E-commerce is the way for businesses to expand their sales by allowing customers to visit their websites, browse through their online stores and make purchases. As a result, companies are either opting for E-commerce website builders or hiring professional eCommerce developers for the requirement. If you have been considering the former choice, then a comparison like Shopify vs BigCommerce comes handy.
Shopify and BigCommerce are among the leading eCommerce platforms that consistently rise to the occasion. This post is all about analyzing these two E-commerce players. It can help in understanding that when it comes to Shopify vs BigCommerce showdown, which eCommerce platform is better for building E-commerce websites. Nowadays, eCommerce development services play a big role in making your online business stay ahead of the competition.
Shopify vs BigCommerce – Scorecard
Companies doing online business prefer eCommerce because of several factors including ease of use, help and support, value for money, design flexibility, and sales features.
BigCommerce and Shopify are among the leading eCommerce platforms with diverse global usage. Both of these technologies had also appeared in distinguished shopping cart software in our earlier post as well.
Features | Shopify | BigCommerce |
Design | 4 | 3.5 |
Simplicity | 4 | 3.5 |
Sales Potential | 4.7 | 4.5 |
Customer Support | 4.5 | 3.5 |
Cost | 3.5 | 4 |
Total Score | 4.7 | 4.2 |
What works For Shopify?
Having been in the eCommerce industry since 2006, Shopify is the old chum of the block. This implies that it is a steady E-commerce platform with high-end features and over 1 million customers around the world.
If you consider Shopify Development for eCommerce website, it has an amazing inventory system that supports multi-channel selling on various social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. This is a stellar feature for businesses that believe in incorporating social media into upselling their products and services.
In terms of ease of use, Shopify is reckoned easier which makes a lot of new and aspiring businesses to adopt Shopify as the go-to platform for creating their E-commerce website. Shopify has amazing sales features to support any type of business with standard features including SSL certificates, abandoned cart recovery, multi-channel selling and powerful inventory.
Considering the design usability, Shopify is better than BigCommerce. Shopify has its own payment gateway for managing and processing the online payments.
Shopify provides 8 free themes, and has over 60 paid themes available too. These come in a range of industries and styles, and vary in price from $140 to $180. It’s easy to find your perfect theme by searching via layout, size of store, industry, navigation style, and more. Shopify has a great set of customized themes that are professional with a wide range of industries covered for various businesses.
Customer support is a crucial factor when it comes to eCommerce website development, a lot of Shopify Developers will also tell you that support comes in handy especially if they are able to figure out some issue with the platform. Mediums of customer support by Shopify include 24/7 phone hotline, 24/7 live chat, help center, support forum, email support, video tutorials, and advanced specialist support.
What doesn’t work for Shopify
Due to not having multi-currency support, Shopify is reliant on third-party apps. As a result, some international vendors and companies do not use Shopify. Another drawback of Shopify is that the transactions performed through it are charged additional fee unless performed through its own payment system.
Shopify has some basic built-in features but for availing other features for your eCommerce website development, you will have to refer to the Shopify app store where you can add whatever you want to your site. The store consists of advanced tools to give you a high level of customization. But there is a price to this – of course! You pay for these plugins that aren’t included in the monthly plan.
Shopify has 3 types of pricing plans ranging from $29 to $299. So, the more you pay, the more extensive feature set it is there for you to avail.
Who’s powered by Shopify
Currently as many as 1350000+ websites make use of Shopify according to Builtwith. These big brands include eCommerce stores like the following.
- Tesla Motors
- The Economist
- Red Bull Shop US
- Good American
- StockTwits
- P&Co
- SkyMall
- Peepers
- Victoria Beckham
- 100% Pure
What works for BigCommerce
Since 2009, despite being a relative newer entrant in the eCommerce industry, BigCommerce has a credible 17$ billion merchant sales. BigCommerce development is preferred by businesses because of the extensive in-built feature set. It supports multi-channel selling, with great SEO support, for boosting search rankings.
BigCommerce has a vast range of built-in features with same type of standard features as in Shopify including SSL certificate for protecting your store and online payments processing, abandoned cart recovery, multi-channel selling and powerful inventory.
Over recently, BigCommerce introduced a new visual merchandising tool called Store Design that allows editing store-front on-screen. The customization of your website has become relatively easier with less time spent as experienced before through the platform.
BigCommerce gives you the leverage to form better online stores – that is if you know your way through the E-commerce platform. Although, BigCommerce has a smaller store in contrast to Shopify but it has 0% transaction fees for even accessing data reporting tools.
In terms of better value for money, BigCommerce has more affordable pricing plans that start as lowest as $71.95 per month. And it even provides 15 days fee trail with most of features available for trying out.
What doesn’t work for BigCommerce
A lot of BigCommerce Developers are experienced professionals which means you need to incur additional cost in hiring such professionals. The reason is that BigCommerce has a high learning curve and complex terminology which makes it unsuitable for beginners. A lot of newbie developers don’t understand how to familiarize with advanced features. Similarly, it’s interface for editing is also difficult to navigate.
When it comes to themes for BigCommerce, there are 12 free themes available, with over 130 themes that can be purchased. The price of paid themes in BigCommerce is relatively higher in differentiation to Shopify. BigCommerce’s customer support isn’t as extensive as Shopify’s, as the latter even provides social media support.
Who uses BigCommerce
There are about 49000 websites running on BigCommerce as per the trends by Builtwith. The eCommerce stores powered on BigCommerce include the big names like the following.
- Ford
- Sony
- Toyota
- Sharp Electronics
- Hush Puppies
- Fujitsu
- Dupont
- Fitbit
- Skullcandy
- Utah Jazz Team Store
Shopify vs BigCommerce – Who’s the Winner
When it comes to eCommerce Developers, the popular vote is with Shopify because it’s easier to use and customize. In fact, you will be able to hire developers working on this platform at very economical prices. Hence, if you have a small budget and want to start an online store then its best you pick out Shopify and one of its lesser price plans for starting out your next eCommerce venture.
Both of these platforms have a lot of capabilities in terms of usability, plugins, design, themes and various capabilities. However, Shopify trumps BigCommerce on certain factors by having edge over some features that are not that extensive in BigCommerce.
It is easy to decide the better eCommerce platform based on these factors and the clear winner is Shopify. It allows businesses of all magnitude to start off on their business venture with a limited set of budget and time.
Conclusion
BigCommerce definitely does not have the following like Shopify. But the eCommerce development services provided through BigCommerce can be extremely extensive. If you have the right set of IT resources who know their trade well, they can utilizing BigCommerce for creating a unique store.
If you are an upcoming company looking for a cost-effective eCommerce solution then Shopify Developers can help you do the needful.
However, if you are an already established business looking for further expansion then top BigCommerce web design companies can assist you increase your customer share in the E-commerce market.
Are you new to eCommerce? Or you want to expand online business? Techliance has the best IT resources for your eCommerce website development needs. Talk to us for a detailed discussion about your E-commerce project. Free 1-week trial is in place to get you started.