Welcome to our monthly E-commerce Pulse report for December 2025. This month's data paints a vivid picture of a dynamic market, characterized by significant modernization efforts, strategic platform shifts, and an increasing reliance on advanced tools for seamless data management. Our analysis delves into the 'why' behind these movements, providing crucial insights for staying ahead in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

A comic illustration showing various e-commerce stores (old and new) migrating their data upwards towards a futuristic cloud platform, with an analyst studying data charts.
A comic illustration showing various e-commerce stores (old and new) migrating their data upwards towards a futuristic cloud platform, with an analyst studying data charts.

Insights & Trends

December's migration data clearly indicates an intensified push towards digital infrastructure modernization, a trend we're calling the 'Great Replatforming'. We observed a substantial number of stores, many aged between 5 and 26 years, moving from established platforms like Magento, PrestaShop, BigCommerce, and even older instances of WooCommerce. This widespread desire to update legacy systems underscores a market-wide pursuit of enhanced performance, scalability, and feature sets that older systems often struggle to provide.

A dominant force in this shift remains Shopify, which continues to be the preferred destination for businesses transitioning from various source platforms, including smaller players like Wix and BigCartel, up to large-scale Magento and Shopware deployments. This reinforces Shopify's position as a versatile and attractive ecosystem for merchants of diverse operational sizes and complexities.

Interestingly, the data also highlights the resilience and continuous evolution within open-source communities. We recorded a notable volume of internal migrations - for example, numerous stores moving from one WooCommerce instance to another, or similar shifts within Magento. These aren't platform changes, but rather strategic upgrades and optimizations within the same framework, demonstrating a commitment to leveraging the flexibility and control offered by open-source solutions. Furthermore, the consistent appearance of 'recent data' and 'remigration' types signals a growing emphasis on maintaining continuous data integrity and agility post-migration, a critical factor for high-volume enterprises.

Predictions for Q1 2026:

  • AI-Driven Shopify Surge: Given the recent launch of Shopify's Winter '26 Edition, particularly the integration of AI capabilities via Sidekick for B2B features and theme customization, we anticipate an accelerated migration wave to Shopify in Q1 2026. Businesses will increasingly seek to capitalize on these intelligent tools for competitive advantage.
  • Open-Source Optimization Boom: The trend of internal upgrades within platforms like WooCommerce and Magento suggests a growing market for specialized development and consulting services focused on optimizing existing open-source infrastructure. Merchants will invest in refining their current setups to extract maximum value without undergoing full replatforming.
  • Sophisticated Data Sync Demands: As data volumes continue to swell, the need for advanced, continuous data synchronization solutions will become paramount. Expect businesses to prioritize tools and strategies that ensure real-time data consistency across platforms, moving beyond traditional one-off migration events.
A superhero-like AI, 'Sidekick,' rapidly implementing upgrades and new features across different e-commerce platforms, demonstrating dynamic technical evolution.
A superhero-like AI, 'Sidekick,' rapidly implementing upgrades and new features across different e-commerce platforms, demonstrating dynamic technical evolution.

Platform & Technical Updates

December brought a flurry of significant updates across leading e-commerce platforms, underscoring a collective push towards more robust, intelligent, and developer-friendly ecosystems.

For Wix, key advancements include new methods within the Authentication API, offering more flexible sign-on, logout, and password management options for member interactions. The Bookings Staff Member Settings API now provides granular control over staff contact privacy, while a new Data collections app extension enables automated CMS collection creation with predefined schemas upon app installation.

VirtueMart focused on refinement and security, with fixes for coupon handling issues and enhanced 404 error management. Notably, user fields in the cart now apply captcha only when registration is allowed without a product, improving security while maintaining usability.

Shopify unveiled its comprehensive Winter '26 Edition, a monumental release featuring over 150 updates. Highlights include B2B functionalities within Horizon themes, native SMS marketing support in Shopify Messaging, and groundbreaking AI capabilities through 'Sidekick' for block generation, theme customization, and even custom app creation. Additionally, new Inter-Location Transfers Reporting offers detailed inventory insights, and US Shopify Balance merchants can now configure automated payout splits by percentage into various accounts.

BigCommerce enhanced its developer toolkit, expanding translation support for product filters and options via GraphQL, streamlining multilingual stores. They also introduced faster, batch-capable record creation in their Price List API for improved efficiency in pricing management, and a new beta experience for Catalyst storefronts to sync products with Makeswift.

Our internal development teams successfully resolved several critical issues this month, including a Wix product import error related to URL slug validation, and UI/UX improvements to our migration estimator, such as adding option prices and direct scroll links to additional options. These efforts ensure a smoother and more transparent migration experience for our clients.

A vibrant newsroom scene filled with busy reporters and analysts, with screens showing trending e-commerce news and a prominent 'Weekly News Desk' display.
A vibrant newsroom scene filled with busy reporters and analysts, with screens showing trending e-commerce news and a prominent 'Weekly News Desk' display.

From the Weekly News Desk

Stay informed and empowered with the latest happenings in the e-commerce world! Our weekly news desk compiles the most critical developments, offering deeper dives into industry shifts, technological advancements, and expert analyses. Don't miss out on insights that can shape your business strategy. This month's highlights include: