Look, you want to create an online store with BigCommerce, and you know that you’re going to need some help to do that. 

So, you turn to third-party apps and integrations. 

Unfortunately, when it comes to choosing these third-party apps and integrations, you don’t know what’s what. 

So, to get an inkling, you’ve scanned through its marketplace, in search of apps and integrations to clear the haze, but to no avail. 

Afterwards, you’ve resigned to the search engines like Google and Bing, but they don’t have the answers you seek either. 

Sound familiar? 

Well, luckily for you, we get where you’re coming from, and want you to succeed. 

Which is why, we decided to write this in-depth blog post detailing all the essential software when it comes to running an online store.

So, if you don’t care to mull through it all, you can skim down through the various sections until you find what you’re looking for. 

To get the ball rolling, we’ll provide a little bit of information about BigCommerce. Then, we’ll list off the apps we feel work brilliantly with BigCommerce’s platform. And, we’ll finish by breaking these apps up into their relevant sections. 

Enjoy!

What is BigCommerce?  

BigCommerce is an online store building platform. You’re all probably familiar with Shopify, so think of it as Shopify’s twin whom it looks nothing alike. 

Got it?   

What does BigCommerce do?  

Essentially, BigCommerce gives you the features and functionality you’ll need to create an online store and begin to sell products through it.  

Why Apps are Important when using BigCommerce 

Like most online platforms, BigCommerce doesn’t come with the level of “out of the box” functionality that you’ll need to successfully run an online store. 

So, to get that level of functionality, you will have to download, or subscribe to, third-party apps.  

If you’re confused about these apps, think of them in the same light as tools that would help you build a house.  

Building a house without tools would be pretty hard, right? 

Well, funnily enough, so is creating and running an online store.  

Best BigCommerce Apps and Integrations  

In this section of the article, we’re going to talk about some of the best apps that we recommend you integrate with BigCommerce.  

Please note though, that we will be compiling this list in no particular order.  

Also, this is going to be an extremely superficial account of all these apps.  

But all apps mentioned in this section will be reviewed more thoroughly in later sections.  

So, please stay tuned for that. 

Anyway, without further ado, let’s get cracking with these apps.  

App Number One: Shogun 

What is Shogun?  

Shogun is a Content Management System (CMS) and drag and drop page builder that is designed to integrate seamlessly with e-commerce platforms such as:  

• Shopify  
• BigCommerce 
• Salesforce 

What you can use Shogun for in your e-commerce store 

You can use Shogun to create and optimize pages for your BigCommerce store, but it specializes in helping you to create the perfect landing page. 

The platform offers you a host of different features to achieve this end.  

Its page editor operates in a drag and drop format and will give you the functionality you need to create high converting mobile responsive pages.  

You’ll also have over 30 professionally designed templates to base your store’s pages off. With its visual analytics suite, you’ll be able to monitor and compare key metrics in relation to your site’s performance. 

And, as if you didn’t already have enough tools at your disposal, you’ll have access to A/B testing to optimize your pages for conversions. 

 Also, if you run into difficulty using any of these features, you can simply contact their support staff who guarantee “same-day response”.  

App Number Two: JustUno  

 What is JustUno?

JustUno is an app designed to help you boost conversions from the traffic that visits your online store. It does this using conversion tools that have been programmed to pick up on customer behavioral patterns by combining three key data sets: 

• Behavioral session data  
• Visitor profile data  
• Transactional and product data  

Using this information, it produces targeted messaging that is most likely to earn you a conversion.   

The app can be integrated with:  

• Shopify  
• BigCommerce 
• Squarespace

What you can use JustUno for in your e-commerce store  

You can use JustUno to grow your contacts list, which advertently grows the number of leads your brand is associated with. For those unaware, a lead is a contact that could possibly be turned into a conversion. So, this software can be summarised as something that helps you to generate leads, and therefore earn conversions. If you’re a marketer who is heavily reliant on social media and email marketing, this app will work really well for you.

 It creates a little popup on the side of your website. The popup will read something like “WANT 25% OFF”, and your customers will click on it to avail of the deal. Now, you don’t have to offer a discount specifically. It can also be a “buy one get one free” offer. 

Obviously, you’re going to ask for something in return for handing out a discount, which will be your customer’s email or for them to share your brand on social media. For anyone looking to grow their contacts list, or increase their social media presence, this handy little app is for you. 

App Number Three: LeadDyno  

What is LeadDyno?  

LeadDyno is a piece of software that will enable you to quickly and easily manage and launch your affiliate program. And, the best part? You don’t need to possess any knowledge of coding or advanced developmental skills to use it.  

LeadDyno can be integrated with:  

• PayPal  

• BigCommerce 
• Shopify 

What you can use LeadDyno for 

LeadDyno can be used to create a comprehensive list of affiliate partners to work in conjunction with your brand. Its software will give you and your affiliates the functionality that ye will need to generate more leads and increase conversions. The app’s dashboard will allow your affiliates to see exactly how much money they’re making from commissions. Also, you can use LeadDyno’s database to find affiliates who are already using its platform. 

A handy tip that will help you find the best affiliates, is to sort through their database and identify the most successful bloggers. Bloggers are great because they always have not only a strong following but a loyal following. Having trust between buyer and seller is crucial, and that’s why bloggers make excellent affiliates. They’ve already established that trust through producing informative content week in week out. 

So, their followers are more likely to purchase the products and services that they promote. Which means that they’re more likely to earn you sales than the average affiliate marketer. Overall, this is an awesome app that is guaranteed to earn you some extra cash while increasing your brand awareness.  

App Number Four: Smile.io  

What is Smile?  

Smile is an app that will allow you to reward your customers for their generosity and turn them into lifetime buyers. To achieve this rather lofty end, it will give you the tools you need to create a warm and inviting community. As well as an onsite experience that will leave your customers wanting more.  

