Before you start
Things you need to know:
Make sure the Require Consent option (Store Setup > Store Settings > Miscellaneous > Email Settings) is enabled in your store to prevent customers from being automatically opted-in at account creation.
If you have an existing store that is connected to another environment, such as a staging environment, and want to connect it to production, you must disconnect your existing store and connect the live store using the steps in this article.
1. Get the Dotdigital app
Go to the Dotdigital BigCommerce marketplace page.
Select GET THIS APP.
Choose to Log in to your existing store, or Sign up for a new BigCommerce store.
Select Install.
The installation wizard now guides you through configuring the connection between your BigCommerce store and your Dotdigital account.
2. Create your transactional email design
First, you can customise the design of your transactional emails, as well as your Welcome and Abandoned Cart email campaigns. You can ensure that these emails align with your brand by setting your colour theme, logo, and email footer.
On the right hand side you can see a live preview of how your emails will look, using real products from your store.
Email creation
The following emails are automatically created for you inside your Dotdigital account. They‘re ready to go, but you’re free to edit them if you need to make any changes:
Abandoned cart
Welcome
Shipping update
Shipping confirmation
Order refunded
Order cancelled
New order confirmation
New account confirmation
To find these emails, go to Automation > Triggered email. The campaigns are stored in a folder with the same name as your BigCommerce store.
Learn how to make changes to your transactional email templates in Variables for transactional email templates in BigCommerce.
3. Configure your Chat widget
In the next step, you’re given the option to install the Dotdigital chat widget. You can choose to do this now, or return to it later.
If you choose to install chat later, learn how in Get started with Chat.
If you opt to install chat now, you can customise your chat widget by choosing your colours and animation type.
A live preview shows you what the chat widget will look like to your site visitors.
Learn more about setting up the Chat feature in the Chat section of our Help centre.
4. Install the code
The last step is to have the wizard automatically install all the code you need to get up and running. We do this through installation of our Dotdigital Tag. The Dotdigital Tag gives you a central location in the platform to manage the scripts added to your BigCommerce store, and enable or disable optional features.
Learn more in the section Edit the Tag.
You can install the code manually if you prefer, but if you choose to install now, then we apply the following features to your store through the Tag:
Web behavior tracking
Abandoned cart
Chat (if you opted to install chat now)
Learn more in Changes made to BigCommerce.
If you select Install code automatically a pop-up window opens which asks if you would like the Chat widget to be active immediately upon the installation completing. This means that your customers will be able to engage with you using the Chat tool straight away. If you’re not quite ready, just select No, I’ll activate it later in the Chat Settings section.
Manual installation
If you chose to install the code manually, you can find details on how to do this in the following articles:
Once the installation is complete, you can select See my store settings to return to Dotdigital and make any other edits to your store that you like.
Programs
Once you complete the set-up of the connector and return to your Store Settings area, there is an option to map program enrolments for certain contact actions.
The installation wizard creates two programs automatically that you can map:
A welcome program
An abandoned cart program
View and edit your new programs
The two new programs are created in a folder with the same name as your BigCommerce store. You can access this folder by going to Automation > Programs and then selecting the folder from the left. To view or edit a program, select the program name.
The campaign nodes within these programs are configured to send the Welcome or Abandoned cart campaigns created by the installation wizard during the set up process. You can make changes to the campaigns sent, or any other aspect of the program that you want.
Learn more about working with programs in the Program builder section of our Help Centre.
To make a program available to map in your Store settings, you must activate the program. To do this, select ACTIVATE in the top right of the program builder screen.
Map program enrolments
To map enrolments to your Welcome program:
Go to Connect then select the BigCommerce tile under Installed integrations and extensions.
Under Automation, expand the Enrol new subscribers to drop-down menu and select the Welcome program.
Select SAVE.
To map enrolments to your Abandoned cart program:
Go to Connect then select the BigCommerce tile under Installed integrations and extensions.
Under Abandoned cart, expand the Enrol abandoned carts to drop-down menu and select your Abandoned cart program. You can also set how long the system waits once a contact abandons a cart before enrolling them to the program using the Enrol abandoned carts after drop-down menu.
Select SAVE.
Once you have set up and saved the enrolment mappings, contacts begin to enrol in your programs.
BigCommerce Field mapping
As well as setting you up with ready-to-go email templates and installing necessary scripts, the wizard also maps your BigCommerce Customer Fields to Dotdigital contact data fields. The mapped fields are:
Customer field | Data type |
First name | Text |
Last name | Text |
Created date | Date |
Company | Text |
Phone | Text |
Note | Text |
Has account | Text |
Customer group | Numeric |
Customer group ID | Numeric |
Billing address 1 | Text |
Billing address 2 | Text |
Billing phone | Text |
Billing fax | Text |
Billing city | Text |
Billing postcode | Text |
Billing state | Text |
Billing region | Text |
Billing country | Text |
Billing company | Text |
Shipping address 1 | Text |
Shipping address 2 | Text |
Shipping phone | Text |
Shipping fax | Text |
Shipping city | Text |
Shipping postcode | Text |
Shipping state | Text |
Shipping region | Text |
Shipping country | Text |
Shipping company | Text |
Once the installation is complete, you can select See my store settings to return to Dotdigital and make any other edits to your store that you like.