BigCommerce Design Policy

In order to provide the best site design for your online business, BigCommerce offers high-quality themes in the Theme Marketplace that are already designed for optimal shopper experiences. With marketing banners and Page Builder, you can advertise sales, display coupon codes, relay important announcements, add design elements such as images and videos to your store, and easily customize the look of your online store without modifying the code.

Each theme available in the Theme Marketplace is compatible with Page Builder, allowing you to make layout changes and other common customizations to your store without using code. You can add credit card icons to the footer, set how many products will display in a search result, adjust the universal image dimensions for products, and much more. To learn more about what this feature can do, see our documentation on Page Builder.

For design items that may need more than what Page Builder covers, there is an in-browser way to edit the HTML/CSS of a page. Using the built-in editor requires knowledge of HTML/CSS and Handlebars.js, the code languages used to build the themes. This method has some limitations. To learn more about editing theme files, see Editing Stencil Theme Files.

The Stencil Command-Line Interface (CLI) provides you the ability to edit the code on themes in a controlled environment, allowing for more advanced customization and theme development. This method allows complete access to theme files on your local machine, without affecting your live storefront. To learn more about Stencil CLI, see our Developer Documentation.

To get assistance with a design feature for your storefront, we offer three main avenues of support.

BigCommerce Community

The BigCommerce Community is an outstanding resource for information on how to customize your theme’s design.

For DIY coding and design support, you can ask questions related to theme design in Community Q&A — Themes & Design. This is a peer-to-peer space where other merchants, third party-developers, and Partners are free to give and receive advice. Expect to find how-to instructions, code snippets, and a focus on providing general guidance to empower you to make your own customizations.

The Critique My Site area is great for getting design-related feedback. It provides an excellent place to share your work, discuss best practices, and get design feedback from other Community members.

Please keep in mind, while the BigCommerce Community contains a wealth of user-generated advice, your situation, configuration, or use of BigCommerce themes may vary from that of the individual sharing a solution. BigCommerce will not negotiate jobs or settle complaints with third-party developers and Partners. Be aware that pursuing paid design work is at your own risk.

Design Partners

For small to medium-sized projects such as image resizing, WordPress integration setup, custom header and footer creation, carousel resizing, and more, consider using our Agency Design Request program to work with a Certified Agency Partner.

For larger tasks, we recommend using one of our certified BigCommerce Partners. Partners listed on the site know the BigCommerce platform and how to work with our themes. You can filter the partner listing only to show those who have worked with Stencil themes before, find someone in your price range, or someone in your area.

Partners support their own work. If something in the design stops working as intended, contact the developer first.

Marketplace Applications

Apps from the App Marketplace can add some design functionality to your storefront and may require you to add code into a theme file. It is the responsibility of the app creator to keep their instructions and app updated.

For help installing an app, contact the creator of the app or post in the Apps & Integrations section in our Community.

Our Technical Support can assist in determining if an app is causing an issue, but they do not have access to the App Marketplace in your store to provide onboarding assistance or to troubleshoot problems with an app. For app support, contact the app's developer or post in the Apps & Integrations section of the Community.

BigCommerce Technical Support

Our Technical Support agents can only offer general advice or assist in troubleshooting an issue. While our agents can offer guidance on using Page Builder, they are unable to add, edit, or adjust any HTML/CSS/JS coding on your store's theme.

We offer support for API and webhook development for stores on an Enterprise plan and BigCommerce partners. This includes assistance with any questions about API functionality and our Developer Documentation.

Critical Issues

If changes made to your theme prevent shoppers from completing orders and you or your developer are unable to resolve the issue, please contact us. We will work with you to troubleshoot and find the root of the issue. Once we've identified the issue, we'll assist you in the next steps to take, which may require contacting your theme's developer.

If you are experiencing an issue with a theme purchased from the Theme Marketplace, please report it to our Support team, who will assist you with troubleshooting and the next steps to take. If you are using a third-party theme, please contact the theme developer.

If you have a suggestion for improving a BigCommerce theme or the theme experience, please Log in to the BigCommerce Community and post it on our Ideas website for our team to evaluate.

The themes available in the Theme Marketplace are exclusive to BigCommerce stores. When purchasing a theme or utilizing a free theme, you may alter the code to suit your business needs. When purchasing a theme, the license for use is solely for the store selected when completing the purchase.

Keep in mind that the original theme creator retains the rights to their theme. You cannot resell a custom theme based on a Marketplace theme on a third-party theme market or privately to another store owner.

Failure to adhere to this policy will result in legal action.