What is BigCommerce V3?

If you’ve been on the BigCommerce platform for more than a few years, you’re probably wondering, what exactly is V3? You’ll hear me and BigCommerce refer to it as a new “product experience”. And that’s because it’s more than just a design change. It’s more than a change in functionality or features. It’s an entirely new experience.

When you login to BigCommerce, go to the Products area, and edit an item, you know what that looks like. You see the tabs along the top and know exactly where to go to enter certain information. You know how each of those tabs look, what fields are on them, what everything is called. Your “experience” is what BigCommerce now calls V2. If you spend a lot of your time adding or editing products, you can probably tell someone else how to find a specific field by memory. This will all change with V3.

This isn’t to say that much of V3 isn’t the same as what you’re used to. Functionally, many things haven’t changed. Most of the fields have the same names. But the overall look and organization of the page is new. Rather than tabs, you have a left navigation. The design has been updated in terms of fonts, colors, field sizes and the general “feel” of it. V3’s appearance is an extension of the other visual updates that BigCommerce has been making over the last few years.

However, if you signed in to a V3 store tomorrow and didn’t know it was BigCommerce, you might assume it was a different platform. It’s different enough to feel unfamiliar.

In addition to the look of it, some things have really changed, especially options. I suggest reading this post about V3 options and this post about V3 shared options if you want a comprehensive comparison. Most of the functional differences can be overcome just by getting used to a new way of doing things. Others have real gaps that I hope BigCommerce is working to address.

Ultimately, V3 is the way of the future. In fact, all new stores have been using it for the past year or so. And eventually, V2 store owners will need to make the switch if they want to stay on BigCommerce. So it’s not if, but when store owners will decide to upgrade. Every store is different, so I suggest doing as much research as possible when asking should you migrate to V3 now or later?