Compare BigCommerce with Shopify

Compare BigCommerce with Shopify - The average e-commerce customer spends $ 488 per year online.

96% of Americans shop online and most of those shoppers prefer to shop online because it saves time and helps buyers avoid those crowded markets.

If you're ready to launch your ecommerce store, you'll face the challenge of gathering BigCommerce versus Shopify.

The two biggest names in the ecommerce market Shopify and BigCommerce are the platform to run your website. Undoubtedly, both platforms have gained credibility.

Although Shopify has been popular among merchants and entrepreneurs for its easy-to-use shopping platform since 2004, BigCommerce was launched in 2009. Both leading e-commerce companies handle billions of dollars. Sales are generated by more than dozens and thousands of online retailers.

Choose the perfect server

Nothing is the perfect server with the Vikings. You need a reliable and easy to use interface to build your ecommerce website.

To succeed in business, you need a reliable platform to host your website and support your needs. Here, we will compare and contrast these two leading online hosts and store builder tools to help you choose.

What does BigCommerce with Shopify do

First, you have to understand what these top platforms do.

Both BigCommerce and Shopify are software as a service tool (SaaS). They allow you to sell products online; The product is likely physical or digital.

Shopify is headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. They are the fastest growing company in the field of technology, with exponential growth in the e-commerce space. Currently, the company claims to power more than 600,000 online retailers.

On the contrary, BigCommerce is younger. It originated in Sydney, Australia, but is currently based in Austin, Texas. They serve more than 100,000 online stores worldwide.

It must be said that Shopify experienced a huge increase compared to BigCommerce. It seems that the past was written more customers than the latter.

Both products run in a web browser - meaning there's no installation hassle on desktop or laptop computers.

Most important of all, you have the ability to manage the store from anywhere at anytime (as long as you have an internet connection).

The idea of developing these two products was to simply help users build their e-commerce store with them without coding or designing anything. You have the ability to simply select a template from the provided series, upload it on your side, set the process and get started.

Although you probably don't need the web designer to create your ecommerce store by using BigCommerce from Shopify, having a good eye for aesthetics and design is important. In fact, you have to take a professional photo of your product and display it prominently.

Let us focus on the fact that both companies show significant growth for good reasons. The difference in the picture is likely the result that the other user base side is enjoying the positive effect on the platform.

Compare BigCommerce with Shopify:

1: Price

Cost is the first and most important factor to consider in a deal or purchase.

Certain products are excellent, but they must be affordable. Fortunately, both BigCommerce and Shopify have a reasonable plan.

This is the price of BigCommerce:

BigCommerce has 4 pricing packages:

BigCommerce Standard costs @ $ 22.95 / month

BigCommerce Plus is priced at @ 79.95 / month

BigCommerce Pro costs @ $ 249.95 / month

BigCommerce Enterprice - variety on demand

Shopify has 5 pricing packages:

Shopify Lite @ $ 9 / month

Basic Shopify @ $ 29 / month

Shopify @ $ 79 / month

Shopify advanced @ $ 299 / month

Shopify Plus - prices are subject to change upon request

Shopify is easier to start with your ecommerce store. Naturally, only if you don't need a new website like an online store. With Shopify's cheapest plan at $ 9 / month, you'll get an online shopping button. Place buttons on existing or other websites or even social media channels.

This means that you not only have the ability to create new products in the Shopify dashboard, but also have their own separate purchase buttons for each of them.

However, something is missing too - you don't have a new online store.

If you want to host an official e-commerce store online, you have to spend about $ 30 per month with either server, BigCommerce or Shopify.

Both of the top tools give you almost the same type of features with certain limitations. The only significant difference is that BigCommerce does not restrict creating a few employee accounts, while Shopify only allows two accounts.

You get unlimited product, bandwidth and file storage. Both platforms also offer the same support options, from 24/7 support via phone and live chat.

Now consider the higher package - $ 79 and $ 299 per month with Shopify's side package and $ 79.95, $ 249.95 per month with BigCommerce - none of these plans offers much. improvement over the low-cost feature you get for $ 30 per month.

