BigCommerce: eCommerce Shopping Cart Review
Originally launched in August of 2009, BigCommerce is a relatively new addition to the ecommerce software marketplace. Nevertheless, in that short time it has grown to become one of the best known and most popular options for merchants who are looking for a simple to use yet powerful online shopping solution.
BigCommerce is a web-based ecommerce solution that will allow even users with little to no web design experience to set up a full-service, professional-quality online store. BigCommerce retails for a one-time setup fee of $49.95 US, with five different monthly subscription options ranging from the $24.95/month Bronze service, with 100 product slots, 3 staff login accounts, 2GB of bandwidth and 200MB of storage, to the $299.95/month Diamond package, which allows for an unlimited number of products, 100 staff logins, 45GB of bandwidth and 3GB of storage. With these capabilities and a long, impressive feature list, BigCommerce should appeal to many business owners. Is BigCommerce really all it’s cracked up to be, or is it less than the sum of its parts?
Features
BigCommerce does a good job of covering all of the basics that online store operators demand. Storefront customization and inventory management can be handled very easily and with a respectable number of options (including over 60 high-quality storefront designs). Users will also have the ability to accept payments in a wide variety of ways, including the standard options like PayPal, Google Checkout, and direct credit card payment. BigCommerce also offers some of the most advanced SEO and analytics options of any shopping cart software, as well as the ability to integrate with Google Analytics.
One area where BigCommerce really stands out is with its versatility in terms of shipping options. Unlike some of its competitors – such as Shopify – that are more rigidly North America-centric, BigCommerce allows users to give customers the options of using services like Australia Post or UK Royal Mail.
Ease of Use
As long as you’re happy to stick with the shop design presets, BigCommerce is easy enough for just about anyone to use, with a fairly simple and intuitive interface. That being said, if you want to customize your storefront beyond the choices you’re given, you will need to have some knowledge of HTML or CSS (or the funds to hire someone who does). Compared to Shopify, BigCommerce is much more difficult to use for in-depth customization. Documentation for variables is basically non-existent and support in custom designs is limited. Providing you stick as close as possible to the standard HTML you do have the ability to customize the your design using CSS. If you want to have more customization options including the ability to have conditional loops and if conditions, then you'd be better off choosing Shopify.
Conclusion
Simply put, there’s a reason why BigCommerce has quickly become one of the most popular ecommerce software options out there. BigCommerce does just about everything right and offers a reliable combination of power and simplicity that appeals to retailers of all sorts. Unless you’re especially interested in deep storefront customization, you really can’t go wrong with BigCommerce.