employer cover photo
employer logo
employer logo

BigCommerce

Now known as Commerce

Engaged Employer

BigCommerce reviews

3.7

67% would recommend to a friend

(479 total reviews)
avatar

Travis Hess

46% approve of CEO

48% positive business outlook

BigCommerce has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 479 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The BigCommerce employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

479 reviews
1.0
Oct 10, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Start-up feel in large company Relatively young staff with energy and eagerness to prove themselves Team building efforts (forces and a big vapid)

Cons

- young kids managed by older and out of touch leaders - generally the industry B-team filled with people who aren’t ready for prime time yet if any of them manage to get there, they are hired away instantly. - People are constantly leaving in the middle of projects and it is very hard to get anything done without hitting road blocks and insecure managers - As one external client said “BigCommece punches above its wight in bureaucracy”. This really sums it up. It is only 1100 or so employees but they have not matured properly after the IPO. They put in tons of processes that put even the largest corporations to shame. And it slows down everything you do. Furthermore, each team or department has KPIs that conflict with each other which results in a very siloed and competitive work environment. It is a strange place because you can tell that almost everyone there is a “good person” but they are being pushed to compete in an unnatural way. The worst part is that the clients or users are suffering because the product (platform) is not made with the client in mind, despite the CEO’s blind belief that this is what his company is doing. Everyone is focused on hitting their numbers which means growing existing merchant GMV but that means they are not incentivized to build new channel partnerships or tools for their merchants to use unless those partners support them financially. And when a partner isn’t willing to “support them” because, let’s face it, the company is not exactly the strongest platform in the market, then they don’t build the solution that merchants need. But the worst part of BigCommerce was discovered upon my departure. It goes back to the strange dichotomy between being a mid-sized company with a large size bureaucracy yet stacked with very immature and fearful managers. They do not know how to mentor or grow staff and when you leave, they don’t see you as a human they see you as something that threatens their ability to hit their numbers and they need you gone asap.

3.0
Oct 4, 2015

Potential is there, yet unrealized

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Free lunch everyday that's healthy and tasty. Good snack selection, wine, beer, game room--great overall fringe benefits (but unfortunately in PLACE of traditional benefits instead of complementing them). Pretty good work/life balance, mostly friendly and smart coworkers of all ages. New CEO is less hype, more reality and has a plan to turn the company around. Bumped from 2 to 3 stars overall due to his plans so far, but the jury's still out.

Cons

Company is not growing as fast as its closest competitors and is constantly changing direction trying to figure out how to do so. That wouldn't be a con if we could drop the hype, acknowledge our past mistakes and not over-hype the next direction as the best thing ever--it's simply something else to try. Until we have a proven rocket-ship business plan, employees will not get fired-up for every management whim. BE REALISTIC. Again, new CEO is definitely a big improvement in this area. Despite small size, it is a VERY political environment with a LOT of favoritism for employees who aren't necessarily performing up to their titles but who happened to know management who brought them in beforehand. This leaves limited room for advancement for the true performers as it matters more who you know or what books you've written than your actual abilities and contributions. Strangely, the company isn't as engineering focused as it should be for a tech startup. PMs and middle managers are seen as "above" engineers (even leads) and are invited to leadership offsites and strategy meetings while engineers are left to be code monkeys whose domain knowledge and ideas about the business go unused because they are never consulted. Poor traditional benefits; no 401(k) match. The company wastes a lot of money trying to look the part of a hip startup, but behind the scenes it's a very stratified, political environment with more time-wasters than many fortune 500 companies.

Viewing 19 - 21 of 479 Reviews

Glassdoor has 513 BigCommerce reviews submitted anonymously by BigCommerce employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if BigCommerce is right for you.