How To Integrate BigCommerce and WordPress

Do you want to integrate BigCommerce into your WordPress website? BigCommerce is a complete eCommerce solution with ready support for product listing and marketing your products.

However, WordPress is another powerful content management system that makes it easier to manage a website. This is evident from its wide adoption, powering over 38% of the web presence.

If you already run your website with WordPress and want to integrate BigCommerce, then this content is for you. In this step by step guide, we’ll take you through why and when this is a good idea and then show you how to integrate both systems.

What is BigCommerce?

BigCommerce is an eCommerce solution that allows you to create, design, and run multiple storefronts while managing them from a single backend.

It operates a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. This means you don’t need a managed hosting solution to use this software. All you need is a connected device and a web browser.

Likewise, you can access various pre-designed customizable templates to build your online store. Therefore, you have support for any type of product you are selling online.

And if you are more tech-savvy, you can take advantage of the advanced customization features to add more functionalities to your store. Whenever you are stuck, the BigCommerce community contains resources to help you resolve any issue you are facing.

Why Integrate BigCommerce With WordPress

There are a couple of scenarios where it makes sense to use BigCommerce with WordPress.

For example, you may already have a BigCommerce shop and simply want to integrate it with your WordPress business website.

Or you may be a beginner with online tools who want to create a store with a simple drag-and-drop interface. In this case, BigCommerce can be great for you. The system provides everything you need to set up your store in one simple subscription package.

There are further benefits to enjoy from using BigCommerce on the WordPress platform, which include:

More Market Reach

One of the major reasons why you will need a BigCommerce WordPress integration is the SEO benefits. WordPress is designed to be SEO-friendly. So you can take advantage of WordPress SEO features to improve your eCommerce online presence. Our definitive guide to WordPress SEO is a comprehensive resource that you may find helpful in this case.

Enjoy a Seamless Content-commerce Experience

Another advantage of BigCommerce integration with WordPress is that it integrates perfectly by transforming WordPress posts features into product meta-data.

The BigCommerce plugin is also highly customizable without the fear of template overrides. Hence, you can customize your storefront features, including carts, product cards, catalogs, etc. All these you can customize without losing your customizations on your WordPress theme.

An Industry-leading Scalable eCommerce Solution

Being an eCommerce-centered solution means BigCommerce enjoys wide support. The developers progressively add new features to help you scale your business. And you don’t need to worry about the maintenance process because industry-leading experts scale your business.

Enhanced eCommerce Security

BigCommerce is protected with high-grade security architecture, adding additional layers to WordPress security. Further, you wouldn’t need to worry about PCI compliance since BigCommerce handles that.

Does BigCommerce Work On WordPress?

The simple answer is Yes.

WordPress is an open-source content management system that allows users to extend its functionalities using plugins.

Therefore, you can find the BigCommerce plugin from the WordPress plugin directory and:

Install it on your WordPress site.
Customize your WordPress website to give it eCommerce compatibility by using data from your BigCommerce account.
Manage your BigCommerce products and orders from the WordPress admin dashboard.

How to Use BigCommerce With WordPress

Now for the reason why you are here! This section will take you through each step to integrate BigCommerce with WordPress.

Step 1. Requirements for Using BigCommerce with WordPress

To use BigCommerce with WordPress, you will need the following:

1. A WordPress website or blog with its permalink setting set to Post Name. To do this, log in to the WordPress admin dashboard and go to Settings >> Permalinks.

Then select Post Name from the “Common Settings” section and click on Save Changes afterward.

2. A BigCommerce Store. You can create a trial account from the official site. Alternatively, you can create a trial store when you install the plugin.

3. You should have a valid SSL certificate on your WordPress site. You can check our guide to learn how to get and connect free SSL certificate with Cloudflare.

4. You should host your website on a good WordPress hosting platform.

Step 2. Install BigCommerce For WordPress

You need to install the BigCommerce for WordPress plugin on your WordPress website. To do this, log in to your WordPress dashboard and then go to Plugins >> Add New.

