What is the Best Ecommerce Platform For Dropshipping?

Did you know that there were 774,725 new entrepreneurial businesses set up by the year-end of March 2019?

With the advancement of the internet, its' never been easier to set up your own eCommerce business to bring in a side income, or even to replace your full-time job.

Over the last decade, the popularity of dropshipping businesses has skyrocketed and has given people the chance to work for themselves.

But what is the best eCommerce platform for dropshipping and which one should you choose?

There is a lot to consider before you jump straight in as choosing the wrong platform could be the difference between success and failure.

A lot of eCommerce platforms out there claim to be the best and the most beneficial to use, but they can suit some businesses more than others.

In this article, we're going to share with you what we believe are the best eCommerce platforms for dropshipping and one's you need to highly consider.

Read on for more information.

Stay Safe With WooCommerce

You have most likely heard of WooCommerce and possibly purchased an item on a website supported by it.

WooCommerce is one of the most, if not the most, trusted eCommerce platforms for drop-shippers. It's relatively simple to use, has amazing support options, and is great value for money.

You'll need to have a WordPress supported website but it's straight forward to create one and add the free WooCommerce plugin. They even provide a simple guide to use in order to set up your website and make it look amazing.

WooCommerce has the ability to accept all major credit cards, bank transfers, checks, and cash on delivery.

Not all eCommerce platforms have all these benefits so it's worth noting this.

There is a further option to integrate with things such as Apple Pay, Paypal, Square, Amazon pay, and more.

It also has an easy-to-use dashboard in which you can track orders etc all from one place. We think all the reasons mentioned make WooCommerce and safe option to consider using.

Shopify Makes It Simple

Shopify is another popular platform for drop shippers and eCommerce business owners alike. It offers the chance for anyone to create a website and start selling items in a matter of minutes.

Its aimed at small-medium sized businesses which are in industries such as beauty and cosmetics, home furnishings, fashion and apparel, and more.

When you sign up to use Shopify, you can create a stunning professional website with an array of templates to choose from. It even offers pre-filled pages like about us, privacy policy, and shipping information.

Having these on show on your website will gain your customer's trust and ensure that they are in safe hands.

Shopify also offers you the chance to create your brand by generating business names and the option to create a free logo.

There's a lot of help on hand as well in case you have issues with 24/7 email, phone, and chat support available. The platform can also offer guidance on email marketing and advertisements.

You do have to pay to use Shopify with subscriptions ranging from $29.99-$299. But don't let the higher price put you off. Shopify can be a smart financial investment.

Go Big With BigCommerce

This is another user-friendly platform that is suitable for those with minimal experience in website design.

Like Shopify, it's easy to get help with chat, email, and phone support as well as a forum to communicate with other business owners and ask questions.

You can also set up a website and start adding products to sell in just a short time.

BigCommerce has one advantage over Shopify in that it doesn't charge a transaction fee. This makes it more affordable than Shopify which should be considered.

It's subscription rates range from $29-250 but you can start a free trial to see whether it can be beneficial for you and your business.

Many Established Businesses Use Magento

If you are a developer then Magento could be the way to go.

Adobe purchased Magento in 2018 and it now comes in two versions which are: Magento Open Source and Magento Commerce.

This is a much more powerful platform than the others mentioned above, so it does require some know-how or the patience to learn how to use it.

It fantastic for those wishing to sell products such as food and beverages, beauty and cosmetics, sporting goods, and more.

Magento Open Source comes with basic features such as integrated payment, shipping, and checkout, global selling, instant purchase, and mobile-optimized shopping.

The two options of Magento vary enormously in price.

Open Source is free to download but it will cost you for things such as add-ons, themes, and development.

Magento Commerce is a lot more expensive and that's why it's aimed at more established businesses. Prices are quoted by a sales rep and it's suggested that it can cost anywhere from $15,000-50,000 a year.

This means it may be something you aim to move onto in the future but make sure it doesn't negatively impact you financially.

