I take an in-depth look at one of the most well-known eCommerce solutions available today in my BigCommerce review.
I’ll guide you through the essential features of BigCommerce in this article.
You’ll learn about all of BigCommerce’s advantages and disadvantages, and by the conclusion of the article, you’ll have a much better understanding of whether this eCommerce solution is perfect for your company — or if you’d be better off with something else.
Let’s begin with a straightforward question: What is BigCommerce?
Contents
- BigCommerce Review 2024: What is BigCommerce?
- BigCommerce Marketing Features
- BigCommerce Pricing Plans 2024: How Much Does BigCommerce Cost?
- 5 Best BigCommerce SEO Features
- BigCommerce eCommerce Features
- Major Benefits of Using BigCommerce
- BigCommerce Customer Support Review
- FAQs on BigCommerce Review 2024
- Is BigCommerce any good?
- Which is best Shopify or BigCommerce?
- What is BigCommerce and how does it work?
- Conclusion: BigCommerce Review 2024
BigCommerce Review 2024: What is BigCommerce?
There are several factors to consider while selecting the finest online shop platform. There are also a plethora of possibilities, and the platform you choose may influence your online company just as much as the actual site you choose for your physical firm.
It has the potential to significantly increase or harm your firm in the long run, and in the near term, it may surely add/remove a slew of issues.
That being said, just like with actual site selection, there is no such thing as an absolute “best” or “top” selection. There is only one correct decision in light of your objectives, experience, and circumstances.
There are several BigCommerce reviews available online – most of them are user-generated and based on stories and personal experiences.
That is OK, but I adopt a different approach – considering not just the advantages and disadvantages, but also the product’s total market position.
BigCommerce is the all-inclusive end of the eCommerce solution spectrum, providing everything you need to get started and expand your online shop. This is in contrast to alternatives that need you to purchase, install, and maintain all of your store’s “parts” independently.
Utilizing BigCommerce is like leasing and modifying a storefront in development rather than creating your own.
You retain control for design, merchandising, and everything else business-related – but you defer to the property owner for a store building, plumbing, security, and infrastructure.
BigCommerce Marketing Features
BigCommerce has a comprehensive set of marketing tools for promoting your online business. Some of the ways are fee-based, while others are completely free.
Several of the most important marketing elements available in BigCommerce are as follows:
1. Social Media Tools:
BigCommerce makes social media marketing simple. Simply include “Buy Now” buttons on Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter to convert social bookmarking to online purchasing.
2. Google AdWords Integrations:
This enables you to market your items on a semi-automatic basis on Google.
3. Abandoned Cart Recovery:
When a consumer submits their email address and subsequently abandons their shopping cart, an automated email may be sent to entice them back to their purchase.
According to Baymard Institute data published in 2019, the average cart abandonment rate is 69.57 percent.
It’s a critical feature that will prevent you from losing income. According to research, customized emails are six times more successful than standard emails.
3. Email Marketing:
MailChimp, HubSpot, iContact, and Constant Contact are all included as strong alternatives on the platform.
This capability enables you to create intelligent customer lists and to deliver targeted messages and newsletters automatically to prevent missed purchases.
4. Coupon Codes & Discounts:
This is particularly useful if you’re running an exclusive campaign and want to distribute codes through email. It’s effective in motivating purchasers.
5. Banners:
You may use them for a variety of objectives, both promotional and non-commercial. This will assist in capturing your audience’s attention and emphasizing your primary topic.
BigCommerce Pricing Plans 2024: How Much Does BigCommerce Cost?
This portion of the BigCommerce review will go further into the cost of this hosted service. BigCommerce price is determined by the volume of sales you generate each year.
It provides three monthly pricing tiers that are ideal for businesses of all sizes. The cheapest plan is $29.95 per month, while the most expensive is $299.95 per month.
Whichever package you choose, your shop will feature a completely responsive website, a one-page checkout, digital wallets, basic SEO tools, and strong statistics.
Additionally, one of the primary benefits of BigCommerce is the absence of transaction fees. If you pay yearly rather than monthly, you’ll even get a 10% discount.
However, if you’re not in the mood to pay any money right now, it also offers a 15-day free trial. However, if you’re on this plan, your consumers will be unable to buy anything from you.
Additionally, when it comes to BigCommerce prices, keep in mind that each plan has a threshold limit.
You cannot earn more than $50,000 or more than $180,000 per year under the Standard Plan or Plus Plan, respectively. After that, you’ll need to upgrade to the Pro Plan if you sell more than that.
