BigCommerce was founded in 2009 as a service for small and medium-sized e-commerce merchants, and as the e-commerce boom continues to grow, it has also accumulated a steady stream of large enterprise merchants.Â
BigCommerce recently reached a historic milestone with its Nasdaq IPO, which listed at $24, opened at $54, and closed at $72 on the first day, therefore the market was bullish on BigCommerce’s future, and expects on BigCommerce’s ability to replicate the success of its rival Shopify’s IPO, which opened at around $28 in 2015 and has already grown above the $1,000 mark by 2020.
Fairly said, the share price of Shopify already reflects the fact that the e-commerce business will remain significantly growing for many years to come, and of course, the growth of BigCommerce is a dark horse that should not be underestimated!
BigCommerce or Shopify?
We’ve compared the differences between BigCommerce and Shopify in terms of pricing, commission fees, ease of platform use, ease of integration, and the number of users. We hope this gives you a basic understanding of what you need to know when choosing a platform.
After a brief comparison between BigCommerce and Shopify, we want to introduce 5 BigCommerce apps that can help you generate more revenue or lower returns!
Let’s find out!
Livechat: Immediate customer service support
When buying products online, we all have the unsatisfying experience of writing to customer support, only to get a reply days later or never getting a reply at all, by which time you may have already bought a similar product from another store. That’s why every e-commerce site needs live customer service.
LiveChat helps you solve customer problems immediately, not only increasing conversion rates but according to statistics, customers who have spoken with the store in real-time are 6.3 times more likely to complete the purchase. Oftentimes, customers need to make sure the size or style of an item is what they want, and if you can solve their problem right away, you have a higher chance of getting them to place an order and pay for it right away.
Not only do you chat with your customers, but LiveChat shows their shopping carts in the dialog box, so you can understand their current shopping status and get more relevant and efficient answers to their questions. Most users have commented that this app is easy to use, helps reduce shopping cart abandonment, and allows merchants to analyze data and improve for better sales results through personal contact.
Boost Sales: Increase the average order value with Upsells & Cross-sells
Boost Sales app helps easily create upselling and cross-selling strategies backed by an AI recommendation engine. When customers shop for an item or add to their shopping cart, the app will recommend the relevant items they are most likely to buy, thus increasing the value you bring to each customer, and creating higher sales, better retention rates, and lower churn.
What are Upselling and Cross-Selling?
Upselling is a selling strategy to sell a better, more expensive version of a product that the customer is already buying. For example, you are buying a plain mug and when you are about to check out, the store recommends a best-seller mug coming with a lid for just $1.99 more. You might just upgrade your plain mug to a better one.
Cross-selling, on the other hand, is a strategy to sell the customer a related product with the item he/she is already going to pay for. Cross-selling products are usually in different but complementing categories. For instance, you are ready to pay for this mug, and on the check-out page, the store displays different flavors of tea. This is cross-selling.
Statically, in 2006, 35% of Amazon’s earnings were the result of upselling & cross-selling, and even more now. And according to Forrester Research analyst Sucharita Mulpuru, product recommendations are responsible for an average of 10-30% of eCommerce site revenues. This strategy has proven to be a must-have in e-commerce when used properly.
Out of countless upselling & cross-selling apps, we choose Boost Sales, because of its customization, reporting capabilities, and professional design.
AfterShip: Shipment tracking for customers and merchants
Shipping status is the most important indicator for customers after placing an order. To save on customer service costs, AfterShip actively shares the status of the shipment so that customers can always know when they are receiving an item. For shop owners, there is no need to spend time manually checking the status of their merchandise as the system will automatically manage the delivery and save on labor costs.
AfterShip features on allowing you to track every shipping detail in one place and your customers can also check the delivery status with one click. If unfortunately, your customers need to return an item, it can be done by using the system without contacting customer service. According to its users, AfterShip is a great, helpful, and must-have BigCommerce app.
Kiwi Sizing: AI size recommender and customized size chart
High return rates because of wrong sizes are a common pain for every online clothing store! In fact, up to 40% of online returns are due to fitting issues. It is clear that customers prefer detailed product specifications when shopping, especially when it comes to picking the right size. A big friction when shopping for clothing online is the fear of buying the wrong size.
Kiwi Sizing allows merchants to easily set up professional-looking size charts. And with the AI size recommender, consumers can even get an instant fit recommendation for the product by simply providing basic information such as age, weight, and height.
It has more than 500 positive reviews on Shopify and has created an integration guide for BigCommerce users to add this must-have app in 5 minutes.
FavSEO: Optimize product pages, Get better SEO and reach potential customers
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a key factor to having more new customers. According to statistics shown in 2020, 93% of online experiences start with a search engine, and 75% of people never scroll past the first page of search engines. When your search result can be on the first page, your website will naturally get more free traffic.
So, optimizing your website to an SEO-friendly structure and SEO-friendly content is extremely important. FavSEO addresses excellent features to improve your website’s SEO without hassle, including bulk editing title/description, tracking Google search position, submitting a sitemap, and evaluating your SEO scores.
Read more: Digital Marketing: 3 Benefits of Growing Your Organic Traffic
In addition to the 5 third-party integrated apps we’ve shared, BigCommerce’s app community also includes a variety of other app services, and we’ll be compiling more information to help sellers who want to use BigCommerce to build their online business.
Feel free to share with us what your favorite BigCommerce app is and tell us how it has helped your business!
To reduce the return rate after a successful sale, we also recommend that you use Kiwi Sizing AI Size Recommender as a size chart tool. It will recommend the most suitable size of products for customers to reduce return rate, help you decrease the cost of the return, and to create a positive cycle of your e-commerce business.