Choose the Best eCommerce Platform for You

Hopefully, you've now got the info you need to decide the best eCommerce platform for dropshipping.

As you can see there are many platforms out there to choose from and each one has it's own unique selling point. It's worth analyzing each one and figuring out which will work best for you.

Be sure to check out our blog for more information on eCommerce solutions!

How to Create an E-commerce Store with BigCommerce

BigCommerce is one of the leading online store builders, providing fully-functioning online shops for tens of thousands of sellers all over the world.

The platform is geared towards fast-growing, mid-market brands and has a slew of powerful features and tools just waiting to be tapped into.

Perhaps the biggest selling point of BigCommerce is its customisation opportunities. It basically allows you to do absolutely everything yourself, from uploading and organising products, to processing orders, putting out discount codes, and designing your store using a simple drag and drop interface.

Setting up your store from scratch and under your own steam might sound overwhelming, but BigCommerce makes it all surprisingly easy to get your head around. Not only that, but it can do wonders for your business, whether you’re a fledgling seller testing the waters or a brand that’s been selling online for years.

Source

In fact, research by Ipsos shows that BigCommerce merchants grow at 28% year over year versus the e-commerce industry average of 14%.

If that’s piqued your interest, read on to find out how you can get your BigCommerce store up and running in no time at all.

Your Step By Step Guide to Setting Up a BigCommerce Store

1. Sign Up For a BigCommerce account

First things first, you’ve got to get yourself a BigCommerce account. The good news is you can get a 15-day free trial without having to hand over your credit card details.

All you have to do is click the “Start Your Free Trial” button or the “Get Started” button on this page - both will take you to the same sign up page.

Once you’ve done this, you’ll be asked to enter a name for your store (you can always edit this at a later date if you’re not set in stone on one just yet) and then be taken to your new BigCommerce store dashboard.

At this point, you’ll be prompted to take a tour of the dashboard which will highlight what all the tabs are for and give you an overview of what can be done and where. It’s worth taking a few minutes to run through the tour, but you can always come back to it if you’d rather start finding your feet.

2. Create and Customise Your Store

The design of your store is a fundamental part of the business.

Research has proven that, in the digital world, it takes consumers 0.05 seconds to form a first impression of a website. That’s all well and good, but that first impression goes on to determine if a user continues to browse your site or leave it in a cloud of dust.

Further reports reveal that good site design is pivotal in establishing a sense of credibility around your brand, which is so important for an online shop where there is no face-to-face interaction.

On top of this, consumers today are used to excellent web design and sleek experiences, which means you have to make your store look good if you want to attract and keep buyers.

Most store builders have a selection of free and paid-for themes to choose from, and BigCommerce is no different.

One of the free themes that BigCommerce offers.

While free themes are great for design newbies and those with very little internet skills, they can still be quite powerful in terms of imagery, colours, typefaces, and a limited array of customisable store elements.  

However, there’s only so much you can do with one of BigCommerce’s free themes.

For example, you can’t add sidebars or homepage elements to give your store the look and feel you want. When you initially sign up for your account and create your store, BigCommerce automatically applies one of its two free themes.

If you want more options when it comes to designing your store, you’re going to want to opt for a paid theme that has more features. These can be bought through a one-off payment and usually costs between $170 and $295.

A sample of some of the BigCommerce paid-for themes

When you’ve chosen your theme, you can start customising it.

Click on the “Storefront” tab in your dashboard and then go to “My Themes” and click “Customise”. You’ll be served a selection of theme elements that you can change, including your store logo and the carousel images that appear on your homepage.

Let’s talk about these for a minute as they’re pretty important.

Think about it:

They’re the first thing visitors see when they land on your site, so you want them to be eye-catching, compelling, and convey what your shop is about all in one go.

If you don’t already have a set of attention-grabbing shots to put up or have no idea what kind of images to use, take a look at your competition or a couple of online stores you admire.

Check out the images they use - are they closeups? Thematic shots? Do they tell a story? Could you present your brand using similar images? What’s so good about them?

