2011 BigCommerce Review: Overview

• 5 Packages Available
• Completely Customizable Online Storefront
• Optimized by SEO Expert Aaron Wall
• Voted Easiest to Use Ecommerce Software Solution

BigCommerce has quickly risen in popularity since its launch in late 2009. This hosted shopping cart solution is considered one of the easiest to use ecommerce solutions as well as the most optimized for search engines, with a backing by SEO expert Aaron Wall. BigCommerce lets users fully customize their online store with access to CSS and HTML as well as a simple Design Mode for drag and drop design and quick edits. Merchants like the ease of setup, the ability to sell directly on Facebook, and the ability to build a website around their online store with the WYSIWYG HTML page editor. Recently, BigCommerce gained its PCI compliance. This is something merchants were long awaiting, and BigCommerce became complient just in time, as many merchants were expected to leave in early 2011 had they not achieved this status. Learn about the pros and cons of BigCommerce in the detailed BigCommerce review below.

BigCommerce Review: Shopping Cart Report Card

Shopping Cart Feature	ZippyScore (out of 5.00)	Shopping Cart Feature	ZippyScore (out of 5.00)
Overall Value (15%)	4.42	Customer Service (15%)	4.01
Level of Customization (15%)	4.21	Ease of Use (15%)	4.39
Search Engine Friendliness (10%)	4.71	Range of Tools Available (10%)	4.42
Depth of Reporting Tools (5%)	4.35	Social Media / Social Commerce Integration (5%)	4.48
Mobile Commerce Integration (5%)	4.35	Free Trial Features (5%)	4.50

Overall ZippyScore: 4.35 out of 5.00

2011 BigCommerce Review: Expert Shopping Cart Review

Over the past couple years the BigCommerce ecommerce software solution has ranked very well on ZippyCart, as merchants have found it to be an affordable option to run their online store. BigCommerce only launched in late 2009, but it was a spin off from the already well known Interspire shopping cart software, so merchants quickly warmed up to the hosted version. The BigCommerce team is based in Australia and Austin, Texas, which allows them to cater to merchants from all over the world. Not only do merchants rave about all the features they get with the BigCommerce ecommerce solution, but they also note how easy it is for them to use. This is the exact reason that attracts many new merchants to BigCommerce, as they do not have HTML or CSS skills, but want to run an online store on their own. However BigCommerce is also a popular choice for merchants who have been selling online for years, and are now ready to switch from their existing ecommerce software solution.

Over the past 2 years, BigCommerce has made it onto ZippyCart's top 10 ecommerce solutions list, and this year it has received our Bronze Award for being one of the top 5 ecommerce solutions available online. BigCommerce has also received some Zippys this year, which are annual awards given to solutions that reach special achievements. BigCommerce Zippys include:

1. Best SEO: First Place
2. Best Social Media Tools: Second Place

In early 2011, BigCommerce caught a lot of flack for not yet being PCI compliant, a fact that brought their score down when ranking them for our top ecommerce software solutions in 2011 list. Luckily, BigCommerce gained PCI compliance early in the year, which has helped encourage more merchants to use this solution.

If you want to move quickly and try out BigCommerce now, then you should test it out on a free 15-day trial (no credit card required), so you can get a feel for the ecommerce software and their customer support team. However if you would prefer to first learn a bit more about the BigCommerce ecommerce solution, then you can continue reading our expert BigCommerce review below to get more insight.

BigCommerce Setup & Design

Once merchants are into the web based administration panel for their BigCommerce online store, they only need to follow 6 main steps to get things started so they can begin selling online. First merchants will need to configure their store settings, which should not take long at all, as this is just basic information that needs to be inputted. After that is complete merchants can then work with the design of their online store. At first many merchants opt to do minimum work here, as they can come back and tweak their storefront further to create a truly unique design. There are dozens of quality templates which merchants can choose for their online store, and then further customize the design by adding in their logo, enabling mobile templates, and even setting up their own favicon to aid with branding. Merchants can also dive into the CSS and HTML of their BigCommerce store to make advanced changes to their online store template. BigCommerce also provides a drag and drop design tool that will let users move around different elements in their online store. This drag and drop mode is not as advanced as other hosted shopping carts, so if you are looking for an incredibly easy to design storefront, consider using 3dcart instead as they have a very in depth drag and drop design tool.

It is also very easy to combine an existing website with your BigCommerce shopping cart. While you cannot directly add BigCommerce to an already live website, you can add your already live website to your admin panel by adding static HTML pages through BigCommerce. This is a somewhat manual process, but not time consuming. If you already have a live site, simply copy the code from that site and paste it (page by page) into the HTML page editor of BigCommerce. You will be able to name your URLs and more while doing this, which will ensure that your site transfer is smooth and you do not lose history in search engines.

Now that the core design is finished, merchants will need to add some products and categories to their online store, so they can see how things will start to fill out and be organized for their customers. If you do not have many items, then it will not be tough to set it up manually, but those merchants with hundreds or thousands of products should consider using the bulk import tools that BigCommerce provides.

Now there are only a few simple steps left for merchants to have the basics completed so they can get started, and these include the set up of payment methods, tax settings, and shipping options. All three of these areas are vital to an online store, and you cannot get anywhere without addressing these first, as these will give customers the ability to make a purchase from your online store. If at any point in the process you get stuck, you can watch one of the many getting started videos that BigCommerce has created, or try and contact their customer service team to have them walk you through anything that you get stuck on. In general not many merchants struggle with the set up and design process, but if it happens, there are ways for them to get the help they need.

