In the last few years, ecommerce has grown rapidly because instead of visiting stores physically, customers prefer to shop online at their convenience. This surge in the demand for ecommerce platforms such as Shopify and BigCommerce has created new commercial avenues. Shopify and BigCommerce are popular and widely used ecommerce platforms, but finding the best suitable options to match your requirements can often be a dilemma.
As we all know, BigCommerce and Shopify are ecommerce platforms powered by their built-in features and app integrations. When we compare these two, in some aspects Shopify leads the game while in some cases BigCommerce wins. So, it’s difficult to decide which platform is best for your business and for that, you can consult an expert ecommerce development company that can handle the development process and build a custom solution.
When the online shop goes live, a few differentiating things come up among the two. Still, it is difficult to select the one as an ideal platform. When a BigCommerce store goes live, there are a few features and functionalities that represent the difference between the two platforms. Knowing your requirements, you can choose the most suitable one for your business. Ecommerce experts can guide you in making the decision. Now, let’s dig into the most important facts and differences between BigCommerce vs Shopify with a detailed overview.
BigCommerce Overview
We all are familiar with BigCommerce, it is an open-source, software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based ecommerce platform that helps all types of businesses regardless of their size to build online stores to sell products. BigCommerce is built on advanced technologies which bring powerful features like professional web hosting services, payment integration, marketing tools, and security features for crafting the BigCommerce online store.
Hire a BigCommerce development company to build a tailor-made ecommerce store using BigCommerce to manage the end-to-end ecommerce operations starting from store setup, and design to deployment seamlessly. Expert BigCommerce developers handle the backend, hosting, security and many other functionalities of the website and can design an attractive storefront aligned with your brand.
BigCommerce has everything needed to build and manage an online store such as customisation options, a shopping cart, a product catalogue, order management options, and a centralised repository. All the BigCommerce features can be applied to a single business or multiple businesses too.
BigCommerce offers various built-in APIs, themes, templates, UI kits, and integrations with frontend framework and third-party software which enables BigCommerce development company to customise your online store as per your need.
Benefits of BigCommerce
Scalability
In this digital era, scalability is an essential part of businesses to adapt to the constantly changing needs and habits of consumers. You can hire BigCommerce developers who are capable of creating a unique, scalable and affordable online BigCommerce store for you.
Theme Customisation
At the centre of this ecommerce platform are its themes and templates that shape the identity of your online store. Themes are the blueprint of your store that determines everything starting from colour schemes to layout. Expert BigCommerce developers can customise your online store to match your brand identity.
Built-in Functionality
BigCommerce can be used by startups or small to mid-size enterprises to build an online store because of its built-in functionality. They offers marketing tools for SEO, email marketing, social media and search engine optimization that will help you promote your store to attract potential customers.
Usability
BigCommerce has a user-friendly interface that helps BigCommerce developers with a drag-and-drop feature for customising the store layout. With API integration BigCommerce developers can assist you to extend the store functionality and add new pages, products, or sections quickly and easily.
Ease of Use
Hire BigCommerce developers to create an easy-to-navigate admin dashboard. BigCommerce’s vast range of theme customisation options and seamless integration with various apps and services make your store intuitive and user-friendly.
Online Store Features and SEO
BigCommerc has a built-in SEO feature which helps you in marketing your store to a targeted audience. While crafting the BigCommerce store, you can make it SEO-friendly by optimising the meta tags and keywords in the website.
Support
BigCommerce offers 24/7 support through various media such as phone and email. It will make the query-addressing process smoother and faster for the users.
Security
The BigCommerce development company built a highly secured BigCommerce store for you. SSL-certified online stores with regular software updates and security monitoring can help you store user data and perform financial transactions without any data breach.
Payment Gateways and Shipping
BigCommerce is compatible with various payment gateways to make the checkout process easy and convenient for customers. It allows third-party payment gateway integration which opens the doors for customers to choose the preferred one.
Apps, Integrations, and Extensions
BigCommerce has an extensive app collection that can help you to expand the functionality of your site. You can hire BigCommerce developers to add functionalities like accounting, catalogues, order management, checkout, CMS, hosting, CRM, customer service, and many more to your BigCommerce store as per your needs.
Pros of BigCommerce
- BigCommerce has a vast ocean of built-in features and functionalities that help businesses expand their range of offerings without any extra effort.
- Hundreds of products can be accommodated by the BigCommerce store which helps you to scale the business easily.
- BigCommerc’s built-in app store has marketing, analytics, shipping, payment gateways and more such kinds of apps that can be integrated into the store to cater a variety of business needs.
- BigCommerce has maintained the quality of its apps, features and functionalities and so the reputed BigCommerce development company can help you in maintaining the quality of your BigCommerce store.
- BigCommerce seamlessly integrates with popular services, platforms and third-party applications to stand with the customer’s expectations to expand its features and functionalities.
Shopify Overview
Shopify is the trending ecommerce platform, its mobile-friendly nature will help you in marketing your products or services available for customers on the go! You can tweak the look and feel of your store with Shopify and make it accessible on all devices regardless of size and shape. Development company ensures that your online store works well without breaking the design and functionality on any device, providing a smooth shopping experience for your customers.
Shopify is a globally used ecommerce platform that allows businesses to build and design an online store. Shopify provides a comprehensive set of tools and built-in features that can help you in the process of building, optimising, launching, and scaling an online store. The platform allows businesses to market online stores or products globally using web, mobile, or other social media channels and online marketplaces. With easy-to-use interfaces, Shopify is becoming a favourite platform for building an online store.
Benefits of Shopify
Ease of Use
Shopify is an easy-to-use platform for individuals and businesses looking to set up an online store. It provides a user-friendly interface which can be changed and customised by Shopify experts. Shopify has a vast range of themes and templates that can change the look and feel of your brand. They offers a variety of apps and integrations that can extend your online store’s functionality such as marketing tools, inventory management, customer support features and more.
