E-commerce Blog

Client Spotlight: Lady in Red

Published on November 26th, 2012 by David Callaway

Lady in Red is an Australia-based online clothing retailer that specializes in selling stylish dresses for a night on the town. They carry a wide range of styles for every occasion, from both well-known and up-and-coming designers.

When Carly Crossley decided to open a new business online, at first she thought she’d need to start with a blank slate, hiring a developer to build a site from the ground up. After discovering Bigcommerce, she realized she could use a rock-solid platform that already had most of the features she wanted right out of the box.

One feature she likes in particular is Bigcommerce’s mobile shopping experience. “Mobile shopping has always been a very high priority for us,” said Crossley. “Bigcommerce’s mobile site design is simple and very user friendly. It seems that a lot of our customers have found a dress they like while shopping in a physical store, but in the wrong size or colour. So they will jump online to find that style, then find Lady in Red! One girl even told us that she bought a dress from our online store while she was at her local shopping centre!”

After only half a year, Lady in Red is off to a great start. The store receives more than 1,000 visitors a week, and even made its first sale before it was officially launched. At the time, Crossley hadn’t even used the SEO features or moved to her permanent URL yet.

As her store continues to flourish, Carly is glad to know she won’t have to pay additional fees. “We were very impressed that Bigcommerce doesn’t charge a fee for each transaction. It means that there’s no penalty for our success.”

Positive trends for the 2012 holiday shopping season and beyond

Published on November 21st, 2012 by David Callaway

Cyber Monday is just days away (Nov. 26, to be exact), which means it’s officially the holiday shopping season. We wanted to see how our clients were set up for the selling rush, so we sent out a survey to test the waters. After hundreds of responses (thanks if you were one of them!), here is some of the information we gleaned:

Speaking of Cyber Monday, it was the most important time of year for holiday shopping according to 9% of respondents. But 41% count on December for the majority of their holiday sales.

While the global economic outlook is still a little shaky, 82% of respondents said they expect higher Q4 sales compared to last year. Most attributed that to increased marketing (36%) and improvements made to their site (26%). Of those improvements, enhancing site design (27%) and SEO (24%) made the most impact.

Our respondents expected the good news to continue into 2013, with 65% predicting a substantial increase in sales in the new year. To help encourage that growth, many will be ramping up social media promotions (33%) and focusing on SEO and online marketing (32%).

We hope all of our clients have a wonderful Thanksgiving and an insanely successful Cyber Monday. Let the online holiday shopping frenzy begin!

Effortlessly sync your Bigcommerce store data with QuickBooks using Webgility

Published on November 16th, 2012 by Mitchell Harper

Today I want to share some great news about a partnership that makes it even easier to connect your Bigcommerce store to QuickBooks. We’re happy to announce that Webgility’s eCC is now our preferred way to integrate your Bigcommerce store with QuickBooks.

So what is Webgility, anyway? Good question. It basically makes it easy to connect your Bigcommerce store with any edition of Intuit’s QuickBooks software so you can sync your orders, products, inventory and more between your store and your accounting software.

We’ve worked with the good folks at Webgility to put together discounted packages for both new and existing clients. If you’re just starting out and want to tie your Bigcommerce store to QuickBooks using Webgility, it’s just $6.95 per month for up to 50 transactions. Learn more here.

If you’ve been using QuickBooks for a while and get hundreds of orders a month, Webgility also offers packages that support unlimited transactions, multiple users, shipping automation and more. You can see their plans here.

All Webgility plans include a 15-day trial, and the special pricing shown on their website is exclusive to Bigcommerce clients through December 31, 2012.

We’ve also published a step-by-step guide on how to set up Webgility, as well as some FAQs and other useful information. And, as always, our customer support team is available via email, phone and chat to help out if you need them.

If you’ve already integrated your Bigcommerce store with QuickBooks using our built-in integration (under the Tools -> Accounting menu), then you’ll receive an email from us in the next week or so with more information on how to switch to Webgility. If you use other accounting software such as Xero, Peachtree or MYOB with your Bigcommerce store, then it’s business as usual for you and there are no changes.

Update on our new look control panel, new themes and carousel builder

Published on November 15th, 2012 by Mitchell Harper

First off, let me extend a huge thanks to everyone who has submitted feedback on our new look control panel and new theme with the carousel builder. The positive feedback has been overwhelming to say the least, and we are loving the sites you’re building on the new theme.

Some of you have also uncovered a few issues and inconsistencies, which we’re working hard to fix. Of course, our highest priority is to provide a stable platform, especially during the holidays when visitors and transactions are at yearly highs. So that there’s no danger of creating instability, we won’t be upgrading any additional servers with the new look and themes until the new year. We can hear your sighs of disappointment. Trust me — we feel the same. And even though we’re eager to get the release out to all of you, we don’t want to risk your holiday sales.

We know a lot of you are eager to get access to the new look and theme, so during the holiday embargo period (now until early January) we are offering a limited opportunity to apply to our Early Release Program. If your application is accepted, we will upgrade your store, which will give you access to the new look control panel and new theme.

Keep in mind that there are still a few wrinkles being ironed out in the Early Release version. If you’re accepted, you can expect to see some changes as we resolve those issues. We’d love to get your feedback, so we’ve made it easy by providing a New Look Feedback button on the right side of every page. Lastly, during the period of the Opt In program, you’ll have the option to return to the old look by clicking the Back to Old Look link at the top right corner in control panel. If you’re interesting in participating, you can apply to the Early Release Program.

