How To Set Up a BigCommerce Store From Scratch

What Is BigCommerce?

BigCommerce is a hosted platform for building and running an online store. Hosted means the company manages the servers, security, and updates for you. You focus on your products and customers.

A lot of large brands run on it, including Ted Baker, Fujitsu, and Lavazza. But it isn’t only for big companies. The lower plans are aimed at small businesses that want room to grow.

Here’s why store owners pick BigCommerce:

• No extra transaction fees on any plan. You only pay your payment processor’s card rates.
• Unlimited products, staff accounts, and bandwidth, even on the entry plan.
• Strong built-in SEO controls for URLs, titles, and product pages.
• It sells across channels like Amazon, eBay, and social, not just your own site.

How Much Does a BigCommerce Store Cost?

BigCommerce has four plans. The first three have set prices, and Enterprise is a custom quote. Paying for a full year knocks about 25% off the monthly rate.

Plan	Monthly	Billed annually	Best for
Standard	$39/mo	$29/mo	New stores up to ~$50k in yearly sales
Plus	$105/mo	$79/mo	Growing stores up to ~$180k in sales
Pro	$399/mo	$299/mo	High-volume stores that need more API calls
Enterprise	Custom	Custom	Large or B2B stores needing dedicated support

You can try the platform free for 15 days, and you don’t need a card to start. That’s plenty of time to build your store before you pick a plan.

One thing to plan for: a custom domain and a live storefront both need a paid plan. So the free trial is for building and testing, not for going live.

Step 1: Sign Up for a BigCommerce Account

Start on the BigCommerce website. At first glance it looks aimed at big enterprises, but the plans for smaller businesses are right there. Click the Essentials tab at the top of the screen to see them.

The Standard plan starts at $29 a month when you pay yearly, which is where most new stores begin.

To try it first, click the Start free trial button. You get 15 days, no card required.

Fill out the form with your details, your business info, and a name for your store. When you submit it, BigCommerce starts building your store in the background.

Once it’s ready, BigCommerce emails you your login details. From there you can head straight to your dashboard and start setting things up.

Step 2: Get to Know Your BigCommerce Dashboard

Once your account is ready, you’ll land on the BigCommerce dashboard. This is where you manage products, orders, customers, and every store setting.

Take a minute to look around. BigCommerce adds quick links to the jobs that get you selling fastest, like adding products, customizing your theme, and editing your About page.

Step 3: Set Up Your Store Profile

Before the fun stuff, fill in your store profile. Go to Settings » Store profile and add your store name, country, address, and contact email.

Do this early for a reason. Your store country decides which payment gateways you can turn on. Your address is used to work out tax and shipping. And your contact info shows up in your store footer automatically.

It only takes a minute, and it saves you from redoing settings later.

Step 4: Configure Your Domain Name

By default, BigCommerce puts your store on a subdomain like yourstore.mybigcommerce.com. A custom domain like yourstore.com looks far more professional.

Note: a custom domain needs a paid plan. It isn’t available on the free trial.

You have two options. You can buy a domain straight from BigCommerce, and it points to your store automatically. Go to Settings » Domain name and click Purchase under Buy a new one. Check availability, pick how long to register it, add your contact details, and pay.

Already own a domain? Go to Settings » Domain name and click Add new under Add an existing. Then follow the steps to update your DNS records with your domain provider so they point to BigCommerce.

Step 5: Configure Your Email Settings

It’s worth sorting your email settings out early. BigCommerce sends emails to you and to your customers, covering account details, order confirmations, shipping updates, and more.

If those emails land in spam or never arrive, customers miss important updates about their orders. Setting up SMTP makes sure your store’s emails actually get delivered.

Why Use a Dedicated SMTP Service

BigCommerce works with most email services, but a dedicated SMTP service built for transactional email is the safer choice. It’s built to get order and shipping emails into the inbox, not the spam folder.

This matters more than it used to. Gmail and Yahoo now enforce sender requirements, and Microsoft has added its own. If your store emails aren’t authenticated, customers on those providers may never see their order confirmations.

A service like SendLayer handles that authentication for you and improves deliverability. It also logs every email your store sends, so you can spot and fix any problem fast.

To start, follow these instructions for getting started. Once your account is ready, you’ll need to authorize your domain for sending. This step is what proves to Gmail and Yahoo that your emails are legit.

Add Your SendLayer SMTP Credentials to BigCommerce

Once your domain is authorized, you’re ready to connect SendLayer as your SMTP server. You’ll find the credentials you need on your SendLayer dashboard.

In BigCommerce, go to Settings » Miscellaneous. The email settings sit at the top of the screen.

