Freewebstore is a website builder. The main offer that sets it apart from the competition is that you can build a store entirely for free. No, this is not a trial version. You can create and run an online store without spending a penny, and you do not even have to provide your credit card information to get started.
With Freewebstore, you can create an online store, have a domain name, have the website hosted with secure socket layer or SSL, and also have a shopping cart that can process payments from your customers.
It is not really new to the e-commerce industry, as it has been around since 2007. Over the years, it has gathered more than 600,000 users, and also received an Excellent rating in Trust Pilot, an online review website where consumers can post their opinions about a product.
Here, we will be taking a look at its features, and how you can start building an online store from scratch without spending money.
Basic Features
If you build an online store on this platform, you will enjoy several benefits and features that are very similar to paid ones like Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce, Big Commerce, and more.
Here are the basic features that will get you started in running your online business.
- Domain name – you can choose a domain name for your website provided that it is available. This is important, so your website carries your store’s brand name.
- Hosting – in most web builders, you have to pay web hosting on a monthly basis. The average price of hosting is $3 per month. Here, hosting is free, and all your website data are kept in the servers of Freewebstore.
- Shopping cart – you no longer have to integrate another plugin to be able to take payments. Here, the shopping cart is part of the service, and your customers can add items to their cart and continue to checkout.
- Abandoned cart recovery – this a feature where you can communicate with your customers to remind them about their abandoned shopping cart. It is a great campaign to improve your sales and convince your customers to continue with the purchase.
- Payment options – you can choose your preferred method to get paid or how you want your customers to check out. You can offer PayPal, Stripe, and so much more.
- SEO – search engine optimization is baked in the system. You can add meta tags, meta descriptions, and change the title of your product URLs to make it easier for search engines like Google, Yahoo! or Bing to find your website and index your store’s contents.
- Shipping options – you can create regions where you will ship, and also create price ranges for your shipping costs.
- Templates – there are over 40 designs to choose from, and you can choose one that best fits the category of your online store.
- Store management – there is a user-friendly backend management system where you can upload your products, add descriptions, change the prices, and add variants like colors, sizes, and more.
Design Features
Apart from the 40+ themes, you will have access to hundreds of designs. You can choose from simple two-color web design to fully complicated ones full of graphics. You can even save these designs in your library so you can access them any time you want to change your store’s design.
The design features provide 13 benefits to you, and examples of these are:
- Mobile-ready – your website will convert into a mobile-friendly version once Freewebstore detects that your customer is accessing your site using a mobile gadget. Your customers will find it easier to navigate your store and reduce abandonment.
- Auto GFX – this refers to the automatic appearance of graphics on your website to highlight your products on sale, or those that are popular among your customers.
- Image Editor – you can crop and add designs to your product pictures to make them catchy and unique.
- Slide show – your website can have a series of slides on the home page so you can show different banners.
- Switch Designs – this feature allows you to change your web store design in a single click.
- Theme Editor – if you chose a theme and there are some parts you want to change, you can do so with the theme editor. For example, if you do not want a footer, you can edit and remove it.
- New designs – access new designs as they appear in Freewebstore’s library.
- Instagram galleries – you can add your Instagram page to your web store and your customers can browse your posts.
- Google Maps – if you have a brick-and-mortar location, you can add that to a part of your website with Google Maps so customers can easily find you.
- Logos and banners – you can create logos and banners that you can display on your website. Use the banners for your promotions.
- Social media plugins – you can add and connect your social media channels like Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn so you can share your products online.
- Create pages – create pages that have your business information such as your policies for refund and shipping, your About Us page, or your Contact Us page.
- Design library – save seasonal themes so you can access them when the time is right. For example, save summer themes so you can change your web design every summer with a summer theme.
Management Features
With Freewebstore, you can access up to 21 features to help you manage your store, including ways to reduce costs if customers are buying in bulk.
Here are some of the most important features in management:
- Age verification – if your product is sensitive, you can create a system that will ask the customer’s age. If he is a minor, he cannot access your site.
- Low stock alerts – the system will notify you if your products are low on inventory.
- Related products – customers will see products that are often bought together; it is like an upsell to make customers buy more products.
- Anywhere access – the store’s admin page is not sensitive to your location you can manage it anywhere in the world.
- Product images – you can add many images to each product; this way, your customer can view different angles of what you are selling, like the back, front, seams, side, and others.
- Bulk buying – of your customers want to purchase in bulk; you can give them automatic discounts.
- Product options – you can add different sizes or colors to each product. This is most beneficial to you if you are selling clothing or shoes.
