Author: Geoffrey Ejiga
If you’ve been shopping for the perfect eCommerce platform for your online business, you may have read about Shopify Plus and BigCommerce Enterprise.
Both platforms seem very promising. The most suitable one for your venture.
In this article, we will go deep into the various features that are important to businesses and see which platform does a better job.
Shopify Plus vs BigCommerce Enterprise: A Detailed Comparison
Shopify Plus: Pricing
The complete pricing details of Shopify Plus aren’t publicly available, you have to contact them to find out. Also, their plan pricing can be negotiated based on your store sales volume.
But below are the available pricing details of Shopify Plus:
- Platform fee. The starting price for Shopify Plus is $2,000 a month. Once you reach $800,000 in monthly turnover, the pricing plan will switch to a revenue model where you pay 0.25% monthly to Shopify. Also, Shopify Plus has a ceiling price of $40,000.
- Credit card processing fee. The exact credit processing fees you pay will depend on your country. For U.S citizens, you’ll pay 2.15% + $0.3 for domestic transactions using Visa and MasterCard (plus an additional 1% for international cards or AMEX). Also, you’ll pay an extra 0.15% (on any current fees); if you are using a third-party payment gateway like Stripe, PayPal, or square instead of the payment method provided by Shopify.
- Development cost. Using a premade theme by Shopify will cost between $0-$180. But you may pay much more in development costs (hiring developers) if you need more features.
BigCommerce Enterprise: Pricing
- Platform fee. The price of BigCommerce Enterprise begins at $1,000 monthly but can reach $15,000 monthly. Like Shopify Plus, BigCommerce Enterprise will determine your pricing based on your sales volume. Also, their pricing is negotiable too.
- Credit card processing fee. BigCommerce Enterprise credit card and debit card processing fees start at 2.9% plus $0.30 for all transactions using their payment option.
- Development cost. A premade theme from BigCommerce costs between $145-$235, which is significantly higher than Shopify. Also, development fees may increase if you want to add more features (just like Shopify).
Our Verdict
Overall, the BigCommerce Enterprise starting price is cheaper than Shopify Plus. But there may not be a significant difference in the overall costs.
Shopify Plus Flexibility
With Shopify Plus, you are limited to 100 product variants with three options values on each configurable product.
Nevertheless, Shopify compensates a little with their script and script editor function which lets you tweak the software code to have
a personalized user experience in the cart and check-out pages.
BigCommerce Enterprise Flexibility
BigCommerce Plus allows up to 600 product variations and 250 option values on each configurable product.
Besides BigCommerce’s storefront API, they also feature a check-out API, plus WordPress and Acquia integrations which give users the chance to build content-led online stores.
Our verdict
Both platforms allow flexible front-end design, but you may prefer Bigcommerce Enterprise over Shopify Plus if you’re looking for more product options and variations.
Multi-store Management
Multi-store management is essential to big companies who are selling internationally and looking to localize content for a particular region.
Shopify Plus Multi-store Management
Below are the three multi-store management features offered by Shopify Plus:
- Expansion store. With Shopify Plus, you can add nine additional storefronts for customers in different locations. Their platform allows you to manage store performance, user permissions, employee accounts, and tools from a single dashboard. However, there are some limitations to this function. For example, installed apps cannot be restricted to one store only (all stores share all the apps). Also, global and local level data attributes cannot be managed, separately.
- Currency converter. Shopify Plus users can use this feature to automatically convert currency based on the exchange rate. The feature discovers your shoppers’ location and automatically changes listed item prices to their local currency.
- Multi-warehouse. Shopify Plus users can set up a maximum of 20 locations to monitor inventory and process orders efficiently.
BigCommerce Enterprise Multi-store management
BigCommerce Enterprise is yet to release the add-on for supporting and managing data across multiple stores. However, BigCommerce’s partner integrations can provide multi-store functionalities, which include:
- Multi-store: BigCommerce lets you launch multiple sites on their platform, and they provide a “partner product information management system” for keeping track of all products, analyzing marketing data, and updating global storefronts.
- Multi-brand: BigCommerce has a stencil framework that enables you to localize specific content for various geographic locations.
- Multi-currency and Localized Payment Options: BigCommerce integrates more than 65 payment gateway and 250 local payment options. They also have integrations for various digital wallets like Venmo, Amazon pay, Apple Pay, etc. Additionally, BigCommerce can automatically convert listed currency to the shopper’s local currency.
- Localized catalog and pricing plans: Also, BigCommerce allows users to customize product catalogs, pricing plans, and promotions for various target regions.
- International shipping: BigCommerce integrated shipping providers including; ShipNation.
Our Verdict
For multi-store management, both platforms (Shopify Plus and BigCommerce Enterprise) have pros and cons. The one you eventually use depends on your specific needs.
