Launching Your Hawaii Business Website on Wix: A Beginner’s Guide

Wix offers significantly more design freedom than Squarespace, but this “absolute positioning” freedom comes with a risk: it is very easy to break your mobile site without realizing it. For Hawaii businesses, where mobile traffic dominates, you must treat the Wix Mobile Editor as your primary workspace, not an afterthought. This guide details the specific configuration required to make a Wix site functional for island commerce.

Step 1: The “Clean Slate” Setup

Wix’s unstructured editor means that complex templates can become nightmares to edit. Start simple to ensure your site loads quickly on island cellular networks.

1. Go to Wix.com and click Create New Site.
2. When asked “What kind of website are you building?”, be specific (e.g., “Tour Operator” or “Local Restaurant”) to get relevant booking or menu apps pre-installed.
3. Critical Decision: You will be offered “Wix Studio” or “Wix Editor.” For most DIY owners, select Wix Editor. Studio is powerful but has a steep learning curve suited for agencies.
4. Select a template with a white or light background. High-contrast designs are essential for readability under the bright Hawaii sun.

Step 2: Mastering the Mobile Editor

Unlike Squarespace, Wix does not automatically perfectly align your mobile view. You must manually fix it, or your site will look broken to 63% of your visitors.

1. In the Editor, click the Mobile Icon in the top header bar to switch views.
2. The Optimizer Tool: Click the “Page Layout Optimizer” (often a lightning bolt or magic wand icon) on the left sidebar. This will automatically stack your elements, fixing 80% of alignment issues instantly.
3. Hide Desktop Clutter: Heavy decorative elements (like large shapes or huge hero videos) slow down mobile loading. Click the element, then click the Hidden on Mobile (eye with slash icon) button to remove them from the phone view without deleting them from the desktop version.
4. Action Bar: Enable the “Quick Action Bar” (phone/email/address buttons) at the bottom of the mobile screen so tourists can call you with one tap.

Step 3: Configuring Hawaii General Excise Tax (GET)

Wix’s default “Sales Tax” settings do not account for Hawaii’s GET nuances. You must set this up manually to avoid under-collecting.

1. From your Dashboard, click Settings on the left sidebar, then Tax.
2. Scroll to the “Manual” section (unless you want to pay for the automated Avalara integration) and click + Add Country/Region.
3. Select United States, then select Hawaii.
4. The Surcharge Fix: Since rates vary by island (e.g., 4.5% Oahu vs 4.0% Maui), the safest DIY method is to set a tax rate based on Zip Code. Click “Add Zip Code Rate” if available, or set a single state rate of 4.712% (the highest current effective rate for Honolulu) to cover your bases safely.
5. Digital Goods: If you sell tours or digital downloads, ensure the “Apply to Digital Products” checkbox is ticked, as these are taxable under GET.

Step 4: Creating “Island” vs. “Mainland” Shipping Zones

To prevent losing money on shipping to the mainland, you must segregate your customers.

1. Go to Settings, then Shipping & fulfillment.
2. You will see a default “Domestic” region. Click Edit.
3. Rename this region to “Hawaii Local”.
4. Under “Select Destinations,” uncheck all 49 other states and leave only Hawaii selected.
5. Set your rate (e.g., “Free Shipping” or “Local Pickup”).
6. Go back and click + New Region. Name this “Mainland US”.
7. Select the remaining 49 states. Set this to “USPS Calculated Rate” or a high Flat Rate (e.g., $15.00) to cover the Zone 9 shipping costs.

Step 5: Local Delivery Radius (The “Plate Lunch” Feature)

If you deliver food or flowers, Wix has a built-in tool to restrict orders to a specific mile radius, which is perfect for avoiding cross-island delivery requests.

1. Inside the “Hawaii Local” shipping region, look for Local Delivery.
2. Click + Add Local Delivery.
3. Select Radius and enter your kitchen or shop address.
4. Set the radius (e.g., 10 miles). Customers outside this circle will effectively be blocked from selecting this delivery option.

Step 6: Launch and Upgrade

1. Click Publish in the top right corner.
2. To accept payments, you must upgrade from the free plan. Select the Core plan (approx $29/mo) or higher. The “Light” plan does not allow you to accept payments, making it useless for e-commerce.
3. Connect your domain (e.g., .com) immediately to build SEO authority.