Here’s an interesting fact about the BigCommerce-to-WooCommerce migration process. Although the process may not seem as complicated as you might think, it could be more difficult than you think.
Whatever way you look at the BigCommerce to WooCommerce data transfer process, there are many technical considerations and variables that can impact the overall health of your online company.
The complications that come with BigCommerce to WooCommerce Migration
For starters, let’s talk about BigCommerce vs WooCommerce. Although migrating from BigCommerce into WooCommerce is the main idea, business owners may feel that they are making a big mistake by doing this.
Would it be better if BigCommerce remained the same and you avoided migrating?
BigCommerce is more than a shopping cart. BigCommerce is a highly specialized ecommerce platform, which has made a name in the digital selling market and continues to serve many online businesses, from small startups to large corporations.
Many of these users have already praised BigCommerce’s intuitive interface, easy-to-use website builder, affordable plans, rich array of customizable templates, dynamic addons, and, most importantly, the tons ecommerce tools it includes.
BigCommerce seems to provide everything your business may need. It’s just enough to keep things running smoothly over the long-term.
It’s understandable why you may be hesitant about migrating BigCommerce to WooCommerce data. What is your online store to gain by migrating BigCommerce to WooCommerce data?
Okay, let’s get to the answers. Another thing that makes the process more complicated is the absence of a one-click migration software. Yes, that’s right. It turns out that there is no tool that can automatically migrate your entire ecommerce website from BigCommerce to WooCommerce.
What does this all mean for online shop owners and business?
While we don’t yet have a one-click solution, it is possible to migrate BigCommerce to WooCommerce automatically. You don’t even need to have any technical skills. Just follow a few prompts in a simple, user-friendly layout.
But not so fast. This is not something I want to reveal yet. We won’t be able to tell you until we have established whether migrating your online shop from BigCommerce into WooCommerce is worthwhile.
This ultimate BigCommerce-to-WooCommerce migration guide first compares both ecommerce platforms and then explains how to automatically migrate BigCommerce from WooCommerce with CartCart.
Without further delay, let’s get to the first question: Is the BigCommerce to WooCommerce data transfer process really necessary?
BigCommerce Drawbacks
BigCommerce is a reliable ecommerce platform, but as we have shown in our BigCommerce Review, there are also some drawbacks.
Running costs
For example, if you plan to host and manage your ecommerce shop on BigCommerce’s platform, you will need $29.95 per month. BigCommerce users pay a monthly fee that is dependent on what tools they use and the size of their stores.
You could argue that this is to be expected for an all in one ecommerce platform, with features as impressive BigCommerce. Is $29.95 not a reasonable price for an online business?
Okay, that’s fair enough. There might be some truth to your argument. Let’s face it, the facts are hard to deny. Today’s majority of online shops start with a very small budget. They can’t afford to spend $30 per month on hosting.
Even if you could, the bad thing about BigCommerce’s $25 Standard Plan is that it lacks advanced capabilities such as abandoned cart recovery, customer segmentation, filtering and storage of credit card data, custom product filtering and custom product filtering.
Upgrade your package to get these extras is easy. However, this will mean that you’ll need to pay nearly $80 per month.
As your business grows, you may need to upgrade and opt for BigCommerce’s Pro plan, which will run you nearly $300 per month.
Okay, I get what you are thinking. You can avoid extra costs by refusing upgrades and sticking to the $30 Standardpackage.
That sounds good. It’s impossible if your business is growing.
You might ask why?
The Standard is only available to companies with annual revenues below $50,000. As your business grows beyond this level, you will have to upgrade your package.
Guess what? You don’t have to stop there. You will still need to pay BigCommerce’s themes and marketplace apps in addition to the monthly subscription fees. You will pay more for customizations to your ecommerce website.
In a nutshell, BigCommerce charges are unavoidable, especially for businesses that are growing. You will continue to incur increasing running costs.
Limitated Customization
The BigCommerce site builder and theme editor are two of the most important assets in the toolset.
It’s likely that you have used it before and found it responsive and flexible. Online merchants can easily modify their websites without having to touch a single line of code. You can modify multiple appearance settings and layout elements.
