Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has undergone major changes to accommodate the rapidly changing dynamics of social interaction. One of them was the inevitable transition to an online presence as the physical presence was redefined.
This has led to a surge in online business.
Statistical reports that by 2025 the global e-commerce revenue will reach 7.4 trillion US dollars. Yes! You read it right. It’s a lot.
Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that your business cannot reach its optimum in today’s digital world without an online presence.
It’s time to take your business online if you haven’t already.
There is no need to panic if you do not know the intricacies of creating an online store. There are some great eCommerce tools you can use to do all the hard work of setting up your digital store for you.
BigCommerce and Shopify are among the top tools for eCommerce websites. These tools are the most convenient and effective means to create or expand your business’s online presence.
But which tool to choose among them can be a daunting task. To make things easier, we have tested some popular website-building tools to bring you the very best.
This will help to take into account many factors when choosing the right tool for your online store. These include the nature of your operations, the target market, the scale at which you operate, and options plus the usability of the tool itself.
Sounds unsettling, no? Well, that’s what we’re here for. We’ve done the research!
All you have to do is sit down, review this extensive but brief piece, and make up your mind.
Big Commerce Vs. Shopify
Let’s go through this step by step. We’ll list the pros and cons, main features, and pricing plans for each tool to help you choose the one that’s best for your needs.
What Is BigCommerce?
BigCommerce is a leading cloud-based e-commerce tool that provides SaaS (software as a service) services to its customers. You don’t need to be a technical expert to use this tool.
Its user-friendly interface allows you to create an online store with minimal effort and time. The most important advantage of Big Commerce is its all-in-one, solution-centric approach.
Whether it’s setting up your store, tracking inventory, monitoring orders, dealing with customers, and other marketing-related activities, BigCommerce will help you every step of the way.
BigCommerce opens up broad growth opportunities for your business with its innovative and user-friendly design tools; You can provide your customers with the best shopping experience on your website and keep them coming back for more. It also provides security to preserve customer privacy and maintain the integrity of your store.
This is a big plus if you know a thing or two about programming; you can use it to change the CSS/HTML of your website and customize it to your liking.
Are you also wondering what are the best businesses to use BigCommerce as a customization tool?
Well, let’s get to that now!
Who Is BigCommerce’s Main Customer Base?
BigCommerce is full of exciting features and numerous features that will come in handy if you know the basics or have used such eCommerce tools before.
For beginners who are just starting to set up their store, this can be difficult, as you will need to learn the technical features of the tool.
This is the perfect tool for you if you are looking for:
- Several optimization features such as unique URLs and adding microdata.
- Support to improve the product list with the addition of multiple options
- Available sales features
Overall, BigCommerce is ideal for users who have used eCommerce tools before and are more focused on improving website listings rather than setting up a store and adding features.
What Is Shopify?
Shopify is another amazing cloud-based eCommerce tool to help your business store get started from scratch. The cloud feature means you can access your store from anywhere and on any device with a stable internet connection. Just imagine how this expands the opportunities for developers of sales businesses around the world.
The wide range of merchants already using the service makes Shopify one of the best tools in the eCommerce industry. With a staggering presence in approximately 175 countries, Shopify not only builds trust in your business but also learns from various business booms to help you choose the best practices for your storefront and backend design.
Shopify, managing a high level of service, offers different plans depending on the nature and size of your store. Its core product is standard on all of these plans.
This covers all the templates you need to integrate your store with the branding and colors you’re targeting, the various add-ons you need to list products, set up different payment gateways, develop a shopping cart system, and streamline checkout. process. You are also sorted here if you want to rank your store organically on Google.
Shopify provides state-of-the-art SEO tools to optimize your website.
For additional services, you can access both additional Shopify tools and third-party servers designed specifically to customize your storefront. Other tools can be used for many purposes, including improved payment gateways and greater access to meet your capital requirements.
