In today's post we are going to compare two leading eCommerce solutions, BigCommerce and Shopify. Here we would like to mention that our team at Gowebbaby is expert in both the solutions, however it depends upon business needs which one of the two is better suited for you?
1. Key Features :
Shopify and Bigcommerce both of the two platforms offer their users enough features to set up and run a high end, professional online stores. Both platforms have options to make your store search engine friendly, options for stock management and to accept most of the payment gateways. However, some extra amount have to be paid for transaction unlike with Paypal where there are no extra charges to be paid.
A very important feature available on Shopify which is not in BigCommerce – Blogging function : Shopify has an in-build blogging tools that is extremely important for inbound marketing activities. In other word the more you are blogging for your core business area, the more visitors are pulled towards your website. I would even say that in terms of blogging functionality Shopify is simply awesome due to the following reasons :
- Once you are blogging with all the conventional rules, it is the best way to pull traffic towards your store.
- This functionality allows you to use Shopify not just a storefront, but as a full fledged website building application.
There are methods to unite a blog with your BigCommerce website. However you need third party tools like wordpress or Blogger followed by setting up a sub-domain for your blog on BigCommerce website. Otherwise you could also use Bigcommerce's new page as a lesser finished blog by using third party applications that will make it appear more like a blog. However all this is a bit complex rather than a pre-build blogging functionality available with Shopify. So, if you prefer BigCommerce you could go with it by building your blog with more efforts.
2. Interface/ layout
Shopify and BigCommerce both are simple and easy to use. Their interfaces are far more user friendly than existing rival eCommerce platforms. In my opinion BigCommerce designs are indeed easier to use than Shopify (if we consider basic store setup process). There are two odd things with Shopify that this company really needs to look after; it is adding a copy to the homepage and creation of second level navigation, which increases complexity to the whole process of store setup. As per my intuition, these two factors are diverting many people who sign up for free trial from getting a paid account. Apart from these things Shopify layout is excellent and comprehensive. So if you really like Shopify interface the above two quirks are no issues for you. Both the platforms offer responsive websites, however there are more benefits with BigCommerce responsive designs.
3. Templates
I would consider Shopify a winner in this case. The free templates with Shopify are pretty in comparison to the templates available with BigCommerce. However the number of templates available with BigCommerce are many. So either choose from less number of sleek designs with Shopify or more number of dated designs from BigCommerce. However the good thing is that both the eCommerce platforms allows easy templates customization to a great extent. You could either use the available CMS or parting it in to HTML and CSS. The outcome of both the approaches will be a great designs with online stores that can be used to display all your products in a professional look. Another important thing to consider here is with Shopify making these changes with HTML/ CSS will require a language called as Liquid. This is a mandatory, easy to use programming language that lets you to make use of CSS/ HTML and allows the usage of insert tags. Operators and variables that are required for dynamic content.
4. Pricing
There are many ups and downs for this feature. Shopify's starter plan is available at only $15 and BigCommerce is with $24.95. However Shopify's starter plan involves a 2% transaction charge per product sale. This limits the number of product sale to 15. On the other hand limit for product sale on starter plan is 100 with BigCommerce. In Shopify this plan does not allow you to edit website's theme using CSS and HTML. BigCommerce offers 1GB storage with it;s starter plan, meaning you cannot sell large digital products with this limit. Here shopify could help you with it's unlimited bandwidth even on it's starter pack. Higher you are ready to pay the more functionality you will get (with both BigCommerce and Shopify). These features include better storage capacity, product capacity and other important features. It totally depends upon your business requirements, how many products, type – like digital or physical etc.
Which Platform will you choose, BigCommerce or Shopify ?
We have earlier also compared many eCommerce platforms like Magento and Shopify, Magento and BigCommerce and many other. For this comparison there are no clear winner or looser. Both the platforms – Shopify and BigCommerce have their good and bad or whatever you call those features for your business needs.
- Shopify offers low cost starter plan, on the other hand BigCommerce does not charges transaction fees
- Shopify offer better design templates, BigCommerce has more templates.
- Shopify comes with an in-build blogging tool, BigCommerce is easier to use.
Finally if you compare your business requirements and features each tool offers, you could decide which eCommerce platform suits you better. I would definitely advice you to try both the solutions before picking one of them. However if you need any custom solution from either of the platforms you could get in touch with Gowebbaby and get the best eCommerce website for your business.
