It has been a significant year the BigCommerce across the UK. After a highly successful round of growth capital that resulted in the company raising 64 million dollars, BigCommerce determined that their future expansion was to the UK.
This is the first time BigCommerce expands its reach into Europe. opened its doors to Europe after having opened locations in US in the US and Australia. Brent Bellm, CEO for BigCommerce said that “Establishing an presence in Europe has been a long-term desire of ours. the London office will enable us to offer more tailored services and programs to our partners and customers throughout Europe.”
A few of Big Commerce’s most important customers are UK located, including Kier Limited, Awesome GTI and Trust Ford. With the recent addition of 20 employees who are housed within the company’s London office, which includes support staff, this is an ideal time to begin looking into BigCommerce if your one of the UK retailer.
Initial Setup BigCommerce UK
As BigCommerce is becoming a more prominent presence in its home country of the UK certain retailers that may think that moving to Shopify to BigCommerce could be an alternative for them. While certain UK retailers believed they had support choices that were not ideal to use BigCommerce before, the situation appears likely to change.
BigCommerce is an option for “fast-growing companies” and offers a lower price in their Enterprise plans over their primary rivals Shopify or BigCommerce.
This is why In the beginning, when you set out to set your store up, you are presented with a banner that allows you to move to your Shopify catalog. BigCommerce has recognized that UK stores may be doing this and has made it clear that this is fully visible on the homepage on your website.
There are many improvements I think BigCommerce may and most likely will implement for UK retailers. There are two quick steps when you set up your store. One of which is setting the shipping.
It is evident in the image, these options are set in dollars. So it is recommended to click to click the Advanced Shipping Options button and set the details by yourself.
The emails you receive from BigCommerce after you sign up aren’t specifically designed to an UK target market.
As an BigCommerce UK Retailer, you can avail access to all shipping choices available to you as an US web store might have like flat cost shipping, shipping based on weight, and store collection.
You can also add the shipping zone you want to use when you need to ship to another country. It is the United Kingdom is automatically setup as the default choice.
Even though shipping costs are shown as dollars when you browse your online store, all prices are displayed in pounds.
BigCommerce is very active in eliminating a number of administrative tasks dependent on where you are. When you input your timezone and date, you will see that the information has already been filled in and will be displayed in the proper format on your site.
If you’re an UK retailer that does the majority of business North America then you may decide to modify the settings in this section.
Partners
What’s great about BigCommerce UK retail stores is the ability to quickly find partners you can collaborate with via the BigCommerce partner directory.
There are at present 33 BigCommerce partners in the UK. It may not seem like much however, when you take into account that there are 44 BigCommerce partners across the entire region of Europe it shows how rapidly BigCommerce is expanding across the UK.
It is also possible to determine which of the partners is the most reliable. In addition to a rating system, there is also a tiered system that will show the top companies in each region. You can see below, 5874 has both an official and Elite logo beside them So what do they mean by that? Based on BigCommerce…
Certified partner tier indicates top-of-the-line solutions with an established track record of driving large-scale sales via this platform.
While for Elite…
Elite provide distinct vertical solutions that enhance the functionality of the core platform specifically for BigCommerce retailers.
In the image above, in the image above, you can see the address of the business. When you click ‘learn more and you will be able to see details about the business, such as their offerings, past projects verticals, clients videos, and the location of their office.
On the search screen , you can split partners into one of the categories below:
- Expertise Marketing, Web Development
- Budget This is also in dollars, however you can you can use the exchange rate currently in place to convert it to dollars.
- Partner Tier – Elite, Preferred
- Services that are offered Social media, branding, training
- Verticals – B2B, Fashion, Media,
Verticals can be extremely beneficial since you will be able to find those who have dealt with similar companies like yours previously.
Free Trial
BigCommerce provides an 15-day trial for free that is one day more than its rival Shopify. Also there is no credit card needed, so you won’t be bound to a contract you did not sign up for.
You can join paid plans at any time by clicking on the ‘Select a Plan’ button in the upper right hand corner. BigCommerce will also let you know how long the trial you have left in this section.
Pricing
It is frustrating to BigCommerce UK retailers, all the prices are accessible in US Dollars. There is no an option to alter this.
