Migrate to Shopify · from BigCommerce
BigCommerce to Shopify migration, with options, modifiers and trailing-slash URLs handled
BigCommerce stores leave because of plan thresholds tied to sales, a smaller app and theme market, and a checkout that is harder to change than it looks. We move the catalogue, customer groups, order history and every ranking URL to Shopify, test it on a staging store, and switch over on a day you choose.
Stores we have moved and builtAll case studies
Happy clients
01Why merchants leave BigCommerce
What BigCommerce costs you that Shopify does not
- 01Plans that move up with your salesBigCommerce’s Standard, Plus and Pro plans each carry an annual sales ceiling, and crossing it moves you to the next plan whether or not you need its features. Shopify plans are priced on features, and Shopify Plus is a published monthly rate.
- 02A smaller pool of apps and developersStencil themes use Handlebars and a build toolchain, and the BigCommerce App Marketplace is a fraction of Shopify’s. Finding a developer who knows Stencil takes longer than finding one who knows Liquid, and the same goes for apps for subscriptions, loyalty and reviews.
- 03A checkout you can see but struggle to changeThe Optimized One-Page Checkout can be restyled, and anything deeper means the Checkout SDK and a custom build you then maintain. Shopify’s checkout, Shop Pay and Checkout Extensibility let you add fields, upsells and rules with apps or small extensions.
- 04Built-in features with nowhere to growBigCommerce bundles in reviews, gift certificates, abandoned cart emails and wish lists. Each one is basic, and there is rarely a stronger app to swap in. On Shopify every one of those has a native version and several apps competing to do it better.
02What moves
Everything that comes across, and the catch for each
A BigCommerce store is more than its products. This is the list we check off, record by record, before launch.
- Products, options and modifiersVariant options become Shopify options and variants. Modifiers (engraving text, add-on checkboxes, file uploads) become line item properties, with any price impact rebuilt in a Shopify Function or a product-options app.
- Categories and brandsNested categories become collections with the hierarchy kept in the menus; a product in five categories lands in five collections. Brands become the Shopify vendor field and a collection each.
- Custom fieldsProduct custom fields become metafields, shown on the product page by the theme where they were shown before.
- Customers and customer groupsAccounts, addresses, store credit and group membership. Groups become customer tags, or B2B companies on Shopify Plus. Passwords cannot move, so customers get an invite to set a new one.
- OrdersFull order history with line items, totals, shipping, statuses and dates, so returns and customer service keep working from day one.
- ReviewsBigCommerce native reviews, or Yotpo, Judge.me and Stamped data, imported with ratings, names and dates.
- Blog and web pagesBlog posts become Shopify articles with the same slugs where possible; web pages are rebuilt in the theme with internal links rewritten.
- Gift certificates and couponsOutstanding gift certificate balances migrate as Shopify gift cards on Plus. Coupon codes and cart-level promotions are recreated as Shopify discounts.
03Feature mapping
Where each BigCommerce feature lands on Shopify
BigCommerceShopify
Customer groups and bulk pricingShopify B2B catalogues and quantity rules (Plus), or customer tags with Shopify Functions
B2B EditionShopify B2B (companies, company locations, payment terms)
Multi-StorefrontShopify Markets, or expansion stores on Plus
Page Builder and Stencil widgetsOnline Store 2.0 sections
Faceted searchShopify Search & Discovery
Abandoned cart saverShopify abandoned checkout recovery or Klaviyo flows
Promotions and coupon codesShopify discounts and Shopify Functions
Google Shopping and Facebook channelsGoogle & YouTube and Facebook & Instagram channels
04How the migration runs
Five steps, with the old store trading the whole time
- 01Audit and planWe export the app list, the URL list from Search Console and the product, option and modifier counts, and give you a written migration plan with a fixed price and a launch date.
- 02Build the Shopify storeTheme design and build on a staging store while BigCommerce keeps trading, with your design recreated or improved. Each app and native feature that mattered gets a named replacement.
- 03Migrate and verify dataProducts, modifiers, customers, orders, reviews and content are imported, then checked record by record against the BigCommerce exports.
