BigCommerce finally put on its big boy pants!
June 12, 2022

BigCommerce finally put on its big boy pants!

Paul Francis Jones | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Plus

Overall Satisfaction with BigCommerce

Our eCommerce website platform needs to be willing to work with hemp-derived products, and BigCommerce is one of the more well-known platforms in that arena. Honestly, in the last couple of years, BigCommerce hasn't really been my first choice, but again, when you're working with products derived from federally legal hemp, your choices are very limited. Having said that, I've been very surprised with how far BigCommerce has come in the last couple of years, specifically the Page Builder, which essentially allows you to select a free template, and customize it in a drag-and-drop environment, and if you have the time and ability to do that, Page Builder essentially negates the need for a paid, premium template. I would also say adding and editing products, and building out promotions, and customer groups are very easy in BigCommerce, and more robust than the other platforms I previously preferred to work with.
  • Page Builder
  • Promotions
  • Products
  • Order data
  • Complicated product imports/exports
  • Theme updates
  • Provides a robust platform to sell a high-risk product.
  • Page Builder saves you time and money by negating the need to buy a template.
  • Includes robust promotion settings that allow for codes and automatic discounts, bulk discounts, and customer groups (i.e. military discount), all native options.
While I cannot use them due to the nature of our product, I can see that BigCommerce has a robust selection of additional marketplaces native to the backend, so no additional apps or add-ons are required, which is a nice change of pace. When I've connected my store to selling channels like Amazon, eBay, or Walmart in the past, it's always this weird, but free, third-party app and the support hasn't been great, so it's nice to see those options available native in BigCommerce. This would include social media channels and point-of-sale POS.
Other than integration for shipping, I'm honestly not using anything super complicated where I'd feel comfortable saying something like oh the open API is easy to use, or whatever. What I can say though, is in the past I was working with a company that was using this incredibly outdated, all-in-one business software that handled accounting, eCommerce, shipping, and inventory and was REALLY bad at all of them, but you know, a cheap solution that the company liked...anyhow, we connected BigCommerce to that nightmare, easy peasy. There were no issues passing any data back and forth, so in my limited experience, the API works great for any app or custom API you might need to connect.
BigCommerce VS Shopify: Do I like Shopify? Yes. Has Shopify positioned itself as more of a get rich quick drop shipping platform, and alternative to marketplaces like Etsy? Also yes. Listen, I still like Shopify a lot, and there are absolutely still cases where I feel Shopify is the best option out there. Shopify is beautiful on the front-end, you'll definitely have a fantastic looking website, but on the back end, which is very À la carte, it just feels like you get more nickel and dimed to death for some simple functionality, that at this point should be native to the platform. I will say that Shopify's native email marketing, pay as you go, is a really nice feature.

BigComemrce VS Square/Weebly: We're talking about two hemp-friendly eCom platforms, and while you can absolutely build yourself a nice eCom website on Square/Weebly...it can be at times a frustratingly simple website. Super basic, which is both good and bad in that, if you're new to website, it's easy to work with. If you're a person with any professional experience, I promise, Square/Weebly will probably frustrate. In most cases I would recommend BigCommerce.

BigCommerce VS WordPress: If I'm managing a website or an eCommerce website, I like both options, but I would say that because I have ten years experience doing so, I find both platforms to be robust, and easy to work with, whereas a person new to this world would probably have a hard time navigating either platform.



Do you think BigCommerce delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with BigCommerce's feature set?

Yes

Did BigCommerce live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of BigCommerce go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy BigCommerce again?

Yes

BigCommerce is one of the better platforms, in our experience, when working with hemp-derived products like CBD. As a person with ten years in eCommerce, again, I'll say that my previous experience with BigCommerce was neither good nor bad, I'd best describe it as average, and not very memorable. In recent years though, BigCommerce has grown, and become easier to use, and if you're in an industry that a lot of other platforms define as high-risk, BigCommerce is, in my opinion, the best and most robust eCommerce platform you're going to find. Even if we stop talking about hemp-derived products, and go with any other industry like t-shirts or outdoor living products, the improvements on both the front-end and back have made BigCommerce a legit option, comparable to the best eCommerce platforms available.

BigCommerce Feature Ratings

Product catalog & listings
9
Product management
10
Bulk product upload
8
Branding
7
Mobile storefront
8
Product variations
9
Website integration
9
Visual customization
10
CMS
10
Abandoned cart recovery
9
Checkout user experience
8
eCommerce security
7
Promotions & discounts
10
Personalized recommendations
9
SEO
8
Multi-site management
9
Order processing
9
Inventory management
9
Shipping
9
Custom functionality
10