Group Publishing Powers Modern Church Commerce with BigCommerce
Discover how customizable, cost-effective and reliable BigCommerce is and why we built it that way.
- Featured
B2B Edition
Advanced B2B features for enterprise plans.Catalyst
NewCreate stunning, high-performing storefronts that captivate and convert.Feedonomics
Omnichannel feed and data transformation.Multi-Storefront
Manage multiple unique stores from one account.International
Grow your brand across the globe.
- Launch Services
Overview
Chart your path to success with specialized services.Implementation Project Management
Experts to ensure you launch on time and under budget.Solution Architecture
Seasoned advisors to help you best design your store.Data Migration & Optimization
Expertise on a clean and clear path to migrating your data.Enterprise Launch Package
Personal training on how to set up and launch your BigCommerce Store.
Professional Services Blog Series
Get to know our teams and how they support your success in this Q&A series.
The Global B2B Buyer Behavior Report
This in-depth report provides actionable strategies to help you sell more online.
40-50%
increase in online revenue since November of 2021
35%
increase in total orders YoY during first full year on BigCommerce
50+
years in business
Key highlights:
CHALLENGE.
Church purchasing required one account with multiple buyers and shared order visibility.
Existing ecommerce platform reached end of life, forcing a replatform decision.
Needed a solution that could support both B2B church buying and direct-to-consumer commerce.
SOLUTION.
Implemented BigCommerce B2B Edition to support multi-user church accounts.
Integrated BigCommerce with NetSuite using APIs to fit existing operations.
Enabled delayed payment capture with MiniBC to align checkout with fulfillment workflows.
RESULTS.
Ecommerce revenue grew 40-50% since migrating to BigCommerce in November of 2021.
Revenue surpassed pre-migration levels achieved on the legacy platform.
BigCommerce became the primary ecommerce engine supporting both church and consumer sales.
A new foundation for how churches buy online
For Group Publishing, a ministry of Cook Media Global, ecommerce is more than a sales channel. It’s how churches and individuals access the resources that power their ministries and programs.
Group Publishing supports churches with curriculum, Vacation Bible School programs, and ministry resources, while also serving direct-to-consumer shoppers. That hybrid model brings real complexity, from multi-buyer church accounts to individual online purchases.
As ecommerce became central to growth, Group Publishing needed a platform that could handle these realities without slowing the business down. BigCommerce provided the flexibility to support both audiences and keep moving forward.
CHALLENGE
Supporting non-traditional B2B buying for church customers.
Group Publishing’s primary customers are churches, but church purchasing does not follow traditional B2B models. A single church often acts as one customer, while multiple people place orders on its behalf.
“Churches are a little bit non-traditional in a B2B sense because you might have a volunteer or an administrator or this pastor or that pastor buying the resources,” said Chris Livingston, Director of Ecommerce at Cook Media Global, parent company of Group Publishing.
That buying structure required an ecommerce platform that could treat the church as one cohesive account, while still supporting multiple buyers with shared visibility into orders.
At the same time, the team needed to move off its previous ecommerce platform after it reached end of life, and began evaluating new options, with BigCommerce emerging as the right fit.
“We were on a legacy platform called Market Live prior to getting onto BigCommerce. Unfortunately, that product met its end of life. And so that opened up the opportunity to go and look at things like Shopify and Magento, but BigCommerce really struck our fancy,” said Livingston.
“We were on a legacy platform called Market Live prior to getting onto BigCommerce. Unfortunately, that product met its end of life. And so that opened up the opportunity to go and look at things like Shopify and Magento, but BigCommerce really struck our fancy.”
CHRIS LIVINGSTON, DIRECTOR OF ECOMMERCE, COOK MEDIA GLOBAL
SOLUTION
A B2B-ready platform.
To support how churches actually buy, Group Publishing needed an ecommerce platform designed for organizations with multiple buyers operating under a single account.
