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Where & How to Hire BigCommerce Developer & Experts?

Last updated: October 01, 2024
Written and researched by experts at AvadaLearn more about our methodology

By Sam Nguyen

CEO Avada Commerce

In case you have decided to migrate your eCommerce store to BigCommerce, it is high time for you to start to look for a suitable developer team. Nevertheless, the process of actually finding one is going to take some time for every medium and large corporation. It is because you now find yourself in need to plan and troubleshoot the proceeding and keep yourself available for the customers simultaneously.

Since eCommerce stores evolve constantly, a team of experts is required to achieve high speed, responsiveness, and an enjoyable user experience. If you are considering hiring outside help, this article will show you how.

Who is a BigCommerce developer, expert?

BigCommerce developer, expert

BigCommerce developers are referred to as well-trained teams who have been quality-tested and are 100% Stancil Certified.

BigCommerce developers include well-trained individuals, have been tested by BigCommerce, and 100% certified by Stencil. They can exploit this platform for better ROI.

By hiring an expert team, they can assist you with:

  • Integrating a theme development with high responsiveness.
  • Offering a level of solution to transfer real-time data, customize cart, and access to multiple selling channels.
  • Migrate your online store with minimal downtime and maintain SEO ranking, handling website URLs, and supporting Stancil theme standards.
  • Providing end-to-end solutions through intuitive and responsive online store design services.

Why should you hire a BigCommerce developer, expert?

Why should you hire a BigCommerce developer, expert

And if you don’t want to design new features from the ground up, recruiting a BigCommerce developer is a good idea. Setting up a BigCommerce store on your own could take several hours, not to mention the time and effort required to configure applications and update your catalog over time. Having some professional assistance on hand would enable you to concentrate more on the numerous tasks at hand.

View these advantages as part of the journey, whether you’re the decision maker or part of a team trying to find support from a development team, or firm.

1. Build a better and faster experience

“Agencies know the platform intimately. Tapping this knowledge, instead of tasking an in-house employee to learn a new platform, accelerates time to launch for new stores and helps keep existing stores running smoothly.” — Andrew Riggins, Owner, oBundle.

When you recruit a developer team suggested by your eCommerce solution, you can be assured that the members on that team are well-versed in the platform. That means you won’t have to waste time training an in-house developer on new technology.

2. Access knowledge outside of your circle

It is smart to remain on top of laws, policies, and best practices by hiring a team specializing in a particular vertical or market model. When you hire an agency, you get more than just a package of skills. People of a successful agency are structured to work as a high-performing unit.

Every team member can produce the best ideas and outcomes if they work together in a collaborative atmosphere, under professional leadership, and with a shared vision.

A mix of in-house and agency work is also common. You should preferably have both in-house developers (who will patch smaller flaws if they arise) and broader agency departments that work on larger-scale projects if you have the headcount and budget.

3. Clarify your business processes

When you decide to recruit a developer team, you’re enlisting the help of a group with years of experience completing just what you’re about to do.

These developers are capable of creating a professional look for your site, provide proper features to your eCommerce store and avoid unnecessary downtime, which eventually will upgrade your customers’ brand recognition and boost sales.

“Imagine the institutional knowledge we have when there is “muscle memory” of previous projects, when we understand why things were done a certain way, and when there is 15-20 years of continuity and innovation. That is almost impossible to find in-house.”Sarah Toth, VP Marketing, Guidance

Where to find a BigCommerce developer or expert?

find a BigCommerce developer or expert

There are numerous sites that you can use to find your candidates. The list below includes some places you can use to look for BigCommerce developers:

1. Upwork

Upwork is the largest freelancer portal in the world with over 12 million registered users from all continents. This platform provides advantageous tracking tools, automatic payments, and management tasks.

Upwork has created a one-of-a-kind talent pool. Since these people aren’t constrained by geography, employers have a better chance of finding a qualified candidate.