Smile can be integrated with the following e-commerce platforms:  

• Shopify  
• BigCommerce 

• WooCommerce 

What you can use Smile for 

You can use Smile to create a satisfied customer base by offering them rewards in return for purchasing your goods and services. In the current digital economy, it is getting harder and harder to make your e-commerce store stand out.

After all, virtually anyone can now buy a domain and hosting to supplement with a BigCommerce subscription and begin selling through their store. 

While winning customers is important, it may be smarter to approach your business’s plan of action with retaining customers to the fore instead.

Anyway, regardless of your business approach, you can use Smile to create and customize a customer loyalty program that matches your brand’s vision. To help you along during this process, you will have:  

• Points 
• VIP Tiers
• Referrals 

If you wish to find out more about Smile, check out our “apps to improve customer service” section down below.  

App Number Five: Omnisend  

What is Omnisend?

Omnisend is one of many email marketing and marketing automation apps that can be integrated with BigCommerce. The app offers an advanced level of email marketing functionality that almost anyone can use without any prior knowledge of coding or development. 

It’s possible to integrate Omnisend with the following online store building platforms:  

• Shopify  
• BigCommerce 
• WooCommerce 

What can you use Omnisend for?  

You can use Omnisend to bridge the gap between you and your customers. If you’re talking about the best big commerce apps, Omnisend has got to be up there. Mainly, because of how quick it is to get started using and also how easy it is to use.

When we refer to bridging the gap between you and your customers, we mean creating email marketing campaigns to get in touch with them. You can use Omnisend to create and send professional-looking emails in a relatively short period. 

On top of that, you can use it to send out email newsletters as well as automated messages if people: 

• Abandon their cart 
• Make a purchase 
• Require information on where their purchase is in the process of getting to them 

With Omnisend, you’ll also be able to avail of a host of tools that will aid in SMS and social media marketing automation. So, you’re getting an extremely well-rounded marketing automation tool. 

App Number Six: FOMO  

What is FOMO? 

FOMO is a social proofing app that will increase your conversion rate by taking advantage of the fear of missing out (also known as, FOMO). It does this by showing real-time purchases that are being made in your digital store, which entices potential customers to get in on the action. FOMO is also one of the many BigCommerce apps that is cloud-based and code free.  

Here are the platforms that FOMO can be integrated with: 

• BigCommerce 

• Shopify  
• Volusion  

What you can use FOMO for 

You can use FOMO to increase your online store’s conversion rate. This is achieved by displaying sales and activity happening on your site in real-time to visitors. Doing this provides social proof of your site’s legitimacy, which in turn provides an aura of trust and credibility. All of these things combined, eventually lead to sales. 

The app manifests this social proof in the form of a popup on your screen. It also gives you the necessary tools to customize these popups so that they fit in with your brand image and page design. What’s also great about Fomo, is that you can have the whole process up and running in a matter of minutes. 

And, if you feel like you need a little help with optimizing your site once it goes live, you can use Fomo insights. It’ll process all your data for you using machine learning so that you don’t waste a minute of your precious time.  

App Number Seven: PriceWaiter  

What is PriceWaiter  

PriceWaiter, for lack of a more elaborate term, is a negotiation app. The theory behind the app is that it’ll make buying and selling products through your online store much easier, by simplifying the processes of negotiation. 

Which is a drawn-out way of saying that it’ll find things that you can buy with the intention of selling on for a profit.

 Also, this is genuinely one of the best BigCommerce apps. After all, they did create it! 

What e-commerce platforms are open to PriceWaiter integrations: 

• BigCommerce 

What you can use PriceWaiter for 

As a seller, you can use this app to sell more using the conversion tools contained within. PriceWaiter is probably best used to sell unwanted stock or clear large volumes of merchandise quickly in the guise of a clearance sale. But you could also use it to boost sales for your brand’s end of season sales.

The platform offers a builder and analytics dashboard to help you generate sales and attract new customers. You can use it to convert comparison shoppers bouncing around from store to store and make MAP moot.  

Now that we’ve established what we think are some really great BigCommerce apps, let’s start breaking them up into categories that should make for easier viewing. 

Also, we will be getting into the nitty-gritty details of what we love about them, so stay tuned for that!

The Best Landing Page Builder for BigCommerce  

In this segment of our post, we’re going to be analyzing what we believe to be one of the best landing page builders on the market, Shogun. 

Shogun

As previously stated, Shogun is one of the top BigCommerce apps on the market. 

It enables you to create stunning and modern landing pages using drag and drop functionality, but that’s not all. It also offers a page importer that you can use to edit and customize pre-existing pages. As well as that, it works well for use in creating about pages, contact pages, and other pages of that nature.  

Anyway, this is all awesome because it means that you don’t need prior knowledge of coding to be able to effectively use the tool. This also means that you won’t have to pay a developer. Which is huge because normally they demand a pretty penny in exchange for their services.  

But if the need arises for a developer to be introduced, Shogun offers advanced functionality that’ll be right up their alley. For example, its “custom templating” feature allows you to create additional elements in coding languages such as liquid and HTML.  

Once you create or edit a page with Shogun, you have the option to preview the page before it goes live. This will help ensure that the page is mobile responsive and that nothing is broken.  

The importance of having a mobile responsive site cannot be stated enough, with 50% of internet traffic now coming from mobile devices.  

In terms of integrations, it works super well with Shopify and BigCommerce, and all their respective themes. BigCommerce customer reviews have left the app rated five stars with 166 people already having rated the app, so you know it’s high performing.  

To test out Shogun’s support, we decided to get in touch by asking them a few frequently asked questions that we googled. We found that they were very responsive but most importantly helpful. One thing that we didn’t like about Shogun’s support, is that it prioritizes customers on the basic and pro plans.  

Which, in a way, is fair seen as they are paying more than the subscribers to its starter plan. Also, a redeeming factor in all of this is that Shogun offers email support to all users, regardless of the plan that they’re on. But some will just have to wait longer than others to avail of it due to the whole priority thing.  

