There’s reason to assume that BigCommerce delivers a feasible and powerful interface for your eCommerce needs, with over 95,000 live sites already using the BigCommerce system for selling things and processing payments online. It has various connectors and new features that make it a good fit for various eCommerce business models.
What is Bigcommerce?
BigCommerce is a for-profit, ‘hosted’ e-commerce platform that enables business owners to create an online store and sell their wares online. It’s a software as SaaS product, which means you don’t have ownership of the software. To utilize it, you must pay a monthly charge.
The program includes various customizable templates to assist you in designing your online store; it may be used to sell both physical and digital goods. It also provides marketing tools to assist you in marketing your site.
Pricing
The following are the four monthly price levels offered by BigCommerce:
- $29.95 per month for BigCommerce Standard
- $79.95 per month for BigCommerce Plus
- $299.95 per month for BigCommerce Pro
Pricing for BigCommerce Enterprise varies depending on your business needs. If you pay annually for the ‘Plus’ and ‘Pro’ plans, you will receive a 10% discount, as well as a 15-day free trial.
Optional Extra Costs
Theme: Free – $295 Optional Extra Costs (one-off payment)
Apps: $3 – $20 per month (most paid apps are in the $3 – $20 per month range).
Key selling features
As listed below are the specific features you get with BigCommerce vary depending on the plan you choose, but some elements are common to all plans:
- 12 free templates to choose from
- the option to sell a limitless amount of physical or digital goods in any category you want, at any delivery rate you want
- a page builder with drag-and-drop functionality
- Paypal and a variety of other payment channels are included (without additional transaction fees being involved)
- blogging capability for an unlimited number of employees
- Features of search engine optimization (SEO)
- Akamai Image Manager is used to automate image optimization.
- integration with several third-party applications
- Coupons and gift certificates are two types of vouchers that can be used to save money.
- capability for product reviews
- the freedom to customize CSS and HTML as needed (in fact, BigCommerce allows you to construct a ‘headless’ site)
- Reporting that is professional
BigCommerce is Best for..
- Ecommerce stores that are new and ambitious, BigCommerce is exceptionally scalable; Although, at the same time, the most basic plans start at $29.95, the most advanced plans can support companies like Ben & Jerry’s, Toyota, and Kodak.
- Stores that sell on other platforms (such as Instagram, Etsy, and eBay) and their own. BigCommerce is a natural fit if you currently have a strong presence on other platforms.
- Ecommerce stores have a long history that has outgrown their existing platform. But, as previously stated, you won’t outgrow BigCommerce, and it also comes with some valuable tools and guidelines to make the transition as painless as possible.
BigCommerce isn’t good for…
- Selling on a small scale. If you only have a few things to sell, there’s no reason not to use BigCommerce, but you’ll be trading the convenience of use for features you won’t use (similar to why you wouldn’t cut a turkey with a chainsaw). Instead, use Wix.
- A quick and straightforward setup. If this is a top priority for you, Shopify is a better option — it had higher user ratings. Still, there are additional transaction costs (unless you use Shopify Payments as your payment gateway).
BigCommerce plans
As you might guess, the amount of functionality you get from BigCommerce is proportional to how much you’re willing to pay. Each plan comes with its set of features-
BigCommerce Standard plan
The cheapest plan from BigCommerce is the ‘standard’ plan, which costs $29.95. In general, this is a much more comprehensive starter package than any of the others, as it includes:
- a standalone online store with a limitless number of things to sell
- a limitless amount of bandwidth
- File storage is limitless.
- Accounts for all employees are unlimited.
BigCommerce Plus plan
It includes, in addition to the essential capabilities included on the standard plan, the following:
- a tool to save abandoned carts
- a ‘persistent cart’ (which saves products in a customer’s cart regardless of device)
- credit cards that have been saved (this allows your regular customers to save their card details on your store)
- Customer segmentation and grouping
- BigCommerce Plus has a $180,000 annual sales cap.
The BigCommerce Pro
You don’t receive much more capability with this subscription than you do with BigCommerce Plus, but you get a much higher sales limit. This allows for online purchases of up to $400,000, with a monthly cost of $150 for every $200,000.
BigCommerce Enterprise
As the name explains, the plan is designed for corporate users with significant sales volumes (usually above $1,000,000) and, as a result, sophisticated selling requirements.
The following features are available on the ‘Enterprise’ plan but not on the lesser plans:
- filtering of advanced products (this lets your visitors search your store using your custom fields)
- Priority support for BigCommerce consulting and account management (including API support).
Pros and Cons of BigCommerce
Customer support
Your price plan determines the help and support channels available to you. For example, BigCommerce offers phone and live chat assistance 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So, no need to be stressed out at 4 a.m., counting down the minutes till 9 a.m.; call or start a live chat to resolve your issue before morning.
The Bottom line
BigCommerce is a well-known eCommerce platform with a lot of clouts. In our e-commerce builder research, it ranked in third place overall. However, a formidable opponent., thanks to impressive data reports, a large inventory, and the most built-in features of any builder.
Also, Read
FAQ
What is Bigcommerce?
BigCommerce is a for-profit, ‘hosted’ e-commerce platform that enables business owners to create an online store and sell their wares online. It’s a software as SaaS product, which means you don’t have ownership of the software. To utilize it, you must pay a monthly charge.