If it’s good enough for Ben & Jerry’s…
The ice cream giant, along with everyone from Skullcandy to Black Diamond, uses SaaS eCommerce platform BigCommerce for their sites.
With an intuitive user interface, hundreds of customizable templates, dependable cloud-based hosting, built-in security features like DDOS protection and plug-ins for CMSes and other tools and platforms, BigCommerce is a big help to B2B and B2C retailers looking to build their eCommerce business.
BigCommerce is great for bigger sellers who want to be able to scale, including internationally, without facing additional complexity. Its easy-to-use and secure platform keeps operations simple and trusted for both sellers and their customers.
And its open SaaS platform allows for true flexibility and customization—including with an extended warranty program.
Whether you sell headphones or headboards, offering extended warranties on your products can help both your customers and your bottom line.
A well-run warranty partner can help your business increase average order value , increase customer loyalty , and increase conversions. Customers enjoy a stronger peace of mind, knowing that their purchase is protected, and are more likely to stay loyal even if something goes wrong.
And sellers like you see extra profit through a high-margin sales channel that’s easy to manage—if you pick the right extended warranty partner.
But how are you meant to do that?
Here, we explain how to decide on warranty management options for your BigCommerce store (and where Clyde fits in).
What To Look for in BigCommerce Management Software
One of the things sellers love about BigCommerce is how it allows for product variants. Without having to dig deep and code custom solutions, you can create up to 600 versions of your items so that customers can easily browse for exactly what they’re looking for.
You’ll want your chosen extended warranty partner to be just as in tune with what your customers need.
To that end, you’ll want to look for a warranty partner who performs well along the following categories:
Flexibility in product coverage.
You want to make sure that you’re choosing a partner who can cover all of the products you sell. Some warranty partners work with a single insurance focused on a niche market, like computers or furniture. If you sell a wide range of products, make sure that you’re covered for all of them.
Automated operational tasks.
Once the software is installed, will it run in the background of your BigCommerce site without requiring you to do much else? Make sure you understand the operational tasks that you’ll be expected to do to run your warranty program, if any exist.
Customization options.
You’ll want your warranty software to integrate seamlessly into your current purchasing process. Look for software that allows for the creation of unique call-to-actions that can be co-branded with your company, allowing you to add your logo, color scheme, font, and brand voice to the check-out process.
Multiple CTAs.
To sell warranties, you’ll use CTAs that prompt buyers to add a warranty to their purchase. Ideally, your chosen warranty partner will give you several options for integrating those CTAs into the purchase process, and you’ll also be able to select how you present extended warranty options (from a single link to a comprehensive list) and to experiment with different presentations.
Pricing adjustments to drive revenue.
Do you want to decide exactly how much to charge for your warranty? The software you choose should let you. A bonus is software that uses historical data to auto-manage the margins you’ll earn on warranty sales to optimize revenue.
Multiple users with custom permissions.
Who will be managing your warranty plan? If you’ve got more than one person who will want to stay up close and personal to how your extended warranty program is performing, make sure the software you choose lets you add and manage multiple team members.
Regular reporting and analytics.
You don’t want to have to dig for information on the warranties you’re selling. Look for software partners that offer clear, customizable analytics dashboards where you can keep an eye on things like contracts sold, product value covered, contract revenue earned, and your profit.
A responsive support team.
Hopefully nothing goes wrong as you bring on an extended warranty partner, but in the case that onboarding isn’t quite as simple as you’d hoped or you have questions about implementation, you’ll want to make sure you can get real support from a knowledgeable source. Check out the customer service options available from each provider before making your choice, and if they only offer chat or email help, make sure you’re comfortable with that option.
An easy-to-use customer portal.
Keep in mind that your customers may be reaching out for support, too, as they submit claims. Do you feel comfortable with your chosen provider representing your brand? Is there an easy way for customers to get help?
BigCommerce Warranty Management Providers
With a long list of things to look for in a BigCommerce warranty management provider, you’ll want to do your research before deciding.
As you’re looking through the BigCommerce App Marketplace for extended warranty integrations, keep in mind that most warranty management providers have their own niche.
They may be focused on enterprise clients. Or on niche eCommerce vendors.
Perhaps they’ve got great offerings for certain products, but not for everything you offer. (Or maybe they can cover everything, but you’ll have to match your products’ eligibility to a network of their insurer partners.)
Clyde’s BigCommerce integration works with retailers of all sizes and across all industries, with warranty program solutions for everyone. In fact, Clyde is an Elite partner of BigCommerce , selected for its best-in-class tech, value, and customer service.
