- Review: Bigcommerce.com
- Rating: ★★★★
- Published: 11 May 2019
table of contents
Disclosure
This is a professional review blog which gets compensated for the products reviewed by the companies who produce them. All of the products are tested thoroughly and high grades are received only by the best ones. I am an independent blogger and the reviews are done based on my own opinions.
introduction
Bigcommerce review. There are many good website builders available some are free some are paid, with different features requiring different technical skills and expertise level. But if you want to sell your products and grow your business online it’s important to do your research and see how these site builders are good for you, what are the features you are looking for and most importantly how will it go on your pocket? So, let’s review another big player in the website builder industry – Bigcommerce. It is renowned and competing well with the other famous builders like Shopify and Magento. Let’s learn more about this website builder and see what the important features it has to offer are? And if you are considering giving it a trial what the pros and cons are? How sound are you technically? Or are you a complete newbie to this thing? Is it easy enough for you to handle yourself without setting up a team? Lastly how much will it cost you?
So, let’s answer these questions and review the Bigcommerce Website Builder. Let’s dig deep into every feature, pricing, support, design, and tools. Let’s compare and analyze how good a website builder is Bigcommerce for you.
Bigcommerce is a cloud-based website building platform. It comes to you as a SaaS solution which means Software as a service. To set up a Bigcommerce store you only need to sign up and you can start building your store right away. You don’t need to worry about website hosting; it’s done by Bigcommerce itself. Bigcommerce also offers CMS features like adding blog posts and content pages but its USP is its e-commerce features. Apart from functionality, Bigcommerce focuses a great deal on Security. Servers used at Bigcommerce are hacker proof. Bigcommerce is also capable of handling the high online traffic load. Also, checkout is done via SSL that makes it super secure keeping the vital information of customers safe.
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how user-friendly is BigCommerce
Getting started with Bigcommerce is super simple; all you need to do is sign up. Bigcommerce asks for a store name, a few contact details and that’s it, you are done. After this, you are directed to control panel where you can make changes to your website. Its control panel is so easy to use that tasks like managing website, adding or editing products, taking orders and all everyday tasks are very clear and simple.
With the constant struggle to make things easier as possible for the end-user, Bigcommerce has launched a new tool called store design that lets you see the effects of your changes. Extra points on user-friendliness for this super cool feature.
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DESIGN & ADDITIONAL FEATURES
Bigcommerce has themes and design templates for every purpose possible. No matter what you want to sell from clothing to gadgets, Bigcommerce has the right theme for your purpose. There are free and paid themes available. Costs may vary from $120 – $250 per theme, but they are worth every penny. No matter what design you pick you can make customizations to your themes and make changes to suit your business. Making changes to logos, colors, fonts, menus, etc. is fairly simple. You can even go adventurous and make editions to HTML and CSS.
Templates
Your store is up and live, you have all the necessary tools in place but the first thing your online customers will notice is your website’s design. So you need an attractive theme for your website. Bigcommerce comes with free and paid themes. With over 100 themes to choose from, most
themes are multipurpose; you can make a few adjustments and make it fit for your business. There are many theme options to select from. Free themes are also very good. Paid themes are packed with powerful features and are worth every penny. Templates are customizable. Making changes to colors and fonts is fairly simple but customization to code is also supported.
Finding the right template for you is also easy; simply search according to your industry. Features vary from industry to industry. For example for apparel website, you will see product zoom-in feature, this might not be in a theme for real estate.
Once you have found the right theme for you, simply preview it before selecting. And if you don’t like it after, don’t worry! You can simply switch the template.
The Editor
The major concentration of Bigcommerce has been to make it as simple for the users as possible. Editing content is fairly simple. Once you have taken a tour of the interface, you can handle it easily. It comes with easy to use WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) editor similar to MS Word. For all other contents, dedicated fields are given. For example, for adding a product there are defined fields like name, type, weight, categories, product type, etc., which is very descriptive and easy to understand. Bigcommerce is a master of handling content.
Apps
Bigcommerce is loaded with powerful enterprise integrations and e-commerce apps. Categories range from accounting, taxation, reporting, and marketing to shipping. You name it and they have it. Integration to these apps is simple and effective. You can find both free and paid apps. Free app base is also extensive and you will surely something relevant. Some of the top free apps include MailChimp, QuickBooks online, Facebook Ads extension, Google shopping by sales & orders and much more. There are over 600 to choose from. Now it may seem a small limited app store but Bigcommerce has so many in-built features already that you may not even require an app at all.
Product Types
Let’s face it; it’s still very hard to find a website builder that sells digital products, physical products, and services all in one. But Bigcommerce is a blessing in this case. Bigcommerce can sell every kind of product and service without having to install additional plugins or extensions or an app. The system itself is capable of that.
Payment Options
Once your store is set up and your products are uploaded, you are ready to sell your products. Now you need a way to receive payments. Bigcommerce does not impose its own payment gateway on you. With over 40 payment gateways to choose from, one-click gateway set up and multiple currency
support, Bigcommerce handles payments like a pro. For all this Bigcommerce does not even charge you any transaction fees. The only fee is what the usual credit card company charges. To benefit you further Bigcommerce constantly negotiates with the payment gateways to reduce your costs. For example, all Bigcommerce plans come with no transaction fee and discounted transaction rates for PayPal. More you stay with Bigcommerce lower the rates will go.
