BIGCOMMERCE REVIEWS | WHAT ARE THE PROS AND CONS?

Know about the Bigcommerce reviews along with all advantages and disadvantages according to pricing plan, themes, customer support, transaction fees and easy to use.

BIGCOMMERCE REVIEW | WHAT ARE THE PROS AND CONS?

Due to the latest boom in the trend of eCommerce, businesses that were just brick-and-mortar based are now going online. . From the multiple platforms available for setting up an online store, one such well-known platform is BigCommerce. We would be discussing all the main features of this platform below.

What is BigCommerce?

BigCommerce is an online eCommerce platform that allows its users to set up a estore for their business and sell their products online. It uses an open SaaS platform which means that the user does not own the software, but has to pay a monthly fee to use it. At BigCommerce, the user is in charge of the online store and has the ability to customize as needed. This includes adding products and their details (images and descriptions), processing orders, payments, etc. BigCommerce platform is used by businesses operating in a wide range of industries such as apparel and fashion, health and beauty, food and beverage, manufacturing, automotive, etc. Furthermore, BigCommerce provides its users with an option to integrate their existing stores with Amazon, eBay, etc.

Founded in 2009, from a 2-person set-up, in Austin, Texas, BigCommerce now consists of more than 600 employees globally. These dedicated employees help countless retailers in making billions of dollars in sales. Headless BigCommerce Development has more than 5,000 apps and design partners and has served in more than 120 countries across the globe. They provide you with the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) in the eCommerce industry.

Core Principles

All these core principles are learned and loved by the employees of BigCommerce. When clients use any of the BigCommerce’s products or get help from the support team, they benefit from these core values. These core principles are:

—Customers First

The main aim of BigCommerce is to help their clients to do great business. Hence, every decision made by BigCommerce’s team is a calculated one so that the clients can achieve their goal, i.e., to do good business and make ample profit.

—Team on a Mission

The BigCommerce team comprises of dedicated, hard-working individuals, who work as a team, and they all strive for the same mission, i.e., working for the benefit of their clients.

—Think Big

The ambitious team at BigCommerce is always challenging their ideas, and are coming up with new ones, to meet the requirements of their clients.

—Make a difference every day

Striving to do the best and focusing on solutions every day, to make an impact, with their work, on others, and their clients- this is what the team at BigCommerce strives to do every day.

—Act with Integrity

With no tolerance for politics, rude behavior, or hidden agendas, the team at BigCommerce works transparently, doing what is best for their customers and the company.

BigCommerce Features

The BigCommerce features may vary according to different plans purchased by the user.

The features discussed below are common to all BigCommerce price plans. These features are included in the BigCommerce Standard Price Plan. These core selling features are:

—A fully functional online store

—Unlimited bandwidth

—Option for gift cards

—Allows users to rate and review the stores

—Professional reporting

—Unlimited storage

—Sale of an unlimited number of products

—Image optimization

—Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) functionality

—Unlimited staff accounts

BigCommerce Plus Price Plan

In addition to the features provided in the Standard Price Plan, the other features provided are:

—The abandoned cart saver option is available.

—The persistent cart feature. In this feature, the customer’s cart is saved, regardless of the device is was saved on

—Regular customers can save their credit card details with your store.

—Customer grouping allows you to reward customers with similar activities, such as by creating a loyalty program.

With the abandoned cart saver option, you can send up to three reminder emails to those customers; you leave your store without processing their cart. Although this feature is not available in the BigCommerce Standard Price Plan, it is better than the one being offered by other companies, which generally limit the number of reminder emails sent to the customer to just one.

BigCommerce Pro Price Plan

The additional features are:

—BigCommerce Google customer reviews. When a customer makes a purchase with your store, they would be asked if they would like to review it on Google, by filling out a survey, powered by Google. These ratings are collected and are displayed on your site, Google shopping, and in search ads.

    The BigCommerce Enterprise Price Plan

This price plan is well suited for businesses that have very high volumes of sales and have advanced requirements. The additional features are:

—Product filtering option for customers to help them in finding the right product for them.

—Price list grouping for your customers, according to how you have grouped them.