Shogun Pricing  

Shogun offers three pricing plans:   

Overall, Shogun is a page builder that we, and many other reviewers, would recommend.  

The Best Apps for Improving Marketing and Increasing Conversions 

As we did in the previous segment, we’ll again be taking a closer look at some of the best apps that can be integrated with BigCommerce. Only this time, we’ll be concentrating on marketing and conversion apps. So, without further ado, let’s begin.  

JustUno  

The first marketing and conversion app that we’re going to be discussing is JustUno. You can use JustUno to create:  

• Popups  
• Lead generation solutions  
• Targeted messaging to boost conversions  

JustUno offers core visitor intelligence technology that has been specially designed to improve your conversion strategies. This out of the box functionality will collect visitor data and track behavioral patterns inside your digital stores to profile your target audience.  

Once this customer profiling is complete, you can marry your findings with the tools offered in Justuno’s AI suite to create effective conversion strategies. This will ensure that you’re able to earn more conversions and generate leads with ease.  

Another great way to increase your sales with JustUno is by upselling.  

This can easily be done on-page by recommending products to go along with other products. Which is admittedly extremely basic, but effective, nonetheless. You can also use the app to create exit pop-ups that appear when customers choose to abandon their cart. These pop-ups could be used to display promotions, or perhaps best sellers that match that visitor’s personal product and transactional data.  

This is a great method to use if you’re someone who likes to be proactive in winning sales.  

You can also make use of JustUno’s omnichannel messaging to help you make more sales through your online store. You see, omnichannel messaging will ensure that you’ll be able to connect with leads and increase your brand awareness across multiple platforms. Which is becoming increasingly important in today’s market.  

In terms of Ease of Use, we’d rate the app below average. Mainly because all the customisation and features can become a little overwhelming. Also, its UI is kind of tricky to get the hang of. Something that other online reviewers have also noted. 

The final reason we’d label JustUno as one of the better BigCommerce apps in this category is because of its audience segmentation feature. Audience Segmentation is fantastic because it will allow you to always send the right promotional content to the right people. Which is not only essential when it comes to making more sales but also when it comes to increasing your brand awareness.  

Pricing

JustUno’s pricing structure is complicated, so we recommend that you take advantage of the free trial that it offers before you opt-in.  

Info on JustUno’s free trial:  

• You do not have to sign up with your credit card.  
• You are not obligated to buy a plan with the platform.  
• You will not have to pay any hidden activation fees.

LeadDyno  

The next marketing app up for dissection is LeadDyno.  

LeadDyno is an all in one type of affiliate marketing and tracking solution, which can be easily integrated with BigCommerce.  

It gives you the functionality you need to create and then manage your affiliate program, as well as track conversions by inputting URLs. 

Something that we find really cool about LeadDyno, is how easy they make it for a visitor to promote your products. You see, if a visitor purchases your products through your online store, they can share them on social media with the click of a button. All of this is made possible thanks to the app’s social media plugin.  

In terms of signing up affiliates, the process is rather straightforward and can be completed in a matter of minutes. You can choose to pay your affiliates’ commissions one of three ways:  

• The first way is automatically through your chosen payment processor.  
• The second way is using one-click payment verification.  
• The third way is with affiliate mass pay, which lets you pay all your affiliates’ commission with a few quick clicks. 

There are also some great features that’ll help you grow your affiliate list. For instance, when someone purchases a product from your online store, you can send them an invite to become an affiliate.  

Another great feature worthy of a mention is the Per Product Commission. In short, this feature enables you to put a different percentage commission on products of your choice. You can also use it to set up a fixed sum of money as a commission in place of a percentage fee.  

This BigCommerce integration also provides you with real-time affiliate reporting, so you can keep a close eye on everything. Plus, it’s annoying to have to wait for the dashboard to update affiliate information, so the fact you won’t have to is awesome. 

The UI offered by LeadDyno is super easy to use, and your affiliates can see all your partnership information on the dashboard. This is great because we feel it helps create a transparent, and therefore, more trusting working relationship.  

LeadDyno can also be used to track Google AdWords and Social media conversions. To do this, you need to create a new tracking campaign and input the URL you want to be tracked for conversions into your ads.  

The one bad thing we’d say about LeadDyno is that its reporting is slightly lacking in comparison with other apps.

LeadDyno Pricing  

Here’s a breakdown of LeadDyno’s pricing structure for all its “Basic Plans”:  

Omnisend 

Omnisend is best described as an omnichannel marketing and automation solution for marketers.  

The word “omni” alludes to the fact that the platform enables you to automate marketing projects across multiple communicative channels. 

These channels include:  

• SMS  
• Social Media 
• Email  

The app has received 100 reviews in BigCommerce’s market place, averaging a 4.5-star rating.  

Omnisend offers a tonne of great features, especially when it comes to email and text automation.  

Along with the usual welcome and confirmation notifications, it also allows you to create and send cart recovery and product abandonment messages. 

For those who don’t know, these messages will target people who abandoned their cart or looked at a product but never made a purchase. This will be done using product recommendations and alternatives.  

According to Omnisend, this will help you win back customers, so no complaints there.  

When it comes to writing your newsletters and other promotional content, you will again have some helpful tools at your disposal. For instance, you’ll have built-in email templates available to you that have been optimized to earn conversions.  

Another cool thing about Omnisend is its product picker. You can use it to import products and product details to your store in a matter of minutes. 

You’ll also have access to CTR Boosters and Discount Coupons to entice your email recipients into buying some of your products.  

Along with that, you’ll be able to boost your on-page marketing efforts, by taking advantage of sign-up forms. You can place these forms in a discrete, yet visible location, in your store using a widget. 

This is great for growing your email list and generating new leads.  

A negative associated with Omnisend, is the lack of customisation it offers within certain themes and pertaining to certain elements. One online reviewer was disgruntled by the fact that they could not change the colour scheme of the spin to win wheel to match that of their store. As a result, they can’t use that feature, which is annoying seen as gamification is effective and they’re paying to be able to use it. 

