How BigCommerce Minimizes Your E-Commerce Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

Pre-pandemic, e-commerce had made significant strides in the consumer market. 

Still, two years of lockdowns and social distancing pushed businesses to establish solid e-commerce strongholds because of this model’s success. 

However, E-commerce continues to expand at breakneck speed, yet retailers and brands face mounting pressure to maintain profitability amid economic headwinds.

In this challenging environment, one metric is increasingly critical for decision-makers: Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

TCO goes far beyond initial platform costs. It encompasses everything from licensing and hosting to development, maintenance, infrastructure, support, security, and opportunity costs. 

For e-commerce leaders in 2025, understanding TCO delivers clarity into how technology decisions impact budgets, operational efficiency, and the ability to adopt innovations like AI and augmented reality.

BigCommerce offers a compelling alternative: a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform that slashes TCO through a predictable, lower-cost model. 

By switching to BigCommerce, companies cut costs, boost efficiency, and redirect resources toward actual growth,  delivering a dramatically lower total cost of ownership compared to high-maintenance legacy or custom solutions.

See Also: How a BigCommerce Development Company Creates a Captivating Online Shopping Experience

The Costs and Challenges of Traditional E-commerce Platforms 

Before offering solutions, understanding the costs and challenges of using a traditional e-commerce platform is essential.  

Businesses operating online stores on custom .NET or legacy platforms face substantial burdens that rarely appear in initial cost projections.

Development Demands Drain Resources

Adding a new feature requires extensive custom development on traditional platforms, especially if it’s niche or store-specific. 

Even standard capabilities that shoppers expect—faceted search, personalization, and cross-sell functionality—often require building from scratch, which can be expensive. 

Each project demands developer time, testing resources, and project management oversight, driving costs higher with each enhancement.

Maintenance Consumes IT Teams

The maintenance cycle never ends with security updates, server issues, bug fixes, and manual upgrades demanding constant attention from technical teams. 

In some organizations, maintenance activities consume up to 80% of IT resources, leaving minimal capacity for innovation or strategic initiatives. 

Your technical talent spends days applying patches instead of building competitive advantages.

Infrastructure Expenses Multiply

Traditional platforms require significant infrastructure investments. 

Server costs, cloud hosting fees, database management, load balancing, and redundancy systems create complex expenses. 

These costs climb as traffic grows, adding another variable to an already complicated financial equation.

Unpredictable Costs Undermine Planning

The most frustrating aspect of legacy platforms is that expenses fluctuate wildly. 

Development sprints, emergency fixes, and system failures create budget spikes that financial teams struggle to predict. 

Many costs—especially those related to technical debt, security vulnerabilities, and integration challenges—remain chronically underestimated.

Tech Sprawl Increases Complexity

Over time, e-commerce businesses accumulate numerous technologies. 

Payment processors, tax calculators, shipping solutions, marketing tools, and customer service platforms operate alongside the core system. 

Without streamlined integration capabilities, this technology sprawl increases complexity and costs exponentially.

Opportunity Costs Create Hidden Damage

Money tied up in platform maintenance cannot drive growth. 

Resources consumed by keeping systems functional could be invested in marketing, product development, and customer experience improvements. 

Additional opportunity costs include lost sales from downtime, abandoned carts due to slow performance, and innovations that competitors implement while your team remains in maintenance mode.

Using the BigCommerce SaaS Model for Lower TCO

How does the BigCommerce SaaS model help lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) for an e-commerce business? 

BigCommerce fundamentally transforms e-commerce economics with a straightforward subscription fee covering comprehensive platform capabilities.

Native Hosting and Infrastructure

BigCommerce stores come with out-of-the-box hosting, eliminating server, load balancing, database management, and infrastructure costs. 

BigCommerce maintains 99% uptime with several contingency systems and global CDNs (content delivery networks) that would otherwise cost thousands of dollars to set up yourself. 

Automotive Updates: Eliminating Maintenance Burdens

BigCommerce regularly pushes updates that improve site form and functionality to remain competitive in a crowded marketplace. 

BigCommerce handles all platform updates, security patches, and performance monitoring automatically. 

Updates automatically come through, eliminating the need to pay developers for routine troubleshooting or manual upgrades. 

When BigCommerce adds new capabilities—like enhanced checkout features or improved mobile optimization—they deploy seamlessly without disrupting your business operations.

Affordable Enterprise-Grade Security 

When the internet’s popularity skyrocketed, cybercrime became prevalent, costing businesses billions of dollars in lost revenue and reputation. 