Well, that’s it for the meaningful introduction to Shopify. Let’s take a look at which businesses are best suited to use the company’s services to optimize their online store.
Who Is Shopify’s Main Customer Base?
Since Shopify offers a wide range of services under various plans available for every type of business, it becomes the right tool for all entrepreneurs who want to conduct a significant part of their operations online.
The company has grown thanks to its experience in serving various global merchants. This makes the operations and setup tools extremely accessible and equally suitable for both professionals and those who are setting up their online presence for the first time.
However, you won’t be able to access Shopify plans if you’re setting up a store to provide investment services, digital wallets, gambling, or phone and travel plans. The company also has an ethical obligation and does not allow the creation of websites with adult content or products.
All in all, if you’re looking for a tool that makes it easy to set up and customize your first business website, Shopify is your choice!
Which ECommerce Tool Offers The Best Features For Your Online Store?
Each of these three tools has a wide range of users and thus provides different services to make your store as user-friendly and well-functioning as possible. You want a more detailed comparison before making your final choice.
So, let’s list some of the main features you need in an eCommerce tool and compare the three options based on them.
Web Design
Several features affect your web design. Let’s take templates as an example. With over 280 free and premium themes and templates, Shopify is taking the biggest piece of the pie in this regard.
All of these templates have attractive colors and designs. You can easily customize the overall look to implement an existing store brand theme.
BigCommerce, on the other hand, has less than 60 templates, most of which are paid. However, you can search the themes in the store to match the ones that best suit your preferences.
Complex Sales
In today’s digital age, both medium and large businesses rely on multiple channels to serve different customers.
Well, how great would it be if your eCommerce tool could integrate sales made through your store as well as other online and physical channels?
These platforms include:
- Social network
- Marketplaces
- physical stores
Shopify and BigCommerce play a minor role in social media integration. While Shopify is fully integrated with Facebook sales and payments, BigCommerce supports features through the Twitter and Pinterest platforms.
Volusion wins the race for marketplaces that provide a fully integrated sales and payment channel through Amazon.
For offline sales, Volusion does not allow integration with third-party servers.
In contrast, BigCommerce integrates with Square to help users sign up for an account that accepts various debit and credit cards, and Shopify uses its features for this purpose.
Equipment is available at an additional cost.
Ease Of Use
While tools are functionally elegant, Shopify is the easiest to set up for beginners. It has a clear and simple dashboard to help you set up and customize your store with just one click.
For that matter, you don’t need any technical knowledge of coding or HTML processes.
BigCommerce also has neat dashboards.
However, the setup and coding processes are more complicated with BigCommerce. This makes them a bit difficult for users to set up their first stores. BigCommerce provides quick start guides and video tutorials to guide users through the setup process.
Payment Processes
Online stores and brick-and-mortar stores require special technologies to accept payments with cards and bank accounts. These technologies are professionally referred to as payment gateways.
The more gateways a particular company supports, the smoother and more efficient the in-store payment process will be.
Shopify helps your store host over 100 secure gateways.
BigCommerce has 40 such partners, while Volusion allows 34 gateways. Shopify and BigCommerce have also established long-term partnerships with PayPal, allowing stores to earn better rates on cash transactions.
Data Security
Online e-commerce tools rely on various server networks to speed up the delivery of their stores. One such network is the content delivery network, which deploys servers in multiple locations to help download and display online content.
Shopify deploys this resource and thus has a very dynamic and secure web.
In addition, it is also PCI Level 1 certified and rigorously verified by PCI DSS. Volusion also relies on the same CDNs and is also PCI verified. BigCommerce has its own servers; it is independent of content delivery networks. It is PCI level 1 certified but has not received any validation from the DSS installation.
Pricing Plans
At this point, we assume that you have decided which tool you will invest in for your business.
But let’s not rush. You don’t want to empty your bank account every month without weighing the value of these fantastic tools against their cost.
BigCommerce gives you four different pricing plans, while Shopify offers five pricing plans.
