Before you accuse me of jumping ship – I haven’t. I am still a huge fan of Big Commerce. However, I am also in the business of giving clients the best solutions possible and every so often, but for whatever reason that isn’t Big Commerce or Interspire. This isn’t a random bitching, I work hard with Big Commerce and Interspire software most days. I participate in the community with feedback, survey’s and anything else I can to ensure that the product works best for my clients; and if it doesn’t I advise them to use something else without hesitation.
No logic in the templates
This one hurts the most, and it is the one that probably won’t change because of the massive amount of work it would take.
It means you can’t do things like hide out-of-stock products easily, but you can use javascript in some circumstances, however that just means you have to spend more money. With the pending introduction of pre-ordering this might not be an issue with most businesses, but there are many out there that wish that the products would vanish when they were sold out.
It means you can’t create special conditions in templates by saying:
‘If this is the third product in the product grid insert this text’
or
‘If this menu item is the one for the Blog make it green’
There are unreliable ways to do some things using CSS, javascript and cheap* hacks inside the template files, but it really is much harder than it should be.
Shopify has exceptional support for all sorts of fabulous logic and template control. If you really need it look into it be warned they charge you per transaction as well as per month, but for some people looking perfect is more important than the few extra dollars it costs.
Limited Email Signup Options
Basically you can only have two email lists. One general and one for people who have purchased, but sometimes this isn’t enough. You also can’t add extra fields to the signup process. Don’t let this put you off just yet, there are plans to integrate with Mail Chimp which could be a game changer. Regardless, a decent developer will be able to use some custom code and funky javascript to allow you to have any signup form you can imagine.
You can’t upload PDF’s to attach to pages within Big Commerce
I know right? I guess it never occurred to them, or they just plain forgot it. I can’t remember the last job I was on that a customer didn’t want to upload a PDF, usually a brochure or product spec sheet and link to it from a page or product page. There are ways around it obviously, but you need to be able to FTP amongst other things and very few clients want to deal with that.
Someone from Interspire has been in touch to say this is possible see this comment – to summarize (I will remove the heading once I get a chance to test it).
Attaching a PDF link to a product is certainly possible, but you’re right it’s not built into the back-end API. The current process for attaching a product link to a product description is to upload the PDF into the product_images folder and then insert a direct link into the Product Description.
Note, if you do have to send PDF’s to a web person to upload for you, save yourself some money by naming the files properly and sending them all in one hit. To name the files properly, remove all the spaces in the file name (make them dashes if need be), take out the capital letters and make sure the spelling is correct.
Variations can be a lot of work
I won’t waffle on too much, as there are plenty of other nutters talking nonsense about the problems with Big Commerce Variations. In short, once you set them up and assign inventory quantities to them, you can’t change them without having to go back and re-enter all the inventory amounts again. There are some tricks to use to stop this from happening, and there are techniques that can be employed to help you manage these issues. But the bottom line is if you have a lot of products with an ever changing list of variations, you might want to look at something like Core Commerce.
I am not going to bash the variations in Big Commerce, because I understand the programming behind them. Also, I realize that they are made to be a generic solution that works for most of the people, most of the time. Evaluate the product, look into its limitations and then move forward one way or another.
So why all the bad press with Big Commerce variations? In my humble opinion it stems from two camps:
- Those people whose requirements are such that they should have gone with a custom solution, but didn’t because they went with the cheaper option.
- Those people that didn’t make use of the free trial, to ensure the product they were committing there success to was a good fit.
Are Big Commerce‘s problem’s really that bad?
It’s not such a big list after all and apart from variations, it’s hardly a show stopper when you look at the cost of the product. I touched on this in the variations rant; Big Commerce is a relatively cheap product (compare it to Magento or a custom solution for instance). You can not reasonably expect to get your way 100% of the time when you buy an off the shelf product, and you need to weigh up the pro’s and con’s before committing. They offer a free trial, they are easy enough to contact, and there is a large enough community that you can make inquiries around the internet. In addition, there is no real reason to be taken by surprise if something you “must have” isn’t possible in one shopping cart or another. If it is that critical, consider spending a few dollars and get a Big Commerce Consultant to talk to you for an hour or two before you dive in.
* Cheap as in cheap and nasty, no cheap as in $10 – sorry to get your hopes up.
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Tags: Big Commerce
I commented on your other post, but felt compelled to say more after reading this one.
I watched the video they posted on Mail Chimp integration. It looks quite sophisticated and what I’d expect for good email marketing integration. In fact, I would never have even found Big Commerce until I saw that they integrated with MailChimp. I see now that this a very recent development.
