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BigCommerce Review

from $29.95 / month

eCommerce solutions like BigCommerce are created for business owners who don’t have the technical know-how or don’t possess the necessary design skills to build an online shop from scratch. BigCommerce is an eCommerce platform that provides a comprehensive set of features to set up and run a successful online store including web hosting, beautifully designed storefront templates, and tools to market your site and promote your products.

Why is this online store builder so successful and what are the features that make it stand out compared to other popular eCommerce platforms? This BigCommerce review will attempt to answer these questions and help you find out whether this online store builder is right for you.

BigCommerce Overview

BigCommerce was founded in 2009, and today it’s one of the most popular eCommerce solutions competing with other top ranking eCommerce platforms like Shopify or Volusion. BigCommerce powers over 100,000 online stores and has processed over $8 billion in transactions. No matter the size of their business – small, medium-sized or large eCommerce stores – BigCommerce serves business owners in over 150 countries.

The company is headquartered in Sydney, Australia, but operates offices in the US as well, namely in San Francisco, California, and Austin, Texas.

BigCommerce packs some powerful features into their product creating a platform that focuses on all aspects of building and running an online store. It provides you all the right tools to streamline your business processes, freeing up time so you can focus on other aspects of your business, such as product optimization or customer relationship building.

BigCommerce Features

If you would build an online shop using traditional, non-turn-key solutions like Magento or WordPress & WooCommerce, you’d be dealing with each component of your online shop separately (hosting, design, etc.). Hosted solutions like BigCommerce have an all-inclusive approach to building an online store, which is reflected by the following features:

Managed hosting and multi-layered security (99.99% uptime, Level 1 PCI compliance, DDoS protection, intrusion detection, firewalls, shared SSL included, site-wide HTTPS, fast content delivery network included, unlimited bandwidth, etc.);
CMS functionality & free templates (7 free and 70+ premium templates to dress up your store, mobile-optimized templates, easy-to-use interface, advanced customization framework);
Built-in marketing & SEO tools (integrates with leading email marketing platforms like MailChimp or HubSpot; integrates with comparison sites, Google Shopping, and online marketplaces like eBay or Amazon; provides full control to customize URLs, metadata, titles, header tags);
Conversion tools and buyer incentivizing tools (abandoned cart saver, PayPal One Touch, single-page checkout, built-in coupons and multiple types of discounting, fully automated Google Trust Stores integration, product reviews feature, public & private wish list, side-by-side product comparison, real-time shipping quote, etc.);
1-click payment gateway integration (PayPal, Stripe, Simplify, Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, etc.);
eCommerce analytics & reporting (information on conversion rate, visits, orders, AOV, shopper journey reporting, product performance metrics);
Built-in selling on social media platforms (Facebook and Pinterest);
Optimized for selling globally (integration with global payment providers like WorldPay, PayPal, 2Checkout, etc. allow you to accept payment in any currency; international options for shipping and tax; multi-language online store);
Integration with eCommerce apps (integration with marketing and conversion apps, shipping apps, ERP suites, CRM apps, accounting apps, tax calculation apps, and custom integrations with powerful API);

BigCommerce lets you test their platform with a 15-day free trial, without asking for your credit card details. The free trial will help you evaluate BigCommerce and decide which plan is right for you.

BigCommerce Plans & Pricing

BigCommerce offers you the choice of 4 types of plans divided into two groups based on whether you are a new business or a fast-growing and established brand: Standard, Plus, Pro and Enterprise.

The Standard plan is designed for up to $50k sales per year and costs $29.95/month. The Plus plan, costing $79.95/month, is BigCommerce’s most popular plan, suitable for businesses with yearly sales of up to $150k. The fast-growing and established brand category is represented by the Pro plan, costing $249.95/month, which is designed for businesses with yearly sales of up to $400k. The Enterprise plan is an ultimate cloud eCommerce selling solution that can be tailored to your business. If you decide to pay annually, you receive a 10% discount with all plans.

All plans include unlimited products, file storage and bandwidth as well as unlimited staff accounts. Unlike the majority of other ecommerce builders, BigCommerce doesn’t charge any transaction fees, which would otherwise eat into your profit margins.

BigCommerce Customer Service

Customer support is another strong suit of BigCommerce. Their in-house support team is available 24/7 on live chat, email and US-based phone support. Calls are answered in under 2 minutes and 90% of issues are solved on the first call. BigCommerce also has a Premium Services team that focuses on helping your business to grow.

BigCommerce is invested in helping their customers get the most out of BigCommerce by offering a suite of video tutorials and an in-depth knowledgebase. They’ve even set up a BigCommerce University as well, which includes a series of free lessons teaching you how to build your online store, drive customers to your store and how to build brand loyalty.

BigCommerce’s Community Forum can also help you with any issues that you may be struggling with and apart from receiving answers from BigCommerce’s support team, other BigCommerce users and business owners can also chime in, offering invaluable advices on how to handle certain issues that you may have.

Pros & Cons of BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a top-ranking eCommerce platform that streamlines the building and maintenance of an online store. Its out-of-the box ecommerce tools pack a huge punch, but let’s see if there are any cons to using BigCommerce:

Pros

An arsenal of ready-to-use ecommerce tools;
App Store to add advanced features and functionality to your store;
No transaction fees;
Plans for businesses of any size;
Social media leveraging and integration with a whole range of other marketplaces;
Easy-to-use interface;
Great customer support;
Easy migration from other platforms.

Cons

Limited number of free templates;
Imposition of yearly sales limits;
Vendor lock-in problem if you decide to move from a hosted ecommerce solution to a self-hosted one (your site’s design and functionality are all built-into BigCommerce’s platform).