Well, as time passes, ecommerce development technologies also change. It’s not easy to pick one among various eCommerce platforms that are in-use widely to fulfil all the business needs. Sometimes, merchants usually find that their existing eCommerce platform is not flexible enough or fully-featured. That’s the time when the need for re-platforming emerges to migrate from one ecommerce platform to another.
Today, we are here with a target to put forward various reasons “why should you migrate from BigCommerce to Shopify and how”. If you are here with the same aim, then continue reading.
Firstly, let’s take a swift recap about these eCommerce platforms, BigCommerce and Shopify.
About BigCommerce – A Quick Review
All over the globe, most of the users use BigCommerce to make money. This eCommerce development platform provides rich features and functionalities that prove to be suitable for bigger-sized businesses. Simultaneously, at this side, the pricing policy of BigCommerce is also a little bit high.
BigCommerce offers a user-friendly interface, but at the same time lacks customization of the basic themes. To perform the minor changes, you need to hold some technical knowledge. Well, this eCommerce platform comes with 100+ free templates, but sorry to say, most of them are outdated.
One more weak side of BigCommerce is the absence of a preview option for the new-created products. This states that the potential errors would stay above the layer until the revision. Technical support may also not be available 24*7. If your store breaks down at any weekend, you would be left stuck till 9 am. on the next Monday. Well, BigCommerce needs improvisation in various features.
About Shopify – A Quick Review
In comparison with BigCommerce, Shopify provides the same, 100+ design templates, but these come with enhanced professional and fascinating touch. Furthermore, as templates are divided by the industries, the design will go perfectly with the products you sell. Shopify’s intuitive interface offers a variety of settings that doesn’t demand any technical expertise to perform template customization.
With Shopify, you will get 24*7 technical support by live chat, phone, or email. To stay ahead of the curve, Shopify comes with 250+ additional tools that are fully compatible with the eCommerce platform. Such tools bring along the automation possibility of the business processes.
As all extensions and add ons of Shopify are plug-and-play, we experience better convenience. This states that no extra time will go wasted to make the new things perform properly. Summing up, Shopify offers an intuitive interface along with robust and efficient tools at a reasonable price.
Well, at this point, if you have made your mind to migrate from BigCommerce to Shopify, just keep reading and come up with the easiest approach to migrate.
BigCommerce vs Shopify – Why Should You Choose Shopify Over BigCommerce?
Ease of Use – Easiest Platform to Master Online Selling
Well, with a user-friendly interface, an eCommerce platform may save your time and effort. That’s why this is the chief element that you should consider while picking an eCommerce development platform.
Most users prefer picking Shopify as an for their business because of its user-friendly editor and onboarding process.
Less ideal for the newbies, BigCommerce demands various technical skills. Every time while working on basic jobs, you will need to search for the terminologies used. This makes BigCommerce a heavier and tough platform to deal with.
Design & Flexibility – Allow Customization with No Skills Required
Shopify assists in building online stores that your customers love using 70+ unique, responsive and professional themes. You are allowed to even customize ahead your theme with total access to the HTML and CSS of your store.
BigCommerce also permits a fascinating amount of customization, but you would be required to do it yourself, again holding the required technical skills.
Suitable for Beginners – Offers In-Budget & Cost-Effective Solutions
The one who is new to this eCommerce industry and looking for a great solution may go with Shopify. Even with no experience in design or coding, you can use this eCommerce platform. Also, as all the technical aspects are handled by a cloud-platform here, it offers cost-effective and budget-friendly solutions.
On the contrary, as the features of BigCommerce are more scalable so, it’s less suitable for beginners.
Customer Support – Round-the-Clock & Better Support
Comparatively, Shopify offers better customer assistance as it takes you automatically to the related support pages directly that you ask for. In fact, Shopify offers extra support for social media.
The help center of BigCommerce has separate sections, and also much broader. Moreover, they are not specific enough to ease the search of users.
