Choosing a new eCommerce platform is a serious decision for any business. It needs to be the right fit for your short-term and long-term growth goals and is nothing to rush into.
A great platform to choose is one that is invested in its customers and shows continuous growth and innovation to keep up with the ever changing landscape that is online shopping.
If you’re considering using BigCommerce, one of the leading eCommerce platforms in the industry, then you’re in the right place. With over 120 countries served and $17 billion in merchant sales, BigCommerce works with a wide range of successful eCommerce companies and well-known brands.
We’re sharing our honest BigCommerce review and breaking down the platform that offers a variety of advanced features designed to help eCommerce stores across the spectrum grow online.
What Is BigCommerce?
BigCommerce is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) eCommerce platform used by more than 60,000 stores and over 2,000 mid-market businesses. Leading brands that utilize the platform include Ben & Jerry’s, Toyota and Avery Dennison, among many others.
As a SaaS eCommerce platform, BigCommerce is known for hosting your live storefront, maintaining servers, running upgrades and responding to issues. With BigCommerce, eCommerce merchants with little to no development knowledge can successfully manage an online store. Take note of this huge advantage if you’re evaluating SaaS vs. on-premise platforms like Magento.
In this guide, we’re diving deep into everything you need to know about BigCommerce before investing your hard-earned money (and valuable time) into a platform that’s new to your business.
| Standard | Plus | Pro | |
| Monthly Fee | $39 | $105 | $399 |
| Monthly Fee for Yearly Plan | $29 | $79 | $299 |
| Perfect for | Individuals | Businesses | Growing businesses |
| No additional transaction fees | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Multi-Storefront | Up to 3 | Up to 5 | Up to 8 |
| Mobile responsive website | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Multi-Currency | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Abandoned cart saver | X | ✔ | ✔ |
| Google customer reviews | X | X | ✔ |
| Customer service | 24/7 | 24/7 | 24/7 |
BigCommerce Features & Functionality
B2B & D2C eCommerce
BigCommerce is a trusted and reliable platform among companies that sell both business to business (B2B) and direct to consumer (D2C). For instance, BigCommerce helps B2B businesses strengthen the online shopping experience through native features and partner functionality like advanced search and punchout, quote management, bulk pricing down to the SKU level, purchase orders and credit authorization. BigCommerce even gives B2B merchants a competitive edge with tools like ERP and PIM integrations, customer groups and B2B payment solutions.
On the other hand, BigCommerce benefits D2C businesses with its robust, differentiated platform. The open-platform flexibility and extensibility helps eCommerce businesses triumph over complexity and focus on growth.
Templates & Customization
Did you know that 48% of people cited a website’s design as the number one factor in deciding the credibility of a business? Needless to say, a website’s design is critical to a customer’s brand perception and directly impacts the overall user experience. Luckily, BigCommerce makes it easy for companies to build beautiful websites with responsive designs.
BigCommerce Stencil theme platform has made it easy for our developers to build beautiful BigCommerce websites that incorporate the latest best practices, technology, design standards, conversion and SEO. Here’s why:
- The modern front-end development framework allows developers to make changes as they please.
- Command line interface can be used for local testing, so a site does not need to go live to test changes.
- Cornerstone keeps Stencil up-to-date with the latest features and functionality to ensure quick page speed on mobile.
Included for free with BigCommerce are 12 site themes to help merchants set their stores up quickly and efficiently. For an additional price, merchants can access 133 premium site themes. No matter the theme used, BigCommerce always allows brands to test their website before launching it live. We encourage you to check out this guide to eCommerce themes if you need help choosing the right design for your online store.
Cloud-Based Hosting
Using the wrong hosting platform can be detrimental to your business’s operations and slow down growth. With BigCommerce, companies don’t need to focus on monitoring their website’s security. BigCommerce is PCI compliant with zero hosting costs and has a 99.99% average uptime to protect servers. Plus, the platform allows for faster page load times with tools like Google Cloud Platform and Google AMP.
