How to use BigCommerce: 9 steps to get started

BigCommerse is a robust and feature-rich ecommerce website builder that can empower businesses of all sizes to establish and scale an online presence.

One of the best-known platforms on the market for those looking to build an online store, BigCommerce offers a range of competitively priced plans. Each plan offers a range of features and functions to be considered.

In this article, we’ll provide a step-by-step guide to get you started with BigCommerce.

Step 1: Sign up for BigCommerce

The first step with BigCommerce is to sign up for an account.

At this stage, you will be able to choose between the plans they offer. Our top tip here is to consider what features your online business will absolutely need, versus the ones that you would just like to have. This will help you select the most suitable plan.

If you’re not sure whether BigCommerce is the correct choice, you can compare it to a range of other providers on our best ecommerce website builder page.

During the setup process, you’ll be asked a few questions to help confirm what sort of site you are building. These questions cover the amount of money you expect to make, whether you’re starting from scratch or building on an existing business or website, as well which industry you’re working in. Based on your answers, BigCommerce will begin automatically generating a store for you.

Once you’ve confirmed that you want to go with BigCommerce and have chosen your plan, you’ll be able to access your dashboard. This acts as the centre of operations for managing your online store.

Bear in mind that you will also need to choose a brand name for your website. If you run a business already, this will likely be as close to that business’s current brand name. If you’re starting a brand new business, then you may have more freedom.

You should take a look at our how to choose a domain name page if you want more tips on how to pick the perfect website title.

Step 2: Choose a template

BigCommerce allows users and businesses to choose a pre-designed template to use on their site. As an ecommerce builder first and foremost, you can feel confident that the range of templates on offer will be suitable for an online store.

However, you will want to be selective. Make sure that you choose a template that suits your brand.

Consider what sort of audience you are expecting, and what would work best for them. Also, consider what functions you need to add, and think about how they might fit into the templates you’re choosing between.

Step 3: Customise your website

Though BigCommerce’s range of templates might provide you with exactly what you need, you can still edit them to ensure your website looks exactly as you planned.

With BigCommerce, you can modify the various design elements to match your brand identity. Add your own logo and custom content to make sure your brand is shown off in the right way.

BigCommerce, like most website builders, offers a built-in design editor that allows users to personalise and customise their sites without the need for extensive coding knowledge.

Step 4: Add your products

Product management is crucial to the success of any ecommerce store. Luckily, BigCommerce makes this simple.

With the platform’s product management features, users can add products with titles, product descriptions, product variations and high-quality images. All of this is editable as long as you have the site.

The platform management tool also allows you to categorise products and organise them in a way that makes sense to your business.

This can help you to keep track of everything, but can also make it easier for visitors to your online store to find related products to the ones they are looking at.

Step 5: Set up payments and shipping

BigCommerce allows you to integrate with various payment gateway providers, allowing you to offer a range of payment options to your customers.

Popular gateways, such as PayPal and Square, are easily accessible and also widely used.

BigCommerce also offers flexible shopping options, including real-time carrier rates, automated label printing and international shipping support.

Step 6: Optimise for search engines

If you have plans to market your website, then one of the first platforms to think about is search engines.

To attract organic traffic to your site through indexes like Google, you’ll need to focus on search engine optimisation (SEO). BigCommerce offers a range of SEO tools to help.

You can begin improving your performance by optimising product pages, meta tags, URLs and content. Use relevant keywords for your industry, and for the products you are selling.

BigCommerce also generates sitemaps automatically for you, helping search engines to crawl and index your site easily.

Step 7: Market and promote your site and products

As well as optimising your site itself, you should consider other ways to market your business to drive sales.

In BigCommerce, you can create discount codes, run special promotions and also implement abandoned cart recovery campaigns to re-engage potential customers.

You can integrate with popular email marketing platforms such as Mailchimp, that enable you to maximise the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts.

You should also consider social media marketing. Consider what sort of audience you are expecting and use that knowledge to build campaigns on platforms such as Facebook or Instagram.

Step 8: Use your data

Knowing how your online store performs is vital if you want to improve it.

BigCommerce provides an in-depth analytics platform with reporting tools designed to help you track sales, customer behaviour and other key metrics.

Pay attention to these insights so that you can identify trends, optimise your marketing strategies and refine your product offerings.

Remember that this sort of work will often require a lot of time and energy to ensure you’re seeing the best possible results.

Step 9: Customer support

BigCommerce can help you to provide comprehensive customer support through a range of channels, including live chat, email and over the phone.

The platform also offers an extensive knowledge base, along with community forums and video tutorials that offer valuable advice to help you navigate any challenges you might encounter.

Remember, above all, you will want to keep your customers satisfied. Use the tools and features on offer to make sure that your site visitors have the best experience possible. There’s no easier way to lose customers than to ignore their needs, feedback or complaints.

How to use BigCommerce: Final thoughts

BigCommerce offers a comprehensive ecommerce solution that can empower businesses to succeed online.

From store customisation and product management to marketing integration and data reporting, the platforms provide everything you could need to run a successful business.

Simply follow the steps we’ve provided in our guide to get started with BigCommerce today.

Bryn Glover

Bryn is the founder and editor of WebsiteJumpStart. He has worked in the digital field for over a decade and was editor for Startups.co.uk - the UK's leading small business website - and for NerdWallet UK before launching WebsiteJumpStart to help people and businesses get online with ease.

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