Aero Commerce to BigCommerce Migration - Step-by-Step Guide & Expert Services

A Comprehensive Guide to Transitioning from Aero Commerce to BigCommerce

Replatforming your e-commerce store is a strategic decision that can unlock new growth opportunities, enhance scalability, and improve overall operational efficiency. If you're currently running your online business on Aero Commerce and considering a move to BigCommerce, this guide is designed to provide you with a clear, actionable roadmap for a seamless data transfer. BigCommerce, a powerful SaaS platform, offers robust features and flexibility, making it an excellent choice for merchants looking to elevate their digital storefront.

While Aero Commerce typically involves custom solutions, migrating its data to a structured platform like BigCommerce requires a meticulous approach. This article will walk you through the entire process, from essential preparation to the final post-migration checks, ensuring your products, customer data, and order history transition with integrity and minimal downtime. We'll focus on leveraging CSV file exports from Aero Commerce and BigCommerce's robust API for a smooth transition.

Prerequisites for Migration

Before embarking on your migration journey from Aero Commerce to BigCommerce, proper preparation is paramount. Taking the time to set up both your source and target environments correctly will prevent potential hiccups and ensure a smoother data transfer.

Preparing Your Aero Commerce (Source) Store

• Data Backup: Always perform a full backup of your Aero Commerce store's database and files. This is your safety net in case any unforeseen issues arise during the data export process.
• Data Export: Aero Commerce, often being a custom or self-hosted solution, will require you to manually export your store's data into CSV files. Ensure you export key entities such as products, product categories, manufacturers, reviews, customers, orders, invoices, taxes, stores, coupons, CMS pages, and blog posts.
• Data Cleanup: This is an opportune moment to audit and cleanse your data. Remove any outdated products, inactive customer accounts, or irrelevant information that you no longer need on your new BigCommerce store.
• For more detailed guidance, refer to our How to prepare Source store for migration? FAQ.

Preparing Your BigCommerce (Target) Store

• New BigCommerce Store Setup: Ensure you have an active BigCommerce store, either a trial or a paid plan. Familiarize yourself with its interface and basic settings.
• Theme and Basic Configuration: While you can configure your theme and advanced settings post-migration, having a basic theme in place can help visualize the imported data.
• API Credentials: BigCommerce relies on API for data import. You will need to generate specific API credentials: Client ID, Access Token, and API Path. This typically involves creating a custom app within your BigCommerce admin panel with the necessary API scopes (permissions) to read and write data. HTTPS is required for API access, and be mindful of API rate limits during large transfers.
• For a detailed guide on securing your API keys, read The Short & Essential Guide to Access Credentials for Cart2Cart.
• You can find further information on preparing your target store at How to prepare Target store for migration?

Performing the Migration: A Step-by-Step Guide

This section outlines the process of moving your e-commerce data using a migration wizard, detailing each step from initial connection to initiating the full data transfer.

Step 1: Initiate Your Migration

Begin by accessing the migration wizard. Here, you'll start a new project to transfer your store's data.

Step 2: Configure Your Source Store (Aero Commerce via CSV)

Since Aero Commerce is a custom platform, the migration process will involve using CSV files as your data source. This method ensures all your valuable store data can be properly extracted and structured for the transfer.

1. From the list of supported carts, select "CSV File to Cart" as your Source Cart.
2. Upload the CSV files you exported from your Aero Commerce store. Ensure these files contain all the necessary data entities like products, product categories, customers, orders, coupons, and CMS pages.

Step 3: Connect Your Target Store (BigCommerce)

Next, you will establish the connection to your new BigCommerce store, which will serve as the destination for your migrated data.

1. Select "BigCommerce" as your Target Cart from the dropdown menu.
2. Enter your BigCommerce store's URL.
3. Provide the necessary API credentials: Client ID, Access Token, and API Path. Remember that BigCommerce requires HTTPS and custom app development with specific API scopes for full access.

Step 4: Select Data Entities for Transfer

This crucial step allows you to define exactly what data you wish to transfer from your Aero Commerce CSV files to BigCommerce. You can choose to migrate all entities or select them individually for a more tailored data transfer.

