BigCommerce Review: The Ultimate Shopify Alternative?

BigCommerce Review: The Ultimate Shopify Alternative?

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Pricing
3. Features
4. Theme Selection and Customization
5. Support Options
6. Hosting and Performance
7. Ease of Use
8. Managing Inventory
9. Managing Orders
10. Conclusion

Introduction

Hey there, fellow e-commerce enthusiasts! Today, I'm here to provide you with a comprehensive review of one of the top players in the industry, BigCommerce. As Shopify's main competition, BigCommerce has made its mark as a reliable and feature-rich e-commerce platform. In this review, I'll be covering various aspects of the platform to give you a well-rounded overview, including pricing, features, theme customization, support options, hosting and performance, as well as ease of use. So, without further ado, let's dive right into it!

Pricing

Let's start by taking a closer look at the pricing structure of BigCommerce. Similar to Shopify, BigCommerce offers tiered pricing plans. The pricing for their packages is quite similar to Shopify, with a difference of 95 cents higher per package. However, what sets BigCommerce apart is its tiered pricing structure, which automatically upgrades your package as your annual turnover increases. Starting with the standard package, once you hit a turnover of $50,000 in a year, you will be moved up to the plus package. While some may find this automated upgrade system a drawback, it actually helps you grow your business by providing access to more platform features. Additionally, the basic package allows for unlimited product listings and bandwidth, along with a free SSL certificate. However, it's important to note that once you surpass the $400,000 annual turnover mark, you'll be directed towards their enterprise-level offerings designed for larger e-commerce businesses.

Features

As a fully hosted e-commerce platform, it's no surprise that BigCommerce comes with a wide range of features. The platform offers over 150 themes to choose from directly in the BigCommerce theme marketplace, although only a small portion of these are free. However, you also have the option to explore theme developers on platforms like ThemeForest, allowing for an even larger selection of themes to import into your BigCommerce dashboard. Apart from themes, BigCommerce provides an impressive app store with over 700 apps developed by select partners. These apps add various functionalities to your BigCommerce store, allowing you to customize and enhance your website's performance. Another notable feature of BigCommerce is its multi-channel selling capability. Integrating with platforms like eBay, Amazon, and social media channels such as Facebook, BigCommerce provides you with a range of potential sales channels to expand your business.

Theme Selection and Customization

When it comes to theme selection, BigCommerce offers one of the largest collections of themes among e-commerce platforms, with over 150 themes available in their theme marketplace. However, it should be noted that only 12 of these themes are free, with the rest ranging from $150 to $300. Additionally, there are external theme developers on platforms like ThemeForest that offer a wide array of themes compatible with BigCommerce, further expanding your options. BigCommerce recently made improvements to their theme customization capabilities, introducing a page builder and customizable widgets. This allows for easier customization of your website's appearance and functionality. However, one limitation is the inability to remove or alter pre-built widgets, which can hinder complete customization. While the update is a significant improvement, the platform could benefit from providing greater control over the look and feel of your website.

Support Options

One of the advantages of opting for a fully hosted platform like BigCommerce is the availability of support options. BigCommerce provides 24/7 support to all its users, regardless of their package level. This means that whether you're on the basic package or an enterprise-level customer, help is just a click or call away. Support can be accessed through live chat, phone, or email directly from your BigCommerce dashboard, ensuring you don't have to spend time searching for contact details. Additionally, BigCommerce offers a community support forum, where you can post questions and engage with other users, including developers who specialize in BigCommerce apps and themes. This forum provides an alternative source of information and potential solutions to non-urgent questions.

Hosting and Performance

BigCommerce utilizes PCI-compliant hosting on all packages, offering a reliable and secure hosting environment for your e-commerce website. With a focus on performance, BigCommerce boasts a 99.99% uptime guarantee. This is achieved through their use of Google's cloud platform, known for its reliability. Additionally, every package includes a free content delivery network (CDN), allowing you to sell worldwide by delivering your website's content efficiently. BigCommerce further enhances security by providing free SSL certificates and unlimited storage space and bandwidth across all packages. However, in terms of performance, BigCommerce falls a bit short compared to its competitors. In testing conducted using Pingdom speed test tool and Google's PageSpeed Insights, BigCommerce's average load times exceeded two seconds. Mobile performance particularly showed room for improvement, with average scores of 12 out of 100 for mobile and 48 out of 100 for desktop. These results indicate a less optimized performance, especially considering the significance of mobile commerce in today's market.

