BigCommerce to Shopify migration
Both are strong hosted platforms, so this migration needs a better reason than platform quality. We will tell you if yours is not good enough.
Brands we build and scale
The redirect map is written before any data moves.
Every URL changes when you leave BigCommerce. That is not a detail to handle at the end β it is the single thing that decides whether the organic traffic you have spent years earning arrives on the new store or disappears.
So the URL map comes first: every old path matched to its new equivalent, reviewed against Search Console and your top landing pages, and shipped as 301s with the launch rather than patched in afterwards. Titles and meta descriptions carry across, internal linking is rebuilt, and we watch Search Console closely for the weeks that follow.
Done that way, rankings dip briefly and recover. Done without a map, they do not come back on their own β and by the time it is obvious, the old store is gone and the evidence with it.
What sends brands off BigCommerce
You keep commissioning custom work
The clearest signal. If you repeatedly pay for development to do things Shopify has an app for, the ecosystem gap is costing you more than the platform saves.
Hiring and handover
The BigCommerce talent pool is much smaller. If you have struggled to find or replace a developer, that risk compounds.
Checkout conversion
Shop Pay's returning-customer base is a real, measurable advantage at scale, and BigCommerce has no equivalent network.
Design ambition
If brand expression is central to how you sell, Shopify's theme ecosystem and developer pool give you further to go.
What actually breaks
Every migration page on the internet lists what moves across. These are the things that do not, and they are what decides whether the project goes well. We would rather you read them now than discover them at launch.
Native B2B features
BigCommerce does price lists and customer groups natively at lower tiers. On Shopify that is Plus, or an app. This is the single biggest thing to check before committing.
Transaction fees
BigCommerce charges none on any gateway. If you are tied to a gateway Shopify surcharges, that cost is real and should go into the comparison honestly.
Multi-storefront
Available lower down BigCommerce's tiers than Shopify's. If you run several storefronts, price the Plus jump before deciding.
Product modifiers
BigCommerce modifiers are more flexible than Shopify variants and do not always map one to one. Complex configurators may need an app or custom work.
How the migration runs
Scope and audit
We go through the BigCommerce store properly β catalogue, customisation, integrations, and anything platform-specific that will need a Shopify equivalent. You get the list before you get a quote.
URL map and 301 plan
Written and reviewed before any data moves, against your actual traffic rather than a generic pattern.
Data migration
Products, variants, customers, orders and content, into a staging store you can check against the live one.
Build and rebuild
Theme, the Shopify equivalents of whatever the old platform did natively, and the integrations you actually use.
Launch
DNS, redirects live with it, and analytics and Search Console verified on the new property the same day.
Watch
Crawl and ranking monitoring for the weeks after, because that is when a missed redirect shows up and when it is still cheap to fix.
Questions we get every week
Is it actually worth migrating?
Often not, and we will say so. BigCommerce is a good platform and replatforming is expensive and risky. The reasons that do justify it: you keep needing custom development for things Shopify has apps for, you cannot hire or retain BigCommerce developers, or checkout conversion is materially behind and Shop Pay would close the gap. Wanting a nicer theme is not enough.
Will we lose our B2B setup?
Possibly, and this is the thing to check first. BigCommerce gives you price lists and customer groups natively at lower tiers; on Shopify that means Plus or an app. We map your exact B2B requirements against Shopify's model during scoping and tell you what it costs to match β before you commit, not after.
What about transaction fees?
BigCommerce charges none on any gateway, and Shopify surcharges when you use an external one. If you are contractually tied to a specific gateway that difference is real money and belongs in the decision. If you can use Shopify Payments it usually disappears.
How long does it take?
Two to three weeks for a typical catalogue. Both platforms have clean APIs and comparable data models, which makes this one of the more predictable migrations. Modifier-heavy catalogues and B2B pricing rules are what extend it.
Explore next
Thinking about leaving BigCommerce?
Send us your store URL. You will get a written assessment of what moves cleanly, what needs rebuilding, and whether the migration is worth it at all β we will tell you if it is not.