HOC Hoots About BigCommerce
February 20, 2017
HOC Hoots About BigCommerce
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Standard
Overall Satisfaction with BigCommerce
BigCommerce is the primary online platform for Hoot Owl Creations. We craft handmade wire crochet jewelry and sell it primarily at arts and crafts shows in the Northwest Georgia and Atlanta area. We started using BigCommerce because customers asked if we had an online store — specifically Etsy — and we wanted to be able to say yes. We used Etsy for a short period, but didn't like how it was so easy for customers to view other artists' products. By getting a BigCommerce store we're able to feature the products we regularly make, provide updates via the integrated blog, and customers are able to buy our items online. It fulfills a number of needs in one convenient package.
- Creating new product postings is easier in BigCommerce than it is in Etsy. BigCommerce has an easier interface to select product categories and the like, while adding metadata, tags and other SEO necessary items is more intuitive than Etsy in our experience.
- Having a wide variety of free templates is a big bonus, as is the ability to edit them. Although we have dug deeper into the HTML code in the past to modify our site's appearance, the upgraded storefront editor is very useful. Changing colors in any part of the website is a breeze now and the two newest free templates are well designed, pleasing to the eye, and appropriately modern.
- The storefront integration with Facebook is quite useful. Being able to add the shopping feature to our company page at the click of a button was incredibly convenient.
- Having a blog built into the store has been beneficial in terms of driving visitors to our site. Sharing the links on social media brings people back to the Hoot Owl Creations page and, ideally, inspires them to at least look at the items we have for sale. Also, the blog allows our site to have more personality because we can express ourselves in the same area where we display our product, which gives visitors a better idea of who we are and what we do.
- The help section could use additional visual aides to help navigate users through the various menus and sub-menus when they are trying to figure out where something is or how to make a change to the storefront. Sometimes it can be difficult to find things because the user interface has changed since some of the articles were written and it's organized differently.
- Each template needs a guide for how large the thumbnail photos are on the front page and product pages. Twice now, with different templates, I have uploaded photos only to see there are white bars on the sides or tops of my product photos with the thumbnail images. It takes some experimenting with cropping to determine what is the correct ratio. Having an easy to find pixel measurement, such as what exists for the carousel, would be a major improvement.
- Transparency with billing could be improved; specifically in terms of where a store falls within the sales spectrum to determine if you're in the higher or lower category. When the tier simplification was announced, we were automatically placed in the higher tier even though our sales for the previous year did not exceed even 20 items. Although we got it resolved after emailing a representative, it was concerning for us as we could not afford the higher monthly payment.
- Online Store
- Social Media (e.g. Facebook, Pinterest)
At the moment we do not have much of an omnichannel strategy. We use Facebook to promote our shows, share our blog posts, and display limited edition pieces we've made, but we have not yet reached the point where we are expanding our online sales. Physical shows in our surrounding area have gifted us with great success in the past year and we are looking to pursue that first. Expanding online sales is still on the horizon.
- We have expanded our reach to markets on the both coasts and made sales we could never have made before. Sending our products to California and Louisiana was a nice surprise for a jewelry business in Northwest Georgia.
- We took part in the advertising beta a year or so ago and it was gratifying to see how people enjoyed the photos we used for the ads. It increased our traffic by at least threefold and proved there is a future for us online when we chose to make that shift.
- The return on investment has been good in a nontraditional sense. Although the website has run as a loss overall, BigCommerce has given us a great place to have our online portfolio so future customers can see what we make and where our business is going to be.
We have not yet used any other BigCommerce products other than the basic storefront. We took part in an advertising beta some time ago and while it was a positive experience, we do not have the capital available to have an ongoing advertising campaign. We look forward to when we can take advantage of other BigCommerce products in the future.
Less than $20,000