BigCommerce vs. Shopify vs. Squareup: Comparing the Top Ecommerce Platforms

In the fast-paced world of e-commerce, choosing the right platform to build and run your online store is crucial. With numerous options available, it can be overwhelming to make an informed decision.

The top three e-commerce platforms are BigCommerce, Shopify, and Squareup. By examining their features, functionality, and advantages, you’ll be equipped to select the platform that best suits your business needs.

BigCommerce: Empowering Online Businesses

BigCommerce’s Australian owners, Eddie Machaalani and Mitchell Harper, put it on the market for real in 2009. Since it started, the company has grown a lot. It now has over 1000 workers and serves over 150 countries, tens of thousands of retailers, and over 150 million customers.

BigCommerce differs from other B2B and B2C companies because it focuses on people and small businesses. This is clear from how their business is set up and how much they charge. For example, the lowest price for one of their deals is $29.95 per month.

With the basic plan, you can add as many staff people as you want to your account. You can also use professional analysis tools, make deals in multiple currencies, and store and sell files, goods, and bandwidth without limits.

On the other hand, you could choose the Plus, Pro, or Enterprise plan if your business needs more than what the Standard plan offers. No matter what, you’re going to get what you pay for.

Key Characteristics:

It has almost too many features that could help a small business person succeed. Most of them are explained on the company’s website, along with a long list of use cases that can help you decide whether or not to buy. The following may be the most important and useful to your business:

Website Builder:

As you’d expect from a shopping platform, BigCommerce has a drag-and-drop tool for designing storefronts. This means that knowing how to code is no longer required to use the app. Besides that, the platform has a smooth connection with WordPress, checkout pages that can be changed a lot, and multiple HTML-built styles to help you start making.

Marketing:

It doesn’t have as much marketing power as the average business owner needs. But the platform’s most basic tools make it easy to get started. You can get email marketing templates, reminders that a shopping cart has been left behind, ads, and more.

Connected Sales Channels:

Outside of your BigCommerce website or shop, the platform makes it easy to handle almost all your sales outlets from the same place. This includes social media and advertising platforms, markets, WordPress stores, etc.

Reporting and Analysis:

The data section shows you everything, from your sales to the number of carts that were left empty. Aside from these, BigCommerce lets you see your sales tax report, the difference between new and returning customers, and almost everything else.

Point of Sale:

BigCommerce is different from its two competitors on this list because it doesn’t have its own POS system. The company makes up for this by integrating with Square’s POS system very nicely. But some might say that going through the whole process of merging might be a lot more work.

Shopify: Powering Online Stores Worldwide

Shopify has been around since 2006, making it the longest and most experienced name on our list. Since then, it has gotten so big that in Q2 2022, it made $1.3 billion in sales.

Even though the brand isn’t very clear about its products’ use, it’s probably safe to say that its site is home to more than 2 million sellers and 10,000 workers. The company’s services are also available in more than 175 countries worldwide.

No matter how big or fast it grows, The App Founders stays true to its goal of helping small business owners build profitable businesses for as little money as possible. The clearest proof of this is the company’s price plan. The Basic plan costs $29 per month. But if you subscribe for a whole year, you can cut that price by 50%.

This is a lot more than most brands are willing to give away. Some people might say that it is the best shopping tool for this reason, and we’ll look at a few others.

Key Characteristics:

Shopify is one of the most famous and successful shopping platforms on the market. It has several features that make it stand out from its competitors. Here are some of the most important:

Point of Sales:

The POS function is one of the best things about using it for your local shop. It lets you sell your goods to customers without missing the important sync in your account that helps you keep track of your funds and supplies. Since you are going offline, you will need a monitor or tablet, a card reader, a barcode scanner, and a printer for receipts.

Even in the Shopify POS system, there are key features that you might find useful. For instance, you don’t have to print a statement every time you make a sale. Instead, you can send it to the customer’s email address. You can also keep track of your sales to see which goods are selling the most and then use that information to make important choices. Lastly, this isn’t even a complete list; you can give your customers returns using Shopify’s POS system.

Card Gifts:

When running a business that sells to consumers, especially with low-priced products and many competitors, it’s important to give your customers a reason to stick with you. Gift cards are a great way to offer discounts and different payment methods, and it lets you do that. To make a gift card, go to your goods page and then to gift cards.

Social Media Integration:

You can link your Shopify store to your Facebook account with unique APIs. This could be especially helpful if you’ve spent the last few months or years building many Facebook followers. You don’t have to lose people too impatient to figure out how to use your website. Instead, you can convert them right away on Facebook.

Squareup: All-in-One Commerce Solution

The brand started in 2009 and is like a Swiss Army knife for small business owners.

This is because it lets you do almost everything you might need to do to run your business. Squareup helps you handle your staff in many ways, such as salary, schedule, and time cards. You can also use it to do simple bank transfers and run reward programs to keep your users returning.

Key Characteristics:

Square’s full list of features is easy to find on its price page under the different plans it has made. Some of them are worth mentioning, such as:

Point of Sales:

This one-of-a-kind feature is so useful and well-liked that it might be one of the brand’s most-used tools. This claim is supported by the fact that other online shops use POS.

Aside from that point-of-sale (POS) system lets you give deals and split bills between multiple buyers. It also has tax tools that let taxes be added immediately to the bill or printed out separately. To top it all off, Square’s POS can work without an internet link, among other things.

Savings:

With this function, Squareup lets you occasionally put a certain amount of your cash in a different box. You can then use these funds if you need to pay taxes or have an unexpected business cost.

Marketing:

Square’s list of paid tools includes several ways to sell your business. You could contact your customers by making email ads to lead to sales and watching them. If your target group is happier with it, you could go in a slightly different way and use text message marketing instead. No matter what, Square has tools to help you with your work.

Card Programs and Gift Cards

Taking a cue from Shopify, Squareup makes it easy to make gift cards and reward programs to attract new customers and keep the ones you already have.

Essential Elements and Detailed Insights

BigCommerce, Shopify, and SquareUp: Key Differences and Things to Think About Before You Choose

There isn’t much difference between the three names in terms of value, which makes sense since they are all direct rivals. But this long piece has brought up some points.

The clearest difference between the three retail systems is that BigCommerce doesn’t have a point-of-sale system. On the other hand, Shopify and Squareup have their own and don’t need to connect with a third-party app unless the user thinks it’s important. Still talking about

BigCommerce, you can add as many staff members as you want to your account, but you can’t do that with Shopify.

For Shopify and BigCommerce, you must pay at least a certain amount to own a shop. There are no such barriers to entry for Square. You could own a store with $0.

The POS systems are where Shopify and Square seem to be most in competition. The line between the two is a little bit fuzzy. Even so, it’s easy to see that Square’s reports tool isn’t as advanced as Shopify’s.

When comparing the top ecommerce systems for small companies, Shopify is the clear winner.