Is BigCommerce Failing? An Honest Look at the Platform

Is BigCommerce failing? The platform isn’t collapsing — but declining stock performance, slowing growth, and competitive pressure raise valid concerns.

Is BigCommerce failing?

Table of Contents

What You'll Learn:

  • BigCommerce’s financial health – Stock decline exceeding 95% from 2020 peak raises stability concerns for merchants

  • Real operational challenges – Limitations affecting businesses managing complex product data

  • Market share struggles – Why the company is losing ground to Shopify and other ecommerce platforms

  • PIM as the solution – How Product Information Management addresses fundamental gaps

  • Proactive risk mitigation – Approaches to protect your investment while improving operations

If you’re running a business on BigCommerce, you’ve probably heard merchants asking an unsettling question: Is BigCommerce failing as a platform? It’s a concern spreading through community discussions as users analyze stock prices, read about layoffs, and struggle with limitations managing complex catalogs.

The short answer: BigCommerce isn’t failing catastrophically, but faces serious headwinds. Past performance shows concerning trends—declining market share, reduced innovation, and growing concerns among developers who’ve switched to other ecommerce platforms. The company has faced significant competitive pressure from established giants and nimble startups in the eCommerce space, struggling to differentiate in the SMB segment. When you’re paying for a service provider and building your entire website around it, understanding these challenges is critical.

More importantly, there’s a proactive solution that protects your operations regardless of the platform’s future. The fix starts with a focused approach to product data management rather than eventually scrambling to solve problems after they become impossible to ignore.

1. The Financial Reality: Stock Decline and Market Position

Why it matters: Platform stability impacts your ability to compete and grow.

The Austin-based company’s stock performance offers sobering insights. After going public in August 2020 at a peak of $130 per share, BigCommerce has plummeted to around $6.70 per share—a decline exceeding 95%. This market analysis contrasts sharply with competitor Shopify, which rebounded to approximately $110 per share. BigCommerce has historically operated at a loss and relied on revenue growth to justify its valuation. Investor markets have moved away from unprofitable tech stocks due to rising interest rates, significantly impacting the company’s financial viability.

The numbers tell the story:

  • BigCommerce achieved 8% revenue growth in 2024, reaching $332.9 million—sluggish for a technology provider

  • Revenue growth has decelerated to approximately 3% annually as of early 2025, with Q3 2025 total revenue at $86 million

  • Active store counts declined 6% year-over-year, with data indicating a net loss of thousands of merchants to Shopify and other platforms like Wix

  • The company laid off 30% of its workforce this past March, raising concerns about slowed platform innovation and declining support quality

  • ARR grew only 4%—barely outpacing inflation—with BigCommerce struggling to maintain ARR growth compared to Shopify

  • Enterprise accounts have seen five consecutive quarters of slight sequential decline as of mid-2025

What merchants expect: Slower feature development, reduced support, and potential pricing increases as the company struggles to achieve profitability. The cornerstone concern isn’t whether BigCommerce survives the next week—it’s whether they can compete with better-funded platforms over the next few years. Analysts have raised concerns about BigCommerce’s ability to compete long-term due to persistent overvaluation and high cash burn rates since its IPO.

Market share reality: BigCommerce holds approximately 3% of U.S. ecommerce platforms market and just 1% globally. This limited market position means fewer developers building apps, fewer marketing tools in the ecosystem, and less community-driven innovation compared to dominant platforms like Shopify or Magento.

Some positive indicators: Enterprise accounts now represent 76% of total ARR (up from 46% at IPO), with average revenue per enterprise account rising to $46,403 in Q2 2025—a 9% year-over-year increase. Operating cash flow significantly improved to $14 million in Q2 2025 compared to negative $14 million in 2022. The company achieved non-GAAP operating income of $8.0 million in Q3 2025. Full-year 2025 revenue is projected between $340.6 million and $345.6 million. However, these improvements come amid ongoing customer retention challenges, intense competition in the SMB segment, and management expressing caution regarding global trade and potential tariffs affecting 25% of revenue derived from partner services and international trade.

2. Customer Base Concerns and Platform Limitations

Why it matters: Declining customer numbers signal deeper usability issues beyond financial metrics.

BigCommerce has experienced three consecutive quarters of net customer losses at the enterprise level. Comments from merchants who’ve switched reveal consistent frustration patterns.

Common limitations:

Customization complexity: Despite marketing focused on flexibility, implementing advanced features requires substantial developer resources and money. Platform limitations include a lack of customization and control due to its hosted SaaS model. While BigCommerce is often seen as more powerful for complex eCommerce requirements and provides more functionality out of the box compared to Shopify, the reality involves wrestling with a template system that’s harder to work with and less intuitive than competitors.

Outdated themes and design issues: BigCommerce’s themes are often perceived as outdated and less visually appealing compared to competitors like Shopify, whose themes are considered more modern and user-friendly. Users have reported that the platform is difficult to navigate and lacks intuitive design, making it challenging for non-technical users. Ongoing issues include rigid SEO settings, limited blogging functionality, and slow site speeds due to poorly implemented JavaScript.

