What Is BigCommerce? A Brief Introduction

What is BigCommerce? How BigCommerce works? 

Simply put, BigCommerce is a powerful and popular ecommerce platform that assists all-sized businesses in developing and managing their online stores. 

Yes, your mind is going in the correct direction. You are thinking that there are varied eCommerce platforms in the market, so why BigCommerce?

BigCommerce arrives with several advantages for businesses. Its user-friendly interface, customization options, robust features, and excellent customer support make it a compelling choice for the one seeking an eCommerce platform.

More and more businesses are getting attracted to BigCommerce’s benefits and are becoming interested in the exciting growth of the ecommerce platform. 

BigCommerce stores are witnessing steady growth annually, with around 4.2% in Q3 2024.

If you are also an enthusiast or an enterprise owner looking to expand your business, look forward to Bigcommerce website development or building an online store and unveiling your brand worldwide. 

This blog post will cover all the nuts and bolts of BigCommerce and relevant factors you should know to make a quick buck by developing your Bigcommerce store. 

Let’s kickstart!

How Bigcommerce Works?

Bigcommerce is like a tool that helps people create and manage online stores where they can sell products. Here’s how it works:

• Setting up the Store: First, you sign up for Bigcommerce and choose a template for your online store. This template gives your store a nice look and layout.
• Adding Products: You can then add pictures and descriptions of the products you want to sell. This is like putting items on the shelves of your online store.
• Managing Inventory: Bigcommerce helps you keep track of how many of each product you have in stock. So, if you sell out of something, it can automatically show that it’s sold out on your website.
• Payment Processing: When someone wants to buy a product from your store, Bigcommerce handles the payment process securely. It can accept credit card payments and other methods.
• Shipping and Delivery: After someone makes a purchase, you can use Bigcommerce to print shipping labels and manage the shipping process. This helps you send the products to your customers.
• Managing Orders: Bigcommerce keeps track of all the orders that come in. It helps you organize and process them, making sure you don’t forget to send anything to your customers.
• Website Hosting: Your online store is hosted on Bigcommerce’s servers, which means they take care of the technical stuff like keeping your website running smoothly and secure.
• Customization: You can customize your store to make it look unique and fit your brand. You can also add features like reviews, discounts, and more.
• Analytics: Bigcommerce provides tools to track how your store is doing. You can see which products are selling well, who is visiting your site, and other important information.
• Support and Updates: Bigcommerce offers customer support if you have questions or run into problems. They also regularly update their platform to add new features and improve security.

How Would You Find Using BigCommerce?

BigCommerce is not an eCommerce that a beginner can master within minutes. It comes with numerous features and functionalities that make the usage process simple. 

Still, if you have developed a website or used other eCommerce platforms, you will not find it challenging to use BigCommerce. On the contrary, if you are a newbie, you would need to learn it. As a beginner, you would find it complicated to learn technical terminology. So, expect some hard work. 

While working with BigCommerce, you may find its design interface quite challenging. Also, to set up your eCommerce store and to begin operating and maintaining it, you will need to navigate both its front end and back end. 

On the front end, it states the modification of the storefront’s aesthetics. 

On the backend, it indicates appending products and managing elements, such as shipping and discounts. 

BigCommerce has welcomed a new feature, Store Design, that makes the store designing process more straightforward. 

BigCommerce comes with various SEO features that help beginners ensure their website performs well in Google. Such SEO features include

• Unique URLs: Ensure that your pages hold their URLs.
• Optimized URLs: Auto-populate SEO-friendly product, category, and other pages’ URLs.
• 301 redirects and URL rewrites: You can rename a product whenever you want. That page’s auto-populated URL will automatically reflect the new tag. Also, the old URL will redirect to a new one. 
• Microdata: You can embed rich snippets or microdata in your product page to improve your search result listings with different details, like pricing, ratings, stock levels, brand, and more.

Benefits Of Using BigCommerce For eCommerce Development

From scalability and multichannel selling power to customization options and expected customer support, BigCommerce offers a wide range of tools and resources required to develop and expand a successful online store. 

Around 17.5% of stores switched from WooCommerce to BigCommerce.

Below, we will discuss the top benefits of using BigCommerce for eCommerce development:

1. Scalability

BigCommerce, for online stores, holds the caliber to manage growing businesses and surging traffic volumes. With your business expansion, the platform can scale quickly to accommodate your requirements, ensuring your online store stays accessible and performs as expected. 

