An A-Z Guideline On BigCommerce to Shopify Migration

If you are looking for a guideline on how to migrate from BigCommerce to Shopify, this article is for you. We will walk you through all the detailed steps to perform the full BigCommerce to Shopify migration process.

• Step 1: Back up BigCommerce database.
• Step 2: Create a new Shopify store.
• Step 3: Set up Source Cart & Target Cart.
• Step 4: Select entities to migrate from BigCommerce to Shopify. 
• Step 5: Run Full Migration.
• Step 6: Check & follow post-migration checklist.

Feel excited? Let’s get started now!

Outline

• Why Should You Move From BigCommerce to Shopify?
• Migrate BigCommerce to Shopify - Preparation
• How to Migrate from BigCommerce to Shopify in 3 Steps
• 6 Things to Do After Switching From BigCommerce to Shopify
• Tips for a Successful Shopify Store
• Migrate BigCommerce to Shopify - FAQs
• Conclusion

Why Should You Move From BigCommerce to Shopify?

#1 User-friendliness

Undoubtedly, Shopify is one of the easiest-to-use eCommerce platforms in the market at the moment. All you need to do is create an account and follow Shopify’s detailed guidelines to launch your online business.

• Shopify provides users a minimal interface and user-friendly drag & drop builder. 
• Meanwhile, BigCommerce displays lots of sections and features in their dashboard, which may confuse new users.

#2 No Pricing Upgrade Based On The Annual Revenue

During your time with BigCommerce, you must pay them higher fees when your online store gets more sales revenue. You must upgrade to their Plus plan, which is $105/month when your store exceeds 180,000 USD yearly in online sales. 

BigCommerce will upgrade their fee if your annual sales revenue increase

Unlike BigCommerce, Shopify doesn’t charge you their fee based on your annual revenue.

#3 App Ecosystem

Compared with BigCommerce and other platforms, Shopify has one of the most abundant app marketplaces. It allows you to access 8000+ apps that potentially lift your store’s functionality to a more advanced level. Meanwhile, BigCommerce only has 1500+ apps on their marketplace which is more humble.

#4 A Huge Network of Shopify Experts

According to BuiltWith’s report, Shopify has more than 4 million live users, which is huge. For this reason, you can quickly look for support from Shopify experts handling many merchant requests. 

You can contact experts on the Shopify Experts directory

In contrast to Shopify, BigCommerce has only 45,000+ live users until now. This means there will be fewer experts for you to collaborate with. 

To sum up, Shopify has some advantages over BigCommerce, such as:

• Better user-friendliness.
• No fee charge based on the sales revenue.
• Bigger app market.
• More colossal network of experts.

If you are looking for these factors from a new eCommerce platform, it’s time to move from BigCommerce to Shopify. 

Migrate BigCommerce to Shopify - Preparation

#1 Back up BigCommerce Database

The first step of migrating from BigCommerce to Shopify is to back up your BigCommerce database. By doing this, you will avoid spending countless hours resolving the consequence of data loss.

In detail, we will show you how to back up your ‘products’ entities with the three steps below: 

• Step 1: Log into your BigCommerce’s backend and choose ‘Products’. Next, select ‘Export’.
• Step 2: In the pop-up window, click ‘Export my products to a CSV file’. 

Export product data to CSV file

• Step 3: After seeing a status bar move across the screen, select ‘Download my Products file’ to finish the process.

Download product data CSV file

Similar to ‘products’, other data like customers and orders share the same backup steps. You can read this detailed document by the BigCommerce team for further details.

With the brief instruction above, we hope you know how to back up BigCommerce’s data before starting the migration. 

#2 Create a New Shopify Store

If you haven't had a Shopify store for the Shopify migration process yet, you need to create one. First, go to the Shopify homepage and click the ‘Start free trial’ button. 

Shopify homepage

Next, you can choose to answer questions to help Shopify understand your business and generate a personalized store for you. If not, choose ‘Skip All’ to access Shopify’s dashboard.

Survey questions from Shopify

From now on, you will have a 3-day free trial to explore and test the in-app features of Shopify. However, to create a full-function store that can receive payment from your customers, you need to upgrade to the ‘$1 for the first month’ trial of Shopify.

How to Migrate from BigCommerce to Shopify in 3 Steps

Having been partnering with LitExtension for a long time, the PageFly team always trusts them when it comes to performing migration projects. Thus, via this article, we will instruct you on how to transfer BigCommerce to Shopify with LitExtension.

First, you need to create a new account on the LitExtension website before running your migration.

#Step 1: Set up Source Cart and Target Cart

Your migration journey from BigCommerce to Shopify will start with setting up the source and target store. 

To set up your Source Cart, simply follow these steps: 

• Choose ‘BigCommerce’ as your source store. 
• Provide LitExtension with your ‘Source Cart URL’. 
• If needed, click the small Youtube icon beside the ‘Enter BigCommerce API’ text to access a short video guideline. It will help you learn how to get the API information from your BiCommerce store.

Set up Source Cart - BigCommerce

After filling in all the API-related information, you are now done with the Source Cart setup step.

Now, let’s move to the Target Cart setup. Follow these steps:

• Choose ‘Shopify’ as your Target Cart.
• Fill your Shopify store’s URL in the ‘Target Cart Url’. To learn how to get the API password, click the small Youtube icon beside the ‘Enter Shopify API’ to access LitExtension’s video instructions.

Set up Target Cart - Shopify

After providing LitExtension with all the necessary information, click ‘Next: Configure your Migration’ to go to the second step.

#Step 2: Choose Migration Entities

Now, it is time to choose the entities you want to migrate from BigCommerce to Shopify. 

At this step, you can migrate all the entities, including products, customers, categories, etc, by clicking on the ‘Select All’ box. If you only want to transfer some specific data type, select each entity box respectively. 

Select store entities

After choosing your entities, you can select the Additional Options to extend the migration functionality. Here are some specific examples for you to look at:

• Preserve Order IDs on Target Store: by using this option, you can ensure that all the IDs of your orders in the Target Store will be the same as those in the Source Store after migration.
• Create 301 Redirects: with this option, all the URLs of your Source Store will be automatically redirected to the Target Store. 
• Migrate Images from Products, Categories and Blog Post Descriptions: LitExtension will transfer images in the description of your products, categories, and blog articles to the Target Store.

Choose Additional Options

Each platform has a different type of order status, which can confuse you if they don’t display correctly in Shopify target stores. Thus, don’t forget to map the order status to ensure your order status corresponds to those in the old store.

After choosing entities and additional options, you can run the Demo Migrationwith 20 entities to check how LitExtension performs. If satisfied with the outcome, you can move to the Full Migration stage to officially import data to Shopify.

You can skip Demo Migration if you want

Although LitExtension allows you to skip the Demo Migration, we still recommend you run this step to make the best preparation for your Full Migration process.

#Step 3: Run Full Migration from BigCommerce to Shopify

In the final step, LitExtension will let you know your migration project's total price(including additional options). If the price information is clear and the number of entities is correct, you can go ahead by clicking on ‘Start Full Migration’. 

You can turn off your PC/laptop since the official migration process runs on LitExtension’s server. 

Full Migration is running

When everything gets done, LitExtension will send you the migration outcome via your email address. 

Full Migration is completed

Finally, don’t forget to check the migration result to ensure your new store matches your expectations. 

Along with the automated migration solution, LitExtension also offers the All in One migration service. With this option, you just need to send your migration request to LitExtension’s experts, who will handle it from A to Z. The All in One service is a great way to save tremendous time and effort for an eCommerce replatform. 

6 Things to Do After Switching From BigCommerce to Shopify

After finishing the migration process, you should follow this checklist below to ensure your Shopify store is ready to go!

After-migration checklist

Tips for a Successful Shopify Store

Congratulations! You have finished the BigCommerce to Shopify migration with LitExtension. It is time to start building a successful Shopify store by following the checklist below.

#1 Get Used to Shopify’s Backend

To build an outstanding business on Shopify, you need to learn how to start a Shopify store first. Below are some crucial activities we recommend you focus on:

• Learn how to add more products to your store.
• Create different pages such as product page, blog page and collection page.
• Choose your payment method so customers can pay you the money.
• Set up the store’s analytic system to keep track of your business performance.

#2 Choose a Proper Shopify Theme

Theme is indispensable to any successful Shopify business, representing the store’s image and performance. To pick a proper Shopify theme, you can visit the Shopify Theme Store, where various professional templates are available. 

Based on my experience, here are a few criteria that you can follow to choose a well-matching theme for your business:

• Theme style

• Customer support

• Checkout process

2.1 Theme Style

Depending on your business style, you can select a suitable template for yourself by using the filter on Shopify Theme Store. 

For example, if you choose ‘Large catalogs’, then Shopify will show you corresponding themes for businesses that own lots of products. These Shopify themes will help buyers easily navigate through your store and search exactly their favorite products.

Shopify themes for stores with large catalogs

In case you prefer the minimal style, some themes in the ‘Minimalist style’ would be highly potential options for you to consider.

Minimal Shopify themes

2.2 Checkout Process 

According to Baymard Institute, the average cart abandonment rate in the eCommerce industry is 69.8%. One of the reasons for this is the bad checkout experience of the online business.

Hence, we suggest you choose a theme that doesn’t require buyers to fill in too much information at the checkout. You can integrate a third-party app like Magebird with your store to create the one-step checkout page. Also, it would be great to let shoppers know which step they are in via the progress bar.