The customization of your online store does not end with the theme editor. The theme editor allows you to personalize your website’s look, but BigCommerce also offers many apps that allow you to customize the platform’s functionality. You can embed and configure additional apps from the app marketplace to give you more options.
What else do you need for customization?
To customize a growing company, you will need more than this. While a site builder that is responsive and easy to use is great, it only does so much. Your website can only be customized with the standard features that are included with the platform.
BigCommerce App Marketplace is, however, not the same. Although it has a lot of great integrations, it doesn’t have the breadth or depth that would be beneficial for long-term growth.
If you want to expand your business, then you should seriously consider leaving BigCommerce. WooCommerce, out of all possible platforms, is the one that best mitigates BigCommerce’s flaws without compromising its strengths.
What does this mean?
WooCommerce
WooCommerce, unlike BigCommerce is an open source ecommerce platform which rides on the WordPress platform. It comes with many ecommerce tools and capabilities, as you likely know.
Installation charges are one thing that it does not include. Yes, that’s right. WooCommerce is free to install and purchase.
This is not all. You won’t be charged any usage fees, either monthly or yearly. All you need is a reliable WordPress hosting service. ( See the best WordPress hosting solutions .
You might also end up buying a few WordPress plugins and themes along the way.
But, don’t get me wrong. It’s not necessary to spend your money on premium extras. You can choose from many other free themes or plugins.
Compare that to the thousands of dollars BigCommerce costs you each year. WooCommerce is clearly cheaper than BigCommerce for small businesses with limited budgets, as well as large established companies.
WooCommerce is also well-known for its unlimited flexibility.
Yes, that’s right. WooCoomerce comes with no restrictions. Its open-source framework allows for all kinds of ecommerce customizations.
There is one caveat. To rework the code, you will need to have technical coding skills.
Developers are often able to work in a wide variety of ways. WooCommerce allows developers to configure every component of the platform based on their specific needs.
But don’t make any mistake. WooCommerce doesn’t facilitate developers alone. WooCommerce is also a paradise for non-coders.
WooCommerce offers a variety of user-friendly capabilities and tools that will allow you to customize your online store without having to touch a single line of code.
For example, you could create a store layout by using a WordPress page builder and an appropriate ecommerce theme. There are many options here, as WordPress and WooCommerce both offer a variety of page builders and thousands upon thousands of customizable themes.
But that’s not all. Third-party marketplaces are another option. WooCommerce is supported daily by thousands of designers and developers who continually add new themes to the site.
This open-source platform boasts a wide range of pre-built plug-ins. While BigCommerce only supports a few apps, WooCommerce can be used with thousands of extensions and plugins . This allows you to transform your store in any way you like.
When you add all of these factors together, WooCommerce is a better platform to grow businesses.
How can you convert BigCommerce to WooCommerce
Data Migration Options from BigCommerce to WooCommerce
Based on my experience with both these platforms, I can tell you that there are many options available to migrate your BigCommerce store from BigCommerce to WooCommerce.
They can be combined into three BigCommerce-to-WooCommerce data migration options for simplicity.
Manual BigCommerce to WooCommerce Migration
You probably know what this method is, since the name is obvious.
You basically move your online store by digging deep into the databases of each platform. This involves complex technical configurations. You must transfer all data from BigCommerce and then rebuild and deploy the online store on WooCommerce.
This approach allows you to have full control rights. It doesn’t sound fun.
Why?
It requires technical knowledge. This is not general coding. You must be able to use both BigCommerce and WooCommerce.
You must also be patient during the entire process. You will likely need to transfer data one by one with surgical precision.
If you rush through manual migration, there could be many errors that can be harmful to your online business.
BigCommerce To WooCommerce Migration
This is just another manual process. You can hire an expert or a professional agency to do it .
This saves you the time and effort of manually migrating data between these two platforms. You won’t require any technical knowledge or expertise.
Professionals are responsible for exporting BigCommerce data, importing it onto WooCommerce and reconstructing the entire site.
Because of the complexity involved, professional usually charge site owners a substantial sum.
Automated BigCommerce to WooCommerce Migration
Automated BigCommerce-to WooCommerce migration is an automated data transfer process that does not require manual data.
