New Orange APAC Pty Ltd
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Which e-commerce platform is right for your organisation?
Considering BigCommerce or Commercetools? The choice mainly depends on what your organisation needs. Which solution fits your operation, technical environment and growth plans?
New Orange helps organisations make that decision with confidence. Sometimes BigCommerce is the better fit, sometimes Commercetools is the more sensible choice. It depends on factors such as your IT landscape, desired implementation speed and the complexity of your e-commerce processes.
BigCommerce is a SaaS e-commerce platform for organisations that want to launch a professional webshop or e-commerce environment quickly. Many features are available out of the box, including product management, checkout, payments, promotions and international sales.
This makes BigCommerce especially relevant for organisations that need speed, clarity and manageability. The platform provides a solid foundation for further e-commerce growth, without requiring a fully custom-built landscape from the start.
Commercetools is a composable commerce platform for organisations that need a high degree of freedom in their digital architecture. The platform is API-first and headless, which means commerce functionality can be flexibly connected to other systems, channels and frontends.
Commercetools is especially suited to organisations with more complex processes, multiple brands, markets or sales channels. It offers a high level of flexibility, but also requires clear technical choices and strong architectural direction.
The biggest difference lies in the balance between standardisation and flexibility. BigCommerce offers a complete e-commerce platform that allows organisations to go live relatively quickly. The platform provides structure and manageability, making it well suited to organisations that value speed and operational control.
Commercetools offers more freedom to build commerce around the specific needs of the organisation within a broader digital ecosystem. This makes it a strong fit for organisations where standard platform logic does not fully align with existing processes, integrations or scalability requirements.
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BigCommerce usually has a shorter time to market. Much of the functionality is available out of the box, so you can start and optimise sooner. Commercetools often requires more design and development work, because you make more deliberate choices around architecture, frontend, integrations and business logic.
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Commercetools offers more flexibility. You decide how commerce functionality is combined with other systems and channels. BigCommerce also allows for customisation and integrations, but more within the boundaries of the platform.
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BigCommerce is often easier for commerce and marketing teams to manage. The admin environment is centralised and many components are available out of the box. With Commercetools, the management experience depends more heavily on the chosen setup and the systems built around it.
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Commercetools is strong when e-commerce needs to work closely with ERP, PIM, CRM, CMS, order management or custom software. BigCommerce also supports integrations, but is often a better fit when the complexity of the system landscape remains manageable.
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Both platforms are scalable, but in different ways. BigCommerce scales well within a SaaS model with a lot of standard functionality. Commercetools scales particularly well for organisations with multiple brands, countries, channels and complex commerce processes.
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BigCommerce is suitable when customisation is limited to integrations, frontend choices and optimisations within the platform. Commercetools is stronger when custom development is part of the core commerce architecture.
At New Orange, platform selection does not start with a list of features or licence costs. We first look at the context in which the platform needs to operate: the organisation, the operation, the existing system landscape and the ambitions for growth.
We assess factors such as the complexity of the e-commerce environment, how many countries, brands or channels need to be supported, and which integrations are required with systems such as ERP, PIM, CRM, CMS or order management. We also look at the desired implementation speed, the scope for further development and the balance between standardisation and customisation.
A platform choice affects more than technology alone. It influences processes, teams, integrations and growth potential. New Orange helps organisations with platform selection, digital architecture and translating ambition into a commerce approach that works in practice.
Want to know which platform best fits your organisation? We would be happy to think it through with you.
BigCommerce is a SaaS e-commerce platform that provides a wide range of features out of the box. Commercetools is a composable commerce platform that allows you to build a flexible e-commerce architecture using APIs and modular components.
BigCommerce is a good fit for organisations that want to launch a scalable online store quickly, with extensive built-in functionality for catalogue management, checkout, payments, promotions and integrations. It is well suited to businesses that value speed, ease of management and lower technical complexity.
Commercetools is better suited to organisations with complex commerce operations, multiple brands, countries, sales channels or highly customised business logic. It is the right choice when maximum flexibility, technical freedom and integration with a broader digital ecosystem are key requirements.
Not necessarily. A larger organisation does not automatically require a composable commerce platform. The right choice depends on the complexity of your business processes, integrations, development capabilities and the extent to which you need to move beyond standard e-commerce functionality.
Yes. BigCommerce is well suited to B2B ecommerce, particularly when business processes are relatively straightforward and can be supported by its standard functionality. If your business requires highly customised pricing, customer hierarchies, product catalogues or order workflows, a composable platform may be a better fit.
Commercetools requires a clear digital strategy, strong technical leadership and a mature development team. Because the platform offers greater flexibility, your organisation will need to make more decisions about architecture, integrations, front-end development, hosting, maintenance and ongoing development.
Yes, but the transition requires a well-planned migration strategy. Product data, customer data, order history, integrations, SEO, checkout processes and platform management all need to be considered. It is advisable to identify which parts of your digital landscape should be designed for long-term flexibility from the start.
New Orange evaluates your commerce processes, technical landscape, growth plans and organisational requirements. Based on that assessment, we recommend the platform that best matches your ambitions, budget, team and desired level of flexibility. This helps you avoid selecting a platform that is either too limited or unnecessarily complex. We implement and manage BigCommerce solutions for retail and hospitality organisations in both the Netherlands and Australia.
BigCommerce uses a predictable SaaS subscription model, helping to keep total costs relatively low and stable. Commercetools is licensed as an enterprise platform and typically requires a larger investment in implementation, front-end development and ongoing management because you build the architecture yourself. When comparing the two, it is important to consider the total cost of ownership over several years rather than focusing on licence costs alone.