How to Build a GoDaddy Store

E-commerce is quickly becoming one of the consumers’ favorite ways to shop. With e-commerce sales continuing to grow year-over-year, it’s a great time to consider starting an online shop. GoDaddy is a simple way for web design beginners to create a professional-looking digital storefront on their own.

Key Takeaways:

GoDaddy is an all-in-one hosting platform designed as an excellent solution for small business owners and e-entrepreneurs who want to build a simple e-commerce storefront without any web design experience.
Godaddy provides several marketing integrations and features to make your e-commerce website a success.
GoDaddy positions itself as one of the best e-commerce platforms for business owners looking to create a no-frills digital storefront.

What Is GoDaddy and Who Is it Best For?

GoDaddy is a domain registrar, website builder, and online store creator. It’s an excellent solution for small business owners and solopreneurs who want to build a simple e-commerce storefront without any web design experience. It’s best for small businesses that don’t need to scale quickly.

If you already have a bustling business or are looking for an e-commerce solution that offers advanced tools for SEO and marketing, you may find other options such as BigCommerce or Shopify to be a better fit for you.

Pros of Using GoDaddy for Ecommerce

Easy to Use
Free Trial
GoDaddy Insight
Free templates
No transaction fee for purchases
Third-party integration

Cons of Using GoDaddy for Ecommerce

No blog for e-commerce stores
One pricing plan for e-commerce stores
SEO tools are less advanced
Limited customizations

Pros of GoDaddy for E-commerce

Easy to use. GoDaddy helps you quickly get your e-commerce business ready to launch by providing store templates. You can install the framework of your digital store, from product pages to check out details, in one go instead of building it piecemeal.
Has free trial. GoDaddy offers a free trial (no credit card required) for its online store builder.
Has a built-in analytics tool called GoDaddy Insight. It provides guidelines and goals based on your industry. It helps you grow your business by tracking inventory, customer journeys, revenue, and more.
Offers a robust selection of templates. You can edit these templates easily to suit your specific e-commerce goals.
No GoDaddy transaction fee for customer purchases. You will still pay a transaction fee through your payment vendor (e.g., Stripe, PayPal, or Square) but GoDaddy does not collect fees from your e-commerce website.
Integration with third-party marketplaces. It integrates with third-party marketplaces such as Amazon, Etsy, and eBay, and it automatically manages your inventory across all of them.

Cons of GoDaddy for E-Commerce

Doesn’t offer a blog for e-commerce stores. Blogging can be an effective way to increase your site traffic, develop brand awareness, and improve your industry authority, so this is important to consider.
One pricing plan for e-commerce stores. There is only one pricing plan for e-commerce stores. Its single-tier pricing plan of $24.99/month offers limited flexibility.
SEO tools are less advanced and limited customizations. GoDaddy’s SEO tools are less advanced compared to many other e-commerce website builders and you have a limited ability to customize the design of your website.

Using GoDaddy for E-Commerce

Godaddy provides many e-commerce features to help make your shop a success.

Mobile optimization. More than half of online shopping is done via mobile devices, so a mobile-friendly e-commerce store is a must.
Social media integration. This allows you to schedule social media posts, boost them for more views, and create shoppable posts.
SSL security certificate. This certificate shows shoppers that it’s safe to buy from your store.
SEO tools. GoDaddy provides a guided website optimizer to help you choose high-value keywords, monitor your search rankings, and spotlight your shop with Google My Business.
Abandoned cart recovery. E-commerce sites lose $18 billion every year from people abandoning their online carts. Abandoned cart recovery uses effective marketing to help you recover some of that money.
Promotional tools for sales. Creating promotions is a great way to market your e-commerce store. Everyone loves a discount.
24/7 customer support. GoDaddy offers excellent support that’s available 24/7 by phone or chat.
Website and marketing analytics. Every e-commerce shop needs analytics so they know what marketing tactics are working and what needs to be changed.
Automatic inventory management. GoDaddy allows you to connect your store to multiple third-party marketplaces without having to worry about inaccurate inventory.
Discounted USPS shipping rates. Shipping costs are the bane of online stores. Getting discounted shipping rates can help you save a tremendous amount of money over time.
Online appointment booking. Your customers can book appointments for your services directly from your site.
Professionally designed templates. There is a lot of psychology that goes into website design. GoDaddy takes care of that by offering professional templates to build your store with.
Email subscriptions. Email marketing is a powerful tool to increase brand awareness and sales conversions. GoDaddy lets you collect customer email addresses so you can market to them directly.
Custom email address. An email address that matches your domain helps your business look more professional.
Virtual terminals. GoDaddy has tools that allow you to turn your mobile device into a virtual terminal for in-person sales.
POS System. GoDaddy Payments are made easier with their two POS devices that connect offline stores to popular online channels in an all-in-one solution. The POS addition rounds out GoDaddy Payments all-encompassing commerce package, comprised of eCommerce, Virtual Terminal, and Online Pay Links.

GoDaddy's ecommerce landing page — Source: GoDaddy.com

Managing Your E-Commerce Site

Choose your site settings. Click the “Store Design” tab and select the “Site” tab. From here you can upload your logo, select how products will be displayed in your store, and more.
Add products. From your dashboard, click Products > All Products > Add. You’ll need a description, image, tax category, SKU, and price. On this page, you can also manage inventory, create product options, and set shipping details.
Choose payment options. Select “Settings” and then “Payments” from your dashboard. Click “Connect” next to the payment method you want to add.

Once you’ve completed these steps, your e-commerce store will be ready for business.

Promoting Your E-Commerce Site

Promoting your digital store is essential to your e-commerce success. GoDaddy offers several options to help you promote your new website.

Add social buttons so site visitors can like, share, or follow your shop.
Enable product reviews so your customers can share what they love about their purchases. Product reviews improve your SEO, widen the reach of your e-commerce store, and help convince potential customers to buy your products.
Collect emails from site visitors and customers so you can create effective email marketing campaigns to promote new products, collections, and sales.
Connect your shop to online marketplaces such as Etsy, Walmart, and eBay to increase your base of potential customers.
Create promotions that encourage customers to spread the word about your business. For instance, you can offer a 20% coupon code for customers who leave reviews or share products on social media.

What To Do Next

As an e-entrepreneur, your due diligence is needed to find the best e-commerce platform that fits your e-commerce website’s demands. GoDaddy offers more than enough to service your needs. Here is an in-depth GoDaddy review that puts into detail everything you need to know about the hosting provider. Check its features, uptime guarantee, and performance including its customers’ reviews. These factors determine your e-commerce website performance and affect your buyer experience.

Making a detailed marketing plan is crucial to direct and assess the growth of your e-commerce shop. From building your e-commerce website to making it known and profitable, the marketing support of GoDaddy is designed with a lot of integrations and features to help your website dominate online. It allows you to run tailor-made email marketing campaigns and populate them with your content, and send them out strategically to your subscribers.

GoDaddy E-Commerce FAQs

Choosing an e-commerce website builder is a big decision. To help you decide, we’ve answered common questions business owners have about GoDaddy for e-commerce.

Is GoDaddy Worse Than Shopify?

GoDaddy is not worse than Shopify; it simply targets a different demographic. GoDaddy caters to smaller e-commerce businesses that don’t need the more complex features Shopify offers. GoDaddy focuses on simplicity and ease of use rather than robust SEO tools, complex analytics, and other in-depth e-commerce features. Shopify is a better option if you want to create a large e-commerce business. It offers better scalability and provides the detailed tools you need to manage and market your business on a larger scale.

How Easy Is GoDaddy to Use?

GoDaddy is simple to use because it provides templated storefront options and easy-to-use editing tools. The entire setup process is done in three steps. You don’t have to have any coding skills to design your shop, and the simple dashboard and intuitive e-commerce tools allow you to run your store without any hassle.

Who Should Use GoDaddy for E-Commerce?

While it does offer fewer features than some of its competitors, that is part of why it’s much easier to use for business owners with limited web building and e-commerce experience. GoDaddy has positioned itself as one of the best e-commerce platforms for business owners looking to create a no-frills digital storefront. If you want your store up and running quickly and value a hassle-free experience, GoDaddy is the perfect solution for you.