We are not talking about an automatic, one-click BigCommerce to WooCommerce conversion. Most of the automated tools available on the internet require that you configure online stores on both platforms prior to proceeding.
Okay, that’s not terrible. However, are you able to use any technical skills?
To be honest, these tools were created specifically for web developers. The answer is yes. You might need to have some technical knowledge and skills in order to work with them.
They are not all available. There is hope if you use a tool such as Cart2Cart.
Cart2Cart is a simple to use tool that can be used without the need for technical knowledge. The intuitive and easy-to-use migration wizard makes it possible to create a complete BigCommerce to data transfer in just 5 steps.
This is one of the main reasons Cart2Cart is my favorite option for this tutorial out of all the BigCommerce-to-WooCommerce migration tools that I have tried.
If you don’t think that’s enough, Here’s a detailed explanation as to why you might want Cart2Cart.
Cart2Cart is a great tool to migrate BigCommerce to WooCommerce.
Cart2Cart is not just a tool from a list of automated migration options that you could use. Not at all.
Cart2Cart, an automated migration tool that is more than BigCommerce and WooCommerce, is instead used. It facilitates the transfer between store entities such as categories, customers and orders across more than 80 shopping malls and ecommerce platforms.
It can be considered the mother of all automated ecommerce platform conversion processes. This small but powerful solution supports all major brands such as Shopify, Magento and OpenCart.
In other words, your online store should be capable of moving between tens to hundreds of platforms. This is not just for WooCommerce or BigCommerce. In case you were wondering, it is also possible to do the opposite. Cart2Cart’s automated system makes it easy to migrate WooCommerce from BigCommerce. We’ll get into the details later.
Let’s now focus on the BigCommerce-to-WooCommerce data migration process. We’ve seen that Cart2Cart has a great industry experience and an intuitive interface. But that’s not all.
Nope. It’s not by much.
Cart2Cart’s popularity is also due to its free service. You won’t have to pay anything to get it started and to set up your BigCommerce-to-WooCommerce migration.
It doesn’t stop there, in fact. It offers a demo migration of your online store from BigCommerce into WooCommerce for free. This demo doesn’t transfer all store entities. The demo process only moves the essentials to give you an idea of the entire migration process.
That begs the question: What’s the catch if you do a complete BigCommerce to WooCommerce migration.
A complete data transfer is not free, as you probably already guessed. It’s also not cheap. The rate you pay will be flexible depending on how many entities you want to migrate. The total cost of hiring a professional web developer agency is not even close.
This is what you should do. You won’t lose sales, it turns out. Cart2Cart can migrate BigCommerce to WooCommerce with no downtime. Your ecommerce store is always up, so you can sell and transact seamlessly.
It doesn’t take too long, even though Cart2Cart has all the time in this world to transfer stuff. The entire migration process for a regular online shop should take less than an hour.
For example, take a BigCommerce online store with approximately 1,000 products, 500 orders, and 500 customer profiles. Cart2Cart estimates that it will take less than three hours to move all this to WooCommerce. The entire process will cost $69, plus or minus.
It’s also cheaper than assisted migration and it’s much faster and more precise.
Cart2Cart has a team of tech support agents available round-the-clock, in spite of its impressive track record and precision. Because the company values your time, customer support shifts are available 24/7.
You can also be sure of the security and privacy of your data. Cart2Cart has multiple security measures in place to ensure that your data is safe from any potential breaches.
The entire BigCommerce to WooCommerce migration process is protected by a dedicated Hetzner server. During the actual migration, data is further protected by 128-bit SSL encryption and HTTPS protocol.
Cart2Cart ensures that its users are only granted access to their migration credentials if they have concerns about internal threats. All records are also deleted once the entire migration is completed.
Cart2Cart is a good tool to use for your BigCommerce to WooCommerce store conversion. You’ll also notice that Cart2Cart has received positive reviews from past users.
Let’s move on to the next step: migrating your online shop from BigCommerce into WooCommerce using Cart2Cart. This is how to migrate BigCommerce to WooCommerce automatically.
BigCommerce to WooCommerce Migration with Cart2Cart
Pre-migration Task 1 : Back up your BigCommerce Online Store
Cart2Cart is a reliable service that combines many security measures. However, there’s a chance that things might not go as planned. Before you begin the migration process, make sure to back up all data in your BigCommerce online store.