Omnisend’s Pricing 

Here’s a breakdown of Omnisend’s pricing:

BigCommerce Apps to Improve Customer Conversions 

The next segment is going to focus on the BigCommerce apps that are going to help you turn leads into sales.  

Let’s begin! 

FOMO  

The first app we’re going to be looking at is FOMO.  

As previously alluded to in the best BigCommerce apps and integrations portion of this article, 

FOMO is a social proof marketing platform.  

The app gives you the power you need to create and edit messaging so that your vision is always 

conveyed in the clearest way possible. This is made doable by its patent-pending architecture.  

Pretty neat, right?  

FOMO also gives you the option to incorporate automation and fallbacks into your site. These filters should provide you with the necessary elements to customize your site. And, enhance your visitors’ buying experience. 

Something that many people do not seem to know about this app, is that it is extremely sophisticated. For example, it’s analyzing approximately 10 billion data points every hour, so that you can optimize your pages for conversions.  

What’s also super about this digital marketing solution, is its templates and theme builder. FOMO’s templates provide you with a page base that’s proven to convert, while its builder lets you make it look stunning. 

The builder comes with elements that enable you to customize your site without any knowledge of coding languages. But there is a CSS function available for more advanced developers. Also, they allow members access to its API, so you should have no qualms regarding customizing your online storefront. 

For anyone who’s looking to target a certain part of the world as their client base, you can by using IP tracking.  

FOMO’s scoreboard comes along with the app and will provide you with an indication of how useful it has been for you.  

In terms of support, this BigCommerce integration makes JavaScript “side helpers” available to help you create the best site possible. Once more, you will be able to perform CSV exports so that you’re able to collect all the data about your store that you could possibly need.  

How Much Does FOMO Cost? 

Here’s a breakdown of Fomo’s pricing: 

PriceWaiter  

While using the app, you’ll be pleasantly surprised when you realize that almost everything has been automated.  

Now, an entirely automated platform is a crux for more advanced marketers and developers. So, you may be pleased to know, that you’ll also have the option to manually set up some sales features.  

Although the level of customization you’ll have available to you is still somewhat limited, it’ll give you control over when these items go live. 

The most attractive element of this app is that it enables you to sell products that you otherwise wouldn’t have been able to sell.  

When it comes to optimizing pages with PriceWaiter, you’ll have access to A/B testing to ensure they’re high converting. 

On top of that, you’ll be able to decrease your bounce rate by using metrics that calculate exit intent.  

The lower your bounce rate, the better search engine crawlers will rank your site in the SERPs. 

The only obvious downside to PriceWaiter, is that there’s no guarantee that you’re going to be able to use it effectively. And, that’s because it can be a little tricky to get the hang of, but once you do, you should be fine. 

PriceWaiter’s Pricing 

This app does not require a set up or subscription fee. It operates as a marketplace, so instead, they take a percentage commission from the seller. 

Top BigCommerce App to Improve Customer Service  

Smile.io  

Smile is an awesome BigCommerce integration, which will give you the functionality you need to create a rewards program to give back to your loyal customers.  

The app has a 4.5 star-rating in BigCommerce’s app marketplace. Which would indicate that it’s in the higher echelons of what’s available when it comes to improving customer service.  

The first thing we love about Smile is that it provides more than one method of rewarding your customers. You see, if a customer makes a purchase, you can reward them. If they share your brand on social media, you can reward them. If they merely tell a friend, and that friend mentions who pointed them in the direction of your store, you can reward them.  

According to Smile’s about info in the BigCommerce app marketplace, there are over ten different consumer actions, which can result in customer rewards.  

When creating your rewards programs, you’ll be able to add imagery and logos so that the program feels as though it’s an extension of your brand. 

If you find that you need access to customization features that are not available through smile, you can have them coded in through its API. 

Please note, you do not have API access unless you are subscribed to Smile’s Enterprise plan.  Admittedly, this is a bit of a bummer. 

One of the most practical methods you can use to ensure customers remain loyal to your brand is Smile’s VIP structure. In short, VIP encourages customers to continue to buy your products, buy offering them rewards. Plain, and simple! 

Rewarding your customers is a great way to improve your customer service because it makes the customer feel valued. 

Also, it shows that you care about the people who buy your products, which is another nice touch.  

The Best BigCommerce Shipping App

Let’s face it, shipping can be so complicated, not to mention downright over the top.  

So, before you find yourself stressed to the point that you’re foaming from the mouth and clenching your fists so tight that they turn blue. 

*Exhales slowly and breathes in deeply*

Well, why not investigate downloading an app that’ll, more or less, do most of the hard work for you, eh?  

AfterShip  

Aftership is a tracking solution that marketers can integrate into their online stores.  

The app is great because it will automatically track your couriers so that you are up to date pertaining to the whereabouts of your customers’ orders.  

Shipments can be automatically tracked through aftership using shopping carts, marketplaces, and CSVs.  

The app’s interface will provide you with a:

• Time of delivery 
• Date of delivery 
• Delivery status regarding items whereabouts and condition  

What we like about this app is the ability to manage your shipments using filters. For example, you are able to sort deliveries out by the courier delivering them. So, if you need to find data relating to shipments being delivered by a specific courier, you can quick and easy. 

Other metrics that you can sort by include:

• Final location of delivery  
• The date the delivery is fixed to be shipped  
• The time it will take for a delivery to be completed 

For those of you who like to stay one step ahead of the game, you’ll be able to perform an audit on all your shipments. This is awesome because it should give you a reasonably strong idea as to how long your deliveries will take.  

Aftership lets you send notifications via email to your customers. This is useful if something happens to your shipment because it’ll allow you to keep your customers up to date. While also affording them a little peace of mind.  

To set this up, you’re going to have to establish status triggers. For instance, if an item gets delivered, the status of that shipment will change to display “delivered”. Upon this change, you can arrange for a generic confirmation email to be sent to all your customers.  