- 04Redirects and SEOA full redirect map from old to new URLs, including the trailing-slash versions, meta titles and descriptions carried across, structured data rebuilt and the sitemap ready for Search Console.
- 05Launch and watchA final delta import of new orders and customers, then DNS switches on the day you choose. We watch Search Console, orders and error logs for the first weeks and fix anything the data flags.
05BigCommerce traps
The things that go wrong when this migration is rushed
- 01Trailing slashes and custom URLsBigCommerce product and category URLs are editable and end in a trailing slash, so a store can have /blue-widget/ at the root and /widgets/ as a category. Shopify puts products under /products/ and categories under /collections/. Every old URL gets a 301 and we test the top pages from Search Console by hand.
- 02Modifiers with price changesA modifier that adds £15 for gift wrapping is a line item property on Shopify, which carries no price by itself. We rebuild the pricing with a Shopify Function or a product-options app and test every combination before launch.
- 03Variant and option limitsBigCommerce allows up to 600 variants per product; Shopify allows 100 (2,048 on Plus) and three options. Products past those limits are restructured before import.
- 04Customer group pricing in the themeGroup-specific prices on BigCommerce are worked out when the page renders. On Shopify they live in B2B catalogues or discount Functions, so the theme has to show the right price to the right login. We test it as a guest, a retail customer and a trade customer.
Stores we moved onto Shopify, with the product open so you can judge the result yourself.
Stores we have moved and built
01€10,000+MRR in the first monthFerma GorataFarm-to-door meat boxes, moved to Shopify with subscriptions straight from the cart. €10,000+ in monthly recurring revenue in the first month.MigrationSubscriptions
025,000products out of a platform with no exportFluxStoreA Bulgarian footwear retailer moved off CloudCart, a platform with no product export: the catalogue scraped, converted and imported with every size and stock level.MigrationFootwear
03Full redesign of Enibbana's Shopify storefront.Store DevelopmentUX/UI Design
They said it on camera
Press play to hear themFounders and managers we worked with, in their own words.
Laura SchlaphorstProduct Owner eShop, Ryzon
Hassan FarhatFounder & CEO, Krafted
Grumspot's team successfully revamped the SEO ReRank app. The team made sure I'm kept up to date on the progress of the project at all times and were very quick to adapt any requested changes.
Mladen GrozevFounder, Meliora Web
Irakli LobjanidzeFounder & CEO, ABsolutely
Michael FenlonCMO, Nutri-Genetix
Very competent team who do the work diligently and professionally while still maintainting an agile approach to accomodating changing business needs.
Matthew WebbCTO, Top Screen Media
Andreas MüllerE-Commerce Manager, Emma & Noah
Martin HanewaldCTO, Simply Legal GmbH
We're impressed with their professionalism and quick reaction times to issues and requests.
Miroslav AntonovCo-Founder, Spoon
Danny ShislerCTO, The Floorr
Divyansh OjhaFounder & CEO, Odd Bunch
We loved working with Grumspot! They created a custom app for our Shopify checkout that fixed our address issue perfectly. Their quick and effective solution made a big difference for us. Highly recommend!
Andreas MüllerE-Commerce Manager, Emma & Noah
Grumspot were exceptionally great to work with. They always offered their best advice and were readily available. I thoroughly enjoyed working with them and highly recommend them.
Yash RanadiveFounder, RealityShop
It has been a pleasure working with Grumspot, and we are extremely satisfied with their services. Their communication was exceptional, and their meticulous attention to detail in data gathering stood out. Grumspot consistently exceeded expectations in their deliverables, completing the project on time and providing unwavering support for any questions our team had. We highly recommend Grumspot for any Shopify Plus projects and look forward to collaborating with them again in the future.
Sam CutroniCEO, DataTools
Working with Grumspot was a pleasure. They were highly professional in their communications and the final work product, even under a tight deadline.
Adam BrecklerCo-Founder and Head of Product @ Better Health
07Testimonials
What it is like to work with us, in their words
Reviews on Clutch and in writing from the founders and managers we worked with.
08Questions
Questions about moving from BigCommerce
Tell us about your BigCommerce store.
Get in touch
Send the URL and the rough size of the catalogue. We will come back with a migration plan, a fixed price and a launch date.