—Priority support by the BigCommerce’s support team

—Support in consulting/account management

—Unlimited Application Programming Interface (API) connections, i.e., multiple data-sharing connections can be made between your store and other apps.

Apart from these features which are offered in the different price plans, some features are offered generally on the platform of BigCommerce. These features are:

—Handling product variants and categories

If you are selling products with different formats, BigCommerce is the right platform for you. BigCommerce offers you with about 250 various product options to help in selling your products.

—Transactions in multiple currencies

Customers get to choose their currency. This helps in generating more sales, as customers feel more comfortable spending in their home currency. BigCommerce provides an automatic currency converter based on the IP address. Other platforms, such as Squarespace, do not offer this function at all. Others, such as Shopify, offer this functionality on their more expensive price plans.

—Dropshipping with BigCommerce

When you do not have an inventory for yourself and you place orders for your customers with suppliers, you are dropshipping. In this situation, the retailer does not get to handle the products. The supplier is the one who ships the products directly to the customer. Although this is a very competitive business, if done right, it can be very profitable. BigCommerce offers this service, in collaboration with third-party apps, on its app store. A few apps, which are famous with the drop shippers, include Aliexpress Dropshipping, Sunrise Wholesale, Printful, and Modalyst.

—Point Of Sale (POS) functionality

BigCommerce has integrations with POS providers. These include Square, Shopkeep, and Springboard Retail. When you sell from a physical location, such as a store, event, stall, etc., you can easily sync your inventory and payment. With BigCommerce, you do not just run an online store; you get to do much more than that.

—Uploading files and custom fields for your store

Users who deal with customized orders will benefit the most from this option. Retailers who sell customized t-shirts, mugs, jewelry, need a separate field for their customers to the personalized text and engravings. These can include an option to add images (up to 500 MB) or text by the customer.

—SEO features

BigCommerce has very strong SEO features. They are considered to be better than Shopify and Squarespace. The themes which you choose for your store are easily adapted to the device on which they are being viewed. This prevents the text and store quality from being compromised. Also, the customer will be able to have a pleasant shopping experience.

Furthermore, content on BigCommerce is presented in the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) format. This means that the mobile users who leave the store site, due to the web content loading too slowly, are reduced. This, in turn, means that you will get a higher number of visitors who are engaged in your store. Hence, the chances of an increased sales profit for your store.

The latest feature offered by BigCommerce is image optimization. This feature is provided to its users by Akamai Image Manager. All images uploaded on your store, for the product description and details, are automatically optimized. This is important because the images need to be loaded according to the device your store is being viewed on. This helps in loading the page faster and also given preferential treatment by search engines, such as Google. This feature is included in all price plans.

Moreover, BigCommerce provides its users with an in-built blog feature. Although this blogging option cannot be compared to a WordPress blog, in terms of functionality, however, it helps to create posts that can attract traffic to your site. In one way or the other, this feature might help you to increase your sales. Blogging is considered to be a useful tool in marketing campaigns.

—Analytic Reports

Reporting functionality is a standard feature for all price plans. You can get insights into your business by getting these reports. These reports include customer, marketing, search, finance, and abandoned cart reports.

—Mobile apps

BigCommerce mobile apps are available on both Android and iOS. With these apps, your business would be on your fingertips. You can quickly access your store’s revenue, orders, customer information, etc.

—GDPR Compliance

Even if your business is not based in the European Union (EU), you still have to follow these sets of laws for protecting their EU visitors’ privacy. There is serious prosecution in not doing so. To protect the EU visitors’ privacy, certain rules are laid out. These include providing notices for privacy and cookies, processing and storage of data securely, consent for receiving updates, newsletters, and signing up for the mailing list. BigCommerce is doing better, in this regard, than its competitors.

Pros:

—The features discussed above are great value for money. They are offered in the BigCommerce Standard Price Plan at $29.95 per month, which is almost the same as its competitors but with the added benefit of more features.

—Maximum annual sales in the BigCommerce Enterprise Price Plan are negotiable.

—Handles product variants well, unlike Shopify, which has only three product options to offer.

—Free trials available for drop shipping apps.

—Competitors do not offer POS.

—Adding details to custom fields by customers is easier, as compared to Shopify SEO and Squarespace.

