Interactive BigCommerce Demo
Walk through an interactive demo of BigCommerce, a hosted ecommerce platform for building and running an online store. See how the catalog, storefront, and admin tools work together without setting up hosting or writing code.
What is BigCommerce?
BigCommerce is a hosted ecommerce platform that gives you everything needed to run an online store: a product catalog, a checkout, payment processing, and an admin to manage orders. It is a software-as-a-service product, so BigCommerce handles the hosting, security, and platform updates while you focus on selling. It launched in 2009 and has grown into one of the larger players in the hosted store space.
The thing BigCommerce is known for is how much functionality comes built in. Features that competitors push into paid apps, like product variants, gift cards, discount rules, and multiple currencies, are part of the core platform on most plans. That tends to mean fewer add-ons to install and fewer monthly app subscriptions stacking up, though it also means the admin has a lot of settings to learn early on.
BigCommerce also leans into selling beyond a single storefront. It has native connections for selling on Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and social channels, and it supports a headless setup where BigCommerce runs the commerce backend while a separate front end handles the storefront. That headless option is a real draw for teams that want a custom site experience without building order management and checkout from scratch. If you do build a custom storefront or a marketing site around it, you can embed an interactive Supademo to walk shoppers or internal teams through how the store works.
How to get started with BigCommerce
- 1
Start a free trial
Sign up at bigcommerce.com to start a trial with no credit card required. The trial gives you a working store on a temporary domain so you can explore the admin and add products before committing to a plan. It is enough time to judge whether the platform fits how you want to sell.
- 2
Add your products and organize the catalog
In the admin, you add products with their descriptions, images, pricing, and variants like size or color. You also group products into categories that shape how shoppers browse the store. Spending time on the catalog structure here pays off, since it drives both navigation and search later.
- 3
Choose and customize a theme
The theme marketplace has free and paid storefront designs. You pick one and use the visual editor to adjust the logo, colors, fonts, and homepage layout without touching code. If you need deeper control, themes can be edited directly, but most stores launch fine on a customized stock theme.
- 4
Set up payments, shipping, and taxes
Before you can take orders, you connect a payment provider, define shipping rates or zones, and configure how tax is calculated. BigCommerce supports many payment gateways, and choosing one with lower fees is worth a few minutes of comparison. These settings determine what a customer actually sees at checkout.
- 5
Connect a domain and launch
When the store looks right, you connect your own domain and remove the trial restrictions by picking a plan. Once live, the admin becomes your daily workspace for processing orders, tracking inventory, and watching the analytics. Further changes to products or design publish as soon as you save them.
Who is BigCommerce most useful for?
BigCommerce serves a wide range of merchants, but it fits some situations better than others.
Growing and mid-market merchants are where BigCommerce tends to land best. If you have outgrown a basic store and need things like complex catalogs, B2B pricing, or multi-channel selling without bolting on a dozen apps, the built-in feature set does a lot of that work for you. The platform is built to handle higher order volume, so scaling up does not usually mean replatforming.
B2B and wholesale businesses get specific value from BigCommerce. It supports customer groups, quote workflows, price lists, and bulk pricing, which are the kind of features a B2B operation needs and a consumer-focused platform often lacks. For sales teams in this space, an embedded Supademo can show prospective buyers how to navigate a customer portal or place a bulk order before they ever log in.
Teams that want a headless or custom build also look to BigCommerce. Because its commerce engine is exposed through APIs, developers can run a fully custom storefront while leaving checkout, inventory, and orders to BigCommerce. Documenting that kind of setup is easier when you record a Supademo of the admin so non-technical teammates can follow along. BigCommerce is less suited to someone who just wants the absolute simplest store possible, since the depth of the platform is more than a very small shop needs.
Shopify is the default comparison for anyone evaluating BigCommerce, and it is the larger platform by users. Its strength is a massive app store and a polished, beginner-friendly admin. The catch is that the app store is also a dependency: features BigCommerce includes for free often require a paid Shopify app, so the running cost can creep up.
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WooCommerce takes a different approach: it is a plugin that turns a WordPress site into a store, so you own and host everything. That gives you full control and no platform fees, but you also handle hosting, security, and updates yourself. BigCommerce removes all of that maintenance in exchange for a monthly subscription.
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Squarespace is a website builder with commerce features added on, rather than a commerce platform first. It works well for a small product line sitting alongside a portfolio or blog, where design matters more than catalog depth. Once a store needs serious inventory tools or multi-channel selling, BigCommerce is the more capable base.
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Adobe Commerce, the platform formerly known as Magento, is built for large and complex stores that need deep customization. It can do almost anything, but that power comes with real cost and the need for developer support to run it. BigCommerce aims at a similar mid-market and enterprise audience with far less operational overhead.
FAQs on BigCommerce
Commonly asked questions about BigCommerce. Have more? Reach out and our team will be happy to help.
How much does BigCommerce cost?
BigCommerce uses tiered monthly pricing, with plans aimed at standard stores moving up to enterprise-level needs. Each tier raises the limits on things like staff accounts and includes more features. One detail worth knowing is that BigCommerce caps annual online sales per plan, so a store that grows past a threshold is moved up to the next tier.
Does BigCommerce charge transaction fees?
No, BigCommerce does not add its own transaction fee on top of sales, which is a difference some merchants weigh against other platforms. You still pay the processing fees charged by whatever payment gateway you use, but BigCommerce does not take an extra cut for using a third-party processor. That can make a difference at higher sales volume.
Can I use my own domain with BigCommerce?
Yes, you can connect a custom domain to a BigCommerce store. You either buy a domain through BigCommerce or point an existing one by updating its DNS records. During a trial your store sits on a temporary BigCommerce address, and connecting your real domain is part of going live on a paid plan.
Do I need to know how to code to use BigCommerce?
No, running a BigCommerce store does not require code. You manage products, orders, and most design changes through the admin and the visual theme editor. Coding becomes relevant only if you want to heavily customize a theme or build a headless storefront, and those are optional paths rather than requirements.
How is BigCommerce different from Shopify?
The main difference between BigCommerce and Shopify is how much comes built in. BigCommerce includes more advanced features in its core plans, so you install fewer paid apps, while Shopify leans on a larger app store to fill gaps. Shopify generally has the smoother first-time experience, and BigCommerce does not charge extra transaction fees on third-party gateways.
Can BigCommerce be used headless?
Yes, headless is one of BigCommerce's notable strengths. Its commerce features are exposed through APIs, so a development team can build a fully custom storefront on whatever front-end framework they prefer while BigCommerce handles the catalog, cart, checkout, and orders. This suits teams that want a unique site experience without rebuilding the commerce backend.
Does BigCommerce support selling on multiple channels?
Yes, multi-channel selling is built into BigCommerce. It has native connections for marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Walmart, plus social and search shopping channels. Inventory and orders from those channels flow back into the same admin, so you manage one catalog rather than reconciling separate systems by hand.
Is BigCommerce good for B2B businesses?
BigCommerce is a solid fit for B2B, since it supports the features that wholesale and trade selling depend on. Customer groups, price lists, quote workflows, and bulk pricing are part of the platform rather than afterthoughts. A business selling to both consumers and other businesses can run both models from one store.