The Pro Plan is $299.95 if your shop generates less than $450,000 in monthly revenue. When you exceed that barrier, you will be charged an extra $150 per month for every additional $200,000 in sales.
Additionally, BigCommerce offers an Enterprise Plan for large businesses. Its cost is determined by the features you choose to include in your business.
However, you will get all of the Plus Plan’s features, in addition to a dedicated SSL and IP address, priority support, product screening, comprehensive reporting tools, and Google verified shops.
5 Best BigCommerce SEO Features
The following are some of the top BigCommerce SEO features that can help your website rank better in search engine results pages:
1. On Page-SEO:
BigCommerce makes it very simple to edit page names, metadata, and headers — all of which are critical aspects that search engines take into account when classifying your site for search results.
2. Microdata:
Additionally, this is referred to as “Rich Snippets.” Microdata is included in the majority of Bigcommerce themes. This feature allows you to add information such as ratings, price, brand, and stock levels to your search result listings.
3. Mobile-friendliness:
All BigCommerce templates are responsive, meaning they look great on PCs, mobile devices, and tablets. Additionally, the Stencil template supports the AMP format for items and pages out of the box, which speeds up the loading time of your page.
4. SEO-friendly URL structure:
URL structures for items, web pages, and categories may be customized. It might be lengthy, brief, or customized URLs, depending on your priorities.
5. Security:
Each BigCommerce plan includes an SSL certificate.
BigCommerce eCommerce Features
Without a question, BigCommerce provides a plethora of required eCommerce tools for an online business.
The following are some of the most notable characteristics that set BigCommerce apart from its rivals.
1. Customizable Checkout:
BigCommerce’s checkout module has been updated. It now provides access to its Checkout SDK, which is a collection of JavaScript components for use with your checkout.
This new tool allows you to completely personalize your checkout page, from the background graphics to the number of steps required for a consumer to complete the process.
Bear in mind that the Checkout SDK is only available when the Optimized One-Page Checkout control panel feature is enabled.
2. Tax & Shipping:
The good news is that BigCommerce supports a variety of delivery methods, including real-time shipping quotations for customers on more expensive BigCommerce pricing plans. Additionally, it has an all-in-one shipping solution.
ShipStation, a free program, enables you to get unique savings from prominent organizations such as DHL, USPS, and FedEx, among others.
Additionally, you may keep your consumers satisfied by offering services such as in-store pickup, next-day delivery, package tracking, and free shipping.
BigCommerce launched a new shipping service in March 2019 for consumers looking for more savings and a faster setup.
It offers speedier FedEx Express delivery; the ability to show shipping prices on your website; increased accuracy of its live rates; more reduced rates from UPS, USPS, DHL, and FedEx; and an automated section for configuring your shipment. However, the highlight is the ease with which you can control all of your shipping functions from a single central point.
Additionally, BigCommerce enables you to configure your tax computation rules. Alternatively, you may establish a connection with a third-party tax provider to automate tax computation and submission. Both methods are quite convenient and trouble-free.
Additionally, you may place a label on your website indicating whether or not your pricing includes tax. This will help you prevent any unneeded confusion with your consumers.
3. Multi-Channel:
Multi-channel marketing is also vital for an eCommerce shop that is expanding. Given the difficulty of reaching out to consumers, having this option incorporated into your shop is critical.
With BigCommerce, you can sell on a variety of platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, eBay, and Amazon.
Additionally, you can monitor all sales generated by those websites utilizing BigCommerce’s data reporting capabilities. These tools assist in identifying trends, measuring performance, and calculating conversion rates – all from your dashboard!
4. Multi-Currency:
BigCommerce’s multi-currency capability distinguishes it as one of the top platforms for global enterprises. BigCommerce has partnered with five renowned payment gateways that accept several currencies.
This functionality enables retailers to increase cross-border sales by automatically converting the currency to the customer’s local currency. The greatest part is that multi-currency capability is included in all price tiers.
5. Processing Orders:
After the visitor hits the purchase button, Bigcommerce takes the transaction to the next phase. You may use the platform to handle orders, generate invoices, and create packing slips.
Essentially, it manages the order throughout its fulfillment process. This is a critical feature, particularly for businesses with a large number of items.
6. Product Management:
Within a few easy clicks, BigCommerce enables you to import items, configure inventory tracking, change stock levels, and analyze order patterns over time.