Ease of Use

When evaluating an e-commerce platform, ease of use plays a crucial role. BigCommerce makes it simple to get started with the platform, with a straightforward sign-up process requiring only an email address and password. Once you're in the dashboard, navigating through its well-designed interface becomes a breeze. The sidebar menu provides easy access to various sections, and the main page offers a customizable view that allows you to hide or show specific sections based on your preferences. Managing inventory is made seamless through BigCommerce's intuitive add new product page, which features comprehensive options presented in a single-page layout. Similarly, organizing your products with a hierarchical category system is a matter of a few clicks. BigCommerce shines when it comes to managing orders, thanks to its bulk editor tool that allows you to efficiently make changes in just a few steps. The order management system within the BigCommerce dashboard eliminates the need for third-party tools, streamlining the process and providing everything you need in one place.

Managing Inventory

Managing your inventory effectively is essential for running a successful e-commerce business. BigCommerce simplifies inventory management with its user-friendly interface. Adding new products is a breeze with the single-page layout of the add new product page. The sidebar provides quick access to various sections, making it easy to navigate and input all the necessary details. Creating a product hierarchy is also straightforward, allowing you to organize products into parent and child categories effortlessly. In addition to creating categories within the platform, BigCommerce provides an excellent bulk editor tool for managing inventory. This tool presents a spreadsheet-like interface where you can quickly make changes to multiple products simultaneously. With just a few clicks, you can update pricing, track inventory, and modify other attributes, saving you time and effort.

Managing Orders

Efficient order management is crucial for any e-commerce business. BigCommerce offers a robust order management system within its platform, eliminating the need for additional tools. With the bulk editor tool for orders, you can easily perform actions on multiple orders at once. Options include printing invoices, packing slips, and changing the order status. The availability of various states, such as awaiting payment and fulfillment, ensures you can effectively manage the progress of each order. The intuitive interface allows you to quickly navigate through orders and keeps everything organized, making it simple to process and fulfill orders in a timely manner. Whether you have a small number of orders or a high volume of sales, BigCommerce's order management system provides the tools you need to stay on top of your operations.

Conclusion

In conclusion, BigCommerce proves to be a solid e-commerce platform, offering a comprehensive suite of features suitable for businesses of all sizes. With its wide selection of themes, app store, and multi-channel selling capabilities, BigCommerce provides users with the tools necessary to grow their businesses. Although the tiered pricing structure and performance limitations can be seen as drawbacks, the platform excels in areas such as theme customization, support options, and ease of use. BigCommerce's intuitive interface and user-friendly tools make managing inventory and processing orders a breeze. Despite its performance shortcomings, BigCommerce remains a strong contender in the e-commerce platform market. So, if you're in search of a reliable and feature-rich platform, I recommend giving BigCommerce a try and see if it meets your specific needs.

Highlights

• BigCommerce offers a comprehensive suite of features suitable for businesses of all sizes.
• The platform provides a wide selection of themes, an extensive app store, and multi-channel selling capabilities.
• Theme customization has been significantly improved with the introduction of a page builder and customizable widgets.
• BigCommerce offers 24/7 support options, including live chat, phone, and email, as well as a community support forum.
• The platform utilizes PCI-compliant hosting, Google's cloud platform, and a CDN for reliable and secure performance.
• BigCommerce's interface is user-friendly, making it easy to get started and navigate through various sections.
• The platform simplifies inventory management with an intuitive add new product page and a robust bulk editor tool.
• Order management is streamlined with BigCommerce's bulk editor tool, eliminating the need for additional tools.
• BigCommerce's performance, particularly on mobile devices, falls short compared to its competitors.
• Despite its performance limitations, BigCommerce remains a strong contender in the e-commerce platform market.