Which Ecommerce Platform Is Right For Your Business?

Did you know that over eighteen thousand websites in the United States alone are using BigCommerce? Moreover, over five thousand throughout the rest of the globe are using it. On top of that, it serves over 120 countries and brings in about $17 billion in merchant sales, ad about $200 million more in funding. Why is that? BigCommerce offers many great features and advantages to its users. First of all, it is the most expandable eCommerce platform and strides to be as easy-to-use for its customers as possible. It offers more built-in features than any other platform (i.e. there are more than five thousand applications and design platforms to choose from.) Once users are all set up, there is a how-to tutorial for beginners. With BigCommerce, you get an unlimited supply of bandwidth, products, and storage space. There are no fees for the setup or transactions, no matter what plan a user has purchased. Users are also able to sell across many social media channels, including Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest, and can connect very well with other eCommerce platforms. Another great feature of BigCommerce is its built-in product review function and its built-in blog that allows marketers to use inbound marketing techniques without any third-party tool or having to set up a subdomain for your blog. This platform has some great SEO features, and uses AMP format, such as the ability to create short URLS and an automatic image optimization. It also offers easy-to-create custom fields. Not only does BigCommerce have a very thorough and comprehensive software, but it allows you to test it first. Lastly, BigCommerce is very mobile-friendly, which, with most of the public accessing everything on their phones, is a major upside.

Did you know that as of last September, Shopify has 600,000 merchants and $63 billion in sales? Perhaps that is because of the many bonuses of using Shopify. First of all, Shopify is much more effortless for beginners to understand than even BigCommerce. With straightforward guides and detailed instructions, most inexperienced customers can figure out how to use Shopify without much difficulty. On top of having a phenomenal, mobile-adaptable website design, Shopify offers more than 170 themes to choose from. Therefore, you are bound to find one that strikes you. To that end, the Shopify App Store has plenty of great add-ons for your store that can help heighten the overall customer experience. Lastly, Shopify's customer service support is available all day, everyday. If you have any problems or questions, they can be answered right away at any time.

Before you instantly decide to partner with BigCommerce or Shopify, consider the benefits of using one of BigCommerce and Shopify's competitors, Magento. In fact, about 12% of the e-commerce businesses use Magento. Merchants who use Magento typically grow by about triple. Why is that? It could be any of a number or reasons. Firstly, there is a widespread Magento Forum that is essentially a major community-supported database that act as a customer support line. Unlike some other platforms, Magento does not have restrictions of your website is designed. how you design your website. As an open-source platform, it is free and publicly available, although you will have to pay for your own hosting. There are almost 3000 apps and extensions (both free and paid) to choose from. Even though the platform may seem very technical and difficult to amateurs, most of the extensions are very handy for beginners. Magento's state-of-the-art testing abilities make it so that you can detect for any defects (such as bugs or glitches) beforehand, which can save you time, money and unhappy customers. Lastly, you are able to experiment and test out the different features before finalizing a decision.

As important as it is to consider the benefits each platform can offer your business, it is just as important to consider the drawbacks, so you are not caught off-guard by any unpleasant surprises. Even though using BigCommerce comes with many impressive advantages, there are also some downsides,. Firstly, there unfortunately is a certain amount of annual sales you may reach and, if exceeded, you will have to upgrade to a more expensive monthly plan. There is also a certain amount of free themes you may use for your store, and the templates can become expensive. It is also important to note that the price of a starter plan is more than that of its competitors. Contrary to some of its competitors, BigCommerce's customer support has limited hours.

Similarly, there are drawbacks to consider before choosing Shopify. This platform can also get unnecessarily pricy, For instance, it will charge you transaction fees and offer many apps that can get expensive with its variants,. Also, even though Shopify offers some nice discounts, such as BOGO (Buy One, Get One), you would need to install third-party apps for users to get the coupon, because it is not automatically applied to the cart. This can become frustrating for both you and your customers, which can ultimately decrease the overall customer experience.

Finally, if you decide to use Magento, you will be responsible for primary software administration. You will also need integration installation from your developers and/or agencies to manage any technical difficulties, extra resources needed for those defects, and necessary updates . All of these can get very expensive. Furthermore, Magento's hosting can cost you a fortune each month, and maybe more during the holidays.

All in all, whichever platform you choose can serve your business very well, but be sure to also understand the limitations. If you find the right partner, the positives will be worth the negatives.