Shopify vs BigCommerce for AV retailers

The short answer

For most established hi-fi and AV retailers, Shopify is the better fit. The biggest reason is how the two platforms charge as you grow: BigCommerce ties its plans to your sales, while Shopify doesn’t. For a store selling high-ticket systems, that difference becomes significant quickly.

Shopify also runs your showroom tills on the same system as your website, and has a much larger ecosystem of themes, apps and partners. BigCommerce’s strengths are complex product options and B2B, and for some retailers those outweigh everything else.

Where we stand

We build on Shopify, so we have a bias, and you should know that up front. Everything below is set out as fairly as we can, with sources for the pricing. Where BigCommerce is the better choice, we say so. If it’s the better choice for your store, that’s what we’ll tell you on an audit call.

Pricing in 2026

On the surface, the two platforms now look almost identical on price. BigCommerce restructured and renamed its plans on 1 June 2026.

The monthly fees aren’t where the platforms differ. The differences are in sales thresholds and payment fees.

Sales thresholds

BigCommerce plans are tied to your trailing twelve months of sales. After the June 2026 changes, the reported thresholds are around $30,000 for Core and $100,000 for Growth. Scale uses a monthly threshold of $33,333, with an overage charge of 0.9% on sales above it. Beyond that, BigCommerce points larger merchants to its custom-priced Performance plan.

Shopify plans have no sales caps. You choose a plan for its features and processing rates, and stay on it however much you sell.

For a small store, that difference barely matters. For an AV retailer where one order can be $10,000 or more, the thresholds arrive quickly, and the cost of the platform starts rising with revenue rather than with the features you use.

Payment fees

For years, BigCommerce’s main selling point against Shopify was “no transaction fees”. That changed in 2026. BigCommerce now applies an open payment provider fee to orders processed outside its approved gateway list: reported as 2% on Core, 1% on Growth and 0.6% on Scale.

Shopify charges no extra fee if you use Shopify Payments. With another provider, it adds 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus.

In practice, both platforms now reward you for using their preferred payment setup. On high-ticket sales, the rates and the provider choice are worth modelling carefully either way.

Cost for an established AV store

Consider a showroom retailer selling $1.5 million a year online, with an average order in the thousands.

• On Shopify, the platform cost is the plan you choose, typically Grow or Advanced, plus processing. Revenue doesn’t change the plan fee.
• On BigCommerce, that level of sales is far beyond the Core and Growth thresholds. On Scale, sales above the monthly threshold attract the 0.9% overage, which on this example would run into thousands of dollars a year on top of the plan, or the store would move to custom-priced Performance.

The exact numbers depend on your sales and BigCommerce’s current terms, so model them with real figures before deciding. But the structure is the key point: one platform’s cost grows with your revenue, and the other’s doesn’t.

Products, options and data

This is BigCommerce’s traditional strength. It has long been more generous with product options and variants out of the box, which suits retailers with highly configurable products.

Shopify has closed much of that gap by raising its variant limits, and it handles specifications well through metafields and metaobjects. For most AV products, finishes and sizes are variants, and specifications like power, impedance and connections are structured data that power filters and comparison. That model works very well on Shopify.

Where BigCommerce still has an edge is truly configurable products, such as made-to-order systems with many interdependent options. On Shopify those are handled with theme features or apps.

It’s worth being honest about how configurable your products really are. Most hi-fi and home cinema ranges are a model in a few finishes, with specifications that buyers compare and filter on. That fits Shopify comfortably. Systems sold as bundles, such as a turntable with a matched phono stage and cartridge, are usually better handled as curated bundles or a system builder on the product page than as a sprawling option set.

Filtering and search

Both platforms offer faceted filtering. On BigCommerce, more advanced product filtering is tied to higher plans. On Shopify, filtering runs from structured product data through Shopify’s own Search & Discovery features, and a custom theme can build filters around exactly how AV buyers shop: brand, room, budget, drive type or connection.

On either platform, the quality of filtering depends far more on how well the catalogue is structured than on the platform itself. That’s why data restructuring is such a large part of any migration.

Showroom and point of sale

For a showroom retailer, this may be the deciding factor. Shopify POS runs in-store sales on the same platform as the website, with one product catalogue, one stock count and one customer record. A sale in the listening room updates online stock immediately, and a customer’s online browsing and in-store purchase sit in the same history.

BigCommerce doesn’t have its own POS. It integrates with third-party systems such as Square, Clover and Lightspeed, which works, but means two systems and a connector to keep in sync. If you plan to keep your existing POS either way, the gap narrows; our Lightspeed to Shopify guide covers that choice.

