CoreCommerce to BigCommerce Migration - Step-by-Step Guide & Expert Services

Migrating Your E-commerce Store: A Complete Guide from CoreCommerce to BigCommerce

Transitioning your e-commerce store to a new platform is a significant undertaking, but the benefits of enhanced features, scalability, and improved user experience can be immense. This guide provides a detailed, step-by-step walkthrough for merchants looking to replatform their online business from CoreCommerce to BigCommerce. We'll cover everything from initial preparations to post-migration checks, ensuring a smooth and successful data transfer.

BigCommerce offers a robust, feature-rich environment known for its powerful SEO capabilities, flexible design options, and extensive app marketplace. Moving your store data, including products (SKUs and variants), customer information, orders, and reviews, requires careful planning and execution to maintain data integrity and minimize downtime.

Prerequisites for Migration

Before initiating your migration from CoreCommerce to BigCommerce, a few crucial steps and considerations are necessary to ensure a seamless transition.

• Back up Both Stores: Always create comprehensive backups of your CoreCommerce store's database and files, and ensure any existing data on your new BigCommerce store is also backed up. This provides a safety net in case of unforeseen issues. You can learn more about preparing your source store here.
• BigCommerce Store Setup: Have your new BigCommerce store already set up and accessible. While it doesn't need to be fully designed, it should be ready to receive data. Consider if you want to use the 'Clear Target' option to remove any existing placeholder data before the migration. For more information, read about how to prepare your target store.
• CoreCommerce Access Credentials: You will need full administrative access to your CoreCommerce store. Since CoreCommerce migrations typically use a 'Bridge only' connection method, you'll need FTP/SFTP access to your server to upload the Cart2Cart CoreCommerce Migration module to your store's root directory. The necessary connection fields often include your admin login, admin password, admin URL, and the URL of your store.
• BigCommerce API Credentials: For BigCommerce, the connection is 'API only'. You'll need to generate API credentials within your BigCommerce admin panel. This involves creating a custom app or an API account with specific scopes (permissions) to allow the migration tool to read and write data. You will typically need a Client ID (Username), an Access Token (API Token), and the API Path. Ensure these credentials have the necessary permissions for entities like products, customers, and orders. BigCommerce requires HTTPS for API connections and custom app development for full scope access. Learn more about obtaining access credentials.
• Review Limitations: Be aware of platform-specific limitations. CoreCommerce, when migrating to BigCommerce, may have multi-store limitations for BigCommerce variants and SEO options are excluded for blogs. BigCommerce itself has API rate limits that need to be considered during large transfers.

Performing the Migration: A Step-by-Step Guide

Follow these steps to successfully migrate your CoreCommerce store data to BigCommerce.

Step 1: Start Your Migration

Begin by navigating to the migration service platform and selecting the option to start a new migration. This will typically guide you through an intuitive wizard.

Step 2: Connect Your CoreCommerce Source Store

The first crucial step is to connect your existing CoreCommerce store. Since CoreCommerce utilizes a 'Bridge only' connection method, you will need to:

1. Select 'CoreCommerce' as your Source Cart from the dropdown menu.
2. Download the Cart2Cart CoreCommerce Migration module (Bridge file).
3. Upload this Bridge file to the root directory of your CoreCommerce store via FTP/SFTP. This bridge acts as a secure gateway for the migration tool to access your store's database. For information on finding your root folder, check What is a root folder and where can I find it?
4. Enter your CoreCommerce store's URL, along with your admin login and password. The migration tool will then verify the connection.

Rest assured, the security of your access details is a top priority. Read more about Is it safe to provide your company with my access details?

Step 3: Connect Your BigCommerce Target Store

Next, you'll configure the connection to your new BigCommerce platform.

1. Select 'BigCommerce' as your Target Cart.
2. Enter your BigCommerce store's URL.
3. Provide the API credentials you generated earlier: the Client ID, Access Token, and API Path. These credentials grant the migration tool the necessary permissions to transfer your e-commerce data securely to your BigCommerce instance.

