Is Webflow Good for E-commerce?

Users choose Webflow for building websites thanks to the unique visual design and development process that’s more streamlined than traditional builders.

If you scan the pricing structure, you’ll notice that an entire section is dedicated to e-commerce.

Therefore, the short answer is: yes, Webflow is excellent for e-commerce. It offers a range of useful features, making it one of the primary choices for many e-commerce owners. It uses the same drag & drop solution for creating product and checkout pages which are used for any other page when building with Webflow. Moreover, it offers a range of features for boosting the SEO performance of your online store. That said, Webflow is not ideal for ALL types of e-commerces, as it's primarily a design and development tool.

In this article, I’ll show you how Webflow can help you create an engaging and competitive online shop that is up-to-date with industry trends. But before that, let's see if you should use Webflow for your e-commerce o start with.

Who Is Webflow E-Commerce Ideal For?

Before I start further discussing Webflow e-commerce, here's a brief overview of which type of solutions should consider Webflow's online shop capabilities.

Businesses That Should Focus on Using Webflow E-Commerce

Small to Medium-Sized Businesses (SMBs):

• Creative Agencies and Freelancers: Webflow's design flexibility allows for highly customized and visually appealing online stores.
• Boutique Shops: Businesses selling a curated selection of products can leverage Webflow’s sleek designs to stand out.
• Fashion and Apparel: Brands that require visually striking websites to showcase their products will benefit from Webflow’s design capabilities.
• Digital Products and Services: Companies selling digital goods like e-books, courses, or software will find Webflow’s e-commerce features sufficient and easy to manage.

Design-Focused Brands:

• High-Quality Visuals: Businesses that prioritize aesthetics and branding will find Webflow's design tools and templates advantageous.
• Custom User Experience: Brands looking to create a unique user experience without extensive coding will appreciate Webflow's capabilities.

Tech-Savvy Entrepreneurs:

• Customization and Control: Users with some technical knowledge who want control over the design and functionality of their online store without relying on developers.
• SEO and Marketing Flexibility: Webflow provides robust SEO tools and integration capabilities with marketing platforms, which are beneficial for businesses looking to optimize and grow their online presence.

Businesses That Might Consider Other Options

Large Enterprises and High-Volume Retailers:

• Scalability and Performance: Webflow is perfect for enterprise marketing sites. For enterprise e-commerces - not so much. Enterprises with extensive product catalogs, high traffic, and complex backend requirements might find platforms like Shopify Plus or Magento more suitable due to their robust infrastructure and scalability.
• Advanced E-Commerce Features: Businesses needing advanced e-commerce functionalities like intricate inventory management, multi-channel selling, and advanced reporting might find Webflow’s features limiting.

Businesses Requiring Extensive Custom Development:

• Custom Functionalities: If a business requires extensive custom functionalities or integrations that go beyond Webflow’s capabilities, a more flexible and developer-centric platform like WooCommerce or Magento might be more appropriate.

Budget-Conscious Startups:

• Cost Considerations: While Webflow offers great design flexibility, it can be more expensive than other beginner-friendly platforms like Shopify or WooCommerce, especially when considering hosting and advanced features.

Strictly speaking, thanks to the ability to integrate various third-party solutions, Webflow can work even for the businesses that might not consider Webflow their primary option. Still, in some cases, choosing Webflow is just not the right way to go. If you're not sure whether to host your e-commerce on Webflow, give us a call and we'll let you know.

E-Commerce Options for Website Owners

As such a popular website, e-commerce is covered by many other leading website builders, including Shopify, Wix, and WordPress.

Webflow’s e-commerce is more robust, allowing you a higher customization level than Wix. 

WordPress users usually rely on WooCommerce, the WP plugin, which features a range of e-commerce features, including various themes, store customization, ratings and review systems, and more. 

It’s no secret that WooCommerce is one of the most popular plugins at the moment, yet it’s tied to WordPress and an external plugin. In other words, even though WooCommerce offers a good service, you’ll still have to deal with all the inconveniences of using WP.

Shopify is perhaps the most well-known service focusing on e-commerce. It features a range of beautiful templates, although they’re not as customizable as Webflow’s. Moreover, Webflow’s main advantage is building rich and complex interactions and animations and incorporating them into your e-commerce platform. Shopify templates would require a team of developers for this. 

On the other hand, Shopify is easier to use if you want to stay within the constraints of the available templates.

Perhaps the most important thing is the robust CMS which is also part of Webflow’s e-commerce offer. It lets you quickly design and create product page templates, making adding and showcasing products convenient.

Overall, Webflow’s e-commerce is much more powerful when it comes to design flexibility compared to its competitors. It’s not easier, though, as there’s a steep learning curve for anything related to Webflow. You’ll still need a team of Webflow experts to utilize the platform’s capabilities.

Webflow E-Commerce Pricing

If you're new to Webflow, I recommend reading our most popular blog, which covers Webflow pricing in detail.

In short, Webflow charges separate plans for those who want to use the e-commerce functionality.

• Standard - The Standard plan is $29 a month if billed yearly and features up to 500 ecommerce items, 2,000 CMS items, and all the features from the CMS plan (which is a standard website plan). A word of caution - this plan also comes with a 2% transaction fee when you're selling your products. You can also have 3 staff accounts.
• Plus - The Plus plan is $74 a month if billed yearly, and it brings 5,000 ecommerce items, 10,000 CMS items, 0% transaction fee and all other features from the Business site plan. It features 10 staff accounts.
• Advanced - The Advanced plan is $212 a month if billed yearly, and it increases the count of the ecommerce items you can have to 15,000. The only other improvement is that 15 of your staff members can have accounts.

Webflow E-Commerce Templates

Webflow features a range of e-commerce templates, most of which are paid (one-off fees).