Integration struggles: Connecting BigCommerce to your ERP, CRM, or legacy systems often requires costly middleware. Users expect modern platforms to connect seamlessly with existing resources, but the reality involves wrestling with API limitations. Offline data synchronization remains particularly problematic. Rising customer acquisition costs alongside growth metrics make scalability challenging for the company.

App ecosystem gaps: While BigCommerce offers an app marketplace, the selection pales compared to Shopify. Merchants who need specific marketing tools or analytics often discover critical apps don’t exist, forcing custom solutions that add cost and complexity. As you add apps, themes, and customizations, stores become fragile—site speed degrades, tracking code conflicts emerge, and updates break functionality.

Support degradation: The March workforce reductions impacted service quality. Response times have lengthened, and users report being directed to bot-driven help rather than human expertise. Customer support has been criticized for being slow, unhelpful, scripted, and lacking technical expertise—leading to unresolved issues. When you’re paying premium pricing, you expect premium support—but that advantage is eroding. Many users have switched from BigCommerce to Shopify, citing better service and functionality as primary reasons.

Pricing frustrations: Automatic forced upgrades to more expensive plans have been highlighted as a concern for growing businesses. Frequent pricing changes disrupt B2B businesses operating on tight margins, complicating financial planning. Users have also expressed frustration with BigCommerce’s cancellation process, describing it as nearly impossible and unresponsive to requests. Payment processing issues, including problems with refunds and payment system changes, add to merchant concerns.

The hidden cost: BigCommerce’s proprietary architecture creates vendor lock-in. You can’t simply export and import elsewhere. Migration requires rebuilding from scratch—keeping frustrated merchants trapped. This makes understanding whether is BigCommerce failing even more critical, as the cost of being wrong compounds over time.

3. B2B Functionality Gaps for Complex Catalogs

Why it matters: Product data quality is either your competitive advantage or your biggest liability.

B2B commerce demands sophisticated data management that BigCommerce’s native features struggle to provide. Buyers expect detailed specifications and accurate pricing before purchasing.

The product data challenge:

Bulk editing limitations: Updating pricing or specifications across product families requires tedious manual work. BigCommerce lacks robust bulk editing tools, wasting staff time and introducing errors—making simple tasks feel impossible for businesses managing thousands of SKUs.

Channel consistency problems: Keeping information synchronized across your website, Amazon Business, and offline catalogs becomes a full-time job. Data drifts out of sync, creating customer confusion. Without a centralized system, maintaining accuracy is an ongoing struggle.

Weak enrichment workflows: There’s no structured process for adding technical specifications or compliance documentation. Teams resort to spreadsheets and emails, losing version control. Product launches drag on for weeks. Digital asset chaos—images, PDFs, videos live in disconnected systems, undermining the product experience.

SEO and compliance gaps: Without proper data structures, optimizing products for search engines becomes guesswork. Missing attributes hurt organic rankings. For regulated industries, BigCommerce’s basic permissions don’t provide the granularity enterprises need, creating operational inefficiency and compliance risks.

According to Copperberg’s research, the biggest hurdle in improving product experience is achieving team productivity on data management—followed by timely launches and collecting data centrally.

Real impact: B2B buyers demand accuracy. When information is wrong or incomplete, they silently buy from competitors. Research shows BigCommerce merchants achieve 2.5% conversion rates, but this drops when data quality declines.

4. How PIM Software Solves Core Challenges

Why it matters: PIM creates platform independence while solving immediate problems.

Product Information Management (PIM) software is strategic insurance against platform risk while dramatically improving daily operations. It’s the cornerstone technology that connects business systems and ensures data accuracy across channels.

Understanding PIM’s advantage:

Centralized truth: Instead of data scattered across spreadsheets, ERPs, BigCommerce, and supplier systems, PIM creates one authoritative source. You enter data once and distribute it everywhere—automatically solving disconnected systems.

Platform independence: When you implement a Best PIM for BigCommerce, you’re no longer locked to any single platform. Your information exists independently, making migration far less risky. Whether BigCommerce succeeds or struggles, your data remains secure and portable.

Operational efficiency: PIM solutions eliminate data silos, enable faster time-to-market, reduce manual updates, and streamline workflows. Time savings compound as teams stop fighting spreadsheets.

Measurable success: PIM can decrease returns by approximately 40% by ensuring buyers receive exactly what they expect. Products reach market up to 3X faster with proper data governance. Complete, accurate information directly drives conversion improvements. Marketing, sales, and ecommerce teams collaborate efficiently instead of wasting time on repetitive tasks. Structured, complete product data helps search engines understand and rank your offerings.

BigCommerce-specific fixes:

A Best PIM for BigCommerce integration directly addresses native limitations: bulk update thousands of products instantly, maintain perfect synchronization with your ERP or CRM, create customer-specific catalogs without expensive development, publish to multiple storefronts from one system, prepare for eventual migration without losing enrichment work, and improve security with granular access controls and complete audit trails.

