BigCommerce

The Australian regional site for the platform

The Australian site of BigCommerce presents a hosted platform for building and running online shops to merchants in Australia. The company describes the product as ready-made software-as-a-service combined with open APIs, which lets a merchant connect its own systems and shape the storefront to suit its needs. The regional site points visitors to the company's other regional site for the United Kingdom, which shows that BigCommerce runs local sites for several markets.

Selling to consumers and businesses from one system

Merchants can sell to consumers and to businesses at the same time, with wholesale ordering running next to retail selling. A business can open several storefronts for different brands or regions, all managed from one back office, and the platform handles localization for each one. Headless builds are another option: the front end is designed separately while the platform acts as the commerce engine behind it. The site also describes omnichannel selling, which helps physical retailers move into online sales.

Where the platform fits and who builds with it

The company says the platform suits everything from small firms to enterprise retailers. Its site also names automotive, manufacturing, and food and drink alongside apparel, and health and beauty. Merchants that need help can work with agency partners to fill gaps in their teams, or with technology partners who build integrations. For developers there are open APIs, SDKs, data access and an app marketplace. The company says its open model avoids proprietary blockers and limitations, which is its own description of its product rather than an independent assessment.