Retail Innovation at

Speed & Cost

THE SAAS TECHNOLOGY TRANSFORMATION
 Contents

3 The New Reality for

Online Stores

4 The Difference Between

SaaS and On-Prem

7 What SaaS Adoption Means

for Online Merchants

9 Don’t Get Left Behind

10 A Tale of Two Online Stores

12 Beware of “Platform as
a Service” Claims

13 Minimize Time to Market

with BigCommerce

2 Retail Innovation at Speed & Cost

The New Reality for Online Stores

Merchants Are Moving to SaaS Platforms

In 2017, 1.66 billion people purchased goods or services online. This number is expected to
grow to 2.14 billion by 2020. With projections such as this, online merchants might assume
that there’s plenty of opportunity to go around. But as more people buy items online, more
retailers are launching ecommerce sites and strategies, saturating the market and vying for
the attention of an increasingly savvy digital buyer.

Merchants are implementing mobile-responsive designs, integrating commerce across

channels like Instagram, tapping into influencers and affiliates, and customizing their sites
down to the very pixel in order to delight their consumers and remain a step ahead of the
competition. Yet none of these strategic, online selling tactics can happen without the right
ecommerce platform at a store’s core.

Whether you are just starting to evaluate technologies or you are ready (perhaps even
forced) to make a switch, choosing the right ecommerce platform will save you precious
time and money. Merchants who choose SaaS ecommerce platforms over on-prem solutions
launch their sites up to 50% faster, and on BigCommerce, often at one fourth the cost.

It’s time to decide whether you’re going to use a rigid, on-prem platform and business model
that holds you back, or make a game-winning decision to use SaaS to take your business
into the future.

3 Retail Innovation at Speed & Cost

The Difference Between SaaS and On-Prem

A decade ago, most businesses had to download, install, and maintain software on self-
hosted, on-premise, IT hardware. This “on-prem” solution meant that businesses owned and
managed the software themselves, along with all of the infrastructure required to run the
software, including servers, databases, facility space, power and cooling, updates, security
patches, etc. Standing up a new ecommerce site on-prem required an army of specialized
developers.

The SaaS model has since quickly reshaped the landscape of software deployment and has
matured into the mainstream, leaving little reason for businesses to remain on-prem. A study
conducted in 2017 by Forrester states if you are not adopting SaaS broadly across your
business, you may already be falling behind.

On-Premise Software SaaS Software

Downloaded, installed, and On-demand access to turn-key

maintained on self-hosted servers software on cloud-based servers

WHY BUSINESSES ARE MOVING TO SAAS SOLUTIONS

There are 3 main value propositions contributing to today’s mass migration to SaaS solutions
from the custom-build, on-premise options that were popular a decade ago.

Reducing Time to Market

SaaS solutions require considerably less time to configure and deploy than on-prem
solutions, as they leverage a launch-ready platform which has already been provisioned,
implemented, and tested by the vendor. Many SaaS solutions also come with out-of-the-box

4 Retail Innovation at Speed & Cost

integrations to other vital business applications, pre-built templates, and easy-to-configure
customizations that would require ample IT development to implement for an on-prem
deployment.

What typically takes months to launch on-

prem takes a matter of weeks with SaaS.

Even after launch, there is minimal IT dependency for application updates and integrations
for SaaS clients. A SaaS vendor can regularly roll out strategic updates that clients can
choose to take advantage of and get ahead of their competition. As a business grows and
the technology landscape evolves, solutions can be easily scaled up with little time and
effort from IT.

Alternatively, on-prem users are responsible for their own software updates. This ownership
often results in business stakeholders and department heads waiting in line for upgrades,
vying for limited IT manpower to deploy software updates. Changes to any on-prem
instance must be deliberately scheduled and reviewed with ample lead time; weeks, months,
even years can pass in between software updates.

5 Retail Innovation at Speed & Cost

 On-Premise Solution SaaS Solution

Cost •• Requires costly IT talent to manage •• Miinimizes necessary IT staffing

•• Upfront capital costs •• No capital costs
•• Under-utilization of self-hosted IT infrastructure •• IT infrastructure provided on-demand

Risk •• Uptime, data security, compliance, and •• Uptime, data security, compliance, and backups
backups must be managed in-house are ensured by the SaaS vendor

Time to •• Requires provisioning, implementing and •• Launch-ready platform

Market testing prior to launch •• Software updated provided routinely and
•• Updates are subject to availability of IT automatically by SaaS vendor
resource and manpower

Minimizing Costs and Maximizing Profit Margins

Talent is increasingly expensive with today’s shortage of graduating engineers. Even if

businesses manage to hire and nurture IT talent skilled enough to adequately design and
support their on-prem operations, they must also account for the upfront capital costs of the
IT infrastructure itself: servers, facility space, heating/cooling and more. Comparably, there
are no IT capital costs for SaaS business solutions.

