BigCommerce Developer: How to Learn & Hire for BigCommerce Development [2024]

Founded in 2009, BigCommerce is a rapidly growing eCommerce platform— and so is the demand for BigCommerce developers. If you’re trying to learn BigCommerce Development, become a BigCommerce developer, or are looking to hire BigCommerce developer / s, this post is for you.

Let’s start by explaining what BigCommerce is.

BigCommerce is an eCommerce platform that allows businesses to create and manage their online stores. It is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that provides businesses with the tools to set up and run an online store without the need for extensive technical knowledge.

BigCommerce offers a wide range of features, including customizable templates, inventory management, shipping and tax calculations, and integration with various payment gateways. The platform also provides a variety of apps and plugins that can be added to extend the store’s functionality, such as email marketing, customer relationship management, and social media integration. BigCommerce owns some of these apps, while others are developed and offered for sale on the BigCommece marketplace by developers worldwide.

BigCommerce is a fully hosted eCommerce platform, which means that the company takes care of all the technical aspects of running an online store, such as security, backups, and software updates. This allows businesses to focus on growing their sales and expanding their customer base.

BigCommerce also offers a wide range of pricing plans to suit the needs of different businesses, from small businesses just starting out to large enterprises with complex eCommerce needs.

Overall, BigCommerce is a popular and widely used e-commerce platform that allows businesses of all sizes to create and manage their online stores easily and efficiently. Its features, integrations, and scalability make it a great option for businesses of any size.

As of this writing, there are over 600,000 BigCommerce stores in 150+ countries. As a popular software-as-a-service (SaaS) eCommerce platform, BigCommerce enables merchants to build, innovate, and expand their businesses online. 

Some notable sites on the BigCommerce platform include Sony, RAZER, Ubisoft Store, Almanac, and Black Diamond.

With integrations like Amazon, Google, Walmart, and more, BigCommerce is a preferred choice for merchants who want a well-rounded omnichannel approach to selling online and offline.

Competition is tough. However, their aggressive acquisition strategy has allowed them to challenge the global competition as an emerging eCommerce platform.

How to learn BigCommerce Development?

BigCommerce is a popular e-commerce platform that allows businesses to create and manage their online stores. To learn BigCommerce development, you can take the following steps:

• Read the BigCommerce documentation: The BigCommerce documentation provides a wealth of information on how to use the platform, including tutorials and guides on how to set up and customize your store. This is a great place to start learning the basics of BigCommerce development. For more technical folks, you can use the BigCommerce Dev Center, which provides access to BigCommerce APIs quick start, developer portal overview, how their Stencil theme engine works, and getting started with building BigCommerce apps.
  
  
• Take online courses: There are many online courses available that can teach you how to develop for BigCommerce. You can look for courses on platforms like Udemy, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
  
  
• Join online communities: Joining online communities such as BigCommerce developer forums, and social media groups can give you access to a wealth of knowledge from experienced developers. You can ask questions and get help from other developers, and learn from their experiences.
  
  
• Build a demo store: One of the best ways to learn BigCommerce development is to build a demo store and experiment with different features and customization options. This will give you hands-on experience with the platform and help you to understand how it works.
  
  
• Get certified: BigCommerce offers a certification program for developers. The most popular one is the BigDev certification By getting certified, you will gain a deeper understanding of the platform and be recognized as a knowledgeable and skilled developer.
  
  
• Hire a developer or a development agency: Hiring a developer or a development agency who has experience with BigCommerce, can help you to build your store quickly and efficiently. You can ask them questions and learn from their experience.
  
  
• Work on real-life projects: The best way to learn is by doing. Look for freelance projects or internships that give you the opportunity to work on real-life BigCommerce projects.
  

It’s important to note that learning BigCommerce development may take some time and effort, but with the right resources and guidance, you can become proficient in using the platform and be able to create effective and engaging online stores.

How to Hire a BigCommerce Developer?

Hiring a BigCommerce developer can be an essential step in building and maintaining a successful online store. Here are our recommendations on how to find and hire a BigCommerce developer:

• Define your requirements: Before you start looking for a developer, it’s important to have a clear understanding of what you need. Make a list of the tasks or projects you need the developer to complete, such as customizing your store’s theme, integrating with other platforms, or adding new features.
  
  
• Look for relevant experience: To find a BigCommerce developer or agency like Shero, you can go to the BigCommerce partner directory, where you will find a list of agencies who specialize in BigCommerce and have a number of specialized developers on stuff. Alternatively, you can use a marketplace for freelancers such as upwork.com or fiverr.com. When searching for a developer, look for someone with relevant experience in BigCommerce development. Look at their portfolio and check out the websites they have developed in the past to see if they have experience working with similar projects to yours.
  
  
• Check for certifications: BigCommerce offers a certification program for developers, which can be a good indicator of a developer’s knowledge and skill level. Look for developers who have obtained the BigCommerce certification. For example, at the time of this writing, we have 15 BigDev Certified developers in-house, and that number is growing.
  
  
• Ask for references: Ask the developer for references from past clients, and reach out to them to ask about their experience working with the developer.
  
  
• Check their availability: Make sure the developer is available to work on your project during the timeframe you need.
  
