BigCommerce Pricing - how does it all work?

While you can choose a BigCommerce pricing plan from the get-go, selecting your supported features by monthly plan, the category that BigCommerce tries to place businesses is in the trailing 12months revenue scope. So how does this work for your business, how do you manage your desired features for the plans that are being offered, and how are you being measured by BigCommerce on your trailing 12-month revenue. While BigCommerce is an amazing platform, online store owners are looking out to get the most out of their investment.

The Standard, Plus, and Pro

Three main pricing plans are being offered, with BigCOmmerce Enterprise as well as BigCommerce B2B Edition being above and beyond these three plans. If you are a startup, things are pretty straightforward - you use the free trial to set yourself up, and you start with the Standard plan - however, when you are migrating from another platform like Shopify or WooCommerce, then matching up features to a plan and your revenue may take a bit of a compromise.

https://www.bigcommerce.co.uk/essentials/pricing/

Mid-tier plans

The Standard Monthly plan and Enterprise plans are a no-brainer, but the mid-tier ones have features, cost, and annual revenue to consider. Mid-tier plans have the App Store available to make up some features that may be in the Plus or Pro plan which you might deem it necessary to have in your online store. Therefore instead of using the native features of BigCommerce plans, you can complement your Standard plan as you see fit - however, the costs of those Apps might drive you to upgrade, depending on costs vs. features.

Features vs. Cost

The first step is to see what features you currently have in your eCommerce website - such as abandoned shopping cart saver, stored credit cards (for subscription model eCommerce businesses), and other key features you rely on for your conversion rates. Every eCommerce platform has its strengths, from website builder features down to file storage. Open-source eCommerce platforms such as WooCommerce have different capabilities than SAAS cloud-based eCommerce when it comes to "control" and Intellectual Property, yet the marketing strategies are reasonably aligned due to best practices in the industry. So feature by feature it may be the same name, but may behave differently between platforms. Therefore testing the features before settling down on its cost is important to know what you are getting, and will it work within your funnel.

Functionality Alignment

Once you have identified the Add-on features to be aligned with your current store, and if these features are included in a higher plan, then a cost-benefit analysis might help reduce cost. BigCommerce pricing with its native features has advantages over BigCommerce Apps where updates are ensuring compatibility with its core, while Apps in the App Store might require development updates and in some cases are neglected to cause issues in your store. Having the functionality aligned in your eCommerce store keeps the funnel that works for your business intact, new business ideas for your online shop can be explored further with Apps, but the core is critical for your online business.

Customer Service

While the community for the likes of Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce is large and varied, BigCommerce has a tighter-knit group of BigCommerce Experts and a real customer service engagement. You don't have to be an enterprise-level business, even a small business can get help. BigCommerce costs are more optimized and have a super-fast API allowing for high-speed data transfers with other integrations (making it a great Open SAAS platform) - giving development communities better access to BigCommerce and customer services. If you have high volume transactions, some businesses have tested that BigCommerce has a higher threshold of simultaneous transactions than most platforms.

Testing your BigCommerce plan

Like most things, you got to try before you buy. Sure, you can use the website builder to drag and drop assets in but besides having a visual, it is the UX that's critical to check. Depending on your marketing campaigns, social media lead generation, all of these calls to action need to be evaluated during the Free Trial. Functionality also depends much on the BigCommerce Theme being chosen, and evaluation on how the functionality and BigCommerce Apps can take you to your shopping cart. If your Free Trial is successful in the UX side of the online store, then you have a good chance to make it work at the cost level it supports the features.

Conclusion

Most eCommerce businesses look to run their stores lean yet functional when it comes to their marketing funnels. BigCommerce gives you the ability to weigh the cost vs. functionality as well as consider your revenue. Start with the functionality first, then see how Apps in the App store can reach parity with your existing store. If you can replace Apps with an upgraded plan and still save on cost, then that might be even better for you. Let revenue take you to the next plan as a last resort. This approach gives you room to grow while being at the lowest cost bracket. This does take research, testing, and the ability to check each funnel to ensure success in converting your store into an Open SAAS platform with all kinds of abilities that you might want to explore down the road. If you need help with this exercise or would like to discuss your transition - feel free to reach out to us at wish@thegenielab.com