BigCommerce has emerged as a leading e-commerce platform empowering businesses of all sizes to create and manage successful online stores. But simply choosing the platform is just the first step. To truly unlock its potential, you need to leverage the powerful suite of BigCommerce tools available. This post will delve into the essential BigCommerce tools that will help you optimize your store, increase sales, and provide a seamless customer experience.
BigCommerce Native Features: The Foundation of Your Store
BigCommerce shines with its robust set of built-in features, eliminating the need for numerous costly add-ons. These features cover the essential aspects of running an online store, from product management to marketing automation.
Product Management Tools
These tools are the backbone of your online store, enabling you to efficiently organize and showcase your products.
- Product Catalog: Easily create, edit, and manage your product catalog with detailed descriptions, images, and pricing. Utilize features like customizable product options (size, color, etc.) and variants.
Example: Use the product options feature to offer t-shirts in different sizes (S, M, L, XL) and colors (Red, Blue, Green) all from a single product listing. This simplifies inventory management and improves the customer experience.
- Inventory Management: Track your stock levels in real-time, set low-stock alerts, and manage product availability to prevent overselling.
Example: Set a low-stock alert to receive an email notification when your “Best Selling Widget” drops below 10 units. This allows you to proactively reorder and avoid stockouts.
- Bulk Editing: Save time and effort by editing multiple products simultaneously. This is particularly useful for updating pricing, inventory, or product descriptions across your entire catalog.
Marketing & SEO Tools
Drive traffic to your store and increase conversions with BigCommerce’s integrated marketing and SEO tools.
- SEO Optimization: Optimize your product pages and website for search engines with customizable meta descriptions, title tags, and URLs. BigCommerce also generates XML sitemaps automatically.
Example: Use keyword research to identify popular search terms related to your products. Then, incorporate these keywords into your product titles, descriptions, and meta descriptions to improve your search engine rankings.
- Email Marketing Integrations: Integrate with popular email marketing platforms like Mailchimp, Klaviyo, and Constant Contact to build your email list, send automated email campaigns, and personalize your marketing messages.
Example: Set up an automated welcome email sequence for new subscribers offering a discount on their first purchase. This encourages immediate engagement and can lead to higher conversion rates.
- Abandoned Cart Recovery: Automatically send email reminders to customers who have left items in their carts, encouraging them to complete their purchase. Studies show that abandoned cart emails can recover 10-15% of lost sales.
- Coupons and Promotions: Create and manage coupon codes, discounts, and promotions to incentivize purchases and attract new customers.
Order Management Tools
Efficiently process and fulfill orders with BigCommerce’s robust order management system.
- Order Tracking: Track order status, manage shipping information, and provide customers with real-time tracking updates.
- Payment Gateways: Integrate with a wide range of payment gateways, including PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, and many others, to offer your customers a variety of payment options.
- Shipping Integrations: Connect with leading shipping providers like FedEx, UPS, and USPS to automate shipping calculations, print shipping labels, and track shipments.
* Example: Automatically calculate shipping costs based on the customer’s location and the weight and dimensions of the products in their cart.
BigCommerce Apps: Expanding Functionality & Customization
The BigCommerce App Marketplace offers a vast selection of apps that extend the platform’s functionality and allow you to customize your store to meet your specific needs.
Marketing Apps
Boost your marketing efforts with these powerful apps.
- Klaviyo: A powerful email marketing and automation platform specifically designed for e-commerce businesses. Klaviyo allows you to segment your audience, personalize your email campaigns, and track your marketing performance.
- Yotpo: A leading customer review platform that allows you to collect and display customer reviews, ratings, and photos on your website. Positive reviews can significantly increase trust and conversions.
- Justuno: A conversion optimization platform that helps you capture leads, increase sales, and personalize the customer experience with pop-ups, banners, and other on-site messaging.
Sales Apps
Enhance your sales processes and improve customer satisfaction with these apps.
