Now that you've made the decision to move your store to BigCommerce, it's time to start the logistics of transferring your catalog. Recognizing that there is no single solution that will fit every business, we support several ways to migrate your data, ranging from our data migration apps to completely managed transfers through BigCommerce's Data Migration Services team.

Factors such as ease of use, number of SKUs, orders and sales history, and custom product fields are key considerations to take into account before selecting a migration method.

 

Available Methods

 Data Migration app (free, with limitations*)CSV Import (free)Managed TransferBigCommerce Apps
Products✔✔✔N/A
Categories✔✔✔N/A
Customers**✔✔✔N/A
Orders✔X✔N/A
ReviewsXXXProduct Review Importer & Exporter app (free)

*The free version of our data migration app is limited to a combined total of 1,000 products, orders, and customers.
**Passwords cannot be migrated for PCI compliance

Data Migration Apps

Our data migration apps allow you to migrate your catalog data resources (products, categories, customers, orders) into your new BigCommerce store from the following platforms:

The demo versions of these apps are available in the App Marketplace, and are free to use for the first 1,000 resources. After this limit has been reached, there is a fee for transferring additional resources using the full app. Use the in-app contact form for more information.

Ideal for those new to BigCommerce, the data migration apps should be the first step in relaunching your store on the BigCommerce platform. As the apps make a copy of your current store's catalog, they do not affect your live store. While each app has its own requirements specific to the hosting platform, they all require that:

  • Your current store is accessible from the Internet
  • You have full administrative access to your current store's control panel

Any data stored in plug-ins or extensions will most likely not be included in the transfer, and would need to be added manually or by CSV import afterwards. If you have any data you need to preserve inside your BigCommerce store, we suggest exporting it to create a backup copy before starting the transfer. 

Basic customer details, such as name, email address, phone number, and physical addresses will be transferred. However, since passwords can’t be exported from most platforms for PCI compliance, customers are transferred with a feature flag that requires them to reset their password the next time they attempt to log in.

CSV Import

As an alternative, you can import your products and customers into your BigCommerce store by using a CSV file. Keep in mind that you will likely need to reformat your source CSV file so that it can be imported successfully into your BigCommerce store. Spreadsheet programs such as Excel or Google Sheets are necessary in order to edit CSV files. For stores with less than 10,000 SKUs, we recommend using one of our data migration apps for migrating your products, and then using a CSV import to clean up your product data.

Managed Data Migration

If you don’t feel comfortable migrating your store’s data using the app or CSV file, consider using a managed data transfer through BigCommerce’s Data Migration Services team. They will work directly with you to ensure that your data is securely migrated to your satisfaction, tailoring their services to match your business needs. The team is highly experienced in working with large catalogs with SKUs on more than 50 ecommerce platforms. They are also able to handle custom migration requests to best meet the needs of your store's architecture. Contact us to request a quote.

API

Developers can use our Catalog, Orders, and Customers API to add and modify products, orders, and customer data directly. See our API Documentation on the Dev Center for more detailed information and examples.

 

How do I ensure that imported historical orders aren't counted as new orders or GMV? When migrating orders from a previous platform, which involves creating new orders via API, use M-MIG in the external_source field to exclude these orders from affecting your store's trailing 12-month sales volume. These orders do not deduct product stock and will bypass quantity requirements.

 

Content Migration

Content such as web pages and blog posts are not included in our data migration apps or by CSV import. In addition, this is out of scope for managed transfers as well. However, blog posts can be imported through the API.

If you are not comfortable using the API, we recommend copying the raw HTML from the web page's source onto a new web page in the BigCommerce control panel. Once the page is created, you can use 301 redirects to minimize SEO loss by forwarding all visitors still using the older URL to your new URL on BigCommerce.

If you are migrating from WooCommerce, consider using the BigCommerce for WordPress plugin. This allows you to keep and manage your content pages from within WordPress, while using BigCommerce to power your ecommerce presence by hosting your product catalog and checkout. Our guide on Migrating from WooCommerce goes into further depth on the various methods available for you.

 

Considerations

There are a number of factors to consider for all stores when moving to another platform, as well as details that will be unique for each individual migration situation.

Sales and order information cannot be transferred via CSV import. We highly recommend exporting your orders to hold onto as a reference for any questions or for tax purposes. Orders can be imported using the data migration apps through the API by a developer, or by our Data Migration Services team as an additional service when performing a managed data transfer.

Importing product reviews into BigCommerce is easily done by using the Product Review Importer & Exporter app from the BigCommerce Apps Marketplace. This ensures that you keep your valuable customer testimonials and maintain continuity across platforms. There are also apps that will allow you to import coupon codes in bulk.

These apps allow you to import your coupon codes and product reviews in a CSV file format, ensuring that you keep your valuable customer testimonials and maintain continuity across platforms.

As storefront design work cannot be transferred between ecommerce platforms, this gives you an excellent opportunity to update your storefront design and content as part of your relaunch. Our Stencil theme platform allows you to build a beautiful storefront that engages shoppers and encourages checkouts on any device. Our Theme Marketplace contains several ready-to-use optimized themes for free and for purchase, and you can contact a BigCommerce Partner to assist with theme customization. Conversely, the ability to use an embedded checkout with the BC4WP plugin allows you to keep a consistent look on both content and checkout pages within WordPress.

Making major changes to your online store will have some impact on your SEO. In most cases, the impact of switching your store over to BigCommerce is a short term dip while search engines process the changes you have made to your store. The data migration apps assist in this process by automatically creating 301 redirects, based on the category and product URLs defined in the database.

A 301 redirect is the most efficient and SEO-friendly way of permanently redirecting an old URL to a new one. This allows you to update your URL structure to be more search engine friendly while still redirecting your old URLs to the correct product or category on your new BigCommerce store. You can find additional resources on SEO for your new BigCommerce store in our extensive Guide to SEO.