Looking for opinions on BigBuy? On ECN we have collected information about this company. We have analysed the main aspects of BigBuy and the advantages and disadvantages of each of them.
In order to be able to give you an opinion on this company, we tried several of its main services: dropshipping, the 360° Dropshipping Shop and its Multi-channel Integration Platform tool.
Ready? Let’s go.
BigBuy: Whos is this dropshipping Supplier?
BigBuy is one of the leading dropshipping providers in Europe. Headquartered in Spain, it is a B2B e-commerce company that sells thousands of items to businesses of all kinds and specializes in customers who resell their items through the online channel.
Previously they were more “alone” in Europe, but now there are various competitors. To face them, they will have to update themselves, launching more advanced technological tools.
BigBuy Dropshipping service: Advantages and Disadvantages
The most important service of BigBuy. This company has been offering dropshipping for several years, long before dropshipping became a powerful trend in e-commerce.
Let’s see the advantages and disadvantages of doing dropshipping with BigBuy.
Advantages of BigBuy Dropshipping service
- Catalogue: One of the strengths of BigBuy (not to mention the strongest). This wholesaler has tens of thousands of articles in his catalogue. We don’t know how quickly they add new references, but we’ve certainly noticed that they’ve grown in recent months. Among these references, we find any type of category: original gifts, home, erotic, electronic and computer, perfumes… They combine items of important brands with low-cost products.
- Logistics: Very important element of dropshipping. BigBuy has its own warehouse and agreements with the main couriers at national level. Dropshipping with them, they take care of getting the product to the final consumer, without the name of BigBuy appearing anywhere.
The prices of his shipments are quite competitive, which is understandable because they move large quantities. To check this, we contacted some of his couriers and they offered us much more expensive prices (so for a business that’s just started, sending dropshippings with BigBuy is quite cheap compared to sending them while storing the goods). - Synchronization: Without good synchronization, selling via the Internet can be a pain. BigBuy offers various options:
They have a synchronization available via CSV/XML files. It is the easiest (and manual) way to synchronize your business with its catalogue, stock, etc.. We do not recommend this option, because it can create stock breaks.
A more advanced level would be its API. If you have programming knowledge -or you go to a programmer- you can synchronize your e-commerce with BigBuy. - Multi-channel Integration Platform: This platform is relatively recent (they’ve been running it for less than a year). It allows you to synchronize BigBuy with different sales channels: Marketplaces (Amazon, eBay), PrestaShop stores… It requires no programming knowledge and is fully automatic. We tried this option and it surprised us enough. Later we will tell you about this experience.
Disadvantages of BigBuy Dropshipping Service
In giving our opinion on BigBuy, we can not only tell the positive things. There are also some disadvantages that we will see below:
- High competition: You will sell the same products as many other businesses. This is a common evil on the Internet, and the secret is to know how to distinguish yourself and find the right niche.
- Depending on where you sell, shipments may be slower: If the country where your supplier is located is very far from the country of sale (suppose you sell in Romania and work with BigBuy, which is in Spain), sending may take up to 4 or 5 days. If this is the case, we recommend that you communicate this clearly on your e-commerce, so as not to create false expectations in your customers. You can also pre-purchase the best-selling products (and store them yourself).
- You have to adapt to its sending options: BigBuy offers cash on delivery payment only on the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal). If you want to sell on delivery and you are not in any of these countries, you might want to cross-dock rather than drop-ship. By cross-docking, BigBuy sends orders to your warehouse and sends them to the final consumer. This way you can offer the shipping method that suits you best.
360° Dropshipping Shop: Advantages and Disadvantages
BigBuy develops already synchronized e-commerce for its customers. In this way, a customer can start selling without having to worry about any technical aspect.
We could not give our opinion on BigBuy without entering these stores.
BigBuy calls them Dropshipping 360º stores and we have collected the advantages and disadvantages of them:
Advantages of BigBuy Dropshipping 360 Shop
- You don’t have to worry about the technical aspects: It’s the perfect solution for those who don’t have technical notions of e-commerce (or who simply don’t have time). BigBuy will create your own e-commerce and support you.