Point of Sale – Permits Direct In-Person Sale
For the Point-of-Sale system, Shopify offers an app on Android and iOS to facilitate you to sell your products directly in person.
With BigCommerce, to use the POS feature you will be required to integrate hardware from 3rd-party platforms.
Performance – Faster Load Time and Page Speed
Well, we all expect the websites to load faster as no one is going to wait forever. In SEO, the load time also plays an important role. If your website loads faster, you have higher conversion chances.
Shopify is faster with an average website loading time of 1.3 seconds that is much better than BigCommerce which loads in 2.2 seconds.
Mobile Experience – Offer Enhanced Functionality & Extra Options
For handling your eStore, Shopify provides extra options and enhanced functionality when mobile apps are a matter of concern for the business owners. It comes with the Shopify app that handles orders and reports, and the Shopify POS, which permits you to sell from your store in a physical area.
BigCommerce also has a mobile app that helps in viewing the customer details and handling orders, but BigCommerce is just basic when compared to Shopify.
1 Click Upsells – Facilitates with Pre & Post Purchase Upsell Functionality
Shopify helps in boosting average order value and increase your revenue by offering complementary products before purchase and after purchase also.
On the contrary, BigCommerce doesn’t come with post-purchase 1-click upsells functionality.
Transaction- based Charges Don’t Increase Pricing With the Increasing Sale
Shopify charges only for the paid and advanced features and doesn’t shock you with pointless bills.
Whereas, BigCommerce uplifts you to the increased pricing automatically with your increasing sale.
Hire Shopify Developers To Migrate Your Bigcommerce Store To Shopify
What Data Can Be Migrated From BigCommerce To Shopify?
While migrating from BigCommerce to Shopify, you can migrate the following data:
- Products & Product Categories: The entire products related data, such as name, SKU, full description, images in description, status, manufacturer, price, special price, URL, meta title, meta description, weight, variants, base image, and a number indicating goods in stock.
- Customers: First Name, Last Name, Shipping Address (First Name, Last Name, Address 1, Address 2, City, Zip Code, State, Country), Email, Billing Address (First Name, Last Name, Address 1, Address 2, City, Zip Code, State, Country), Address (First Name, Last Name, Street Address, City, Zip Code, State, Country).
- Orders: Order Date, purchased goods list, amount of purchase, payment details, customer data ID, order date, order status, order products, product price, quantity, subtotal price, discount price, tax price, shipping price, total price, order comments, customer name, billing address & shipping address.
- Coupons: Coupon Date, Coupon Code, Coupon Expire Date
- CMS Pages: Created Date, Title, URL, Description
- Reviews: Title, Created Date, User Name, Rate, Comment
- Blogs: SEO URLs, Title, Full Description
3 Methods For BigCommerce To Shopify Migration
It seems to be a complicated job to move data from BigCommerce to Shopify. Well, you may follow any of the approaches to migrate your store. Let’s start with the top three approaches that you may consider as per your ease to migrate your BigCommerce store to Shopify.
#1. Manual Migration – Requires Technical Knowledge
Well, manual migration can be a one-day task, depending on the size of your store. Apart from that, you need to have the required technical knowledge to achieve a successful migration with no data loss and smoothly.
#2. Automated Migration – Requires Extra Tool, App, Extension or Service
Or, you can get the migration process done automatically using online tools, services, or converters without getting involved. It will take a few hours to accomplish the process of migration automatically.
Major Tools & Extensions For Bigcommerce To Shopify Migration
| Extension | Pricing |
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Note: This price estimate will change if you also want to migrate your blog posts, articles. It also depends on the time you want this task of migration to be completed.
#3. Hiring A Shopify Migration Expert – Requires Time & Money Investment
If you find the process of migration a little tough or time-consuming then, you may hire a specialist. The technical assistance will get your job done with ease but will demand a considerable amount of time and money.
Which Approach You Should Choose To Migrate From BigCommerce to Shopify?
