BigCommerce is one of the world’s fastest-growing eCommerce platform. Since its launch in 2009, the company has grown to over 600 employees and supports more than 90,000 online stores in 150 countries.
BigCommerce has developed from a two-person startup to a worldwide corporation. They help retailers generate billions of dollars in sales every year with clients ranging from startups to mid-sized enterprises to high-profile brands such as Martha Stewart, Toyota, and Ben & Jerry’s.
Introduction to BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a premium hosted eCommerce solution that allows online businesses to create an online store, personalize it to their liking, and sell physical and digital products and services. It’s easy to design and manage your store from anywhere as long as you have access to a web browser and internet.
What sets it apart from other eCommerce platforms like Magento or WooCommerce is it doesn’t require you to purchase web hosting or install software on your computer.
Because it’s a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service), users need to pay a monthly subscription fee to continue using it.
Another advantage of this platform being a SaaS is that it provides a variety of customizable templates to assist you in designing your online store.
Whatever item or service you’re offering for sale, BigCommerce makes it easy to display them and gives you a plethora of powerful tools to help market them to your target audience online.
BigCommerce isn’t a platform for complete beginners, though. It offers way too much functionality to be that simple.
While there’s a decent learning curve to using its more advanced features, if you have decent experience in site development, you’ll unlikely have trouble altering the HTML and CSS of your online storefronts.
Features of BigCommerce
BigCommerce has an incredible number of built-in features, which isn’t surprising given that it was built as an all-in-one platform for large eCommerce businesses. In contrast, other platforms such as Shopify are created as a point-of-sale system better suited to smaller businesses.
There are currently four BigCommerce plans. No matter what subscription plan you choose, you’ll enjoy all these core features:
- 12 free templates
- Automated Image Optimization via Akamai Image Manager
- Complete Content Management System (CMS) functionality
- Discount coupons and gift vouchers
- Integration Email Marketing Services, including Mailchimp, Constant Contact, iContact, and Interspire
- Integration with PayPal and a wide range of payment gateways
- Option to Modify CSS and HTML anytime
- Page Builder, a drag-and-drop page design tool
- Product rating and reviews
- Professional Reporting
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) features suite
- Unlimited products, file storage, and bandwidth
- Unlimited user accounts
- Use any shipping rates you want
Choosing a BigCommerce Plan
The platform offers four plans: Standard, Plus, Pro, and Enterprise. You can try BigCommerce free for 15 days and see which plan is right for your business.
1. BigCommerce Standard
BigCommerce Standard is the company’s most affordable solution, costing just $29.95 per month.
That’s not a terrible deal when you consider that Shopify, Squarespace, and Volusion offer entry-level eCommerce options for around the same price.
BigCommerce, on the other hand, outperforms its competition with a considerably more comprehensive starter tier. The Standard Plan includes the following at the most basic level:
- Accept customer ratings and reviews
- AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) functionality
- Automatic image optimization
- Have standalone eCommerce store
- Multi-currency processing
- Offer and accept gift cards
- Point-of-Sale (POS) functionality
- Robust analytics and reporting
- Unlimited amount of file storage
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Unlimited products
- Unlimited staff accounts
This list of features has all the essential components needed to establish a successful online business.
It also contains several fantastic features, such as accepting multiple currencies with automated conversions. BigCommerce’s competitors cannot guarantee the same with their basic plans.
2. BigCommerce Plus
BigCommerce Plus costs $79.95 per month. Everything in the Standard Plan is included in the Plus Plan, as well as a few more critical features:
- Abandoned cart saver tool
- A persistent cart feature saves a customer’s purchases to their cart regardless of the device they are using.
- Customer segmentation tools
- Support for saved credit cards, allowing your frequent clients to save their credit card information to your online business.
Like the Standard Plan, this plan has an annual sales limit of $180,000. You’ll need to upgrade to a higher plan if you earn more than the maximum value.
3. BigCommerce Pro
The plan costs $299.95 per month and includes a few more powerful features:
- Custom SSL Certificates
- Google Customer Feedback
- Filtering Product Searches
It also has a higher sales limit of up to $400,000 in online sales, with an extra price of $150 per month for every $200k in sales after that.
4. BigCommerce Enterprise
Finally, BigCommerce’s most expensive plan is designed for businesses with extremely high sales volumes (usually more than $1 million).
If your company has advanced selling needs, this plan provides plenty of vital features that other plans do not:
- Advanced Product Filtering. Allow customers to search your store using your custom fields.
- Price Lists. Create pricing rules based on client groups so that consumers see varying prices for the same items depending on how they’ve been categorized.
- Unlimited API Calls. Share data between your store and the app you use as many times as you want – ideal for sites with high traffic volumes.
- Account Management. Your personal account manager can assist you with your store’s setup, operation, and optimization.
- Priority Assistance. Your immediate concerns receive priority from in-house experts.
Because the pricing for this plan is not fixed, you will need to contact their sales team to get a custom quote.
However, they claim that they can give a better deal than their closest competitors’ identical plans, particularly Shopify Plus, which starts at $2,000 per month.
BigCommerce Enterprise’s yearly sales limit is customizable, so as your business expands, so may your sales limit ceiling.
Should You Use BigCommerce?
If you want to conduct BIG business and have BIG goals for your eCommerce site, this platform is a must-consider.
It is ideal for businesses looking for a powerful and comprehensive eCommerce solution to help them sell a large number of items and reap enormous profits.
BigCommerce is a powerful online store building solution for eCommerce businesses that require more than beautiful product pages. Even with the Standard Plan, you’ll have access to all the tools you need to get started generating traffic, impressing customers, and converting shoppers.
So, while there is a learning curve, we believe the extra effort is worthwhile.
Hire BigCommerce Experts to Boost Your Online Store
If you’re looking to improve your BigCommerce online store, your team needs the right people to provide customized solutions that will meet your exact business needs.
Jarvis is a world leader in eCommerce recruitment and eCommerce hiring services . We have successfully sourced and recruited expert BigCommerce developers and consultants for businesses of all sizes, ranging from startups to big corporations. We help you find the right candidate for the job.
Get in touch with us today, and let’s work together to make your business the success it should be.