Item: BigCommerce
Rating: 9
Author: Robert Bell

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

BigCommerce is the backend to our online webstore, which is connected to our bricks and mortar point of sale system. When connected to a point of sale software that is compatible, it can automatically update the online inventory when something is sold in-store. This way, clients browsing product pages will be able to see exactly how many products are left in inventory.

Pros and Cons

The loading speeds and server response times improved since they switched to Google's data network (used to be Amazon)
There are no limits to customer support or bandwidth (both included in the plans)
BigCommerce has a decent ecosystem of apps that connect with other major platforms like ConstantContact, Klaviyo, and more. You will need to watch your spending on apps that add (arguably basic) features, as three apps can cost more than Bigcommerce's monthly bill alone. To get our website to the point it's at today, we're currently running 6 apps.
For what it is, BigCommerce is easy to set up and maintain, and you don't have to worry about security since it's all cloud-based

Compared to Shopify, BigCommerce's themes don't seem to be as attractive and they are difficult for non-programmers to modify
BigCommerce uses handlebars for its markup, not regular HTML, for what it's worth
It seems like BigCommerce is slightly behind Shopify in terms of adapting to new platforms or technology
You used to be able to edit your product images quickly using BigCommerce's built-in image editor which was powered by another company called Pixlr. One day it stopped working and BigCommerce left the link there to the non-working Pixlr app. It's still there and support said they are debating whether to create their own image editor, or remove it altogether. Seems like a bad decision to leave it up there with no alternative in place.

Return on Investment

Allows us to streamline order taking by reducing errors in transcribing customer information and payment details
Automated order and delivery notifications alert customer to status of order without needing to contact them all manually
Average order value is much higher than walk-in purchases

Approximate Annual eCommerce Revenue

Not available

Scalability

It's certainly able to handle a lot of SKUs (we have over 2,000 active) but it still lacks the ability to place manual orders for customers. Perhaps with the Bigcommerce point of sale add-on for the physical store, we might be able to create orders from scratch given the customer's information and payment details, but for now it's impossible to create third party orders.

BigCommerce Customization

The API allows our bricks and mortar POS system to communicate item name changes, inventory counts, and transactions. We also use a few apps from the BigCommerce app store to extend our capabilities in email, marketing, advertising, and more. We just launched BC's first wine rewards program using an app we found on BigCommerce and it was so easy to use that we were able to go from draft to launch within two weeks of installation. You will probably need to hire developers to install a new theme and get it looking the way you want. The cost to do this will vary, with some developers offering an all-in installation service, which I have used and pleased with the results.

Likelihood to Recommend

BigCommerce is best suited for online only stores because even with our integration with AmberPOS, transactions need to be imported manually (by me). To give you an example of when this causes problems, let's say I get off work on Friday and return Monday morning. Because the transactions are not imported automatically, any products sold will not be deducted from the bricks and mortar AmberPOS. This means that walk-in customers can come in on the weekend and potentially buy the product that was originally sold to someone else online. When I come in on Monday to pick the order, the bottle that was sold on Friday online is no longer there, which means I need to reach out to the online purchaser and explain and potentially refund or do an exchange, which is not a great experience for anyone involved. This is probably the most frequent hiccup I experience, and I'm not sure there's a perfect solution that can handle both bricks and mortar and online storefronts that pull from the same shared inventory.

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Emily Rediker
(Vendor Representative) commented 5 years ago
Thank you for your review, Robert. I spoke to our CS team and AmberPOS should have Automated Inventory Levels Synchronization Between Physical Locations & Online Store. Have you reached out to our partner AmberPOS about this yet?
- Robert Bell
  commented 5 years ago
  Hello Thanks for the follow-up. I’ve been using the AmberPOS – Bigcommerce integration for four years and this aspect has never changed: We need to import web transactions into the point of sale manually. When a sale commences online, the in-store inventory will not update until I manually import the transaction. However, when a product is sold in-store, the online inventory is updated automatically. It doesn't work both ways. This has not changed to my knowledge.

BigCommerce: the only choice for bricks and mortar?

Software Version

Overall Satisfaction with BigCommerce