With its seamless native inventory management solutions, tracking inventory across online and offline channels is simpler than ever.
Apart from that, you have complete control over the details of your items. Plus, BigCommerce is the only platform that allows you to sell items, downloads, event tickets, and services without paying for third-party applications.
Major Benefits of Using BigCommerce
Now it’s high time to have a look at the major benefits you will get by choosing BigCommerece :
1. Easy Design:
In the real world, we make several judgments about a shop just based on its look. Even while sleekness is not synonymous with security, service, or variety, an unattractive or amateurish-looking website seldom inspires trust in online shoppers.
To begin, it should appear excellent straight out of the box. Your default website should not seem to be “underdevelopment” or unfinished in any way. BigCommerce is unquestionably the best at this.
Second, you should be able to alter the default appearance without hiring a professional graphic designer – which often entails purchasing a professionally created “theme.”
BigCommerce enables this and has a plethora of responsive themes available in their store (for sale). Installing a theme is simple, and anybody familiar with basic HTML or CSS may make simple adjustments.
Thirdly, BigCommerce’s design is based on HTML and CSS, with relatively simple templates. Because the templates are only decorative (they do not affect the functionality of your shop), you may also get a professional, unique design.
BigCommerce does not impose significant technical barriers on most graphic designers or front-end developers when it comes to implementing the precise appearance you want.
Whether you’re just getting started with a shoestring budget or running a multimillion-dollar eCommerce enterprise, BigCommerce’s design setup is flexible and strong enough to provide the look you want for your online shop.
2. Integrated Marketing Features:
However, having functionality such as inputting product SKUs and monitoring return requests is not sufficient. Additionally, your online business should have tools that assist you in acquiring clients.
Additionally, BigCommerce’s integrated marketing capabilities are a significant plus. As with their more technical aspects, they have an incredible variety of marketing tools.
There are an overwhelming amount of marketing possibilities for your online shop, but there are few that are especially beneficial for those just getting started. And BigCommerce already includes them.
I’m particularly pleased with their Google Shopping integration (which is normally a royal headache for eCommerce developers across the Internet), their eBay shop connection (which is a no-brainer for specialized retailers), their Google Ads ad generation, and SEO-friendly setup (notably, customizable category pages & canonical product pages).
Built-in marketing options are a significant advantage of BigCommerce, particularly if you’re just getting started selling online and aren’t sure where, to begin with, marketing.
3. Built-in Intuitive Features:
At its most basic level, an online store is a website equipped with a shopping cart and the capacity to receive payments. It’s quite straightforward. However, the majority of business owners would agree that there is a great deal more functionality involved in creating a successful online store.
You want reviews, an easy-to-use interface for adding and deleting goods, inventory management, integrated payments, analytics, order management, coupon code generation and discount capability, and simple shipping integration, among other features.
And a significant advantage of adopting BigCommerce is that they already have the majority of features you could imagine built into their platform. Everything is in place and ready to go.
Not only are all of the features integrated into BigCommerce, but they all perform flawlessly. From order administration to the abandoned cart saver, BigCommerce has considered every function you’ll need and goes above and beyond with integrated features.
As seen in the image below, they incorporate bulk 301 redirects into their platform (instead of via 3rd party app, plugin, or extension).
4. Effortless Speed & Security:
One of the most challenging aspects of operating your eCommerce website is dealing with speed – specifically, how fast your website loads. That is because speed is critical.
Numerous studies have shown that consumers do not wait for web pages to load. Generally, conversion rates begin to decline after four seconds.
Because speed is critical, every major online firm (including Google, Facebook, and Twitter) has whole teams devoted to decreasing page load times.
The additional hurdle for online merchants is the need for rock-solid security. Giving your credit card to a stranger may have grown commonplace in recent years, but if you’re servicing a new client, they still have a significant preference for Amazon or another company they trust with their credit card information.
And all that protection means adding layers to your server’s workload, or, if you outsource credit card processing to PayPal or Google Wallet, adding more points of failure or slowdown throughout the checkout process.
And, of course, all of these layers and off-site connections may bog down your site experience.
A comprehensive online shop solution, such as BigCommerce, enables you to delegate all of those responsibilities to specialists. Rather than fumbling around with a caching plugin (or hiring a developer $$$ per hour), you may just forget about it (or call customer service for complaints).
Additionally, you get to delegate security, compliance, and a variety of other security-related challenges (remember Heartbleed a few years ago?) to specialists who will manage them seamlessly.