Next, search for “BigCommerce For WordPress” and click the Install Now and Activate buttons consecutively.

After installing and activating the plugin, it should take you to the setup page. Alternatively, you can access the setup page by going to BigCommerce >> Welcome.

But if you don’t have a BigCommerce account, you can start your free trial by selecting Create New Account.

Connecting Existing Account

In this guide, we will connect an already existing account, but the steps are similar to those used if you want to create a new account.

To connect an existing account, scroll down and choose the Connect Your Account option.

This takes you to the authorization page. Here, you’ll need to select Click Here to Authorize WordPress to Connect to Your BigCommerce Account.

Note: You need to disable the pop-up blocker on your browser if you have it enabled. The next stages are performed in a pop-up.

Select the Login option to continue.

After filling in your login details, you will arrive at the confirmation page.

Once you confirm the request, the pop-up will automatically close and take you to the third stage, which is the “Channel Setting”. Here, you need to create a new channel and input the channel name.

Check “Yes” for Automatic listing if you want products to be automatically listed, and “No” if you want them to list them yourself.

Next is the “Import Settings”. Here, you can customize how you import products from BigCommerce to WordPress. There are two options available:

Full – Import and store all product data in WP database (default)
Fast – Headless – Import and store minimal product data (beta)

We recommend using the Full option which will store product data on your database.

Next, if you want to sync BigCommerce with WordPress, such that your changes on BigCommerce appear realtime in WordPress, then you should enable webhooks.

After you’ve chosen your import settings, you can choose how to import images from BigCommerce to your website. The default option will import images as media files on your WordPress site. But if you choose the URLs only, images will be hosted externally on BigCommerce’s servers.

Finally, scroll down and click on the Next icon.

Configuring Your Store

It is now time to configure your store. You can select the Full Featured Store option if you want a full-scale eCommerce store on your WordPress site. Likewise, select the Simple Blogging option if you want a blogging approach where the plugin creates simple pages for your products.

Next is to customize your WordPress navigation menu. This menu makes it easier for users to go through your website, so it is necessary to include important links, such as the link to your store.

There is a list of menu options that you can choose from by ticking the checkboxes. If you select the primary menu and tick the needed links, it will display those links at the top of your WordPress site.

Likewise, if you switch to another menu (such as the footer menu) and make your selection, it will display the selected links in your footer.

To continue, click on the Next button. At this stage, you have successfully installed and connected your BigCommerce store to WordPress.

Step 3. Viewing Your Store Page

When you install BigCommerce, several pages will be created, including the store page. Visit your site homepage and locate the link labeled “All Products”; this link was added to your menu by the plugin.

So click on this link to view your store.

Step 4. Add Products From Your Store to Posts and Pages

You can add products from BigCommerce to your pages and posts.

BigCommerce for WordPress supports the Gutenberg editor. There are various elements you can add to pages, including products.

To do this, go to Pages >> All Pages, then hover over the page you wish to edit and click on Edit.

With the page open in the block editor, click on the plus icon to add an element, search for ‘BigCommerce’, and click BigCommerce Products.

Next, click Options >> Show more settings.

On the right, click Edit Products.

Hover over each product you want to add and click Add Product. When done, click Embed Product(s).

It will add the selected products to your page. Now all you have to do is hit Update to save the changes to that page.

Step 5. Customize Add-to-Cart Behavior

Next, you should ensure that your cart page is properly set up. You can click on the Add to Cart button below each product to ensure it works correctly.

In our case, the product was successfully added to the cart, as displayed by the status information.

If you experience an error while adding products to your cart or can’t find the button, the following happened. Either you haven’t enabled the cart page, or you have the cart page included in a caching system.

You should first disable caching for the cart page – search for instructions for your caching plugin to do this or request our help.

To enable the cart page, go to BigCommerce >> Settings.

