BigCommerce vs Shopify

BigCommerce or Shopify: The right platform for you.

Choosing the right eCommerce platform for your business isn’t as straightforward as it might seem. There are several available to online retailers, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Here we compare two of the big players in the market in our Shopify vs BigCommerce showdown. We will explore the following factors:

• Shopify/BigCommerce transaction fees
• Marketplaces
• Standard features
• Payment processing
• Service & support

We can help you work out whether Shopify or BigCommerce is the right platform for you to invest in and maybe think about some factors you hadn’t previously considered.

Why many businesses start out with Shopify

Shopify is a great starter platform for any business looking to start up an eCommerce function It is user friendly and easy to set up. It is scalable and can support growth—up to a point.

Pricing options start at $29/month for which you get excellent customer support and access to a large app ecosystem from which to enhance the functionality of your site (although there may be additional costs associated with using these apps).

Shopify stores are fully hosted, so there’s always technical support on hand to keep your store up and running.

When BigCommerce might be a better option

BigCommerce comes into its own with larger enterprises and businesses with ambitions for significant growth.

Like Shopify, it has a user-friendly interface that doesn’t require extensive development skills to set up a store and maintain it. However, the BigCommerce installation comes with many built-in features for extending the functionality of a site without the dependency on third-party apps and the additional cost of deploying such apps.

BigCommerce particularly stands out in the field of security and reliability, providing high security with ISO/IEC 27001 certification and a 99.99% uptime.

Choosing the Right eCommerce Platform For Your Business

We recognise that it can be time-consuming to evaluate all of the available eCommerce platforms, understand their full capabilities, and sift through the marketing material to understand what you’re actually getting for your investment. Often if feels like the easiest option is to pick the first one you think of.

To help you on this journey as an eCommerce agency, we have compared some of the best eCommerce platforms available on the market today. In this example, we’re looking at a BigCommerce vs Shopify comparison.

Below, we explore some of the main business drivers that you should consider or will face when deciding on an eCommerce platform.

Versions and Pricing

Both Shopify and BigCommerce have a range of versions which increase site functionality and features. Details of the differences can be found on the respective sites.

Multi-Store Management

As the business reach grows, you may need to expand business across multiple brands or segments (such as B2C, B2B, D2C, retail, wholesale, etc.), the ability to manage multiple storefronts becomes crucial. BigCommerce offers the flexibility to create multiple storefronts, while Shopify customers will need to subscribe to Shopify Plus, their top tier plan.

Complex Product Catalogue

As the business expands, you may offer a wider range of products with multiple variants such as different colours, sizes, and styles. BigCommerce’s higher limit on product variants (up to 600 variants and 250 product options per product compared to 100 variants and only 3 product options with Shopify) making it more suitable for managing complex product catalogues, and since these generous limits apply to all BigCommerce plans, they are available without additional costs or limitations.

For simple stores and product lines, Shopify’s ease of set up might be preferred, but for businesses with more complex product catalogues, large inventories and more customising options, BigCommerce might be the way to go.

International Expansion

With increasing revenue, you may aim to expand your business globally. Both Shopify and BigCommerce include automatic currency conversion features to simplify international selling by displaying prices in local currencies based on visitors’ IP addresses and geolocation. This can enhance the customer experience and boost sales in international markets.

While the number of international markets served from a Shopify site depends on the version you choose, BigCommerce allows merchants to accept payments from more than 100 currencies and local payment methods on all plans. Both solutions support local market based pricing which in reality is what most growth merchants will utilise to ensure the correct price points in each market.

Customisation & Scalability

As the business scales, you may require more flexibility and scalability in customising your online store to meet evolving needs. BigCommerce offers built-in robust customisation options and professional reporting features on all plans, allowing merchants to tailor their store’s design and functionality while gaining valuable insights into performance.

For Shopify sites, functionality and customisation is achieved mostly through third-party apps accessed through their app ecosystem, which contains more than 7,000 plugins and 13,000 apps.

BigCommerce offers more flexible API capabilities, while Shopify has more rigid API calls per second limits, which might impact performance as a site grows.

Both platforms can support scalable ecommerce operations. BigCommerce would be preferable in terms of product catalogue scalability and customisation options for larger or more complex businesses. Shopify, on the other hand, offers scalability with a focus on simplicity and ease of use, which may be preferable for businesses prioritising quick growth without complex technical requirements.

Data Management & Integration

With growing revenue comes the need for efficient data management and integration with third-party systems such as inventory management, CRM, or ERP solutions.

BigCommerce provides seamless integration capabilities and allows merchants to capture custom data for products easily, facilitating smoother operations and enhanced customer experiences.

As with other aspects, Shopify requires additional plugins to extend its inventory management beyond its basic features.

Advanced Marketing & Analytics

As the business matures, you may seek advanced marketing tools and analytics to optimise marketing campaigns, track conversions, and measure ROI effectively. BigCommerce partners with Google BigQuery to offer advanced data analysis and visualisation using SQL and Google Looker Studio for professional reporting to empower merchants to make informed decisions and drive continuous growth.

Shopify merchants will need to integrate third-party apps to obtain a similar level of data analysis, particularly if customised reports are required.

Shopify platforms include a native emails marketing tool which allows users to build and customise email marketing campaigns directly from their Shopify account. This makes it easy to sync product information and customer data for targeted campaigns.

BigCommerce offers basic email marketing capabilities, such as automated emails for abandoned carts and purchases, but more advanced campaigns require third-party apps such as Klaviyo.

Regulatory Compliance

With expanding operations, you may face increasing regulatory requirements and compliance standards, particularly in areas like taxation and data protection.

Both Shopify and BigCommerce offer tax-calculation features.

Shopify Tax (a feature that is free for the first $100,000 in global sales per calendar year) offers highly accurate tax calculations based in geolocation, and automatically suggests product categories for accurate tax rates. It also provides enhanced sales tax reporting to help with filing. Shopify Tax is available for both online and in-person sales, where Shopify POS is also in play.

BigCommerce’s built-in features for automatic tax calculation also provides automatic tax calculations for various jurisdictions and offers basic tax reporting capabilities, but required third-party app integration for more advanced features.

*Please bear in mind that this guide only covers some of the key differences. Should you wish to have a more comprehensive 1 on 1 consultation, please get in touch.

BigCommerce vs Shopify Comparison

Note: Comparison for standard packages. Enterprise versions not included.

eCommerce Plan Commercial Comparison

Sales channels including market places and social networks

Standard Features

Service & Support

BigCommerce vs Shopify: Final thoughts

As you will have seen, there are a lot of factors to consider when choosing an eCommerce platform. In some ways you get what you pay for, but you should also consider the potential (or desire) for business growth.

Start-ups and small businesses like the simplicity and user friendliness of Shopify, so if you only have a small business or only have modest plans for long-term growth, this might be the right route for you.

However, as revenue increases and business complexities grow, BigCommerce’s robust features, scalability, and flexibility make it a more suitable solution for merchants facing these challenges and seeking to sustain and expand their online presence successfully.

When choosing your eCommerce platform, we urge you to think about additional costs that might arise from third-party apps and plugins and fees associated with non-native features. These could add up unexpectedly if you haven’t fully scoped your project.

Whether you are starting out on your eCommerce journey, are in the process of expanding, or thinking about switching provider, we’re more than happy to help you choose the right provider for your business.