Stencil done properly
Local development, version control and the CLI – not editing template files through the admin and hoping.
Freelance BigCommerce Developer in Bangalore
Hosted commerce with the B2B features built in rather than bought as apps.
BigCommerce sits between Shopify and Magento: hosted and maintained for you, with catalogue depth, B2B pricing and multi-channel selling in the platform rather than assembled from subscriptions.
- Stencil theme development
- B2B and multi-channel
- Headless where it earns it
- Replies within one working day
Overview
What this platform offers.
BigCommerce makes a different trade from its obvious competitor. It is hosted and maintained, so you never touch a server, but rather more is built into the platform itself – customer group pricing, price lists, deeper product options, faceted search and multi-channel selling all ship as part of it rather than arriving as a stack of monthly app subscriptions.
It also charges no per-transaction platform fee regardless of which payment gateway you use. For a store doing meaningful volume through a third-party gateway, that difference is not a rounding error, and it belongs in the comparison alongside the subscription tiers.
Stencil is the theme framework: Handlebars templates, a local development workflow and a proper CLI. It behaves like a developer tool rather than an admin text box, which makes custom theme work more like ordinary front-end development than fighting a builder.
The trade-offs are real. The ecosystem is considerably smaller than Shopify’s, so fewer ready-made apps exist and more things need building. Annual revenue thresholds push you up pricing tiers as you grow. And like any hosted platform, leaving is a rebuild rather than an export – which is the arithmetic to do before committing rather than after.
What I offer
BigCommercework
01
Stencil theme development
Custom themes in Handlebars with a proper local workflow, rather than a marketplace theme edited in the browser.
A storefront built like software, versioned and reviewable.
02
B2B & price lists
Customer groups, price lists, quantity breaks and customer-specific catalogues using native features.
Wholesale pricing without a stack of subscriptions approximating it.
03
Multi-channel selling
Storefronts, marketplaces and social channels selling from one catalogue and one stock pool.
One place where stock and orders are true, instead of several kept in step by hand.
04
Headless builds
A React or Next.js front end on the platform’s APIs, where the front end genuinely needs to be custom.
Full design freedom with commerce, orders and payments still handled for you.
05
API integrations
ERP, inventory, fulfilment and CRM connected through the platform’s APIs with proper error handling.
Systems that stay in step, and failures you find in a log rather than from a customer.
06
Migration
Moving from WooCommerce, Magento or Shopify, with catalogue, customers, orders and URLs carried across.
A platform change without losing catalogue data or search visibility.
Key benefits
How stores are built.
Native features first, because every app is a recurring cost.
Native before apps
The platform includes a lot. Using what is built in beats subscribing to something that duplicates it.
Tier arithmetic shown
Revenue thresholds move you up pricing tiers. Projected against your growth before you commit, not after.
Payments tested
Gateways exercised across success, failure and refund in test mode before a real order.
Catalogue modelled first
Options, variants, modifiers and custom fields settled before loading, because restructuring later is painful.
Trained handover
Your team is shown catalogue, orders, price lists and channels, with written notes.
Who this is for
Who this suits.
Stores with real complexity that still do not want a server.
B2B and wholesale sellers
Customer-specific pricing and quantity breaks, wanted natively rather than assembled from apps.
Higher-volume stores
Where a per-transaction platform fee elsewhere has become a genuine line item.
Multi-channel sellers
Marketplaces, social and retail alongside the website, from one catalogue.
Stores with deep catalogues
Many options and variants that a simpler platform starts to strain against.
Teams wanting headless
A custom front end on commerce infrastructure somebody else maintains.
Businesses weighing platforms
Comparing this against Shopify and WooCommerce and wanting the comparison done honestly.
Where I work
BigCommerce developer in Bangalore.
This platform is less common in India than Shopify or WooCommerce, and the stores here running it usually have a specific reason – B2B pricing, export sales, or transaction volume where platform fees elsewhere started to matter. Development capacity for it is correspondingly scarce.
