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BigCommerce from a small business owner
October 05, 2019

BigCommerce from a small business owner

Joe Burnham | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Plus

Overall Satisfaction with BigCommerce

BigCommerce is being used as an extension of our current retail store. This allows us to connect with our local customers to let them know what we have in stock. It allows them to pay for it via the website and pick it up "in-store" if they are in a hurry. For customers who are a little farther out from our primary location, it allows them to shop and support the shop as well. It extends our reach to customers outside of our local area to show off our unique selection.
  • Ease of use - You do not need to know code to build a usable web site.
  • The integration with other applications is typically spot-on, allowing us to focus on building the website and making sales, and less on troubleshooting.
  • The support and tutorials are super helpful when something does go wrong. Most issues can be fixed and figured out with a little search.
  • Quickbooks integration is garbage. I feel like it isn't so much BigCommerce issue, but regardless it doesn't work effectively.
  • If an item is modified in Shopkeep it loses sync with the website. Some type of out of sync item function edibility would be nice.
  • Sometimes how the vendor partners interact with BigCommerce isn't as easy as BigCommerce to deal with. I feel like all three of these issues aren't even BigCommerce's fault, but regardless it is a slight hindrance to an otherwise great platform.
  • Better product visibility for local sales.
  • The ability to custom build a cart and send it to a customer via messenger allows me to tie in our dedication to custom builds and makes for seamless online integration with all of the platforms we are on.
  • Lots of tools available to streamline our site and format it so that when someone comes into our store after going to our website the shopping experience is seamless.
Less than $20,000
I can see the tools that are available and as we better utilize them I feel like everything that is in place will be able to not only handle what we are doing but handle the increased volume. The big thing is that there are tools in place on the BigCommerce's platform that will allow us to scale as well. So as we become more familiar with the process of balancing our in-store shop and online shop everything that is available will allow us to grow seamlessly. It's not a one or the other thing, it works for both.
As our website is an online portal into our Brick and Mortar store the almost seamless integration from our ShopKeep POS and inventory systems to the website makes it incredibly easy to maintain. This gives us reliability to be able to answer questions with confidence and troubleshoot any problems that may arise instantly.
ShipStation integration allows for easy shipping. The sales tax integration is a huge weight off of our shoulders with keeping track of what and who we are responsible to. The ability to link with Facebook is predictable and consistent which opens a whole realm of marketing options with those groups of platforms, and I know there are so many more options we haven't even learned to harness yet.
When we first started we were on WordPress, but they didn't have the integrations we needed to fully realize our vision of our site. Shopify was another super suggested option, but once again the integrations were not there. Not to mention the hidden sneakiness of a throttled website did not appeal at all. It's tough enough to get people on the site, without the company hosting our store limiting the number of people we could be getting. There is none of that with BigCommerce. All of the other companies seemed like they were more interested in pumping themselves up, while BigCommerce understands that if the site they are hosting is successful then so are they.
With the flexibility of the platform and the numerous integrations, I feel that there isn't a lot that wouldn't be ideal. It's been great for the online content and presence of our skate shop.

BigCommerce Feature Ratings

9.3
Product catalog & listings
10
Product management
8
Bulk product upload
10
Branding
8
Mobile storefront
10
Product variations
10
Website integration
10
Visual customization
10
CMS
8
10.0
Abandoned cart recovery
10
Checkout user experience
10
10.0
eCommerce security
10
10.0
Promotions & discounts
10
Personalized recommendations
10
SEO
10
9.6
Multi-site management
10
Order processing
10
Inventory management
8
Shipping
10
Custom functionality
10

Using BigCommerce

1 - All of them. I do everything for the site and the business. A solo operation currently. The BigCommerce platform allows me to expand how I operate on several fronts at the same time. I am looking forward to teaching team members all of the abilities of the website as our business expands.
1 - Currently, I am the only person. However, I can see how a marketing person, a dedicated web site maintenance person, would integrate into our process. Really as I become more familiar with the platform, and our business gets bigger a dedicated person for these segments would greatly improve our site performance and user experience.
  • Local product visibility - Our community can look online and tell exactly what we have in stock and can even pay for it to be picked up in-store.
  • The ability to format our web site so that our core mission is evident and seamless from online to in-store.
  • As we expand our knowledge and skills BigCommerce can handle what and where we are wanting to take our business.
  • I love the ability to build an order for a customer we have been talking with on Messenger and sharing the cart with them. Whether they are on a mobile platform, or desktop. No matter what payment option they use we can get them taken care of. We can get them the equipment they need to go about improving their ability and have the least amount of downtime we possibly can.
  • Linking the products we carry to our YouTube channel is really exciting. This gives us one more thing we can put on our site, to link to our efforts on another channel to help get our message out into the world.
  • Facebook Marketplace and Instagram integration are super exciting ways to drive people back to our website as well.
  • We are planning on adding a podcast to our site.
  • Adding embedded maps to allow us to tag sate spots with products ideal for those locations.
  • Highlighting the fantastic community we have built-in Kansas City.
The platform is big enough to fit our current needs, it is ever-expanding to fit our future needs. The tutorials teach us everything we need to fully harness the offerings and trends in our special market. We don't see any need to go to another platform when this one is more than enough.

Evaluating BigCommerce and Competitors

Yes - We were using WordPress for our website needs. As our business expanded the need for an online channel to continue our growth was needed. The current state of retail, especially in the skate industry, demanded that we go online not only to expand our sales but to harness social media platforms. We needed a platform that harnessed what we had already built, and easily, reliably allowed us to build it further, and still gave us the freedom and tools to do it in our own unique way.
  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Product Reputation
  • Third-party Reviews
Product usability was by far the biggest factor. As we are currently a single operator, employee, I needed something that I could do it all and I could teach myself what we needed as we needed it. I needed a platform that could use what we have already built, and would still allow us to change and grow as we needed.
I think I would change a few of the integration options. The only kind of poopy experience that I had was with the Shipstation folks. I started with the free option, but then a salesperson called and talked me into the paid option up. It is the only monthly bill we have that kind of bugs me because we haven't don't have the business yet to need that level of membership. What I have appreciated about BigCommerce is that I didn't receive any calls trying to talk me into upgrades my business didn't need.