You did it: Bigcommerce clients made $1.2 billion in sales!

Published on November 13th, 2012 by Eddie Machaalani

As of this week, our clients have made more than $1.2 billion dollars in transactions through their online stores. That’s a big milestone for all of us, and proves the massive earning power of small and medium businesses — especially when they’re given the right tools. We launched in August 2009 with the goal of helping SMBs sell more online. Since then, we’ve powered nearly 30,000 stores to more than 11.4 million transactions of an astounding array of products and services.

This means a lot to us. Not just because we love big numbers (although we do), but because it’s a testament to the skills, drive and resourcefulness of our customers. The graph below really helps put it in perspective: comparing the first three years of each business, Bigcommerce clients sold 26% more than Amazon and 3% more than eBay. Basically, small businesses rock!


 It also proves to the world what we knew all along: that it doesn’t take a massive investment or degrees in design, development and marketing to create a successful online business. You can create a business in just a few hours with a couple hundred dollars.

So here’s a big thank you and congratulations to all our clients for getting to $1 billion in sales. Rest assured that we’re hard at work on improvements and innovations to help you sell even more. Hopefully we’ll all be celebrating $2 billion in sales together in the not-too-distant future.

We’re here for you during the busy holiday season

Published on November 13th, 2012 by Larry Streeter

Are you ready for the huge upcoming wave of holiday sales? We hope so! Now that the season is in full swing, we wanted to let you know our support hours for the rest of the year.

Whether you have a technical question or need some marketing help from our Success Squad, we’ve got your back.

Here are our hours during the holiday season:

  • Thanksgiving, Thursday Nov. 22: Normal hours, 7am to 9pm Central
  • Christmas Eve, Monday Dec. 24: 7am to 6pm Central
  • Christmas Day, Tuesday Dec. 25: Closed
  • New Year’s Eve, Monday Dec. 31: 7am to 6pm Central
  • New Year’s Day, Tuesday Jan. 1: Closed

Happy holidays from the Bigcommerce family. We hope you make a ton of sales, but most importantly we hope you get a chance to relax and spend some quality time with your loved ones!

App Store Update: check out some of our new and popular apps

Published on November 9th, 2012 by Stephen

I’m back with even more apps to help you sell more. Check out our App Store for hundreds more, and if you’re a developer, don’t forget to apply to our $2M integration fund and get paid to build an app or integration on the Bigcommerce platform!

New/Popular Apps

StarShip

StarShip lets you automate and monitor your shipping and fulfillment processes, helping you dramatically improve your productivity and customer satisfaction. It imports orders directly from Bigcommerce, then automatically performs tasks like validating addresses, calculating charges and printing shipping labels. Your order status and tracking details are then updated in your Bigcommerce control panel. You can choose from multiple carriers, including DHL, Fastway, and a number of Australian and New Zealand vendors.

Lexity Retargeting

Retargeting is a powerful marketing tool used by most major online retailers. Lexity helps you easily use it in your own business. Only 2% of visitors will end up buying from your store on the first visit. Lexity Retargeting lets you turn those prospects into sales by attracting back shoppers using display ads on other sites. It takes just a few clicks to create professional, personalized ads, then place them through automatic bid management. The technology tracks performance and constantly adjusts your ad placements across multiple networks to maximize sales.
 

Merchpin

Easily promote your products on other websites, blogs or Facebook pages using a rich set of targeting rules. Merchpin works with popular blogging and CMS platforms like Tumblr, Blogger, WordPress, Drupal and Squarespace. Connect your Facebook account to target products directly to your shop’s Facebook page. Merchpin will even make suggestions on which pages and keywords to target if you connect it to your Google Analytics account.
 

eCommHub

eCommHub automates your inventory management and routes orders through third-party vendors, drop-shippers and fulfillment centers. Your product statuses and quantities from multiple vendors will always be up to date, meaning you’ll decrease backorders and increase sales. A gross profit report shows you exactly how much you’re making on each order.

Shopalize Activity Feed

Increase your site engagement and sales by displaying a feed of the products your shoppers are buying and sharing with friends. Using Shopalize’s Post Purchase Sharing or Product Page Sharing app, Activity Feed will show purchases and shares in a beautiful, Pinterest-like design. Each item features a link back to the product page and social sharing icons.

Bigcommerce helps a homeowner in need through Hearts in Carts

Published on November 2nd, 2012 by David Callaway

Part of what employees love about the Bigcommerce culture is the focus on giving back to the community, which we do through our Hearts in Carts program. The mission of Hearts in Carts is: “To foster an environment that enables Bigcommerce employees to be change agents within the communities that we serve. We will use our finances, our platform and our hearts to make the world we live in a better place.” This past weekend, the HIC team helped a homeowner in need renovate her house through the Hands on Housing organization. Nearly 40 Bigcommerce employees took part in painting, yard work and general home maintenance. Hearts in Carts team leaders Bridget Christopher-Walton and Chadwick Sapenter organized the event. “Bigcommerce goes above and beyond to create a great place to work,” said Bridget. “Participating in Hearts in Carts allows me to represent Bigcommerce and spread the AWESOME BC goodness to the community. And for that, I am grateful.” “Each of these Hearts in Carts monthly events helps us grow closer as a family and be actively involved in the community,” added Chadwick. “All in all, these events are a symptom of the culture virus that has infected Bigcommerce from the beginning.” Thanks so much to everyone who participated last weekend! We’re already looking forward to next month’s event.

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