Full-Feature CMS
Earlier we mentioned that people with little to no development experience can easily manage their BigCommerce website, and for that you can thank the platform’s full-feature CMS. Seamlessly create and manage products and pages, and then publish and view changes in real time to keep your store up-to-date. It’s even easier with BigCommerce Page Builder, which enables you to create and edit site pages with a drag-and-drop visual editing tool. No coding required!
Also, manage sales from beginning to end regardless of channel, since BigCommerce centralizes inventory and order management. Take your store a step further by connecting it to PayPal, Stripe and other leading gateways.
Robust API
Build technical solutions and integrate third-party applications with BigCommerce’s API. Integrate POS, shipping, distribution and inventory management solutions with the Orders API. Manage customers’ carts and checkout and access product information or edit customers’ orders with the Storefront API. Streamline content management with the Widgets API, so teammates with no development experience can also control web content without having to edit theme files. With the BigCommerce API, the possibilities really are limitless.
Mobile & SEO Optimization
Optimizing your eCommerce store for mobile enhances the user experience and helps drive conversions. Choose any of the responsive, mobile-optimized themes to create a conversion-driven experience. BigCommerce automatically optimizes images for mobile and helps websites using the platform load faster. Plus, BigCommerce was the first eCommerce platform to natively integrate Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) to improve search visibility and page speed.
In addition, BigCommerce offers numerous out of the box features to improve any eCommerce SEO strategy and increase a store’s organic search rankings. From optimized and unique URLs to microdata, a content delivery network, and 301 redirects and URL rewrites, BigCommerce has the built-in features needed to outrank the competition.
Omni-Channel Selling
No matter whether a business sells via an eCommerce store, physical brick-and-mortar store or through social media, BigCommerce has the tools to help businesses anywhere sell everywhere. The platform integrates with a variety of tools – including Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Amazon and more – and serves as the “hub” for all channels to help eCommerce merchants manage inventory in one place.
In October 2020, BigCommerce announced the availability of Channel Manager, a modernized platform feature that makes it easier for merchants to manage their comprehensive omnichannel presence and streamline their back-end operations. This new feature enables businesses to:
- Centralize channel management
- Expand online presence
- Streamline omnichannel listing and selling
- Improve the storefront experience through technology integrations
- Launch PWA storefronts
Payment & Inventory Management
When you invest in BigCommerce as your eCommerce platform, you don’t need to worry about how your customers will pay. The variety of payment providers supported by BigCommerce allows eCommerce merchants to offer flexible payment options. With over 55 pre-integrated payment solutions, BigCommerce makes it easy for their customers’ customers to purchase online. From Apple Pay and Amazon Pay to Chase, PayPal and many more, customers can choose how they want to pay. This flexibility and extensibility ultimately increases customer trust, and in turn, conversions. BigCommerce doesn’t charge any additional transaction fees for using the gateway of your choice..
Further, streamline inventory management and save time by leveraging the platform’s inventory management system. From one location, merchants can sync all inventory across multiple channels, track inventory and make updates, receive automatic notifications of stock changes and fulfill and track orders.
Security Assurance
We can assure you that there’s no need to worry about unauthorized security attacks with BigCommerce. The Level 1 PCI compliant platform has several layers of Enterprise-level security – like firewalls, file integrity scanners and intrusion detection – to protect BigCommerce websites from unwanted security breaches.
BigCommerce Apps & Integrations
BigCommerce integrates with a variety of third-party applications and integrations. These integrations often augment eCommerce stores, but they aren’t required for a BigCommerce website to function properly. Here’s a quick list of a few trusted BigCommerce apps that we often recommend to enhance our clients’ BigCommerce stores:
- Justuno for pop-ups
- Searchspring as a site search tool
- Klaviyo for email marketing
- Smile.io for customer loyalty
- Stamped.io to display customer reviews
Below, we’re sharing a few BigCommerce integrations developed by our team that have helped clients provide their customers with a positive website experience.
