BigCommerce to Shopify Migration: A Step-by-Step Guide for Growing eCommerce Stores

BigCommerce is a solid platform for getting started in eCommerce. But for stores that are growing quickly, adding new sales channels, scaling their catalog, or pushing toward $1M in annual revenue and beyond, their pricing model and platform constraints can become the ceiling rather than the floor.

This guide covers exactly why growing stores are migrating from BigCommerce to Shopify in 2026, what the process looks like step by step, and what you should know before making the switch.

Why Growing Stores Are Leaving BigCommerce for Shopify

1. Revenue-Tiered Pricing That Penalizes Success

BigCommerce structures its plans around annual revenue thresholds. As your store grows past $50K, $180K, or $400K in annual sales, you are automatically moved to a higher-tier plan — whether you choose to upgrade or not. For many merchants, this comes as an unwelcome surprise during peak growth periods.

Shopify’s pricing is based on the features and plan you select, not on how much you sell. There are transaction fees on non-Shopify Payments gateways, but the plan price itself does not escalate with your revenue. For stores on a growth trajectory, this predictability matters.

2. A Smaller App Ecosystem

Shopify’s app store has over 10,000 apps across categories ranging from loyalty programs to ERP integrations. BigCommerce’s marketplace is smaller and less mature in key categories, which often pushes merchants toward more custom development work or workarounds to replicate functionality that is natively available on Shopify.

3. Checkout Performance and Conversion

Checkout is where revenue is won or lost. According to Baymard Institute, an independent UX research firm that has conducted over 14 years of checkout usability testing, the average large eCommerce site can increase its conversion rate by 35.26% through better checkout design alone. Shopify’s native checkout — including its one-page checkout and Shop Pay accelerated option — has been built around this kind of research. BigCommerce’s checkout customization is available but requires Stencil theme development knowledge or developer intervention for more meaningful changes.

4. Mobile Performance

Mobile is not a secondary concern — it is where most of your traffic comes from. Google research found that 53% of mobile site visits are abandoned if a page takes longer than 3 seconds to load. A commissioned study by Deloitte for Google — Milliseconds Make Millions — found that a 0.1-second improvement in mobile load time increased retail conversions by 8.4% and average order value by 9.2%. Shopify’s infrastructure, including its global CDN and built-in image optimization, is designed to minimize load times out of the box. BigCommerce can be fast, but merchants often need to invest additional effort in theme optimization and hosting configuration to get there.

5. Shopify’s Market Position and Ecosystem Maturity

In 2024, Shopify merchants processed $292 billion in Gross Merchandise Volume — a 24% year-over-year increase, according to Shopify’s Q4 2024 Earnings Report. That scale means deeper integrations with third-party platforms, more developers building for Shopify first, and a broader talent pool if you ever need help.

BigCommerce vs Shopify: Side-by-Side Comparison

What Migrates Cleanly vs. What Needs Rebuilding

Step-by-Step: How the Migration Process Works

A well-planned BigCommerce-to-Shopify migration typically follows five phases. The timeline varies based on catalog size, custom integrations, and whether you are migrating to standard Shopify or Shopify Plus.

Note: Stores with ERP integrations, custom pricing rules, or subscription products should allow 10 to 14 weeks for a complete migration. Rush timelines often result in SEO losses or data integrity issues that take longer to fix than the time saved.

Protecting Your Search Visibility During Migration

A migration that loses organic rankings also loses the traffic that feeds AI Overviews, Perplexity citations, and zero-click discovery. The technical steps below protect all of it — not just traditional search rankings.

BigCommerce and Shopify use different URL structures, which means every changed URL needs a 301 redirect in place at launch. Key steps:

•  Export your full BigCommerce URL list and map each page to its Shopify equivalent before launch.
• Implement all 301 redirects in Shopify’s URL redirect manager or via an app like Ahrefs Redirect Manager.
•  Re-submit your Shopify XML sitemap to Google Search Console within 24 hours of launch.
• Verify meta titles, meta descriptions, and canonical tags carried over correctly.
• Monitor Google Search Console for crawl errors and 404s for 30 days post-launch.