Products and Merchandising

When it comes to the product and merchandising capabilities in the BigCommerce ecommerce software solution, most merchants are quite pleased, and feel that they have all the tools and features they need to be successful in running their online store. One thing merchants enjoy is that they can have unlimited photos in their online store, and even embed videos onto product pages, but they should be mindful of their storage limits on their BigCommerce hosted package. The entry level hosted BigCommerce packages have small bandwidth limits, which some merchants note that they have had trouble staying under the limit causing them to pay small overage fees for the excess storage they needed. Therefore merchants should be selective about which images they want to use to showcase their products, so they can keep the store running smoothly within the limits of their monthly plan.

In terms of the types of products that can be sold, BigCommerce allows their merchants to sell digital or physical products on all of their hosted ecommerce packages, which is a great plus as other solutions only offer the options to sell digital products on certain packages. Additionally merchants can easily sell products that have different sizes and colors, which is a common need among those online sellers who deal with fashion. Merchants like that they can use the built in WYSIWYG editor to quickly edit product descriptions, which is a common task that many merchants deal with each day. BigCommerce has a number of other features for merchants who use their ecommerce software solution, and one of the best ways to see them all first hand is by testing out the software on a 15 day free trial (no credit card required).

Marketing, SEO & Social Commerce with BigCommerce

When it comes to SEO, BigCommerce wanted to make sure that merchants felt confident in their ecommerce solutions, so they partnered with SEO expert Aaron Wall, who ensured that the software was using proper search engine optimization throughout. Therefore merchants should know that they will have the SEO features they need, like the ability to set up their own 301 redirects and set up an XML sitemap for Google webmaster tools. Of all hosted shopping carts, BigCommerce has the most features related to SEO, which is why they won the Best SEO award for 2011. You may need to familiarize yourself better with SEO to use all of these tools to their full potential though, so just note that having the tools does not ensure number one ranking in Google. SEO takes time, but BigCommerce does a good job of reducing that time for you. Those merchants who are more savvy with CSS, HTML and SEO, can jump right into the code and modify things further, to meet the needs of their SEO strategy and drive more visitors to their online store for free.

BigCommerce also provides merchants with additional marketing tools that can be used to bring more customers to your online store. BigCommerce makes it easy to sell on eBay from your administrative interface, or set up a SocialShop on Facebook to expand your reach. Additionally BigCommerce provides the option to use the Add This function and Facebook Like buttons, which are great ways for customers to share your products out to their social networks. You can also easily add a Twitter feed to your online store, but this will take just a little knowledge of code to do it right.

Email marketing is easy as BigCommerce is integrated with MailChimp, which is a very popular email marketing system used by ecommerce merchants. If email marketing is important to you, but you don't want to spend the money, you can utilize MailChimp's free account which lets you store up to 1,000 subscribers and send up to 6,000 emails each month. If you think you will need more than that, but don't need all of the features that come with MailChimp, you might want to consider CoreCommerce instead, as they have a free email and newsletter system already integrated in their ecommerce solution that has no restrictions.

In terms of on-site promotional tools, the BigCommerce ecommerce solution gives merchants features like coupon codes, gift certificates and discount rules. Other features include the ability to use "customers who viewed X, also viewed Y," buy one get one free, and various free shipping options.

Another way in which BigCommerce merchants can promote their online store is by tapping into various shopping comparison sites, which is a smart way to easily expand the presence of your online store, and hopefully attract new customers. Overall most merchant will be content with the SEO, marketing, and social media features provided in the BigCommerce ecommerce software solution.

BigCommerce Hosting & Security

Merchants curious about the hosting and security from BigCommerce should note that the company has been working on PCI compliance for many months, but at the end of 2010 they still did not have it finalized. However it is expected that this will be coming very soon, so merchants can move on to focusing on making their online store successful. Still merchants should keep this in mind when they go to finalize their decision on which ecommerce software solution is best for their online store. BigCommerce has multiple data centers to help keep things stable, and merchants can read more details via various white papers on their network, security, and data centers. On the hosting side of things, BigCommerce uses SoftLayer out of Dallas, Texas, who has been working in the space since 2005. Merchants should look closely at the hosting bandwidth and storage provided with each of the BigCommerce packages, so they can be sure that they will have enough to support their online store, since bandwidth overage fees are common with BigCommerce.

BigCommerce Customer Support

There are a few different ways in which merchants can get support from BigCommerce, including via email and over the phone. However merchants should note that BigCommerce still lacks phone service on Sundays, which is a day that some merchants like to work and set things up for the upcoming week. BigCommerce also has a community support forum powered by GetSatisfaction, however unlike other ecommerce software companies, BigCommerce states in the forum that they monitor, but are not active in the community. This leaves a lot of threads unanswered, like those about PCI compliance, as many merchants want an official date regarding when that will be in place.

When secret shopped by ZippyCart, BigCommerce got above average ratings by our panel of experts. BigCommerce sets you up with a dedicated sales rep who you can easily build a good rapport with. That sales rep will then work with you to answer your questions and help guide you through the process of setting up and running your online store. When you call in a few days later, you will likely be transferred to your sales rep, which is great because you won't have to re-explain who you are, what you do, or your level of expertise.

The feedback from merchants that have spoken to ZippyCart is mixed, so it is recommended to try out BigCommerce directly and see if you are pleased with the support that you receive. Luckily, you can try a 15 day free trial with BigCommerce, which doesn't require a credit card to sign up. During this 15 days, you can test drive their features as well as their customer support team to see whether they meet your standards.