Whether you sell electronics, appliances, jewelry, furniture, sports equipment, outdoor equipment, or general merchandise, Clyde’s got you covered. We offer a portfolio of insurance partners to offer exactly the protection you need, and we can cover everything from warranty extensions to wear and tear to water damage and accidents.
Benefits of Using Warranty Management for BigCommerce
There are benefits of using warranty management software on BigCommerce stores for both merchants and their consumers.
Passive revenue
Retailers can add to their average order values and their profit margins without having to shell out to create new products or a different service model. A good warranty program partner will manage everything from the customer’s side, leaving merchants to sit back and watch the revenue roll in. Strengthened relationship with consumersOffering an extended warranty plan to your customers is like offering them peace of mind. They’ll feel supported and confident in their purchase.
Strengthened relationship with consumers
Offering an extended warranty plan to your customers is like offering them peace of mind. They’ll feel supported and confident in their purchase.
Regular touchpoints
And as a retailer offering extended warranties, you’re guaranteeing yourself a regular (and customer-appreciated) touchpoint to engage with them down the line, whether at a one, two, or three year mark when their extended warranty is up, to reconnect and drive future sales.
How to Configure Clyde’s Warranty Management App for BigCommerce
To integrate Clyde into your BigCommerce site , you shouldn’t need more than a few minutes. Our app is built to have a seamless integration with little to no coding involved, though certain storefronts with particular custom behaviors may need to customize the integration slightly. (We’ll provide a few options for that at the end of this guide, and are always here to answer questions if you have them!)
First, install our BigCommerce app . (It’ll log you in to your Clyde dashboard versus the app’s UI within the BigCommerce admin panel.)
Then, fill out as much information as possible in your shop info.
We need your contact information in case we ever need to reach you, and for insurance compliance reasons, we need your business's address info.
We'll pull as much as we can automatically from BigCommerce, but would love for you to double-check that everything's filled out and accurate!
Next, you can check out some of the customization options available that affect the look and behavior of your storefront CTAs. Detailed examples and more info are available on the page itself, and you can change these settings at any time after onboarding.
Then, set up billing. You can connect a bank account using Stripe microdeposits or Plaid instant verification.
If you opt for Stripe, remember that your microdeposits can take a few days to appear in your bank account, and that the values to verify the account should be entered in cents exactly as they appear in your bank.
You can set up billing during onboarding or afterwards, but you won't be able to start selling contracts before this is done.
The last item in onboarding is reviewing and agreeing to our Terms and Conditions. If you have any questions here or throughout onboarding, feel free to reach out to support@joinclyde.com and we'll work with you on any questions or problems!
Once you're done onboarding, Clyde's got some work to do! We will review your catalog and assign warranties to be presented to your customers. Once that's done, you're ready to launch contracts to your site.
If you want to add a CTA on your cart page, you may need to keep in mind how storefront CTAs work on BigCommerce:
Clyde’s CTAs leverage the BigCommerce storefront graphQL API, a feature available to all BigCommerce stores using a stencil theme. This feature is available but not necessarily enabled for your store. You can reach out to BigCommerce support to get it enabled and use our CTAs straight out of the box.
By default, Clyde’s BigCommerce app comes with three prompts: Product page, Modal, and Cart. You can turn any of these prompts on or off from your Clyde dashboard's CTA page. Due to the custom nature of BigCommerce carts, the cart prompt on your cart page requires the addition of a single line to your cart's theme code. Each line item rendered on your cart page should have an empty HTML appended to the spot where you want to see a prompt added. The exact structure should be the following:
(Where the {{id}} in handlebars format is the ID of the line item)
If Clyde's out-of-the-box CTAs don't work exactly as you want, or break because of a particular setup on your store page, reach out and we can help.
We can either configure your CTAs from our end to solve the issue, and if all else fails, get you started with Clyde's widget.
The widget is a script you can add to your store in place of the default storefront script that builds your CTAs. Using the widget, you can build all of the Clyde prompts to satisfy whatever custom behavior needed for your shop. For more information, check out the widget docs here .
Note: Clyde's app relies on the assets provided only in BigCommerce Stencil themes. In order to use Clyde in a BigCommerce shop that uses Blueprint, you'll need to set your CTAs up using our widget.
All set!
That’s it. Once you’re all set up, you can start offering extended warranties and enjoying the net-new revenue and increased customer retention made possible by Clyde.
If you need help during installation or at any point, you can always reach out to Clyde’s support team.
If you’re still deciding on the best warranty partner for your BigCommerce store and want to see how the Clyde app would work for your products and your customers, reach out and schedule a demo today !
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