The Future of BigCommerce: Predictions and Trends

The Future of BigCommerce: Predictions and Trends

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E-commerce has always involved a lot of “boxes” – clicking, shipping, and receiving them. But for many merchants, traditional e-commerce solutions can feel like a box themselves, limiting what they can do, where they can sell, and how fast they can grow. BigCommerce is the modern, flexible solution that helps businesses break free from these limitations, and the recent unveiling of “bigcommerce next big thing” only further solidifies this mission. In this post, we’ll explore the key aspects of this exciting product launch and delve into predictions about the bigcommerce future, analyzing the emerging trends that are shaping the e-commerce landscape.

Table of Contents

BigCommerce’s “Next Big Thing” – A Foundation for the Future

BigCommerce has once again demonstrated its commitment to innovation with the launch of “bigcommerce next big thing,” a comprehensive set of new features and partner integrations. These bigcommerce new features set the stage for the future of the platform, addressing key areas that are crucial for e-commerce success in the years to come. Here’s a breakdown of the most significant aspects of this initiative:

Global Expansion Made Easy

As e-commerce increasingly transcends borders, merchants are seeking solutions that empower them to reach a global audience. Recognizing this need, BigCommerce has made significant strides in enabling global expansion with its multi-storefront capabilities and enhanced localization features.

Merchants can now effortlessly create localized storefronts tailored to specific continents and countries. This granular approach allows for a truly immersive experience, with features for language, content, pricing, and even promotions being adjusted to cater to regional preferences. This not only enhances conversions by offering customers a seamless, familiar shopping journey, but also significantly reduces operational costs by streamlining management through a centralized BigCommerce backend.

Furthermore, BigCommerce has addressed the complexities of global checkout by allowing merchants to configure unique experiences for each storefront. This means that while a business can effectively operate multiple storefronts across different regions, the checkout process remains localized, minimizing friction and boosting conversion rates.

Composable Commerce Without Complexity

While headless and composable commerce offer tremendous potential for creating unique, high-performing online stores, their complexity and associated costs have often been a barrier for many businesses. BigCommerce is breaking down these barriers with the introduction of Catalyst and Makeswift, two powerful solutions that simplify the composable commerce approach.

Catalyst serves as a launchpad for merchants, developers, and agency partners seeking to leverage the advantages of composable architecture without the overwhelming complexity. It streamlines development by providing a reference storefront that incorporates popular headless technologies and proven best practices, allowing for faster and easier building of online stores.

This accessibility is further enhanced by Catalyst’s emphasis on developer experience, providing fully customizable storefront components and a streamlined GraphQL API client optimized for the latest versions of Next.js and React Server Components.

Adding to the simplification of composable commerce, BigCommerce has integrated Makeswift, a revolutionary composable page builder specifically designed for websites built with Next.js. This intuitive tool enables merchants to visually manage their storefront content with ease, minimizing the technical expertise typically required for headless solutions.

Harnessing the Power of AI with BigAI

The e-commerce landscape is rapidly evolving with the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and BigCommerce is at the forefront of this revolution with the introduction of BigAI for Commerce. This suite of AI-powered tools empowers merchants to enhance engagement, drive conversions, and boost revenue while simultaneously improving their productivity.

One of the key features within BigAI is the Copywriter, which utilizes generative AI and large language models to craft compelling, SEO-optimized product descriptions. By automating this often tedious task, merchants can save time and resources while ensuring their product listings are engaging and effective in attracting customers.

BigAI also leverages BigCommerce’s existing native Google BigQuery integration to offer Predictive Analytics. This innovative solution utilizes BigQuery’s machine learning capabilities to predict the future customer lifetime value of new customers, helping merchants make data-driven decisions about advertising strategies and customer acquisition efforts.

Further enhancing the shopping experience, BigCommerce has integrated Google Retail AI to offer personalized product recommendations. This integration allows merchants to showcase highly relevant products to their customers in real-time, based on their browsing history, purchase behavior, and other data points, resulting in increased average order values and higher conversion rates.

Redefining the B2B Experience

Already recognized as a leading e-commerce platform for B2B, BigCommerce is further solidifying its position with updates designed to enhance the buyer experience and maximize sales through customization, localization, and quoting functionalities.

Firstly, B2B Edition is now globally available for both single and multi-storefront deployments. This means that B2B merchants can now leverage the platform’s powerful localization capabilities to tailor their online presence to specific regions and languages, creating a more relevant and engaging experience for international buyers.

Beyond localization, BigCommerce is taking a bold step towards empowering B2B merchants with customization by open-sourcing its popular B2B Buyer Portal. This move provides businesses with the freedom to create bespoke Buyer Portal applications that cater to their unique needs and industry-specific challenges. By leveraging the open-source code, manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, and other B2B companies can develop tailor-made solutions to address their complex operational requirements and streamline their B2B workflows.

Omnichannel Selling with Feedonomics

Omnichannel selling has become essential for businesses looking to reach customers wherever they shop, and BigCommerce’s subsidiary, Feedonomics, is making this seamless transition a reality for its users. Feedonomics empowers brands to easily synchronize their data across various sales channels with its world-leading full-service feed management solution.

One of the latest additions to Feedonomics’ capabilities is event-driven real-time sync. This powerful feature allows merchants to address enterprise data pipeline needs by ensuring that inventory levels, pricing, and other crucial product information are updated instantly across all their sales channels. This level of accuracy minimizes the risk of listing disapprovals, overselling, and account suspensions, protecting both the brand’s reputation and revenue streams.