BigCommerce Givex Integration
If you have an online restaurant or sell food online, you could seriously benefit from the BigCommerce Givex Integration. BigCommerce supports native electronic gift cards, but for merchants with both an online and offline presence, you’ll find the Givex integration useful. The Givex Integration for BigCommerce lets merchants accept gift cards as payment as well as sell both digital and physical gift cards online. Check out how we used this integration to achieve gift card functionality for one of the top crab cake destinations in Maryland.
BigCommerce AS400 Integration
If your company uses the AS400 ERP system, sells B2B and faces challenges with tracking inventory correctly and processing orders, then the BigCommerce AS400 Integration may be a great fit for you. This integration connects a company’s BigCommerce store and AS400 ERP to allow all inventory and availability to update automatically – letting customers see exactly how much is in stock before placing an order.
Also, many B2B businesses face obstacles when allowing orders to be placed through both sales teams and directly online. This integration, however, requires all orders to be placed through BigCommerce – creating a central point of transaction and resulting in less transaction errors.
BigCommerce Review: Pros and Cons
The rise and development of eCommerce has given businesses the opportunity to expand on a larger scale more than ever before. However, with so many different eCommerce technologies available, it is difficult to decide what software is the best for your company.
Hopefully this BigCommerce review sheds some light on the major benefits and potential drawbacks of the platform and highlights key takeaways to know before you make one of your company’s largest investments in online growth.
BigCommerce Review: Pros
The benefits of BigCommerce and its variety of features make it more than simply a website builder. From its general functionality to its scalability, security and more, BigCommerce provides you with the tools you need to expand and operate your online business seamlessly.
Low Cost
As a SaaS eCommerce platform, BigCommerce minimizes technical debt and server costs. In fact, SaaS platforms in general cost ~75% less than on-premise platforms.
The Basics: Customization & Functionality
BigCommerce’s software is designed to improve every aspect of your online store. The platform lets you customize your website so that it is tailored to your personal preferences and brand.
The built in features drive traffic and revenue, taking both B2B and B2C businesses to the next level. That’s right…it supports both B2B and B2C.
Whether you’re starting from scratch or migrating over from another platform, BigCommerce makes it easy to build a website that captures attention and represents your business and everything you have to offer.
Its range of templates and customizable features ensures a streamline shopping experience for you and your customers. Its themes are high-converting and automatically optimized for various devices. By taking care of the technical side, BigCommerce lets you focus on selling.
Once you’ve created your website, you can operate your entire business in one place. Their full featured content management system is designed with an effortless efficiency, allowing you to manage your products and categories, process orders and inventory and integrate your system with the leading payment providers.
Omni-Channel Selling
BigCommerce’s omni-channel selling technology elevates your business by connecting with the modern buyer. This software integration creates a multi-channel experience and reaches customers wherever they choose to shop.
Its seamless approach allows you to expand to multiple platforms while still managing everything from one, easily accessible place.
The BigCommerce Channel Manager makes selling on multiple outlets simple. The channel manager acts as the hub for all of your channels. No matter where you sell your product, BigCommerce will process it through the channel manager with automatic syncing, eliminating overselling and facilitating easy expansion.
This feature connects online marketplaces, physical stores, social media and online advertising. By listing your products on sites like Amazon and eBay, the omni-selling lets you reach customers immediately when they begin their search.
Social media selling goes beyond connecting with consumers. When you sell to customers on the platform they already use every day, you will increase both your relevancy and your potential to make a sale. Software like the Channel Manager expands the reach of your company while simultaneously simplifying your overall operations.
SEO Benefits
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a key element of marketing your business in terms of driving traffic and increasing visitors. Your site’s optimization impacts where you rank in search results and ultimately determines how many people will end up finding your products.
BigCommerce’s SEO features make the continuous optimization process simpler. When you design a customized website through BigCommerce, each page is built with HTML elements and hierarchy.