Security breaches cost businesses millions, yet many struggle to maintain proper safeguards.

BigCommerce includes enterprise-level security protections:

• PCI Level 1 certified hosting
• DDOS protection
• Regular penetration testing
• Free SSL certificates
• SOC 2 Type 2 compliance

Implementing and maintaining these capabilities would require a substantial investment in a custom platform. 

With BigCommerce, they come standard at no additional cost.

Better Cost Predictability 

The subscription model delivers flat, predictable monthly or annual costs, making budgeting simpler and more reliable. 

This contrasts sharply with the fluctuating expenses of custom solutions, where emergency fixes and development projects create financial surprises.

Financial teams gain another advantage: SaaS platforms typically qualify as operational expenditures (OpEx) rather than capital expenditures (CapEx), creating potential tax benefits and improving cash flow management.

Cost Assurance Protects Against Surprises

SaaS provides built-in cost assurance: maintenance, security patches, and bug fixes are included in the license fee. 

This protection proves especially valuable when technology evolves or security threats emerge. 

When TLS standards update or new payment regulations emerge, BigCommerce handles compliance without additional charges.

Getting Direct Cost Savings through BigCommerce’s Design and Features

BigCommerce’s architecture and built-in capabilities deliver specific, measurable cost reductions across multiple areas.

Minimal Development Requirements

BigCommerce comes loaded with features that are out of the box, dramatically reducing the need for custom development compared to .NET solutions. 

A typical enterprise BigCommerce implementation requires 60-80% less initial development investment than equivalent custom platforms.

For example, B2B capabilities like customer groups, price lists, and quote management are standard features that often require extensive custom coding on traditional platforms.

Zero Transaction Fees Drive Bottom-Line Impact

BigCommerce charges no platform transaction fees on any plan—a significant advantage for high-volume businesses. 

While some competitors take a cut of every sale, BigCommerce lets you keep more revenue. 

This saving grows proportionally with your business, creating exponential value as transaction volume increases.

The platform also connects with over 65 payment gateways, allowing businesses to negotiate preferential processing rates rather than accepting mandatory payment solutions with fixed costs.

Built-in Features Replace Costly Add-ons

BigCommerce includes capabilities that would otherwise require expensive third-party applications or custom development:

• Abandoned Cart Recovery automatically re-engages shoppers who leave items in their cart, boosting revenue by 5-15% for many merchants. It is included in higher-tier plans.

• Real-Time Shipping Quotes: Built into every plan, eliminating the need for custom shipping API integrations that typically cost $5,000-15,000 to develop.

• Google Customer Reviews Integration: Available on Pro plan and above, replacing complex custom setups that build essential trust signals for enterprise and B2B buyers.

• Unlimited Staff Accounts: Included even on entry-level plans, avoiding the per-user fees charged by some competitors that can add thousands in annual costs for larger teams.

• Multi-Channel Selling: Native integrations for major marketplaces and social platforms eliminate the need for separate connectors or middleware, typically costing $3,000-$5,000 annually.

• Faceted Search: Advanced product filtering capabilities come standard on Pro plans and above, enhancing the shopping experience for extensive catalogs without requiring custom development.

• B2B-Specific Features: Enterprise plans include specialized B2B capabilities like price lists, company accounts, and bulk pricing—features that traditionally require significant custom development.

Accelerated Time-to-Market

SaaS solutions enable merchants to launch quickly using pre-built themes and native features. 

BigCommerce reports that most enterprise sites go live in approximately 55 days—dramatically faster than custom platform implementations, which typically take 6-12 months.

This accelerated timeline delivers two financial benefits: reduced implementation costs and faster revenue generation. 

The difference between launching in two months versus six months represents four additional months of sales and market presence.

BigCommerce Pricing and Scalability for Enterprise/B2B

BigCommerce delivers comprehensive solutions for enterprise and B2B merchants through a flexible pricing structure, robust scalability, and extensive native functionality.

Enterprise & B2B Pricing

• Enterprise Pricing Model:
  BigCommerce tailors pricing for enterprise clients based on specific business requirements, including order volume, sales figures, and feature needs. This customized approach ensures enterprises pay only for necessary features, with final pricing determined through direct BigCommerce consultation.

• B2B Edition:
  BigCommerce offers a specialized B2B Edition featuring advanced capabilities such as tiered pricing structures, customized price lists, quote management systems, and purchase order functionality. This comprehensive package forms part of the enterprise offering, with pricing reflecting each business’s scale and complexity.