- Option 1: If you migrate from BigCommerce to Shopify manually then, you may risk the process as it may lead to data omission, data loss, and unaddressed errors. Moreover, it asks for technical proficiency that would not be easy for a merchant from a non-technical background.
- Option 2: For automated migration, you will need the assistance of a tool, converter, or service that would be paid.
- Option 3: Hiring technical assistance may demand time and money, but will come up with the desirable result. It offers you a chance to perform the other tasks of your business that you find more important.
Steps To Migrate BigCommerce To Shopify Manually
Step 1. Export Your BigCommerce Store Data
For Product Data
- From the dashboard of BigCommerce, jump onto Products -> Export.
- Select Default, from Export Template and File Format Options, and next, click Continue.
- The Products dialog box will appear, in that click Export my Products to a CSV file and then click Close. A CSV file that holds your product data will get saved to your computer.
- Select Bulk Edit from Export Template and File Format Options, and then click Continue.
- Now, click Export my Products to a CSV file and next, click Close. Another file holding your additional product details and the variant data will get saved on your computer.
For Order Data
- From the dashboard of your BigCommerce, jump onto Orders -> Export.
- Select Default, from Export Template and File Format Options, and next, click Continue.
- The Orders dialog box will appear, in that click Export my Orders to a CSV file and then click Close. A CSV file that holds your order data will get saved to your computer.
For Customer Data
- From the dashboard of your BigCommerce, jump onto Customers -> Export.
- Select Default, from Export Template and File Format Options, and next, click Continue.
- The Customers dialog box will appear, in that click Export my Customers to a CSV file and then click Close. A CSV file that holds your customer data will get saved to your computer.
Step 2. Import Data Into Your Shopify Store
Once you have exported all the data from Bigcommerce store in CSV format its time to import into your target Shopify store.
- From Your Shopify admin panel, click Apps -> Store Importer.
- On the Import your data into Shopify page, from the drop-down menu, select BigCommerce.
- From Upload files, click Add File, and select the files you exported. You are allowed to select any number of CSV files. While importing your products, you are required to add the files you exported for Default and Bulk Edit both the templates to import data properly.
- Click Continue import -> Import.
Step 3. Review Your Imported Data & Update It
If the data migration was successful, then all product, order, & customer data will be present in the Shopify admin. If some data is missing or corrupted then it had to be added manually.
What To Do Post BigCommerce To Shopify Migration – Steps & Consideration
- Check the transferred data to make sure the migration was accomplished accurately.
- Post set up, create a test order to ensure proper functionality as we want.
- Next, register and re-check your old and new domain.
- At the old one, create a 404 error page, or set up a domain redirect.
- Submit your new sitemap.
Also Read: How To Migrate from Magento to Shopify: Complete Guide
Additional Options – Things to Consider While Performing Migration Process
Create 301 Redirects – To Maintain SEO Ranking
This option permits you to redirect your old URLs automatically to a new store during the process of migration to Shopify. Resultantly, post-re-platforming, you can handle your customer experience and SEO ranking.
Clear Data On Target Store Before Migration – Avoid Duplication of Data
If you have some data on your Target Store and want to delete it, you may choose this option and select the entities that you want to move. This ensures no duplication and mix of data while migration is carried. After the completion, you can reverse it, so it’s recommended to backup your data before you start.
Strip HTML from Category, Product Names – As Proper Looks Matter
To make sure that your product names, category, and descriptions appear properly, choose this option.
Migrate Additional Images – Additional Image is also Important
Along with the thumbnail, this option permits you to transfer the additional images of the products also.
Migrate Product and Category SEO URLs – Handle Customer Experience
When it comes to product and category URLs, this option helps you transfer that also to maintain SEO ranking that is the result of years of hard work.
Wrapping Up
So, after knowing almost everything about migration from BigCommerce to Shopify now, you might be confident enough to move ahead and make a profitable decision regarding ecommerce replatforming.
For assistance, you may hire a Shopify development company to experience smooth migration with no data loss.
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