In the past, when people wanted to build an independent mall, they would consider looking for a website building company or a system development company. However, this is no longer the case. Domestic e-commerce companies with billions of dollars in sales, including GlobalE-Commerce, are changing their internal practices and using Shopify as the first choice for subsequent mall construction. They have also given up many of their own internal systems and started to use Shopify as the first choice. However, in addition to Shopify, there is also the option of Bigcommerce. Which of the two best mall systems in the world is better to use?
While Shopify might be one you hear about most often, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best choice. BigCommerce is no stranger to the world of eCommerce. Since 2009, they have been supporting thousands of B2B and B2C companies around the world and revolutionizing the way people shop, work and live.
BigCommerce has the upper hand in many aspects. What are the advantages of BigCommerce?
Using BigCommerce, business owners save approximately $6,000 – $20,000 per year in app subscription fees.
BigCommerce merchants can choose to use special pricing through PayPal Powered by Braintree, but there are no additional transaction fees if the merchant wants to use a different gateway.
Shopify’s credit card processing rates depend on using its native payment gateway (Shopify Payments). If you choose to use another provider, you will also incur additional transaction fees. Transaction fees range from 2% (Shopify Basic) to 0.5% (Shopify Advanced).
Best-in-class SEO features include customizable URL links to improve search rankings and the ability to set a default URL structure for products and categories at the store level and still modify individual products and categories.
Both Shopify and BigCommerce have responsive themes and include content delivery networks (CDNs) to help serve photos and other files based on the visitor’s location. However, BigCommerce merchants also automatically enable Akamai Image Manager on all Stencil themes. This feature automatically resizes images to the optimal combination of size, quality, and file format for each image and device.
BigCommerce has better support for product options and variations. BigCommerce merchants don’t have to worry about paying for another app or creating multiple products to deal with product limitations. With support for up to 600 variations (i.e., options or combinations of options associated with a SKU), BigCommerce merchants can present products in a variety of ways, including support for drop-down menus, radio buttons, checkbox options, sample options, text/number fields, date fields, file uploads, and product select lists (for upselling other products). Shopify supports up to three drop-down menu options with 100 possible combinations/variations.
BigCommerce supports over 70 types of discounts. BigCommerce’s original coupons and cart-level discounts enable merchants to test and create promotions that boost revenue. Shopify still lacks cart-level discounts, and merchants must rely on third-party apps or upgrade to Shopify Plus to get the various discount features native to BigCommerce.
What are the price advantages of Bigcommerce compared to Shopify?
At a quick glance, BigCommerce and Shopify's plans look very similar. However, once you examine the costs of third-party apps, it’s easy to understand why store owners choose BigCommerce.
BigCommerce Pricing
Standard plan $29.95
Plus Plan $79.95
Professional Plan $249.95
Shopify Pricing
Basic Shopify Plan $29.00
Shopify Plan $79.00
Shopify Advanced Plan $299.00
BigCommerce and Shopify both offer
Credit card rates vary depending on package
Each plan can be paid monthly or annually
However, if Shopify merchants use a provider other than Shopify Payments, they are forced to pay additional transaction fees on top of any credit card processing rates. Additional transaction fees range from 2% (on Shopify Basic) to 0.5% (on Shopify Advanced). No matter which credit card processing provider is best for your business, BigCommerce merchants never have to worry about paying additional transaction fees.
Shopify has limited support for options and variations
Product options allow merchants to showcase various product attributes (such as size) and help upshoppers understand additional features. Therefore, it is not uncommon to find products with multiple options/variations.
Natively, Shopify supports up to three drop-down menu options per product, with 100 possible combinations/variations. Attempts to work around this severe limitation require additional third-party applications, which add complexity to inventory tracking and clutter product data. Additionally, numerous apps on the Shopify marketplace will leverage variations to create bulk pricing or cart-level discounts.
BigCommerce merchants don’t have to worry about paying for another app or creating multiple products to work around these types of limitations, with support for up to 600 variations (ie: an option or combination of options tied to a SKU) and/or up to 250 values in a single option (for products without SKUs or inventory-attached options, this is supported). Merchants can also display their options in a variety of styles, including native support for drop-down menus, radio buttons, checkbox options, swatch options, text/number fields, date fields, uploaded files, and product selection lists (for up-selling additional products).
BigCommerce supports more than 70 types of discount promotion models that can be easily set up and used immediately
Over the past two years, Shopify has invested heavily in its native discount capabilities, including the recent addition of buy one, get one free (BOGO) coupon codes. However, Shopify still lacks cart-level discounts (ie: discounts that are automatically applied). As a result, merchants often rely on third-party applications for a variety of discounting capabilities, including any type of cart-level discounts, quantity breaks/tiered pricing, automated discounts/pricing for specific customer segments.
BigCommerce makes it easy to create and schedule cart-level discounts and coupon codes.
Merchants on the BigCommerce Plus plan are also able to create automatic discounts for customers associated with customer groups.
The same level of functionality would have required a third-party app on Shopify or pushed merchants into Shopify Plus to access Shopify’s wholesale channel. Merchants on BigCommerce Enterprise can take tiered pricing to the next level using our native price list functionality. BigCommerce’s original collection of over 70 different coupons and cart-level discounts enables merchants to test and create promotions that drive revenue rather than apply costs.
BigCommerce has only one core product: an e-commerce platform
BigCommerce has completely reinvested in the platforms it supports, allocating all engineering and service resources to maintaining the industry's best cloud-based, multi-channel solution.
Two different e-commerce concepts, two different business models
BigCommerce's industry-leading partners in payments, shipping, POS, and lending offer solutions that are far better than any eCommerce platform could offer - so much so that we've dedicated our entire company to our core platform, making it the best solution on the market.
Shopify focuses on adjacent services such as payments, shipping, point of sale, and lending. These services generate over 60% of Shopify’s revenue and consume a disproportionate amount of Shopify’s engineering, support, and strategic resources.
BigCommerce includes world-class support
No other eCommerce platform has the in-house support and services of BigCommerce. BigCommerce offers an onboarding team to help you migrate and launch easily, as well as 24/7 chat, email, and phone support for technical issues, and a premium services team focused on helping you grow. When it comes to support, merchants who contact BigCommerce have an average wait time of less than two minutes to speak with a support representative, and 90% of support calls are resolved on the first call.
Merchants who contact Shopify tend to have longer dwell times, including for phone and chat support.
To get the same functionality out of the box, Shopify merchants need to install around 35+ additional apps, costing up to $20,000 per year.
When running an online store, it’s important to have a place where you can connect with other businesses that understand what you do and what you’re going through. Having a community gives merchants the opportunity to ask questions, get answers, and discuss with other e-commerce professionals.
On BigCommerce, Community is at the center of your experience. It is more than just a support and problem-solving space. This is a place to connect and talk directly with BigCommerce. Merchants can sign up for the beta, watch town halls, get product news, and submit feature requests. By using Ideas, merchants can submit feature requests to BigCommerce, which are reviewed and updated so the merchant knows when work will begin. It’s a real-time roadmap that merchants can use to get updates and track issues that are important to them.
Ultimately, this experience is designed to better connect merchants to resources and information – while giving merchants the opportunity to connect with our team on a more personalized basis. BigCommerce staff actively participate in all discussions. The BigCommerce CEO, CPO, and product team speak directly to merchants, partners, and developers via webinars every month.
While Shopify has an active forum, it lacks a place for merchants to share and vote. Often, forum threads requesting new features (such as editing orders) will result in a recommendation for another application, or remain active for years without a solution. Shopify also doesn’t share their roadmap or future plans outside of their annual developer conference.
