You’re trying to migrate BigCommerce to Shopify. I have some bad news and good news. Which would you prefer?
Let’s start with the good. Here’s the thing: there is no easy way to move your online store from BigCommerce into Shopify. You can’t also move it by changing server or database details.
It is possible, but I didn’t claim it impossible. It is possible to import BigCommerce into Shopify.
But here’s the catch. The migration method you choose will determine how easy and how long it takes for your online store to be transferred.
This BigCommerce to Shopify migration guide will help you identify and explain the easiest and most cost-effective route. This guide walks you through the process of migrating your BigCommerce ecommerce store to Shopify via an automated shopping cart migration tool called Car2Cart.
Okay, but why do Cart2Cart prefer ?
That’s not all. We’ll reveal another secret shortly. After we talk about all the options available to you to migrate BigCommerce from Shopify.
Let’s first find out why BigCommerce might not be able to be imported directly to Shopify.
BigCommerce’s Problem with Migration Shopify
You can see that BigCommerce as well as Shopify both offer user-friendly eCommerce platforms, but their underlying SaaS frameworks differ. There are many architectures used to run their online shops. Their web tools and corresponding functions are also not identical.
What does this all mean for ecommerce merchants looking to migrate?
First, BigCommerce won’t allow you to map your online BigCommerce store data directly onto Shopify. There isn’t a template available for this yet.
As such, technical difficulties can be expected when you import BigCommerce to Shopify. This, in turn, will save you time and money.
But what about the rest?
All that matters is how you migrate BigCommerce to Shopify. Here’s a look at all available migration options to help you make an informed decision.
Shopify Migration Options With BigCommerce
The management of ecommerce data is extremely complex. You have many options to exchange data among different platforms.
The migration options for BigCommerce and Shopify are numerous. We’ve made it easy for you by categorizing them into these three main methods.
- Manual BigCommerce To Shopify Migration
- BigCommerce Assisted To Shopify Migration
- Automated BigCommerce to Shopify Migration
Manual BigCommerce To Shopify Migration
This was probably the first thing you considered when you had the idea to migrate BigCommerce to Shopify.
Manual migration, as its name implies, involves manually moving your ecommerce store data across platforms. Online merchants migrate by lifting entities from BigCommerce and then applying it to the corresponding Shopify system.
If you decide to give it a try, you may want to use BigCommerce’s export feature. It allows you to download different online store entities as an organized data file.
For example, you could export your products to a file. BigCommerce will automatically convert your inventory information into a downloadable CSV format. Once the download is completed, you will need to re-upload your file to your Shopify shop.
The migration process does not end here. If you want to import BigCommerce fully to Shopify, then you will need to go through multiple rounds.
This is not all. You will still need to personalize every entity to make it work with Shopify’s system. This means that you will need to edit and re-organize the data according to Shopify’s store structure.
This sounds like a lot of work. It could take days to migrate BigCommerce to Shopify. If you consider the store evaluation process, it could take up to a week.
This is why store assessment is so important. There are high chances of errors and omissions.
However, technical site owners are not qualified to perform the manual BigCommerce to Shopify process. It is important to understand how BigCommerce and Shopify work together, as well how to import and export data and how to modify the entities.
This is obviously not possible for all. Only a few ecommerce merchants can perform manual BigCommerce to Shopify Migrations.
BigCommerce Assisted To Shopify Migration
The manual process may seem a little too complicated, so you might consider the BigCommerce to Shopify assisted migration option.
You can hire a team to manage everything for you. After reviewing your technical requirements, they will import data from BigCommerce and then export it to your Shopify store.
Although it is a time-saving and hassle-free option, it does not make the process any simpler than traditional manual methods. The professionals will have to work hard to import BigCommerce to Shopify despite their expertise and experience.
The most important thing is that ecommerce migration services are not cheap. An average web development agency will send you an invoice for hundreds to thousands of dollars. As such, BigCommerce to Shopify migration is the most expensive option.
