Mukesh
0 min readWith rapid advancements in the eCommerce sector, many organisations look towards headless commerce for higher flexibility, scalability, and usability.
According to Statista's projected data, the global eCommerce sector is expected to grow by as much as $6.5 trillion in sales between 2014 and 2027, making the robust platform essential in such a sector.
Three very popular platforms, BigCommerce, Commercetools, and Shopify, operate uniquely and with their respective abilities.
This in-depth comparison will consider the functionalities, strengths, weaknesses, and their suitability for enterprise needs based on headless architecture for both Shopify and BigCommerce.
Shopify is an e-commerce platform that lets entrepreneurs and brands set up, run, and grow their online stores through an easy interface and highly customisable templates. The ecosystem of robust apps complements the small to large-scale businesses in the field for managing products, payments, marketing, and other business capabilities to help make the stream of online sales perfect.
Advantages:
Headless Solution: Utilises Shopify Hydrogen, a React framework that facilitates the development of custom front-ends while maintaining robust back-end capabilities.
Commercetools is a cloud-native, headless commerce platform that supports enterprises in achieving flexibility and an API-driven solution for managing digital commerce across multiple channels. MACH architecture, comprising Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, and Headless, enables businesses to create highly customizable and scalable commerce experiences.
Advantages:
Headless Solution: Commercetools is a pioneer in headless commerce, offering completely decoupled architecture. Its API-driven nature allows businesses to build their custom front-ends with any modern framework (React, Vue.js, Angular) while maintaining powerful back-end commerce functionality. The platform's flexibility is ideal for enterprises with unique requirements or those looking to innovate quickly.
BigCommerce is the ultimate e-commerce solution for enterprises that require scalability and adaptability. It offers highly advanced features such as multi-channel selling, SEO tools, and customisable themes.
They are known for their robust built-in functionality, which is particularly suited for enterprises and large brands that require an integrated solution to handle high-volume sales efficiently.
Advantages:
Headless Solution: BigCommerce's Enterprise plan offers unlimited API calls, which is a significant advantage for large-scale integrations and customisations. However, it's important to note that rate-limiting mechanisms are in place for specific API resources to ensure platform stability and performance.
While these limits are designed to maintain a seamless experience, businesses with high-concurrency operations should plan their API usage accordingly to avoid potential bottlenecks.
BigCommerce, Commercetools vs. Shopify: Which Headless Platform
Suits Your Enterprise Needs?
Shopify headless is an easy, fully hosted solution designed to be built with ease of use and speed of setup. The headless version of Shopify provides businesses with flexibility and control without losing the ease of use that Shopify is famous for.
Here are some key reasons why Shopify is a good fit for specific business needs:
From all these, Shopify suits better for small and medium business mainly because of its friendly user interface as well as easy setting-up process. Most SMBs do not have an in-house IT team; thus, they need a platform that only requires minor handling.
The available number of ready-to-use themes and templates within Shopify headless allows the business to create a professional online store with minimal need for technical skills. This ensures that SMBs can put their energy toward growth rather than complex technology management.
Shopify is scalable to suit the needs of any startup and growth-focused brand. The larger your business, the more you'll get to leverage tools available on Shopify's enormous app marketplace to extend functionality in your store.
It doesn't matter if you need advanced marketing tools, inventory management, or customer service features. Shopify headless can add capabilities as you grow. This makes it the perfect platform for brands looking to start fast but scale over time.
Shopify is great because the not-too-tech-savvy entrepreneur will host their place and take care of their security and maintenance; the business owner has nothing to worry about on that technical end.
Shopify is user-friendly in managing the product, orders, and content updates, as its interface is designed for ease of use for all those not technically sound; it's ideal for an entrepreneur who wants to run their business and not write a single line of code.
Shopify headless is ideal for selling through various channels, from social media, Facebook, and Instagram, to marketplace platforms such as Amazon and eBay, and even to physical stores using the Shopify POS.
This multichannel capability means you can run your inventory and orders in one place, which is convenient and seamless for the customer shopping across all your sales platforms. Shopify's multichannel capabilities are a huge advantage if you plan on selling outside your website.