Checkout and finance

Shopify’s checkout is widely used and familiar to customers, and Shop Pay offers fast repeat checkout across the many stores that use it. BigCommerce’s checkout is capable and more open to customisation on standard plans; on Shopify, deep checkout customisation is a Plus feature.

Both platforms support buy-now-pay-later and consumer finance. For AV, the more important question is how finance is presented on the product page: a monthly figure beside a $12,000 price changes how a buyer reads it. That’s a theme decision on either platform.

Built-in features vs apps

BigCommerce includes more features natively, which can mean fewer apps. Shopify keeps its core leaner and relies on a much larger app ecosystem, plus a larger pool of themes, developers and agencies.

For a retailer, the practical question isn’t which has more built in. It’s how many apps your store ends up depending on. A custom Shopify theme can build many features directly into the store, such as specification tables, comparison, bundles and showroom stock, which keeps the app list short on either side of the comparison.

SEO and URLs

Both platforms can rank well. BigCommerce gives more control over URL structure; Shopify uses fixed patterns, with products under /products/ and categories under /collections/. Some SEOs prefer BigCommerce’s flexibility, but in practice speed, structured data, content quality and internal linking decide rankings, not the URL prefix.

If you move between platforms, the URL change is the main SEO risk, and a complete redirect map is what manages it.

B2B and multi-store

BigCommerce has strong B2B capabilities, particularly through its B2B Edition, and supports multiple storefronts. If a large share of your revenue comes from installers, trade accounts or wholesale, that’s a genuine reason to look closely at BigCommerce.

Shopify offers B2B features such as company accounts, price lists and payment terms on Shopify Plus, and handles multiple countries and currencies through Shopify Markets. For most showroom retailers, where trade is a small share of sales, Shopify’s options are enough.

Questions to ask before you choose

• What will my online sales be in three years? Model platform costs at that number, not today’s.
• Which payment provider will I use? Both platforms now charge extra for providers outside their preferred setup.
• How will my showroom tills connect? Native POS, or a third-party system and connector?
• How configurable are my products really? Most AV products are variants plus specifications; a few are genuinely configurable.
• How much of my revenue is trade? Heavy B2B tips the balance one way; light trade the other.
• Who will build and run the store? The size of each platform’s partner ecosystem affects your choice of help, now and later.
• What would switching cost if I chose wrong? A migration is manageable, but it’s better done once.

Thinking in three-year costs

Comparing monthly fees misses the point. Over three years, the lines that actually separate the two platforms for an AV retailer are:

For a growing showroom retailer, the revenue-linked line usually decides it. For a small or trade-heavy store, the built-in features and B2B tools can.

Shopify vs BigCommerce, side by side

When BigCommerce suits

• Your products are highly configurable, with many interdependent options.
• A large share of revenue comes from trade, installers or wholesale.
• You need multiple storefronts from one back end without Plus-level costs.
• You’re already on BigCommerce, it’s working, and your sales sit comfortably within your plan.

When Shopify suits

• You run a showroom and want in-store and online sales on one system.
• Your revenue is growing and you don’t want platform costs rising with it.
• You want the widest choice of themes, apps and partners.
• Your team wants to manage the store without a developer for everyday changes.
• Your products are bought on specifications that can be structured as data.

That describes most established hi-fi and home cinema retailers, including the two AV retailers in our Lipton’s and Hi-Fi Centre case studies.

Switching platforms

If you’re on BigCommerce and the 2026 changes have you reconsidering, moving to Shopify is well-trodden. BigCommerce exports are generally clean; the main work is restructuring product data, mapping every URL to Shopify’s patterns, rebuilding custom templates and reconnecting integrations.

With KA Consultancy, migration is part of the build: a custom theme design and build including migration starts from $9,997, and bespoke design and development from $19,997. Our guides to Shopify migration cost and choosing a Shopify migration agency cover the rest.

Shopify vs BigCommerce: FAQ

Sources

BigCommerce 2026 plans, sales thresholds and payment provider fees: ecomm.design, Shero Commerce and Elsner, each checked against BigCommerce’s pricing page after its June 2026 restructure. Shopify plan prices and fees: Shopify’s published US pricing, as summarised in our Shopify website cost guide. Both platforms change pricing; check bigcommerce.com/pricing and shopify.com/pricing before deciding. Search interest from Google Keyword Planner, September 2025 to August 2026.