BigCommerce
The challenger in headless commerce
Discover BigCommerce
Despite more than 95,000 active online stores worldwide, BigCommerce is still relatively unknown in Germany. But its customer base in Europe and Asia is growing steadily, and we believe that this e-commerce platform has what it takes to become a leading platform for small and medium-sized enterprises here as well.
The company was founded in Sydney, Australia, in 2009 and opened its first U.S. office in Austin, Texas, the same year. BigCommerce completed an initial public offering in August 2020.
License, architecture and technology
Compared to Shopify, which is often shortlisted with BigCommerce, BigCommerce does not throttle API calls, although the various plans (with the exception of the Enterprise plan) set limits. This is a competitive advantage for BigCommerce over Shopify.
BigCommerce is a distributed application running on the Google Cloud platform.
Target group
The target group for BigCommerce has traditionally been small businesses. Recently, more and more companies with online sales of more than $100 million have opted for a BigCommerce store. BigCommerce offers this target group a cloud-native, multi-tenant commerce solution that can be extended via APIs. Unlike Shopify, there are no transaction costs for payments.
Functions
An e-commerce store can be created in a short time with the help of BigCommerce. Both physical and electronic products can be sold. The most important payment methods are already integrated and, depending on the country, over 65 integrations are available to accept payments online. Among them are the most popular digital and mobile wallets, such as Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, PayPal.
The online store system impresses with a variety of useful integrated functions that are only available in other store systems by installing additional extensions. For example, the platform offers a facet search, SEO functions, coupons, customer groups, e-mail marketing, editable discount rules, social media integration and interfaces to various marketplaces.
In addition, there is the simple option of customizing the range of functions by means of apps. For example, the App Store features integrations for leading POS systems such as Zettel and Lightspeed, which allow companies to expand their brick-and-mortar business and sell products in an online branch of their store. A wide selection of free and paid themes makes the store design look good on mobile devices as well.
Special features
The online store software shines with an easy-to-install WordPress integration. This stands out positively from the WordPress online store extension WooCommerce due to the many integrated functions. Since no other extensions are needed besides the BigCommerce plugins, the installation gains significantly in performance and stability.
With the help of the "Page Builder Tool", a drag'n drop editor for category and detail pages as well as landing pages, the store frontend can be designed within the theme. If the integrated page builder is not enough, BigCommerce can be embedded in a Progressive Web Application (PWA) using "Styla Frontend" to enhance the content experience and achieve top scores in terms of Google Core Vitals.
A mobile app allows managing customers and orders as well as monitoring store performance. This allows even the smallest businesses to use the app to provide timely support and deliver a superior customer experience beyond shopping.
With BigCommerce into the future of e-commerce
More flexibility in the front end and differentiated addressing of B2C and B2B: Read how EXPRESSO Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG is laying the foundation for the next milestone in e-commerce together with Blackbit and BigCommerce.
B2B functions
With the B2B Edition, BigCommerce delivers the BundleB2B partner extension and the Enterprise Edition as a package. The B2B Edition thus makes it possible to sell to consumers and commercial customers at the same time. Thus, the B2B Edition includes the B2B features most frequently needed by our customers out of the box:
Enterprise accounts allow you to set up customer accounts with multiple levels of buyers including different roles and permissions.
In addition to customer and group discounts as well as discounts on individual products, customer price lists can be created, uploaded and maintained via a convenient interface.
Through a restricted log-in, a customer must sign in to access certain content and pricing. Guest and B2C users can apply for a corporate account.
Admin orders - sales reps log in on behalf of a company, access shopping lists, add products to the cart, and complete the order.
Sales staff have the possibility to create a quotation including additional discounts, which can be ordered via the store.
Customers can create and share common shopping lists in an enterprise account.
BigCommerce Reviews
BigCommerce has moved up from niche player to challenger in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce 2020 and is also in the challenger quadrant for 2021. Just like Shopify, BigCommerce receives top marks for features and support on the G2.com and Gartner peer review portals.
Competitor and recommendation
Shopify and Shopware are the direct competitors. Shopware can keep up in terms of functionality, but only with the help of installing additional extensions. BigCommerce is a good choice for e-commerce beginners and smaller companies that do not need a multilingual store. Multilingualism is announced, but not yet available.
The rates range from:
For companies considering a headless commerce solution, BigCommerce offers an outstanding platform with many functions and an extensive API. With Styla Frontend, a tool is also available to realize an e-commerce PWA almost out of the box.
Our services
We help you migrate to BigCommerce using tools such as Cart-to-Cart or NextCart. For BigCommerce we offer the following services:
- Store setup
- Web development and customization
- Custom design and individual themes
- SEO, social media and digital marketing
- Migration to BigCommerce
- Interface programming and custom application development
- Product Information System
- B2B e-commerce solutions
Read our Case Study now: Into the future of e-commerce with BigCommerce
Read how EXPRESSO Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG is laying the foundation for the next milestone in e-commerce together with Blackbit and BigCommerce.