For Indian stores, the practical checks come before the build: which gateways are supported for your market, how GST and HSN codes will be handled, and whether cash on delivery can work the way your fulfilment actually does. Those answers sometimes change the platform decision, which is why they come first.
I work with businesses across Bangalore and India, and with clients in the UK, USA, Canada, the UAE and Singapore – which suits a platform whose users are often selling across borders.
Gateway check first
Indian payment support verified before anything is built.
GST handling
Tax, HSN codes and invoicing planned rather than assumed.
A scarce skill
Less common here, and harder to hire for.
Clients overseas
India, the UK, USA, Canada, the UAE and Singapore.
Serving Chennai, Bangalore, India, Canada, UK, USA, Dubai, Singapore.
Industries
Where it fits.
Complexity without wanting the infrastructure.
B2B & wholesale
Typically needs: Negotiated pricing, quantity breaks and customer-specific catalogues.
How I help: Price lists and customer groups configured natively, with quote paths where they are needed.
Industrial & supply
Typically needs: Deep product data and specification-led buying.
How I help: Custom fields and faceted search built from real attribute data rather than tags.
Multi-channel retail
Typically needs: Website, marketplaces and social selling from one stock pool.
How I help: Channel configuration with one catalogue and one place where stock is true.
Manufacturers selling direct
Typically needs: Retail and dealer pricing side by side.
How I help: Customer groups separating the two, with dealer catalogues scoped appropriately.
Higher-volume D2C
Typically needs: Transaction volume where platform fees elsewhere have become material.
How I help: Migration with the fee arithmetic shown, and catalogue and URLs carried across.
Brands needing a custom front end
Typically needs: Design requirements a theme layer cannot meet.
How I help: Headless front end on the APIs, with commerce still managed by the platform.
How I work
How a store gets built.
Six stages, with the platform comparison settled before anyone starts.
Discovery
I establish the catalogue shape, the pricing rules, which channels you sell through, expected volume, and how the platform compares to the alternatives on total cost.
Planning
Catalogue structure, options and variants, customer groups and price lists are modelled, and channel and gateway configuration settled.
Design
Design for the templates that sell – category, product, cart and checkout – phone width first, against real product data.
Development
The build: Stencil theme in a local workflow under version control, catalogue loaded, price lists configured, integrations connected.
Testing & SEO
Order testing across devices, customer groups and channels, pricing rules verified per group, tax and shipping checked, and performance measured.
Launch & support
Launch with live gateway keys, analytics and Search Console configured, then training on catalogue, orders, price lists and channels.
Technology
What I work with.
The platform, its theme framework, and the alternatives.
The platform
StencilHandlebars theme framework with a local workflow and CLI.
Price lists & customer groupsNative B2B pricing rather than assembled from apps.
Multi-channelMarketplaces and social selling from one catalogue.
Custom fieldsStructured product data beyond the built-in attributes.
Integration & headless
Catalog & Orders APIsERP, inventory and fulfilment integration with proper error handling.
GraphQL Storefront APIWhere a headless front end is genuinely warranted.
React & Next.jsCustom front ends on the platform’s commerce layer.
Alternatives
ShopifyA far larger app ecosystem, with platform fees on third-party gateways.
WooCommerceOwnership and no fees, in exchange for maintaining it yourself.
Magento 2Where B2B complexity exceeds what any hosted platform allows.
Features
What builds include.
Scoped against your catalogue and pricing rules.
Stencil themeCustom storefront, versioned and deployed.
Price listsCustomer-specific pricing and quantity breaks.
Customer groupsSeparate retail, dealer and wholesale pricing.
Product optionsVariants and modifiers modelled to stay manageable.
Faceted searchFiltering built from real attribute data.
Channel setupMarketplaces and social from one catalogue.
API integrationsERP, inventory and fulfilment connections.
Headless front endReact or Next.js on the Storefront API.
AnalyticsGA4 e-commerce events and Search Console.