3. Populate Your Store With Products

Once you’ve got your store looking how you want it to, it’s time to start uploading your products.

In the BigCommerce dashboard, it’s easier to set up and create your product categories before you start adding in your products. This means that, when you add each new product, you can select the right category for it immediately.

To create your categories, go to your Store Dashboard, click “Products”, and then go to “Product Categories”.

You might notice that there seems to be a ton of information boxes to be filled out for each product, but don’t worry too much - you don’t have to add everything in now.

There are, however, a few key elements that have to be added.

These include:

BigCommerce actually has its own highly-detailed Product Entry Tutorial that gives you the lowdown on making sure your products are listed just right.

Keeping your product pages as clutter-free as possible is the way to go. Sleek, simple sales pages tend to perform a lot better than ones with fancy sidebars and tons of links to other pages.

4. Set Up Your Other Pages

At this point, you’ve got your store looking great and you’ve uploaded at least a few of your products - so what’s next?

Now it’s time to add a few more pages to your store to provide customers with the information they might need before they make a purchase. This will help solidify your brand and answer any objections or common questions potential buyers might have.

BigCommerce provides a selection of highly-customisable web pages that can be added to your store. All you have to do is drag and drop the information to make it relevant for your shop.

Check out BigCommerce’s Web Pages Tutorial for a really detailed guide.

There are four key pages you need for your online store besides your homepage and your product pages. They are:

To create these pages, go to the “Web Pages” section of your dashboard which can be reached via the “Storefront” tab.

You’ll notice that BigCommerce automatically creates a Shipping and Returns page and a Contact Us page. All you have to do with these is edit the existing copy and layout to better suit your needs.

For the About Us page and your Privacy Policy, you’ll have to add new pages.

5. Sort Out Shipping and Payments

It’s safe to say shipping is an incredibly important part of the online shopping process, and it’s up to you to decide how you want your products to be shipped to your customers.

Let's look at shipping integration with BigCommerce.

BigCommerce has a Shipping Manager section under the “Store Setup” tab that provides you with countless shipping options. Start by running through the tutorial there to get an idea for the options you have and which ones might be best for you.

If your shipping needs are simple, this part of the setup is pretty straightforward. However, BigCommerce also integrates with third-party shipping services through the App Store. Apps such as  Shiptheory make printing shipping labels and creating manifests for hundreds of carriers such as Royal Mail, FedEx, UPS, DPD, Parcelforce and more to as simple as possible.

Payments are also important and, again, BigCommerce provides its sellers with a slew of options.

If you’re not already using a payment provider like PayPal or Stripe, you can use the in-built BigCommerce processor that is automatically set up. The fees for this tend to be higher than other providers, but that’s often counteracted by the ease of using the in-built service.

It’s worth remembering that you can change any of these options later down the line so don’t paralyse yourself trying to choose the right one.

Moving Forwards

With your payment process and shipping system in place, your BigCommerce store is ready to go. Just by following these simple steps, you can have a fully navigable, fully functioning website up in no time at all.

Of course, the process we’ve laid out here is the bare basics and there is a whole host of features we haven’t mentioned here. Once you’ve got the hang of the BigCommerce dashboard, you can start playing around with the other tools on offer to customise your store even further.

There’s always room for improvement, particularly when it comes to search rankings and optimising your store for the best results. However, you’ve gone from having no store at all to a working online shop in just a matter of hours - that’s not bad going.

Sign up for a Shiptheory account today to find out how you can level up your shipping game with our smarter shipping software.

These 7 Brands Have Used BigCommerce to Level Up Their Businesses

Standing out in today’s ecommerce landscape is like walking uphill through treacle. The ease of setting up shop on marketplaces like Amazon means everyone and their dog seems to be giving the whole selling online thing a go.

But standing out goes a whole lot further than uploading your products and hoping you’ve got the edge over your competitors, which is why a lot of successful retailers are choosing to create their own dedicated online stores.

In the past, this kind of venture was pricey, but the advent of ecommerce platforms has made it a whole lot easier and far, far cheaper.