Self-hosted servers must be capable of handling peak load times that may last a matter of
minutes or even just seconds, yet often only a fraction of processing capability is utilized
for the remainder of the 8 hour work day, after which they sit idle for another 16 hours.
Moreover, these servers are inherently on the path to obsolescence the day they are
purchased.

Low resource utilization and depreciation, combined with upfront capital and staffing needs,
are how on-prem solutions can cost up to 3.5 times more for implementation and support
than SaaS solutions, a study by Hurwitz and Associates found. On-prem users simply can’t
afford to remain competitive with those who embrace SaaS.

6 Retail Innovation at Speed & Cost

Lowering Risk

Uptime, data security, compliance, and backups are huge concerns for practically any
business. Those who choose to host their applications on-prem must fortify their operations
with custom, fault-tolerant architectures, maximum redundancies, disaster recovery plans,
routine testing, and more. These overly-customized solutions become more difficult
to evolve and adapt to the opportunities and threats of a rapidly evolving technology
landscape.

On the other hand, a SaaS provider takes on all of these responsibilities and can specialize
in providing uptime, security, and redundancy at-scale. Only companies that operate within
highly-regulated industries, such as finance or health care, find it feasible to take on these
responsibilities in-house.

For everyone else, it’s naive to believe they can adapt to and manage risk better than a SaaS
vendor. The latter has more visibility, more use cases, more infrastructure, and quite simply,
more practice anticipating and managing vulnerabilities.

7 Retail Innovation at Speed & Cost

What SaaS Adoption Means for Online Merchants

Innovation at Speed and Cost

Online commerce is in a perpetual state of rapid change: more and more merchants are
bringing their products and services online, digital shoppers are becoming more savvy,
and disruptive technologies such as mobile and voice-command are constantly adding
complexity to marketing channels. Merchants need speed and agility in order to remain a
step ahead of these changes, which is why more merchants are migrating their stores to
SaaS solutions from their legacy on-prem platforms.

Migrate and Launch Your Store Faster

Merchants who choose SaaS ecommerce platforms reap benefits immediately and upfront.
Rather than spending months evaluating, configuring, and testing hardware and software,
they have access to launch-ready infrastructure. Combined with useful, out-of-the-box
shopping functionality and comprehensive APIs, merchants can configure their stores
quickly and easily without a dedicated IT team or extensive development knowledge, cutting
launch times in half when compared to on-prem solutions. Existing ecommerce sites running
on-prem can be migrated to a SaaS solution in a matter of days.

Expand Your Business Faster

With ecommerce software available on-demand, merchants can quickly add instances to
launch sub-brands, stand up sale sites, expand into international markets and more without
disrupting their main operations or architecture. On-prem users face growth challenges
because their self-hosted, custom solution has them locked in place until IT teams can make
updates or changes.

8 Retail Innovation at Speed & Cost

A SaaS provider can help anticipate traffic
spikes and increase bandwidth as needed,
which can become especially useful when
running flash sales or during holiday
shopping waves.

Go to Market Faster

Growing retailers need their ecommerce platform to evolve along with rapidly changing
digital technologies. Ecommerce SaaS providers are more capable of anticipating
disruptive changes and can develop or update APIs faster than in-house IT teams, helping
their merchants embrace new opportunities and go to market faster than their on-prem
competitors.

For instance, Instagram worked directly with BigCommerce, a SaaS ecommerce provider,
to test new Instagram Shopping functionality that would make shopping easier for its
billions of users. Instagram conducted a limited release with a trusted partner, getting
quality feedback and usage data before a wide release, while BigCommerce provided
advance access to new, game-changing features to its users through a simple software
update. Merchants could showcase their products to customers in a place not yet flooded
with activity from other competitors with little risk and high reward, an outcome virtually
impossible for on-prem users.

9 Retail Innovation at Speed & Cost

Don’t Get Left Behind

More companies choose to look outside their walls for IT infrastructure on-demand because
it allows them to focus their attention, efforts, and resources on the business tactics that
actually produce competitive advantages. Fewer companies waste time on managing their
own email servers or developing their own CRM because a SaaS provider can do it better
and cheaper.

The same should apply with your ecommerce software. Spend less time and resource
on running custom, bespoke ecommerce technology and instead, focus your energy on
figuring out how to build awareness for your brand, generate targeted web traffic, capture
quality leads, convert prospects into paying customers and nurture relationships with loyal
influencers and advocates. In other words, let a SaaS ecommerce provider help you so you
can focus the things that really matter.

10 Retail Innovation at Speed & Cost

A Tale of Two Online Stores

Two case studies of SaaS vs On-Prem

BULK APOTHECARY

Founded in 2010, Bulk Apothecary

is one of the nation’s largest online
suppliers of natural ingredients and
essential oils. In 2014, with rising
demand from both consumers
and large corporations, the Bulk
Apothecary team knew they needed
a reliable, long-term home for their

The company opted to use an on-premise

ecommerce solution. After 10 months
working to customize the platform, they
had spent tens of thousands of dollars
only to deal with frequent performance
issues, frustrating glitches and unreliable
integrations.