Automated BigCommerce to Shopify Migration
Automated BigCommerce to Shopify migration is a popular trend in ecommerce. Automated systems are preferred by most online businesses for transferring migration data.
Why is this?
This approach reduces the weaknesses of both manual and automated methods. Intelligent migration tools automate most data transfer tasks. These tools import your BigCommerce store entities to Shopify.
As it turns out, automated tools are better than human beings when it comes data handling. They can migrate BigCommerce to Shopify much faster and with greater accuracy.
Importantly, however, you will pay less for migration tools than professional agencies. This makes it the best and most economical way to migrate BigCommerce to Shopify.
But, don’t get me wrong. Some migration tools may not be cost-effective or efficient. Only a few solutions can fully automate BigCommerce to Shopify data transfer.
We’ve tested most of them. Based on their performance, I strongly recommend Car2Cart for both small-scale BigCommerce to Shopify migrations and larger scale BigCommerce to Shopify migrations.
Are you wondering why?
Cart2Cart Migration Tool
Cart2Cartisn’t just for BigCommerce and Shopify imports. It can be viewed as an all-inclusive tool for all types of data transfer to shopping carts.
It supports Shopify as well as BigCommerce. Additionally, it supports 85 other Ecommerce Platforms. Magento, WooCommerce and PrestaShop are all examples. This article features all the major players in the ecommerce market.
You know what? Cart2Cart allows you to move your ecommerce store across all 85+ platforms. You can automate data migrations between any two shopping carts.
Our comprehensive Cart2Cart review will provide more information. While you’re there, take a look at our comprehensive review of Cart2Cart. You’ll see that there are many concrete reasons why Cart2Cart is recommended for BigCommerce to Shopify migration.
Cart2Cart to Import BigCommerce To Shopify
It’s easy to use
We’ve shown you that the process of migrating BigCommerce from Shopify can be difficult. It can be very difficult, especially if you don’t have the technical knowledge to do it manually.
Car2Cart makes the seemingly complicated process seem easy. however, is a much simpler solution. This tool makes it easy to migrate BigCommerce from Shopify. Simply enter your store information, select the entities that you wish to transfer, then voila! Cart2Cart will handle everything for you.
As a matter fact, the interface is very simple and minimalistic. You can rest assured that you will not have any difficulty finding your way around. Cart2Cart doesn’t have a learning curve. Everything is simple and easy to follow.
You’ll also notice Cart2Cart has a migration wizard that launches immediately after you click the Start Migratingbutton. This will help you navigate the three-step process of migrating.
You should be able set up your BigCommerce-to-Shopify migration in a few minutes, if not less than five. Once you’re done you can expect Car2Cart to transfer your store entities seamlessly.
Reliability
Cart2Cart’sextensive collection of supported shopping carts is enough to show that this isn’t an average ecommerce solution.
As it turns out Cart2Cart has been around for more than ten years. This tool was launched in 2009, and has been used to facilitate over 250,000 store migrations across hundreds of shopping cart platforms.
Cart2Cart has been mastering the art of mapping and transferring all kinds of ecommerce store entities. It can migrate your customer and product data as well as reviews, coupon codes, and other information.
While the exact time it takes to move BigCommerce to Shopify will depend on how many entities are present in the store, Cart2Cart typically takes just a few hours. It is powered by an AI engine that seamlessly imports data from BigCommerce stores and maps the entities to the appropriate target stores.
When all is said and done you will have a fully functioning Shopify store with all the entities. And, you even get to preserve SEO URLs, order IDs, plus product descriptions.
Only thing left is to customize your website’s look and feel. Everything else should be in place.
It’s affordable
Migrating BigCommerce to Shopify is a complicated task, especially for small businesses, if you consider the fees that professional charge. The cost of a basic migration could easily run into the hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. This is, in fact, almost as much as building a new Shopify store.
This compares with Cart2Cart’srates which start at $29 for one instance of migration. The final price you pay will depend on how many entities you migrate from BigCommerce into Shopify and the premium add-ons you select during setup.