Merchandising
Merchandising is simply any activity that contributes to a product’s sales. So it’s good to know the merchandising features available.
Shopify Plus Merchandising
One downside to Shopify Plus is that it doesn’t support digital items (like downloadable products or virtual products) by default. However, other apps can be used to configure products and sell digital items like gift cards, etc.
Compared to BigCommerce, Shopify has more limits on product types (and numbers). But Shopify still provides other merchandising options that allow users to order products in a collection. The options include:
- Best selling
- Price low-high and high-low
- Product Name (A-Z and Z-A)
- Oldest and newest
BigCommerce Enterprise Merchandising
Besides having more product configurations than Shopify, BigCommerce Enterprise allows downloadable products by default (with no limits on the number of files that can be added). Plus, BigCommerce doesn’t have as many limitations on the types of products you can sell.
In addition, BigCommerce Enterprise comes with several built-in features for optimizing conversion rates. For example, their platform allows you to offer bulk pricing to persuade customers to buy more.
Also, BigCommerce enterprise has a product option filtering feature that lets you install any custom filter options like size, color, style, price, on-sale, etc.
These custom filters can help your target customers find specific products faster.
Furthermore, BigCommerce lets customers purchase products without owning an account with them. This guest checkout feature makes the buying process faster and smoother for customers.
Our Verdict
As for merchandising, BigCommerce has better built-in features compared to Shopify Plus.
B2B Functionality
Many businesses are B2B-focused, so let’s see how these two platforms perform in this area.
Shopify Plus B2B Functionality
- Shopify Wholesale Channel. You can use Shopify’s Wholesale channel to manage specific customers and set separate prices, product visibility, and order limits.
- Theme customization for different groups of customers. Shopify’s customer tag lets you open various groups for customers and set different prices, available products, discounts, etc.
- Separate Shopify store. Opening a separate Shopify store is another way to create an entirely different experience for various customers. But managing multiple stores at once for the same company would be inconvenient.
BigCommerce B2B Functionality
BigCommerce is among the best B2B-focused SaaS platforms suitable for large-scale businesses that need to manage plenty of products, inventory, and customer segments.
BigCommerce has various built-in features specialized for B2B users, and some include:
- Quote and CPQ (cost per quote) management
- Tiered pricing
- Credit terms and purchase order management
- Customer segmentation
- Customer-specific catalog, pricing, availability, shipping options, payment method, content, etc.
- Quick order functionality
- Advanced features for product management
Our Verdict
Shopify Plus Wholesale Channel comes with plenty of basic B2B functionalities, but customization isn’t allowed.
On the other hand, BigCommerce offers a wide variety of built-in B2B features.
While both platforms are suitable for B2B, BigCommerce Enterprise shines over Shopify Plus in this area.
SEO Features
In today’s world, SEO has become crucial to the success of online businesses, so let’s compare how these two platforms perform.
Shopify Plus: SEO features
Shopify Plus comes with basic built-in SEO features, and you can make further SEO configurations at the server level. Also, Shopify will automatically generate redirects if you change a page’s URL.
However, Shopify doesn’t support subdirectories, and it’s not easy to do some technical SEO practices like caching headers or modifying a URL structure and hierarchy.
BigCommerce Enterprise: SEO features
Compared to Shopify Plus, BigCommerce Enterprise offers many SEO features and much more customization to optimize your website SEO.
BigCommerce gives you complete control over URL structure and there are no forced directories. Also, you can use directories in URL and edit the robots.txt to enhance your SEO further.
BigCommerce even supports AMP (accelerated mobile page) management.
Our Verdict
Both platforms support essential SEO features, but BigCommerce outperforms Shopify plus here.
Shopify Plus Apps
Shopify Plus members have access to thousands of apps on Shopify’s marketplace. Also, some apps are especially Shopify Plus Certified because of their quality.
BigCommerce Apps Integration
BigCommerce Enterprise hosts more than 600 apps in different categories, which is much lower than Shopify Plus.
Our Verdict
In terms of apps, BigCommerce Enterprise falls short with just over 600 apps compared to the thousands of apps available to Shopify Plus users.
BigCommerce Enterprise vs Shopify Plus: Pros and Cons
Shopify Plus: Pros
- Large developer ecosystem
- Ease to use
Shopify Plus: Cons
- No multi-store architecture
- Limited SEO control
BigCommerce: Pros
- Plenty of product options and features
- More control over SEO
BigCommerce: Cons
- Smaller app marketplace
- setting up may take a little longer
Shopify Plus vs BigCommerce Enterprise: Which Should You Pick?
In the end, the platform you choose depends on your business needs. If you need a simple option that is easy to scale, then you may prefer Shopify Plus. But if you want more product customizations and better control over SEO, then BigCommerce Enterprise may be a better option. It’s best to check the platforms for more details or any new updates.