Nevertheless, it can be difficult to differentiate fine, high-quality service providers from the mass of people. Also high-quality providers are pressured to lower costs due to intense competition, and this can only be recognized after the service is finished.

Joining Upwork is free. However, using it is not cheap. Depending on the amount billed to the customer, it will collect a 20%, 10%, or 5% fee from each order. Be sure to market your services appropriately when deciding on a rate.

2. Toptal

Similar to Upwork, Toptal is also a self-employed portal. However, different from the other, Toptal forces freelancers to pass a strict application process before using this platform.

Toptal vets freelancers through a 5-step screening process: Language & Personality, In-dept Skill Review, Live Screening, Test Project, and Continued Exelence. Freelancers must maintain a high level of client satisfaction. Otherwise, Toptal would deactivate their account.

Since the platform maintains high standards, it only accepts 3% of freelancers who apply. Toptal is suitable for finding skilled BigCommerce freelance developers whom you don’t mind paying top money.

Using Toptal might not be affordable for everyone since this platform requires a $500 deposit which applied to your first bill. Toptal does not charge a premium in addition to their standard rates. Instead, it increases the freelancer’s prices by a profit margin.

  • For a developer, expect to pay $60-$150/hour or more
  • For a designer, expect to pay $70-$150/hour
  • For a financier, expect to pay $90-$250/hour
  • For a project manager, expect to pay $90-$180/hour
  • For a product manager, expect to pay $90-$200/hour

3. Outsourcely

Outsourcely is designed for long-term projects, and they allow you to hire remote workers directly with zero commission fees. They make the majority of their money from clients, so freelancer will get paid directly from the boss and retain all of their hard-earned cash!

Outsourcely is completely free to join, but if you wish to have a “Featured Profile”, you have to pay $10/month. $10 is a reasonable price based on what’s included.

For comparison, although Upwork requires you to hire through their platform as well as payment processing fee and service fee from clients and freelancers, there’s much more talent on that platform than Outsourcely. Besides, it also has a lower job volume so it is more difficult to find the relevant jobs.

4. Craigslist

Craigslist is the most open platform on the list, you are expected to spend more time weeding out unqualified applicants. This platform suits employers who may prefer on-premises employees to remote workers.

However, because it has more than 20 million active users, Craigslist attracts many scammers who pursue everything from renting other people’s homes to passing fake checks. Craig Newmark, the company’s founder, is working on detecting and avoiding these scams, but the crooks are outpacing the filters.

Through users’ reviews, it seems like Craigslist has received many negative comments. They claim that the platform is full of scams, unreasonable flag for removal, improper advertisements, and is a fully waste of time. It would be best to learn deeply about this platform and be careful before using it.

How to hire a BigCommerce developer & expert?

How to hire a BigCommerce developer & expert?

1. Writing Job post

Be as clear and detailed as possible

Your work posting should provide as much information as possible. This will save you a lot of time and developers who can’t make what you want will know not to apply. It could also help to avoid potential disputes, as developers would no longer be willing to argue that “this wasn’t in the job description.”

Provide background information

Introduce your company and its brand. Describe the target market and the quality you will provide them. This information will help developers understand what you’re looking for.

Include a project summary

Specify what you’d like the developer to do for you. What do you anticipate from them? Do you have some pre-existing tools for them to begin with (for say, a designer’s mock-up) or are they starting from scratch?

Include example

If you have some live samples of the functionality or design you’re attempting to introduce, include a connection to them in the job description.

Ask for samples

Request completed task or project link that the candidates have fulfilled.

Describe the ideal candidate

Describe the technical skills you think will be needed to complete the job and the characteristics that will make the applicant a good match for your company’s culture.

Provide a timeframe

State out the deadline when you would want them to complete their assigned task. When do you expect the project to be finished? Whatever the date is, you can add a couple of weeks to your project’s timeline to prepare for updates and other delays.