If properly planned, a migration should result in minimal long-term SEO impact. Organic rankings may fluctuate for 2 to 4 weeks post-launch while Google re-crawls and re-indexes the new site.

Client Case Study: Home Goods Brand, $1.2M Annual Revenue

The situation: A US-based home goods brand generating $1.2M in annual revenue had been on BigCommerce Standard for two years. When their trailing 12-month GMV crossed the $180K annual threshold, their plan was automatically upgraded to Pro — adding $200/month to their overhead with no advance notice. They also relied on three third-party integrations that had become unstable due to limited BigCommerce API support.

The migration: We completed the migration to Shopify in 9 weeks, including a full theme rebuild in Dawn, Matrixify-based data transfer for 2,800 SKUs and 4 years of order history, and a 380-URL redirect map.

The results (measured at 90 days post-launch):

• 14% improvement in mobile checkout completion rate
•  $270/month reduction in platform and integration costs
•  Organic traffic recovered to pre-migration levels within 3 weeks; no measurable keyword ranking drops
• Customer-facing experience: new theme scored 12 points higher on Lighthouse mobile performance test

The brand has since expanded to Shopify Markets for international sales — a capability that would have required a BigCommerce Enterprise contract at their volume.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does a BigCommerce to Shopify migration take?

Most migrations take between 6 and 10 weeks from kickoff to launch. Simpler stores with under 1,000 products and no custom integrations can move faster — sometimes in 4 to 5 weeks. Stores with ERP connections, custom pricing structures, or subscription products typically need 10 to 14 weeks to migrate properly without data or SEO issues.

Will my SEO rankings drop when I migrate to Shopify?

Some short-term fluctuation (typically 2 to 4 weeks) is normal as Google re-crawls the new site. However, if you implement 301 redirects correctly for every changed URL, resubmit your sitemap to Google Search Console, and carry over all meta data, there should be no significant long-term SEO impact. Stores that skip the redirect mapping step are the ones that experience lasting ranking drops.

Can I keep my BigCommerce store running while Shopify is being built?

Yes. Your BigCommerce store stays live throughout the build process. The DNS switch to Shopify only happens at the final launch step, which means there is no downtime during migration. You continue taking orders on BigCommerce until the moment you switch over.

What happens to my customer passwords when I migrate?

Customer passwords cannot be transferred between platforms for security reasons — this is true of all platform migrations, not just BigCommerce to Shopify. Customer accounts and purchase history migrate successfully, but each customer will be prompted to set a new password on their first login to your Shopify store. This is best communicated proactively via an email to your customer base before or shortly after launch.

Does BigCommerce charge exit fees or lock me in?

BigCommerce does not charge exit fees, and your data is exportable. However, if you are on an annual BigCommerce contract, you will still be billed for the remainder of the term. Month-to-month plans give you more flexibility. Before initiating migration, confirm your current contract terms with BigCommerce to avoid unexpected charges.

Is Shopify Plus worth it for a store migrating from BigCommerce Enterprise?

Shopify Plus starts at $2,300 per month and makes sense for stores doing more than $1M to $2M in annual revenue that need features like Checkout Extensibility for custom checkout flows, B2B wholesale portals, dedicated success management, and lower transaction fees. BigCommerce Enterprise merchants who are already paying for those capabilities at the enterprise level typically find Shopify Plus comparable in cost but significantly broader in ecosystem support, particularly for app integrations and headless commerce.

Getting Started

Ready to Migrate from BigCommerce to Shopify?

A migration done well protects your SEO, preserves your data, and positions your store for the growth that made you outgrow BigCommerce in the first place. A poorly executed migration can cost months of recovery.

If you are considering the move and want an honest assessment of what is involved for your specific store—including complexity, timeline, and cost—we offer a free migration consultation. No pitch, just a clear picture of what the process looks like for you.

Book your free migration assessment today.