For example, you could choose to have HTML2Cart create redirects in your Shopify target shop after migration. This alone will increase your service cost by $59
This is not a reason to panic. Even if you add all possible add-ons to the service, the total cost of the entire service will never exceed what professional would charge.
You’ll also notice that Cart2Cart doesn’t require you to pay the bill at registration. Sign up to Shopify App Market and you will be able to download the solution for free. Then, set up the migration completely free of charge.
It doesn’t stop there. You’ll love Cart2Cart‘s generosity and free demo migration while you set up everything using the wizard.
Yes, that’s right. Cart2Cartallows for you to import certain BigCommerce entities free of charge. These demo migrations should take no more than 30 minutes. After that, you can evaluate your target store sample.
This article will give you an overview of what you can expect when you finally choose to move BigCommerce to Shopify.
Cart2Cart allows you to adjust your store setup preferences and perform additional demo migrations if necessary.
Zero Downtime
When it comes to web store migrations, downtime is a common concern. Many online ecommerce merchants worry about the possibility of huge losses due to downtime.
It is a valid concern and one that I can understand. Your website’s performance could be affected by the complicated process of migrating data from shopping cart platforms. Except if you are using Cart2Cartto move BigCommerce to Shopify
Cart2Cart is well-optimized so that it can perform the automatic transfer process in the background without affecting your website’s core resources. Your website remains intact, while Cart2Cart relies on its underlying systems for the entire migration.
Therefore, it should be possible to import BigCommerce into Shopify without any website performance or downtime. We have seen no issues with any of the websites that we tested during the migration process.
This means that transactions can be carried out without any restrictions or technical problems. Cart2Cart will only be concerned with migrating BigCommerce entities to Shopify. It will not affect your business.
Let’s now see how Cart2Cart can be used to import BigCommerce to Shopify…
How to Migrate BigCommerce to Shopify with Cart2Cart [Step by Step Tutorial]
Premigration Step: Create Your Shopify Store
You already have a BigCommerce shop, so all that is needed to complete the migration process is a target store on Shopify. You might consider creating one before you begin the migration process.
To set up an Shopify ecommerce shop, you should first visit Shopify’s main website. It shouldn’t take long to register for an account with the Shopify plan you prefer, considering you have probably researched how it works.
Shopify is easy to use once you are logged in. It should not be difficult to navigate the admin panel and create an online shop.
Here’s a tip. Do not waste your time worrying about the design details. After migrating all entities, you won’t have to worry about it.
The default Shopify theme is sufficient for the interim. The website should be kept simple, with no customizations or modules. This prevents potential problems during data mapping.
Install and Launch Cart2Cart
Now, don’t get me wrong. All Shopify modules can be useful at this stage. Although it is best to avoid the fancy add-ons to Shopify, there is one Shopify module that you shouldn’t miss.
This is the official Cart2Cartstore migrator app. It can be found in the Shopify App Market. You can download the module free of charge and click on it to launch cart2cart.
This isn’t the only way to go. You could as well get started directly from Cart2Cart’s main website, shopping-cart-migration.com.
No matter what method you use, creating an account is easy and free. You can fill out your personal information or log in using your Google or Facebook account credentials. All you need is a Google account or Facebook account.
Cart2Cart will automatically redirect you to its main dashboard. From there, you can start setting up your BigCommerce to Shopify Migration.
Select BigCommerce to be the cart you will be migrating To . Next, select Shopify to be the cart you’ll use for To . Next, click the Start free demo nowbutton. This will launch the migration wizard.
Enter Your BigCommerce Source Cart Details
The source cart is the first section of the migration wizard. Here you can enter your source cart information and source store details before proceeding with BigCommerce to Shopify migration.
If you choose BigCommerce from the dropdown menu of cart options, Source Cart Setup will prompt you to enter the Source Store URL and Client ID. API Path
The first part of the process is very simple. Simply enter your store’s URL field and then your BigCommerce admin username field.
