Introducing Widget Builder

Do you spend your days crafting beautiful shopping experiences? Are you looking for a faster way to design and implement widgets for merchants? If so, you’re gonna love this.

We are excited to introduce Widget Builder! This brand-new development tool improves the widget development experience by providing an environment to build, edit, and preview storefront widgets in real-time.

What is Widget Builder

Widget Builder is a development tool that enables developers to create and edit widgets and preview code edits in real-time outside of the context of a BigCommerce store. Widget Builder also gives ecommerce developers and partners a complete view of how their widget will look across mobile, tablet, and desktop screen sizes.

What’s Changed?

Previously, previewing widget code edits required pushing the changes to the store. This process requires several time-consuming steps and brings in the risk of accidentally pushing unwanted changes to the live storefront.

Now, Widget Builder provides a real-time preview of the code changes within the tool. Instead of pushing code changes to the storefront each time you want to test your iteration, you will preview your changes as you make them within Widget Builder- across desktop, mobile, and tablet screen sizes. This means that widget development will be faster and easier than ever.

Widget Builder Use Cases

Widgets are the key to unlocking functionality and building rich ecommerce experiences that customers will love. Here are some ways you can use Widget Builder to improve your storefront and development experience:

• Custom storefront development: Create and edit custom widgets such as recommended or featured product, banners, and other customized content to differentiate your site
• Quick testing: Make fast widget design iterations to optimize your shopping experience and conversion rates in time for the holiday season
• Theme Developers: Build widgets to extend the functionality of your themes

Getting Started

Ready to build widgets better? Check out our Developer Documentation to learn how to start building, editing, and publishing widgets with Widget Builder.