 1.6% per transaction. This is handy if you’re selling face-to-face and a customer wants to order something on your website while they are in your store.
Features
Many core ecommerce features are included as default on all the Business subscriptions. The following are just a snapshot, as there are a lot of other features:
Product catalogue: Store products are added from your Dashboard, not the website editor. This ensures that 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) which displays on the product image on your site, and stock levels. When an item is out of stock, it will show an “out of stock” label in the online store, but you don’t get email notifications for low or out-of-stock levels.
Image library: When you upload pictures, it automatically generates suitable tags based on Wix’s analyses of the image – a useful feature as tags are important for SEO and product searches.
You can also add images from one of three stock image libraries: Media from Wix (free), Shutterstock (costs apply) and Unsplash (free). Videos can be added, but note that there are limits for how long the total runtime can be (table below).
Abandoned carts: View all the carts that potential customers have abandoned, and email them to close the sale. This is a proven way to increase conversion, as these customers have already been tempted to buy, but perhaps needed more time to think.
SEO settings: Search engine optimisation (SEO) is important for getting found in search engines, and Wix has made that easier 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
SEO is made easy with the many explainers and visual examples.
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. You can then edit the mobile page directly if something doesn’t look right. This is extremely important for ecommerce today, since most people shop on their phones, and having a website that’s difficult to navigate on a small screen will lead to lost sales.
Image: Mobile Transaction
There’s lots you can add or change on every web page.
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. Asking browsers if you can help via chat box is a great way to help boost sales.
You can also add a contact form for those who’d rather send you questions to answer in your own time.
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 like Trustpilot. Having verified reviews will go a long way to building trust between you and your potential customers.
Blog: Your website isn’t just an online store – you can add a blog section for articles that can help your SEO and increase organic traffic. In fact, you can include any relevant pages that can add value to your website.
Design options: Wix is honestly brilliant 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 also include:
- The ability to connect your own domain
- Free domain for one year
- Removal of Wix ads
- Google Analytics
- US$75 ad vouchers
- Site booster app (US$60 value)
- Visitor analytics app (US$60 value)
The differences between the three Wix Business plans are:
| Feature | Basic | Unlimited | VIP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage | 20GB | 35GB | 50GB |
| Video on site | 5 hours | 10 hours | Unlimited |
| Professional logo | |||
| Social media logo files | |||
| Priority message response | |||
| Priority phone support |
| Fea- ture |
Basic | Unli- mited |
VIP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage | 20GB | 35GB | 50GB |
| Video on site | 5 hours | 10 hours | Unlimited |
| Profes- sional logo |
|||
| Social media logo files | |||
| Priority message response | |||
| Priority phone support |
The two key differences here are likely to be 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. And if you’re reliant on getting help from Wix, you can save time with VIP’s prioritised support.
Image: Mobile Transaction
Wix Editor has detailed editing options with lots of optional features.
Wix ADI has a good amount of editing freedom, but much of it is streamlined to show you the most important options. This makes it a lot easier for someone to create a professional website with little to no previous experience.
Image: Mobile Transaction
The Wix ADI builder has fewer editing options, but looks less intimidating.
Both editors are user-friendly, with every feature having a small pop-up to help explain what to do and how to use it. When you click on something, it gives you the options for that section of the site. For example – buttons that change the text, add a link and adjust the size of visual elements.
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
There’s a good variety of website themes, unlike some other website builders with very recognisable designs i.e Squarespace (although they do have some gorgeous templates).
There is, however, a difference in templates between the two ways to set up a website.
Out of Wix’s 670+ templates in the Wix Editor, 86 are suitable for an ecommerce store. That’s not bad, especially since they’re really quite nice and professional.
Image: Mobile Transaction
The Wix Editor builder gives you a choice of 80+ ecommerce templates.
If you’re building with Wix ADI, you only get the few choices created upfront after you’ve answered some questions about your type of store. From that, you can adjust the page elements – and 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
The Wix ADI builder suggests a few templates based on your requirements.
A small 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 choose carefully, or you’ll likely find yourself having to build a new site from scratch down the track.
Domain and hosting
All websites are hosted (i.e. stored) on a server. Normally, you pay a monthly or annual fee for that service, either to a dedicated hosting company or website platform. With Wix, hosting is included on all subscriptions including the free plan. Unfortunately, Wix does not host .com.au sites or any .au sites for that matter. So if you are looking for an Australian domain, you’ll need to purchase it through a third party provider.
All the Wix ecommerce plans allow you to:
- Use your own domain name (purchase of URL required if you don’t already own it)
- Create a website without any 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 and places a Wix favicon in your browser tab. All those things would make any ecommerce website look less professional, perhaps even suspicious.
Integrations and extra tools
Wix websites can integrate with 330+ apps, including tools like a search bar, social media and analytics. Some of these apps are provided 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 for tools related to analytics, bookings, business, chat, design, forms, marketing, music, photography, social media and video.
Image: Mobile Transaction
Wix App Market has over 330 apps with different features for the website.
If you’re clueless about which apps are for you, there are helpful recommendations and curated sections for online stores, blogs, hotels and travel, restaurants and events.
As for POS systems, Wix only integrates with Square (Wix store accepts Square Reader) and PayPal that accepts card reader payments via the PayPal Here app. The latter cannot be integrated directly with the Wix store, but PayPal Here uses the same e-money account as PayPal transactions received online.
Customer service and user reviews
Common to all Wix users is the English-language callback support between Monday and Friday from 5am to 5pm PST (that’s 10pm to 10am AEST). You can also request an email response via the website. There is 24/7 phone support, but this is reserved for pressing issues related to billing, charges, subscriptions, domains, mailboxes, live sites, the editor, account and site settings.
There is 24/7 phone support, but this is reserved to 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 quicker response. You also get ‘VIP support’, where you jump the queue on the helpline Monday through Thursday between 6am and 5pm PST (that’s 11pm-10am AEST).
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 125 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.
See alternative: Compare Wix with Shopify ecommerce
Our verdict
Wix ecommerce is definitely one of the most user-friendly platforms for Australian small businesses. It’s super-easy to get started, gives you loads of ways to tailor your site, and the online store can be optimised to rank well in search engines.
Large inventories can be problematic, since you cannot get email notifications when stock is running low. And there are other ecommerce platforms with more advanced stock management tools, but Wix works fine if you can keep an eye on sales every day.
Customer support is generally not rated highly, so if you have problems with something, you may run into a lengthy process getting it sorted – that is, unless you opt for VIP support on the most expensive plan.
The payment options for your checkout are a good selection for most merchants. It’s only if you’re a large company with high sales volumes that you can get more competitive rates with other payment processors.
If you’ve never built a website before, we highly recommend the Wix ADI builder, which is the most streamlined way to create a site. For full flexibility over design, Wix Editor is the way to go.
While there’s a free Wix plan, selling online requires a Wix Business subscription. Compared to other website platforms, Wix’s ecommerce plans are excellent value for a small business.