BigCommerce delivered that capability through BigCommerce B2B Edition. The solution allowed Group Publishing to create a primary church account with multiple sub-users, giving all buyers shared visibility into orders while keeping account management centralized.
“B2B Edition is one of the reasons that we actually chose BigCommerce. The tool meets all of our needs,” said Livingston.
With B2B Edition in place, churches could function as one cohesive customer online, even as purchasing remained distributed across pastors, administrators, and volunteers. Internally, the team gained a more streamlined way to manage accounts, orders, and relationships without relying on workarounds or custom builds.
This approach gave Group Publishing a B2B foundation that aligned with real-world church buying behavior, while remaining flexible enough to support both B2B and direct-to-consumer commerce on a single platform.
API-driven integrations that fit existing operations.
Beyond supporting complex church account structures, Group Publishing needed an ecommerce platform that could integrate smoothly with existing systems, without forcing major operational changes.
BigCommerce’s API-first architecture made that possible. The team connected BigCommerce with NetSuite using Jitterbit, allowing orders and fulfillment updates to flow reliably between systems.
“We’re a NetSuite shop, so we needed to make sure that the platform that we chose was going to work well with NetSuite,” said Livingston.
By relying on APIs instead of rigid integrations, Group Publishing preserved NetSuite as the system of record while giving ecommerce room to scale.
Flexible payments align with fulfillment workflows.
Group Publishing does not charge customers at checkout. Payments are captured only after orders ship, which required a payment model that could support delayed charging without disrupting the buying experience.
BigCommerce’s open architecture made this possible. By integrating with MiniBC, the team securely vaulted payment information at checkout and charged customers at fulfillment.
“MiniBC actually tokenizes and vaults all of our orders because we don’t take payment until shipment,” said Livingston. “They’ve been wonderful.”
This flexibility allowed Group Publishing to preserve existing billing practices while keeping ecommerce operations fully automated.
“B2B Edition is one of the reasons that we actually chose BigCommerce. The tool meets all of our needs.”
CHRIS LIVINGSTON, DIRECTOR OF ECOMMERCE, COOK MEDIA GLOBAL
“We’re a NetSuite shop, so we needed to make sure that the platform that we chose was going to work well with NetSuite.”
CHRIS LIVINGSTON, DIRECTOR OF ECOMMERCE, COOK MEDIA GLOBAL
RESULTS
Ecommerce becomes the primary growth channel.
Since launching on BigCommerce, Group Publishing has significantly expanded the role ecommerce plays across the business, supporting both church customers and direct-to-consumer shoppers.
“Since moving to BigCommerce, I would say we’ve seen a 40-50% increase in online revenue,” shared Livingston.
With ecommerce now accounting for the majority of revenue, BigCommerce has helped Group Publishing shift from a supporting digital channel to a core growth engine.
“Since moving to BigCommerce, I would say we’ve seen a 40-50% increase in online revenue.”
CHRIS LIVINGSTON, DIRECTOR OF ECOMMERCE, COOK MEDIA GLOBAL
LOOKING AHEAD
Continuing to scale ecommerce with flexibility.
With ecommerce now central to the business, Group Publishing is focused on building on its BigCommerce foundation and continuing to support complex church purchasing needs as the organization grows.
One priority is migrating from the legacy version of B2B Edition to the latest version, ensuring the platform continues to meet evolving requirements.
“I like that BigCommerce sits in a nice space between fully open source and locked down,” said Livingston. “There are guardrails in place in the most important areas, but there’s also flexibility in the areas where creativity and revenue growth are going to come from.”
As digital commerce continues to evolve, Group Publishing sees BigCommerce as a platform that can grow alongside the business while supporting both church and consumer audiences.
“I like that BigCommerce sits in a nice space between fully open source and locked down.”
CHRIS LIVINGSTON, DIRECTOR OF ECOMMERCE, COOK MEDIA GLOBAL
Published March 2026