As with most of the BigCommerce apps on this list, you will have access to an API. So, for all you developers, you will be able to code the app to suit your shipping needs.   

For customers to track their orders, they need only go to your site and look for the tracking page. Within the tracking page, they’ll find all the information there is to find about their order.  

The actual function that will allow you to implement a tracking system on your site, is called the “Track Button”. To get this feature up and running on your store, you’ll need to copy and paste a few lines of code, which can be found on AfterShip’s website.  

In terms of cons, there are a few that other reviewers have experienced.    

For instance, reviewers on GetApp.com noticed problems with tracking couriers and getting the tracking ID to appear. One person who left a review on the platform claimed that they did not provide good enough documentation when it comes to explaining how to effectively use the site’s API.  

Not huge problems, but food for thought, nonetheless.  

How Much Does AfterShip Cost Per Month? 

Here’s Our List of Must-Have BigCommerce Apps Once More 

1. Shogun 
2. JustUno 
3. LeadDyno 
4. Smile 
5. Omnisend 
6. FOMO 
7. Pricewaiter 

Why is it important that you find the best online storefront builder?

If you owned a store in real life, you’d likely spend a lot of time making sure it looked just right. First impressions count. What your customer sees as they first enter your store is incredibly important, along with how easy it is to navigate. If they find it dreary, or boring, or it has a confusing layout, they’re more likely to leave without making a purchase.

The same goes for eCommerce. How your website looks – and functions – is key. The most successful online businesses make sure that their customers will find it as simple to use their store as possible. The easier you make it for your customer to checkout, the better. That doesn’t mean your store has to be boring – you can still inject a lot of personality into your store, creating a rapport with your customers.

You can achieve this with a good online storefront builder. The right tools will help you to build a professional, functional, and easy-to-navigate website that fits with your brand and encourages customers to shop with you.

We’ll take a look at some of the best storefront builders out there, looking at their pros and cons, so that you can find the right one for your business.

What Should You Look for in an Online Storefront Builder?

There are a few features you should consider when you’re looking for the perfect storefront builder:

A Range of Page Types

You may want more for your website than a collection of product pages – you might want to build landing pages, about pages, FAQs, or even a blog. A good storefront builder should give you the choice of building a variety of pages.

Templates

A good storefront builder will provide you with a range of pre-made templates, covering different types of businesses, so that you can find one that suits you. They should also offer you the option of building your pages from scratch.

Page Editing

Some eCommerce platforms don’t allow you much control over how your pages look. There are many out there that offer drag-and-drop builders that allow you to tweak each page to look exactly the way you want it to, even if you don’t have a lot of technical knowledge.

Extras and Plugins

Some storefront builders offer extra features. These could include basic email marketing, coupons for your customers, or analytics so you can study how well your pages are performing.

Integrations

Some storefront builders offer integrations with other apps, like social media or email marketing platforms – for example, you may be able to include a sign-up form for your MailChimp email newsletter.

The Best Online Storefront Builders

Here’s an overview of the storefront builders we’ll be looking at today:

We’ll mainly be focusing on the storefront building aspect of each platform, but we will give a quick rundown of some of the other features they have to offer.

Shopify

Shopify has a lot to offer – including a secure shopping cart with zero transaction fees, automatic store backup, and a lot of security features, so you know your customers will have a safe shopping experience with you. It’s cloud-based, so you can work on your store wherever you go.

One of Shopify’s strengths is the product management system – you can easily upload, edit, and organize your products.

When it comes to templates, Shopify offers a range of beautiful options, both free and paid:

You can design pages and add a blog – however, it’s not the best page builder out there in terms of ease of use. (Apps improve the experience here – more on that a bit later).

In terms of SEO, Shopify has a lot to offer, including custom URLs and adding alt-tags to images.

Analytics-wise, they offer a good overview of how your store is performing. They also have quite a lot to offer when it comes to marketing tools. For example, the Abandoned Cart Recovery is a great tool that will email your customers to remind them to complete the checkout process.

You can change your Shopify experience by adding apps. The Appstore contains a ton of apps for different purposes – page builders, email marketing, custom packaging creators, returns solutions, and more. These vary in price – so while it’s a great way to customize your Shopify experience, if you’re not careful you could end up spending more money than you originally anticipated in running your store.

They have three pricing tiers – the Basic plan at $29 per month, the Shopify plan at $79 per month, and the Advanced Shopify plan at $299 per month. The Basic plan does have quite a lot to offer, including the very useful Abandoned Cart Recovery.

Pros of Shopify:

• Secure payment system
• In-built marketing tools
• In-built analytics
• Good choice of templates
• Many optional apps to choose from

Cons of Shopify:

• Apps can start to add up
• Product pages could look nicer

Shopify offer a free 14-day trial: click here to find out more.

Shogun

Shogun is an app for Shopify, BigCommerce, and Magento, but it makes a huge difference to how your store will look to your customers. It’s a page building app, enabling you to create beautiful product pages, standard pages, blog posts, or product collections. 

The templates are great:

The drag-and-drop page builder is incredibly simple to use and will enable you to create the exact page that you desire for your website.

You can also add a ton of extras to your page – for example, social media buttons, countdown timers, buttons, videos, and images.

What’s great about Shogun is that it offers more than just page building. You can split test your pages – creating two slightly different versions of the same page to see which one performs the best – and it also has its own analytics suite, so you can see exactly how your pages are performing.

It’s a great app, and it could make a huge difference to the experience your customers can have with your store.

Shogun has three pricing plans: Build, at $39 per month, Measure, at $99 per month, and Optimize, at $149 per month. Analytics become available on the Measure plan, whereas split testing is only available on the Optimize plan.

Pros of Shogun:

• Range of beautiful templates
• Page builder is very easy to use
• Add lots of extras to your page, including social media buttons and videos
• Split testing and analytics are great ‘bonus’ features

Cons of Shogun:

• The price of Shogun together with the platforms it is designed for could be out of reach if you’re on a very tight budget

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is another popular eCommerce platform. It has a lot to offer, including a secure site hosted by Google Cloud platform and advanced SEO and CRO tools (including Abandoned Cart Saver).