Cost considerations: While implementing PIM requires investment, the money spent delivers immediate ROI through time savings, fewer errors, and improved sales. Compare this to paying for BigCommerce limitations—spending money on inefficiency with no advantage.

5. Future-Proofing Your eCommerce Strategy

Why it matters: Smart businesses plan proactively for uncertainty while optimizing today.

Whether BigCommerce achieves success or continues its decline, merchants need strategies that work regardless of platform health. The goal isn’t predicting the future—it’s building resilience through better data management.

Short-term actions (Next 90 days):

  • Audit your data: Analyze where information lives, how it flows, and where quality breaks down

  • Map dependencies: Identify every integration and workflow tying you to BigCommerce

  • Evaluate PIM options: Research solutions like the Best PIM for BigCommerce

  • Standardize structures: Create consistent product attributes and taxonomies

Medium-term strategy (6-12 months):

  • Implement PIM: Move product data into a platform-agnostic system

  • Establish governance: Create clear ownership and approval workflows

  • Expand channels: Test syndication to Amazon Business or additional storefronts

  • Optimize for growth: Use improved data quality to enhance marketing and conversions

Long-term vision (12+ months):

  • Platform optionality: Confidently evaluate other platforms without migration fear

  • Competitive advantage: Superior product information compounds over time

  • Systematic scalability: Adding new products becomes systematized rather than chaotic

  • Data as an asset: Clean information powers marketing, sales, and analytics

The innovation imperative: Building flexible, portable data infrastructure ensures you can adapt regardless of market shifts or buyer expectations.

Key Takeaways

  • Is BigCommerce failing? Evidence suggests significant challenges – 95% stock decline, workforce reductions, and declining customer counts signal real concerns, though the company isn’t imminently shutting down

  • Market share losses indicate competitive weakness – With only 3% U.S. market share, BigCommerce struggles against better-funded platforms, limiting innovation and ecosystem growth

  • Platform limitations hurt B2B operations – Complex catalog management, integration challenges, and customization costs create operational friction

  • Product data is the core problem – Most BigCommerce pain points trace to inadequate information management capabilities

  • PIM provides strategic insurance – A Best PIM for BigCommerce solves today’s problems while creating platform independence

  • Proactive beats reactive – Implementing proper data management during stable times is easier than scrambling during a crisis

  • Quality compounds over time – Every week you delay addressing data management increases technical debt and competitive disadvantage

Frequently Asked Questions

Is BigCommerce failing and should I be concerned?

BigCommerce faces legitimate challenges—95% stock decline, workforce cuts, and declining customer counts—but isn’t immediately failing. The company generated over $330 million in revenue in 2024 with positive EBITDA, and Q3 2025 showed non-GAAP net income of $6.2 million. However, slower growth (down to 3% annually), reduced market share, and customer attrition to platforms like Shopify and Wix suggest competitive struggles worth monitoring. The real concern isn’t platform shutdown but reduced innovation velocity. BigCommerce’s best chance for survival may involve focusing on a narrow product category to differentiate from competitors. Merchants should focus on building data infrastructure that provides flexibility regardless of BigCommerce’s future performance.

Should I migrate away from BigCommerce to another ecommerce platform now?

Migration decisions should be based on operational needs rather than stock performance. If BigCommerce meets current requirements, immediate migration may be unnecessarily disruptive and expensive. However, implementing PIM provides strategic optionality—you improve operations today while preparing for potential changes tomorrow. Many merchants who’ve switched to Shopify cite data management challenges as the primary driver—problems PIM solves without migration.

What's the biggest risk of staying on BigCommerce long-term?

The primary risk isn’t catastrophic failure—it’s gradual obsolescence. As the company focuses on profitability over growth, expect slower innovation, fewer new features, and reduced app investment. For B2B businesses, this means potentially falling behind competitors using platforms with better data management and advanced capabilities. The secondary risk is migration cost—the longer you wait, the more data you must rebuild. Platform-agnostic infrastructure mitigates both risks.

How does PIM software integrate with BigCommerce and what can I expect?

PIM software connects to BigCommerce through APIs to synchronize product information. You manage and enrich data in the PIM system, which automatically updates your store. This creates a “single source of truth” outside BigCommerce, improving data quality while reducing manual work. The Best PIM for BigCommerce solutions offer pre-built connectors. Expect initial implementation to take 2-4 weeks for basic setups, with ongoing benefits including faster product launches, fewer errors, and simplified multi-channel selling.

Can PIM help if I eventually need to leave BigCommerce for another provider?

Yes—this is one of PIM’s most valuable strategic advantages. When product information lives in a platform-agnostic PIM system, migration becomes dramatically simpler. Instead of manually rebuilding your entire catalog—a process taking months—you simply connect your PIM to a new platform and synchronize data. This reduces migration costs by 60-80%. Additionally, PIM ensures you don’t lose years of enrichment work during transitions. Whether you move to Shopify, Magento, or elsewhere, your data foundation travels with you.

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