Switching from BigCommerce to Magento: process and risks

1. Why merchants switch from BigCommerce to Magento

Like Shopify, BigCommerce is a hosted solution: the provider runs servers, updates and security, you rent the shop. That saves operating effort and is a good way for many merchants. The price is that you do not own the software yourself and are bound to the possibilities and rules of the platform.

Typical reasons to move from BigCommerce to Magento are the wish for full access to the source code, special requirements for checkout process and B2B, a close connection to systems in your own house, growing costs from plans and apps and the wish to control hosting and data yourself. For some companies requirements for data storage and location are also decisive.

A high sales volume can also tip the balance. If plan limits are reached or the fees become noticeable, an own shop may pay off better over several years, even though it requires hosting and care.

2. When the switch from BigCommerce to Magento pays off and when not

The switch pays off if you hit fixed limits of the platform or need more control over technology and data and can take over the care. It does not pay off if BigCommerce meets your requirements and you mainly want little operating effort. An own Magento shop needs updates, security care and suitable hosting.

Calculate honestly what both ways cost over several years, including care, and check whether you can bear the responsibility for operation. For many shops a hosted solution is the right choice.

3. Which data comes along from BigCommerce to Magento

BigCommerce provides programming interfaces through which products, customers and orders can be read specifically, and offers exports as a table. Additional fields that you created through apps or own data fields we check separately. With subscriptions, vouchers and loyalty points we clarify how this data is continued in the new shop.

A clean-up before the transfer is worthwhile: discontinued articles, duplicate categories and customers without an order, as far as legally and commercially appropriate. This speeds up the test migration.

4. SEO and addresses when switching from BigCommerce to Magento

BigCommerce lets you define address patterns in part yourself. Which patterns your shop uses we see in the inventory. Magento uses its own patterns. So that no link runs into nothing, every relevant old address is redirected to the new one by a 301 redirect.

In the move from BigCommerce to Magento you also check titles, meta descriptions, structured data, sitemaps and canonical tags. These values must be present again in the new shop. What we do for this is described on the page on SEO optimization.

Also consider redirects that you already created in BigCommerce. They belong in the table so that old links do not lead to an error page.

5. Apps and functions: what becomes of them in Magento

BigCommerce shops also use apps for reviews, subscriptions, product feeds, invoices and shipping. In the switch you go through each one: is it still needed? Is there a basic function, a module or an individual development in Magento for it? Often several apps can be replaced by one function, and some are dropped entirely.

We implement the frontend with Hyvä, see Hyvä theme. For the connection to merchandise management and shipping read the guide to ERP integration, for B2B functions the guide to the [B2B shop](b2bshop).

Define early which functions must run on day one. Payment, shipping and legal texts are mandatory, additional functions can follow. This keeps the move from BigCommerce to Magento manageable.

6. The process: how you switch from BigCommerce to Magento

A switch from BigCommerce to Magento runs in five steps. First the inventory: which products, customers, orders and content exist, which functions do you really use and which addresses bring visitors? Then the test migration, in which part of the data is transferred and checked. After that the build of the shop with design, payment methods, shipping and legal texts.

In the fourth step you check the shop with us on a test system that search engines cannot see and place trial orders. In the fifth step the switch happens: the data is compared one last time, the redirects are activated and the domain is pointed to the new shop. In the first weeks afterwards we check errors and rankings. You keep the previous shop for a while until everything runs safely.

How you protect your ranking in the process is described in the guide to shop relaunch without SEO loss.

7. Effort and costs when switching from BigCommerce

When moving from BigCommerce to Magento the effort depends above all on the number of variants, the data from apps and the number of functions that have to be replaced. In addition come the running costs for hosting and care, which are included in the plan with a hosted solution and arise separately with Magento.

A flat figure would be unreliable. After the inventory we estimate in writing, the hourly rate is 30 euros net, see pricing. General hints on costs are in the guide Magento costs.

8. How we support you with the switch

We are a web agency in which fixed freelancers work together, all from home offices. We take over the data migration, build the shop with the fast Hyvä frontend and take care of redirects and start. Source code and access stay with you, and ongoing care can be regulated through a maintenance contract.

This guide gives general orientation and does not replace a check of your shop. For a first conversation a short message through our contact page is enough.

9. Summary

The switch from BigCommerce to Magento pays off if you need more control over technology and data and can take over the care. Products, customers, orders and content can be taken over, with 301 redirects the ranking is largely kept.

Note: This article offers general orientation. Statements about BigCommerce can change with new versions, check them in the individual case.

10. FAQ on switching from BigCommerce to Magento