Some of the other features of Big like Ebay integration, the Facebook tab and Like button I can’t find as a easy to use feature on any other ecommerce solution. Is this also new?
One thing that does concern me is invoicing and shipping labels. It does not seem to have depth in invoicing, and it does not look like Big Commerce does anything past estimates for shipping.
Mail Chimp integration and eBay are new, the Facebook stuff has been around for a while now.
Dude, I’ve just gotta say that for all the critiquing you do on your blog, your spelling and grammar are abhorrent. You constantly use an apostrophe when making a word plural (e.g., “Template’s”), which is just plain wrong (should be “Templates”). This is basic grammar 101, and your shoddy spelling and grammar guffaws (including the unnecessary commas) make it rather difficult to read your blog. Nothing personal, I’m just saying. Other than that, thanks for your informative posts.
Thankfully grammar is not a requirement to building beautiful and functional websites. I will pay more attention to “basic grammar 101″ in future though.
ROFL, awesome grammar dude you rock . at least made me laugh
Grammar guy yur a ashol, ho kars baut grammur.
Keep up the GREAT reviews Andrew they are VERY helpful!
I don’t think he intended to be a tool. He was a little terse, yes but I like to believe he was genuinely trying to improve the quality of my writing (which I admit is atrocious).
Thanks for defending me though Jhonny b – nice to know you’re in my corner
this seems to be an objective review so thanks Andrew. I say “seems” because of all the affiliate links. It is almost impossible to find a review that isn’t just a sales job. Still, good info.
Also, I have to agree with grammar guy, it’s worth cleaning up your writing in my opinion, and besides it was some constructive criticism you can take any way you like. Calling people ashol’s is not constructive it’s just… american.
keep up the good work!
Attaching a PDF link to a product is certainly possible, but you’re right – it’s not built into the back-end API. The current process for attaching a product link to a product description is to upload the PDF into the product_images folder and then insert a direct link into the Product Description.
In the beginning I was impressed with bigcommerce and during their 15 day trial the support was great, sometimes getting back to me within hours. Since signing up (and paying my money), their support is virtually non-existence. I have been waiting several days for a solution to the problem I am having with the PayPal setup (without which the site is of no use). I even wrote to their founders but, to date, not even the courtesy of a reply. Having spent many hours developing the site, I am loath to abandon it. Perhaps they think Australians are so laid back it won’t matter – well it does
Hi John,
I had a look at your site as I am also interested in Big Commerce. Your site looks good and as far as I can see it works fine. I would be looking at a global shop whereas you have targeted your printer cartridges at Australia. I will follow your progress especially with regard to the metre questions mentioned in another entry earlier.
Big Commerce works well for me except that I was not getting enough exposure without the costs of expensive advertising. I tried to link with Ebay and surprise, surprise they cannot handle metric dimensions and weights. Evidently, all of Europe, UK, Australia, NZ etc don’t matter only the US. BigCommerce and Ebay are happy to take our money to use their services but when it comes to our shipping requirements in an API development it should be easy – there are only two weights and measurements in this world – imperical and metric. Come on guys, how hard is it to accept both?
OK. I have a problem. It seems I have a REAL problem with Big Commerce and I am hoping someone out there can help me as Big Commerce can’t. My new assistant (never been in to the back end of Big Commerce before and neither had I for that matter) was updating and revising text on my website. She inadvertantly clicked ‘modify stores design’. No mention of deleting, no mention of you can’t go back to your original customised design, no warning about anything. She was not aware of what she had done until I went in there about 10 days later and discovered a very unattractive template in place of my very beautiful expensive time consuming website. As I am in Australia I had to wait another 3 days before I could contact Big Commerce (however we emailed them immediately but had no reply) due to their ridiculous ‘support hours’. I spoke to a guy called Alex who advised 24 hour turn around. 24 hours came and went so I called again. I was then advised 48 hours turn around! OK I have patience though starting to wear a little thin…… I now receive an email from Chris Boulton – Software Engineer – advising that as we reported this outside the 14 day turn around (sorry! Where does it stipulate anything about a 14 day turn around?? and it was actually within a 12 day turn around!) they can no longer restore! has anyone else had this problem with Big Commerce? Can anyone help? We are fortunate to have pdfs of each page but it is looking like the entire site will need to be re built. many $$ and not to mention the time. Why doesn’t their website not mention this anywhere on their site? Any comments from anyone? Please! Many thanks
Sorry to hear you have had a rough time of it Robyn, especially at this time of year. I have answers for you but none that will particularly thrill you.
