- The choice between SaaS, non-SaaS, and open-SaaS eCommerce platforms can significantly impact a business’s decision, influencing factors such as scalability, customization needs, and long-term flexibility.
- While open-SaaS provides more customization options it is not a truly headless solution.
To SaaS or Not to SaaS
Revenue-Based Fees
- BigCommerce charges revenue-based fees, where businesses pay a percentage of their sales revenue as a platform fee, typically ranging from 0.5% to 2.0%. This fee structure allows businesses to align costs with their performance and scale accordingly as their revenue grows.
- Businesses might consider moving away from BigCommerce due to the revenue-based fees as they scale. As their sales grow, the fees can become increasingly burdensome, impacting profitability. This might prompt businesses to seek alternative ecommerce platforms with more predictable pricing structures or lower overall costs to better align with their evolving needs and financial goals.
Ability to Control Your Code
- Using BigCommerce restricts direct access to code, limiting customization options and control over the platform’s functionality, which may impact businesses seeking extensive development flexibility.
- BigCommerce imposes limitations on plugin development, constraining the availability and customization of third-party integrations, which may hinder businesses seeking specific functionalities not offered by default or looking for tailored solutions.
Shipping Setup Constraints
- Businesses might find constraints in creating intricate shipping rules based on various factors such as weight, destination, product type, or order value.
- BigCommerce lacks flexibility in applying specific shipping options or carrier integrations, limiting the ability to tailor shipping methods to unique business requirements. Alternative eCommerce platforms offer more robust and customizable shipping rule capabilities.
- In BigCommerce, a limitation exists where users cannot easily toggle certain items on or off based on the destination country for shipping. This means that businesses may encounter difficulty in selectively enabling or disabling specific products or categories depending on the ship-to country. Such a limitation could pose challenges for businesses aiming to comply with international regulations, manage inventory availability across different regions, or offer country-specific product assortments.
Multi-Media Options
BigCommerce has certain limitations regarding multimedia support on product pages. Businesses may find constraints in terms of embedding rich multimedia content such as videos, interactive 3D models, or advanced animations directly onto product pages. Additionally, customization options for arranging and presenting multimedia elements alongside product descriptions may be limited, potentially restricting the ability to create immersive and engaging product experiences. This could lead businesses to explore alternative ecommerce platforms that offer more robust multimedia support and greater flexibility in showcasing products to enhance the overall shopping experience.