  
• Agree on the cost and payment terms: Before you hire a developer, make sure you agree on the cost and payment terms for the project. Be clear about what is included in the cost and what is not.
  
  
• Check their communication skills: Good communication is essential for a successful working relationship. Make sure the developer is responsive and easy to communicate with.
  
  
• Have a trial period: Before you hire a developer, it’s a good idea to have a trial period to see how well you work together and if they are a good fit for the role.

It’s important to remember that hiring a developer is an important decision and should not be rushed. Take the time to find the right person or agency for the job, and ensure they have the skills, experience, and availability to meet your needs.

Skills Needed to become BigCommerce Developer

Visual Design skills

As with any platform on the web, good knowledge of Visual Design is a must, which certainly requires HTML and CSS (SCSS) knowledge. It would help if you were up-to-date with the latest technology developments, design trends, and best practices.

One of the best websites I use to visit constantly is CSS-tricks, a website where you can get ideas on how to do things quickly and efficiently.

Javascript knowledge is key.

Javascript is also an important aspect. For a small web application, such as a theme, BigCommerce can include rich user interactions that you can build using JavaScript. Moreover, you will need to override default behaviors or extend existing functionalities, which you can also do via JavaScript.

Bigcommerce, as a templating language, uses Handlebars

Handlebars combines an input object with a template to generate text or HTML formats. On a first look, a Handlebar template looks like regular text with embedded expressions.

Bigommerce developer tools

Bigcommerce developers should be familiar with Storefront APIs as they are critical to adding new functionalities to the website. These functionalities include cart, checkout, catalog pages, or customers.

How to Become a BigCommerce Developer

Step 1: Understand the platform

A great starting point: Get to know the features that BigCommerce offers.

Often, developers look at things from the development perspective and want to get into coding immediately. However, when it comes to eCommerce platforms, you need to be familiar with their features and limits.

Here’s a tip: BigCommerce offers the opportunity to create a free trial. You should go through all the different sections within the admin panel and play around. Review the product types, additional product options, payment methods, and many more features. Two good starting points are the default documentation for features and tutorials.

Step 2: BigCommerce Local setup

The next step would be to proceed with the local configuration.

• First, you need to install Stencil-CLI.
• Second, download a theme to edit and preview live changes using Stencil CLI’s powerful Browsersync functionality. Since you have already created the demo store on the first step, follow this documentation to obtain the API credentials to connect it to the store.

If you face issues, look at the official video on the BigCommerce YouTube channel that will walk you through the process.

Step 3: BigCommerce Local Development Workflow

Now that we are familiar with the platform and have the local environment up and running, we need to know the directory structure. Before you decide what changes to make, you need to learn where/how to add these changes.

A very critical thing to keep in mind is that you have to learn to do something based on how the platform expects you to do it.

For example, you shouldn’t put custom functionality on the theme or template on Magento.

This is not the case with BigCommerce.

BigCommerce expects you to add custom functionalities to the template. It’s neither correct nor wrong; it would be best to learn how the platform functions and uses it — which is why we need to start from the directory structure.

Review the theme assets and where we can add our scripts, styling, etc.

Tip: Review the following links for additional learning:

• Page Composition and Styling
• Custom templates
• Fonts and icons

Step 4: BigCommerce Theme Development

Being a BigCommerce developer has two main branches, theme development and API development. For theme development, we need to start by doing small items, such as small styling, adding a slider, displaying a widget on all product pages, etc. A good starting point is the official tutorials from the youtube channel.

Step 5: BigCommerce API Development

To add custom functionalities to the website, more often than none, you will need to make at least one API request. You need to get familiar with the API requests format and how to implement it. To start with, to entirely focus on the API and not write code, I would suggest using postman. You can test simple login requests, add product options, add products to the cart, etc.

You should be ready to kick off the BigCommerce development journey with the abovementioned items. This provides a complete picture of the development ecosystem.

BigCommerce Development Best Practices

However, to get to the next level of development and become an expert Bigcommerce developer, you need to keep in mind:

• You should always use the best practices for the theme and API. You need always be up-to-date with the best methods to have the features performant and live long term.
• Develop with Web accessibility and SEO in mind. Search engine optimizations and accessibility are essential items your website should have in today’s world. For every feature you build, you must ensure it is compatible and includes the layers and components for accessibility. It needs to be readable from the screen readers etc.
• Website performance
• GraphQL

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Conclusion

BigCommerce is a powerful eCommerce platform that empowers businesses to create and manage successful online stores. However, to harness its full potential, it’s essential to work with skilled BigCommerce developers who can bring your vision to life. Whether you hire a BigCommerce developer or choose to learn the development skills yourself, the knowledge and expertise gained will enable you to build robust and user-friendly online stores that drive business growth.

Shero Commerce is a BigCommerce Partner with a team of BigCommerce Certified Developers. Some of our clients on BigCommerce include Vienna Beef, the WWII Museum, and Mack’s Prairie Wings. All of our developers have gone through the Big Dev training and certification. If you need any help with your BigCommerce Project, please feel free to contact us at any time.

To learn more about BigCommerce, check out the BigCommerce overview on our website. You can also explore our comprehensive BigCommerce pricing guide and BigCommerce vs. Shopify comparison for further insights.

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