It’s also relatively easy to test. If you spin up a dev WordPress site you can connect it to a dev BC site, and drop in a copy of your live data and see what it feels like.
]]>It’s either Woo or Big Commerce for me right now. I’d stay clear of Shopify for now.
]]>Shopify is great until you have a problem. Their support is none existant. They are not very pro business, for example they are quick to disable your account if a payment method fails. Unlike other sites which will block admin access, shopify take your site offline. Better not lose your card associated with your shopify otherwise when your card gets cancelled your site will go offline!!!! Support will not help you either!
]]>I’ve been in contact with them and will update the post appropriately as there are other changes in progress.
]]>Many users and partners (experts) are complaining bitterly about the lack of clarity, uncertainty, and sheer insensitivity of these plans, and many users are actively seeking to move to other platforms. The competitors are exploiting the situation and are emailing all BC’s users with offers.
So – your otherwise very helpful review is now out-of-date!! Please update it to reflect this very important development.
]]>How about Wix? Do they have enough shopping chart features to compete with Shopify and BC as an commerce platform?
]]>Yes, i should have clarified, that the shopify checkout is hosted on Shopify domain and not the store’s domain. Do you think this increases cart abandonment?
]]>The biggest downside in my opinion when it comes to Bigcommerce templates, is that there are 1 or 2 free templates that are actually responsive.
Responsiveness is simply a must in this day and age, a separate mobile friendly version simply doesn’t cut it.
Design wise, I don’t really care as I personally custom design stores for my clients.
Function wise though, I share my opinion with Steve, Bigcommerce takes the crown here. Unless you want to pay a few $100 per month on plugins to enjoy the same functions on Shopify that Bigcommerce has to offer built in.
When I break it down, Shopify is ideal for the individual starting out. Bigcommerce is ideal for the advanced and larger web stores.
]]>Make sure you check this out if you have larger or odd size items. My items are very light but 4 feet long, so I get charged by box volume(fed ex & ups). Check out their support forums and search for dimensional shipping.
]]>Great comparison, Bigcommerce and Shopify are definitely the best shopping carts to build your next online store.
I have been trying to decide on which one to sign up for some time now.
Anyways, I stumbled upon one more Bigcommerce Vs Shopify comparison here:
]]>Perhaps it would make sense, though, to use the $35/month plan just for the first few months and then switch over to the $80/month plan with no transaction fee once sales start coming in.
Still nailing down my niche/products… thanks for the great info you publish here!
]]>The moment I noticed the 2% transaction fee detail I requested the cancellation of my Shopify account and a refund on the template (I had only just signed up and hadn’t designed/activated my store yet). They pointed to fine print and refused to refund. Absolute bastards.
Setting up now with Volusion – so far so good. All the best!
]]>Hope you will help if i want to ask more question π
Thanks
Unfortunately, it sounds like you are not going to find a cart that meets your exact needs out of the box. In terms of inventory, there are many services out there that will sync up inventory levels across different platforms for a monthly fee.
What is your definition of “truckload of cash” If your store is profitable, then I don’t see why you can’t afford a few thousand bucks for a dev that will save you a tremendous amount of time in the long run.
]]>I’d love to know if Big Commerce does a better job of these functions because that would make the time and expense of moving away from Shopify justifyable.
]]>Additionally, Shopify is now waiving transaction fees, only if you use their credit card processing service.
I actually read another review on http://ecommercesoftwarereviews.net/bigcommerce-vs-shopify-vs-volusion/ and it does a pretty good job at comparing the three shopping carts.
]]>I read your article about Shopify vs. BigCommerce. Are they always much better than free options such as OpenCart, Magento, Woocommerce, etc.?
]]>I wasn’t aware of that rule in Canada so thanks for the clarification.
]]>No such offer in Canada.
]]>thanks….
]]>thanks….
]]>Note: If you go with Big Commerce, you will have to sign up for a 3rd party credit card processor and pay fees as well.
]]>However, BigCommerce gives you unlimited bandwidth and does not charge any transaction fees – can we say the same about Shopify? No, since Shopify has limited bandwidth plus it charges transaction fees on most of their plans.
Additionally, BigCommerce is now fully integrated with Stripe payment gateway. Shopify needs improvement to catch up with BigCommerce or even stay on top of Volusion and 3dCart.
]]>I love your website! Thanks for your work!
What would you say about 3dcart.com? How is it compared to Volusion or Shopify?
I can’t find anything about 3dcart on your website.
Thanks.
]]>I’m not a big fan of using WordPress for any serious online store. WordPress is a resource hog so your store will run extremely slowly and will not scale well as your store grows. Have you considered OpenCart or Prestashop on the open source side? I think BC or SHopify would be much better than WC as well.
]]>Just wondering if Woocommerce would be better than a full-fledged cart like Big Commerce / Shopify? We’re working on a store on WC, but am not sure if Big Commerce would be a better solution long term for a store with up to 30,000 products.
Thanks!
]]>The article was written fairly recently. My comments about BC remain unchanged. However Shopify just had another release which reduces some of the nickel and diming of their plugins. For example, you can finally change meta and title tags without a plugin.
]]>Can anyone shed any light?
Thanks!
]]>It’s not a stupid question:) With Shopify, it’s just like having any other website. You can find your site on Google and other search engines.
]]>What most “unlimited “shared webhosts don’t tell you is that they impose CPU time limits on your account. If you ever exceed these limits, they shut you down for a set period of time. Once your traffic grows to a certain amount, getting shut down will happen quite often and that’s when you know it’s time to upgrade.