#3 Set up SEO for Your New Shopify Store

If you want your new Shopify store to claim clear visibility on the search engine result, you need to focus on setting up SEO. Here is a checklist of basic SEO-related activities we recommend for you:

• Optimize your meta description.
• Remove and fix broken links.
• Use Shopify SEO apps.
• Keep your URLs short and include the main keyword on them.
• Test your loading speed on PageSpeed Insights and reduce it if needed.
• Enhance SEO location by setting up your Google Business profile.
• Mention your main keywords in your blog articles' main title and the first paragraph.

Check out these articles from us to collect more helpful knowledge about Shopify SEO optimization:

• A Complete Guide On Shopify SEO Checklist - 2023
• Shopify SEO: The Definitive How-To Guide For Beginners

#4 Pick Suitable Shopify Apps

Shopify App Store is one of the largest app ecosystems at the moment, which has an enormous amount of choices. Since you may feel overwhelmed by it, we want to suggest three essential Shopify apps for your store below.

PageFly - The #1 Shopify Page Builder App

PageFly makes the store designing process much easier with its intuitive drag-and-drop system. There are many types of pages that we can help you create, such as homepage, product page, blog page, and other options. 

Our pricing plans range from $0 to $199, varying depending on the number of your published pages or sections. 

PageFly homepage

With each page, PageFly allows you to drag & drop elements to where you want and customize them. You can edit your page by changing colors, backgrounds, spacing, fonts, and other options on the left-side panel of the app. 

In addition, PageFly’s Elements Library ensures you will have a robust store by offering these features below:

• Sales effect: countdown timer, low in stock, compare at price, etc.
• Store credibility: customer reviews & ratings.
• Customization: HTML/Liquid, Javascript editor to edit with your own style.
• Integrations: third-party apps integrated with PageFly, such as email, cross-sell & upsell, order tracking, etc.

Avada SEO - One of The Most Powerful Shopify SEO Apps

This Shopify app is an all-inclusive solution to boost your store’s SEO ranking on the search results. With lots of helpful features, Avada has been the companion of merchants when optimizing SEO performance.

While using Avada, you can access their power features below: 

• Image optimization
• Meta tags optimization
• Sitemap generator
• Auto SEO audit
• Broken links detection

Currently, Avada offers their users two pricing options (Free and Pro). For further details of them, you can check this screenshot below:

Avada’s pricing plans

Omisend - One of the leading email apps on Shopify App Store

Omnisend is a robust Shopify email app for boosting sales and growing new subscribers. Omnisend has helped ten thousand stores grow sales with its powerful features.

When using Omnisend, you can receive these significant benefits:

• Easy-to-create email & global SMS campaign
• Pop-ups, forms to collect leads
• Available email templates without coding needed
• +20 automations to get more sales

If Omnisend is the right choice for you, you can choose its pricing plan ranges from $0 to $59/month.

Omnisend’s pricing plans

#5 Focus On The Conversion Rate

The last activity we want to suggest is investing in conversion rate optimization. While we won’t list all the specific advice here, you can check out them via our article - How To Increase Shopify Conversion Rate: Top 04 Tips From eCommerce Experts.

We hope these 5 tips above will help you build a flourishing store in the upcoming time. Furthermore, don’t forget to keep learning and testing new tips to optimize your business on Shopify.

Migrate BigCommerce to Shopify - FAQs

How to transfer site from BigCommerce to Shopify?

To kick off your BigCommerce to Shopify migration, you can use LitExtension’s automated solution. There are only 3 simple steps:

• Step 1: Set up Source & Target Store.
• Step 2: Choose all the entities that you want to transfer.
• Step 3: Run the full migration process.

What is the cost of migrating from BigCommerce to Shopify?

If you choose LitExtension, the cost of Shopify import will start at $79 for the Basic package. If you prefer the All in One service, the starting price for your migration project will be $139. Please note that it will vary depending on the number of entities you want to transfer. 

What should I do after the migration?

Here is the post-migration checklist you can follow after moving your store to Shopify:

• Check the accuracy of your migration.
• Set up your Shopify store.
• Transfer your store's domain.
• Set up your shipping.
• Configure your payment methods.
• Try placing some test orders.

How does BigCommerce compare to Shopify?

Compared with BigCommerce, Shopify has some advantages over its competitor:

• No pricing upgrade based on the annual revenue.

• More user-friendliness.
• Bigger app ecosystem.
• More number of experts.

Does LitExtension provide any services for customers who don’t want to get involved in the migration?

Yes, you can use Litextension’ All in One service. Their experts will perform the data transferring process for you from A to Z.

Can I import a store to Shopify?

Yes, you can import a store to Shopify with LitExtenion - our strategic partner. With their automated migration solution, they will help you easily migrate from BigCommerce to Shopify.

Can I import products from BigCommerce to Shopify?

Of course, you can import products from BigCommerce to Shopify using LitExtension’s solution. It also helps you transfer other entities like customers, product categories etc.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we hope that our article has provided you with detailed information on how to migrate from BigCommerce to Shopify. If you want to receive more helpful eCommerce news and tips, don’t forget to check out PageFly blog or follow us on Facebook.