SEO & performance
Solid, with the usual store caveats.
The platform handles fundamentals well – editable URLs, metadata, automatic sitemaps, redirect management and built-in structured data. URL control is better than some hosted competitors allow.
The problems are the ones every store has: faceted filtering generating combinations, products reachable through several category paths, and retired products needing a policy. All configuration rather than content, and none of it a guarantee of anything.
- Faceted search URLs controlled rather than left open
- Canonicals for products in several categories
- Product schema matching visible price and availability
- Category pages given real content, not just a grid
- Retired and out-of-stock products handled by policy
- Editable URLs used properly across the catalogue
- Redirects managed as the catalogue changes
- Core Web Vitals measured on category and product templates
AI search
Custom fields pay off.
Product data in custom fields rather than description text is consistent, filterable and straightforward to mark up accurately. On a B2B catalogue that matters twice over, because specification accuracy is usually what the buyer is actually comparing.
- Specifications in custom fields, not description text
- Structured data generated from those fields
- Price and availability accurate per customer group where public
- Buying and compatibility questions answered on the page
- Clear seller identity, terms and contact details
- Category pages that explain the category
Why me
Why build it with me.
The practical reasons, rather than the adjectives.
The comparison is done honestly
I build Shopify, WooCommerce and Magento too. The platform recommendation is about your catalogue and your volume, not about what I happen to specialise in.
Native features before apps
This platform includes a great deal that competitors charge monthly for. Using what is built in is the whole cost argument, and it gets used.
Stencil treated as code
Local workflow, version control and deploys – not editing templates in a browser tab with no history and no way back.
Tier costs projected
Revenue thresholds move you up pricing tiers as you grow. That projection happens before you commit, when it can still affect the decision.
FAQ
Platform questions.
More is built in – customer group pricing, price lists, deeper product options and faceted search ship with the platform rather than as apps – and there is no per-transaction platform fee whichever gateway you use. In exchange the app ecosystem is much smaller, so fewer off-the-shelf solutions exist. For B2B or higher volume it often wins; for a simple D2C store Shopify usually does.
No platform fee on top of your gateway’s own charges, regardless of which gateway you use. That is a genuine difference from competitors that charge extra when you do not use their in-house payments, and at volume it is worth putting in the arithmetic rather than treating as a detail.
The theme framework – Handlebars templates with a local development workflow and a command-line tool. It behaves like a developer toolchain rather than an in-browser editor, which means themes can be version controlled, reviewed and deployed like any other code.
Yes, natively. Customer groups, price lists, quantity breaks and customer-specific catalogues are part of the platform rather than a subscription stack. That is the main reason wholesale businesses choose it over a competitor where the same capability is assembled from apps.
Yes – a React or Next.js front end on the GraphQL Storefront API, with the platform still handling catalogue, orders and payments. It is worth doing when the front end genuinely needs to be custom, and worth avoiding when a Stencil theme would have done, because headless adds real complexity.
It can, and the checks come first: which gateways are supported for your market, how GST and HSN codes will be handled, and whether cash on delivery fits your fulfilment. Those answers sometimes point to a different platform, which is why they are settled before any build starts.
Yes, from WooCommerce, Shopify or Magento. Products, variants, customers and order history come across, the theme is rebuilt in Stencil, and every URL is mapped with redirects tested before launch. The theme is a rebuild, and that is the honest part of the cost.
The subscription tiers are tied to annual revenue thresholds, so growth moves you up them. It is predictable rather than surprising, and I will project it against your expected trajectory before you commit so the number is not a shock in year two.
Quoted on catalogue complexity, how much custom theme work is involved, the pricing rules and any integrations. Your platform subscription is paid directly to BigCommerce, so there is no markup from me. You get a fixed quote before the build starts.
Yes – theme changes, new templates, catalogue and pricing work, integration maintenance and troubleshooting. There is no server to look after, so support here is change work rather than upkeep, usually arranged by the hour rather than as a monthly plan.