switching from bigcommerce to shopify

Most entrepreneurs are afraid to transfer their store to a new eCommerce solution, considering it too risky. And therefore, try to avoid it as long as possible. But if you have already realized that time for upgrading has come - congratulations, that's the first step. In case switching from BigCommerce to Shopify is on the horizon - our detailed step-by-step guide will help you overcome all the arising difficulties.

Table of Contents:

  1. BigCommerce vs. Shopify
  2. Switchng from BigCommerce to Shopify: Which Option to Choose
  3. Switching from BigCommerce to Shopify. The Most Common Questions
    1. Is there a chance I could lose some data?
    2. How long will it take to migrate my store?
    3. Will my SEO be damaged?
    4. When will my redirects start working?
  4. Switching from BigCommerce to Shopify Automatedly
    1. BigCommerce store preparation
    2. Shopify store preparation
  5. BigCommerce to Shopify migration. Cart2Cart Step-by-Step Scenario
  6. Post-Migration Tips
  7. Conclusion

How to Migrate from BigCommerce to Shopify in 4 Steps

    1. Set up the BigCommerce and Shopify stores by providing the required data.
    2. Choose data you wish to migrate to Shopify.
    3. Run free demo transfer.
    4. Start switching from BigCommerce to Shopify by launching the full data migration

Watch our video tutorial to see how easy it is to automatically migrate from BigCommerce to Shopify with the help of the Cart2Cart migration tool:

What is BigCommerce to Shopify migration?

If you wish to change your current BigCommerce platform to Shopify, the fastest way to accomplish the task is to run an automated migration of your eCommerce data between these two platforms. Move your products, orders, customers, etc., quickly and risk-free without any tech knowledge needed.

What is the difference between BigCommerce and Shopify?

BigCommerce and Shopify are both powerful shopping carts that come equipped with tons of useful features for building an online business. Both are famous for their ease of use, competitive pricing, attractive web design, etc., therefore choosing the right-your-size solution between them is quite a complicated task.

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Each of the carts has its strong and weak sides, as well as target customers. To be more specific, BigCommerce is an excellent choice for those looking for a platform with further scaling opportunities and custom features. However, since more and more business owners opt for simplicity, thus they tend to migrate to Shopify - the solution, which allows them to set up a good-looking store in a minimum time.

In terms of popularity, Shopify goes far ahead of BigCommerce, and currently powers 18% of global websites. While BigCommerce has 3% of the market share.

The same is proved by Google Trends - Shopify's popularity has rapidly grown over the last five years.

Switching from BigCommerce to Shopify: Which Option to Choose?

When it comes to transferring a store from one platform to another, retailers usually consider the following options:

They can either do it themselves, i.e., by importing all the data from BigCommerce and exporting it to Shopify, and also additionally copying all the images and updating navigational links. To succeed and not damage the store's overall performance, one should possess at least a set of minimal tech competencies. This way of migration is considered time- and effort-consuming and does not always lead to the expected results.

Bigcommerce vs Shopify: Make a Difficult Decision Simple

Alternatively, you can hire a developer or even a whole team of professionals to get the job done. It's practically the delegation of authority in data transfer to a 3rd party. This option is an excellent solution for those store owners who are not tech-savvy and ready to spend some extra money on the development of their business.

Nowadays more and more people opt for automated migration, and ecommerce automation is among the Top 6 trends for 2024. The tech industry is rapidly growing, and automated migration services (like Cart2Cart) are constantly developing. Its primary benefit is that it doesn't require deep technical knowledge and lots of human involvement. All you have to do is to choose Source and Target carts, decide on the entities to be transferred, go through Free Demo Migration, and launch full BigCommerce to Shopify migration.

As you can see, each option has its strengths and weaknesses, and it's up to you to decide which type of migration to choose. Today we will focus on an automated migration, lead you through it and try to explain its peculiarities and stumbling blocks.

Switching from BigCommerce to Shopify. The Most Common Questions

switching from bigcommerce to shopify

As we've already mentioned, many entrepreneurs consider the process of ecommerce replatforming overwhelming and time-consuming. Thus, before making the final decision, they usually ask the following questions:

 

Is there a chance I could lose some data?

