BigCommerce Essentials Review 2022

BigCommerce is a web-based e-commerce platform that allows you to design your online store, list products, manage orders and engage with customers. BigCommerce offers three Essentials subscription plans and a strong built-in feature set, making it a good option for small businesses of all shapes and sizes.

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This e-commerce website builder stands out from competitors, however, with its multichannel sales tools and variety of third-party integrations — and therefore, is a top choice for businesses looking to scale quickly.

Although BigCommerce is easily scalable, your plan choice is largely determined by your annual sales volume, meaning the more sales you have, the more you’ll have to pay for your subscription. Additionally, some user reviews mention that there's a learning curve when getting started — so some small businesses may prefer a simpler alternative.

BigCommerce allows you to create an e-commerce website. You can sign up for a BigCommerce account, complete your business profile and set up individual user accounts, following the steps on your dashboard to get started selling online.

Here’s an overview of how BigCommerce works:

Create your storefront

BigCommerce offers more than 180 mobile-responsive themes so that you can build and customize your online store. Using a WYSIWYG page builder, you can edit the different components of your theme, including colors, text, images, buttons, banners, carousels and more.

Although you can design your BigCommerce store without any coding knowledge, you also have the option to use an HTML editor to further customize any theme.

Add your products

Each BigCommerce plan allows you to list an unlimited number of products in your online store. You can add products individually or upload a CSV file. BigCommerce gives you the ability to organize your products into categories, as well as create and assign variants, modifiers and customizations (e.g., size, color, text).

When you create your product listings, you also have the option to add images, videos, dimensions and weight; set shipping details; enable related products; set a custom search engine optimization field; and indicate if or how you’d like to track stock levels.

» MORE: How to start an e-commerce business

Set up your payments

BigCommerce allows you to accept online and offline payments. To accept online payments, you must choose a payment gateway and connect it to your BigCommerce account.

• BigCommerce offers over 65 payment gateway integrations, including well-known providers such as First Data, Authorize.net, Adyen, Square and Stripe. Your store country and currency will determine which payment gateways you can use.

• Qualified U.S. businesses can sign up for a PayPal powered by Braintree account to take advantage of exclusive credit card processing rates for BigCommerce customers.

• BigCommerce also offers integrations to digital and mobile wallets, such as Apple Pay and Venmo, as well as alternative online payment methods including bank transfers, ACH payments and some "buy now, pay later" services.

To accept payments offline, you can enable options including bank deposits, cash on delivery, checks, money orders and pay in store.

Customize your settings and start selling

BigCommerce includes a variety of features to help you manage your orders, customers and other elements of your storefront even before you start selling.

You can set up your tax rates, currency settings and shipping methods, as well as optimize the checkout experience. You can also customize your order fulfillment process, create a return and refunds process and set up order notifications for customers.

Once you launch your store and begin to process orders, you can use additional tools to build relationships with your customers. You can offer coupons, discounts and promotions, as well as give customers the ability to leave comments and write reviews.

BigCommerce also allows you to integrate with hundreds of third-party tools so that you can connect to small-business apps you already use or expand your store’s capabilities. The marketplace includes popular apps such as Mailchimp, ShipStation, QuickBooks Online and LiveChat.

Track your growth

BigCommerce's E-Commerce Analytics suite of tools will help you track orders, visitors, customers, marketing and more, so that you can adjust your sales strategies and grow your online store.

You can use your main BigCommerce dashboard to view real-time data across multiple channels, covering visits, conversion, orders and revenue. You can also generate 11 tailored reports, as well as enable Google Analytics for additional insights.

BigCommerce offers three Essentials plans — Standard, Plus and Pro — and prices them on a monthly basis. The company also offers a quote-based Enterprise plan that can be customized to your business’s needs.

You can receive a 10% discount on either the Plus or the Pro plan when you opt for an annual subscription instead of paying month-to-month.

The chart below shows the costs and features of the different BigCommerce plans.

BigCommerce allows you to sign up for a 15-day free trial of its platform at any time, with no credit card required.

To learn more about BigCommerce Enterprise, you can schedule a demo online or call to speak to a sales representative to get a better sense of how much this plan might cost based on your business’s needs.

Payment processing costs

BigCommerce doesn't charge transaction fees, but in order to accept online payments, you’ll need to choose a payment gateway and pay the credit card processing fees that provider charges.

If you opt to use PayPal powered by Braintree, you may be eligible for the processing rates that BigCommerce offers for its customers. Qualified U.S. businesses can receive the following rates that vary based on their BigCommerce subscription plan:

• Standard: 2.59% plus 49 cents per debit or credit card transaction.