Security
Bigcommerce focuses a great deal on Security. Servers used at Bigcommerce are hacker proof. Bigcommerce is also capable of handling the high online traffic load. Also, checkout is done via SSL that makes it super secure keeping the vital information of customers safe.
Abandoned Cart Recovery
One of the most interesting features that Bigcommerce offers is Abandoned Cart Recovery. When a customer abandons or discards the products in the cart, Bigcommerce can send the email to these customers and reminder and lure them back with discount codes. It is reported that only these features convert about 12-15% of sales.
Multi-Channel Selling
In the era of social media, reaching out to the customers is not that tough. But the problem is that there are so many platforms that it becomes too complex to handle. For example, you can sell your products on Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, eBay, etc. but how will you manage this multi-channel selling. Bigcommerce comes to save the day for you, with the multi-channel integration features you can sell through any platform and manage it all from one place.
Admin Features
Bigcommerce is constantly thriving to make the user experience as easy as possible, in order to do that they have added many features to their admin panel. Some of the features are:
Bulk import/export Feature
Another important feature is the bulk import/export. For a big business that is dealing with hundreds and thousands of products, you simply can’t do without this feature. All you need is a CSV file to transfer the data to saying hundreds of products or thousands of customers’ details.
Customer segmentation
Another important feature is to segment your customer base as per demographics, trends, and location. This way you can target each segment differently and strategize better. For example, you may want to approach a particular segment of customers differently say women aged 25 to 40. If you can simply segment out this customer base, more than half of your job is done. This will help increase the sales conversion rate.
Product Options and Variants
Another important feature that Bigcommerce offers is to be able to add unlimited variants to a product say color, size, style, etc.
Inventory Management
Bigcommerce allows adding or tracking stock levels from the control panel. You can even configure notifications about stock levels to you or your customers.
Built-in-Blog
However, Built-in-blog is not particularly the USP of Bigcommerce but this still is a very lucrative feature as blog content derives more traffic to the website.
SEO Tools
Bigcommerce is fully equipped with a complete set of SEO tools. It can add Metadata, titles, descriptions or tags. It even offers customized URLs.
Analytics
With Bigcommerce you get to see a complete analysis of your site’s performance.
Storefront Features
Social Sharing
Bigcommerce allows your customers to share products or pages on social media platforms.
Filtered Search
Customers see a nice search with various filters and sorting options. This helps customers find the right product and make the purchase easily.
Product Reviews
Bigcommerce allows customers to add reviews to the purchased products, this helps build faith in the website and product.
Wish Lists
As a customer, everybody likes to make their own wish list of products they want. They can simply add a product to their wish list while browsing through the website and make the purchase later.
Recently Viewed Products
Shoppers like to know what other people are searching.
Checkout Features
Abandoned Cart
This feature allows sending emails and reminders to customers who have abandoned products in their cart.
One-Page Checkout
Unlike most e-commerce platforms that have lengthy checkout procedure. Bigcommerce facilitates one-page checkout for faster and easier transactions.
Checkout Option
It gives freedom to the customer to check out as a guest or signs up for an account.
Discounts and coupons
Bigcommerce offers highly customizable discount options, different discounts can be applied to a different category of products.
Tax
Bigcommerce does all the tax calculations for you.
Shipping Features
Time Zone and Methods
Bigcommerce allows you to set up times zones where products will be shipped. Different shipping methods for different zones can also be set.
Real-time quotes
Bigcommerce shows real-time quotes from major carriers like FedEx, UPS, USPS.
Multi-Channel selling features
In-Person sales
There is built-in integrated Square POS for in-person sales.
Sale through marketplace
Bigcommerce integrates with different platforms like eBay, Amazon, etc.
Sale on Social Media
Bigcommerce helps integrate and manage sales on your social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, etc.
Channel Manager
Manage all your sales from different social media accounts and marketplace channels from your admin panel itself.
Global Sales
With features like multiple currencies, tax calculations, international shipping you can sell your products globally.
Examples of websites built with this editor
Over 95,000 businesses are using Bigcommerce to sell their products online. It is strong enough reason to believe that Bigcommerce is a trusted name in the industry and businesses are relying on it for selling their products, handle online payments and their customer’s vital information. Bigcommerce is a powerful e-commerce solution indeed.
Bigcommerce has been able to successfully bag in some of the popular brands in the market like Ben & Jerrys, Hess, Skull Candy, Camelbak, Natori, Toyota, Kodak many more. Bigcommerce boasts of a remarkable average growth rate of 28% for its clients. Bigcommerce has very well earned its space in the top three website builders in the industry.
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Pros & Cons
THE PROS
- Great with handling everyday tasks like product management, order management, analytics,
report, etc. Nothing can beat Bigcommerce in this, it is great. - Bigcommerce is fairly cheap for the number of services it is offering. Some features like traffic handling, security and SSL are pretty advanced. Servers and security are best in class.