If you've been running a store for a while now, then you've probably collected a considerable amount of data. Usually, merchants do risk losing some of the information in the process of manual migration. But Cart2Cart offers its customers a service that aims to transfer all the selected entities automatedly. At the same time, we strongly recommend reviewing your store's content and deleting all the unnecessary information. This will ease and speed up the replatforming.

How long will it take to migrate my store?

Needless to say that ecommerce migration/replatforming is not a one-click affair at all. However, turning to automated tools (like Cart2Cart) to get the job done will spare you the unnecessary troubles of doing it all by yourself. At the same time, one should understand that the speed of migration depends on the number of entities to be transferred and the current Shopify's pricing plan.

BigCommerce vs Squarespace vs Shopify Pros & Cons Compared

Will my SEO be damaged?

witching from BigCommerce to Shopify may sometimes influence the traffic and search results of your store. To avoid that one should focus on the structure of the future website and set up 301 redirects. Also, feel free to take a look at our post on SEO Migration.

When will my redirects start working?

Almost all retailers worry that redirects to their future Shopify store won't work. It is important to understand that these redirects are being created in the process of Cart2Cart migration, and they will become active once the transition is over. Also, we recommend you use the additional option "Create the 301 redirects on your target store after migration," which ensures the safety of all the redirects.

How Do I Import Items from BigCommerce to Shopify?

The whole process of switching platforms may seem time-consuming and complicated. However, following these simple steps will help in switching from BigCommerce to Shopify seamlessly and risk-free:

BigCommerce store preparation

switching from bigcommerce to shopify

Perform data analysis

Ecommerce systems tend to grow over time. Therefore, your store may contain outdated or incorrect data. The migration process is a perfect time to audit all the information (e.g., product detail, categories, passwords, orders, reviews, etc.) and edit or delete everything you consider unnecessary.

 

Prepare BigCommerce access info

Make sure you have all the necessary BigCommerce credentials - the URL, API Path and API Token.

 

Shopify store preparation

switching from bigcommerce to shopify

Set up an account

Get your Shopify store ready by creating an account and starting a 14-day free trial. After filling in all the necessary information, the system will assist with the migration process and provide all the needed tips.

Choose a theme

Keep in mind that you won't be able to migrate your BigCommerce store design. Although, Shopify has a variety of themes (both free and paid ones) to choose from. You can either select it before or after the replatforming. But remember, it is better to use a default Shopify theme at the very beginning of the setup process and make no customizations to it since such actions may interfere with the migration process.

Calculate the migration price

The price of BigCommerce to Shopify migration is flexible and will depend on the number of entities to be transferred, as well as other additional options. Our Migration Estimator will help you calculate the exact cost of a specific shopping cart replatforming.

BigCommerce to Shopify migration. Cart2Cart Step-by-Step Scenario

If you’ve followed the above-mentioned steps, get ready to start the migration process. First of all, go to the Cart2Cart web page and launch free demo migration.

Alternatively, you can benefit from the Cart2Cart Store Migration App to facilitate the process of BigCommerce to Shopify migration even more.

Setup Your Shopping Carts

Adhere to the Migration Wizard and set up your BigCommerce and Shopify shopping carts.

First of all, choose BigCommerce from the drop-down menu and paste your current store's URL.

Also, to perform BigCommerce migration, you must provide the Client ID, API Path, and API Token from the admin account. Please, find a detailed guide on how to do that in our FAQ.

bigcommerce

To set up your Target Cart, choose Shopify from the pop-up list and click the “Install Plugin” button. Then you will be transferred to the Shopify website.

shopify target

To complete the login process, please, provide your store's URL and proceed with the app installation.

Shopify loginswitching from bigcommerce to shopify

Pay attention that Shopify's Shipping Settings allow users to choose countries they're planning to sell goods to. So, if your BigCommerce settings include countries not specified on your Shopify account, keep in mind that some orders will be omitted during the migration. To avoid that, follow the guide and add all the necessary locations to Shopify’s configurations before the replatforming.

Migrating to Shopify. 2024 Best Practices & Recommendations

Choose entities you wish to move from Bigcommerce to Shopify

Now you have to pick entities you wish to transfer to the new Shopify store (you can either choose to migrate separate items like Products, Customers, Orders, Blogs, Coupons or click on the "Select All" box).

switching from bigcommerce to shopify

What can be migrated from BigCommerce to Shopify?

