BigCommerce is a robust, fully-hosted ecommerce web site builder that’s appropriate for each newbie and superior customers. It packs all of the important options for a fast and straightforward begin, plus it boasts many fascinating superior options for a calculated and high-performance scale up. With over 60,000 retailers promoting in over 150 international locations, BigCommerce is well among the finest options for companies of any measurement and customers of all expertise ranges.

BigCommerce In comparison with the Finest Ecommerce Platforms

There’s little question that BigCommerce is among the prime trade powerhouses for constructing on-line shops—it’s a staple on our record of greatest ecommerce web site builders. That mentioned, you could need to examine it to a few of the options earlier than deciding if it’s the fitting match for you.

Bluehost is a hosting service that makes it straightforward to construct a WordPress website and storefront with automated WooCommerce performance. Join Bluehost and get 60% off your first 12 months.

Shopify is our prime general choose as a result of it combines a user-friendly interface with strong options and intensive design choices. Attempt Shopify danger free for 3 days.

Wix was made with novices in thoughts, however it additionally provides highly effective options and superior customizations to accommodate rising companies. Get began on Wix with a free trial or use it free eternally.

Squarespace is an internet site builder with easy ecommerce integrations, permitting you to construct lovely web sites with limitless fastened pages. Join Squarespace and get a 14-day free trial.

BigCommerce: The Good and the Dangerous

BigCommerce is a posh platform with as many bells and whistles as its friends. What helps it stand out are its superior product options and promoting instruments which might be accessible on the entry degree with out getting in the way in which of newbie customers.

What BigCommerce Is Good At

Glorious for design: BigCommerce provides a library of over 150 paid themes for once you already know the aesthetic you need, and over 10 free themes for when it’s essential to get a fantastic retailer up and operating immediately. With BigCommerce’s web page builder, you may simply drag and drop design components, incorporate plug-and-play widgets, and even add your personal HTML with out having to rewrite code for your complete web page.

For a slick look with dynamic components, the platform’s carousel characteristic is nice for creating rotating banners, and the swatches characteristic permits customers to hover over product photographs for immediate zoomed-in views. Designing a retailer with BigCommerce saves you time as properly, because the picture supervisor routinely adjusts every part for a completely responsive expertise throughout units.

Complete checkout: Optimizing the checkout course of is vital for changing guests into clients and driving extra gross sales. With BigCommerce’s Checkout SDK, you’ll have a full JavaScript library of actions you could implement into a completely custom-made checkout expertise—from including progress bars and buyer login strategies to pulling up each accessible transport technique for a given order.

One other standout characteristic of BigCommerce is its deserted cart restoration system, which is accessible on each plan above the Normal tier. This built-in instrument sends automated emails to clients who go away your retailer with out finishing their purchases, encouraging them to return and end the checkout course of.

BigCommerce even provides visitor checkouts and an embeddable one-page checkout possibility to make sure that your web site provides the complete bundle at each level of sale.

Multi-channel promoting choices: With BigCommerce, you may combine with a number of on-line marketplaces and social media platforms similar to Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Fb, Instagram, and Google Buying—all from a single dashboard. This makes managing your gross sales tremendous handy irrespective of the place they’re taking place.

For instance, you may even promote instantly on eBay with out having to go away your BigCommerce website, simply by inputting your eBay app and developer ID.

search engine optimization options come normal: As a small to medium-sized enterprise proprietor, you understand how essential it’s that your website ranks properly in on-line searches. Fortunately, BigCommerce has you coated with built-in search engine optimization optimization options.

With any BigCommerce plan, you’ll have routinely optimized URLs on your product and class pages, plus you may change your URL settings everytime you need. Each web page in your website will solely have one URL so that you received’t take a efficiency hit for duplicate content material, and any time you rename a product, the URL will alter to replicate the brand new title with automated 301 redirects from the outdated internet deal with.

However that’s not all. BigCommerce product pages even have built-in microdata similar to product rankings, manufacturers, and costs to enhance how properly your website ranks, and the platform’s personal content material supply community helps it load quick for consumers and engines like google alike.

When you’re searching for a extra custom-made method, BigCommerce provides superior search engine optimization options and plugins that may allow you to optimize your website even additional. Needless to say a few of these plugins are paid add-ons, nevertheless.

Spectacular API options: One of many greatest benefits that comes with BigCommerce is how one can pull information out of your retailer and show it on different platforms and functions by way of the BigCommerce API (utility programming interface). It is a highly effective instrument that mixes the advantages of a standalone ecommerce website with the pliability of making customized integrations and functionalities elsewhere.

For instance, you should use the API to showcase your merchandise on an exterior weblog, or you may pull order information right into a customized reporting instrument. You’ll be able to even provide safe logins on exterior websites.

The API additionally permits you to develop customized apps that work together together with your BigCommerce retailer, similar to a customized stock administration app, a bespoke transport calculator, or perhaps a specialised customer support instrument. With the BigCommerce API, you may even synchronize your retailer’s information with exterior buyer relationship administration (CRM) techniques and enterprise useful resource planning (ERP) software program, making it simpler to streamline what you are promoting operations with tailor-made options.

When you’re superior sufficient, using the API will optimize your retailer’s performance and supply helpful insights that can be utilized for automating duties, facilitating customized reporting, and enhancing the general consumer expertise.

Nice product administration: BigCommerce’s product administration space may be very straightforward to make use of and has a simple interface that makes including merchandise, looking out, importing, and exporting a breeze. Plus, with limitless file storage, bandwidth, and merchandise to record, you’ll by no means have to fret about operating out of house.

However it’s not nearly managing your merchandise. BigCommerce additionally provides an assortment of integrations with paid CRMs like Zoho and Salesforce that allow you to preserve tabs on consumers and goal buyer teams with customized advertising. These enable for segmentations based mostly on issues like buy historical past and geography, and monitoring orders is a breeze with the flexibility to filter by monitoring quantity, date, and order standing.

With BigCommerce, you’ll have all of the instruments it’s essential to handle your merchandise and buyer relationships in a single place.

No transaction charges: When you’re a small to medium-sized enterprise, you already know each greenback counts. And whereas another platforms cost transaction charges or penalize you for utilizing third-party fee gateways, BigCommerce prices no transaction charges and accepts over 65 fee strategies at no additional price. It is a large deal for companies with excessive gross sales volumes, as these charges can add up rapidly.

However it’s not simply that, as a result of BigCommerce additionally handles funds in over 100 currencies, and that’s true for all of its plans, together with Normal. Small aggressive edges like this are what make BigCommerce a really engaging possibility.

Potential BigCommerce Drawbacks

Difficult for true novices: With a view to get essentially the most out of BigCommerce, it could require some internet improvement expertise that’s too superior for novices. Some capabilities might not be related for brand spanking new customers, and even when you’ve got some design expertise, the accessible themes are sometimes so complicated, with very many information, that they could be overwhelming.

To make the most of APIs, you could want the help of a developer to get aware of the ins and outs of organising superior integrations. In fact, if you have already got lots of internet improvement expertise, this might not be an issue in any respect. However for many who aren’t able to sort out a steep studying curve simply but, they could have to discover a less complicated answer.

Further bills: Along with the month-to-month charges and potential overage charges, a lot of BigCommerce’s design themes may be fairly costly, starting from $150 to $300 every. For newer customers specifically, meaning it’s essential to be very even handed when selecting a theme, since you don’t need to preserve bouncing from one costly theme to the subsequent.

Moreover, whereas most of the apps and add-ons on the platform are free, a few of them can price as a lot as $75 monthly. For instance, BigCommerce advertises that its ShipperHQ transport guidelines engine is accessible for all plans, however you’ll solely get a 15-day free trial of the mixing earlier than it’s a must to pay $75 monthly no matter your plan.

Whereas these bills could appear daunting, it’s essential to weigh the advantages of the platform towards the prices. BigCommerce provides a variety of options and customization choices, making it a superb selection for companies that want a excessive degree of management over their on-line retailer. Plus, with many free themes and apps, there are workarounds to a few of these bills.

Canonical URL points: When you’re contemplating utilizing BigCommerce on your small to medium-sized enterprise, you need to be conscious that customizing canonical URLs may be difficult. Canonical URLs assist engines like google distinguish between unique content material and duplicate content material, which is essential on your search engine optimization rating.

Sadly, whereas BigCommerce does provide automated 301 redirects to make sure a consumer can now not land on particular pages, managing canonical URLs in BigCommerce requires updating the canonical tags within the HTML instantly—and you may solely specify product, class, or web site URLs.

This limitation might be a dealbreaker for some companies that want a complete suite of instruments and customization choices. Nevertheless, it’s essential to notice that there are workarounds accessible.

As an example, you should use a third-party search engine optimization instrument to handle your canonical URLs outdoors of BigCommerce. Whereas this might not be perfect for everybody, it’s a viable possibility for many who don’t thoughts utilizing an exterior instrument to handle their search engine optimization.

Annual gross sales limits: BigCommerce locations limits in your annual on-line gross sales, which could be a large drawback for rising companies. When you exceed the restrict, you’ll both need to pay charges or improve to a better plan, if accessible. These limits may be decrease or nonexistent on different platforms, so it’s essential to contemplate what you are promoting’s potential for progress earlier than committing to BigCommerce.

When you’re a smaller retailer or a person developer, an annual gross sales restrict may not be an element for you simply but. Finally, the choice to make use of BigCommerce comes right down to your particular enterprise wants and targets.

BigCommerce Plans and Pricing

BigCommerce is available in three predominant plans you could pay for by the month at a premium or by the 12 months at a reduction. In comparison with Shopify, for instance, BigCommerce’s Normal, Plus, and Professional plans have the very same base costs as Shopify’s Primary, Shopify, and Superior tiers—that means you’ll need to take note of much more than simply the value tag when deciding which platform is best for you.

Normal

When you’re a small to medium-sized enterprise or a person trying to create a number of on-line shops by your self, BigCommerce’s Normal plan is a wonderful selection. For simply $39 monthly once you pay month-to-month or $29 monthly paid yearly, you get a completely featured storefront that features the choice so as to add as much as two extra shops for simply $30 apiece monthly.

You’ll even have entry to a wide range of gross sales channels, together with eBay, Amazon, and Walmart, in addition to social media websites like Fb and Instagram. You’ll have the ability to promote in a number of currencies, provide real-time transport quotes, and also you’ll have the ability to provide coupons, reductions, and reward playing cards to your clients.

The Normal Plan additionally consists of entry to level of sale integrations like Sq., Vend, and Clover for in-store purchases, and you may have as much as 4 stock areas.

With limitless employees accounts, the flexibility to course of as much as $50,000 in on-line gross sales per 12 months, and no extra transaction charges for utilizing main fee gateways, the Normal plan is nice for getting began with out breaking the financial institution.

Plus

On prime of every part included within the Normal tier, BigCommerce’s Plus plan provides limitless employees accounts, as much as 5 stock areas, and superior checkout options just like the deserted cart saver and the flexibility for patrons to save lots of bank cards for future purchases.

This plan will run you $105 monthly in the event you pay month-to-month and $79 monthly in the event you pay yearly, and it permits for as much as $180,000 in on-line gross sales per 12 months.

With no transaction charges and as much as 4 extra storefronts at $50 every monthly, the Plus Plan provides lots of worth for small to medium-sized companies which might be able to scale.

Professional

If you’re able to degree up, BigCommerce’s Professional plan is a serious improve. With as much as eight stock areas, as much as seven extra storefronts at $100 every monthly, and an annual gross sales restrict of $400,000, this plan is for when what you are promoting has some severe gross sales quantity.

The Professional plan prices $399 monthly once you pay by the month and $299 monthly once you pay by the 12 months. Additionally, don’t fear about going over that gross sales restrict, as you’ll solely need to pay $150 for every extra $200,000 in on-line gross sales.

On prime of every part within the earlier tiers, the Professional plan additionally provides customized product filtering options for consumers to kind by means of your stock, in addition to Google buyer critiques.

Closing Ideas

BigCommerce deserves severe consideration whether or not you’re a sole proprietor or a company enterprise. And whereas its scalability is what makes it so engaging, its built-in options are what units it aside. With each BigCommerce plan, you get limitless employees accounts, limitless product listings, no transaction charges, API entry, and 24/7 tech assist.

As we’ve mentioned earlier than, BigCommerce is a staple on our record of greatest ecommerce web site builders, and we see it staying there for a really very long time. It’s user-friendly sufficient for novices to dabble with dynamic design components and customized checkouts, and superior sufficient for internet consultants to implement high-level integrations for multi-channel operations and buyer administration techniques. Exhausting to beat that.