So why build your own online store instead of taking the easy route?

The answer is simple: your own online store is the one chance you have to prove your brand value to customers and give them a reason to keep buying direct from your site rather than elsewhere.

But doesn’t that require a ton of work, complicated coding skills, and a keen eye for design?

Yes - but platform builders like BigCommerce make all of those steps a walk in the park thanks to eye-catching templates, pre-coded features, and useful integrations.

It might just be the edge you need. According to a study by Digital Commerce 360, people who choose to buy from branded websites over Amazon do so because:

To get your creative juices flowing, here’s some inspiration from brands that are rocking it with their BigCommerce sites.

1. SkullCandy

Skullcandy, a disruptive brand that sells headphones, earbuds, and music players, used the BigCommerce platform to launch seven sites. These were made up of one US site, two Canadian sites, and four European sites, all of which covered three languages and four currencies - and they launched them all in just six months.

This is no easy feat, but the built-in features of BigCommerce made it possible. Rather than having to upload their products seven times for each site, they could just upload them once and send them out to each version.

In the first month after the launch, they doubled their conversion rate and went on to win an award for the Best New Website Design.

So why is Skullcandy rocking it?

Did we mention that they doubled their conversion rates once they started using BigCommerce?

When you take a look at the sleek website design and smooth user journey, you can see why. The site’s bold colours and striking branding helps new visitors gain a quick understanding of what Skullcandy is all about and gives an instant glimpse into the high quality of the products.

BigCommerce has allowed Skullcandy to completely customise its owned store to reflect the community-inspired, cult-like image the the brand has nurtured.

Taking this further, they have created a mobile-first experience that aligns with what their typical customers want and their typical behaviour when buying online.

“Younger consumers are completely entrenched in technology and have a million touchpoints at their fingertips,” says Kinsey Butler, Skullcandy’s Manager of Ecommerce. “The ability to meet them where they are, to speak their language, and to be authentic in a way that actually converts is really important to us. BigCommerce makes it easy to integrate with Facebook and Instagram, giving us additional valuable sales channels.”

2. Bliss World

Pastel-perfect brand Bliss World (or just Bliss) elbowed its way to the top of the online spa industry in the 90s and has exploded in popularity since then.

Its whole ethos focuses on matching skin types with the right products, so it heavily relies on personalisation and creating individual experiences - something that isn’t particularly easy to do on a generic marketplace platform.

To maintain its position in the industry, it turned to BigCommerce to set up shop.

Through the expansive customisation features, the brand has managed to create a colourful home that’s so on-brand it almost hurts.

They are able to separate different skincare products into the relevant skin type sections and pull over any that are a match for multiple skin types.

But perhaps the biggest draw of buying from the Bliss website rather than another platform is the unique shipping options.

Shoppers who buy direct can tap into special shipping offers and surprise gifts - something that wouldn’t be possible via marketplaces.

According to The Future of Retail report, 79% of consumers said that free shipping would make them more likely to shop online.

While Bliss doesn’t offer completely free shipping, we’re willing to bet the surprise gifts and shipping offers easily sway shoppers who are on the fence.

3. Speed Addicts

Speed Addicts started life in the dorm room of two keen motorcyclists.

It was initially a hobby business that sold motorcycle parts on eBay but, as demand increased, the brand began selling new parts as well.

Over the years, the founders tried to create several versions of their own website, but found it was costly selling automotive parts that were slammed with certain regulations - until they stumbled on BigCommerce.

“Speed Addicts now has a website with every feature we could have wanted, all while staying within our budget,” says founder Schad VanLeeuwen. “The site we have today would have cost $50-100,000 just a few years ago.”

Now, as well as having a robust, functioning, and engaging site that hasn’t broken the bank, Speed Addicts has also integrated some key BigCommerce features to make the user experience far more enjoyable.

They now have a “shop by bike” feature that was impossible to implement on other versions of the site, and their 360 degree images of their products make the purchasing process a whole lot more compelling.

