Item: BigCommerce
Rating: 10
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with BigCommerce

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use BigCommerce to run our e-commerce web site selling luxury skincare products direct to consumer. It's an easy to use platform. You can run a website without knowing how to code if you need to. Of course the internet marketing department has no problem using the platform but it is also easy to use for our customer service department to manage consumer orders.

Pros and Cons

Pros

BigCommerce Customer Support is fantastic.
BigCommerce has consistently done upgrades and improvements to their product.
BigCommerce is affordable.
BigCommerce is extremely customizable and has a lot of 3rd party apps to do almost anything you can imagine.

Cons

If you're looking for a fully customizable website, this isn't for you. It is an affordable out-of-the-box solution so edits cannot be made to the main code that everyone uses. That said, you can do almost anything with the right theme and apps.
The product promotions were lacking but they have updated that this year so this is now a PRO not a con. I expect more promotion flexibility will be coming soon.
It would be great if ALL apps were available but it is not the fault of Bigcommerce that most apps are created for another platform first. But they usually get around to making them for BC.

Return on Investment

Having an e-commerce website has increased the company's ROI
BigCommerce has streamlined our e-commerce operations over the previous program we used
BigCommerce has 3rd party add-ons to create reviews, a speedy checkout, subscriptions, payment options, etc.
New themes (Halothemes) are available now (2024) that include customer upselling and more right in the theme!

Approximate Annual eCommerce Revenue

$100,000 to $500,000

Scalability

BigCommerce is designed to provide a flexible and scalable software which can be deployed across multiple departments and sites as needed. We do utilize these features and have access points for different departments and different sites.

BigCommerce Customization

BigCommerce has partnered with companies like YotPo to provide a very robust reviews engine that includes custom questions, image and video uploads and keyword search. YotPo also has a loyalty program, content from instagram and more. Because they are partners it was very easy to integrate these great programs. We are able to tailor our website to a great detail.

Alternatives Considered

Shopify, Magento Open Source and 3dcart

BigCommerce is way better than 3dcart, it was comparable to Shopify but with the new product promotions available it is better than Shopify now. It is better than Magento in that you do not need dedicated programmers to make simple changes to your store!!! The best part about Bigcommerce is their Customer Service and Tech Support. Plus they answer the phone! I don't think I've ever even been placed in a hold queue. They are dedicated to their customers and provide outstanding service.

Key Insights

Do you think BigCommerce delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with BigCommerce's feature set?

Yes

Did BigCommerce live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of BigCommerce go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy BigCommerce again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Klaviyo, Yotpo

Likelihood to Recommend

BigCommerce is an out-of-the-box solution for e-commerce. If you don't know anything about e-commerce their program is very easy to use and they provide templates so you don't even have to know how to code. If you do know how to code you can create your own template and customize the look and feel of your store as much as you want. The products are stored in the database so when you want a new template you do not lose any of your product set up. Customer support is always available and very helpful.

BigCommerce Feature Ratings

Using BigCommerce

Usability

Bigcommerce has been fantastic. We have been with them for over a decade and they are always improving the platform and available to assist when needed. They even try to help when it's not something they are supposed to do, like fixing a theme issue. Their support is the best. The platform is so easy to use, our customer service team had no problems navigating it. We found it easy to add a lot of 3rd party features. And the most important thing... checkout worked 99.99% of the time flawlessly so our customers didn't get frustrated. Plenty of bells and whistles are available to boost sales. Overall a fantastic platform that I recommend over any others.

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar	None

Easy Tasks

The product catalog is easy to set up, can be done online or even uploaded from a spreadsheet. The BEST part is you can install a new theme or even build a totally new site and your catalog is easily transported over! Need to make mass updates? Download it, update in Excel, and re-import!
E-commerce systems like payments, shipping, and taxes were easy to set up. Add-on apps are available for almost any platform you're already using in-house if you don't want to use the built-in features.
You can be up and running a new e-commerce website in under a month if you have a creative person for the visuals.
Bigcommerce is adding new features all the time so you can save money by using their built in features vs. paying for an add-on service.
Integrating a CRM and SMS platform like Klaviyo is so easy!

Difficult Tasks

The only caveat with the catalog and setting up offers is if you have options on your products, like size or color. You can't give away a free product that has options on it. At least not the last time I tried. We got around it by creating another product without options.
If you use the old offer setup there are a few features not available with the new offer setup and vice versa so you have to know what you're doing.
If you let a contracted programmer create your website and edit your theme, you'll be stuck if you need to make changes. Even as a programmer it was hard for me to untangle what they did. This is not a Bigcommerce issue but just want to warn you. If you can stick with the theme without custom programming, it will be better for you down the line. Then the theme developer can at least assist you. Bigcommerce cannot assist with custom themes.