BigCommerce is a feature-rich platform built for larger businesses, B2B companies, and enterprises with complex needs. Its first API orientation and extensive built-in functionalities offer more flexibility and control than what large organisations need.
Here are some key reasons why BigCommerce headless is a good fit for specific business needs:
The goal is to support large business customers with strong B2B players and support tiered pricing, bulk discounting capabilities, and advanced product management throughout the box.
BigCommerce headless, out-of-the-box, should appeal to businesses that record and have massive transactions or highly involved price models by giving companies all the right tools without necessitating them to use third-party apps in managing their business, such as those needing an excessively customised approach.
If your business needs ultra-customized customer experiences, BigCommerce is a good fit. Its API-first nature allows developers to create distinct front-end solutions tailored to a brand's needs.
The company supports deep integrations and custom features, which provide unmatched flexibility. What you want, be it a custom checkout or a bespoke design, BigCommerce headless gives you the freedom to innovate.
BigCommerce is excellent at managing large and complex inventories. It supports extensive product catalogs with multiple variants and advanced tracking capabilities.
If your business offers a broad range of products or deals with detailed inventory management, BigCommerce's robust tools will keep everything organised and up-to-date. This will make it easier to manage stock and ensure accurate product information.
BigCommerce is built for global e-commerce. It supports multi-currency, multi-language, and region-based tax calculations, making international selling easier.
BigCommerce would enable integration with global payment gateways and shipping providers. This means that businesses can present their customers with seamless shopping experiences. BigCommerce international features are a significant benefit when your business serves a global market.
BigCommerce has many core features that would cut third-party app use to as little as possible. Examples of these include product reviews, recovery of abandoned carts, and real-time shipping quotes, among other things.
For one seeking an all-in-one solution that makes no use of the available plugins, BigCommerce headless has come out full of all-around tools. This reduces time, cuts costs, and simplifies website management.
Commercetools is excellent for large enterprises with demanding operational needs. The company can offer e-commerce tailored to the specifics of each organization, such as high-end product management and price planning, using its API-first approach. This flexibility is vital for firms with complex operations and massive inventories.
Companies wanting to have a high degree of customization will benefit from Commercetools' capabilities. The platform allows developers to build bespoke front-end solutions without being constrained by predefined templates or structures. Businesses can innovate freely, tailoring user experiences and functionalities to meet specific market demands.
Commercetools stands out in supporting multi-channel retail strategies. Its architecture allows businesses to easily integrate various sales channels, including online marketplaces, social media platforms, and physical stores. This capability ensures a consistent customer experience at all touchpoints while simplifying inventory and order management.
For businesses that require scalability, the modular architecture of Commercetools can be beneficial in the workflow of organizations with agile development teams. The separation of front-end and back-end components allows teams to work independently on different aspects of the application, accelerating development cycles and enabling quicker responses to market changes.
As companies grow, their e-commerce needs evolve. Commercetools is built to scale efficiently, which means it can handle increasing traffic and transaction volumes without degrading performance. This is particularly important for businesses anticipating rapid growth or seasonal demand spikes.
For Innovative Customer Experiences
Commercetools can be used by businesses that intend to deliver more innovative customer experiences through headless capabilities, integrating cutting-edge technologies like AI-driven personalization, chatbots, or even augmented reality shopping experiences. In this way, brands keep pace in a rapidly changing digital world.
Both Shopify and BigCommerce are excellent headless commerce solutions, but it depends on the business needs each of these solutions addresses:
Hydrogen Framework:
Storefront API:
API-First Approach:
Inbuilt Features:
Omnichannel Capabilities
Built-in B2B and B2C capabilities
The final choice between BigCommerce and Shopify must be based on the particular business needs, technical expertise available within the organisation, and long-term growth strategies. Based on these considerations, enterprises can select the platform that best fits their operational goals and customer experience aspirations.
Still not sure whether BigCommerce or Shopify is right for your eCommerce needs? Consider Kombee for your eCommerce needs. With expert support, seamless integration capabilities, and a focus on tailored user experiences, Kombee is the one to ensure your eCommerce strategy matches your business goals and brings exceptional customer experiences without managing multiple systems.