With Shopify, when you upgrade to the $ 79 per month package, you get professional reports and gift cards.

With BigCommerce, when you upgrade to the $ 79.95 per month package, you get segmentation, customer groups, abandoned shopping cart savers and some advanced functions you might not require. when starting.

When comparing prices, you must consider the fee charged for each sale. While both tools are capable of telling you that, they do not charge a transaction fee, this is not true!

Yes, they do not charge a discount on the sale price, but they charge for credit card processing, which can range from 2.2% to 2.9% + 30c / transaction.

It is also important to warn our readers that the latest price changes within BigCommerce are likely to make it difficult for the growing e-commerce store to scale and reduce costs. For example, if you make more than $ 125,000, BigCommerce will force you to upgrade to the Enterprise package with them, more expensive than Shopify in the same sales.

In general, both platforms are the same when it comes to price. The only difference is that Shopify's $ 9 monthly package is a great and affordable option to enter the e-commerce world without going bankrupt. Although, there is no online store.

Annual discount

BigCommerce and Shopify offer 10% discount for prepaid users for the service / year. However, note that BigCommerce facilitates an annual discount for each Pro and Plus plan.

Shopify goes one step further and offers a 20% discount for users who pay up to 2 years in advance.

Note: Both platforms have a free trial.

2: Sample & Design

When it comes to free themes and templates, Shopify has many advantages over BigCommerce. Shopify offers a wide selection of themes plus 10 free themes compared to 7 free themes from BigCommerce.

In style with the same theme as Shopify, BigCommerce, there are many different options to choose from. Both products give you a great choice in the more free recommended template.

However, the Shopify theme is also significantly different from the BigCommerce theme. Most free BigCommerce themes only differ in color. In fact, the insignificant difference in the BigCommerce theme gives the impression that two themes are provided, not seven.

Shopify also offers more diversity in the free sample. In fact, the Shopify model also has a better design. However, BigCommerce theme is more modern and professional.

See more: How to create a WordPress website

Finally, create an interactive, professional store, and Shopify offers many options for that.

Note: The template you choose is only the side of the story related to aesthetics. You have to make sure that your product image and description are appealing to viewers, regardless of how well designed it is. Poor quality content is less appreciated.

Paid sample

BigCommerce has 120 paid templates. Their prices range from $ 145 to $ 235. Sometimes, BigCommerce also offers several discounted premium models and you have the ability to choose themes with relatively cheaper prices.

Similarly, Shopify has 60 paid topics, from $ 140 to $ 180.

Despite the intriguing numbers, there's no reason to think BigCommerce has better options. In simple words, the BigCommerce theme is repetitive and quite similar. They even have similar names, such as Chelsea Warm, Chelsea Bold, Chelsea Bright and Chelsea Clean.

BigCommerce theme is available in several variants. This means that when you buy something, you have the ability to choose from different variants of the same type. However, the variety is lacking in variation.

On the other hand, the paid Shopify model is different than the other model. Most of the templates come with different variant options than the BigCommerce equivalent model.

In addition, the Shopify theme library is easier to browse. You can easily find and choose the template that suits your needs. It offers a range of filters to help you choose a template based on industry type and design - you have the ability to choose a template based on specific interests such as design elements and a wide or narrow layout.

Note: For better value on money, separate samples from Shopify are more attractive than BigCommerce.

Customize the template

Both tools allow you to extensively customize templates with them. You can use the controls contained in CMS or split into HTML / CSS. This means you will have an attractive online store window that introduces all your products professionally. Shopify is definitely the best in terms of customization.

However, with Shopify, to make changes, another language was used to create a template - Liquid.

Liquid is a simple programming language. It allows users to use HTML and CSS. In addition, you also have the ability to insert tags and variables to create dynamic content.

If it sounds complicated, just continue with the existing template; change typography, colors and other aspects of the layout with standard controls.

Note: If you are not satisfied with the selection of existing themes on BigCommerce and Shopify, you are likely to purchase them from a third party. For example, Themeforest provides a range of samples for both platforms.

3: main features

There are several key features of BigCommerce and Shopify. These features provide all the elements needed to build a strong, professional online store.