Cart2Cart can transfer the following types of data:

  • Products (names, descriptions, base and additional images, statuses, prices, meta titles and descriptions, etc.)
  • Product categories (names, descriptions, statuses, images, meta titles and descriptions, etc.)
  • Manufacturers
  • Customers (names, emails, shipping and billing addresses)
  • Orders (IDs, statuses, prices, comments, emails, billing and shipping addresses, etc.)
  • Coupons (names, codes, discount types and amounts)
  • Reviews (date created, rates, user names, comments, products, titles)
  • Blog posts (titles, full and short descriptions, tags, SEO URLs, authors, redirects, images)

Additional migration options

To make the Switching from BigCommerce to Shopify more flawless, users can choose additional migration options. Please note that some of them are provided for an extra cost (in case of Full Migration).

Switching from BigCommerce to Shopify supports the following options:

switching from bigcommerce to shopify

    • The two shopping carts differ in store organization, namely, Shopify has a specific system of categories (collections) and subcategories (tags). Thus, your source categories will be transferred into Shopify collections, and products will receive tags according to the subcategories of the source store. That is why to guarantee the proper arrangement of entities in the Target Store, it is strongly recommended to choose “Migrate Source Store categories into Shopify Automated Collections” option.
    • Due to the same specific system of Shopify's categories, it is impossible to transfer URLs unchanged. Hence, it is better to choose "Create the 301 redirects on your target store after migration" option, thereby ensuring 301 redirects for the links to your old store.

BigCommerce to Shopify Migration Checklist. Tried & True Recommendations

  • In case you want to keep your current store's URLs after the migration, you can choose the option "Migrate categories and products SEO URLs" . By doing so, you will save your old customers and store SEO. Be aware that the overall look of Shopify's store URLs will be slightly changed.
  • In order not to mix and duplicate data during the transfer Cart2Cart provides its customers with the “Clear current data on a Target Store before migration” option. If you decide to use this option, please note that you won't be able to recover the deleted data.

Map languages

Unfortunately, due to its peculiarities, Shopify doesn't support the migration of languages. But, at the same time, this solution has a few applications that allow merchants to make their stores multilingual.

Map currencies

Due to Shopify's technical capabilities, the migration of currencies is not possible. All the prices will be set in the default currency established in Shopify, regardless of the currency in the Target store.

Map order statuses

If you decided to transfer your orders, you could map certain order statuses from your Source cart to the Target cart. BigCommerce and Shopify have different names of Order Statuses. But Cart2Cart customers have an opportunity to go through all of them and specify the variants they should be converted to.

switching from bigcommerce to shopify

Map customers and accounts

Cart2Cart can transfer all the customers from your BigCommerce store, but to avoid mass notifications, their accounts will not be migrated. This guide will assist you in sending the invites to the existing clients, so they could restore their accounts.

Please, keep in mind that during the migration of Customers Cart2Cart Service will create new default unknown email address if the customer's email on the BigCommerce store is not correct. The same will happen during the Orders migration if they are not linked to certain customers or were created by "guest visitors."

Launch free demo migration

Now it is time to start free Demo Migration. You will have the possibility to transfer a limited number of items in a short period (approximately 30 minutes) and check our service's efficiency and its compliance with your requirements. We recommend you not to skip this step. Also, please do not close your browser window until the demo migration process is over.

switching from bigcommerce to shopify

Once the demo migration is finished, check whether all the items were transferred correctly. Remember to check the backend of migrated data because it may not always be visible from the frontend.

Should you have any additional questions, feel free to contact our Support Team.

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Proceed to Full Migration

After completing all the steps mentioned above, you can start your Full Migration from BigCommerce to Shopify. Make sure you have enough money in your account, otherwise you will have to fund it. Also, In case you have a discount coupon, don't forget to use it. You will receive an email notification after the full migration process is over, so it's safe to close your browser window.

Please note that if you have issues with initial migration (e.g., improper shopping carts setup, migration data is damaged, problems with additional modifications, etc.), please request Remigration Service. Thus, you will be able to perform the transition from BigCommerce to Shopify from scratch. This service will cost only 50% off the price of your initial Full Migration.

How to Migrate Products from BigCommerce?

