BigCommerce vs Shopify is a battle of the features between two of the most popular e-commerce platforms.
To help guide you towards which solution may be best for you, we have made a brief comparison of the key features of both Shopify and Bigcommerce’s standard packages.
Design
Design is massively important to e-commerce conversion rates. Both Shopify and BigCommerce give scope for designers and developers to create store fronts and product pages that look attractive and encourage curiosity and desire. Frooition designers can create your perfect store appearance and experience on either platform. When we look at BigCommerce vs Shopify we see that both platforms have a whole host of great features, and which one you decide to go for will depend on the individual needs of your business.
Costs
At the time of writing this post (April 2017) the Bigcommerce standard plan costs $29.95 a month and the Shopify Basic which costs $29 are relative equivalent accounts. There are only 95 cents between them, and both allow you to sell an unlimited number of products.
Both Bigcommerce and Shopify provide a 10% discount if you pay upfront for a year’s service. Shopify go one further and give you a 20% discount if you pay upfront for two years.
Tools
In order to grow, an e-commerce site needs tools to manage inventory, showcase products, set prices, track orders, set up payment gateways and more. Both BigCommerce and Shopify have a wide range of tools on offer for merchants, but the way in which they offer them is slightly different.
A Shopify site includes basic tools such as; inventory editor, bulk import, order tracker, blog and custom order notes as standard. Advanced tools such as product reviews, wish list and product recommendations are all add ons.
BigCommerce include more tools as standard, and allows you to sync with Facebook, Pinterest, eBay, Google shopping, Amazon and square POS. The tools that come as standard with BigCommerce but not Shopify are;
- Gift cards
- Ratings review system
- Real time carrier shipping quotes
Cart Recovery
Bigcommerce’s abandoned cart saver – which the company argues allows you to recover 15% of lost sales – is better than the Shopify equivalent, as Shopify only allows you to send one automated email to users who abandon their cart, where Bigcommerce allows you to schedule up to three automated follow-up emails. Offering gradually more tempting offers for the customer to complete their purchase is a powerful way to recover a sale.
Abandoned cart functionality is provided only on the more expensive Bigcommerce plans – their $79 offerings and up. This feature can have a significant effect on sales, so it is worth looking at how much this feature could be worth to your business. This is a useful feature which allows you to automatically email visitors to your store who add something to their cart but do not complete the purchase. If you anticipate a high level of traffic to or sales from your site, or are currently experiencing high levels of both, a plan with abandoned cart recovery is definitely worth looking at.
With Shopify, abandoned cart functionality is not provided as standard, but can be added to any package, including the standard. There are a whole range of abandoned cart tools available with Shopify, with some being free and some having a monthly cost. This is often dependant on volume of sales, so for smaller merchants, concerned at the cost of the BigCommerce abandoned cart, this could be a good alternative.
It is worth noting that with Bigcommerce, your sales are limited to $50,000 on the ‘standard’ plan, $150,000 on the ‘plus’ plan and $1,000,000 on the ‘pro’ plan. No limits apply to sales if you are using Bigcommerce Enterprise.
No such limits apply to the Shopify plan.
Transaction Fees
In terms of Transaction fees, both Shopify and BigCommerce charge 0% on all plans if you use their payment solutions. BigCommerce have the advantage of now also incorporating apple pay in their one page checkout, but both Shopify and BigCommerce have well designed, secure checkout pages.
Analytics
Bigcommerce has a bit of an edge on Shopify here, because you get the vast majority of report types as standard on any Bigcommerce plan. With Shopify you have to be on one of the more expensive plans – the $79 per month ‘Shopify’ plan and up – to avail of comprehensive reporting functionality. If you’re on a cheaper Shopify plan, you can avail of some statistics via an ‘online store dashboard’, but these are pretty basic and ‘top line’ in nature.
For additional insights into your store (particularly where traffic to it is concerned) you can also install Google Analytics.
Mobile
BigCommerce stores now include AMP pages which are great for search engine ranking.
Frooition designs for both Shopify and BigCommerce are mobile responsive as standard.
Shopify also provides an app for managing your store on a mobile device (iOS or Android) whilst on the go. Bigcommerce used to, but no longer do. Bigcommerce says that the desktop version of the control panel may be accessible using some versions of Android, but that using the desktop control panel from a mobile device is not supported by the company.
Integration
BigCommerce fully integrates with Amazon and eBay directly from your BigCommerce control panel. Shopify integrates with Amazon, but not eBay or Google shopping.
