What Are the Common Challenges in BigCommerce Store Development?
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Okay, so I've done a few BigCommerce projects over the last couple of years and the same stuff keeps tripping me up. Thought I'd write it all down and see if anyone else has the same scars. Not in any special order, just how I remember them.
1. Stencil is weird at first
- Coming from WordPress, the Handlebars setup felt backwards to me. Took a week before I stopped fighting it.
- Overwrite too much of the base theme and the next update wrecks things. Then you're digging through files at 11pm wondering which of your changes did it.
- I now keep a plain text file of every file I touch. Not fancy, but it works.
2. Migration. Just... migration.
Every client thinks it's an export, import, done kind of job. It never is.
- Variants are the first headache. Old platform has some odd structure and BigCommerce wants options and modifiers set up its own way.
- Passwords can't come across. So your customers get a "reset your password" email and a few of them get cranky about it.
- Redirects. People forget these until traffic falls off a cliff two weeks later.
- Run a test import on staging first. I skipped it once. Once.
3. Connecting the ERP or inventory system
- There are 600+ integrations, sure, but if the client's ERP is some custom thing from 2011, none of that helps.
- Syncs break, rate limits kick in, field names don't match. Typical stuff.
- Worst case I saw was a store selling items that had been out of stock for days because one sync quietly failed. Nobody noticed till customers emailed.
- Work out what syncs and how often before writing any code. Webhooks beat constant polling, in my experience.
4. Checkout is good, until you want it different
- Out of the box it converts fine, honestly. Most stores should leave it alone.
- But B2B approval steps, odd shipping rules or unusual payment setups mean working around it with the Checkout SDK, and that gets annoying fast.
- Also look at gateway fees before picking one. The embedded providers don't add transaction fees, the open ones can. I've seen people find this out after launch. Not fun.
5. Headless gets recommended too easily
- Yes, Next.js plus a headless CMS gives you total control over the front end. I like it for the right project.
- But you're now running two things instead of one. Previews, SEO, content editing, all of it needs rebuilding.
- My honest take is that half the stores asking for headless would be happier with a decent Stencil theme. Cheaper to build, way easier to hand over.
6. Large catalogs
- It copes with big catalogs well, but there are limits (SKUs per product, for one).
- If you've got thousands of products and tons of attributes, plan the structure early. Fixing it later is painful.
- Bad structure shows up as slow filtering and an admin panel your team will hate.
7. Slow stores
- Hosting isn't usually the problem. We are.
- Too many apps. Three different tracking scripts doing basically the same thing. Hero images that are 4MB.
- Open your apps list every few months. You'll find at least one nobody remembers installing.
8. B2B and multi-storefront setups
- The native features are great, I'll give it that. Company accounts, tiered pricing, bulk ordering, multiple storefronts.
- Trouble is customer groups and price lists get messy quick if nobody plans it. I once spent two days untangling one because the original setup had no logic to it.
- Draw it out on paper first. Looks silly, saves hours.
9. Who's actually building this
- In-house people know the business but might have never touched BigCommerce.
- Freelancers can be brilliant. On bigger jobs I've seen things get patchy though, especially when one person is covering everything.
- For migrations, ERP work or headless builds, a lot of merchants end up going with a team offering BigCommerce development services, mostly because those jobs punish inexperience.
- Whatever you choose, ask to see similar projects, ask who fixes bugs after launch, and get the scope written down. Boring, I know.
10. After launch
- People treat launch like the finish line. It's really more like the starting line.
- Apps update, the platform changes things, security patches pile up, and the owner decides they want a new feature next week.
- If nobody owns maintenance, small bugs stack up until one of them hurts.
Quick list if you're about to start
- B2B, B2C or both? Decide first
- Look at what your current data and systems connect to
- Plan redirects before migration, not after
- Ask yourself if you really need headless
- Cap the number of apps and scripts
- Sort out support before you go live
