Author: dit_redesign

As an experienced BigCommerce development company, we run into various customers who want to have an online store for the first time.  Their intent at all times is to ensure their store’s user interface is good.  Moreover, they want to make sure that their products are presented properly on the site.  However, what can be missed is the target marketing part of it.  In other words, BigCommerce designers will be made to focus on graphics and user interface and your BigCommerce developer will emphasize on ensuring that the code is bug-free.  However, you need expertise and guidance in target marketing too.  That’s where qualified BigCommerce experts come into the picture.

CUSTOMER GROUPS

BigCommerce, and other Ecommerce frameworks, let you set up customer groups.  This is the process through which you organize your customer base into isolated groups.  By doing so, you can adopt different strategies for different customer groups.  As an example, you can apply discounts or offer rewards to patrons or direct customers towards certain product categories.  Moreover, you can also allow or restrict access to some portions of the website.  If you are on the BigCommerce framework, here are some of the things you can do:

• Differentiate between regular retail customers and wholesalers.
• Set up status of tax exemption for some customers.
• Offer discounts to certain customer groups.

BENEFITS OF CUSTOMER GROUPS

You are encouraged to talk to your BigCommerce development team about customer groups.  However, you need to be convinced about the benefits of the same before doing so.  These groups have the ability to serve your customers according to their specific needs.  Here are some of the other benefits of the process:

• Identify the most and the least profitable customers of yours.
• Provide special discounts to some customer groups.
• Adjust your marketing efforts towards customers with the highest profitability.
• Improve your customer service.
• Stay on top of the latest shopping as well as purchase trends.
• Gain an edge over your competition.
• Segment customers on the basis of their location, lifestyle, behavior, and other factors.

HOW TO SET UP CUSTOMER GROUPS?

Setting up customer groups is a reasonably simple process.  Here are the steps involved in setting up customer groups for your BigCommerce store:

1. Go to Customers > Customer groups
2. On this page, click on the option ‘Create a Customer Group’
3. Now you need to punch in a name for the group under the ‘Group Name’ field
4. The next step is to identify and decide the access that various customers will have:
   1. Here you can restrict a particular group’s access.  You decide what a particular group can access and what it can’t.
   2. There is also an option to move all your new customers to this group.  You need to either check or uncheck this option.
5. Once you have completed these steps, you are good to go ahead and save your changes.

This process will create the parent category.  If you need to create child categories under this, you need to click on the + symbol.

DISCOUNTS FOR CUSTOMER GROUPS

One of the important features of customer groups is that you can apply specific discounts to specific customer groups.  This customer group can have discount on a particular category, specific products, or even the entire website.  What you need to note is that coupons are separate.  Hence, if a customer has coupon; they will be able to get coupon discount on top of the category discount.

CUSTOMER GROUP FOR GUESTS

You will need to create a Guest customer group for all those customers who are not logged into your website.  You can set up Guest customer group after Customer Groups have been configured for your website:

1. Go to Customers > Customer Groups
2. Select a group from the dropdown menu that says Customer Group for Guests

DELETE A CUSTOMER GROUP

You can delete a customer group that you do not need.  You need to go to the Customers menu, and check the box that is next to the customer group you want to delete.  Now you click on the Trash icon and hit Okay to confirm.

CONTACT US FOR HELP

If you need help with creating customer groups, or you need BigCommerce experts to help you make your eCommerce venture successful; we can provide the designed service.  Our BigCommerce design and development team has the expertise and the acumen to deliver unparalleled results.

With changes in technology, eCommerce sites must also ensure that the latest software’s and tools are upgraded to stay abreast with the competition. BigCommerce development is an ideal one for those looking to start an online venture and with its varied options in pricing, service and features there is something for all budgets.  Moreover, there are continuous innovations that help you, and your BigCommerce developers, stay ahead of the curve.  A case in point is the latest addition of the Stencil Framework to BigCommerce.  This new development promises to transform how BigCommerce development was done and how user friendly your online storefront could be.

BigCommerce’s Stencil is a theme engine that offers a chance for a BigCommerce developer to create beautiful eye catching storefronts for their sites. A BigCommerce developer can now offer clients a wide number of variations for each theme and the option of customising is also available without any coding.

Here are some of the reasons why you should switch to BigCommerce:

Efficiency

YAML formatting is available with this framework , this helps the site stay ahead of the competition

Flexibility

Stencil uses the Handlebar Theming Language and this allows your BigCommerce developer

the freedom and flexibility to incorporate changes as and when required.

Local Development

The functionality of an eCommerce site could have earlier been affected whenever changes needed to be made to the template. The framework that Stencil offers has a rapid local development feature which allows changes to the template without affecting it negatively in any way. An experienced BigCommerce Development company can achieve this with minimal requirement of coding.

Optimised Front End

JavaScript Event Hooks ensure that specific development options are available for the front end and can be worked on by an experienced BigCommerce Developer.

Browser Sync

This allows you to conduct testing and real time preview across all kinds of handheld and wireless devices as well as PC’s and Laptops.

Among the many benefits of Stencil is its ability to speed up the webpage by adding modern elements without affecting its functioning.   You will be surprised by the kind of speed that Stencil helps your page get, and that certainly helps you with search engine performance.  As an example; even if you decide to use default sample images that are available with the master theme with Stencil (cornerstone), you can still get your website to get a Google page speed of about 89 on desktops.  If you are conversant with Google page-speed standards, a speed of 89 is comfortably over the 85 mark that is required to qualify for ‘Excellent’ marking.

When it comes to theming and look of the website, the options available on BigCommerce’s theme store can be slightly limited.  However, you can always rely on PSDCenter.  It is one of the partners and has put in continuous work into ensuring consistent development as well as implementation of stencil themes.

What’s also interesting with Stencil is the fact that it allows you to have many different variations of a single theme.  So, you can have all these variations that you can use to target different audiences or use them for different purposes.  We live in the world of customization, and having customized websites for different target groups will go a long way.

All in all, Stencil is set to transform the way you did business.  Your online storefront can receive many great benefits by the use of this technology. Contact your BigCommerce developer to see if it is viable for you to switch to Stencil.