—Easy to edit the page titles, meta titles, and headings.

—Easy to change and create URLs, unlike Shopify and Squarespace.

—AMP is provided on all free templates.

—Image optimization is offered in all price plans, unlike the competitors, who either do not have this function or ask you to install another app for image optimization.

—Reporting functionality is provided with all price plans. Shopify requires you to purchase a more expensive plan ($79), to get these reviews.

—BigCommerce provides better cookie support than its competitors.

While we are talking about the pros of BigCommerce, it’s a must to add that integrating BigCommerce and Shopify can elevate the benefits. For this reason, there are particular app stores available for BigCommerce and Shopify for easier integration so that you can enjoy the features of both platforms in one place. If you are unable to integrate the platforms on your own, you can get help from a professional Shopify store agency.

Cons:

—The abandoned cart saver option is not offered in the Standard Price Plan. However, it is provided in Shopify’s Basic Plan, and for a lower price, by Squarespace.

—You do not get too many additional features with the BigCommerce Pro Price Plan.

—BigCommerce limits your annual online sales.

—Products have to be categorized manually, unlike Shopify.

—If you are using a paid theme, you would need a third-party app to help allow a multi-currency exchange.

—Third-party apps are required for dropshipping.

—RSS feeds are not provided.

—Insight reports are provided with an additional cost.

BigCommerce Plans and Pricing Reviews

BigCommerce offers four different price plans for its users to help suit their needs. It allows the user to upgrade their plan whenever they want. Apart from this, the user’s plan will be automatically upgraded based on the 12-month sales volume of your store. Furthermore, BigCommerce provides is users with a free 15-day trial to help its users to choose a plan which is right for them. The features that would be available to use, depend on the plan which the user chooses. These pricing plans are:

—The  BigCommerce Standard Price Plan ($29.95/month)

—The BigCommerce Plus Price Plan ($79.95/month)

—The BigCommerce Pro Price Plan ($299.95/month)

—The BigCommerce Enterprise Price Plan (prices vary)

Pros:

—BigCommerce helps in providing a fair, competitive price for its users

—The BigCommerce Standard Price Plan, the cheapest of all, is a good plan for starters. BigCommerce’s competitors, Shopify, Volition, and Squarespace, also provide a similar price for the entry-level plan, but BigCommerce provides a much more comprehensive plan to its users than its competitors.

—The BigCommerce Plus Price Plan offers an option for customer grouping. With this option, you can divide customers into different groups, based on their purchases, and reward them accordingly.

—The BigCommerce Pro Price plan offers its user with this extra feature of Google Customer Reviews. It allows the user’s store to collect feedback from its customers who have done some shopping from there. The ratings are collected and displayed on your site. This helps in increasing your purchases and profit.

—BigCommerce claims that its Enterprise Price Plan is cheaper than Shopify pricing Enterprise-Grade Plan, which is roughly about $2000 per month.

Cons:

—The BigCommerce Standard Plan does not include the option of abandoned cart saving. This is an important feature because customers who have left their shopping mid-way, can automatically be reminded and encouraged, through email, to complete their shopping. However, this option is provided by Shopify and Squarespace.

—During the free trial, customers will not be able to make any purchases from the store.

   BigCommerce Transaction Fee Reviews

Pros:

—There is no transaction fee on any price plan of BigCommerce, as opposed to its competitors, who charge a transaction fee from its users.

Cons:

—A credit card transaction fee has to be paid to the company which the user selects to process the payments.

—BigCommerce places a limit on your annual online sales. These limits are different for each price plan. The limits are:

BigCommerce Standard: $50,000

BigCommerce Plus: $180,000

BigCommerce Pro: $400,000

BigCommerce Enterprise: negotiable

However, with the BigCommerce Pro Price Plan, you can increase your sales limit by paying $150 per month, for every additional $200k earned in sales. These sales limits are not applied by any of the competitors, such as Shopify or Squarespace, of BigCommerce.

How easy is it to use?

BigCommerce is generally considered to be a user-friendly app. It is very simple, yet considered to be out of the box platform.

Pros:

—A platform with a simple and straightforward user interface.

—A dashboard that provides easy access to all the key features of the store.