Product pages also feature built in microdata that take ratings, pricing, brand, and stock level into account. Optimized URLs, rewrites and redirects make it easier for you to make adjustments to your website without risking 404 errors. Its auto-populated URLs quickly adapt based on any changes you have made. Further, its themes ensure your content is accessible and never duplicated by giving each page a unique URL.
BigCommerce’s Content Delivery Network (CDN) focuses on your website’s speed and works to minimize loading time, leading to happier site visitors and a higher search engine ranking.
BigCommerce’s software has a response time of ⅓ of a second and an average uptime of 99.99% compared to the industry average of 99.5% and Shopify’s 99.98%.
While these differences may seem minimal, a site with 99.99% uptime may only be down a few minutes per year while one with 99.5% uptime could be down for almost two days – time that you can’t afford to lose in the fast, always moving eCommerce world.
Your site can also be further optimized during high shopping events so that it’s prepared to handle a higher volume of traffic. The attention span of today’s consumer has significantly decreased. This CDN feature will help fulfill their need for convenience and speed.
Secure Performance
Security is a major factor and necessity when it comes to building your brand online. BigCommerce’s hosting and security features include unlimited bandwidth, fast content delivery, various domain names, and a shared SSL certificate.
These technologies and more take care of your eCommerce hosting and security so that you don’t have to spend additional time and money managing multiple servers.
Multi-layered security ensures that your store is protected. Perimeter and server-specific firewalls, file integrity scanners, intrusion detection software, and 24/7 human monitoring work together to prevent unauthorized access and potential threats. More advanced plans also offer DDOS protection to further protect your page.
Integrating HTTPS into your entire site ensures that customers know your store is secure throughout their entire shopping process. This element of security will also keep you in line with Google’s current SEO requirements.
Level 1 PCI Compliance further elevates your level of security when it comes to credit cards and data breaches. All of these features combined allow you to focus on selling, rather than the stress of security and shopper safety.
Easy To Use
Those with little development skills can maintain a BigCommerce website post-launch. The CMS creates an intuitive back-end experience, and if you want to use advanced features, it only takes a couple of clicks.
Out-Of-The-Box Features
BigCommerce supports over 70 types of discounts out of the box, and the platform allows for cross-selling and up-selling to increase average order value. Also, BigCommerce uses a cart page, so customers can easily estimate the price of sales tax plus shipping. The cart page is also unique because it allows shoppers to update product options directly, so they can change a product’s size, color, quantity, etc. before checking out and without having to go back to the product page.
Flexible & Customizable
Use any of the themes in BigCommerce Stencil to increase page load times, experience mobile responsiveness and ensure your website updates automatically. If you’re still using Blueprint, we encourage you to read through these 5 reasons to make the switch to Stencil.
Custom App Development
It doesn’t take a lot of time or effort for BigCommerce developers to build custom apps, such as single-click apps, connector apps, unlisted marketplace apps and personal apps. Plus, BigCommerce vets apps in their store to make sure they’re secure and stable.
Security
Like we mentioned earlier, BigCommerce is Level 1 PCI compliant. It’s also ISO/IEC 27001 certified – the highest standard to secure customer data.
Quick Go-To Market Time
Launch your BigCommerce website in under four or five months. Use the designated services and onboarding to launch your website sooner (yet accurately.) A dedicated launch manager will work with you to customize a plan based on your business’s goals, so take advantage of this. They’ll even point you to an Elite BigCommerce Partner Agency if you need custom design or development assistance.
BigCommerce Review: Cons
As expected, BigCommerce is not perfect. Unfortunately, there isn’t a single platform that’s gotten it 100% correct because the needs of eCommerce companies are so diverse.
Not to mention, the industry is in a constant state of innovation…so as soon as someone has it “right,” it can become outdated in a matter of months and needs to be updated.
What we like about BigCommerce is its attention to innovation and commitment to release new features and updates regularly. However, despite its many benefits, there are also some drawbacks that you should be aware of before you decide to buy.