• Plus: 2.35% plus 49 cents per debit or credit card transaction.

• Pro: 2.05% plus 49 cents per debit or credit card transaction.

• Enterprise: 2.05% plus 49 cents or lower per debit or credit card transaction.

The rate for all online payments made with American Express cards will be 3.5% per transaction, regardless of your plan. Similarly, the rate for all transactions made with PayPal Digital Payments will be 3.49% plus 49 cents per transaction.

Powerful built-in features

BigCommerce includes everything you need to launch and grow your e-commerce business.

Regardless of your subscription plan, you have access to unlimited products, bandwidth, file storage and staff accounts. All BigCommerce plans also provide a wide variety of advanced sales tools, including a customizable single-page checkout, multicurrency capabilities, real-time shipping quotes, reporting tools, a built-in blog and product ratings and reviews.

Some competitors — like Shopify and Volusion, for example — require that you opt for higher-tier subscriptions or use third-party integrations to access the same level of capabilities within their platforms.

Great for multichannel selling

With BigCommerce, you can sell to customers beyond your online storefront, listing your products on social media platforms and digital marketplaces, as well as selling in person.

BigCommerce integrates directly with Amazon, eBay, Google Shopping, Instagram and Facebook so that you can seamlessly list products, manage orders and sync inventory across several different channels. You can also create buy buttons to allow customers to shop directly from your blog, emails and social media posts.

Businesses that want to sell online and in person can use BigCommerce’s direct integration with Square POS. BigCommerce’s integration with Square is two-way, giving you the ability to track in-person and online sales through your Square Dashboard — and automatically updating your inventory when you make a sale.

Plus, Square isn’t the only option for in-person sales. BigCommerce also offers integrations with nearly 30 additional point-of-sale system providers.

Plans restrict annual sales volume

Each BigCommerce plan limits the annual sales volume your online store can accommodate. If you exceed the limit of your subscription, BigCommerce will automatically upgrade you to the next plan level.

Although these volume-based limitations aren't unheard of among e-commerce platforms, they can be restrictive for businesses that are trying to scale quickly. And there are competitors, such as Shopify and Square Online, that don’t impose them.

Learning curve to get started

BigCommerce is user-friendly, but may not be the best choice if you want to get started selling online as quickly and easily as possible. Whereas you might be able to set up an alternative like Big Cartel or Shopify within a matter of hours, it may take more time to launch an online store with BigCommerce — especially for e-commerce beginners.

To make the most of BigCommerce, you’ll want to take the time to understand everything the platform has to offer and customize all of the relevant features to meet your business’s individual needs. Watching tutorials, reading support articles or consulting customer service representatives for assistance are all good options to learn how to effectively use BigCommerce.

Shopify

One of BigCommerce’s closest competitors, Shopify can be a better option for e-commerce beginners. Shopify offers a robust feature suite at a similar price point to BigCommerce — however, it can be easier to get started selling online using Shopify.

Pros

• Shopify doesn't place annual limits on your online sales volume.

• Shopify’s payment processing service, Shopify Payments, is built into the platform, giving you the ability to accept payments right away.

• All Shopify plans include access to Shopify POS so that you can sell in-person as well as online.

• Shopify offers over 6,000 third-party apps in the Shopify App Store.

Cons

• Shopify charges an additional transaction fee if you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments.

• Each Shopify plan limits the number of staff accounts you can have — and the Advanced plan maxes out at 15 accounts.

• Professional reports aren't included in the Basic Shopify plan.

» MORE: 10 top alternatives to BigCommerce

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a free shopping cart plug-in that can be downloaded and added to a WordPress website to turn it into an e-commerce store. As an open-source plug-in, WooCommerce is a good option for business owners who want a solution with a higher level of customization than BigCommerce.

It’s also a good choice for businesses that already have a WordPress website, as well as those that want more control over the cost of their e-commerce platform.

Pros

• WooCommerce is free to download.

• WooCommerce is an open-source plug-in, meaning you can edit the HTML and CSS to customize the capabilities to your business’s needs.

• Businesses without technical knowledge or developer resources can more or less use WooCommerce with the features included.

• The WooCommerce marketplace has hundreds of free and paid extensions to expand your store capabilities.

Cons

• You need to have a WordPress website in order to use WooCommerce.

• Although WooCommerce is free, you’ll need to pay for your WordPress website, which may include getting your own web hosting, domain name and security monitoring.

• To make the best of the WooCommerce plug-in, you may need technical knowledge — or to hire a professional developer.