—Drag and drop page builder helps in laying out content on the store hassle-free.

—Customers can easily upload and enter data for the custom field, such as images (up to 500 MB).

Cons:

There are none reported by any users so far. It is considered to have a better interface than its competitors.

BigCommerce Themes

BigCommerce offers a fair share of responsive themes for the user to choose from. There is something for every type of store on BigCommerce.

Pros:

—Numerous free themes are provided by BigCommerce, which are unique in their own way.

—BigCommerce has many modern design options for you to choose from- something that would go with the store’s nature.

—You can even customize the default themes, such as by changing the colors of the theme, fonts, etc.

—All free themes are mobile-friendly and are Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) enabled.

Cons:

—The BigCommerce themes can be quite pricey. It can range from $150-$300 for just one theme. This is considered to be pricey for someone who is not making that much profit.

—Most of the free themes available are similar to each other. Although there are 12 free themes available, it just feels as if there are 5 themes available. On the other hand, Shopify provides 8 different themes, with 2-3 variants of each theme, and Squarespace provides about 110 free themes for its users to choose from.

—Font selection offered in free themes is very limited, as compared to the collection offered by Shopify and Squarespace.

BigCommerec Help and Support Reviews

One of BigCommerce’s values is that customers come first. Their team makes every decision after weighing it down and seeing how well it will serve their clients. BigCommerce comprises of committed individuals who, through teamwork, help their clients to reach their fullest potential.

Pros:

—As soon as you start with your free trial, you start receiving help from the BigCommerce’s support team via email.

—A 24/7 help and support system is available on their website in the form of a ‘live agent.’ This option is not offered by the competitors of BigCommerce Vs. Shopify.

—A large gallery of troubleshooting videos and posts are available to help out the users.

—A community forum support is also provided in which users discuss their problems with fellow users and help each other out.

Cons:

—The ‘live agent’ support system might be troublesome for some users.

BigCommerce Integrations Reviews

Pros:

—BigCommerce integrates with PayPal, Square, Stripe, AmazonPay, and a few other payment gateways.

—BigCommerce also integrates with various email marketing services, such as Constant Contact, Mailchimp, and Infusionsoft. This helps in attracting more customers, thus increasing sales.

—Integrations with POS providers (Square, Shopkeep, and Springboard Retail). This allows the user to sell from a physical location.

—Integration with Google Analytics for better insight into your store’s performance.

—Hassle-free, fast integrations, with minimal chances of human errors, with connectors, such as NetSuite. Due to the quick and fast entries, you will have more time to concentrate on the marketing and on improving your customer service and sales.

Cons:

—Additional fee has to be paid for using the integrations with BigCommerce.

BigCommerce Payment Gateways Reviews

BigCommerce offers two ways to accept credit card payments. The default option for payment is PayPal powered by Braintree. PayPal credit card transaction rates decrease with the price plan chosen by the user. The rates are for each price plan are;

—BigCommerce Standard Price Plan: 2.9% + 30c

—BigCommerce Plus Price Plan: 2.5% + 30c

—BigCommerce Pro Price Plan: 2.2% + 30c

—BigCommerce Enterprise Price Plan: 2.2% + 30c (or lower)

Apart from PayPal, there are about 65 third party payment processor options available on BigCommerce.

Pros:

—More third party payment processor options are available, as compared to Squarespace.

—You can easily operate in any country due to numerous gateway options.

Cons:

—A monthly fee, or transaction fee, or both are applicable, depending on the payment gateway provider chosen.

—Integrating with third-party payment gateway options is a lengthy process.

BigCommerce Performance Reviews

Since every user is different, they each report differently about the performance of BigCommerce. Also, BigCommerce reviews are available online, which can be of great help. There are also BigCommerce product reviews available for customers to read on.

Pros:

—Cross-selling on different platforms.

—BigCommerce uses the AMP format, which helps to reduce users who leave the store site, due to the slow loading of the web page.

—Easy to create custom fields.

—Provides product variants.

—Good cookie consent feature.

Cons:

—Inconsistent speed; some stores take longer to load, and some do not load at all.

—Too advanced, beginners might have difficulty in using the various features and tools.

—No RSS feeds for blogs.