Flexible to Use
In a way, Shopify is a very obedient platform. Starting from designs to features, functionalities and backend everything can be customised. Shopify’s admin panel is highly intuitive where business owners can manage resources, buyer’s questionnaires, and many such things as per necessity.
Marketing Features
You can market your Shopify store using social media integration, SEO and Google Ads. It helps you to grow your business by marketing your brand on these platforms or by creating a campaign. You need to hire certified Shopify developers to make your ecommerce store market-ready.
Usability
Shopify is a user-friendly platform with a seamless interface that makes it easy to navigate and manage stores. Shopify offers an extensive collection of themes and apps which can be dragged to optimise your store. It also provides numerous APIs, like marketing, payment gateways and more making it easier to manage your site.
Content Marketing
Shopify has built-in marketing tools such as email marketing with which you can create campaigns and set up automated emails to engage your customers. Shopify allows businesses to install an external app for content marketing. You can utilise plug-and-play apps for added functionalities,
Support and Security
Shopify is one of the most reliable ecommerce platforms that offers 24/7 phone and live chat support. Development company can assist you in handling real-time problems and make your store secure by integrating SSL security protections and fraud analysis. Shopify experts create an ecosystem for you to maintain the backups and keep you updated with the changing technology advancement.
Payment Gateways and Shipping
Shopify’s payment gateways allow customers to purchase products or services from your Shopify store using their preferred gateways. Hire Shopify developers to integrate your preferred payment gateways, also Shopify allows businesses to use third-party payment gateways. It will help you increase your shopping experience, target specific geographical locations, and make your brand available globally.
Customizability
Shopify is a highly customisable platform when it comes to its themes, features, plugins, functionality or payment gateways. It allows you to make more subtle decisions while integrating any of the features or functionality for your Shopify store. Shopify development company makes a tailored store for you to meet your needs.
Centralised Management
Shopify provides a centralised and user-friendly dashboard to manage, configure, control and monitor the online store’s functionality. Business owners can manage user data, inventory, and financial transactions without any hassle.
Pros of Shopify
- Shopify has a vast collection of free and paid unique theme options which can be optimised for your store to make it attractive.
- Shopify has a huge number of apps in the app store which can be integrated to upgrade the features and functionality of your store.
- Shopify has an intuitive dashboard which makes an easy-to-navigate platform for both visitors and business owners
- Shopify stores are connecting bridges for offline and online sales in a single place with some built-in store pickup and local delivery options.
- Expert Shopify developers can install and integrate the apps easily to make the store user-friendly by adding the apps.
BigCommerce vs Shopify: A Comparative Analysis
BigCommerce and Shopify both are ecommerce industry-leading platforms with significant features. Following are the factors that will help you understand the mere differences between Shopify vs BigCommerce.
Usability
BigCommerce has a drag-and-drop feature which makes it easy to customise the store for BigCommerce development company and easy to use for the end users because of its user-friendly interface. Expert BigCommerce developers can add new pages, products or categories to your store which can be edited whenever required. It has a built-in content management repository and API integration to make store management and product content delivery easy.
Shopify is also a user-friendly platform with an intuitive interface which makes it easy for users to navigate the store, add products, and optimise all operations. Its drag-and-drop feature enables businesses to easily set up the look and feel of the store.
Shopify and BigCommerce both are flexible platforms and can be integrated with multiple third-party applications to enhance the store’s functionality. But to some extent, Shopify has more integration options than BigCommerce in terms of usability.
Customization
BigCommerce and Shopify both have a vast range of customisable and mobile responsive paid and free themes. For customisation, BigCommerce offers the drag-and-drop feature with a simple modification, but when specific changes are required it might lack flexibility. You can hire expert BigCommerce developers to make specific changes in the code editor with some limitations in the fonts. If you wish to add any particular font, then you might need to get help from some other sources.
On the other hand, Shopify is highly customisable as compared to BigCommerce. Shopify customisation gives you more flexibility with a wider selection of modules to select, add, and remove as required. Shopify web designers can make subtle design changes in fonts and colours as suited to your brand.
Apps, Plugins, and Integrations
BigCommerce and Shopify both offer thousands of applications, plugins and flexibility for third-party integrations to extend the functionality of your store. It allows you to track shipments, analyse customer behaviour, personalise the shopping experience and streamline ecommerce operations. The number of apps offered by Shopify ranks high and brings out-of-the-box functionality to your store. However, you can choose the features and functionality suitable for your business while choosing the ecommerce platform.
Built-in features and Functionality
BigCommerce and Shopify both offer an ocean of features and functionalities including shopping carts, inventory control, and a selection of themes to allow seamless setup of your store. A key feature of BigCommerce is its multi-storefront setup and omnichannel selling options. On the other hand, Shopify offers features such as point-of-sale (POS) to support your brick-and-mortar stores. BigCommerce provides a number of payment gateway integrations and integration with popular digital and mobile wallets however, Shopify offers payment gateway integrations and its own payment gateway which raise the bar of Shopify’s popularity.
Performance and Security
BigCommerce is an SSL-certified platform with a robust infrastructure to handle high-volume traffic at any hour and offers multiple layers of security to protect the site from unauthorised access. On the other hand, Shopify is also an SSL-certified platform with optimum performance capabilities but lacks in cases of peak traffic scenarios. Therefore, with a higher layer of security, BigCommerce is the more secure solution.
Conclusion
BigCommerce and Shopify both are excellent platforms with a range of features and functionalities. They both offer customisable themes, payment gateways, integration, performance, and robust security. Choosing the right ecommerce platform depends on the specific business needs, business size, and lastly budget.