You will have to use your BigCommerce system to generate the Access Token and API Path details.
Open a new browser window, and log in to your BigCommerce admin panel. You can go straight to Advanced Setting,choose API Accounts, and then click the Create an API Accountbutton.
You can now create a Cart2CartAPI Account on BigCommerce. Next, copy and paste the Access Tokenand API Path details.
Shopify Target Cart Setup
It turns out that setting up the target cart doesn’t require as much effort as detailing the source cart.
You only need to choose Shopifyas your target cart and then install Cart2Cart store migration appto the Shopify store.
The app will serve as a connection bridge between the platform and Cart2Cart, which will eventually migrate BigCommerce to Shopify.
After you are done, click on the Choose Entitiesbutton and you will be able to move to the next stage.
Choose the Stores You Would Like To Migrate
This is Car2Cart, which allows you to specify the online store data that you wish to transfer when you import BigCommerce to Shopify.
Coupons and Select All are the main default options.
Make no mistake about it. These data groups are core data that describe the store entities they accompany.
Blog posts, for instance, include Title and Full Description, Short Descriptions, Tags SEO URL, Authors, Post Redirects and Images.
Reviews are migrated together with their Created Date and Rate, User Name and Comment, Product and Title. Coupons are usually attached to the Name and Coupon Code, Type Discount and Discount Amount.
Orderscome With ID. Order Date. Order Status. Order Products (Name. SKU. Product Price. Quantity. SubTotal Price. Tax Price. Shipping Price. Total Price. Order Comments. Email. Billing Address. First Name. Last Name. Company. Address 1. Address 2. Country. State. Zip Code. Telephone.and Shipping Address.
Customerdetails will be accompanied by Last Name and Email (First Name, last name, Company),and Shipment Address (First Name. Last Name. Company), Address 1, Country, State. Zip Code. Telephone.
Product Categories (on the contrary) are transferred together with their Description, Status Image, URL and Meta Title,and Meta Description.
Last but not least, information about your Products, includes Name and Full Description, Images In Description, Status, Manufacturer Price, Special Price URL, Meta Title, Meta description, Weight, Variants (SKUs, Attributes Price), Base Image. Additional Images. Quantity.
Choose Additional Migration Options
Cart2Cartfurther lets you customize your BigCommerce to Shopify migration with additional tweaks in form of additional options.
For example, you could choose to Migrate Short and Full descriptions,or Clear existing data on Target Store prior to Migration at no additional cost. These options are available at no additional cost.
Cart2Cart doesn’t offer any additional free customizations. Changing product quantity to 100 in your Target Store will cost $29 and Migrating Source Store customer group into customer tags.
The next price rate is $49 and will give you more options like Migrating images out of product descriptions, category descriptions, blog posts descriptions.
The privilege to migrate categories and products SEO URLs is available for $59 beyond that. You will need to create 301 redirects for your target store following migration. Also, you will need to consider Migrating Source Store Categories into Shopify Automated Collections.
You can perform a free demo migration followed by a full migration
After you have chosen the entities and customized your BigCommerce to Shopify migration you can perform a free demo.
Cart2Cart will only import a small number of entities from your shop. They should, however, be sufficient for a detailed analysis of your demo target shop.
You should take the time to carefully assess each element. If you find an anomaly, it is worth readjusting your migration options to correct it.
If you are satisfied with everything else, you can pay for the migration service before finalizing a BigCommerce to Shopify migration.
More to You
The process of migrating BigCommerce from Shopify will take approximately two hours. You can close your browser and continue your business operations. When the data transfer is complete, the system will send you an email notification.
Once it has, you can now close the store. Spend some time evaluating your Shopify store. You should pay special attention to the entities and the overall structure of the store on the frontend as well as backend.
Are all the entities organized properly? Are all entities properly mapped? Cart2Cart managed to migrate all data elements you have selected?
Only after everything has been checked and confirmed, you can customize the store’s look.