You best chance of getting your site looking the same as it used to would be contact the developer who customised it for you – I don’t know any developer that doesn’t have several backups of most jobs they ever did.
The 14 day turn around that they are referring to is the number of days they hold a backup for. I am sure it is buried in the agreements and documentation somewhere but no dubt as fine print. There is a discussion about it at http://community.bigcommerce.com/bigcommerce/topics/backup_store not that that really helps you now.
There are several warning within BigCommerce that appear when you attempt to modify templates, you assistant may have just ignored it – we all do – popups are a lousy way to get someone’s attention online, everyone is so used to disregarding them. Here is the one that appears when you try and change your theme to a different one for instance. http://andrewbleakley.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/bigcommerce-template-deletion.jpg
The only solace I can give you is that you will never forget to keep backups of your designs and data again – despite companies like BigCommerce doing backups you can never rely on it as your only safe keeping solution. I hope you are able to get your original designs back form the developer because it sounds like it will be expensive otherwise.
Happy to help if you have any questions about getting your website back together
Hi Robyn
I understand your frustration entirely, their support SUCKS!!
I too have had my issues with them and eventually out of sheer despiration I copied my emails to everyone at bigcommerce and Inspire.
I have not done what your assistant did but thanks for the heads up on this.
My main problem was getting bigcommerce to accept PayPal Australia. In the end bigcommerce had to conceed and admit that there system only accepts PayPal America (and for this you need a USA bank account). Finally settled on PayMate.
Here are a list of people you may wish to contact. (it is everyone I have cc’d to) and finally got some results.
‘richard.long@interspire.com’; ‘chris.iona@interspire.com’; ‘eddie@bigcommerce.com’; ‘support@bigcommerce.com’; Kris Westland [support@bigcommerce.com]; Tom Coughlan [support@bigcommerce.com]
I still have a few issues with the csv product data import and adding new products in bulk but I am working my way through this (needless to say without too much support from bigcommerce). I also have a few other cosmetic issues like accepting physical addresses only (no PO Boxes) or at least putting a message on the shipping checkout page to this effect (any ideas?).
Stay in touch
Best regards and have a great Christmas
John
(Skype: john@procorpacific.com)
Hi again Robyn
I have persevered with BigCommerce and slowly working around its shortcomings and lack of support.
I have not had much experience with other ecommerce sites; the ones I did try were so complicated (for me) that I decided to stay with BigCommerce for now.
Regards
John
Thanks for the helpful info!! Makes me think twice about using bigcommerce. So what ecommerce service would you describe as the best in terms of service and cost?
I now have to re design my site entirely unless I want to stick to the very
basic templates that Big Commerce offer. This is not an option. I now have a
web builder who is redesigning for Big Commerce and will give me on hand and
local advice. He is an expert on the system. If you are wanting his contact
details let me know.
Thanks for the update.
Regards
Robyn
I think your blog is marvelous I found it on Yahoo. Definetely will return again! Cheers, Roberts
Hi all, I sure want to say thank you for your information. I have to say I have really been thrilled by all the great features of big commerce with integration of social apps, sending to ebay – and the great ease in which I can build and manage content with ease.
My feedback regarding your assesment of weak points with Big is typical to what your post above say. I spent two hours on the phone with tech support yesterday because I cannot build a colorchart that can be applied at a basic template, but only within each product.
and the issue with variations, and having to edit them inside the product and product not hiding when out.
See, my products, sitting in my studio are allready to sell. But online, in order to accomplish inventory management of selling instock, i must populate an additional product for orderable product, and additionally, i must have another product for those who would like to custom order … and a javascript template built so colors can be seen at this level and a template easily applied to all products.
Currently, we migrated to the BC site with our products not built into variations so it takes inordinate amount of time to display, navigate, edit and manage – for both us and the customer. As a very small company, it made sense to present like this, to look big. But the management is burdensome.
So in order to fix, we must compress to variations, which allows for less navigation, management etc. But BC cant support our needs.
Specifically: in the variations knowledgebase it suggests you write in the color
Red
Blue
as orderable options.
This works fine ** unless you would care to share an actual shade of red **
which to me is absolutely INSANE – of course you would want to show a shade of red.
This sort of variation limitations means i can add the shade of red into
EVERY PRODUCT – no global template.
