How to Become a BigCommerce Developer

How to Become a BigCommerce Developer

BigCommerce is the world’s most rapidly growing SaaS eCommerce platform. BigCommerce, in my opinion, is one of the greatest eCommerce systems for giving both B2C and B2B capabilities at the same time. In recent months, there appears to be a high demand for web developers, particularly in the eCommerce market. I see a lot of recruiters seeking for Shopify and BigCommerce developers. If you are looking to hire bigcommerce web designers, I highly suggest to check out Always Open Commerce.

This blog post will go over the abilities required to become an excellent BigCommerce theme developer. In upcoming blog posts, I’ll discuss how to become a BigCommerce App developer, SEO specialist, BigCommerce solution architect, and so forth.

This post will be written as instructions for someone who is absolutely new to web programming. You may already have some core knowledge and can skip forward, but don’t discount the significance of refreshers.

Understanding the Fundamentals of the Internet/Web

  • Understanding how the internet works
  • What is DNS? What are the most prevalent DNS Records?
  • What is a domain registrar?
  • How do webpages work? What is web hosting?
  • Here are a couple films I think you’ll find useful:
  • DNS Made Simple Videos
  • DNS Records by IT Training
  • The difference between a domain name registrar, DNS, and hosting by 48 in 48

Semantic HTML

  • HTML is one of the initial stages toward becoming a web development specialist.
  • In my 12+ years of experience, I have frequently encountered applicants/people who claim to be HTML experts yet are unaware of web semantics, web standards, and so on.
  • So, when learning HTML, I strongly advise you to master web semantics and W3C standards. Writing relevant HTML can improve your website’s user experience, accessibility, performance, and SEO.
  • There are several online courses accessible (Free or paid).

CSS

  • I’m adding CSS as a second step here, although it’ll basically work with HTML.
  • There are numerous CSS frameworks available, however I strongly advocate mastering pure CSS. When you understand the principles of a language, you can rapidly adapt any framework. Coding in pure CSS will help you enhance your stylistic abilities.
  • While learning CSS, you should also learn about responsive web design and the mobile-first approach.

Design Tools

  • A basic familiarity of design concepts and tools will be extremely beneficial in your web development career. You don’t have to be an expert in these design tools, but you should know enough to extract assets and other information from the design files.
  • Figma, Photoshop, Sketch, and Adobe XD are common design tools used in front end web development.
  • After you’ve finished learning HTML/CSS. Try to find some web page design files and adapt them into an usable responsive webpage using HTML/CSS.

JavaScript/ES6

  • A thorough understanding of Vanilla JS will be quite beneficial to you.
  • Find an online course that teaches you the fundamentals of JS. Make sure you’re understanding ES6 advanced features like arrow functions, fetch/await, map functions, and so on. Basically, look for a course that teaches you the fundamentals of JS as well as the most recent advanced features of JS.
  • Once you’ve finished learning JavaScript, I strongly advise you to PRACTICE. There are some YouTube classes that include some practice JS projects. This is an area where many applicants fall short, therefore consistent, comprehensive JS practice will put you ahead.

jQuery

  • There are numerous JS frameworks and libraries available. It will be simple to customize any framework once you have a basic understanding of JavaScript. In this list, I’ll include jQuery as a necessary ability. Because the BigCommerce Cornerstone theme and many websites on the internet still use jQuery, it is a good idea to learn it.

Knowledge of the BigCommerce Platform

  • This is a critical stage. You cannot design BigCommerce websites unless you are familiar with the various options offered within BigCommerce.
  • Before designing themes or websites on the BigCommerce platform, I prefer that developers have a solid understanding of the platform’s fundamentals.
  • You can build a sample BigCommerce store, navigate through the admin panel, and experiment.
  • Setup simple and sophisticated products
  • Create categories with a parent-child relationship.
  • Import-export products
  • Create customer groups
  • Payment methods, shipping, discounts, taxes, and so on
  • Examine each choice and learn how it works.
  • BigCommerce Videos

SEO Fundamentals

  • If you are creating a website for a customer, they will want it to appear in search engines and generate business. I don’t expect engineers to be SEO gurus, but they should have a fundamental understanding of SEO ideas.
  • Developers are frequently working on an existing website CRO implementation or collaborating with a team for on-page SEO things.
  • Check that you understand:
  • Canonical tags
  • XML Sitemaps
  • HTML sitemaps
  • Meta Descriptions and Title Tags
  • Rich Snippets
  • in addition

Web Accessibility

  • Many retailers have been sued in recent years for failing to follow ADA compliance rules.
  • There are third-party apps that make the website accessible, but they are limited and will not fix every problem.
  • When building or developing a website, keep web accessibility requirements in mind.
  • Understanding the ADA compliance checklist and approaches will be highly beneficial to you as a developer. This ability will set you apart from other applicants.

Understand Web Performance Optimization

  • Slow websites are bad for conversions. There are approaches and development workflows that can assist you in developing quick websites.
  • Learn about Core Web Vitals. Google now uses CWV as a ranking element.
  • I believe that online performance optimization is a critical ability that can help you design high-quality, speedy BigCommerce websites and set you apart from other developers.

Integration of Third-Party Apps

  • Most BigCommerce websites may necessitate the download or configuration of one or more apps. There are numerous possibilities accessible, such as: reviews app, filters app, incentives app, back in a stock app, or other features.
  • To be a successful BigCommerce Developer, you must understand how to install these third-party apps.

Project Management Tools

  • It is important that you understand the fundamentals of Project Management tools in order to work efficiently with a team or manage your personal projects. For example, Basecamp, Asana, Teamwork, JIRA, Trello, and so on.
  • You do not need to understand every tool because they all perform the same functions (like tasks, time tracking, progress tracking, etc.). But the primary concept is to understand the communication method and workflow of the firm with which you are working.
  • Good communication is essential when dealing with a firm or client, therefore start documenting your efforts on a daily basis.

Tools for testing and bug tracking

  • After you finish developing the site, you should test it on various platforms, devices, and browsers. I use BrowserStack, but there are other platforms available. Similarly, I use BugHerd for bug tracking, but there are other tools available.
  • The goal isn’t to learn every tool, but rather the concept and process. You could go through one tool and learn how it works and how it can improve your development workflow.

Please contact me if you are looking for mentorship, career guidance in web development, or one-on-one BigCommerce development training sessions.

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