What’s good about BigCommerce is the integration with other platforms. Using BigCommerce, you can also set up to sell your products on Facebook, Instagram, eBay, Google Shopping, Amazon, and Square. You can also set up PayPal One Touch – great for enabling your customers to checkout quickly and easily.

When it comes to the storefront itself, there are a lot of templates to choose from:

You can tweak the colours and sections of your website, but it’s not the most customizable page builder we’ve seen. If you want more control over the look of your pages, you might be better off looking elsewhere. Still, the whole platform is very easy to use, which is great.

BigCommerce has a lot of great features, too, including coupons, and a basic email marketing system. Having all this in one place is really handy.

There are three pricing plans. The cheapest is Standard at $29.95 per month. Then you have Plus at $79.95 per month, and finally Pro at $249.95 per month. It’s worth noting that some of the extra features, like abandoned cart saver and customer segmentation, are only available on the Plus and Pro plans.

Pros of BigCommerce

• Good integrations
• Pretty straightforward to use
• Good range of premade templates
• Lots of payment options for customers

Cons of BigCommerce

• Not much customization when it comes to storefront
• Some of the best features aren’t available on the cheapest plan

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is an app designed for Squarespace, enabling you to turn your website into an online store. It gives you a secure shopping experience for your customers with multiple payment methods, easy stock management, and even a mobile app so you can work on your store wherever you go.

In terms of templates, there are a variety to choose from. The free themes aren’t that great to look at, however. The paid themes are a lot nicer, with some modern and interesting designs to choose from.

You can customize your website, changing images, titles, and content. If you have a bit of coding knowledge, you’ll be able to customize your website a little more. However, if you’re a beginner, you may find the choices that you have a bit limiting.

Like Shopify, WooCommerce offers a range of plugins (some free and some paid) to enhance your store. There are a lot of marketing tools available here, including follow-up emails, email subscriptions, marketing analysis, social media marketing, and coupons and discounts. These are great, but the costs may stack up quickly here.

The reporting is pretty good, and the main draw is that the platform itself is free (minus the cost of being on WordPress) – so that could help to mitigate the costs of the plugins and templates you may need.

Pros of WooCommerce:

• Actual platform is free
• Paid templates are nice
• Plugins give you extra marketing tools

Cons of WooCommerce:

• Plugins and templates can get expensive
• Not much customization when it comes to actual pages

3dCart

3dCart is another great option. It gives you a secure shopping cart with multiple payment options and simple order processing, including a 1-click printing system for orders.

The store builder has over 100 themes to choose from:

Some of them are paid and others are free. The themes are not as modern or dynamic as some of the others we’ve seen, but they’re still pretty decent. Unfortunately, the themes themselves are not that customizable – you can play around with the colour scheme and edit the content, but you can’t drag and drop elements to build the page exactly the way you want it.

There is, however, a ‘site content’ area. This allows you to quickly navigate the pages of your website:

You can create a variety of pages, including home pages, blog posts, and terms and conditions. The page editors themselves are quite basic, but they enable you to add text and images.

3dCart offers some great extra features, including customer grouping (you can then go on to offer those customers a specific discount code), create a gift registry, and sell your products on eBay and Amazon.

In terms of pricing, you have four options: Startup at $19 per month, Basic at $29 per month, Plus at $79 per month, and Pro at $229 per month. You can unlock most of the marketing tools and extras on the Plus plan, which is a similar price to some of the other platforms we’ve tried.

Pros of 3dCart:

• Secure cart with a variety of payment options
• Create pages for your website and add content to them
• Decent range of templates
• Extra features, like customer grouping, gift registries, and more

Cons of 3dCart:

• Not much customization of pages
• Some of the better features are only available on the Plus plan

Yahoo! Stores

Yahoo! Stores has over $70 million in sales under its belt – that’s a pretty impressive amount of products sold through the platform. It’s aimed at small business owners who might be new to the world of eCommerce, and it boasts a secure payment system with PayPal Smart Payment buttons, an inventory management system, and more.

When it comes to the storefront, there are quite a few templates to choose from:

We weren’t able to fully test Yahoo! Stores, but from reading user reviews, we can see that the pages are customizable to a certain extent. If you’re after a fully customizable website, you’re probably better off with another platform with more of a focus on the storefront itself.

However, if you’re after a basic store builder that will allow you to get up and running very quickly, Yahoo! Stores could be a great choice.

When it comes to pricing, there are three options: Basic, from $10.95 per month, Standard, from $25.95 per month, and Professional, from $254.95 per month. Yahoo! Stores charge you for transaction fees – from 0.75% to 1.5%, depending on which one you choose.

Pros of Yahoo! Stores

• Quick and easy to set up
• Decent range of templates
• Good for beginners

Cons of Yahoo! Stores

• Pages aren’t completely customizable
• You will be charged for transaction fees

Kartra

Kartra is another great platform that allows you to create an eCommerce business, with a huge range of marketing features to choose from. There are so many extra features, in fact, that we can’t cover them all here. From sales funnels to marketing campaigns, video creation to calendars and scheduling, Kartra has everything you could possibly need.

However, how is it in terms of creating an attractive, easy-to-navigate storefront?

You can create a whole range of pages in Kartra, including a video sales page, at hank you page, a coming soon page, blog posts, squeeze pages, live event pages, legal pages, and many more besides. 

Kartra has a drag-and-drop page builder, which is great.

There’s a bit of a learning curve involved here, but there’s quite a bit of help and support available if you need it.

In terms of pricing, there are four tiers available: Starter, at $99 per month, Silver, at $199 per month, Gold, at $299 per month, and Platinum, at $499 per month. Obviously, this is the most expensive platform on this list. However, you’re paying for a lot of extra features, so you’ll need to bear that in mind.