If you have not made any site changes since the last automatic BigCommerce system backup, you can skip this step. If you have, you may perform an on-demand backup to all your data before you proceed.
Pre-migration Task 2 – Create your WooCommerce store
Do you remember that you will be migrating to WooCommerce?
Then you will need to create a WooCommerce target shop to move to. This means that you need to design a WooCommerce website.
The first step is to find the perfect WooCommerce hosting solution.
These detailed guides will help you to compare and identify the best-performing options.
Once you have found the perfect one, you will need to install WordPress before you can use WooCommerce.
Once WordPress is installed, go to the WordPress plugins section, search WooCommerce, then install the plugin.
However, the process doesn’t stop there. This is only the beginning. Next, you will need to set up your online store from the WooCommerce section in your WordPress dashboard. This should be easy and simple as both WordPress and WooCommerce are pleasantly intuitive.
While you’re at this, don’t be discouraged by the WooCommerce online store design. At this stage, customization is not required.
Actually, you should just leave it at that. For now, forget about any fancy themes. The more your WooCommerce store matches the default style, then the better.
Why do I say this?
Cart2Cart can import data and overlay it onto a blank version of your target store . Avoid potential problems that could arise from a highly personalized store.
With your WooCommerce store up and running, you can now proceed to the Cart2Cart main site on https://www.shopping-cart-migration.com/ to kickstart the data transfer process. While the homepage is sufficient for beginners, it might be more useful to concentrate on the BigCommerce to WooCommerce page. This page provides valuable insights into the entire process.
It is worth taking the time to read every word. This information will be very helpful during the migration process.
To get an estimate of the cost of your BigCommerce store, as well as the migration time, Cart2Cart’s estimator can be used.
Once you have completed the basics, you can set up a Cart2Cart account free of charge. You can either sign up again with your personal information or use your Google or Facebook credentials to continue.
Whatever you choose, Cart2Cart will automatically take you to the main Cart2Cart dashboard. From there, click on ” Create migration” to kickstart the process.
Step 2: Fill in your Source Cart details and enter the API Details
You will need to enter your BigCommerce store details in the first window of Cart2Cart’s migration wizard.
For the specific details, choose BigCommerce as your source cart from the default platform list. Next, enter the Source cart URL domain of your BigCommerce store.
Cart2Cart is an API-based platform. This means that you will need to create an API connection. This can be done by entering your BigCommerce username in the available field. Next, enter your API credentials ( and API Access Token).
These API details should be accessible from your BigCommerce control panels. You can find the Advanced Setting area by simply going to API accounts, and clicking Create an API Account.
After you have access to the Createarea, enter a name and description for the app or integration that corresponds to your account. Next, copy the BigCommerce API path, then paste it into your Cart2Cart migration wizard.
However, the process does not end there. This is only the beginning.
Next, go to BigCommerce’s area. Here you can configure all API permissions and resources necessary for your integration. Just apply Modify on everything, and then click save.
BigCommerce will display a popup, in which you can copy your API credentials ( client IDplus access token), and paste the details into the appropriate fields of your Cart2Cart Migration window.
Step 3: Fill in the Target Store Details
Scroll down past the source cart section to reach the target store area. Here you will need to repeat the store detailing process.
However, WooCommerce is the destination platform. Choose it as your Target Store and then enter the URL of the store in the next field.
When it comes to the connection bridge it is worth noting that Cart2Cart’s current version saves you the hassle of manually setting everything up. This means that you don’t need to download the bridge file and then copy it to your WooCommerce store.
Instead, you can trust the Cart2Cart WordPress plugin to do that for you. Install it on your store and fill in the details. Then, move to the next step.
Step 4: Choose the Store Entities That You Would Like to Move
To begin, choosing entities is about specifying which website components you want to migrate from your BigCommerce store into the next WooCommerce store.