Sometimes we find a brand’s goals just aren’t in alignment with what BigCommerce offers and it’s important to know when it doesn’t make sense to make the move.
Annual Sales Threshold
Before investing your money in a platform like BigCommerce, make sure you understand all of the factors that impact the price you pay. The basics of BigCommerce pricing are outlined at the end of this post. However, there is one element of its pricing plans that is important to note here as it can be a drawback for many fast-growing companies.
At first glance, the price of each of BigCommerce’s four plans is based on the extent of the features included. However, a major part of the price is actually based on your company’s online sales per year.
The Standard plan only costs $29.95 a month, but it’s for businesses that make up to $50,000 per year. Once that allotted revenue is exceeded, BigCommerce automatically updates you to the next, more expensive Plus plan at $79.95 a month.
If you reach the maximum sales volume of $150,000 per year with Plus, you will by upgraded to Pro automatically. With a larger cost of $249.95, you can have up to $400,000 annual sales. However, for every additional $200,000 in sales, you will be charged another $150 a month.
If your annual revenue significantly increases, you arguably have a larger, more flexible budget to pay these higher fees. Some business owners see these price increases as a penalty for quick growth and success.
Keep in mind the additional features that come with these upgrades. The higher priced plans come with as many as 10 additional features including Google Reviews, stored credit cards, custom facets and more.
One of the most notable upgrades is the Abandoned Cart Saver. This feature allows you to create three emails that automatically send to shoppers who have left your site without making a purchase.
Other platforms such as Shopify, Volusion and Squarespace offer similar abandoned cart tools but only let you customize one email. The BigCommerce Abandoned Cart Saver combines customization and convenience to drastically increase the revenue of a high traffic site.
Although these price increases as a result of higher sales may appear inconvenient at first, they benefit your company in the long run. This pricing plan essentially sets your business on a growth path that ensures that your technology develops as your customer base and revenue increase.
Limited Free Themes
Although BigCommerce offers a variety of customizable themes to fit your brand, only 7 of those themes are free. This limited number of free themes means that many companies will end up purchasing a theme to achieve the overall design they are looking for.
The cost of paid themes is an additional cost that is not included in the overall monthly fee. The price of these themes range from $145 up to $235.
Although these prices may seem minimal for larger companies, they can add up for smaller companies with tighter budgets when it comes to startup costs.
Blogging
The majority of our BigCommerce clients host their blogs elsewhere, like on HubSpot or WordPress.
If you have a significant amount of content that’s valuable to your business, BigCommerce for WordPress might be a better option. However, it tends to require a little bit more development, so make sure you scope any project before you jump.
Target Market
If you have already reached the upper enterprise level in your industry, BigCommerce may not be the best fit for your company. BigCommerce is designed for established companies that are looking to accelerate their growth, but it ultimately delivers the most value for mid-market businesses.
Though the Enterprise plan requires a custom price quote and ranges as a result, the Pro plan is designed for businesses who make up to $400,000 annually.
The structure of BigCommerce is not necessarily built for high-volume businesses with yearly revenues greater than $100 million. It’s not because BigCommerce is unequipped to handle such figures; rather, its target market is aimed towards mid-market businesses.
Platforms like Salesforce’s Commerce Cloud (formerly Demandware) operate on a revenue share model intended for companies with high profit margins. Businesses with these kinds of margins tend to be luxury brands, which is why they make up the majority of Commerce Cloud’s clientele.
In order to get the most overall value with BigCommerce, you need to understand where you fit in terms of product type, pricing, and revenue. BigCommerce leads the eCommerce industry for a reason, but that doesn’t mean they were built to serve every single business in the eCommerce world.
BigCommerce Customer Testimonials
The variety of clients and companies who work with BigCommerce creates a unique range of customer testimonials. From big names businesses like PayPal and Toyota to smaller success stories, these reviews can give you further insight into how your brand will improve with BigCommerce.
We’ve worked with many eCommerce businesses and have several BigCommerce case studies demonstrating client success on the platform.