Step 4: Select Data Entities and Configure Additional Options

This stage allows you to specify which data entities you want to transfer and customize the migration process with various options. The migration tool supports a comprehensive range of data types, including:

• Products: Including product categories, manufacturers, attributes, and variants (SKUs).
• Customers: With associated customer groups.
• Orders: With their complete history, invoices, and order statuses.
• Coupons: For promotions and discounts.
• CMS Pages: For informational content.
• Product Reviews: To preserve social proof.

You can also choose from several additional options to tailor your data transfer:

• Preserve IDs: Keep your original Product, Order, Category, and Customer IDs. This is highly recommended for maintaining existing data references. Learn more about How Preserve IDs options can be used?
• Create 301 Redirects: Essential for SEO, this option automatically creates redirects from your old CoreCommerce URLs to your new BigCommerce URLs, preserving your link equity and SEO rankings.
• Migrate Customer Passwords: Allows customers to log in to the new store using their existing credentials.
• Migrate Images in Product Descriptions: Ensures all embedded media is transferred correctly.
• Clear Current Data on Target Store: If your BigCommerce store has placeholder data, this option can wipe it clean before migration. Refer to Clear current data on Target store before migration option for details.

Step 5: Map Data Fields

Data mapping is a critical step to ensure that information from your CoreCommerce store aligns correctly with the structure of BigCommerce. You'll typically map:

• Customer Groups: Match CoreCommerce customer groups (e.g., 'Wholesale', 'Retail') to their BigCommerce equivalents (e.g., 'Customer Group A', 'Default Customer Group').
• Order Statuses: Map CoreCommerce order statuses (e.g., 'Pending', 'Processing', 'Completed') to the corresponding BigCommerce statuses.
• Product Attributes: If your CoreCommerce store uses custom product attributes, you'll map these to BigCommerce's attribute and variant system to ensure product variations are correctly replicated.

Step 6: Run a Free Demo Migration

Before committing to a full transfer, it's highly recommended to perform a free demo migration. This allows you to transfer a limited number of entities (e.g., 10 products, 10 customers, 10 orders) to your BigCommerce store. The demo serves as a valuable opportunity to:

• Verify the connection settings.
• Check the integrity and accuracy of the transferred data.
• Identify any potential issues or adjustments needed in your mapping or additional options.

The Migration Preview Service can help you gain confidence in the process.

Step 7: Initiate Full Data Transfer

Once you are satisfied with the demo results, you can proceed with the full migration. This will transfer all selected data entities from your CoreCommerce store to BigCommerce. During this final step, you might also consider adding a Migration Insurance Service for added peace of mind, which often includes free remigrations. Understand How Migration Insurance works?.

The duration of the full migration depends on the volume of your data. The process typically runs on cloud servers, so it won't impact your current store's performance. You'll receive a notification upon completion.

Post-Migration Steps

After your data has been successfully transferred to BigCommerce, there are several crucial post-migration tasks to complete before going live.

• Review and Test Your New Store: Thoroughly test all aspects of your BigCommerce store.
• Products: Check product pages, images, descriptions, prices, variants, and stock levels. Ensure SKUs are correct.
• Customers: Verify customer accounts, login functionality, and order history.
• Checkout Process: Perform test purchases to confirm payment gateways, shipping options, and order placement work correctly.
• Navigation and Search: Ensure all categories, filters, and internal search functions are operational.
• Configure Store Design and Theme: Customize your BigCommerce theme to match your brand identity and optimize the user experience.
• Install Essential Apps and Integrations: BigCommerce's App Store offers a wide range of extensions. Install any necessary apps for accounting, marketing, shipping, inventory management, or other functionalities that you previously used on CoreCommerce.
• Update DNS Settings: Once you are ready to go live, update your domain's DNS records to point to your new BigCommerce store.
• Verify SEO and Redirects: If you used the 301 redirect option during migration, confirm that all old CoreCommerce URLs redirect correctly to their new BigCommerce counterparts. Check your new sitemap and submit it to search engines. Monitoring your SEO rankings post-migration is vital to preserve link equity.
• Set Up Payment Gateways and Shipping: Configure your preferred payment processors and shipping methods within BigCommerce.
• Announce Your New Store: Inform your customers about the move and any new features or improvements they can expect.

By following this comprehensive guide, you can confidently navigate the process of moving your e-commerce business from CoreCommerce to BigCommerce, paving the way for future growth and enhanced online presence.