The best thing about Car2Cart? It’s flexible enough for all essential ecommerce elements and their associated attributes. Click on the All Entitiescheckbox to prepare the system to migrate the following:
- Products:Quantity and stock availability, manage stock and backorder. Base image, thumbnail images, additional images, variants (SKUs, weights, attributes, quantity and images. Price, special prices, attributes (names, values). Custom options (drop-down radio buttons, checkboxes, multiple select. Date, text area, date and file. URL, meta title and meta keywords. Meta description. Price, special price. Product name, SKU. Short description. Full description. Status, manufacturer.
- Product Categories Image, thumbnail image URL, description, status, title, meta description and meta keywords
- Customers:CustomerID, first and last names, email, customer group newsletters, gender, date-of-birth, passwords, created dates, billing address (company address 1, country address 2, state, country, city zip code, telephone fax), as well as shipping address (company address 1, country address 2, state, country, zip code telephone fax).
- Orders –Customer name and email (company, address 1, country, address 2, address 3, address 4, address 5, address 6, address 7, telephone, fax), shipment, order ID (tax price, total price), order comments, status, order products (names, SKUs, options), product price (number), subtotal price, discount price and price),
- Shipping :Shipping Address (company, address 1, address 2 and country, state, county, city, zip code and telephone)
- Blog Posts: Images, status, post redirects, SEO URL, tags, short description, full description, title.
- Taxes :Tax classes (name), tax rates, country, state, percent, and tax rules (tax rate, tax class).
- ManufacturersName, image.
- ReviewsCreated Date, Status, Rate, User Name, Product, and Comment.
- CouponsName and description, status, coupon codes, coupon dates, customer groups, uses per coupon or customers, type of discount, discount amount, coupon code, coupon day, and coupon date.
Step 5: Select the Additional Migration Options
Cart2Cart offers additional migration options if you need to customize your BigCommerce to WooCommerce conversion.
For example, you can have WooCommerce change your product quantity to 100 or migrate images from product descriptions, category descriptions, and blog posts descriptions.
You can also automatically remove HTML from product names, descriptions, categories, and product names. After migration, you can create 301 redirects to WooCommerce, migrate products SEO URLs, skip the migration of product thumbnail images, and clear all current WooCommerce data.
The option you choose will depend on the way you want your WooCommerce store displayed and to run.
But here’s the problem: most of these additional options come with a cost. Cart2Cart considers them to be an add-on that you must purchase in order to personalize your migration process.
If you have a tight budget, you might consider cutting back on the number of them. After the migration is completed, you will be able to personalize your new store.
Step 6: Run a Free Demo Migration
Cart2Cart’s generous demo migration offer does not target just potential signups. It was carefully designed to be helpful to all users, even those who are not a fraud.
This is a guideline to help you get an idea of the appearance of the target store once the migration is complete. It’s not recommended to skip the demo migrate. It’s free and should only take about 30 minutes.
Cart2Cart’s demo migration has another feature that you will notice. It limits the entities it can migrate. You don’t have to worry about it, the attributes that will be migrated should suffice for an analysis of expected results.
Pay attention to the basics when you’re looking at the store layout, relationships among entities, attributes, and front-end and backend functionalities.
You can proceed confidently to the next step of migration if everything is in order.
Step 7: Perform a full BigCommerce to WooCommerce migration
This is the last step and Cart2Cart should bill you accordingly.
As you can see, the total cost reflects both the combined amount of entities and the additional options that you have chosen to personalize your BigCommerce to WooCommerce conversion.
If you are the type who takes extra precautions, I recommend that you also purchase Migrating Insurance at this point. Although it might increase your costs, it is well worth every penny. The insurance will allow you to remigrate your stuff if things go wrong. You could also use the Latest Data Migration service to move any additional data that may have been added to your store during the process.
Before you hit the Start Full Migratingbutton, double-check your selection. Check all entities and confirm target and source cart details. Next, review any additional options.
If all goes well , you can proceed with the full migration. Cart2Cart will take care of the rest and migrate BigCommerce to WooCommerce for you. You can close the browser and wait for an email notification once the process is completed. You have the option to choose.
More to You
You should now be able customize your new website with more detail by transferring your BigCommerce data to your WooCommerce shop.
Before you do that, make sure to thoroughly analyze all aspects of the WooCommerce store. Cart2Cart’s customer service team is available to help you in the event of any errors.