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Webflow templates are pre-designed website layouts that can be customized to quickly create professional websites. They offer high-quality, modern designs that cater to various industries and aesthetic preferences. Users can easily modify these templates through Webflow's drag-and-drop interface, even without coding skills. All templates are responsive, ensuring they look great on any device.

Templates often come with built-in e-commerce functionalities, CMS features, and interactive elements, making them suitable for online stores, portfolios, business sites, blogs, and more. They are also optimized for SEO and performance, helping improve site visibility and load times.

Using Webflow templates saves time and money, providing an efficient way to launch visually appealing and functional websites. They are ideal for businesses, creatives, and anyone looking to build a website quickly while maintaining the ability to customize and scale as needed.

Make sure to explore the Webflow template marketplace to learn more about different option. Those with an e-commerce tag on them are suitable for online shops, meaning they have in-built e-commerce functionality.

Webflow & E-Commerce Overview

So, what’s Webflow’s secret that makes it so powerful for building e-commerce platforms? It all starts with a drag & drop interface that’s part of Webflow Designer. It’s a what-you-see-is-what-you-get environment, meaning you can see the result as you design and develop the site. In other words, there’s no need to publish your site to see the changes.

Moreover, you can implement a range of impressive integrations, animations, and other engaging experiences, just like on any other Webflow-built page. This can significantly improve the customer journey and present your products more intuitively.

Popular shipping management systems, such as Shippo, can be integrated into your Webflow e-commerce site. This enables features such as tracking, managing, and printing labels, sending package-related messages, getting shipping rates, and more.

Most importantly, adding various features to enhance the experience doesn’t impact the overall speed of your e-commerce, which is one of the most important metrics for SEO. 

Let’s take a closer look at Webflow’s e-commerce features.

Designing a Perfect E-Commerce Platform

Webflow excels at creating an end-to-end customer experience, and flexibility plays an important role in the process. Webflow sites can showcase your product and increase sales in various ways. For example, you can put featured products at the top of your e-commerce platform or even add them to key sections across your site, placing them in strategically important places.

In addition to a range of elements Webflow offers for its standard pages, it also features various customisable elements for e-commerce projects. They are:

• Checkout form — Crucial for e-commerce experience, these forms offer various options that customers must fill out to complete purchasing the product. In addition to the standard option, Webflow also features a special PayPal checkout form.
• Order item — The order item field refers to the specific product or item that a customer selects for purchase. It usually includes product-related details such as the name, price, quantity, and any variations or options chosen.
• Order summary — The order summary provides customers with a brief overview of their selected items, quantities, and costs before proceeding to the checkout process.
• Discounts — The discounts field allows customers to apply any promotional codes or discounts they may have during the checkout process.
• Additional info — The additional info field allows customers to provide any further instructions, preferences, or special requests related to their orders.
• Shopping cart button — This is a visual element that users can click to view their current shopping cart or bag. It provides a quick way for customers to review the items they have added and make any necessary changes before proceeding to the checkout process.
• Web payments — Web payments refer to the various payment methods for customers to complete their transactions. This field includes customizable options for accepting different payment types.

There’s so much that can be customized with Webflow, and you can even add your branding elements to them.

Streamlining and Automating the Selling Process with Webflow

Webflow is suitable for selling any type of product or service, physical or digital. You can use the platform’s CMS to easily add and edit different product variations and design a checkout flow that will suit your business the most. 

Moreover, the platform offers custom delivery methods, including shipping, takeout, and email delivery for digital products.

If you’re focusing on digital goods, you can make the entire checkout process easy and even add relevant links to order confirmation pages or emails.

Those needing to ship tangible goods can customize the shipping process for different regions and even automate order tracking. It’s also possible to sync your shipping labels with the shipping software you’re using, making the entire selling process streamlined. Automation is also possible for taxes and VAT in some countries, including the US, EU, Australia and Canada.

Webflow’s e-commerce sites are also powered by various payment methods, including PayPal, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and credit card. All payment transactions are secured by cutting-edge protocols that are part of Stripe and PayPal.

Webflow also features an order management dashboard, offering a comprehensive overview of all order details, order status updates, and more. According to the official e-commerce page, Webflow intends to add customer accounts and order history to the offer soon.

Finally, selling is made easier with a range of possible integrations via Webflow. We already mentioned Shippo, but you can rely on services such as QuickBooks, Printful, MailChimps, and many other options.

Growing Your Online Store with Webflow

Once your Website is up and running, it’s time to grow your business. 

The good news about Webflow is that you can manage your e-commerce even without experience using Webflow. In other words, if Webflow professionals built your website, you’ll just need a quick tutorial on how to add and manage products. After that, you won’t have to rely on developers whenever you need to update the content on your website. Webflow Designer even features a checklist that helps newcomers grow and maintain their ecommerce.

With basic Webflow knowledge and a running site, you’ll also be able to quickly set up custom landing pages for a specific product or line of products.

Webflow also offers the option to automate your SEO to an extent, providing useful suggestions for individual product meta titles and descriptions and other search engine-relevant content.

Webflow allows for a range of other relevant options for leading a successful e-commerce business, including analytics and optimization tool integration, tools and integrations for nurturing lead lists, connecting products to social media, running campaigns, and more.

Create Your E-Commerce Website with Webflow

I often think of Webflow as a business partner as much as it is a Website builder and hosting solution, as the entire e-commerce toolbox takes the user into account. 

Having e-commerce with the most effective user experience that highlights all the best features of your business and assists customers throughout your journey is what matters, and building such a site is simply better with Webflow.

To get the most from your Webflow project, make sure to contact a team of Webflow experts who’ll assist you in building the platform and educate you on using it effectively to sell you goods and services.