At the moment, based on the exchange rate this is how the price will be converted into UK pounds:
- Standard – PS22.92 per month
- Plus – PS61.19 per month
- Pro – PS191.30
- EnterpriseContact BigCommerce’s UK assistance line at 0808 189 3323
There is also the possibility of saving 10% off your Pro Plus or Pro packages when you decide to pay in advance for the whole year. If you’re also contemplating using Enterprise package, BigCommerce will offer you a discount. Enterprise package then BigCommerce assures you that they will be less expensive than Shopify Plus and Magento or Shopify Plus.
Another factor that BigCommerce could enhance to help UK merchants is that they highlight the UK contact details when you’re redirected to choosing an option. You can see in the following they utilize the contact information to the USA.
Set up Royal Mail
One of the greatest benefits to BigCommerce UK retailers is that they will support Royal Mail.
Royal Mail delivers 6 days seven days a week, offering the same flat rate for almost 30 million addresses in the UK. It is also possible to provide immediate shipping quotes from within the BigCommerce account. BigCommerce account.
To allow Royal Mail simply follow these instructions:
- Head to the store setup >> Shipping
- Select to edit on the right side of the United Kingdom shipping zone
Payment Gateway Options
If you’re not aware, that a payments gateway is a solution offered by the merchant to e-commerce businesses in order to authorise and process debit and credit card transactions.
Below is a list of all payment gateways that are available for purchase by Bigcommerce UK retailers.
With regard to the “popular choices, it’s satisfying to know to know that Amazon Pay PayPal, Square, and Stripe are all available for use in the UK. However , it’s worth noting that BigCommerce isn’t yet able to provide support for Worldpay in UK retailers, and Paypal must be set up manually, while it’s automatic for those in the US.
When customers are making their purchases of your site, it’s important to know the Zip Code appears (as well as Post Code). If you wish to eliminate this, and have United Kingdom selected as default it will require some work on your end.
Customer Support
If you’re planning to get in touch with sales to set up an BigCommerce UK retailer then be aware that they are open between 9 am and 5 pm CST. There is a six-hour time gap between the CST time and GMT therefore you can reach them between 3pm until 11 pm.
One of the benefits for UK customers is that support through chat or community, telephone, and email is accessible 24/7. It is possible to take advantage of this excellent support feature for the most affordable Standard package too.
In the near future, BigCommerce UK
UK retailers can avail of a variety of features offered by BigCommerchasve. There are however some notable limitations that only apply to US customers. These are things you may consider mentioning prior to deciding regarding your payment plan.
Amazon along with eBay integration
On the site of BigCommerce they have an “ideas section’ where users can communicate ideas and collaborate with their partners on enhancements to the product. A voting system is utilized to determine what ideas are most popular, and then make take a decision based on that.
A quick search of United Kingdom related ideas shows that there’s no way for BigCommerce to receive purchases via Amazon or eBay that are offered in the US. US customers.
This feature will allow you to view all your purchases of BigCommerce, Amazon and eBay all in one location. In order to avoid having to log into multiple systems, and also to better manage your inventory.
Both are listed as “future” on BigCommerce and are on the site for more than an entire year. Take a quick look over the Amazon feature, and you’ll find a post made by Marissa from BigCommerce who claims that they “don’t think this will be in place until next year” This is also true for eBay.
In order to stop this, you could consider making use of an external system for managing inventory solution. If you choose to use this, you also have the advantage by integrating the accounts as well as the physical store, if you own one.
To see a full list of integrations, check out the BigCommerce’s section on the multichannel marketplace.
Northern Ireland exclusion
Another thing to remember also is the fact that Northern Ireland isn’t excluded by default from the United Kingdom. If you are only shipping to the mainland UK it’s worth keeping in your. There’s a plan of attempting to restrict delivery to Northern Ireland but this hasn’t been put into yet.
If you’re shipping at one-time charges, it’s important to keep in mind that the shipping cost from Northern Ireland is a lot more expensive than shipping to mainland UK and you may end up paying for it.
Conclusion
It’s a thrilling time for BigCommerce across the UK and it’s moment to join. According to me, BigCommerce has a long further to go in making UK sellers feel at ease. This can be achieved by calling the UK support number more frequently as well as updating their marketing collateral and getting the UK support tickets for UK-based customers and questions answered more quickly.
With the opening of the new office at London and the recent $64 million investment, BigCommerce can only go from growth to growth.
Are you located in the UK? Have you ever used BigCommerce previously, or would you like to begin using BigCommerce? Contact us in the comments below to address any questions you have.
