How To Migrate From BigCommerce to Shopify
By Litextension
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Choosing the right eCommerce platform for your online store is one of the most important factors when running an online business. Therefore, it’s understandable that merchants sometimes try to look for more efficient e-commerce solutions with the latest innovations to replace their existing stores.
Up to now, LitExtension has helped more than 40,000 merchants around the world to migrate all data from their previous platforms to more robust ones. Recently, we have conducted an analysis of more than 845 migrations from Bigcommece in the past year and found that: Of all the target stores that merchants chose to migrate their website to from BigCommerce, Shopify accounts for 46%. This chart is going to illustrate these statistics:
It could be a challenging task to switch to a new eCommerce platform and it could take you weeks or even months to complete. Generally, there are 3 methods to migrate from BigCommerce to Shopify. If you choose the right process, all your data (including products, clients, orders, etc.) could be accurately and easily transferred within literally hours. Therefore, please make sure you have considered carefully before heading to the final decision.
In this article, I am going to show you a comprehensive guide to migrate all your data from BigCommerce to Shopify effectively and provide you with all the important tips and tricks when performing this challenging task.
Preparation
Database backup
The very first thing you should keep in mind when making any changes to your online store is to backup your database (customers, orders and products, etc.). This is of great importance because it protects your business-critical data in any case.
However, when migrating your data from BigCommerce to Shopify with LitExtension, you don’t have to worry about any distortions of your data because we will not, in any way, edit anything on your Source Store. Therefore, it is not compulsory for you to do back-up before migration.
In this article, I will still show how to backup your BigCommerce database for anyone who still want to do it.
Following will be all the steps that neeed to take to export your BigCommerce products, you can follow the same process to export orders and customers. When exporting your products and product images from your BigCommerce store, be sure to export additional product and variant information.
- From your BigCommerce dashboard, go to Products > Export.
- Under Export Template and File Format Options, select Default and then click Continue.
- In the Products dialog box that appears, click Export my Products to a CSV file and then click Close. A CSV file containing your product data is saved to your computer.
4. A status bar will move across the screen. When it finishes, click Download my Products file to save the file to your computer.
5. Connect to your store using WebDAV which is an application that allows you to upload files to your store’s server. Download the product_images folder by dragging and dropping it to your desktop.
Install a new Shopify store
After your data is safe and sound on your computer, it’s time to create a new Shopify website!
- The first thing to do is to sign up for an account on Shopify site. You only need to fill in your email address, password, the desired name, and some needed information like name, address, country, phone number… to finish this step.
- After that, you have to fill in these information about your Shopify store
3. It will take you straight to the Shopify dashboard once you’ve filled in your information. Now you can get down to migrating from BigCommerce to Shopify.
Data migration with LitExtension
LitExtension is known as the leading company in the shopping cart migration field with 99% of customer satisfaction on Trustpilot.
LitExtension is so lucky to have provided 140,000+ successful migrations for 40,000+ worldwide customers. With LitExtension, you can get the job done easily with minimal investment. To run your migration with us, you only have to finish 4 simple steps without any technical expertise required.
If you do not have time to migrate the website by yourself, you can hand over the tasks to our specialists using the All-in-one solution service. We will help you complete the migration process from A to Z at a very affordable price.
You can check our BigCommerce to Shopify migration tutorial video to have a better idea of our service:
Alright, let’s go further into the detailed process of BigCommerce to Shopify migration!
Step 1: Register or log in to LitExtension website
To start your migration, you have to use your email address to sign up on LitExtension website. You can also log indirectly by using your Facebook or Google account.
Step 2: Fill in carts information
To set up your shopping cart, select BigCommerce as your source cart type, and provide the store URL. Follow the brief instruction to get your API info and fill them in the form.
Moving to Target Cart setup, enter your Shopify store URL and the API password to the blank spaces right after you choose Shopify as your Target Cart.
In case you don’t know how to get an API password from the Shopify store, please follow the easy instructions of this video below!
Do not hesitate to contact LitExtension’s support team if you encounter any difficulties. We are available 24/7 to help you fix all problems as well as answer any questions about this field.
Step 3: Configure migration
LitExtension supports migrating products, customers, pages, blog posts, and coupons in this case. You can choose to migrate only a few or click “Select all” to migrate all of them.
Then, scroll down to see a list of additional options to expand your migration possibilities. For example, 301 Redirect is essential when re-platforming because it helps to create 301 redirects to the new site. The SEO rankings you have built up for years will be kept.
Step 4: Perform migration
Now you are ready for the full migration. I highly recommend you to try our FREE DEMO to see how your website will look like after the migration before you decide to pay for it. You will receive $5 in your balance and you can use it as a discount when running the Full Migration.
Once the migration starts, it will run seamlessly on the server. Therefore, there’s no need to keep your PC on while the data is being transferred. It is completely safe to turn it off! Take a break, have a cup of coffee and your email will receive a notification when the process is completed.
Check result after migration
After the full migration is finished, all of your products, except for those which are out-of-stock, will be displayed on the storefront.
Now, please click on the “Check Result” button to check the migration result. You can easily find them from the catalog or by the onsite search. You should check your product details carefully including product descriptions, images, variants, and meta descriptions. Don’t forget to check data on both the front-end and back-end of your new online store.
For further information on how to check the result after the full migration, please check out our detailed step-by-step guidance. In case you meet any errors or troubles in this process, don’t hesitate to contact our customer care team. We are always ready to be the companion in your eCommerce journey.
Set up Shopify store
Now, you are heading to the final step of your store’s re-platforming venture-setting up a Shopify store. After the Shopify store has all the data migrated from BigCommerce, it’s time to finish the rest to complete your online store 100%. Here are our recommendations for you in this step:
- Design and set up a Shopify store
- Switch your domain
- Set up your shipping
- Establish a payment provider
- Try placing some orders
All of the above setup steps have detailed instructions in this article. Make sure you don’t miss a thing. After finishing all those steps, you can confidently launch your new store.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, I have already shown you all the steps you need to re-platform your website from BigCommerce to Shopify using the LitExtension tool.
Because this is a process that must be carefully considered due to its extremely complex nature, LitExtension hopes to provide you the best migration service that guarantees accuracy and the highest level of security to your data.
If you are a merchant who is looking for an optimal website migration solution, or you just do not have enough time for doing it, feel free to contact LitExtension’s customer service team to get your job done. Let’s join our community to get more eCommerce knowledge.
