BigCommerce to Shopify Plus Migration, Planned From Your Catalog Up

It is worth it when you want B2B and direct-to-consumer sales in one admin, more control over checkout, or Shopify POS Pro for retail stores. It is less clear-cut if your BigCommerce plan already covers what you need and your team knows Stencil well. Shopify Plus lists $2,300 a month on a 3-year term and from $2,500 on a 1-year term, so put that next to your current BigCommerce invoice before you decide.

Replatforming means moving your catalog, customers, orders, content and URLs off BigCommerce, then rebuilding the storefront, checkout rules and integrations on Shopify Plus. Data comes out through the BigCommerce Catalog API or a CSV export. The Stencil theme is rebuilt in Liquid, each app is replaced or retired, and every old URL gets a single-hop 301. BigCommerce stays live until the Shopify store passes test orders.

Most BigCommerce moves fit our 5 to 8 week band for advanced builds, because they include data migration and often B2B pricing or subscriptions. A headless or heavily custom storefront runs 8 to 14 weeks. What stretches a timeline is a large set of modifiers, checkout scripts that need rebuilding, and ERP connections, so we count those on the scoping call before we give you a date.

Yes. Stencil themes are built from Handlebars templates, and Shopify themes use Liquid with Online Store 2.0 sections, so no theme code carries over. We rebuild the design as a Shopify theme your team can rearrange in the theme editor. Layouts your analytics show are working stay; pages nobody visits are dropped rather than rebuilt.

Each app goes on a list with what it does, what data it holds, and its Shopify replacement: a Shopify App Store app, a native Shopify feature, or custom code. Reviews, loyalty points and subscriptions hold customer data, so each gets its own export and import plan. Apps that only add a widget to the theme are rebuilt in the new theme and need no data move.

BigCommerce splits product choices in two. Variant options create SKUs with tracked stock. Modifier options change how an item is made or shipped, and BigCommerce documents that you cannot track inventory against modifier values. Variant options map to Shopify options and variants. Modifiers such as engraving text or gift wrap become line-item properties, a product options app, or a Shopify Function, never extra variants.

Shopify allows up to 2,048 variants and up to three options per product. Most BigCommerce products fit. If one has a fourth option or more combinations than that, we split it into several products shown as a combined listing, or move the extra choice to a modifier. Shopify also notes that some themes and apps do not support more than 100 variants, so we test those products in the new theme early.

For a small, simple catalog the product CSV export in the BigCommerce control panel is enough. For anything with modifiers, custom fields, price lists or many images, we pull from the BigCommerce Catalog REST API, which returns products, variants, options, modifiers, images and custom fields as structured data. We script that pull so it can run again for the final top-up just before launch.

Customers, addresses and past orders can move; passwords cannot. Shopify's migration guide lists CSV files or the API for customers, and migration apps or the Order API for historical orders. Passwords are stored as one-way hashes on BigCommerce, so each customer sets a new one from an account invite email. We send those invites in batches after launch so support is not flooded on day one.

Custom fields become typed Shopify metafields, so the theme and search filters can read them. Brands become the product vendor field, or a brand metaobject if you want proper brand pages. Categories become collections. Shopify collections are flat, so a nested BigCommerce tree becomes one collection per level plus a navigation menu. Every mapping goes into a spreadsheet you sign off before the first import.

The balances transfer, but each code needs checking. We export every open BigCommerce gift certificate with its code and remaining value, then recreate it as a Shopify gift card so the customer keeps the same amount. Store credit is recreated in the form your finance team books it. Any balance that does not reconcile before cutover goes on a short list for manual handling.

Yes, through different tools. Shopify Plus checkout is changed with checkout extensions and Shopify Functions, which Shopify lists among its Plus features, rather than by editing checkout code directly. Custom fields, delivery rules, discounts and payment method rules are all possible. Scripts you added to the BigCommerce checkout through Script Manager do not carry over, so each is rebuilt or replaced by an app.

Often, yes. Shopify Plus works with Shopify Payments and with many third-party providers. Shopify's pricing page says third-party transaction fees may apply when you use a provider other than Shopify Payments. BigCommerce's pricing page says it charges a monthly fee on self-service plans for orders through Open Payment Providers. Model both before you choose, using your real order volume.

Shopify's Plus pricing page states 10K+ checkouts per minute with unlimited bandwidth, transactions and SKUs. That covers the checkout side. The parts we load-test before a sale are the ones you add: apps that call outside services, custom Functions, and any ERP connection that has to accept a burst of orders. We run those tests on the development store before launch, not during your first sale.

It depends on SKU count, how many modifiers and custom fields you use, custom checkout logic, the number of apps to replace, and integrations such as an ERP. FactoryJet quotes a fixed price in writing after a short scoping call, priced per phase. You see a working demo on your own BigCommerce data before you sign, and you own the code when the project ends.

BigCommerce lists Core at $39, Growth at $105 and Scale at $399 a month, with Performance starting at $1,499 a month billed annually. Shopify Plus lists $2,300 a month on a 3-year term, from $2,500 on a 1-year term, or a variable platform fee for more complex businesses. Payment fees sit on top on both platforms, so compare full invoices, not list prices.

Yes. BigCommerce sets your plan from trailing twelve-month GMV, which it defines as gross order value minus 10%. When you pass a threshold, such as $30K on Core or $100K on Growth, it upgrades you to the next plan. On Scale and Performance an overage rate applies to orders above the plan limit instead. Shopify Plus is a term fee or a variable platform fee agreed with Shopify.

Rankings can wobble for a few weeks after any platform move. What protects them is a complete redirect map. We collect every URL from the BigCommerce XML sitemap, Search Console and backlink data, map each one to its Shopify page, and load them as single-hop 301s before DNS changes. Shopify Plus allows up to 20,000,000 redirects, so even very large catalogs fit.

BigCommerce lets each store set its own URL format, so product pages may sit at /product-name/, under /products/, or under a category path. Shopify fixes products at /products/handle and collections at /collections/handle. We keep each old slug as the Shopify handle wherever we can, so most redirects follow one pattern, and we list every exception in the map for you to check.

We do not redirect them one by one. Shopify's own redirect help uses a URL like /brands/dell.html?_bc_fsnf=1 as its example of query strings that might not redirect as expected. We redirect the clean category or brand URL, set canonical tags on Shopify filter pages, and let the parameter versions drop out of the index on their own.

Yes. BigCommerce blog posts become Shopify blog articles under /blogs/news/ or another blog handle you choose, and web pages become Shopify pages under /pages/. Titles, meta descriptions, images and alt text move with them. Because both paths change, every post and page gets its own 301 in the redirect map.

Yes. We build on a Shopify development store, load your real catalog, and run test orders through payments, tax, shipping and any ERP connection. You click through it on a preview link and sign off. Only then do we freeze BigCommerce changes, top up orders and customers placed since the test import, and move DNS.

Most of them. Shopify B2B sets up buyers as companies with their own pricing, payment terms and catalogs, and one store can serve both B2B and direct-to-consumer buyers. BigCommerce price lists become Shopify B2B catalogs and company accounts become Shopify companies. Quote requests and buyer approval chains work differently on each side, so we check them feature by feature in the audit.

You choose between one Shopify store using Markets for countries and languages, or separate expansion stores for each brand. One store is simpler to run and keeps one catalog. Separate stores suit brands with different products, teams or checkout rules. We make this call in the audit, before any data moves, because it decides how the catalog and redirects are built.