BigCommerce BigSummit 2024, held in the vibrant city of Austin, brought together industry leaders, technology partners, and ecommerce experts for two days of insightful discussions and innovative solutions. From Erica Dhawan’s guide to being effective in a remote-first world, to Rick Watson’s industry insights, the event was more than just a pitch for BigCommerce & its partners.
Don’t go fast, be fast.
Day one was hosted by former Formula One and Indy 500 driver Derek Daly, who drew compelling parallels between the speed and agility needed in race teams and that required in high-performing organizations. Daly emphasized that large organizations can achieve agility by fostering informal structures within a formal framework, creating highly aligned yet loosely coupled teams that are able to swiftly adapt to changing situations.
“Nicely profitable”
CEO Brent Bellm kicked off the event with a comprehensive update on BigCommerce’s performance. Over the past year, the company has successfully transitioned to profitability, achieving a 10% revenue growth in the first half of 2024, reaching $346 million in annual recurring revenue. With an operating cash flow of $12 million in Q2—14% of revenue—the company stands on firm financial ground, bolstered by nearly 6,000 enterprise customers and $277 million in cash reserves.
Enterprise ecommerce, simplified
BigCommerce continues to solidify its enterprise positioning, grounded in key principles of open-SaaS, disruptive innovation, and commerce-as-a-service. Its strategic priorities include Enterprise, International, Omnichannel, B2B, and Composable Commerce. These capabilities have earned recognition from industry leaders, with IDC naming BigCommerce as a leader in B2C, B2B, and headless ecommerce.
During the summit, BigCommerce unveiled the second release of the bi-annual Next Big Thing report, highlighting the latest features and future developments on the horizon.
Growing reputation with store-based retailers
While BigCommerce has historically excelled with branded manufacturers like Gorewear, King Arthur Baking, and GE Appliances, and multi-brand online retailers such as TheRealReal and SportsShoes, the platform is now gaining traction with store-based retailers like Bensons for Beds, Francesca’s, and Big R. This growing appeal underscores BigCommerce’s versatility in serving diverse retail needs. It’s also great to see some of these brands choose our BigCommerce apps!
Strengthening B2B position
B2B ecommerce has become a focal point for BigCommerce following its 2022 acquisitions of BundleB2B and B2B Ninja. The platform’s B2B capabilities continue to advance, now featuring an open-source, customizable buyer portal, customer-specific pricing, quoting, invoicing, and advanced discounting. These enhancements have been recognized by Paradigm, which awarded BigCommerce eight gold medals, three silvers, and one bronze. IDC also named BigCommerce a leader in the midmarket B2B ecommerce space.
Looking ahead, the B2B roadmap includes new fine-grained buyer roles and permissions, a mobile-responsive quote management system, and a headline feature—the ability to manage company hierarchies and subsidiaries natively, without reliance on customer groups.
B2B customers include Lifetime Brands, MKM, Farmer Boy and Harvard Business Publishing.
International Expansion
The multi-year initiative to support multi-region use cases continues but the end is in sight. Functionality that is now available includes localising catalog, prices, content, checkout and payment methods per geography. Upcoming features include the ability to configure tax-inclusive or exclusive pricing and shipping methods per storefront.
One of the last major items to come is support for multiple languages on a single storefront. We’ll also see the ability to localise blogs per storefront soon.
Omnichannel Mastery
A recurring theme at the summit was the significant positive business impact of mastering multiple sales channels. Rick Watson shared that businesses operating on three or more channels experienced a 494% increase in order rates. Feedonomics, BigCommerce’s partner in omnichannel commerce, continues to land high-profile clients while enhancing its offerings, including Instant Commerce capabilities for same-day delivery and store pickup via marketplaces.
BigCommerce is also integrating AI into its product suite, with intelligent content rewriting for marketplace optimization and tighter integrations between Feedonomics and the BigCommerce platform. Enhancements include real-time order sync with Amazon and TikTok Shop, integration with Shein, and upcoming support for TikTok returns.
On the storefront side, Buy Online Pickup in Store (BOPIS) functionality will soon be integrated into Stencil (Cornerstone), Catalyst, and Checkout.
Catalyst & Makeswift: The Future of Headless Commerce
BigCommerce’s headless initiative, powered by Next.js, continues to evolve with the Catalyst reference architecture and the acquisition of the visual page builder tool Makeswift. Catalyst is a first-party solution tailored for the platform, minimizing the need for custom development when replicating Stencil features in a fresh Next.js project.
To learn more, read our articles on getting started with Catalyst and building a landing page in Makeswift.
Future developments for Catalyst include multilingual support with sub-directories for different storefronts (e.g., /fr-fr/, /de-de/). During the summit, Alan Pledger demonstrated how Catalyst storefronts can be set up with Makeswift in just a few clicks, with the future ability to purchase Vercel hosting packages directly from the BigCommerce admin.
BigCommerce remains committed to investing in Makeswift, with upcoming features like scheduling, branching and merging, and “Vibes”—the future of theming. Additionally, BigCommerce confirmed that Stencil-based storefronts will continue to receive support and investment.
BigAI: Advancing Ecommerce with Artificial Intelligence
While BigCommerce’s ventures into AI have been modest, recent developments signal a more ambitious approach. The summit unveiled two major BigAI initiatives: Predictive Analytics, enabling retailers to forecast inventory requirements and predict customer lifetime value, and Semantic Store Search, a significant upgrade from basic keyword matching to more intuitive search capabilities.
Generative AI is also being woven into various aspects of the platform, including B2B sales, where it will assist in quickly generating custom quote emails.
Operational Enhancements
Several operational updates were also announced, including a refreshed user interface for the BigCommerce admin, set to roll out in October, and a more granular permission system for user roles. Additionally, the BigCommerce mobile app now supports creating shipments directly.
Boosting Checkout & Conversion Rates
Following some mud-throwing from a Canadian ecommerce platform, Brent could proudly say that BigCommerce’s checkout achieved a checkout conversion rate of 70% in the second half of 2023, and an overall site conversion rate of 2.67%.
These figures are expected to improve further with the introduction of PayPal Fastlane, which accelerates guest checkouts, similar to Shop Pay and Stripe Link.
Other enhancements include finer-grained promotion targeting, support for multiple coupons at checkout, and soon, multi-address checkouts. App providers can also apply to be on the waitlist for checkout extensions, allowing them to add functionality via API.
App Marketplace
Updates to the BigCommerce app marketplace include the introduction of unified billing, which streamlines the management of app subscriptions by consolidating them into the BigCommerce bill.
BigCommerce has also announced a partnership with Gadget, an app development platform. It lets developers focus on what makes their app unique and Gadget takes care of everything else, e.g. syncing data, handling webhooks and scaling.
As a BigCommerce app developer ourselves, it’s great to see BigCommerce invest in this space. We believe the power of the platform comes from the bread of the solutions available in the marketplace.
A bolder BigCommerce
One of the highlights of BigSummit 2024 was hearing from BigCommerce President Travis Hess. With his deep industry knowledge and engaging presence, Hess articulated why BigCommerce is poised to become a market leader. He emphasized the company’s commitment to maturing and evolving to better serve its enterprise customer base, likening operational agility to corporate self-actualization.
Hess hinted at more refined messaging in the future, aiming to present a cohesive narrative across BigCommerce, Feedonomics, and Makeswift. The overall takeaway was clear: BigCommerce is confident in its strategic direction, product roadmap, and market positioning. Expect to see a bolder BigCommerce with a stronger voice in the industry.