Common entities you can migrate include:

• Products (including SKUs, variants, descriptions, images)
• Product Categories
• Manufacturers
• Customers (including customer data and customer groups, which can be mapped to BigCommerce tags)
• Orders (including order statuses and order IDs)
• Coupons
• CMS Pages (Blogs, Blog Posts)

Note: While CSV files can contain data like product reviews, invoices, and taxes, the actual migration of these specific entities depends on BigCommerce's API support for direct import and how comprehensively they are structured in your CSV. Ensure your CSVs are well-formatted for optimal results.

Step 5: Configure Additional Migration Options

This step provides several powerful options to customize your migration, optimize SEO, and ensure data integrity on your new BigCommerce store.

• Clear Target Store Data: This option allows you to clear current data on Target store before migration, ensuring a clean slate.
• Preserve IDs: Opt to preserve product, category, customer, and order IDs. This is vital for maintaining internal consistency and external links if you have them.
• Migrate SEO URLs & Create 301 Redirects: Essential for maintaining your SEO rankings and link equity. This option ensures that old URLs redirect seamlessly to new ones on BigCommerce.
• Create Variants from Attributes: If your Aero Commerce products have attributes that define variants (e.g., size, color), this option will help correctly set them up in BigCommerce.
• Migrate Images in Description: Ensures product images embedded within descriptions are transferred.
• Password Migration: Allows customer passwords to be migrated securely.

Step 6: Map Data Fields

Data mapping is where you match specific fields from your Aero Commerce CSV data to their corresponding fields in BigCommerce. This ensures that different data structures, such as customer groups or order statuses, are correctly aligned between the two platforms.

For example, you might map specific customer roles from your CSV to BigCommerce customer groups or align order statuses (e.g., "Pending payment" from Aero Commerce to "Awaiting Payment" in BigCommerce).

Step 7: Perform a Demo Migration (Highly Recommended)

Before committing to a full replatforming, execute a free demo migration. This allows you to transfer a limited number of entities to your BigCommerce store, giving you a tangible preview of the migration results. It's an excellent opportunity to:

• Verify data accuracy and integrity.
• Check image transfers and product variants.
• Test the functionality of migrated elements.
• Make any necessary adjustments to your mapping or options before the full transfer.

Step 8: Initiate Full Migration

Once you are satisfied with the demo results, you can proceed with the full data transfer. At this stage, you'll review the total cost, confirm your selected options, and consider adding a Migration Insurance plan for added peace of mind. An insurance plan offers the flexibility of additional remigrations, which can be invaluable for large or complex transfers. More details are available in How Migration Insurance works?.

Post-Migration Steps

After your data has successfully transferred to BigCommerce, a few critical steps remain to ensure your new store is fully operational and optimized.

• Thorough Data Verification: Systematically check all migrated entities in your BigCommerce admin panel. Verify products (SKUs, variants, prices, images, descriptions), customer accounts, order histories, and content pages. Pay close attention to data integrity and formatting.
• Configure BigCommerce Settings: Set up essential store configurations such as shipping methods, tax rules, payment gateways, and store policies specific to BigCommerce.
• Install Apps and Plugins: Explore the BigCommerce App Marketplace for apps that replicate functionality you had on Aero Commerce or enhance your new store with BigCommerce-specific features (e.g., marketing tools, advanced analytics, customer support integrations). Remember that custom app development might be needed for very specific requirements, as mentioned in BigCommerce's limitations.
• Update DNS and Go Live: Once you're confident everything is in order, update your domain's DNS settings to point to your new BigCommerce store. Plan this step carefully to minimize downtime and inform your customers.
• Implement 301 Redirects: Even if you used the "Create 301 SEO URLs" option during migration, it's wise to review and manually set up any additional 301 redirects for critical pages that might have changed URLs. This preserves your SEO rankings and ensures a smooth user experience, preventing broken links.
• Comprehensive Store Testing: Conduct exhaustive testing of all store functionalities. This includes the entire checkout process, user registration and login, product search, contact forms, and mobile responsiveness. Enlist a few trusted users for beta testing if possible.
• Monitor Performance and SEO: After going live, closely monitor your website analytics, sales performance, and search engine rankings. Address any issues promptly to maintain optimal performance and visibility.
• Consider Recent Data Migration: If there was any new data (orders, customers) on your Aero Commerce store after the initial export but before going live with BigCommerce, consider performing a recent data migration to transfer these final updates.

By following these steps, you can confidently transition your e-commerce business from Aero Commerce to BigCommerce, leveraging a powerful new platform for future growth. Should you encounter any challenges or require assistance, our Frequently Asked Questions and Contact Us page are valuable resources for support.