The BigCommerce and Shopify pricing plans are pretty much the same, with Shopify pricing plans costing $0.95 less than BigCommerce.
Shopify’s basic plan starts at $29/month and goes up to $299/month for the advanced plan.
BigCommerce Pricing Plan
The most popular BigCommerce plan is BigCommerce Plus which costs $79.95 per month. However, when you purchase an annual subscription, you can save up to 10% on the Plus and Pro plans. You can try the 15-day free trial to find the best plan for your business.
With the BigCommerce Plus plan, you get all the benefits of the standard plan, plus customer segmentation for a differentiated experience with your website.
Along with automatic email reminders to customers about abandoned carts, easy switching between different devices for customers without losing their data, and the ability to save billing and shipping information for future purchases.
BigCommerce Pro Offers The Following Additional Features:
- Product filtering
- Custom product filtering
- Google customer reviews
Finally, the BigCommerce Enterprise is different in that it provides the following additional features:
- Multiple storefronts using one account
- Price lists
- Unlimited API calls
Shopify Pricing Plan
The most beneficial factor to consider when purchasing any Shopify plan is that you can save up to 50% on Shopify plans if you purchase an annual subscription instead of a monthly one.
Like BigCommerce, Shopify also lets you take advantage of a 14-day free trial (no credit card required, too). Shopify’s pricing plans are more or less similar to BigCommerce, with the addition of a starter package that starts at $5/month.
This plan is for those who are just starting their online business and want to launch a platform. With this starter plan, you can sell your products on existing websites, messaging apps, and social networks like Facebook, Instagram, etc.
If you want more freedom and creativity, consider the Standard or Advanced Shopify plan. With the Shopify Advanced Plan, you get:
- Employee accounts 15
- Up to 8 storage spaces
- Custom report builder
Shopify’s advanced plan is followed by Shopify Plus, which is aimed at large enterprises and large businesses.
Which Tool Is More Useful For You?
Benefits Of BigCommerce
- The convenient interface simplifies work. You can play around with the many features and create the perfect online store without falling into a pit of complexity.
- It can be linked to a Syncee account to access a wide range of providers.
- It accepts payments in over 100 currencies and offers excellent exchange rates.
Benefits Of Shopify
- Shopify is the easiest tool to set up your first online tools. Its dashboard is neat and all designs and themes are available with a single click.
- Stores built with Shopify are mobile-friendly, making them ideal platforms for today’s digital consumers.
- The wide range of themes and templates available on Shopify makes it the perfect choice for those who are passionate about the brand.
- Shopify also offers SSL certification to ensure your customers’ data is always safe.
Pros And Cons Of BigCommerce
Pros Of BigCommerce
- Contains a number of built-in sales functions
- Offers built-in SEO features to increase organic traffic.
- Absolutely no transaction fees
- Provides an unlimited variety of products
- Offers unlimited staff accounts
Cons
- Need a third party for email marketing
- Lack of multilingual options
- Only 7 themes for
Shopify Pros And Cons
Pros Of Shopify
- Provides industry-specific storefront themes
- A convenient control panel simplifies site management
- No additional server maintenance fee required
Cons Of Shopify
- Unlike BigCommerce, Shopify charges a transaction fee if you use payment methods other than Shopify payments.
- Limited customization if you don’t have coding knowledge
- Limits your ability to switch to another tool
Conclusion of Shopify VS. Big Commerce
Shopify is best suited for new players in the online business market, especially those who want to start their own businesses without much investment.
Bigcommerce, on the other hand, is a tool that provides end-to-end solutions for both startups and well-established companies with a lot of customization and creativity.
There is no specific answer as to which e-commerce tool is best. Both tools are targeted to specific customers based on their store size, design requirements, product mix, and nature of operations.
We recommend getting started with Shopify simply because its ecosystem is very well established. However, if you don’t find it suitable for your business, BigCommerce is an amazing alternative.
