Why use BigCommerce for your shop?

Great News! We are now an authorized reseller of BigCommerce Shopping Cart. If you are in the market for shopping cart for your online shop, I can highly recommend this program.

I love, love BigCommerce. My previous shop (currently taking leave of absence but you can view the design here) is using Interspire, which is the licensed  version of this cart. It’s simply one of the best carts available around, in term of usability and features. It’s so easy to use, has so many available features (which in turn, will save you hundreds of dollar rehiring a web developer as you are able to add these features yourself), and has great templates.

Recently they have launched the subscription version of Interspire, called BigCommerce, which has the same features as Interspire, except this version  can save you a lot of money. Instead of paying separate host, license fee (which cost starts from USD799), you can actually start using BigCommerce from USD29.95/month, and that includes hosting and unlimited supports. And unlike many subscription based e-cart, they don’t charge any transaction fee at all when you sell your products.

Some of their features are listed below but check out our page to find out about the pricing & plan, plus get a free 15 days trial to see if it is what you need!

1. Sell on Facebook

Reach over 400 million people on Facebook, it’s an easy and affordable marketing for your online store! By displaying a “Shop” tab on your Facebook fan page, BigCommerce SocialShop lets your fans, prospects and customers click on a product to purchase it from your BigCommerce store. They can also share your products directly through Facebook as part of their new stream.

2.  Automated Email Marketing

Email marketing returns $56 for every $1 invested. Using BigCommerce, you can create profitable email campaigns and autoresponders which can be sent to your subscribers and customers automatically.

Imgaine this: someone buys a t-shirt from your online store. One week later they receive a 20% off coupon to buy a matching hoodie. Then two weeks later they receive an email with 20% off a matching hat. All of this can be accomplished automatically!

3. Flexible Product Photo Display

Upload an unlimited number of product photos and display them in your store as a photo gallery. Thumbnail versions of your photos will be created for you automatically. Visitors can click a photo to see the larger version, which you can display in a popup window or in a lightbox-style window.

You can upload photos, specify the location of a photo on the Internet and even share photos between products. It’s easy to display your products in their best light, resulting in more interest and more sales.

4. SuperZoom™ Photo Zoom

Provide a crystal-clear, zoomed version of product photos so shoppers can get a closer look at what they’re buying.

To enable SuperZoom™, simply upload a large product photo and BigCommerce will do the rest. SuperZoom™ takes your photos to the next level and increases interest in your products.

5. Mobile Commerce

Mobile is growing fast and with dozens of different smart phones and Apple’s iPad now on the market, the time is right for you to take advantage of mobile commerce in your eCommerce business.

BigCommerce includes native support for the iPad as well as a shopping experience that looks beautiful on all webkit-enabled mobile devices including iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Palm Pre devices. A complete browsing, shopping and purchasing experience takes just a few clicks.

6. Sell Products With Option

Sell products with different options such as apparel, computers, software and more. You can create as many options as you like, each with its own SKU, price, weight, image and stock level. You can even get customers to upload their image file for customised products, eg. their team logo on a t-shirt.

You can also create configurable fields which the customer has to fill in when purchasing, such as engraving text for an iPod.

8. Automatic Inventory Control

Track inventory on a per product or per product option level. Inventory is automatically reduced after a purchase (and added after a return, if enabled) and products become unavailable for purchase when inventory falls to zero.

You can set low inventory levels and will be reminded to order more products when stock falls below this level.

9. Flexible Returns System

BigCommerce has the most flexible, automated returns system you’ll find anywhere. You can enable/disable returns and completely customize every aspect of the returns system including return reasons and actions.

Customers can login to their “My Account” page to place a return request and will be updated via email when it’s processed. You can offer a refund, replacement, store credit and more. You can even use the permission-based user system to assign RMA responsibility to one or more of your staff.

10. Search Engine Optimization

BigCommerce includes everything you need to rank at the top of the search engines, including custom page title and meta details for products, web pages, categories, brands and news items, as well as search engine friendly links, W3C compliant/tableless templates, proper use of header tags, HTML/XML sitemaps and custom image alt tags.

BigCommerce has also been independently audited by the world’s #1 SEO expert, Aaron Wall, whose feedback was used to further improve BigCommerce and therefore your chances of ranking highly in the search engines.

11. Promotional Banners

Easily create and display a promotional banner at the top or bottom of any page on your web site. Are you having a sale on all Gucci sunglasses for the next 7 days only? Create a promotional banner, assign it to the Gucci brand and set it to show for 7 days only.

Use promotional banners to advertise current specials, shipping discounts, coupon codes, special deals and more.

12. Coupons and Gift Certificates

Easily create trackable coupons which give customers a dollar or percentage discount on their order. Coupons can be set to expire after a certain date or number of uses, and you can run reports to see coupon usage.

Customers can choose from a variety of gift certificate designs, which they can purchase through your store. The gift certificate is then emailed to the recipient and they can easily see their remaining balance from the “MyAccount” page.

13. Free Software Updates for Life

We regularly release new software updates which include features and improvements based on your feedback. These updates are made available to you automatically and free of charge every 2-3 months when they are released. We guarantee to provide you with innovative features that keep you miles ahead of your competitors.