Should You Be Selling on BigCommerce in 2017?

BigCommerce is an ecommerce platform for retailers of all sizes. It’s an incredibly powerful and diverse solution. But with so many other packages out there, the burning question is: if you’re an ecommerce retailer, should you be selling on BigCommerce in 2017? On their website, BigCommerce boasts that retailers using their platform grow 28% year-on-year. That’s nearly twice the industry average! It also comes in at around a quarter of the cost of on-premise solutions like Magento, with no hosting, maintenance or update expenses. In this post, we’ll look at some of the reasons why selling on BigCommerce could be an essential part of your ecommerce strategy in 2017.   Themes BigCommerce features a huge variety of great-looking themes. Within a few minutes of signing up, ecommerce retailers can customise their online store, upload their product range and start selling. Some BigCommerce themes are better than others, and it’s no surprise that the free ones don’t quite stand up to the paid themes. Paid themes cost around $170. It’s a small price to pay for having a stunning online store that looks great on any device. If you don’t want to use a template for your store, BigCommerce allows for full customisation. You’ll just need to have a decent level of technical ability to create an ecommerce website that is completely bespoke to your brand. The good news is sites like UpWork are full to the brim with talented designers and developers who can create a totally custom BigCommerce store, fully tailored to your retail business.   Ecommerce Tools From the moment you sign up to BigCommerce, you’ll have everything you need to build a stunning, bullet-proof and modern online store. Everything you can think of to help grow your brand is available right out of the box. Check out some of the features BigCommerce offers retailers on the features page of its website.   Support Running into technical difficulties is one of the most frustrating aspects of operating an online store. This could mean you’re missing out on sales, and gives new visitors to your website a terrible first impression. Whilst BigCommerce promises an average uptime of 99.99%, it’s good to know that they offer 24/7 support via both phone or email for those times when you do need help. You’ll also have access to thousands of articles and videos and the BigCommerce community forum. Online support is only ever a few clicks away.   Free Trial Before you dive in at the deep end, BigCommerce allow you to try their software completely free for up to 15 days. You don’t even need to enter your credit card details. You’ll have full access to almost all features on offer, as well as the BigCommerce support team and online community. It’s a great way to see if BigCommerce is a suitable platform for your business. If you’re happy using BigCommerce after the 15-day free trial, simply enter your card details and carry on selling as you were!   Apps Like other ecommerce platforms, BigCommerce has a huge range of apps that you can connect to your online store. These apps cover everything from order management, shopping cart upselling, refer-a-friend plugins and affiliate marketing. The list is almost endless, and means you can meet all the demands of today’s demanding ecommerce shopper. All of these apps are designed to make your BigCommerce more profitable, giving you a huge range of extra tools that are sure to take your ecommerce sales to the next level.   Multichannel According to research, retailers who list their products on multiple channels receive an average of three times as many sales compared to a single-channel retailer. With the integration between BigCommerce and Veeqo, you can become a multichannel retailer in just a few clicks. Within a matter of moments, your entire BigCommerce product range can be seamlessly listed on both Amazon and eBay. Not only does this mean you’re selling on BigCommerce, you’re now a multichannel retailer with your products listed on the world’s biggest marketplaces. And you can use Veeqo to manage and ship every single order.   Pricing BigCommerce offers several pricing options. These cater for both new and emerging businesses, as well as fast-growing, established brands. The “Standard” package is perfect for retailers that are just getting started, and costs as little as $29.95 per month. Retailers that get a higher volume of sales will need to move to either their “Plus” or “Pro” plan. There’s also a fully-fledged “Enterprise” option available for larger businesses.   Conclusion BigCommerce is a truly awesome platform for ecommerce retailers. Its range of customisable themes will suit most retailers, and the tools they offer for increasing your sales are second-to-none. 24/7 support is essential for retailers in 2017, so it’s great that BigCommerce offers this to all its customers. Extending your ecommerce website via the BigCommerce app store is a great way of scaling your business. And the various pricing options are perfectly suited to businesses of all sizes. It’s true that there are other similar platforms available for online retailers. But BigCommerce is definitely worth checking out for any online retailer who wants to significantly grow their business in 2017. Sign up for BigCommerce now