BigCommerce Course

BigCommerce is a hosted e-commerce platform, similar in shape to Shopify but built around its own theme engine (Stencil), templating language (Handlebars), and a pair of separate APIs for storefront data and store management. This course covers how a BigCommerce storefront is actually put together, from templating fundamentals through B2B, multi-storefront, SEO, and going headless.

What you'll learn

You'll start with how Stencil themes are structured and how Handlebars renders data into a page, then move into BigCommerce's API model — the Storefront APIs a page's own JavaScript can call, and the authenticated Management API used by backend integrations and apps. From there you'll work with products, categories, and custom fields, customize the cart and checkout experience, build widgets with Page Builder, and connect a storefront to apps through webhooks. The final stretch covers faceted search, customer groups and B2B Edition, running multiple storefronts and languages, the concrete performance and SEO practices that make a Stencil theme fast and findable, and a look at Catalyst, BigCommerce's own Next.js framework for going headless.

Lessons

  1. Introduction
  2. Stencil Theme Structure
  3. Handlebars Basics
  4. Storefront vs. Management API
  5. Products & Categories
  6. Cart & Checkout
  7. Widgets & Page Builder
  8. Webhooks & Apps
  9. Faceted Search
  10. Customer Accounts & B2B
  11. Multi-Storefront & i18n
  12. Performance & SEO
  13. Headless with Catalyst
Where to start: begin with Introduction and go in order. If you've already worked through the Shopify course, the concepts will feel familiar in shape — themes, a templating language, a storefront API, webhooks — but the specifics (Handlebars instead of Liquid, two separate APIs instead of one) are different enough to be worth learning on their own terms.