BigCommerce is one of the most popular e-commerce site builder platforms in the market. According to a trend analysis by BuiltWith, around 3% of the e-commerce stores worldwide are powered by BigCommerce.
While the BigCommerce brand may not be as popular as Shopify in Malaysia, it's one worth considering if you are considering starting an e-commerce business.
In this post, we'll stack BigCommerce next to Shopify to compare some of their most popular features to find out when you should consider using BigCommerce and when you shouldn't.
So if you're on the fence about BigCommerce and Shopify, I hope you'll be able to find some answers in this post.
Let's get right into it:
BigCommerce vs Shopify
Comparison Summary
Feature | BigCommerce Essentials Standard | Basic Shopify |
|---|---|---|
Pricing | US$29.95/month | US$29/month |
Transaction Fees | 0% | 2.0% |
Trial | 15-day trial | 14-day trial |
SSL Certificate | Basic SSL certificate included | Basic SSL certificate included |
Popular Payment Gateway Integrations | PayPal, Stripe | PayPal, Stripe, MOLpay, iPay88 |
Malaysian Shipping Integrations | No integration available | EasyParcel |
Malaysia Marketplace Syncs | No integration available | Some Integration available for Lazada and Shopee through apps, but connection not stable |
US Marketplace Syncs | Native eBay and Amazon Sync | eBay and Amazon sync using apps |
Theme Choices | BigCommerce Theme marketplace and 3rd party themes available | Shopify Theme marketplace and 3rd party themes available |
Point-of-sale (POS) | 3rd party app POS support only | Shopify POS (native) |
Support | 24/7 Live chat, E-mail support | 24/7 Live chat, E-mail support |
BigCommerce and Shopify Detailed Comparison
Pricing (Cheapest Plans)
BigCommerce's cheapest plan is priced at US$29.95 and Shopify's is at US$29. From a price only comparison, pricing for either platform is pretty standard.
Transaction Fees
This is probably one of the areas where BigCommerce shines bright compared to Shopify. While Shopify's customers are charged 2.0% per successful transaction on their platform on Basic Shopify, BigCommerce doesn't charge additional transaction fees for using its platform.
On the long term, selling on BigCommerce means cheaper fees from month to month.
Free Trial
Free trials have become standard practise for most e-commerce platforms these days. Both BigCommerce and Shopify offer free trials for potential customers to give their platforms a test run before moving to a paid plan.
The only difference is that BigCommerce offers an extra 1 day of trial compared to Shopify's 14 days. Either way, that is plenty of time for you to discover if you'll like the builder.
Payment Gateways
Payment gateways are an important part of any online business. Shoppers in every country prefer to pay using a gateway or service they recognise and trust.
In Malaysia, iPay88 and MOLPay are two of the most recognised payment gateways. While Shopify supports these gateway integrations natively, BigCommerce doesn't.
This makes BigCommerce's use in Malaysia rather limited compared to Shopify if you're selling to Malaysians.
On the other hand, both BigCommerce and Shopify supports PayPal and Stripe so you'll be able to sell to countries like US, Canada, Australia, etc without a problem with either platform.
SSL Certificate
Both Shopify and BigCommerce provides free SSL certificate.
Malaysia Online Marketplace Sync
Both BigCommerce and Shopify don't have good integrations with local marketplaces such as Lazada and Shopee. So if local marketplace integration is a big deal for you, BigCommerce won't be able to support your goals.
US Online Marketplace Sync
This is another areas where BigCommerce wins big over Shopify. Unlike Shopify which integrates with US marketplaces like eBay and Amazon using third party apps, you can do that natively in BigCommerce without using an external app.
Shipping Integration
EasyParcel provides easy integration with Shopify, but there is no such integration for BigCommerce.
Point-of-Sale (POS)
Shopify has native POS, but BigCommerce integrates only with Square POS natively. If you want to add POS capabilities to BigCommerce, you'll need to do so through a third-party app which may incur additional costs.
Theme Choices and Pricing
Both Shopify and BigCommerce offer themes natively and through third party suppliers such as Themeforest.
BigCommerce offers 11 free, high-quality themes as well as paid themes in its theme marketplace:
If you don't like what you see, head over to marketplaces like Themeforest and choose from over 70 third-party themes. Paid themes cost an average of US$180.
Shopify, on the other hand, offers over 20 free themes in its theme marketplace. On Themeforest, there are over 800 Shopify themes to choose from. Similarly, paid themes for Shopify usually cost an average of US$180 on Shopify's official marketplace and an average of US$50 on Themeforest.
As such, Shopify offers a wider variety of theme choices compared to BigCommerce at a cheaper average price.
Support
Both platforms provide 24/7 chat and email support.
Verdict: BigCommerce is well-developed, but not ready for Malaysian shoppers
At this stage, BigCommerce does not yet integrate with popular Malaysian payment gateways, and shipping aggregators. This makes BigCommerce less suited for selling to Malaysians and more suited for use when selling to Malaysians.
If you really want to use it to sell to Malaysians, you'll likely need to invest money in customising payment gateways and shipping integrations.
For e-commerce entrepreneurs who want to sell to Malaysians, Shopify can provide a more flexible platform with integrations ready.
If you plan to sell to Big 5 customers in US, Canada, Australia etc, BigCommerce can offer a great solution with less fees compared to Shopify.
Ready to Build Your E-commerce Store? Get in Touch for a Consultation
Entrepreneur Campfire is an agency partner of BigCommerce Asia. If you are interested in setting up your e-commerce store with BigCommerce and want professional help, send us a message and we'll get you started right away.