Test the attention to detail

If anyone is unable to read your work posting before applying, they are unlikely to have the focus and integrity required to provide the outcomes you want for your project, regardless of their expertise. Add a line that says something like, “Please include the word ‘…’ at the top of your submission” so you can see if people read your work posting.

2. Setting your price

hire a BigCommerce developer

You can choose between paying contractors a set rate for the job or paying them by the hour on most freelancer websites.

Fixed price can be the best choice for easy projects that don’t need much experience. As a result, rather than hiring a more costly, highly experienced BigCommerce developer, you can employ a less expensive, moderately experienced BigCommerce developer.

Paying by the hour is preferable for more complex projects that need highly skilled developers. In addition, the hourly rate is less of a concern.

After providing a proper job description and salary. It now comes to the process of sorting out the candidate that you have been looking for. We provide you some tips for reference before making your own decision.

3. Choose the right candidate

Read client feedback

Freelancer portal gives you the opportunity to acknowledge candidates’ skills and work habits by reviewing objective feedback, ratings, and comments from their previous clients.

Review provided samples

You should request completed tasks or project links that the candidates have fulfilled and check them out yourself in order to review the quality of their work and the relevance of their experience to your project.

Ask follow-up questions

You should also ask them further questions about their past work or relevant questions that weren’t covered in their application. For example, did they work independently or as a team? Are they capable of handling both or only one of the designer and developer roles?

Communication evaluation

By asking follow-up questions, you are able to evaluate the candidate’s communication skills. In fact, through their way of answering, you can recognize whether they are capable of responding immediately and answering all of the questions or did they fully read assigned documents in advance. Candidates with poor communication skills must be removed from your list.

Contact references

If you’re looking for a salaried position and reviewing resumes, you should contact at least two of the candidates’ references. Pay attention to tone and frame your questions in a positive way.

Advice on hiring a BigCommerce developer or expert

Advice on hiring a BigCommerce developer or expert

In order to find a legitimate BigCommerce team for your company. The distinction between a “designer” and a “developer” is the first thing you should understand. Both words can seem to be interchangeable, but they refer to two different positions.

A web designer focuses on the design of websites. They build mock-ups of how a site could look using Photoshop and other graphics editing programs, which provide direction to developers.

A designer understands how to write code. They take a designer’s outline and convert it into a functional website using languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (they may also be able to handle the designer role themselves). A developer is often more costly to employ than a designer.

There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all BigCommerce implementation approach. The requirements of your project define the skill set you should be looking for.

Secondly, when it comes to your BigCommerce shop’s construction work, whether big or small, only trust certified developers. Any brand must choose an expert developer for their issues, from an enterprise-level online store to a small eCommerce company. Certified BigCommerce specialists are the perfect resource for your online shop, from a minor bug to deep integration.

For example, to ensure the highest possible outcome, you need to look for BigCommerce Stencil developers who have a thorough understanding of the platform. In fact, certified developers not only have expert knowledge and familiarity with vast areas of BigCommerce, but they are also experienced, continuously-trained, time-efficient, and resource-friendly.

In fact, choosing the right team means that you can now change the face of your company in a more effective, responsive, accessible, and attractive to your target customers. If you can get assistance from them, there is undoubted that your company’s image, reputation, and sales will improve.

On the other hand, trusting unknown and unreliable eCommerce development agencies with a lack of vision, understanding, skill, and expertise can result in delays, cost escalations, technical issues, and worse, dead ends.

Final thoughts

With these above guidelines and techniques, we’re hoping that you find your way to selecting your desired BigCommerce developers who can help you achieve your goal in the eCommerce marketplace.

If you find this article helpful, please do not hesitate to share our work with your friends and colleagues. Your sharing not only helps spread the knowledge but also shows support for the author.


Sam Nguyen is the CEO and founder of Avada Commerce, an e-commerce solution provider headquartered in Singapore. He is an expert on the Shopify e-commerce platform for online stores and retail point-of-sale systems. Sam loves talking about e-commerce and he aims to help over a million online businesses grow and thrive.

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