- Extremely helpful support that is available 24/7. They are eager to help you with non-technical issues say SEO etc. as well.
- Multiple currency support at the same time.
- Bigcommerce is highly scalable. It’s good for both small and big businesses. If the website grows, Bigcommerce grows with it.
THE CONS
- It’s not free. Most good things come with a price tag. Bigcommerce is fairly cheap for the features it is offering.
- Themes can get pricey but most themes are multipurpose and customizable and absolutely worth it.
- It may require a little practice to become hands-on with Bigcommerce.
- Transaction fee 1.5% for a basic plan, which is still less than the standard market rate.
- Adding basic content like a blog, landing pages may be challenging as the editor is not very flexible. However, they are working to make it easier.
- Bigcommerce comes with an annual sales threshold; this means if the annual limit is achieved, Bigcommerce will be upgraded to a higher plan. This can lead to higher costs than expected.
- Bigcommerce fails to support multi-lingual feature, it can only be done by manually coding.
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pricing & plans
A powerful site builder as Bigcommerce that has so many exciting features there comes with a price tag. Bigcommerce comes in four plans standard, popular, pro and enterprise plans. However, there are 14 days free trials to test the system and ensure yourself before making the investment.
The standard plan is the cheapest that costs $29.95 per month that is billed annually. The popular plan costs for $71.95 per month. The pro plan is for $224.9, it comes with more scalable features. The Enterprise plan is more customizable plan it’s got the most advanced features and prioritized support.
You can also request a demo to see how Bigcommerce can help your business.
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support
When it’s your business and your money is at stake, you cannot let anything go wrong even for a minute. Dedicated 24/7 support team, readily available and eager to help. That gives extra points for the support team. Bigcommerce have a wide knowledge base and video tutorials to help you with most of the common problems. They have a help center and support forum.Support is available on Phone, Live Chat, and Email.
Their dedicated team is available 24/7, simply pick up your phone and give a call even at 2 am. You can even start a live chat any time you need. No need to stress when you are working with Bigcommerce. They will help you in every way to keep your online business going.
Though support is available for all the plans if you are on enterprise plan you even unlock priority support. This means your call gets prioritized and you are connected to most senior and most experienced staff. Bigcommerce offers the highest quality of support possible to its enterprise
customers.
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faq's
Is Bigcommerce Free?
The basic plan is $29.5/month with a transaction fee of 1.5%. Contact support for more plans and pricing.
Is Bigcommerce good for beginners?
Yes. Bigcommerce is very user and beginner’s friendly. Small businesses owners can set up their online store and start selling online in no time. It is so simple that all it takes is to sign up.
Is Bigcommerce Responsive?
Yes, Bigcommerce is very much responsive and optimized to various devices like desktop, mobile, tablet, etc.
Does Bigcommerce include hosting?
Yes, Bigcommerce is all-in-one hosting e-commerce platform.
Does Bigcommerce provide Domain name?
If you already have a domain you can set it up with your Bigcommerce site. Bigcommerce can also help you buy a domain.
Does Bigcommerce include SSL certificate?
Yes, All Bigcommerce plans come with SSL Certificates. However, for more advanced SSL features, it is recommended to purchase third-party SSL.
Are there any contracts to sign?
With standard and plus plans there are no contracts, you can cancel it anytime. Unless there is any negotiated amount here are no contracts for Pro plan either. Only for enterprise plan, there is a contract.
Can you upgrade from free trial to paid plan?
Yes, you can upgrade anytime by selecting the right plan as per your requirement.
What happens to the store after the free trial period?
Reminders will be sent to upgrade your store. The data will be kept with Bigcommerce for a short period of time and if it’s still not upgraded the website will be deleted.
Is the data safe and secure with Bigcommerce?
Security is a priority for Bigcommerce. Servers are hacker proof; they are military grade systems that are used by big banks. Security is not at all an issue with Bigcommerce.
Is it possible to sell digital products?
Yes, In fact, Bigcommerce is one of the e-commerce platforms that can sell everything from physical products to services and even digital products like images, music, files, etc.
Is it possible to register an email with Bigcommerce?
Bigcommerce doesn’t host emails; they recommend google apps for an email solution.
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Conclusion
Bigcommerce ranks really high on customer reviews. The ease of use, no transaction fee, excellent customer support, relevant SEO tools, one-page checkout and many more out of the box features to set it apart from other website builders in the competition. It’s one of the best website builders in the market and worth giving a try.
Bigcommerce is everything that one might need in an e-commerce platform. From small to big it can help everybody with an online business. Some advanced features like security are unbeatable. Professional themes, easy to use Admin panel, inclusive SSL certificates, 99.99% uptime and many relevant sales and marketing tools, if you are the one looking to expand your business online then you must consider Bigcommerce. Although if you are a complete newbie and just starting out, you may feel that Bigcommerce has a slightly steeper learning curve. But if you are not afraid to experiment then Bigcommerce will definitely surprise you.
There are more popular website builders in competition but Bigcommerce is not behind, it’s aggressively working towards making its place in the market. With a 30 days free trial it’s completely risk-free to give it a shot.