Scroll to the Use SMTP Server setting and select Let me specify my own SMTP server details. That opens the fields you need to fill in.

Enter your details like this:

• SMTP Hostname: smtp.sendlayer.net
• SMTP Username: copy the Username from your SendLayer dashboard
• SMTP Password: copy the Password from your SendLayer dashboard
• SMTP Port: 587

When you’re done, click Test SMTP Settings so BigCommerce can check the connection.

You should see a popup saying a test message went to your admin address. Check your inbox to confirm it arrived.

Step 6: Customize the Design of Your Store

Head to the Storefront section in your dashboard menu to pick a theme.

You can customize the default theme or add a new one. Click Theme Marketplace to browse. There are free and premium themes, and you can filter by category.

Found one you like? Click it for details, then click Add theme to apply it.

BigCommerce asks you to confirm before it switches. After that, click View Store to see how the front end looks.

Add Your Logo

To add your logo, go to Storefront » Logo and choose Upload a custom image. Then upload the file from your computer.

Customize Your Theme

You can match your theme to your brand colors and fonts. Go to Storefront » Themes and click Customize to open the visual page builder.

In the builder, drag and drop sections to rearrange your pages.

To change colors and general styling, click the Theme Styles icon in the sidebar.

Here you can set your overall color palette and tweak individual elements.

On this screen you can also adjust styling settings, like how many products show on the homepage, the text of promotional labels, and which credit card icons to display.

Step 7: Add Products to Your Store

With your store looking right, it’s time to add products.

Go to the Products section in the menu to see all your products. The trial comes with sample products so you can see the layout.

To add one, click Add. This opens a page for your product details.

Fill in the name, price, optional SKU, type (physical or digital), weight for shipping, a category, and a description. The description editor lets you format text and add HTML.

On the same screen you can upload images and videos, set product variations, and add options like gift wrapping.

Click Save when you’re done, then repeat for each product.

Don’t Skip the Product SEO Fields

Each product page has SEO fields for the page title, URL, and meta description. Fill these in for every product. It’s the easiest way to help shoppers find your items through search, and it takes only a moment per product.

Step 8: Set Up Payments, Tax, and Shipping

In your dashboard, go to Settings » Payments.

BigCommerce supports gateways like PayPal, Stripe, and Square. Pick one or more that fit your business.

When you turn on a gateway, you’ll add its details, like API keys or merchant IDs. Your payment processor provides these. You can also run a gateway in test mode to check everything works before you go live.

Want to accept bank transfers or cash on delivery? Set those up under Offline Payment methods.

To change your currency, click Currencies under Settings. You can also choose which currencies show to visitors from different countries and turn on automatic conversion.

Configuring Tax Settings

Go to Settings » Tax.

For the easy route, use an automated calculator like Avalara, which BigCommerce integrates with. It works out tax based on your location and the customer’s.

You can also set tax manually by adding rates for each region. Research accurate rates for everywhere you sell. If you need to, you can set prices to include tax.

Configuring Shipping

Under Settings » Shipping, you’ll find several ways to calculate shipping. Start by adding the address you’ll ship from.

Next, set up shipping zones. These are the areas you’ll ship to, based on countries, states, or zip codes.

For each zone, pick your shipping methods. Options include flat-rate, free shipping, and carrier-calculated rates.

BigCommerce also connects to carriers like FedEx, UPS, and USPS for real-time rates through ShipperHQ. To add that, click to install ShipperHQ and follow the setup steps.

Step 9: Promote Your Store

A finished store still needs shoppers. BigCommerce has a few built-in tools to help you bring them in.

• Coupons and discounts. Go to Marketing » Coupon codes to create percentage, fixed-amount, or free-shipping offers.
• Email marketing. Send newsletters and promotions from the Marketing menu, or connect a tool like Mailchimp.
• Sales channels. Under Channel Manager, list your products on Amazon, eBay, and social platforms alongside your own site.

You don’t need all of these on day one. Turn on one channel, see how it performs, then add more.

Step 10: Launch Your Store

Before you go live, run a few checks so nothing trips up your first customers. Place a test order or two to confirm checkout, tax, and shipping all work.

Here’s a quick pre-launch checklist:

• Place a test order and check the confirmation email arrives
• Confirm tax and shipping are correct for your main regions
• Check your store on mobile as well as desktop
• Make sure your logo, contact details, and policies are in place
• Send a test email to confirm your SMTP setup works

When you’re happy, publish your store from the dashboard and start selling. On the home screen, find the Review & test your store box and click Launch Store.

Frequently Asked Questions