While BigCommerce is not nearly as quick as rivals such as Shopify in my store’s performance testing, they are still lightning-fast and secure.
By using an all-in-one solution such as BigCommerce, you can offload technical concerns (without needing a large development budget) while accepting a variety of payment methods and satisfying your consumers’ expectations for a quick, simple shopping experience.
Additionally, they are quite honest about their technical metrics and availability – which is a positive trait to see in any business.
5. Integrated Education:
There are several how-to guides, guidance articles, and newsletters available online for establishing a successful eCommerce company.
The primary issue is curation (ie, weeding through the 90% of content that is fluff or otherwise useless) and relevancy (ie, advice that might work for WordPress might not be relevant to BigCommerce).
BigCommerce places a high premium on assisting you in learning how to create a successful online shop.
They offer a BigCommerce University with in-depth videos, how-to tutorials integrated directly into your store’s dashboard, a setup process, an autoresponder email series upon enrollment, and a consultant that responds immediately to any inquiries.
And, maybe most importantly, it’s all completely applicable to BigCommerce.
Therefore, when you read something like “you should do A/B testing” or “there are significant benefits to establishing a Google Merchant account,” you don’t have to tinker and Google ideas for implementation — instead, you just follow the BigCommerce guidance step by step.
Knowledge is a tremendous source of power (and money), and BigCommerce places a premium on it.
BigCommerce Customer Support Review
When you sign up for a free trial, you’ll instantly get an email with a link to schedule a 10-minute phone conversation.
During this brief conversation, the BigCommerce support staff will learn about your company, its objectives, and how they can assist you in succeeding. This feature alone is sufficient to outperform other eCommerce website builders.
Additional BigCommerce customer service channels are available based on your pricing plan. BigCommerce by default offers 24/7 phone, live chat, and email support. Additionally, you may access video tutorials – or, better yet, the BigCommerce Support Center.
This area has a wealth of tools to assist you, ranging from online forums to a knowledge base. And if you’re brand new to the platform, BigCommerce University is a must-see.
It includes a plethora of instructive videos that will walk you through each stage of setting up and running an online business.
You may access priority assistance with the most costly Enterprise package. This includes an onboarding adviser and priority phone calls with direct access to the company’s most senior and highly trained support professionals.
Having said that, the community outperforms the majority of other eCommerce platforms.
FAQs on BigCommerce Review 2024
Is BigCommerce any good?
BigCommerce is a market-leading e-commerce platform that enables extraordinary scalability for online merchants. It includes more sales tools than any of its rivals and combines them with superior SEO and seamless multi-channel connectivity.
Which is best Shopify or BigCommerce?
Shopify is better suited for bigger enterprises, whereas BigCommerce is better suited for really large shops that sell only online. Both platforms provide customized, robust solutions, but BigCommerce is better able to manage large-scale omnichannel development.
What is BigCommerce and how does it work?
BigCommerce entails a colossal amount of business. BigCommerce's premium hosted eCommerce solution enables company owners to create an online shop, personalize it, and then sell an infinite amount of digital, physical, or even service-based items.
Quick Links :
Conclusion: BigCommerce Review 2024
BigCommerce is an excellent alternative to WordPress that includes an exceptional store management tool in addition to its eCommerce site-building functionality. It enables individuals to effectively launch and maintain internet shops.
BigCommerce’s features include discount and coupon tools, real-time and adjustable shipping quotations, and a vast product inventory. BigCommerce integrates with eBay and Amazon.
Additionally, you may sell things on Facebook using BigCommerce’s social selling feature. BigCommerce makes shipping simple.
ShipperHQ’s cloud-based resource includes a robust shipping rules engine and rate calculator. Additionally, you can add your unique shipping prices and provide real-time shipping quotations to consumers.
BigCommerce is all about assisting you in managing your orders and items. Its primary selling point is not only its content management capabilities for websites and blog entries.
BigCommerce also manages behind-the-scenes issues. They use cutting-edge technology and security methods to safeguard your online store’s security and hosting.
Their servers have hardware firewalls and take other precautions to prevent hackers from gaining access to critical data.
If you have an item that suddenly gains popularity, you will not experience site latency. BigCommerce shops can easily withstand traffic increases.
Checkouts are safe and secure due to the usage of SSL. Client information will not be lost or stolen. BigCommerce provides a fifteen-day free trial, allowing you to evaluate their features and determine if they can help you grow your company, sales, and overall profitability.