Then scroll down to Cart and Checkout and check the Enable Cart option.

Select one of the Ajax Cart options depending on your preference.

When you enable these options, your Add to Cart button should become functional.

Step 6. Customize the Checkout Experience

You can customize the checkout experience by either selecting the Embedded Checkout or the Redirected Checkout option. If your store has a valid SSL certificate, embedded checkout will be enabled by default. Otherwise, the redirected checkout option will be enabled.

The Embedded checkout is powered by BigCommerce and embeds via an iframe into your store checkout page. It allows customers to complete the checkout process in your store.

This option supports all BigCommerce non-hosted and limited hosted payment gateways, including PayPal for Commerce and PayPal through Braintree. Read more on Available Payment Gateways.

In contrast, the Redirected checkout redirects customers to your BigCommerce checkout page which is hosted on BigCommerce, instead of your WordPress website. This option supports all BigCommerce payment gateways. But your customers are redirected to a page that looks different from your WordPress site.

Above all, both Checkout options are PCI compliant. To select your choice, navigate to BigCommerce >> Settings.

Then scroll down to Cart & checkout, and check or uncheck the Enable Embedded Checkout option depending on your preference.

After completing these steps, you should be ready to start receiving orders on your BigCommerce WordPress page. You can view your order reports and analytics from the BigCommerce control panel’s view orders page.

BigCommerce vs WooCommerce

You may be wondering whether BigCommerce and WooCommerce are the same. The simple answer is No! However, there are some similarities.

Similarities

For starters, both are eCommerce platforms that allow store owners to sell across multiple platforms and devices. They both integrate with popular payment gateways to allow users to accept credit card payments and other supported payment methods.

Additionally, if you are a power user, there is an API on both platforms to allow you to extend their eCommerce features. BigCommerce API and theme documentation provide a detailed guide for developers to play around and customize their online stores.

Differences

The main difference between both solutions is that one is a WordPress eCommerce builder plugin while the other is a Software-as-a-Service, SaaS eCommerce solution. Additionally, they are owned and managed by different organizations.

WooCommerce is a WordPress powered eCommerce solution made by Automattic; the team behind WordPress. It is an eCommerce plugin that allows you to customize WordPress to build an online store. You can build or customize a theme for your storefront. You can also add supported payment gateways to handle payment processing.

WooCommerce also has its plugin directory, where you can purchase additional features for your eCommerce store for a fully functional eCommerce website.

In addition, WooCommerce is free to download, but you may need to pay for additional features if you are not a developer. Likewise, it takes longer to set up compared to BigCommerce as it has a steeper learning curve. Please check our guide if you’d like to learn how to install and configure WooCommerce.

In contrast, BigCommerce is a ready-made solution or SaaS with many in-built features to build a complete eCommerce solution. This means you don’t need to purchase additional features once you subscribe to one of its monthly plans.

In addition, you don’t need a web hosting service to use BigCommerce. WooCommerce, on the other hand, needs to be installed on a self-hosted WordPress site.

BigCommerce also allows for deep customizations if you are tech-savvy. But you don’t usually need this, so you should be up and running without getting your hands dirty with code. And with a seamless WordPress integration, BigCommerce can provide the flexibility provided by WooCommerce.

The pricing for BigCommerce starts at $29.95/month for the eCommerce solution. This plan allows you to create and manage your store with support from their support team.

Conclusion – BigCommerce WordPress

In conclusion, BigCommerce is a headless commerce solution. This means you can host and operate your storefront on other platforms without interfering with the backend.

One such platform is WordPress. Its easy-to-use interface gives you more control over your BigCommerce storefront.

This article has covered the benefits of using BigCommerce for WordPress, the difference between WooCommerce and BigCommerce. We’ve also shown how to install and customize BigCommerce on your WordPress website.

For more helpful tutorials, be sure to check out our blog. If you encounter problems integrating your BigCommerce store with WordPress, please reach out to our team of WordPress experts for help.