]]>What made you switch from shared hosting with open cart with bluehost to that other dedicated server which i dont remember the name(old post of yours)? opencart already runs fast on bluehost, i assume its the uptime or bottleneck when scaling up inventory?
]]>Most of these hosted solutions will charge extra for something. Storage, bandwidth, what have you…as the site or traffic grows you may need to pay more. I got used to spending around $100/mo on the service we used, but I certainly didn’t want to start there if I could help it. $25 per month or less isn’t too bad IMHO. Once you’re getting some cash flow I never looked at the cart as a bad investment if the costs went up somewhat. I really am in favor of bootstrapping, it just makes sense…and I have been known to be quite cheap…but I got over that as long as the investment was paying off well.
It used to be with BC that everything featured in the top plan was also available in the lowest offering too and I liked that. They didn’t hold out on features to bump you up. Now I think there’s some small differences like abandoned cart emails, and maybe a few others, but nothing essential that you’d need to start.
]]>I have to say I really got a major headache trying to find the “perfect” cart. I’m not sure it exists, but there are some that stand out. Like you thought, any one that charged a fee on sales I just couldn’t stomach. They might be great but that alone turned me off. In looking at BC, Pinnacle, 3D Cart, Magento Go…they all had good qualities and I’m sure would serve most needs very well. It’s getting quite competitive in that market and that’s a good thing for all of us!
I don’t think this should ever be a rash decision but eventually you have to just pick one that makes the most sense in your head and go with it.
Personally I probably spent too much time thinking about it all, worrying about the look and layout initially and should have just got it up and running and sold things. I don’t know many things that are as potentially complex as ecommerce can be, where you learn the most by doing it.
]]>Yes, BC is really good about contacting you by phone and making you feel really well loved. Even though I told them I was just messing around, they still managed to get me on the phone and I asked them some hard questions about their cart.
]]>You are absolutely correct. A lot of Shopify’s store templates offer a mobile version. BC offers mobile templates as well. It’s hard to compare the two unless you compare a specific template versus another.
]]>Yes, I don’t understand why BC doesn’t invest more in this area as it’s clearly their biggest weakness. That being said, I think it’s pretty easy to edit BC’s templates and the layout is logical the way they have set it up.
]]>I never felt all that comfortable using an open source cart. Looked at them, and shied away because I just didn’t want to mess with them much. Certainly the easier it is to get up and running quickly without a lot of headaches and stress is good…you make money by marketing a website, not figuring out how to build the thing.
Templates count for quite a bit of course but I’m not afraid to start with a basic, decent looking theme. You can spend the money on customization after the site can pay for it. And you’ll always be tweaking this a little over time, but to worry about it all up front and trying to get this perfect is not where I think my own attention should be. Sell first and then evolve and reinvest.
I had a friend spend over $3K on a site design that hardly sold a thing before she shut it down. So I guess I learned a lesson from her experience.
On Shopify…yes Steve, same thing here. I’m turned off by extra fees based on sales…same with yahoo stores I think…never touched them. It’s not a big deal if your sales aren’t that great but run the numbers when you’re sales reach six figures plus and that’s just money that I don’t want to share or waste. With that said, Shopify is very popular for it’s ease of use and rapid deployment…and I should note as well that if your traffic and sales go high enough, their top tier plan has no transaction fees. You just might give up a lot of money before you get there.
I do use BigCommerce on one store and it’s cost effective to start. I mean if you can’t spend $25 bucks a month to start an online business where the servers and software are managed for you…well, without being flippant, I just don’t see that as a bad investment.
BC is full featured and works well, but I don’t care of the template system much. It can be modified of course but it has various “layers” which I found confusing to work with. Once profitable I would probably hire a designer familiar with BC to work on this and there are many recommended on their website.
My top retail site is currently using Americommerce which is not as well known. It has it’s own complexities to work through, as most carts do, but now that we’ve got it refined, it’s worked well for us for the last year or so.
About all I can suggest is when you’re looking for a cart, try and test before you invest. Do your due diligence using free trials and all that. Find something you’re comfortable in working with and do your best to look ahead at where you’re business and needs might evolve (easy to say, hard to do). There are hundreds if not thousands of carts now that are highly functional and useful. But they aren’t all created equal and the last thing one wants to do, is to keep switching carts every few years. It takes time away from marketing, customer service, and about every other thing that actually makes you money.
Good write up here Steve and I’m glad you covered this aspect of online carts!
]]>The discussion forums are active and full of great information from customers, big commerce tech reps and authorized third party graphic designers. I got a free 1 hour web set-up and social media evaluation from a Big Commerce rep – which was nice.
There’s also a good selection of webcasts geared at helping small businesses grow. The last one was about mobile sales and how to prepare for the new trend using Big Commerce.
So far, I’m really happy with the service. (From an online ecommerce newbie.)
]]>Does one system do a better job at providing mobile commerce options?
]]>Your review is spot on. I’m currently trying to set up a store on Bigcommerce. I’m disappointed at the dated look of most of their templates. I’m having a hard time customizing the templates as I do not have enough time in my schedule. I just downloaded the free trail of Shopify last night and tested it out. Their product options are not robust enough for our store, so I’m going to end up going with BC.
]]>Yes, that is the philosophy that I preach on this blog. But not everyone is tech savvy enough to make things work with an open source cart. Those that can have an advantage.
]]>I ended up NOT going with any of them for my store instead I decided on OpenCart. I bought a nice looking theme which I customized like crazy. Cheapest way to start online store if you ask me.
]]>