The top four resources for getting started on BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a robust platform that facilitates ecommerce transactions. This platform has seen tremendous growth over the past few years. One of the biggest reasons for this is their lower cost of ownership. Of course, everything is a tradeoff and this is one that many merchants appreciate.

BigCommerce is a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) system. There is a "black box" of the foundation code, with many API access points that provide significant points for customization. Merchants have control over many settings in the admin area. Developers can change the theme and extend capabilities using the API.

Learning a new platform can be daunting. Even worse, the learning curve is filled with more minefields than can be counted. We look back years later and see mistake after mistake that we have made. We know because we've been through this process many times.

#1: BigCommerce University

BigCommerce has an extensive training experience for developers. This is BigCommerce's go-to answer for bringing merchants or technical people up to speed on the platform.

Their trainers provide several tracks for both business and technical users. These are delivered on-site, on-campus (London, Austin or Sydney), or on-demand (pre-recorded).

The Big Dev Bootcamp is approximately one-week long. We have attended this and rate it highly.

SwiftOtter's BigCommerce Frontend Foundations

While BigCommerce's BigDev boot camp is an excellent resource, some developers just aren't able to take a whole week off. Our course brings a frontend developer up to speed in <20 hours.

On the other hand, you might be thinking "but BigCommerce is SaaS, it's so easy. Why would I need a course?" Good question. We invested so much R&D in this course that we cover ideas that are not discussed in the documentation. This is also a practical walk-through. Yes, BigCommerce might seem easy, but there is still a learning curve on which it's easy to make plenty of mistakes.

#2 BigCommerce Knowledge Base

The BigCommerce knowledge base is the go-to place for all BigCommerce information.

Developer documentation

Developers are especially interested in how to customize the frontend and how to integrate via the API.

Merchant documentation

#3: Duck Soup

Duck Soup is a one-woman shop. She has built a library of on-demand courses for BigCommerce. While these are primarily for business users, they are in-depth and provide great context for getting started.

Bonus: additional helpful links

Our very own Chris Nanninga's "Getting Started in BigCommerce" series: