BigCommerce: Decoding Its Challenges & Opportunities

With eCommerce growing to new dimensions every day, for business owners, it is essential to stand out in the market for success. But given the constantly changing customer expectations, new shopping trends, competing customer engagement, and digital experiences; one has to put a lot of thought and research into choosing the right eCommerce platform to get started with their business. Since 2020, customers have been more inclined to shop through various devices like smartphones, and iPads, and even use voice-search assistants like Alexa, Siri, etc., to get shopping recommendations. Such trends in online shopping have given birth to a completely new model of Direct-To-Consumer business, where the brands often bypass any third-party retailer, and sell online as their primary distribution channel. Such businesses, called Digitally Native Brands (DNBs), can begin with a small social media page, and then grow into an online store serving niche customer segments. As business owners, these varied channels of purchase used by their target groups can only be added to their demographics, when they choose a cross-channel platform that delivers responsive websites, PWAs, with uniquely innovative features to meet their needs.

This is exactly where BigCommerce comes in. As a full-scale, cross-channel, cloud-based eCommerce platform, it provides 360° solutions to brands looking to be industry leaders, with complete elements of flexibility, scalability, and ease of usage of its SaaS model. In this blog, we explore the different functionalities that BigCommerce offers and how to decide whether that is something that your business needs:

Opportunities

Multi-channel selling

One of the biggest advantages of using BigCommerce is its multi-channel selling capabilities. With BigCommerce, you can sell your products on various marketplaces and social media giants like Amazon, Facebook, and Instagram. This feature allows businesses to expand their reach and increase sales by tapping into new markets.

Responsive design

In today’s world, where more than half of all internet traffic comes from mobile devices, having a responsive design is everything to your business. BigCommerce offers a range of responsive design themes that automatically adjust to fit any screen size. This ensures that your customers can easily navigate your online store and make purchases, no matter what device they are using.

Abandoned cart recovery

Abandoned carts are a common issue for e-commerce businesses. BigCommerce offers an abandoned cart recovery feature that automatically sends emails to customers who have abandoned their carts. These emails encourage customers to complete their purchases and can significantly increase conversion rates.

SEO optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is essential for any eCommerce business that wants to rank high in Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). BigCommerce offers built-in SEO optimization tools that make it easy to optimize your online store for search engines. These tools include customizable meta descriptions, page titles, and URLs, as well as automatic sitemap generation.

Secure payment processing

BigCommerce offers a range of secure payment processing options that are PCI-compliant. This ensures your customer’s payment information is secure and protected from fraud. BigCommerce integrates with popular payment gateways such as PayPal, Stripe, and Square, as well as offers its payment gateway, BigCommerce Payments.

Product options and variants

BigCommerce offers a range of product options and variants that allow you to customize your products to meet your customers’ needs. This includes customizable product options such as size, color, and material, as well as product variants that allow you to sell multiple versions of the same product.

Inventory management

BigCommerce offers advanced inventory management tools that make it easy to keep track of your inventory levels. You can set up automatic low-stock alerts, track your inventory levels in real time, and even set up automated reordering based on your sales history.

Headless commerce

Headless commerce refers to decoupling the front end of an e-commerce store from its back end. This approach allows businesses to customize the front end of their store fully, including the user interface and user experience. While BigCommerce currently does not support headless commerce natively, businesses can rely on BigCommerce development agency like CodeClouds, to get everything from migration, and theme development to enterprise solutions development.

AI and machine learning

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have become essential tools for e-commerce businesses. With AI and ML, businesses can personalize the customer experience, optimize pricing, and improve customer service. BigCommerce offers integrations with various AI and ML solutions, including Yotpo and ClearSale, making it easier for businesses to leverage these technologies.

Subscription selling

Subscription selling refers to selling products regularly, such as a monthly subscription box. This model has become increasingly popular in recent years, and BigCommerce offers integrations with various subscription-based apps, including ReCharge and Bold subscriptions.

Challenges

Competition

Competition remains one of the biggest threats in BigCommerce, and the other e-commerce platforms, including Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, etc., add more things to the mix. All of these platforms offer their unique set of features and pricing plans, making it difficult for BigCommerce to stand out in the market.

Customization

To stand out in the market, BigCommerce needs personalization. While the platform offers a wide range of features, it can be challenging for businesses to customize their online store entirely. This limitation can impact the customer experience and deter businesses from choosing BigCommerce as their preferred eCommerce platform.

SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is at the heart of any business marketing. However, optimizing an e-commerce store for SEO can be challenging, and BigCommerce is no exception. While the platform offers some basic SEO features, businesses may need to invest in additional SEO tools to optimize their store fully. Furthermore, now that voice searches are becoming more and more popular, businesses also need to expand their variations in terms of reaching and catering to more target groups.

Internationalization

As businesses expand globally, they must cater to groups across different countries and cultures. However, internationalization can be challenging for eCommerce platforms, including BigCommerce. Businesses may need to invest in additional tools and resources to cater to customers from different regions, including language support, currency conversion, and more.

Conclusion

In conclusion, BigCommerce is a powerful eCommerce platform that offers a range of features and tools to help businesses create and manage an online store. From multi-channel selling to responsive design, abandoned cart recovery to secure payment processing, and product options to inventory management, BigCommerce has everything you need to make your online store stand out from the crowd. However, like any other platform, it faces challenges and opportunities ahead. Businesses looking to choose BigCommerce as their e-commerce platform should consider these challenges and opportunities and evaluate their needs accordingly. With the right strategy and tools, businesses can leverage BigCommerce to establish a successful online store and drive growth.