The online gloves are off: BigCommerce CEO Brent Bellm slams “baseless” Shopify total cost of ownership claims
Brent Bellm, Chief Executive Officer at BigCommerce, has taken to social media to hit out at e-commerce rival Shopify.
Last week, the latter flagged up a study claiming that it has the best total cost of ownership in commerce.
“We are better value because where our competitors put their complexity onto the backs of their customers, we absorb complexity for you. Our product is intentionally designed to be easy to use, manage, customise, and deploy,” said Harley Finkelstein, President at Shopify.
“Shopify has better value, better product, better services - end of story. With us, you’ll move faster, operate better, and get the best converting checkout in the world. If you're not choosing Shopify... you are intentionally deciding to pay 36% more and get less.”
This did not sit well with Bellm.
In a LinkedIn post, published today, he slammed the company for making “more baseless claims against its competitors - this time related to total cost of ownership - without providing information or citing sources regarding their data sample sizes, methodology, TCO calculation details, or even which firm evaluated the data.”
“Compare this to BigCommerce’s commitment to transparency and authenticity. When we make claims or share data, we cite reputable sources and explain our methodology.”
Bellm noted that his firm had commissioned a third-party study with Forrester Consulting to evaluate the total economic impact of BigCommerce, which revealed that a composite organisation can expect a 211% return on investment over three years with breakeven in eight months and $774k+ in cost savings from retiring a legacy solution.
“When it comes to conversion, our stats speak for themselves,” he stated.
He added: “BigCommerce outperforms Shopify with an average enterprise site visit conversion rate of 2.67% and checkout conversion rate of 71% - well above the internet average of 40-50%.”
“These stats represent the average of all BigCommerce Enterprise stores using any of our flagship payment solutions, plus PayPal Wallet and Apple Pay, during the second half of 2023.”
“Shopify claims their total cost of ownership is 31% better than BigCommerce’s, but the truth is that TCO varies wildly depending on the industry, whether you're selling B2C, B2B, or DTC (or a mixture of both), brand/retailer tech preferences, if your tech stack is composable, and a host of other factors.”
“Most notably, the timing of Shopify's "research" on TCO pre-dates their subsequent massive price increases on Shopify Plus.”
“They claim a 31% TCO advantage calculated prior to increasing Shopify Plus's variable fee by 60%, their fixed fee by 25%, their payments penalty fee by 33%, and their B2B fee by 18 basis points.”
“How would you feel about someone promising, "I'm cheaper by 31%," without factoring in their just announced 60% price increase?
“Shopify also asserts, without evidence or benchmarking, that BigCommerce's native enterprise capabilities are "limited". This hollow claim comes from a platform in Shopify that doesn't have enterprise multi-storefront, B2B, or true MACH composable capabilities.”
“Our award winning Enterprise solution is repeatedly praised by industry analysts including Gartner, Forrester, IDC MarketScape and Paradigm B2B Combine - the latter of which rated us exceptional for total cost of ownership.”
Bellm concluded: “Brands have a number of e-commerce platforms to choose from. Don't be swayed by misinformation.”
“Whether you select BigCommerce, Shopify, or another platform, you should be armed with accurate data to make an informed decision. That’s what we stand by and what we mean when we say we put our customers first.”
Shopify did not respond to our request for comment.
However, Finkelstein has hit X (formerly known as Twitter) in the past couple of hours, declaring: “Our competition: seemingly obsessed with keeping the status quo.”
“Shopify: singularly focused on commerce and relentlessly innovating. The biggest and best brands on the planet are choosing us for enterprise - and not just up and coming ones - established, massive, household name brands and retailers.”
“More than ever, enterprise businesses are coming to us. We will out-innovate every competitor. We have the most scaled platform and no competitor can come close to us when it comes to how much and how fast we ship.”
“Not to mention, we have the best converting checkout on the planet. By far. For 20 years, we have been making commerce better for everyone. We’ve built the best commerce platform.”
“Now, we are building the future of enterprise commerce. Shopify is enterprise commerce. Your business on Shopify = Bigger, better, faster.”
Continue reading…