Mobile Interface Availability and Impressions

Yes - I only used the mobile interface a few times when there was an emergency after hours and I didn't have a computer with me. It worked well enough for me to do what I needed which was awesome but I wouldn't want to use it as my primary interface due to the size of the mobile device and the lack of screen space to navigate it.

Using BigCommerce

Users and Roles

8 - Internet Marketing Manager & Coordinator - Website Look and Functions, Promotions, Product Management. Operations Manager & IT Manager - Product Inventory. Customer Service Team - manage customer orders, and input new customer orders as needed. Technical Consultant - Advanced Website Functions and integration with other products.

Support Headcount Required

2 - Internet Marketing Manager & Internet Marketing Coordinator keep the site updated with banners, offers, product management, app management, theme management, and advanced coding as needed. Skills include graphics, html, css, SEO, domain & DNS management, and Bigcommerce backend platform management. Sometimes advanced coding.

Business Processes Supported

Product management and sales
Offer creation and marketing
Ability to add Apps for more functionality
Ability to add custom code and pages as needed
Ability to create a website using a theme that doesn't require advanced coding

Innovative Uses

Bigcommerce has helped us to integrate features rather than making us hire a developer
We found a theme that includes everything to create a new site without having to hire a developer (that was unexpected).
We created an additional non-shopping site for people outside of the US since we only ship inside the US.

Future Planned Uses

New apps are coming out all the time to increase functionality.
Integrations are key, in the future we'd like to directly integrate social media.
New themes are available that include all kinds of customer retargeting and upselling.

Likelihood to Renew

I personally would not even consider another e-commerce website platform.

Bigcommerce may have the same (or close to the same) functionality and integrations as other SaaS platforms but they excel at customer service and tech support. At the end of the day you need a company that will answer the phone in less than a minute especially if you're having a 5 alarm issue. That said, we hardly ever have any issues. The site was down for a few minutes one time 5 years ago. Sometimes we have issues with coding or apps and they help me with that too. They even walked me through installing our new theme when the contracted developers told me that wasn't included in the development of our new website.

Bigcommerce comes out with new innovations every year, not including apps that other people write for the platform, and there are a lot of those and new ones all the time. And there are a LOT of awesome themes to choose from (Halothemes are the best).

And the price is reasonable!

I'd give Bigcommerce my business any time and recommend them to anyone looking to run an e-commerce website. You could even use them for a non-shopping site, we have one of those too!

Evaluating BigCommerce and Competitors

Products Replaced

Yes - We replaced 3-d cart I think, it was so long ago. Since then we also looked into Magento, Shopify, and a few others that we didn't even bother installing because they just weren't great. We used Magento on another small site and it was terrible. We switched it to Shopify and will likely switch it to Bigcommerce soon because they don't have the support and the backend is cumbersome. We're starting some new e-commerce sites and will definitely be using Bigcommerce for them without hesitation.

Key Differentiators

Scalability
Integration with Other Systems
Ease of Use

Ability to run a successful e-commerce site is the single most important factor and the features that go with that like promotions set up, quick checkout, and site uptime and stability. Ease of use is definitely helpful as well as the ability to integrate with all kinds of other programs to do almost anything.

Evaluation Lessons Learned

Evaluation and selection of a website platform is difficult until you actually use it. I'm glad we will never have to do this again. But if we did have to do it again I'd definitely read through the reviews first and hopefully find this one that says don't bother looking at anybody else, Bigcommerce is the best!

BigCommerce Support

Support Rating

Bigcommerce has the best support. Not just better than other website platforms, better than most of the programs we use! The only other support that comes close is GoDaddy. Bigcommerce is always there for us to assist. It's also super easy to start a chat and get simple things resolved quickly.

BigCommerce Customer Support Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response	None

Premium Support

No, we did not purchase premium support. It was not necessary as it came included with our Enterprise Plan, I think. I don't recall seeing that we had "premium" support but I always received what I thought was exceptional support. I could call and get an issue resolved over the phone if it was an emergency. They even tried to help when it wasn't something they were involved with, like my custom theme. Submitting a ticket was always immediately addressed and fixed within a day or two.

Bug Resolution

Exceptional Examples of BigCommerce Support

We had a new site created via a new theme. When it was time to go live, the contracted programmers told me installing it live was not part of the package! Seriously, that was NEVER mentioned. I was panicking. I called Bigcommerce and they walked me through the process over the phone and double checked it for me and everything went perfectly! They saved the day.

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