You will save a lot of time: It is linked to the previous point. By leaving the creation of the store to BigBuy, you save days of work and configuration. - Synchronization assured: Selling with dropshipping, synchronization is a key aspect. If your business is not well integrated with your supplier, you may have problems, such as showing items that are no longer in stock, or outdated prices.
Support material: In addition to being able to refer to his Support team, you will also have access to a platform with hundreds of articles explaining the main doubts that arise in customers.
Disadvantages of the BigBuy Dropshipping 360 Shop
- High competition: Obviously you will have to compete with many other shops similar to yours. But let’s not kid ourselves: whatever channel we sell through, the competition will always be a reality on the Internet. Unless you sell unique, self-produced products, you’ll never be the only one. The secret is knowing how to promote your store correctly and give it that added value that customers are looking for (through a careful social media strategy, doing promotions, etc.).
- It’s not valid for large projectors: BigBuy’s Dropshipping Stores are built in PrestaShop. This e-commerce platform is very powerful, but it may be insufficient for those people who need very advanced customizations and who want to set up a large online store. If this is the case, we recommend that you open your e-commerce with the platform that best suits you and synchronize it via API.
Full VS Catalog Themed Shop
Trying out the shops and theme and those with the full catalogue, we noticed differences in performance. This may be due to the number of references. The complete BigBuy catalogue currently has around 40,000 references. If we publish them all in one PrestaShop, in 4 or 5 languages, the shop will not be as fast as we would like it to be.
Our advice is to choose one or more theme stores, where we publish fewer references to ensure better performance and greater differentiation.
Multi-Channel Integration Platform: Advantages and Disadvantages
The last aspect to analyze in order to give our opinion on BigBuy is to analyze the Multi-channel Integration Platform, its multi-channel sales platform.
This tool with such a long name is, in a nutshell, a platform on which you can focus all your sales channels and synchronize them with BigBuy.
Let’s see its advantages and disadvantages:
Advantages of Multi-Channel Integration Platform
- Total automation: This is the main strength of this platform. All your catalog, stock, prices and tracking will be fully synchronized with BigBuy. In addition, you can configure aspects such as price rules or couriers.
- You don’t need to have technical knowledge: You don’t need to configure the API, or even do the manual work by uploading CSV files. The tool does everything automatically.
- Centralize platforms of all kinds: You can sell automatically on all types of channels: e-commerce platforms (PrestaShop), marketplace (Amazon, eBay…). BigBuy is working on synchronizing with other sales channels for the future, but we don’t have any dates yet.
Disadvantages of Multi-Channel Integration platform
- Total automation: Yes, this can also be a disadvantage! Synchronization is such that sometimes we can lose a little control of the orders we are generating. It’s important to be aware of what’s going on in our business. Although Multi-channel Integration Platform takes care of the heaviest part of the work, we can’t help but check the status of the work every day to avoid losing control and making mistakes.
- Postponed payments on marketplaces: Working with marketplaces like Amazon we have to adapt to its rules. This assumes that, sometimes, one of the golden rules of dropshipping will not be respected: Dropshipping, generally, should not pay for an item until the end consumer has done so. That is, we should not anticipate investment in the stock.
That’s not how it works on Amazon (and other marketplaces). Amazon pays after 15-20 days. Therefore, if a customer buys a fairly expensive item (such as a television), we must anticipate the payment of this purchase to BigBuy and Amazon will not pay us until a couple of weeks later. If we do not have enough money, we may suffer a capital loss of our business and have to put sales on standby until we receive payment from Amazon. - You need an Enterprise Pack: BigBuy works with Wholesale Packages. That is, to access the sales it offers, you will have to pay a monthly fee. Depending on what you want to do, you’ll have to choose whether to buy one package or another. To access the Multi-channel Integration Platform, you’ll need to purchase the Enterprise Pack, the most advanced of the three packages they offer. This requires a greater investment. It may be true that the price is higher, but the volume of business generated will be higher.
That’s our opinion of BigBuy, with an analysis of its advantages and disadvantages. What do you think? Have you worked with this supplier?