You have the ability to create products, manage inventory, optimize online stores for search engines, accept payments through multiple gateways, ...

Please know more about the feature:

Payment gateways

Payment gateway is a leading cause of concern for e-commerce stores.

Both BigCommerce and Shopify allow users to connect a range of payment gateways with a store. However, the number of payment gateways varies by country, such as PayPal, Quickbooks, Worldpay and 2Checkout. Shopify offers over 100 payment options while BigCommerce offers 40.

In general, it is difficult to connect to a third party port. It is likely related to a contract or some monthly fee. Users are likely not interested in such a thing. Therefore, they have the ability to choose only on two platforms.

Shopify users have the ability to use the PayPal or Shopify Payment options, while using BigCommerce has the ability to use PayPal provided by Braintree.

The idea of ‘off-stream’ on BigCommerce is cheaper than Shopify.

Note Both BigCommerce and Shopify have advantages over Sqauresspace - their main competitors. While both BigCommerce and Shopify offer countless payment options, Sqaurespace only allows users to choose from PayPal or Stripe.

It is the payment gateway and functionality provided by Shopify and BigCommerce that makes them the strongest competitor on all other platforms.

Product variation

Online stores in general, have different catalogs and product collections. For example, in a clothing store, you are likely to expect a wide range of men's, women's and children's wear.

Both BigCommerce and Shopify provide simple features to set up product catalogs. However, Shopify has a faster approach. It allows you to manually add products to your collection, create automatic catalogs with products based on supply conditions, and more.

To do this, you have to differ different criteria to build a collection, such as product title, tags, price, weight, seller, etc., instead of browsing through all products and manually adding to women's clothing collections, Shopify has the ability to automatically add any item to women's clothing collections.

This function is useful if the store has more than hundreds and thousands of products. However, you will have to remember to use consistent title conventions for titles to make sure it works.

On the other hand, BigCommerce has the option of 'bulk editing'. It has the ability to speed up the process of cataloging, although it does not have a 'smart gallery'. Therefore, Shopify has an added advantage in this regard.

Product options

Product options are a unique function in the taxonomy. BigCommerce is significantly better than Shopify in this area.

Shopify has certain restrictions. For example, your product is limited to 3 options for each product, such as size, material, and color.

With BigCommerce, you have the ability to create a long list of product options with the flexibility you need.

BigCommerce is the clear winner in this regard.

Upload files & text

While uploading files, BigCommerce gives you the flexibility to upload images directly. However, with Shopify, you have to depend on third party apps or consider coding.

Similarly, in the case of uploading documents, some merchants ask their customers to enter custom data before buying. For example, if you are buying a coffee cup or custom display, you must enter an experiment to record. Both Shopify and BigCommerce allow this, but setting it up with BigCommerc is easier. You only need to add a text field as an option for the product.

Using Shopify, you must add the code to the template to extract 'line item properties' or invest in the app.

Here, again, BigCommerce is the winner. Traders who want to collect customer data with them to personalize their products will find it easier and simpler with BigCommerce than Shopify.

Import and export product data

You have the ability to upload a CSV file containing product data in both platforms.

Shopify allows exporting data to CSV format. However, BigCommerce is more flexible because it allows users to export both CSV as well as XML, although it recommends using the CSV format. It is also a plus point for BigCommerce.

However, both platforms are not suitable for importing or exporting other types of content. They do not provide easy to import or export website posts and static pages.

Writing website

Writing a website is a good way to increase traffic to your ecommerce website, but only when done well. Writing a website about your niche can help you get more relevant traffic. Optimize your party content well to add traffic and promote aggressively.

You can write websites using BigCommerce and Shopify. You can also import posts from your current website into both platforms using Website Sync for BigCommerce and Website feeder for Shopify.

Website functionality for both platforms is in the early stages. It is basic and lacks futuristic features. For example, both platforms do not allow the use of a ‘website category’; Tags are the only restrictions. Moreover, you cannot use the Yoast-style SEO Plugin to compose websites.

BigCommerce website writing function is flawed in the RSS feed. In general, RSS feeds are useful because they allow you to syndicate content and send electronic newsletters containing the latest posts automatically.

