Theme edited in place
Cornerstone edited through the theme editor or forked years ago, so every theme update is a manual merge nobody wants to do.
[ E-commerce ]
BigCommerce Development Services
BigCommerce stores built on the platform, not around it.
BigCommerce gives you a lot out of the box: hosting, a CDN, a solid checkout and real APIs. Most of the trouble I see comes from fighting that instead of using it — hard-forked themes that cannot take updates, a pile of Script Manager snippets, and integrations held together by CSV exports.
Free store review · Fixed scope · Theme changes in Git, not the live editor
Freestore and speed review
Stenciland headless storefronts
Fixedprice for defined work
$20/hrfor small fixes
[ What holds BigCommerce stores back ]
Why the store is harder than it should be.
The platform is rarely the limit. The way the theme, scripts and integrations were bolted on usually is.
Script Manager sprawl
Tracking pixels, chat widgets and old app scripts loading on every page, including checkout, long after anyone remembers why.
Brittle integrations
ERP, PIM or warehouse sync running on scheduled CSV imports that fail silently and overwrite good data.
Slow category pages
Heavy Handlebars templates, unoptimized images and render-blocking scripts on the pages where shoppers decide.
Risky migration
Moving from Magento, WooCommerce or Shopify without a redirect map, losing product URLs that took years to rank.
B2B bolted on
Wholesale pricing and quote requests handled by spreadsheets and email because B2B Edition was never set up properly.
[ How it works ]
Review, build, launch.
01 — Week 1
Review
Theme code, Script Manager, installed apps, integrations and Core Web Vitals. You get a written report on what to keep, what to remove and what each change is worth.
02 — Week 2+
Build
Theme work in Git using the Stencil CLI and pushed to an unpublished theme, or a headless build on a preview deployment. The live storefront is never the test environment.
03 — Launch
Publish & verify
Applied in a low-traffic window, then speed, checkout and integrations re-checked against the baseline, with the previous theme kept ready to reapply.
[ What actually changes ]
What I work on.
I work across BigCommerce Essentials and Enterprise, on classic Stencil storefronts and headless builds. Where the native feature does the job, I use it rather than adding another app.
Storefront
- Stencil theme customization — Handlebars templates, SCSS and JavaScript on a Cornerstone-based theme, version-controlled and updatable.
- Page Builder widgets — custom widgets so your team can build landing pages without touching code.
- Headless with Catalyst — BigCommerce's Next.js storefront, or a custom Next.js front end on the GraphQL Storefront API.
- Speed optimization — Script Manager cleanup, image delivery, lazy loading and render-blocking resources on key templates.
- Multi-Storefront — several brands, regions or currencies run from one BigCommerce backend with per-channel catalogs.
Integrations & migration
- Custom apps — single-click or private apps built on the REST Management and GraphQL APIs, with webhooks instead of polling.
- ERP, PIM and inventory sync — two-way, within API rate limits, with retries and logging so failures get noticed.
- Migration to BigCommerce — from Magento, WooCommerce, Shopify or OpenCart, with products, customers, orders and 301 redirects.
- B2B Edition — company accounts, price lists, quotes and purchase orders configured and connected to your back office.
- Checkout customization — changes through the Checkout SDK and supported extension points, so the checkout stays upgradeable.
[ Example engagement ]
Script Manager cleared, category pages faster.
A store with 22 Script Manager entries, several from apps uninstalled long ago, all loading site-wide. Unused scripts removed, the rest scoped to the pages that need them.
Illustrative example of a typical engagement. Figures vary with the state of your systems and are not a guarantee of a specific outcome.
14scripts removed
1.4sfaster mobile LCP
8scripts scoped off checkout
2apps replaced by native features
[ Free · 48 hours ]
Get a store review.
Send me your store URL. You get a written review of theme code, scripts, apps and page speed, with the fixes ranked by likely impact.
[ Pricing ]
Straightforward pricing. $20/hour or fixed.
Tell me the number you have to work with. I'll tell you honestly what's achievable within it — and if it isn't enough, I'll say so before we start rather than halfway through.
Hourly rate $20/hoursmall jobs and ongoing work · fixed price for defined projects
Fixed project price
Scope agreed in writing, price agreed in writing, before any work starts. No hourly creep and no invoice you haven't already approved.
Monthly retainer
For ongoing work — maintenance, monitoring, updates and small changes. Month to month, cancel whenever, no minimum term.
$20/hour for small jobs
For a single bug, a short task or ongoing tweaks, where writing a full scope would cost more than simply doing the work. Billed in real time, reported in writing.
Budget too tight for the whole thing? I'll often suggest doing the highest-value part first and the rest later, rather than doing all of it badly.
[ Questions ]
Common questions.
How much does a BigCommerce developer cost?
$20 an hour for small fixes, extension conflicts and hourly work, billed for time actually spent. Anything with a defined outcome — an upgrade, a migration, a speed project — gets a fixed price agreed in writing before I start, so the number does not move halfway through.
Should we go headless?
Only if you have a real reason: content-heavy pages, a custom front end, or several storefronts that need to share components. For most stores a well-built Stencil theme is faster to ship and cheaper to run. Catalyst makes headless easier, but it still means hosting and maintaining a Next.js app.
Can you migrate us to BigCommerce?
Yes — from Magento, WooCommerce, Shopify or OpenCart. Products, variants, customers, order history and content are moved, and every old URL gets a 301 redirect. I rehearse the migration on a trial store before the real cutover.
Can you customize our theme without breaking updates?
Yes. I keep changes in Git and isolate them from the base theme as much as Stencil allows, so pulling in Cornerstone updates is a merge, not a rebuild.
Can you connect BigCommerce to our ERP?
Yes, through the Management API and webhooks, with the sync direction and conflict rules agreed up front. Rate limits vary by plan, so the integration is built to queue and retry rather than fail.
Is B2B Edition worth it?
If wholesale customers need their own pricing, company accounts with several buyers, quotes or purchase orders, usually yes. If you only need a discount for a handful of trade accounts, customer groups and price lists may be enough.
Why is our BigCommerce store slow if hosting is included?
Hosting and the CDN are rarely the problem. Third-party scripts, oversized images and heavy theme templates are. I measure first and show you where the time goes.
BigCommerce or Shopify?
Both are good hosted platforms. BigCommerce tends to suit larger catalogs, B2B and multi-storefront setups; Shopify has the bigger app ecosystem. I build on both, so I have no reason to push you either way.
[ Related services ]
Related e-commerce work.
Shopify DevelopmentTheme work, custom apps and checkout that converts.Magento DevelopmentUpgrades, speed, extensions and security patches for Magento 2.OpenCart DevelopmentExtensions, upgrades, bug fixes and security for OpenCart.Next.js DevelopmentApp Router, rendering strategy and Core Web Vitals done right.GraphQL API DevelopmentGraphQL schemas and servers that stay fast and secure.n8n & Workflow AutomationConnect your tools and delete the copy-paste work.
[ Let's talk ]
Tell me about your store.
Describe what you need in a few lines and you'll get a straight answer on scope, cost and timeline — same working day, from the person who'd actually build it.