Pros of Kartra:

• Lots of marketing features
• Everything in one place, so you don’t have to use multiple platforms
• Lots of templates to choose from
• Drag-and-drop page builder

Cons of Kartra:

• On the pricier side
• Bigger learning curve than some of the others on this list

PageFly

PageFly is another page building app built for Shopify. It will allow you to build a variety of pages for your Shopify store.

There are over 50 templates to choose from, and they all look great, easy to navigate and professional. Like Shogun, it has a drag-and-drop page builder, enabling you to assemble your pages the exact way you want to, although the interface isn’t as user-friendly as Shogun. You can choose to build regular pages, home pages, collection pages, product pages, password pages, and blog posts.

You can add a lot of extra features to your pages, including social media buttons, countdown timers, images, and videos. It’s a great way to make Shopify more customizable.

It doesn’t, however, offer much else – it’s really just designed to create pages, without any of the extra features that some of the other platforms on this list have to offer.

It does, however, have the huge advantage of having a free plan, which will allow you to build up to three pages for your Shopify store. There’s also the Pro plan, at $9.95 per month, and the Premium plan, at $29.95 per month. This makes it one of the cheapest options we’re looking at today, although you have to factor the cost of Shopify itself into the equation.

Pros of PageFly:

• Free plan is great for Shopify users who want to create extra pages
• Great templates
• Drag-and-drop builder is easy to use

Cons of PageFly:

• No extra features – it just creates pages

You can find out more about PageFly here.

SamCart

SamCart is another platform that will help you get set up quickly – you can get going in under half an hour. It offers a secure cart with the option of subscriptions, coupons, and trial offers, detailed analytics, and an affiliate center. It also has the Subscription Saver, helping you to save lost income from cancelled Subscription payments.

It has a few storefront templates to choose from:

They are, however, pretty bland. They’re a basic way to sell products – as you can tell, they don’t look that great compared to the templates some of the other platforms have to offer. You can customize these pages, but the level of customization is not that extensive – you can change colors and headings, that sort of thing, and obviously adjust the content and add images.

SamCart would be a good choice if you offer subscriptions, as it protects you against lost revenue from failed card payments – however, there are more attractive looking storefront builders out there.

There are two price plans: Pro, at $99 per month, Premium, at $199 per month. Pro contains a lot of the features you’d want, including split testing and 1-click upselling, but the Subscription Saver is restricted to the Premium plan.

Pros of SamCart:

• Good marketing features like 1-click upsells
• Affiliate marketing and Subscription Saver are great features
• Quick to get started

Cons of SamCart:

• Templates are very basic
• Not much customization

SamCart offer a free trial – click here to find out more.

Leadpages

Leadpages is designed to create landing pages and websites. However, you can use Leadpages to create a storefront for your eCommerce business. On the Pro plan, you can sell products online, making it a similar price to some of the other platforms on this list.

Leadpages have beautiful templates:

They are attractive, responsive and look professional. They’d be particularly suited to those selling digital products, like eBooks or PDFs. The page builder itself is really simple to use, again, using a drag-and-drop mechanism to drag blocks of content where you want them. You can also customize colors, headings, etc, and if you know CSS, you can take that customization a lot further.

It’s one of the easiest page builders we’ve tried. You can create whole websites with Leadpages – so no matter what content you want to add, you can do so with ease. It also offers a range of extras – including pop-ups, alert bars, and trigger links to draw your customers’ attention where you want it.

When it comes to the pricing plans, you have Standard, at $37 per month, Pro, at $79 per month, and Advanced, at $321 per month.

Pros of Leadpages:

• Templates look beautiful
• Page builder is easy to use
• Create a whole website easily
• Pop-ups and alert bars are great extras

Cons of Leadpages:

• Relies on integration with Stripe, so you’ll be charged transaction fees
• No real product inventory – you have to create a page for each product. More suited to those selling a handful of products, for example, eBooks or online courses

You can find out more about Leadpages here.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion – Which Storefront Builder Will You Choose?

As you can see, there are many great storefront builders out there, and this list doesn’t cover all of them. What you will choose as your favorite will depend on a lot of factors – pricing, features, and your level of experience.

If you want to quickly set up a store, and you’re not too bothered about limited templates, SamCart is a good option, as you can get going in under 30 minutes, and the pricing is pretty average for a storefront builder. If you’re after the complete package, Kartra is a great choice – it really does have everything you could imagine for an online business, and it’s particularly great if you run events that need managing, too. Or, if you want a very easy way to make an attractive storefront for your Shopify page, we’d definitely recommend Shogun – it’s user-friendliness and beautiful templates make it a great choice.

Any of these choices will help you to create a beautiful storefront, improving your customers’ shopping experience and hopefully landing you more sales. If you can’t decide, many of them offer free trials, which is a great way to get a feel for how the platform works before you make your final decision.

Are you looking to break into e-commerce?  

Well, if you are, then you probably know you’re going to need to create a website and a good one at that. 

You see, people rate their buying experience on how well an establishment or brand presents itself.  

For example, if you were to head out to a restaurant for dinner, you’d expect that restaurant to look and perform a certain way.  

Funnily enough, people will also critique your online store in a similar manner.  

So, you’ll need to create an awesome landing page that captivates your viewers and makes them want to invest in your brand.  

Of course, to create any page for your online store, you’ll need to have some serious developmental skills. Right? 

Wrong! 

There have never been more page creators on the market that’ll give you the functionality you need to create a beautiful BigCommerce store.  

So, with that in mind, we thought we’d compile a list of three of the best for all you BigCommerce entrepreneurs. 

Enjoy! 

Here’s Our Top 3 BigCommerce Page Builders

Number: 1 – Shogun  

What is Shogun? And, some of it Features 

Shogun is one of the best page builders that you can integrate with BigCommerce.  

It offers a drag and drop editor, which means you don’t need to have any developmental skills to use it.  

But, that’s not to say you’ll suffer from a lack of customization.  

Shogun’s custom templating feature gives developers the power they need to create breath-taking pages.  