- Product grouping – to make it easy for your customers to shop, you can create categories or collections. So if you want to create a group for female jeans, you can put all your female jeans in that category. And when the customer clicks it, she will not see shirts or blouses but only female jeans.
- Vacation mode – if you are out of town, you can use this setting to let your site visitors that you are away and cannot process orders. You can set a date when you would come back. The store will not take orders until you are back.
- PDF Invoicing – if you do not want to charge your customer right away, you can send them an invoice later. You can do this in PDF form using standard invoice templates with your own brand.
- Order emails – in this feature, you will be able to send emails to your customers once they place an order. This is a confirmation email and will help you document that the sale is not a fraudulent one, which can help you manage and reduce chargebacks.
- Order dispatch – this is another email that will be sent to your customers once the order is already being processed or shipped. They will have the confidence that the order is on its way.
- Order tracking – shoppers will get a tracking number if you have one. You can type this manually to send to them once the order is already shipped. This way, they can go to the courier’s website to check where the item is, like UPS or FedEx.
- Easy to use – the Freewebstore uses a browser-based technology. You do not need to install any software to be able to create a store. Everything is plug-and-play.
- Special offer – if you are running a promotion, you can use this feature to create the offer and have your customers take advantage of discounts and coupons.
Marketing Features
Marketing is an important aspect of any business, especially online. You need to be able to reach out to people and let them know your offer. Freewebstore has several marketing features you can use to boost your sales.
Here are a few:
- Product search – your store has a search box where customers can type keywords to make their search easier. To make this effective, you must understand how keyword work and make sure your product titles carry those keywords.
- Store blog – you can post regular blog entries to provide valuable information to your customers. Use this also to make your website optimized for keywords and help your SEO campaign.
- Language packs – you can add multiple languages to your store; this is great if you are going to sell to several countries.
- Facebook store – you can integrate your store to your Facebook Shop. Your Facebook shop will now show all the products you have on your store, which makes it easier to drive sales from Facebook.
- Coupons – create coupons and discounts and give it to all customers or to selected loyal ones.
- Messaging – you can be in constant communication with your customers through email. You can send them new updates and newsletters. Use this for your marketing campaign or to encourage them to go back.
Apart from these, you can also enjoy several other marketing features such as Amazon ads, Bing ads, Shopzilla, Price Grabber, the Find, and many other websites where customers can see your online store.
Shopping Cart Features
The shopping cart and checkout page are two important part of a successful shopping cart experience. With Freewbstore, there are ten features you can use to ensure that your customer is safe and that the sales transaction will go through smoothly.
- SSL 256-bit – this is a top of the line technology for security that uses encryption to protect all information that comes and goes on your website.
- Simple checkout – your customers to no have to fill out lengthy forms to complete checkout.
- Payment gateways – there are more than 20 payment processors that you can use in Freewebstore to charge money. The payment gateway you choose is also the way you will get paid. If you chose PayPal, your customers would check out via PayPal, and the money will be sent to your PayPal account.
- Major cards – all major credit cards are accepted, such as Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and others.
- Shipping quotation – if you are unsure how much to charge for shipping, the platform uses FedEx and UPS to provide your customer with a real-time estimate of how much the shipping is going to cost.
- Offline payments – you can take payments offline if a customer does not want to buy online. For example, your friend at a party wants to buy, you can take his payment either by cash, bank transfer, and other methods and then you can give the product.
Analysis and Reporting
If you are in business, you must know your numbers. Freewebstore gives you a reporting tool where you can view lots of statistics. These numbers can help you make informed decisions on how to run your business better.
Examples of the reports you can see are:
- Visitors – you can track the number of visitors you have per week, day, or month
- Popular products – you can see page views and the most popular products that are most viewed. After checking this, you can find out if the most viewed product has high sales. If not, maybe you should consider changing prices.
- Website referrer – if you have an affiliate marketing program or advertisement, you can see where the visitors are coming from, and you can decide if you need to boost an ad on that website or change your marketing approach.
Summary
It is a little difficult to believe that this is free. Yes, you can have a functional store that is totally free forever.
The way that Freewebstore earns money is by the paid apps. If you want more bells and whistles to your store, you need to buy apps that can make your store look better. You also have to pay for apps that can help you create better marketing campaigns.
Freewebstore is the ultimate dream of any business person who wants to put up an online business. However, there are service limits her, such as the number of products that you can upload.
This is reasonable since it is free. Overall, Freewebstore is best for those who are just starting out an online business. It is great for those who have a business idea but are not sure if the idea will work.
If you need a higher tier of service, you can get a paid store by using its other product called Ridge. This is a store builder that is best used by enterprises or those that have high demand and high sales.