Thinking About Setting Up an Online Shop? Here's Where to Start

So you've decided you want to sell online. Maybe you've been selling through Instagram DMs and it's getting difficult to manage. Maybe you've outgrown Etsy and want your own space. Maybe you're starting from scratch and want to get it right first time.

Whatever your starting point, setting up an online shop can feel overwhelming before you've even begun. There are platforms to compare, payment systems to figure out, products to photograph, shipping to think about — and that's before you've written a single word of copy.

The good news is that for most small businesses and freelancers, it doesn't have to be complicated. The right platform, set up well, can have you selling online within days. This post will walk you through the key decisions you need to make and help you figure out where to start.

Start with the right questions

Before you look at a single platform or price plan, it's worth getting clear on a few fundamentals — because the answers will help to shape your decisions.

What are you selling? Physical products that need to be shipped? Digital downloads? Services booked online? Membership content or videos behind a paywall? The type of product matters enormously when it comes to choosing the right platform.

How many products do you have? A shop with five products has very different needs to one with five hundred. Some platforms handle large catalogues better than others.

How much do you want to manage yourself? Some platforms are built for people who want full control and are happy to get their hands dirty with settings and integrations. Others are designed to be as simple as possible, with sensible defaults that mean you don't have to make every decision yourself.

What's your budget? Platform costs vary significantly — both the monthly fee and the transaction fees taken on each sale. These add up, and it's worth factoring them in from the start.

Choosing a platform: the honest comparison

For most small businesses and freelancers, the choice comes down to a handful of platforms. Here's an honest look at the ones I work with and recommend most often.

Squarespace

Squarespace is my go-to recommendation for small businesses and freelancers who want a beautiful, professional online shop without a steep learning curve.

The design quality is consistently high — templates are polished and fully customisable, and the result almost always looks like a proper, considered business rather than a DIY website. If your brand and visual presentation matter to you, Squarespace delivers.

The shop functionality covers everything most small businesses need: physical and digital products, inventory management, discount codes, abandoned cart recovery, and integrated payment processing through Stripe and PayPal.

One feature that often surprises people: Squarespace also makes it very easy to sell content behind a paywall. If you offer online courses, video tutorials, exclusive content, or any kind of membership, you can gate that content so only paying customers can access it — all within the same platform, without needing a separate tool. For coaches, educators, and creatives with digital content to sell, this is a genuinely powerful option that's often overlooked.

The main limitation of Squarespace is that it's less flexible than some alternatives for very large or complex shops. If you're planning to sell hundreds of product variants, need advanced inventory management across multiple locations, or want deep integration with external systems, you may eventually outgrow it.

Best for: Small businesses and freelancers selling physical products, digital downloads, or content. Anyone who wants a great-looking site without a lot of technical complexity.

Wix

Wix offers a similar level of accessibility to Squarespace, with arguably even more flexibility in how you lay out and customise your pages. The drag-and-drop editor gives you a lot of creative freedom, and the platform has invested heavily in its e-commerce functionality in recent years.

Wix's app market is one of its strengths — there's an extensive library of third-party integrations for things like bookings, subscriptions, dropshipping, and more, which means the platform can grow with you as your needs evolve.

The trade-off is consistency. Because Wix gives you so much freedom, it's also easier to end up with a site that looks less polished if you don't have a strong design eye. Squarespace's templates impose a certain visual discipline that works in your favour; Wix requires a bit more judgment.

Best for: Small businesses who want more layout flexibility, or who anticipate needing specialist integrations as they grow.

Shopify

Worth mentioning even though it's not a platform I build on directly. Shopify is the industry standard for larger or more complex e-commerce operations — it handles big catalogues, complex inventory, multiple sales channels, and high transaction volumes better than either Squarespace or Wix.

The downside is cost and complexity. Shopify is more expensive, has a steeper learning curve, and is genuinely more than most small businesses need at the start. If you're planning to build a serious, high-volume shop from day one, it may be worth considering. If you're starting small and testing the water, it's probably overkill.

Things people forget to think about

Once you've chosen a platform, there are a few practical considerations that catch people out if they haven't thought about them upfront.

Payment processing. Most platforms handle this through Stripe or PayPal, which is fine for the majority of businesses. Make sure you understand the transaction fees — most platforms charge a percentage of each sale on top of the payment processor's own fees, though some waive this on higher-tier plans.

Shipping. If you're selling physical products, you'll need to think about how you handle shipping — rates, zones, and how you'll manage fulfilment. Most platforms allow you to set flat-rate or calculated shipping, but it takes a bit of thought to set up correctly.

Tax. Depending on where you're based and where your customers are, VAT and tax settings can be complicated. It's worth getting clear on your obligations early, and most platforms have settings to help you manage this — but they won't make the decisions for you.

Product photography. This one isn't a platform issue, but it might be the single biggest factor in whether your shop converts visitors into buyers. Professional, well-lit product photos consistently outperform anything taken on a phone in poor lighting. If you can invest in one thing beyond the website itself, make it this.

Your returns and refund policy. You need one, and it needs to be clearly visible. Most platforms have a template you can adapt, but make sure it reflects your actual policy and complies with consumer law in your country.

Do you need a designer?

Not necessarily — both Squarespace and Wix are genuinely designed for people to build their own sites, and with a good template and some time, you can absolutely get a shop up and running yourself.

That said, there are situations where working with a designer adds real value. If your brand and visual presentation are central to what you're selling — if you're a maker, a creative, or someone whose aesthetic is part of the product — a professionally designed shop will convert better than a DIY one. If you're also building a wider website around the shop, having everything designed cohesively makes a significant difference to how the business comes across.

And sometimes the honest answer is simply that you have better things to do with your time than figure out platform settings. A designer who knows these platforms well can get you live faster, with fewer headaches, and with a result you're actually proud of.

Ready to get started?

If you're thinking about setting up an online shop and want to talk through which platform makes sense for your specific situation, I'd love to help. I offer a free 45-minute consultation — no obligation, just an honest conversation about what you need and how to get there.

I am is a freelance web and UX designer with 8 years of experience, working with small businesses, freelancers and charities from my base in Lanzarote. Visit pollytaylor.com to find out more or get in touch to discuss your project.