With the release of Interspire Shopping Cart (ISC) and BigCommerce 5.5 we now see the development team pushing full steam ahead towards version 6 on both platforms. Mitchell Harper recently released what is a tentative BigCommerce version 6 feature list and I thought I would start dissecting some of these new features and provide tips on how you might be able to prepare your online store to take advantage of them sooner rather than later.
Introducing the BigCommerce/MailChimp Integration
The first new feature I plan to look at is pretty exciting for those looking to integrate e-mail marketing into their marketing mix. The proposed MailChimp integration will help fill a very large hole in the BigCommerce feature set. For those of you who are not aware of MailChimp, I can tell you that they are a very popular and well-regarded e-mail marketing service provider.
MailChimp market themselves as a company that can provide you with extremely powerful and sophisticated e-mail marketing tools (such as segmentation, A/B testing, and ROI tracking) and still make them accessible to anyone. The MailChimp company profile opens with:
“We make it easy to send e-mail newsletters to your customers, manage your subscriber lists, and track campaign performance.Unlike some of our competitors, we don’t “dumb things down.” We take extremely powerful tools that sophisticated marketers use (like segmentation, a/b testing, and ROI tracking), and we make them accessible to anyone. And because our platform uses an open API, it’s easy to integrate internal systems (like Salesforce) and web applications (like Magento and Drupal) with our email marketing engine.”
Personally, I have been using MailChimp for over 12 months on a number of sites (including Shopping Cart Strategies) and I can vouch that the MailChimp service is able to back up the marketing rhetoric. It is both powerful and extremely easy to use and I was extremely happy to learn of the proposed integration.
Now I must admit I was a little bit surprised to see BigCommerce proposing to develop an e-mail marketing integration with a third-party company when they have their own solutions available (E-mail Marketer & BigResponse). In my opinion this is a very positive and mature decision showing that the BigCommerce development team plans to focus on their core strength of delivering a top of the range e-commerce platform.
Here is the snippet from the BigCommerce blog announcing the integration:
UPDATE: Interspire has announced that they are no longer accepting new subscribers to their hosted e-mail service BigResponse so that they can concentrate on BigCommerce.Integration with Mailchimp – As we know from experience, email marketing is an affordable way to generate repeat business and build trust with customers. Mailchimp has a simple but powerful API which allows us to integrate newsletter subscribers, customers and even filtered lists of customers right back into the software, which BigCommerce merchants can then use to create, send and track their email marketing campaigns.
Why should you trust a third-party provider such as MailChimp?
The short answer: Third-party providers such as MailChimp focus on e-mail marketing, nothing else!
Administrating any type of e-mail marketing application is a bloody hard job and you really want to have damned good reasons if you plan to go down the DIY route. Having maintained a number of self hosted e-mail marketing platforms I can assure you that it is something that I never want to do again. I still have nightmares about trying to keep an IP address away from the numerous blacklists and spam filters. Trust me, you don’t need this worry.
Reputable third-party e-mail marketing service providers develop relationships and have feedback loops with the major ISPs and e-mail providers (such as Yahoo!). An e-mail marketing service provider stakes its whole reputation on getting your e-mail campaign delivered, otherwise their customers go elsewhere.
Lastly, in order to keep growing and maintaining their customer base, e-mail service providers must continue to reinvest in their infrastructure and software platform. This reinvestment process is all about refining and improving their service to you, which in turn allows you to be more productive and have more control over your marketing message without having to worry about messy installations and upgrades.
How much is it going to cost?
As a MailChimp customer I can assure you that their service and features are top notch, but even better than that MailChimp put their money where their mouth is and allow you to start using their service absolutely free of charge so long as you have less than 500 subscribers.
If you go over 500 subscribers it will then cost you $30 a month with no limit on the amount of e-mail you can send, or you can opt into the Pay As You Go model which works out at somewhere between $0.005 and $0.03 per e-mail sent.
MailChimp has also introduced a nice little refer a friend program whereby if a current MailChimp customer refers you to the sign on link, you and your friend will receive a $30 credit and 3 inbox inspections when you are ready to upgrade. If you would like to take advantage of this please use my referral link below (we are all friends here …).
Click here to sign on for a free MailChimp account!
Still not convinced MailChimp/BigCommerce is a good thing for your online store?
Over the next couple of articles I will exploring some of MailChimp’s e-commerce functionality and providing you with some instructions on how you can get started now rather than waiting until BigCommerce complete their integration.
To make sure you get these articles sign onto our MailChimp powered weekly e-mail newsletter (it’s also a good opportunity to get a sneak peek at the sign on routine) or add our RSS feed to your feed reader.
If you have any questions or comments about the BigCommerce – MailChimp integration please leave a message below.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Great article Dave. Anything to make my day easier is we worth it.
Will sign up with Mailchimp and give it a whirl. Looking forward to the following articles.
No problem Matt. I will be putting the articles together this week, let me know if there is anything in particular that you would like me to go over. Keep in mind that I have no idea how Interspire will ultimately integrate the two applications.
What I’m wondering is why did they partner with MailChimp if Interspire (the company behind BigCommerce) has their own email marketing software?
I’m a current customer of their email marketing software and their support on this product is truly horrid. I think I need to call American Express and dispute this charge. Truly a shame…
Hi Pete
can I get you to confirm which company has the horrid support — MailChimp or Interspire. I have my suspicions it is the latter but just want complete clarity for anyone else who comes along reading this post.
Sorry about that, I’m talking about Interspire.
It seems like since they have released their new BigCommerce product, they have shifted attention wholly in that direction and depreciated any support for other products such as their email marketer software. I just purchased their software maybe 3 weeks ago and have been plagued by their support staff’s inability to provide service.
A quick Google search or even a look through their developer forums that they host on their website will show you the same issues that many people are facing. It almost seems like they grew to a level that they can’t sustain but their CEO doesn’t care and/or doesn’t know. As a technology company, if they were smart, they would be using some social media online reputation management software to keep tabs on these issues and squash them. Sadly, they are not that smart…
Granted they offer a 60-day refund, I WANT to use their software. And on that note, who knows how long it would take to even get a refund started with them. Oh well, I guess that’s what American Express support is for
Thanks Pete — you’re definitely not alone in your thinking re Interspire. Plenty of us are heavily invested in their software (both time and money) and are quite concerned at this moment.
Omnistar Mailer is the best email marketing software around. I increased by sales by 15 %
hi Scott
Thanks for your comment.
While I’ve never used Omnistar Mailer I have tried some of the other products they produce and they seem like a solid company. The only trouble is with the Mailer is that it is software that you need to install, maintain and keep yourself off any spam lists. Too much work if you ask me, I would much sooner fork out a monthly fee with one of the hosted options.
The other benefit of MailChimp is that it has a built-in integration with BigCommerce which once again requires less work keeping your list up-to-date.