BigCommerce Value Reviews

To be able to make money through BigCommerce, some fee has to be paid to them for using their platform. The more money you pay monthly, the more features you unlock to use.

Pros:

—BigCommerce provides its users with most of the features required for running an online store. Hence, there is no need, as such, to invest in third-party apps.

—Good customer support as compared to its competitors.

—Good SEO performance.

—Selling on multiple platforms is made easy.

—No transaction fee- just a monthly subscription fee.

—Multiple currency transactions are allowed.

—Image optimization is provided.

—Built-in product reviews.

—Drag and drop option helps speed up things.

Cons:

—The BigCommerce’s competitors provide a basic plan with the abandoned cart saver option.

—There is a limit for maximum sales made per month.

—The free basic themes are very similar to each other and do not provide many options.

—Blogging option is not that versatile.

Comparison Between BigCommerce and WooCommerce

WooCommerce is an eCommerce platform that is built on WordPress. You can add the plugin to any WordPress site and set up a store and start your business. It is a good option for those who already have a WordPress site and are trying to explore the eCommerce world.

In terms of simplicity and ease of use, BigCommerce is considered to be more user-friendly and easy to use. Also, setting up an online store is much quicker for BigCommerce.

Furthermore, in terms of the eCommerce tools and features provided by both the platforms, BigCommerce is a clear winner. However, in terms of pricing, WooCommerce wins since they provide over 100 different payment options.

The table below shows a better comparison between the platforms.

BigCommerce vs WooCommerce	BigCommerce	WooCommerce
Ease of Use	Simple once you get to grips with it, but it can be a bit overwhelming at first.	Difficult for anyone who isn’t technically advanced or familiar with WordPress.
Bigcommerce web design company	A great choice of themes that are simple to customize.	Limitless customization and cheap premium storefronts.
Bigcommerce Build Time	Everything can be created from the dashboard, making it pretty quick to get an eCommerce site live.	Requires you to build a WordPress site first, and have the computer skills to edit WooCommerce to your liking.
Ecommerce Features	Loads of world-class features and tools, built-in and ready to use.	Some decent features available, but you need to add things on to get a more complete eCommerce platform.
Payment Options and Fees	Supports some of the world’s biggest payment gateways and doesn’t enforce its own transaction fee.	Exactly the same as BigCommerce, but comes with more than 100 other payment options.
SEO	Customize meta titles, descriptions, and URL slugs, along with image alt text and keyword support.	Very similar to BigCommerce, but it doesn’t come with in-built SSL security, which helps with SEO.
Bigcommerce Support Services	24/7 support via phone, email, and live chat, with a forum and help center.	Just a help center with documents. No personal support available.
Pricing	BigCommerce has three core pricing plans: Standard ($29.95/month), Plus ($79.95/month), and Pro ($249.95/month). There’s a 15-day free trial on offer with all plans.	WooCommerce is a free plugin, but there will be a cost to building the WordPress site you need to enable it. This cost will vary from site to site, but will likely include: a theme ($39), SSL security ($9/year) and web hosting ($10/year).

 

Source: www.websitebuilderexpert.com

Final Thoughts On BigCommerce

BigCommerce is considered to be providing its users with good value for money. With numerous competitive features, it is safe to say that BigCommerce is providing better features than its competitors, like Shopify. However, every business is different and has its own requirements. So, it all depends on one’s needs and requirements, and also the comfort level one has with a certain platform. To see if BigCommerce is right for you, it is better to avail of the free trial option, before purchasing any price plan. Overall, according to my BigCommerce reviews, and from all the features that have been discussed above, BigCommerce seems to be a good choice for online business. To help you look at all price plans at a glance, the table below has been added, to compare all price plans side by side. Just like every platform, BigCommerce has its pros and cons, but as you can see, the pros have outdone the cons. However, it is always good to surgery the market and read up on BigCommerce reviews on different sites, such as Glassdoor. You can also search for BigCommerce customer reviews and see what feedback is provided by the customers.