11 Retail Innovation at Speed & Cost

growing online store. Their new ecommerce platform had to be reliable, support aggressive
revenue targets and enable the business to continue scaling.

These challenges not only slowed growth, but limited the team’s ability to invest in effective
sales and marketing initiatives.

With expenses mounting and website troubleshooting becoming a liability, Bulk Apothecary
decided to move to a SaaS solution, BigCommerce Enterprise. The storefront was replicated
on the BigCommerce platform in just four weeks, a significant improvement compared to the
10 months spent trying to create a robust shopping experience on the on-prem platform.

SPORTBIKE TRACK GEAR

In 2014, owner Bike Van of Sportbike

Track Gear faced a similar decision
about the future of his growing
online business. His ecommerce
provider was was going out of
business, and Van needed to
evaluate other solutions.

“With Magento (an on-prem solution) there were so many moving pieces and the cost of
development was going to be astronomical,” said Van. With this in mind, he opted to go with
a SaaS platform.

12 Retail Innovation at Speed & Cost

Van moved to BigCommerce in less
than three months, roughly half the time
required to switch to Magento, while saving
approximately $100,000 in development and
hosting costs.

“We are so much more efficient now,” said Van. “With our previous platform, our staff was
constantly overtaxed, which led to mistakes. Simply processing orders was becoming costly.
Now it’s much easier. My staff is happier, and we have time to explore new opportunities to
grow our business.”

Minimize Time to Market with BigCommerce

The Simplicity of SaaS, Plus Some

Adopting a SaaS platform can reduce the complexity of implementing your ecommerce
software and get you market faster. BigCommerce takes things one step further by
combining with the simplicity of a SaaS platform with highly-customizable software that
helps you create the perfect online shopping experience more easily and quickly than any
other website builder.

Don’t just reduce your time to market; minimize it altogether.

Out-of-the-box features and a library of customizable templates allow you to quickly

design a unique, beautiful, mobile-ready store instead of coding and configuring from
scratch. Merchants can import and manage products, add and edit pages, set up sales and

13 Retail Innovation at Speed & Cost

promotions, all within a matter of clicks; no additional software or development needed.

Built-in, omni-channel integrations allow you to effortlessly extend your shopping

experience beyond your website to high-traffic marketplaces like eBay and Amazon, social
media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, and point-of-sale (POS) solutions like Square.
Easily engage with and sell to your potential customers anywhere and everywhere.

BigCommerce is also built to connect with other powerful applications that help you run a
successful retail business. Communicate effectively with customers by integrating your email
marketing and automation software, automate shipping by connecting online orders directly
with shipping providers, and build long-lasting relationships with customers by integrating
your CRM software. All of these enterprise connections and more can be configured within
minutes without writing a single line of code.

Keep in mind, simplicity for the sake of agility doesn’t mean your site has to be simple. The
BigCommerce Checkout Software Development Kit (SDK) gives agencies, developers and
brands unparalleled end-to-end cart and checkout customization capabilities, increasing
the possibilities of a SaaS platform. The SDK handles the complex business logic powering
ecommerce checkout, removing the headaches of PCI compliance, tax collection, remittance
and more, to allow brands to focus on creating a custom look, feel and shopper experience.

BigCommerce does the heavy lifting when it comes to building, maintaining,

About efelle creative
supporting, and hosting its ecommerce engine. All that’s left for our team is
theme design, development, and customization—aka, the fun stuff.
efelle is Seattle’s top web design
Open-source solutions—like Magento—can be great if you have a large, firm. As an Elite BigCommerce

dedicated team of developers on hand to own every line of your ecommerce Partner with more than 20 projects

code and manage your store’s servers. But by delegating ecommerce platform together, they work to accelerate
their clients’ revenue via effective
development to the specialists like BigCommerce, you get to focus on what you
digital marketing.
do best—running your business. - Courtenay Adams, efelle creative

14 Retail Innovation at Speed & Cost

About BigCommerce
BigCommerce is the world’s leading cloud ecommerce platform for established and
rapidly-growing businesses. Combining enterprise functionality, an open architecture
and app ecosystem, and market-leading performance, BigCommerce enables businesses
to grow online sales with 80% less cost, time and complexity than on-premise software.
BigCommerce powers B2B and B2C ecommerce for industry-leading brands, including
Assurant, Ben & Jerry’s, Paul Mitchell, Sony and Toyota.

Want to see agile commerce in action? Save your spot on the BigCommerce Product Tour,
where our ecommerce experts will show you how powerful a SaaS solution can be.

JOIN THE PRODUCT TOUR

15 Retail Innovation at Speed & Cost