Scalability & Core Features

• Superior Scalability:
  BigCommerce’s architecture supports substantial growth, efficiently handling high traffic volumes and extensive product catalogs. Since 2016, the platform has maintained 100% uptime during peak sales periods like Cyber Week, providing enterprise clients with reliable performance during critical sales events.

• Unlimited Products & API Access:
  Enterprise clients benefit from unlimited product listings and API calls (subject to terms), facilitating seamless integration with enterprise systems, including ERPs, CRMs, and other business-critical applications.

• Comprehensive B2B Functionality:
  BigCommerce natively supports:
  • Customer segmentation with customized pricing and catalogs
  • Volume discounts and tiered pricing models
  • Complete quote management and purchase order workflows
  • Corporate accounts with role-based access controls
  • Advanced order management with real-time inventory tracking.

• Composable Architecture:
  The platform’s open API architecture and headless commerce capabilities enable businesses to create customized solutions and integrate with existing technology stacks, ensuring the platform evolves with changing business requirements.

• Omnichannel & Global Commerce:
  BigCommerce empowers enterprises to expand across multiple sales channels (Amazon, eBay, Facebook, etc.) while supporting international growth through advanced localization tools.

B2B-Specific Pricing Tools

• Advanced Pricing Structures:
  BigCommerce’s price list functionality and tiered pricing capabilities allow merchants to implement customer-specific pricing based on segments, purchase volumes, or negotiated agreements. This flexibility proves essential for B2B companies managing complex pricing arrangements and encouraging bulk purchases.

• Quote & Contract Management:
  The platform’s CPQ (Configure-Price-Quote) system and enhanced account management tools streamline complex sales processes, empowering sales teams to generate quotes efficiently and manage sophisticated customer hierarchies.

Market Validation

• In 2024, BigCommerce powers 62 of North America’s Top 2000 online retailers, generating over $3.8 billion in ecommerce revenue, demonstrating its capacity to support high-volume, enterprise operations.

How BigCommerce Drives Growth and Efficiency

We’re now at the busines end of the article, answering the question: Why choose BigCommerce for all of this? What makes BigCommerce the right choice to reduce your total cost of ownership?

For starters, Lower TCO creates competitive advantages beyond simple cost reduction. 

By freeing resources previously allocated to maintenance and infrastructure, businesses gain the capacity to invest in actual growth.

Reinvestment Potential 

Every business wants to reduce expenses to improve its bottom line and sustain that momentum for a long time.

The budget saved on platform upkeep is redirected to marketing, product development, and customer experience improvements.

Platform maintenance isnt cheap; saving money thanks to BigCommerce is always a plus point for businesses. 

Improved Margins Help The Bottom Line 

Every for-profit business constantly looks for ways to improve its profitability, whether using the latest technology, offering employee training, or using BigCommerce to improve the e-commerce experience..

Lower operating costs directly improve profit margins, which is particularly valuable in today’s competitive e-commerce landscape, where rising customer acquisition costs pressure profitability.

The 2-4% improvement typically achieved through platform optimization for businesses with tight margins can determine viability.

The untrained eye sees incremental changes as insignificant, but business owners understand that a 2% revenue increase is a big deal. 

Streamlining Operations = Better Productivity 

A leaner organization allows the business to get more done with better resource management. 

Fewer necessary apps and integrations simplify processes across the organization. 

This streamlines staff onboarding faster and helps software systems work more efficiently together. 

Consolidating technology platforms represents a proven approach to reducing complexity and costs.

Agility Enables Innovation Adoption

Perhaps most importantly, reduced TCO ensures businesses retain enough financial and technical flexibility to adopt emerging technologies. 

Companies bogged down in maintenance struggle to implement AI-driven personalization, augmented reality for product visualization, or advanced inventory optimization tools. 

BigCommerce’s infrastructure supports these innovations without requiring additional development resources.

Better Customer Experience Improves Conversion

Resources freed from maintenance allow investment in experience improvements, such as personalization, faster load times, streamlined checkout, and mobile optimization. 

These enhancements boost conversion rates and increase customer lifetime value.

See Also: How To Build a BigCommerce Firearms Store

Final Thoughts 

BigCommerce significantly lowers the total cost of ownership of e-commerce by eliminating costly infrastructure, reducing development time, and simplifying maintenance through its SaaS platform. 

Its composable architecture and seamless integrations cut hidden expenses, enabling faster product launches and reducing reliance on expensive legacy systems, translating into substantial savings and operational efficiency.

This combination of predictable costs, scalability, and enhanced competitiveness makes BigCommerce a strategic choice for businesses aiming to optimize their e-commerce investments without compromising growth.