Comments on: Big Commerce vs Shopify

By: Sherry

Sherry — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 21:09:30 +0000

Hi, I was looking into Bigcommerce, however I still wanted to confirm a few things, such as does BC support Dropshipping, such as multiple shipping options? Auto Data Feeds? OR something related? Secondly, how would you compare 3dcart and bigcommerce?

By: Pashmina

Pashmina — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 14:51:16 +0000

On price, I found BigCommerce to be cheaper. Do a deeper comparison. If you want a lot of features that come for free with BigCommerce on Shopify, you’re paying an extra $10 here, $5 there, another $10 there to get them. For a startup small business with importance placed on integration, & social media, Shopify comes out o 3x more expensive than BC.

By: andrew

andrew — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 23:42:24 +0000

I understand what you mean about the hype around Big Commerce, but that is to be expected, the guys behind it are marketing machines.

Not sure why you had issues with modifying Shopify it is the easiest for mine, they give you full access to both the HTML and the underlying business objects. Happy to point you at some resources if you want to look at it again.

You have hit the e-commerce nail on the head though when you said “buyers shop professional sites” – I see so many shops fail because they look crap or plain, when you look at the returns there is no money better spent on a shop than getting the front end tight and polished.

Thank you for your comments, they are much appreciated

By: Tara Owens

Tara Owens — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 22:34:30 +0000

I have been in eCommerce for 10 years now so have plenty experience with shopping carts.

I even played with Shopify. Ok for a generic looking website….plain jane. Hard to get to look very professional and buyers shop porofessional sites.

Big Commerce is a bunch of hype about Aaron Wahl looking at the code for SEO opt. That is a joke because the header tags aren’t even right.

Hype!

Easy to customize and nice clean templates BUT if one has to modify the code right off the bat the price hardly justifies it.

Of course, I took a demo and BC can email me 5 times a day but can't respond to my email asking about the header tags. LOL

By: Dave Sheffield

Dave Sheffield — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:05:06 +0000

Big Commerce doesn’t factor in dimensions into their shipping calculations. I was told this by a customer service technician. So if you have an oversized item the built-in calculators will only take into account the weight.

By: Dave Sheffield

Dave Sheffield — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:47:57 +0000

Big Commerce doesn’t factor dimensions into their shipping quotes.

Example: If a UPS package is over 60″ they charge an extra $8. Even though there are dimension fields in BigCommerce their calculator doesn’t take it into account. It’s the same for USPS calculations as well.

By: andrew

andrew — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:46:43 +0000

Shopify does support multiple product options like color but you would have to manually create the swatches.
You can use http://www.directededge.com to facilitate recommendations, but there is no native support for it.

By: Don

Don — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:43:05 +0000

This blog is probably the best I’ve read yet comparing Shopify, CoreCommerce and BigCommerce to date – about two weeks digging about now! I’ve narrowed it to Big vss Shopify – I just finished building a store with CoreCommerce, and I’m frustrated with the inability to modify the basic layout of the pages. They have some new samples on display that are not yet available… grrr. I must start building tomorrow! So here’s my question: Will Shopify support multiple add ons for products easily? ex: color options (with sample swatches), various models of the same product (selling mobility scooters and power wheelchairs that support various weights and speed requirements)… and lastly, I’d like to add upselling options – “You might want to consider – A Basket Attachment $29.95 – then a check box next to it, and several more upselling options listed. Is this a Shopify nightmare or simple solution? They don’t answer the phones after 4pm Pacific time, so I can’t call – I appreciate any advise on this! The other thing that neither Big or Shopify do is support automatic drop shipping! I wish someone would implement auto email orders to my suppliers for drop shipping!!!

By: andrew

andrew — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:10:38 +0000

I don’t think anyone “outgrows” the Shopify model as such, the transaction fees decrease to 0% as your store grows and the plans are generous enough – what people outgrow though is the limited feature-set (no Facebook store, no eBay or Amazon integration, limited payment or postage gateways, internationalization, complex product configurations). Online retailers these days are demanding more and more features from shopping carts (even if they don’t want to use them right away). If you opt for Shopify (it is very elegant to look at and use) make sure you have a clear goal for the next few years and that the current feature list at Shopify meets those goals – if in doubt look at CoreCommerce

By: Nicole

Nicole — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:57:16 +0000

Hi,
Thanks for the great review Andrew.

I’m thinking about moving my business from Yahoo to Shopify. After reading other blogs it seems like Shopify does not have enough power for larger retailers. Does anyone know at what revenue point users begin to outgrow the Shopify model?

Thanks!