2. Multi-Channel Selling

With BigCommerce, businesses can sell their products across varied channels, including their online store, marketplaces, social media platforms, and physical stores. It helps them reach a broader customer base and boost their sales potential. 

3. Customizability

BigCommerce provides high customization power, facilitating enterprises to craft a visually appealing and unique online store. They can even customize their store’s layout, design, and functionality to meet their brand and preferences. 

4. Customer Support

BigCommerce is known for offering exceptional customer support, including a complete knowledge base with 24/7 assistance. Their dedicated support team stays set to help with answers to queries or resolutions to issues you may encounter. 

5. No Transaction Fees

Other ecommerce platforms charge an amount, but BigCommerce doesn’t charge any transaction fees. It is a golden opportunity for businesses to put efforts into earning profit and diminish overall costs. 

6. Affordability

BigCommerce provides a flexible pricing plan suiting all-sized businesses. However, the upfront cost is higher compared to other eCommerce platforms, but in the long run, it will benefit, and savings weigh more than the initial investment. 

By leveraging the strength of BigCommerce, you can build a thriving online store that engages customers and drives sales. 

BigCommerce vs. Other eCommerce Platforms

If you need clarification on BigCommerce and other platforms, we will clarify it here. 

Around 37.5% of online stores have switched from Shopify to BigCommerce.

Let’s differentiate between BigCommerce, Shopify, and WooCommerce. 

Feature	BigCommerce	Shopify	WooCommerce
Customization	Allow high customization, including code editing and template customization.	Good customization options with appealing themes and app integrations.	Vast customization options, but needs more technical knowledge.
Ease of Use	User-friendly interface with intuitive navigation and drag-and-drop editing.	Easy to use with an uncomplicated interface and app-based approach.	It can be more complicated for beginners, especially if you need to code.
Pricing	Monthly subscription plans with different features and costs.	Monthly subscription plans with a wide range of features and costs.	Free, but demands hosting and additional costs for plugins and themes.
Customer Support	Exceptional customer support, embracing 24/7 assistance and a complete knowledge base.	Good customer support, with email and live chat options.	Community-based support, with tutorials and forums available.
SEO & Marketing	Robust SEO tools and features, including URL optimization and automatic sitemaps.	Good SEO features and seamless integrations with marketing apps.	Need more technical knowledge and plugins for SEO optimization.

Including these parameters, we made BigCommerce vs other platforms easy to understand.

If you still need precise details, connect to an ecommerce development company with expertise and years of experience.

Key Features Of BigCommerce

Now, you can create a differentiated, robust commerce experience without compromising stability, security, or scalability. The strength and openness of BigCommerce, an eCommerce development platform, empower users to optimize their business for ultimate growth. 

Let’s Check Out The Core Features Of BigCommerce:

1. SEO & Analytics Optimization

BigCommerce comes with built-in SEO features that assist businesses in improving organic exposure. Its analytics dashboard provides customer insights and page visibility, along with product-level performance. 

2. Website Customization

A highly customizable platform, BigCommerce includes pre-built responsive templates that assist you in quickly and easily developing an eCommerce store. 

Furthermore, stencil permits developers to customize shopping cart templates for added control. 

3. Payment & Inventory Management

BigCommerce arrives with many 3rd-party payment services. They accept payments from big providers, embracing PayPal and more. This feature permits businesses to decide which service is best for them.

4. Application Integrations

This eCommerce platform integrates with the external apps and maintains a tested and 3rd-party approved marketplace. A well-stocked application marketplace and an active app developer community assist businesses in emergence with custom elements or required features that can enhance their websites.

5. Cross-Channel Commerce

Using BigCommerce, you can integrate with top marketplaces to sell where most customers are shopping. You can even catch more customers on social channels, automatically update in-store sales with native POS systems, switch between storefronts using a single login, etc.

6. Scalable Catalog

You can manage your product catalog within the BigCommerce push and control panel from an external system using the Catalog API. 

7. Reporting & Analytics

You can drive the impact of real-time business with critical metrics for customer data, orders, marketing, and more.

8. Backup & Restore

Keep your store’s data centers and a backup data center separated to reduce potential failure. 

9. World-Class Uptime

BigCommerce performs on a High Availability (HA) infrastructure, which facilitates the delivery of 99.99% uptime, performance, and resiliency for the merchants. 

10. Certified Secure

This eCommerce platform is PCI DSS 3.1, Level 1 certified, and ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certified as both a service provider and merchant.

