Overall Satisfaction with BigCommerce
We use BigCommerce as our store on our website. We have tried a variety of different software and shopping cart platforms out there over the years, but BigCommerce is the most robust. It offers us the flexibility that we need while giving us full control of each product and their variations.
- Full control of your customers database -from giving them store credit (seems a no-brainer, but there's a lot of software/platforms out there that don't let you do that!!), to being able to go into their account and edit an order for them, to creating ads/coupons based on groups, etc
- Full control of product details - every facet of the product is at your fingertips. Beyond description, price, and image, you get SEO, options, categories (including being able to put your product in multiple categories. Again, something simple, but important!), bulk pricing, mark it coming soon or call for pricing, etc.
- It's so robust!! I've mentioned the full control because it really is so robust and allows you to tailor everything to your store/site/brand, etc. We've used it for years and plan to use it for years to come!
- Steep learning curve - if you have a web/IT person, great, you're golden. If you're just starting out, or switching from a platform that's a little more plug-n-play, you'll discover that along with the robustness of BC comes it's many, many different choices. Which is great....and a bit overwhelming. It IS easy to learn though, just keep plugging away at it and don't be afraid to ask for help through the community, the help desk, or the web!
- Increased average order value
- Streamlined operations
Less than $20,000
- Shopify and Squarespace
We started off using Shopify, as it seems "everybody" does, but we needed more product flexibility and shipping variations. Shopify offered that, but wanted double/triple the price from the tier we were on. Since we were just starting out, we didn't want to pay a crazy big price just to have options. I switched us to BigCommerce as it had what we needed and THEN SOME, all for their basic price. Obviously, they have tiers as well and offer more things as your company grows and expands, but their basic package will be more than enough to last you for a loooooong time. Shopify has since changed/updated their offerings so they now offer the shipping flexibility that we [want], but still, BC wins for offering so much more!
We tried Squarespace and loved their beautiful themes but beyond that, there just wasn't the options we needed. We didn't have access/control of customer database, so giving store credit and editing orders for customers wasn't available. Product variations/flexibility wasn't there either and it was just a lot clunkier and harder to work with than BigCommerce. Again, gorgeous themes, but if you have an IT/web person, they can do the same for you.
We tried Squarespace and loved their beautiful themes but beyond that, there just wasn't the options we needed. We didn't have access/control of customer database, so giving store credit and editing orders for customers wasn't available. Product variations/flexibility wasn't there either and it was just a lot clunkier and harder to work with than BigCommerce. Again, gorgeous themes, but if you have an IT/web person, they can do the same for you.