BigCommerce Town Hall – Q1 2025

BigCommerce hosted its Q1 2025 Town Hall in March, bringing the latest company updates and strategic direction to the community. Unlike previous events, this quarter’s town hall had a slightly different structure, missing the usual content and product announcements. This was likely due to the upcoming BigSummit in London on April 3rd. However, it still provided valuable insights into BigCommerce’s priorities and roadmap for the year ahead.

If you missed it, here are the highlights. You can also watch the event back or read the slides.

Company updates

The session kicked off with Doug Hollinger, SVP of Strategy, outlining how BigCommerce is structuring its go-to-market efforts across three key segments:

• B2B
• B2C
• Small Business

B2B: Evolving to Meet Rising Expectations

Lance Owide reinforced how B2B buyer expectations continue to evolve, demanding a more seamless and sophisticated purchasing experience. Key areas of investment include:

• Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) functionality to enhance complex purchasing workflows.
• Multi-company hierarchy, enabling businesses to manage more intricate organizational structures and purchasing permissions.

B2C & Small Business

Austin Comer spoke about the importance of omnichannel commerce, where success depends on optimizing data and content for each channel while maintaining a cohesive brand message.

Feedonomics can be a key part of customer strategy to achieve this. BigCommerce reinforced later during the Q&A that it would be introducing a self-service version of the platform to make it available to a broader customer base.

One area of focus is improving checkout conversion, with insights shared by Nicole Walker:

• 60% of consumers abandon checkout if it takes longer than two minutes.
• 36% drop off if forced to create an account.
• Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) solutions can increase GMV by 3-4%.
• Stripe Link integration has been shown to help customers check out up to 9 times faster, with notable improvements in conversion rates. For example, UK retailer Sarah Raven saw an 18% boost in conversion and a 40% drop in cart abandonment after integrating Stripe. As part of the migration to BigCommerce, Sarah Raven also chose our apps: Category Merchandiser and Back in Stock Alerts.
• PayPal Fastlane, now in beta for UK customers, offers another streamlined payment experience.
• Enhanced multi-address shipping UI, particularly useful for corporate gifting and bulk orders.

Q&A Highlights

As always, the live Q&A section provided additional clarity on BigCommerce’s direction and upcoming plans. Here are some key takeaways:

What are BigCommerce’s plans for growth?

• Expanding self-service options for Feedonomics.
• Exploring a standalone offering for Makeswift.

Is BigCommerce moving away from core ecommerce functionality?

• No, investment in core ecommerce remains a priority, while addressing needs of more complex use cases as well.

How can merchants apply fees to orders?

• Product modifiers allow per-product fees.
• Order-level fees were recently added to the Order API.
• Obundle’s Order Fees app brings this functionality to the admin.

Are backorders and preorders on the roadmap?

• Preorders can already be implemented through existing tools.
• Support for Backorders is actively being developed. Merchants will be able to set a maximum negative inventory threshold (e.g., allowing backorders up to -100 units).

Can customers enter purchase order (PO) numbers at checkout?

• B2B Edition supports PO numbers at checkout.
• Outside of B2B Edition, workarounds include using the customer comments box, custom shipping fields, or checkout extensions.

What’s next for BigCommerce?

• Expect major announcements at BigSummit EMEA (April 3rd) and BigSummit US (August).

Final Thoughts

This quarter’s town hall set the stage for what’s to come, with BigCommerce doubling down on its focus areas while maintaining its commitment to core ecommerce capabilities. With BigSummit London just around the corner, we expect more concrete updates on strategy, product developments, and go-to-market initiatives in the near future. Stay tuned!