11. API Performance

BigCommerce supports 400+ calls/second, making it easy to conduct 24,000 product updates in under one minute.

12. Multi-Currency

BigCommerce allows you to fulfill global shoppers’ needs by accepting payments in 100+ currencies and providing local payment methods through any gateway you want. 

13. Multi-Language

You can localize the frontend of BigCommerce in any language using translation available through APIs for 3rd-party translation services and apps. 

14. Cross-Border Fulfillment

You can natively integrate with ShipperHQ to permit the right quoting for cross-border shipping. 

Bigcommerce is a user-friendly platform that helps people create and manage their online stores without needing to be experts in web development or e-commerce. It takes care of many of the technical and logistical aspects, allowing you to focus on selling your products online.

How To Set Up A BigCommerce Store From Scratch?

Setting up a BigCommerce store from scratch requires following a few steps. 

Here, we will check out the steps to set up a BigCommerce store seamlessly. 

1. Sign Up for BigCommerce

Visit the official BigCommere website and create a new account. You can start with a free trial (platform offers) to explore the platform, its features, and its functionalities. Ahead, you can opt for a paid plan if you find it valuable for your online store. 

Around 28.6% of BigCommerce stores use Facebook as the primary social media platform.

2. Choose the Right Pricing Plan

BigCommerce, a popular eCommerce platform, provides varied pricing plans that suit different business budgets and requirements. 

When you select a plan, consider reviewing some factors, like the number of products, expected sales volume, and the required features for your project. 

3. Set Up Your Online Store

Choose a visually appealing template that goes perfectly with your brand and industry. If you want to customize your template per your requirements, you can use BigCommerce’s drag-and-drop editor to achieve this. 

Set up your online store with its basic information, like name, logo, and contact details. 

4. Add Products

You can manually add your products one by one or import the entire catalog. Include your product descriptions, images, pricing, and inventory details. 

Now, organize your products in your store per the specific categories and collections to ensure customers can find them easily. 

5. Set Up Payment Gateways

Connect your BigCommerce store to your preferred payment gateways, like Stripe, PayPal, or Authorize.Net. 

Around 23.6% of BigCommerce stores use Instagram as their primary social media platform.

Configure the payment settings and ensure your customers experience a smooth checkout process. 

6. Configure Shipping Options

Now, set up your shipping methods and rates depending on your location, product dimensions, and weight. 

Opt for shipping carriers that provide flawless integration with BigCommerce for automated label printing and shipping calculations. 

7. Set Up Tax Settings

Here, you will set up tax settings for your online store based on your applicable tax laws and location. 

Automatically calculate and accumulate taxes from customers during checkout. 

8. Launch Your Store

After you are done with all the essential setup steps, you can quickly launch your BigCommerce store. 

Before launching your store, you should conduct rigorous testing and ensure it’s working as expected. 

9. Marketing and SEO

Next, implement SEO strategies to boost your online store’s visibility on SERP. You can leverage 

BigCommerce’s in-built SEO tools can be integrated with third-party SEO apps to meet your SEO needs. 

You can promote your store through email marketing, social media, and other marketing channels. 

10. Monitor and Grow Your Business

In the last, use BigCommerce’s analytics tools to track your online store’s performance. Also, these tools can help you monitor traffic, sales, and customer behavior to address areas of improvement. 

Remember, your job is endless when you are running an online store. So, constantly update your store and optimize it to meet your customers’ dynamic needs and stay competitive in the market. 

These steps can help you successfully set up your BigCommerce store and promptly sell your products or services online. 

BigCommerce Pricing Plan

It comes with 15 days free trial. 

Plans	Standard	Plus	Pro	Enterprise
Best for	Individuals and small brands	Ambitious small businesses	Fast-growing businesses	Established businesses
Features	Basic features, suitable for small businesses starting out	Additional features for growing businesses, including advanced reporting and abandoned cart recovery	Comprehensive features for mid-sized companies, including advanced product options and personalized product recommendations	Custom plans tailored to the specific needs of large companies, with dedicated support and advanced features
Cost (Per Month, Billed Annually)	$29	$79	$299	Custom

Use Cases Of BigCommerce

What does bigcommerce do? How to use Bigcommerce? 

BigCommerce is a flexible ecommerce platform that businesses from varied industry verticals use.

The next question that businesses usually ask is, ‘ What is bigcommerce used for?’. 

Approximately 5% of stores running on Magento have migrated to BigCommerce.