Included in all plans	Standard $29.95/mo	Plus $79.95/mo	Pro $299.95/mo	Enterprise Call 1-866-991-0872
No transaction fees	✔	✔	✔	✔
Unlimited products, file storage, and bandwidth	✔	✔	✔	✔
Unlimited Staff accounts	✔	✔	✔	✔
Sales Channels
Branded online store	✔	✔	✔	✔
eBay and Amazon	✔	✔	✔	✔
Point of sale	✔	✔	✔	✔
Facebook	✔	✔	✔	✔
Google Shopping	✔	✔	✔	✔
Features
Responsive website	✔	✔	✔	✔
Single-page checkout	✔	✔	✔	✔
Apple Pay, Google Pay PayPal One Touch and Amazon Pay	✔	✔	✔	✔
Coupons, discounts, and gift cards	✔	✔	✔	✔
Real-time shipping quotes	✔	✔	✔	✔
BC Shipping	✔	✔	✔	✔
Professional reporting tools	✔	✔	✔	✔
Blog	✔	✔	✔	✔
Product ratings and reviews	✔	✔	✔	✔
Free Sitewide HTTPS and Dedicated SSL	✔	✔	✔	✔
ShipperHQ shipping rules engine	Available	Available	Available	✔
Customer groups and segmentation		✔	✔	✔
Abandoned cart saver		✔	✔	✔
Persistent Cart		✔	✔	✔
Stored Credit Cards		✔	✔	✔
Google customer reviews			✔	✔
Faceted search (product filtering)			✔	✔
Custom SSL			Available	Available
Custom facets (product filtering)				✔
Unlimited API Calls				✔
Online sales per year Calculated on a trailing 12-month basis	Up to $50k	Up to $180k	Up to $400k*	Custom
Service and Support
24/7 live agent support	✔	✔	✔	✔
Express routing, priority support and strategic account management available				✔
Payment Processing
No transaction fees to use leading payment gateways (US only) Learn more	✔	✔	✔	✔
(Optional) Special credit card rates from PayPal powered by Braintree Learn more	2.9% + $0.30 per transaction*	2.5% + $0.30 per transaction*	2.2% + $0.30 per transaction*	2.2% + $0.30 or lower per transaction*

*SOURCE: www.support.bigcommerce.com

Is there a better platform than BigCommerce?

There are countless options available for eCommerce. It all depends on the user’s needs, type of business, and the products they are selling. There is something available for everyone in the market, according to your needs, requirements, and your ability to spleen or splurge. From the BigCommerce review in this post, it is safe to say that BigCommerce is a good and reliable option.

Which are the biggest brands using BigCommerce?

BigCommerce is being used by a lot of big guns in the industry. Some of these big names are Toyota, Ford UK, Ben & Jerry’s, Gibson Guitars, PayPal Here, NFL’s Carolina Panthers. When you read these names, you can safely invest in the BigCommerce platform.

How does the BigCommerce scale?

BigCommerce scales successfully. It allows you to integrate your already existing store with its platform. BigCommerce is the right platform since it allows you to sell globally. In all features, BigCommerce provides you with a lot of options to choose from, along with the excellent built-in tools and better SEO features, than its competitors.

What are some of the biggest frustrations of BigCommerce store owners?

There are a few frustrations faced by BigCommerce store owners. A few of them include not having the abandoned cart saver option in the BigCommerce Standard Price Plan, annual sale limits, using third party apps for drop shipping, limited free themes, and no RSS feeds for blogs.

BigCommerce development company vs custom Shopify app development: Which one is best for eCommerce platform?

To begin with, be it BigCommerce or Shopify, both have much similar pricing options. However, BigCommerce has an extensive range of built-in features and tools as compared to Shopify. Besides, there are no transaction fees with BigCommerce, which gives it a lead over Shopify.

BigCommerce migration agency vs custom Shopify migration agency: Which one is easy to hire in the USA?

BigCommerce and Shopify are the most popular ECommerce business solutions which let people create their own online stores. There are slight differences in their services which sets them apart. For example, Shopify provides 100 themes for website designs while BigCommerce boasts 600+ themes which turn out to be variations of the same designs.

BigCommerce’s Customer support system is less responsive as compared to Shopify’s which response instantly to customer complaints.

Shopify’s easy-to-use content management system also gives it an edge over BigCommerce.

Shopify proves to be a more desirable option in terms of customer support, easy-to-use CMS and great design themes.