4. Andie Swim

Andie Swim has revolutionised the way women can buy swimwear, taking out the embarrassment of trying on cossies in-store and instead allowing shoppers to trial items in the comfort of their own home.

The unique business model - where shoppers have two weeks to try a suit on and send it back before they’re charged - required a unique eCommerce set up. Most notably, the brand needed a platform builder that would integrate the specific payment solution they needed.

And BigCommerce was the only platform that seemed to provide the desired option.

“We needed to be able to hold the credit card for at least two weeks,” says founder Melanie Travis. “Personally, I wanted to hold the card for more like three to four weeks so that we wouldn’t have to punish the customer and charge them if we hadn’t gotten it back by a certain day.”

This also meant that shipping had to be absolutely seamless and quick to make the most of the amount of time the customer’s card was on hold for.

Because of its vast integration options, BigCommerce offered both the right payment solution and the ability to partner with efficient shipping companies.

Andie Swim’s BigCommerce website not only showcases the quality of the brand, but it also creates a sense of community around it thanks to a heavy emphasis on social elements like a featured Instagram feed.

5. John Paul Mitchell Systems

John Paul Mitchell Systems sells products to salons as well as customers. After deciding to implement a commission program that handed a slice of the revenue pie to salons that helped sell their goods, they began researching possibly platform builders and settled on BigCommerce.

They used BigCommerce’s built-in coupon codes to setup and run their partner program. Through this model, they shifted more than $2,000,000 in products in just two years through their own site.

“It helped us bypass competitors through direct traffic and professional word of mouth recommendations from stylists around the globe,” the brand noted.

On top of the integrated partner program that would have been tricky on any other platform - particularly a generic marketplace - John Paul Mitchell Systems also provided free samples at checkout to make buying direct more appealing.

6. Yellow

Yellow is the only dedicated B2B seller on this list, but they are making waves with their BigCommerce site. The brand specifically sells professional services and solutions to other businesses but, unlike most other service providers, they do it through an ecommerce format.

Instead of the usual “get in touch for a quote” spiel, clients can purchases services directly from Yellow’s website.

“Yellow is going through a complete digital transformation and bringing a whole new set of services online,” says Tony Hou, Managing Director at Moustache Republic - the company that designed the checkout process for the brand. “Like most businesses their size, the company has a complex set of ecommerce requirements that can’t be solved by out-of-the-box solutions.

“We knew the BigCommerce platform had the flexibility to accommodate both the customised single sign-on and checkout experiences Yellow desired without requiring a huge investment.”

This is a great example of a B2B brand utilising the features of BigCommerce to solidify its strong branding, as well as incorporating key customisation elements to show success stories that drive the customer journey.

7. BonBonBon

Bright and beautiful BonBonBon’s site makes the most of the ability to customise practically every element of a BigCommerce template.

Not only do they incorporate big, eye-catching banners, but they also use stories, videos, and blog posts to cement the feeling of community around the brand.

Previous versions of the site were built using different ecommerce platforms, which the brand found incredibly limiting. In fact, the block on being able to add what they wanted to the site started to affect the brand’s revenue.

With the help of BigCommerce integrations and a highly-customisable design, BonBonBon has managed to create a website that’s a work of art in itself (and doesn’t lose out on revenue).

“We have created a funky, user-friendly BigCommerce site that captures the spirit of the BonBonBon product, the Babes Babes Babes (a rad group of ladies keeping hand-u-facturing alive in Detroit), and of course the chocolate,” says the team.

Customise and Conquer With BigCommerce

If setting up your own ecommerce website has you paralysed in fear, just take a look at what these brands have managed to achieve.

Most of them needed a specific feature to keep their business models well-oiled and working and they found the features they needed on BigCommerce.

It’s a scary thought going it alone without the help of a marketplace like Amazon, but with the right tools and systems in place, you might find your business thrives beyond your wildest dreams.

Sign up for a Shiptheory account today to find out how you can level up your shipping game with the smarter shipping software.