Below are some top examples of common BigCommerce user cases where you can leverage its exceptional power. 

1. Fashion & Apparel 

BigCommerce is the best choice for fashion and apparel businesses. It offers a wide range of features, like size charts, image zoom, and wishlists. 

After migrating to BigCommerce, Skullcandy experienced 40% higher conversions.

Example: Skullcandy, a widely-known headphone brand, leverages BigCommerce to strengthen its online store. Thus, the brand delivers a seamless shopping experience to its customers. 

2. Health & Beauty 

Merchants from the health and beauty sector can also opt for BigCommerce eCommerce solutions. It’s caliber to exhibit product images effectively, and description is usually cherished. 

Example: Bliss, a luxury skincare brand, sells its products online with BigCommerce and unveils its product details, benefits, and ingredients. 

3. Electronics & Gadgets 

BigCommerce platform is suitable for selling electronics and gadgets as it lets businesses showcase product specifications, features, and customer reviews. 

Example: BenQ, a trusted manufacturer of electronics, runs on BigCommerce to sell products online and offer customers detailed product information. 

4. Home Goods & Furniture 

BigCommerce is the ultimate choice for home goods and furniture businesses. It allows store owners to present their product images from different angles and offer detailed descriptions. 

Example: Burrow, an emerging furniture company, uses BigCommerce to offer customers a virtual showroom experience and sell their products online. 

5. B2B Businesses

BigCommerce for B2B helps them sell their products and services online. 

By choosing BigCommerce to sell its products online, Berlin Packaging witnessed a 27% surge in annual conversion rate.

Example: Berlin Packaging, a reliable packaging solutions supplier, sells its products to other businesses leveraging BigCommerce. Thus, it offers an easy online ordering experience. 

6. International and Multi-Store Businesses

Being a scalable platform, BigCommerce is best at handling multi-store and international businesses. 

As recorded in August 2024, Woolrich’s valuation increased to $75 million.

Example: Woolrich, a global outdoor apparel company, runs its store on BigCommerce to sell its products worldwide. 

7. Digital Products

You can use BigCommerce to sell digital products, like software, online courses, or ebooks. 

Example: We are Knitters, a famed knitting company that runs its online store on BigCommerce and quickly sells digital knitting tutorials and patterns. 

Whether you use BigCommerce for small businesses or large ones, its features and functionality make it the best choice for businesses of all sizes. 

How Is BigCommerce Integrating AI For Ecommerce?

BigCommerce is using artificial intelligence (AI) in e-commerce to help businesses grow. They’ve partnered with Google Cloud to create AI-powered tools like product description writing and personalized storefronts. This means businesses can save time, improve SEO, and offer customers customized product recommendations. BigCommerce is also enhancing its analytics with AI, helping merchants better understand their performance and customer trends. This move comes at a time when AI adoption in retail is on the rise. By automating tasks and improving efficiency, AI can help businesses save time and money, making it a valuable tool for e-commerce success.

How Can EmizenTech Help You With BigCommerce? 

EmizenTech, a leading BigCommerce development company, can help you harness the capabilities of the eCommerce platform to build and expand your online store. 

EmizenTech’s expertise and experience in BigCommerce development ensure that your e-commerce store is optimized successfully. 

BigCommerce Development Services EmizenTech Offers

• Custom BigCommerce Store Development
• App Development
• Theme Customization
• Migration Services
• SEO Optimization
• Ongoing Support and Maintenance
• Marketing Services
• Custom Integrations, etc. 

Connect to EmizenTech, a reliable eCommerce development company for custom services to start selling online and expanding your customer base. 

Conclusion

BigCommerce is a robust eCommerce platform that provides a complete suite of features and tools that help businesses build and manage their online stores. Arriving with its user-friendly interface, BigCommerce offers a strong base for developing a successful online presence. 

In the United States, there are about 68% of BigCommerce stores.

By using the benefits of BigCommerce, businesses can sell their products or services more effectively online, reach a wider audience, and boost sales. 

Now, you know, ‘What is a BigCommerce platform?’. Next, you should step ahead to set up. 

Well, it’s a complex job to set up your BigCommerce store, and for that, you need assistance. 

If you are also looking to set up your online store or migrate to BigCommerce from your existing ecommerce platform, hire a team of expert eCommerce developers. 

A trusted BigCommerce development company can help you with seamless migration or setting up a new online store and drive business growth. 

Frequently Asked Questions