However, the only benefit with their website writing function is that it allows you to create short website content to attract traffic. For complex website writing requirements, use third party website integration - WordPress.

Recover abandoned cart

This function is important because it allows you to send email to visitors who have added something to the cart but have not completed the purchase.

SalesCycle, a behavioral marketing company, researched to recover an abandoned cart to find that out of every three people who receive an abandoned cart email, a link is sent in the email and 28% of users actually make a purchase.

Therefore, this feature is extremely important for your development.

BigCommerce feature 'saves abandoned cart.' It allows for 15% recovery of total lost sales. It is said to be much better and more flexible than Shopify. Shopify only allows you to automatically send emails to abandoned cart users, while BigCommerce lets you schedule at least three automated emails to follow.

However, sending a few emails to people who have not completed their purchases is likely to have a drawback. Those emails are likely to be marked as spam. So be realistic and cautious. You do not want to disturb your customers.

Shopify abandoned cart saver is very interesting. It has time to send emails automatically after 1 hour, after 6 hours, after 10 hours and after 24 hours.

Shopify recommends sending emails automatically after 1 hour of abandoning the cart or 10 hours later. Research shows that buyers who abandon their shopping cart are likely to return and complete their purchase after receiving an email after the specified time period.

Shopify's abandoned shopping cart saver is available at $ 29 for the Basic Plan, $ 40 less than BigCommerce.

Reporting tools

Both platforms offer a range of analytical tools, such as:

Customer report

Marketing report

Search report data

Financial report

Report abandoned cart

In addition, Shopify allows you to create custom reports that are available with the Advanced Shopify and Shopify Plus packages. Similarly, BigCommerce reports are allowed to customize at additional cost and provide access to insights reports, providing you with more detailed and sophisticated information about customers, products, and baskets. abandoned goods.

However, the additional charge of $ 49 for BigCommerce for Standard and Plus, $ 99 for Pro and $ 249 for Enterprise makes it quite expensive.

Although the 'Details' option is very expensive, it is still worth choosing BigCommerce thanks to its significant advantages over Shopify. Especially with the reporting feature, you get many types of reports as standard on BigCommerce package.

In contrast, with Shopify, you have to choose the more expensive plan, such as the Shopify package for $ 79 per month or more. Only then are you likely to receive comprehensive reports.

If you choose the cheaper Shopify package, you are likely to get some statistics from the 'online store dashboard'.

4: Easy to use

BigCommerce and Shopify are easy to use and simple. Their side interfaces are similar in design and very easy to use

In both platforms, you can use the menu on the left to select what you want to do - add content, view orders, receive reports, etc. On the right, you have the ability to view the data. and upload / download content.

See more: Creating a free sales Web site

5: Customer support

Both platforms offer similar options to support including phone, forum, live chat, FAQs and email.

Customer support BigCommerce

It has 24/7 customer support via phone, live chat and email. However, before you have access to your email address or phone number, you are encouraged to fill out the form and review the solution with them.

Customer support Shopify

Shopify also has 24/7 customer support. Similar to BigCommerce, you must search for a solution before being granted access to contact details. Shopify provides phone numbers for the United Kingdom, North America, New Zealand and Australia without specifying the number you must dial if you live in another country.

Conclusion

It's hard to say which is better.

Both Shopify and BigCommerce have certain strengths and weaknesses. The strongest reason to use BigCommerce compared to Shopify is that it has many useful and superior features in cheaper packages - reports, ratings, gift cards and reviews. Moreover, product selection is also interesting. You adjust them to specifics on BigCommerce, while you have restrictions in Shopify.

BigCommerce is the best option for website owners who sell products on their own. They need flexible and custom options, which BigCommerce offers.

When it comes to finance, Shopify will be a better choice. Credit card fees are low, there is no sales limit and you are allowed to start selling cheaper with Shopify Lite. Other good reasons would be samples, for both free, paid, and integrated offering more applications. Most importantly, the abandoned cart-saving function is included in the $ 29 monthly package on Shopify, which will entice website owners to try Shopify.