And, once you have these pages created, you can then optimize them for conversions using AB testing.  When you perform your AB testing, you’ll be able to analyze metrics such as sales, add to carts and bounce rates.  

Another great thing about Shogun is that if you’re not very creative, you need not panic.  

Mainly, because the e-commerce integration offers over 30 templates you can base your pages off. 

Once more, all these pages have been optimized for mobile, which is crucial when it comes to running an online store.  

In terms of the types of pages, you can create using Shogun, there really is no limit. So, whether you need to create a landing page or an about page, the app has got you covered. 

To top everything off, the app offers an excellent support system, with members of its support team based out of the USA and Australia. Some awesome support features include same-day response, a live chat, and priority email for members on its more expensive plans. 

Oh, we love the ability to create forms, too. It’s great for anyone looking to grow their email list.   

Ease of Use 

Shogun’s simplistic yet powerful drag and drop editor is exceptionally user-friendly. When creating your site’s pages, the editor will leave at your disposal a number of page elements. These elements range from videos to blogs and are super easy to place in your storefront. We love this feature of Shogun because it means we don’t have to start messing around with code. Although, if you have the know-how, you’ll find it super easy to edit your store’s pages using Liquid and CSS. Creating forms is also super easy to do. Overall, this is an awesome, powerful and easy-to-use landing page builder.  

Pros  

• Fantastic Drag and Drop Features and Functionality  
• Amazing and Responsive Support Team 
• Extremely Well Rounded 

Cons 

• You Have to Pay Extra to Code Custom Elements 

Pricing  

Here’s a quick breakdown of Shogun’s pricing: 

Number 2: Instapages

What is Instapages and Some of its Features  

Instapages will provide you with the tools and functionality you need to create high converting landing pages. As well as general pages for your online store.  

It offers over 200 templates for you to base these pages off, which don’t require coding to customize. Oh, also, these templates have all been optimized for mobile. So, you can rest assured your non-PC/Laptop visitors will have an awesome customer experience 

Also, regardless of whether you’re just getting started with your online store, or are an established figure within the game, Instapages can benefit you.  

You see, as previously mentioned, you don’t need to have any prior knowledge of coding to use the app. This is due to its handy drag and drop format. Which, can really get marketers out of a pickle when funds are running low because they won’t have to hire a developer.  

The next thing we’d like to point out about Instapages is the speed at which you can integrate the app with your store. The entire process takes only a handful of minutes, and you won’t need to go messing around with your site’s code at any stage during the setup process. 

Finally, you’ll have access to some in-depth analytics and AB testing that will help to optimize your store’s pages for conversions. Also, you’ll enjoy seamless integrations with marketing automation software and heat mapping.  

Ease of Use  

Instapage’s UI is extremely easy to use, and obviously, the drag and drop page building plays a huge role in making it so. It can be integrated with a host of third-party apps, which allows you to create reliable workflows. And, if a page is not very mobile responsive, you can make it so in a short period of time. Which, is great. The final thing we’d like to point out is that no advanced developmental knowledge of coding is required to use the platform. It goes without saying, but that should make your life a lot easier.  

Pros 

• Heat Mapping 
• Efficient Integrations 
• Quick Set-up Speed 

Cons  

• “Enterprise” Plan Doesn’t Include as Many Features like the “Customise” Plan 

Pricing  

Now, let’s take a brief look at Instapage’s pricing:  

Number: 3 – Unbounce  

What is Unbounce and Some of its Features  

For our third best landing page builder, we’ve gone with Unbounce.  

(Although, we were kind of considering GetResponse, but felt that it was more of an all in one marketing solution, as opposed to a page builder. Which, Unbounce, most certainly is, so we gave it the nod ahead of its competitor.)  

Anyway, Unbounce will give you the ability to create landing pages and assess their performance. This will enable you to create high-converting pages for your digital store.  

The first thing we want to mention is that if you head over to unbounce.com, you’ll be able to test out its page editor for free. You just need to look for “Preview the Builder”, and click on it.  

Upon doing so, you should notice that its UI is quite user-friendly. On the left-hand column, you’ll see all the elements you can add to your store, like images, videos, and sections. These will help you to create the backbone of your pages.  

By the way, its editor is drag and drop, so you don’t need any of that developmental knowledge we keep harping on about. Also, you’ll have templates to structure your pages around, so don’t panic if you’re worried about messing any aspect of your pages’ design.  

Once you’re finished with its editor and have created your pages, you can easily integrate them with BigCommerce. Or, any other hosting, or email marketing software, for that matter.  

AB testing will ensure that your pages are all functioning as they’re supposed to be. And, if you find your page designs are affecting your conversions, you can easily customize them using JavaScript and CSS. 

Ease of Use  

Unbounce’s editor is super sleek and pretty easy to get the hang of. There is a success story on its website of a customer who, having never created a landing page before, was able to do so in under an hour. You’ll be able to optimize pages for mobile responsiveness. Which, should make them a hell of a lot more user-friendly for traffic coming from mobile and tablet.  

Pros  

• Over 100 Out of the Box Page Templates 
• AB Testing  
• Extremely Pro Integrations  

Cons  

• It’s extremely expensive 

Pricing 

Verdict: The Top BigCommerce Page Builder – Shogun  

Admittedly, there wasn’t a whole heap between any of these page builders. With Shogun, you’re getting an awesome page creator, that comes with some powerful data-driven marketing tools. While with Instapages, you’re getting a complex builder that comes along with 200+ templates. All of which, can be optimized for mobile. And, finally, with Unbounce, you’re getting one of the best, most tried and most tested BigCommerce integrations out there.  

But we feel that Shogun is a rising platform, with better features when it comes to optimizing your store’s pages for conversions and marketability. Also, considering the features offered by all three builders, we feel that Shogun works out better in relation to pricing.  

So, for these reasons, Shogun is our top BigCommerce page builder. 

But, only just.  

And you can check out Instagepages by clicking on their hyperlinked text.