BigCommerce.com, your thoughts?

[bigcommerce]

Hi everyone,

My company recently (3 months ago) launched BigCommerce.com an incredibly easy to use ecommerce platform for small business and designers.

We've focused mainly on the North American market, as we've been selling there for quite some time (we have an office in Austin, Texas as well as Sydney), and we're starting to get some really good traction over there.

We're in research phase now, hoping to roll out to the Australian market. We know there's a need for an easy to use ecommerce product like this in Australia, backed by an Australian company and I'd love to get some feedback from members of this forum.

Any suggestions about the product itself, marketing strategies to reach Australian small business, is this something you or your clients would use? Thanks in advance.

[WAHM]

I just looked at the 13 min intro on the site and can I say it looks GREAT!!! Congrats fabulous product.

So you have an Australian prescence and Australian Servers and Australian Support?

We need to catch up next week for a chat about the reseller program.

Please call me 0419 747 097 or email me some details to leah@workathomemums.com.au

[HappyCamper]

I just took look and it looks like it has more features and better pricing than many of the Australian ones I have looked at.

For small businesses often the main thing is ease of use if they don't have any developer skills. Saves them also paying for a developer.

I have 2 online stores and definitely look for hosted solutions for testing new stores, then when I want them more customised, I normally go to a custom build. Several small businesses I have talked to have done the same.

The FAQ is good. Also, people want to know (as the other post mentioned) where is the site hosted/ support in Aus/ etc.

Not sure if that is any help. I imagine with so many players in the market it is about getting the name out there. Spending time in forums, educating people on the advantages of your product. Ensuring trial periods are well supported to ensure conversion.

Regards

[Willy]

Well I have been playing for over a month and have just gone live, I wish BigCommerce could offer the product on an Australian server soon.

I have found it easy to use and the FAQ is very good with most things that I have needed.

As you have stated no Australian server is a bit of a problem as I would rather be on a local server for obvious reason speeds etc but I don't want to manage the software and you guys doing the management takes a lot pressure off me and allow me to do what I do best make and sell product.

If you ever do decided to run a server in Australia please PM me I am interested and would love to move it over.

Honestly I think if you do stick on a server people will come I cant imagine many really like to worry about management etc and your system is about as turnkey as they come.

Anyway I am Happy so far and the features and updates always seem to be good value and for $30+ a month I cant go wrong.

A big-commerce forum wouldn't go astray as well ;-)

[bal1974]

Originally Posted by Willy

Well I have been playing for over a month and have just gone live, I wish BigCommerce could offer the product on an Australian server soon.

I have found it easy to use and the FAQ is very good with most things that I have needed.

As you have stated no Australian server is a bit of a problem as I would rather be on a local server for obvious reason speeds etc but I don't want to manage the software and you guys doing the management takes a lot pressure off me and allow me to do what I do best make and sell product.

If you ever do decided to run a server in Australia please PM me I am interested and would love to move it over.

Honestly I think if you do stick on a server people will come I cant imagine many really like to worry about management etc and your system is about as turnkey as they come.

Anyway I am Happy so far and the features and updates always seem to be good value and for $30+ a month I cant go wrong.

A big-commerce forum wouldn't go astray as well ;-)

I am starting a software webshop, where I am using Bigcommerce. The primary market will be Australia/New Zealand. I am considering to you justhost.com as my web hotel.

I have also those concern about bigcommerce is locate in US server, but if I buy my domain from an Australian supplier, and maybe have justhost as my webhotel - would this be a good combination to be found in Australia?

Where is it best to buy domain in Australia?

Great NY to all...

[kathiemt]

Originally Posted by bal1974

Where is it best to buy domain in Australia?

Great NY to all...

If you're looking for a .com.au or similar then try http://www.cheapdomain.com.au/ but if you're looking for others then try http://www.acsdomainservices.com.

[Motherslove]

I am moving over a Bigcommerce hosted site at the moment, and well into setting up the new Motherslove site, which should go live in 1-2 weeks on my domain. I have been overall happy with the useability of the software and the look I can achieve. It was a bit of a learning curve initially since I haven't done any web programming before, but I found the CSS template system reasonably easy to figure out and have updated the relevant template to the colour scheme I want, and put in my own banner.

I would be very happy if Bigcommerce set up local support so I don't have to wait for overnight responses, and if you added local hosting to maximise site speed. I also unfortunately signed up just before you released version 5.5 for new sites, and really would like to move across so I don't have to relearn the interface.

I'm hoping Bigcommerce adds a bundle feature soon, offering 'buy A, get B at 20% off'. You have 'buy A, get B free', etc, so hopefully this wouldn't be hard to add.

In the local market Ashop seems to be your main competitor, as they offer design tailoring via a graphical interface. I am currently using Ashop. Most other sites just seem to have a fixed template system, barring ePages which is just expensive.

Hope you fully enter the Australian market soon.

[Gordon Akman]

That's a slick looking site.

[John Debrincat]

Originally Posted by Motherslove

Most other sites just seem to have a fixed template system, barring ePages which is just expensive.

Hi I would be really interested to know what you mean by expensive for ePages. We provide epages in Australia and also host all stores in Australia and have been since we started in 2003. Our plans range from (in Australian dollars and not US dollars) $50/month up to $177/month and our flex (dedicated data base) is $300/month. These are similar to BigCommerce. But we are Australian based and operated.

On another issue that was raised hosting in the USA does affect the serch engine rank of your website for Australian searches. .com.au domains will help and it is a factor sometime much more important than expected. There is a negative affect in SEO hosting in another country from your core business demographic – you will find a good video from Matt Cutts (of Google) on YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keIzr3eWK8I.

[vicky]

I think bigcommerce is great. but it needs to come to australia first, as i read the bigcommerce website, it says "Our payment gateway is for businesses based in the United States only. " so i think i can not apply to accept credit card, right? http://www.bigcommerce.com/merchant-accounts.php

VICKY SUN PTY LTD
W: www.mychristmasgifts.com.au