I am so disappointed, the amount of work to fix our site is ahead
and the pot of gold at the end
still has limitations … inventory control:
So, in order to sell what i have instock, i must sell it as a side by side InStock store item so my customer can differentiate. Now, isnt it sad such a dedicated store item STILL has to be manually removed from view when it sells??
And, on top of all that, in my inventory controlled item, of which I may have qty.2, BC’s dropdown menu will still show me the option to select many qty’s more than 2. how can this be…. it wont let me order 30 yet will offer to select up to 30.,
As I am a manufacturer as well as a retailer, I would like this ability to show 2 but take an order for more.
it is possible to sell more than we have and fulfill with more. But, because it cant sell my 2, and take an order for 28, so WHY does it show a drop down that offers up to 30 at all. (30 may be a variable no. set, but it is not disabl-able or able to match the qty offered).
I have solutions for how to manage it BUT cumbersome
ie – side by sides for instock inventory that has to be manually disabled
and it was so much working moving the site,
I feel I must find a way for it to work.
Anybody want to see how we transition into a shallower, more efficient site, keep an eye on our developing site: http://www.fairycove.com
Finally, one more issue, you did not mention. Well, I have utilized the sites youtube link import function and my category texts on left nav. now float behind rather than above, so one cannot function. This is I believe in IE8.0 I have had multiple discussions over a week and I have to say I am disappointed at a lack of resolution thus far. I dont remember when I reported it that the top navigation was malfunctioning. So, it appears that it has deteriorated while under test repairs. I have reportd this but am awaiting solution.
Also, I wish to announce the new site launched to our customers at a month now – but dont feel like I can when I have unresolvable visual design issues.
PS, I appreciate the links on how to show pdf files better – thanks for your great info on your blog!
Hi Andrew,
since you are a developer what ecommerce platform would you suggest as the simplest to use for the non developer and has good customer support. I have an ebay store that I would like to move over into a web based platform and everywhere I look there seems to be problems with, please advize!
Hi Lara,
I think BigCommerce is the easiest for a non-developer to use and manage. There are always people that are unhappy with one of the carts for a variety of reasons, as long as it has all the features you think you need you should be right. Use the free trial first to make sure though.
Although BigCommerce is a viable solution that we are using, we won’t use it again nor can we recommend Interspire products to anyone.
We became an Interspire customer back in 2004. We stopped using the Email Marketing software due to poor customer service and support.
I can tell you from experience, Interspire does not consider your biz deadlines or issues all that important. There support is, frankly and without question, pathetic.
Hey Andrew,
Is there anyway to redesign a bigcommerce site offline? All I’m able to download are html and css files so I can’t simulate my store… any ideas?
Thanks,
Dan
no what I have done in the past is just used a free trial to work on the updates.
For anyone else wondering Shopify do provide a tool that lets you build and test stores offline
TBH, big commerce support really comes thru for me, esp their chat support. There are a lot of problems we’ve encountered so far, and it may have a lot to do with the customization done by design/developers.
Some more site limitations that i’ve discovered:
- setting sale prices can be done by bulk (by category), however, if you have discount rules/ coupons — those will add up in the cart. There is no way to isolate the discount rule to apply only to regularly priced items.
- so far no way to schedule and automate sale events (say, we want to set the SALE to begin at 12midnight).
- once you set up a image size of your products, Any future folder/subcategory you create cannot be adjusted. My images will ALL have to be 200x300px (there may be a way via custom CSS)
- FREE SHIPPING coupons whenever they are used do not export to our order manager…so shipping fees need to be manually added in after import, otherwise the “shipping discount” will deduct from the product.
- there is no way to edit categories of products individually. Our products were categorized by LABEL, so under each label are different types of products. This creates problems with the shopping comparison sites feeds.
>> my hunch is if we categorized them by type first instead of by product, the items would be categorized correctly.
During my first month, I was constantly on BIG Commerce FAQ site and always chatted with their support team or even called them up. They normally gave good advice, some will even fix your code for you (except thats against that policy LOL). Point is, i like BC and how they genuinely want to help. I just hope they hurry up adding features that are useful.
Thanks for sharing Kitty, always nice to find someone else willing to share positive experiences.
i purchased a ssl certificate…they installed it incorrectly and now i can’t log into my admin for five days now…so customers are still ordering and i have no idea what they are ordering…the keep saying “level 2″…which does nothing for me. Apparently their tech support for the server is in freaking australia and they communicate with them via email..not effective…this is a complete nightmare and I am actually considering a new company..sooooooooooo darn frustrated…….