Scalable, easy customisations, reliable and peace of mind security.
May 25, 2019
Scalable, easy customisations, reliable and peace of mind security.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Enterprise
Overall Satisfaction with BigCommerce
BigCommerce is used across the organization as part of our omnichannel method for customers purchasing from us. Customers can visit our brick-and-mortar stores, phone, email or live chat with us -- as well as buying online -- and utilizing a platform like BigCommerce allows us to maintain competitive pricing and consistency. Customers love being able to browse the product catalog online, order, and either collect or have home delivery of their order.
- Ease of use. You don't have to be a pro at any coding, designing, or even e-commerce to start your store.
- Without API we simply wouldn't be able to offer the same level of service online that our customers have to know, trust, and rely on offline.
- We haven't had to implement many changes to the default BigCommerce to see huge performance increases in organic and local search.
- Checkout customization. Our products are BIG, and moving them around the country is logistically challenging. Being able to offer the customer options for shipping, as well as payments, is critical to our success.
- Speed. Since the platform moved to the Google Cloud Platform, as well as the additional of Akamai, the speed has helped customers browse, check out, and purchase quicker. This is one of the top 3 things customers said they loved about our site.
- Theme customization. Unless you're comfortable reading code documentation or have a digital agency partner, you're going to struggle to really make your BigCommerce your own. This isn't such a big problem -- it's great out of the box!
- A lot of useful B2B integrations (such as quoting and purchase orders) are outsourced to third-party app/service providers. This means sales colleagues have to get used to multiple platforms in their day-to-day activity, when in reality, BigCommerce could do it with just a couple of tweaks in the backend control panel.
- Analytics. BigCommerce offers Insights, which help reveal poorly and well-performing products, to help optimizations -- but this comes at a huge additional cost for really not a lot of gain. For the same price of Enterprise Insights, you can have third-party business intelligence software that has the features of Insights, and then a whole load more.
- Our store has been online for three years on BigCommerce. Y1 revenue grew 35%, Y2 grew 52% YOY, and this year is 67% YOY. We've been able to add new product ranges to purchase online simply because of the technology, where other SaaS platforms failed to do this for us. The very few online competitors we face have invested hugely in customizations to their platforms (WooCommerce, Magento), where BigCommerce's API and third-party services can do at a fraction of the cost.
- One of the less touted impacts of BigCommerce is repeat purchases. Customers love the site experience, specifically easy checkout, and they remember the experience and come back to us. 99% of customers would recommend us to a friend based on site experience.
- Our margin has increased from purchases online. We promote a different customer group for B2B customers that has its own price list, allowing us to offer repeat purchasers cheaper prices and bulk buy discounts. This has increased loyalty, helped with customer retention, and increased orders and average order value across the board.
$1 to $10 million
We've been able to use BigCommerce's open APIs to sync product inventory, availability in brick-and-mortar stores, customer credit availability, and more with our primary ERP system, without the need for third-party integrations -- meaning our data stays between in-house and BigCommerce.
The API also enables us to programmatically update pricing and price lists for customer groups.
The API also enables us to programmatically update pricing and price lists for customer groups.
BigCommerce had the lowest start-up costs against three major providers; Magento, Shopify, and WooCommerce. Most of the costs were hiring a digital agency (a BigCommerce recommended partner) to style the storefront to match our primary website, while in-house marketing assistants did much of the inventory and customer upload. It was an easy process, and during scoping and business case preparation, this was one of the key features we liked and one that we still use today. We still use the services of the original agency we started with.
BigCommerce Feature Ratings
BigCommerce Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Quick Resolution Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response | Poor followup |
No - Support is quick and freely available. Live chat is always quick to respond, and the one time I decided to call the support line instead of chat/email, the handler went above and beyond to make sure my issue was understood. The resolution was even sent by them, so they showed a full circle approach to solving customer problems.
Yes - A bug we uncovered related to tax settings in the checkout. It turns out that it was a huge issue, and went unresolved for 2 months. This was because it affected multiple endpoints of the API and system of BigCommerce. I was kept up to date throughout the process, so while it was an inconvenience to customers, I did feel like it was getting resolved despite the lengthy timescale.
A bug that made it impossible to link to a product option SKU (and so made Google Shopping ads redundant) was identified when I had a live chat with an operative. Within the space of 24 hours after reporting the bug, including calls with account and product managers at BigCommerce, the issue was fixed and ads were back online.
Using BigCommerce
| 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 |
- Managing customers and orders is an easy process, with the ability to easily see and copy customers' previous orders.
- Price lists are easy to manage, with spreadsheet-like functionality being able to copy prices/discounts.
- Payment options are easily integrated, and there are lots of providers to choose from.
- Sort order (or display order) of products in categories. You have to manage this one product at a time.
- Tax display settings. It would be easier to let the customers decide front end whether they want to see prices with/without tax. Instead, you have to choose for them.
- Google shopping. If you have complicated product options, it's easier setting up a custom Google feed than using the built-in feature.
Yes - For customers the mobile experience is good. The site is quick to load, even without using AMP that BigCommerce now comes with, and the checkout is very easy for customers to use on mobile (or tablets).
In the backend, managing the store, it's quite difficult (next to impossible) to do anything, even on a large phone such as iPhone Max or Plus devices. BigCommerce is working on an iOS app, currently in beta, that enables managing the store on mobile and is much easier.
In the backend, managing the store, it's quite difficult (next to impossible) to do anything, even on a large phone such as iPhone Max or Plus devices. BigCommerce is working on an iOS app, currently in beta, that enables managing the store on mobile and is much easier.