Feedonomics also simplifies the process of expanding into new sales channels by offering instant commerce integrations with popular marketplaces and delivery apps. This allows merchants to unlock new revenue streams and tap into broader customer bases by quickly and effortlessly connecting their BigCommerce store to platforms like Amazon, eBay, Walmart, DoorDash, Uber Eats, and more.

Maximizing Checkout and Payment Options

BigCommerce has always prioritized conversion optimization, and “bigcommerce next big thing” introduces further enhancements to help merchants maximize their checkout effectiveness and offer a wider range of payment options. This focus on checkout builds upon BigCommerce’s already impressive conversion rates, further empowering merchants to drive sales and outperform their competition.

Among these enhancements is the introduction of Fastlane by PayPal, a passwordless checkout solution designed to significantly accelerate the checkout process. Early results from the Fastlane Early Adopters program have demonstrated its potential to speed up checkout by almost 40% compared to traditional guest checkout methods, highlighting its impact on minimizing cart abandonment and driving conversions.

For merchants seeking greater control and customization over their checkout experience, BigCommerce has launched a beta program for checkout customization. This program allows developers to add new functionalities and tailor the checkout flow to better align with the brand’s specific needs and customer expectations.

Additionally, BigCommerce has expanded its promotions capabilities, offering merchants more granular control and flexibility in creating targeted promotions and discounts. These new features enable merchants to implement more nuanced and effective discount strategies, further optimizing their conversion rates.

Future Predictions and Emerging Trends

While “bigcommerce next big thing” introduces a wealth of exciting updates, it also hints at the future direction of BigCommerce and the broader e-commerce landscape. Here are some predictions about the key trends that will shape the future of BigCommerce:

The Rise of Hyper-Personalization

AI and data are transforming the way businesses interact with their customers, and hyper-personalization is becoming increasingly crucial for creating engaging and effective shopping experiences. BigCommerce is well-positioned to lead in this area, with its existing AI capabilities and robust data integrations paving the way for highly personalized experiences across all touchpoints.

We can expect to see BigCommerce further invest in tools that allow merchants to personalize product recommendations, marketing messages, and even website content based on individual customer preferences, purchase history, and browsing behavior.

Deeper Omnichannel Integration

The line between online and offline commerce continues to blur, and omnichannel selling is no longer just a trend but a necessity for businesses seeking to thrive in today’s market. BigCommerce’s commitment to omnichannel is evident in its acquisition of Feedonomics and the continuous development of integrations with leading marketplaces and delivery apps.

Looking ahead, we can anticipate even deeper integration between BigCommerce and various online and offline sales channels. This might include features that allow for seamless inventory management across brick-and-mortar stores, online marketplaces, social media platforms, and more, creating a truly unified experience for both merchants and their customers.

Expansion of B2B Capabilities

BigCommerce has already established itself as a frontrunner in the B2B e-commerce space, and the company’s commitment to this segment is clear with the launch of new features and the open-sourcing of the B2B Buyer Portal.

Moving forward, we can expect BigCommerce to continue investing in B2B-specific features and functionalities, solidifying its leadership in this sector. This could involve enhancements to quoting systems, order management tools, customer account management, and more, catering to the unique needs and complexities of B2B transactions.

Composable Commerce Goes Mainstream

While composable commerce has traditionally been the domain of larger enterprises with significant development resources, solutions like Catalyst are making this approach increasingly accessible to businesses of all sizes.

We predict that composable commerce will continue to gain momentum, becoming a more mainstream option for merchants seeking greater control, flexibility, and customization in building their online stores. BigCommerce’s focus on simplifying composable commerce will be a key driver in this adoption, empowering businesses to embrace this innovative approach without the traditional barriers.

Sustainability in Focus

Sustainability is no longer just a buzzword but a critical consideration for businesses across all industries, and e-commerce is no exception. Consumers are increasingly demanding sustainable practices from the brands they support, and BigCommerce is likely to embrace this shift by offering tools and resources that help merchants minimize their environmental impact.

This could include features that allow for carbon offsetting, eco-friendly shipping options, sustainable packaging choices, and more, empowering merchants to build eco-conscious businesses and appeal to environmentally-aware consumers.

FAQ Section

What is BigCommerce multi-storefront, and how can it benefit my business?

BigCommerce multi-storefront allows you to create and manage multiple unique online stores from a single BigCommerce dashboard. This is beneficial for businesses with multiple brands, different customer segments (like B2C and B2B), or those selling in different geographic regions. It allows you to tailor each storefront to a specific audience while maintaining centralized control over inventory, orders, and customer data.

How does Catalyst differ from traditional BigCommerce themes?

Catalyst is not a traditional theme but a starting point for headless or composable commerce. It provides a pre-built storefront structure and a simplified GraphQL API client that works seamlessly with technologies like Next.js. This gives developers more flexibility and control over the front-end experience while leveraging the power and features of the BigCommerce backend.

What are some practical examples of how BigAI can be used for marketing and customer engagement?

BigAI can be used to automate tasks like generating product descriptions, predicting customer lifetime value, and providing personalized product recommendations. This helps businesses improve their marketing efforts, target specific customer segments more effectively, and offer a more personalized shopping experience.

What types of B2B features does BigCommerce offer?

BigCommerce offers a suite of B2B features, including custom pricing, customer segmentation, quote management, account management, and wholesale functionalities. The platform’s B2B Edition and the open-sourced B2B Buyer Portal are specifically designed to address the unique requirements and complexities of B2B transactions.

How can I learn more about the new features and updates announced in “bigcommerce next big thing”?

You can explore the comprehensive details of “bigcommerce next big thing” and learn about all the bigcommerce new features and updates by visiting the dedicated page on the BigCommerce website: bigcommerce.com/next-big-thing.