    • In the Products menu choose Export.
    • Configure the export settings.

switching from bigcommerce to shopify

    • Create the CSV file with your Products and download it.

switching from bigcommerce to shopify

Also, Cart2Cart can move your Products in an automated manner - just pick the necessary option while configuring the data transfer in the Migration Wizard.

How to Export BigCommerce Orders?

    • Choose Export Orders option in your Orders menu.
    • Set the required configurations.

switching from bigcommerce to shopify

    • Download the CSV file with the BigCommerce store orders.

switching from bigcommerce to shopify

Alternatively, it is possible to choose the migration of Orders while configuring an automated data transfer with Cart2Cart.

Post-Migration Tips

Once the migration process is over, you will have to go through your new Shopify store, examine its performance, and determine possible issues.

  • First of all, check the frontend for consistency and random errors (e.g., whether all the products are visible and categorized and whether the onsite search is working correctly).
  • Make sure your domain name is active, also go through all the links (menus, header, footer, and internal pages).
  • To increase the functionality of your store, consider installing Shopify's apps. The App Store provides users with a wide variety of both free and premium apps that would meet the needs and requirements of the most demanding merchants.
  • Make a few test purchases to check that everything works properly and your customers won't face any issues in the future. We advise you to try out your store's capabilities for several weeks and do not disable your Cart2Cart account right after the migration is finished.
  • If new products, customers, or orders have appeared on your BigCommerce store during or after the Full Migration, you can use the Recent Data Migration Service, and we will ensure that not a single entity is lost and will transfer it to Shopify.
  • Another essential thing to remember is that each transferred order is considered a new one due to Shopify's peculiarities. Thus, store owners receive numerous alert emails about orders' creation. If you want to turn off these messages, login to your Shopify account, go to Admin panel -> Settings -> Notifications, and press the "Disable" button.

In case you're looking for a platform for a small business, we advise you to check out this post.

BigCommerce to Shopify Migration FAQ Block

Can you migrate from BigCommerce to Shopify?

Sure! Follow these steps to transfer your BigCommerce store to Shopify with Cart2Cart:

  • Provide your BigCommerce credentials.
  • Install Migration for Shopify plugin.
  • Select data for migration (products, customers, orders, etc.) and other extra options.
  • Try the free demo migration.
  • Launch the full migration.

Should I switch from BigCommerce to Shopify?

Yes, if your current BigCommerce-based store lacks functionality and you wish to get the all-in-one shopping cart with limitless capabilities for customization, numerous apps and themes, over 100 payment gateways, etc.

How do I transfer my BigCommerce domain to Shopify?

Make sure your domain is eligible for transfer. After that, go to Shopify admin, enter the needed domain in the Domains section and verify it. Once done, your BigCommerce domain will be ready for transfer.

Does BigCommerce integrate with Shopify?

No. BigCommerce and Shopify are two completely different platforms. However, you can easily add the Shopify Buy Button to your current BigCommerce store by editing the HTML or CSS code.

Which is cheaper Shopify or BigCommerce?

Shopify vs BigCommerce pricing plans are practically the same. But BigCommerce offers its users more in-built functionality and with Shopify extra costs include additional apps and themes.

 

BigCommerce to Shopify Migration Checklist:

  • Pre-Migration Tips

    • Prepare your BigCommerce store
      • Perform BigCommerce store data analysis
      • Find BigCommerce store access details
    • Prepare your Shopify store
      • Set up your Shopify store
      • Choose a theme
      • Calculate the migration price
  • Migrate BigCommerce to Shopify Automatedly

     

    • Provide shopping carts' info
    • Select data for migration
    • Specify additional migration options
    • Map languages, currencies & order statuses
    • Map customers & accounts
    • Launch free Demo migration
    • Start Full migration
  • Post-Migration Tips

    • Check your store for random errors
    • Install all the necessary Shopify apps
    • Perform recent data migration (if needed)

Conclusion

We hope that our detailed guide has helped you make up your mind and perform the migration from BigCommerce to Shopify without any difficulties. We believe that you will enjoy the benefits of using this perfect out of the box solution, and will build a good-looking and reliable store that would bring prosperity in the future.

But if you're still hesitant, remember that one cannot succeed without running a risk. Go ahead and try our free demo now!