- Bold Subscriptions: A subscription management app that allows you to easily create and manage subscription products and services. Subscriptions can generate recurring revenue and increase customer loyalty.
- AfterShip: A shipment tracking app that provides your customers with real-time tracking updates and allows them to track their orders from a single dashboard.
- Shippo: A shipping software that helps you streamline your shipping process, compare shipping rates, and print shipping labels.
Customer Service Apps
Provide exceptional customer support and build stronger relationships with your customers.
- Help Scout: A help desk software that allows you to manage customer inquiries, track support tickets, and provide timely and efficient customer support.
- LiveChat: A live chat software that allows you to engage with customers in real-time, answer their questions, and provide personalized support.
- Gorgias: A customer service platform designed specifically for e-commerce businesses. Gorgias integrates with your BigCommerce store and allows you to manage all your customer interactions from a single dashboard.
BigCommerce Analytics & Reporting Tools: Measuring Success
Understanding your store’s performance is crucial for making informed decisions and optimizing your strategy. BigCommerce offers a range of analytics and reporting tools to track key metrics and identify areas for improvement.
Built-in Analytics
BigCommerce provides a dashboard with key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor the overall health of your store.
- Sales Reports: Track your sales volume, revenue, and average order value over time.
- Traffic Reports: Analyze your website traffic sources, page views, and bounce rate.
- Conversion Rate: Monitor your conversion rate to understand how many visitors are converting into customers.
- Customer Reports: Analyze customer demographics, purchase history, and lifetime value.
Google Analytics Integration
Connect your BigCommerce store with Google Analytics for more in-depth data analysis.
- Enhanced E-commerce Tracking: Enable enhanced e-commerce tracking in Google Analytics to track product performance, sales funnel behavior, and customer acquisition costs.
- Custom Reports: Create custom reports in Google Analytics to track specific metrics and analyze your data in ways that are relevant to your business.
- Goal Tracking: Set up goals in Google Analytics to track specific actions that you want your customers to take, such as signing up for your email list or making a purchase.
BigCommerce Design & Customization Tools: Creating a Unique Brand Experience
Your website’s design is crucial for attracting customers and building trust. BigCommerce offers a variety of tools to customize your store’s appearance and create a unique brand experience.
Theme Marketplace
Choose from a wide selection of professionally designed themes from the BigCommerce Theme Marketplace.
- Responsive Design: Ensure your website looks great on all devices with responsive themes that adapt to different screen sizes.
- Customizable Themes: Customize the colors, fonts, and layout of your theme to match your brand identity.
- Industry-Specific Themes: Find themes designed specifically for your industry, such as fashion, electronics, or food.
Page Builder
Use the drag-and-drop page builder to create custom pages without any coding required.
- Easy to Use: The drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to create and edit pages, even if you don’t have any coding experience.
- Pre-built Templates: Start with pre-built templates for common pages, such as the homepage, about us page, and contact page.
- Customizable Content Blocks: Add customizable content blocks to your pages, such as text blocks, image galleries, and video embeds.
API & Developer Tools
For more advanced customization, BigCommerce offers a robust API and developer tools.
- Custom Integrations: Integrate your BigCommerce store with other systems, such as your accounting software, CRM, or inventory management system.
- Custom Apps: Develop custom apps to add new features and functionality to your BigCommerce store.
- Headless Commerce: Use the BigCommerce API to build a headless commerce experience, which allows you to separate the front-end of your store from the back-end. This gives you more flexibility and control over the customer experience.
Conclusion
BigCommerce offers a comprehensive suite of tools to help you build, manage, and grow a successful online store. By leveraging the platform’s native features, exploring the App Marketplace, and utilizing its analytics and design tools, you can optimize your store for conversions, enhance the customer experience, and drive sustainable growth. Don’t be afraid to experiment and test different tools to find what works best for your specific business needs. Continual optimization is key to maximizing your return on investment with BigCommerce.
