Going from BigCommerce to Shopify means shifting a catalog, its customers, orders and content between two hosted platforms, rebuilding the theme and app setup, and redirecting old addresses so search traffic survives. Devvista is a software development and growth agency; for merchants across the US, UK, Australia, Canada and the UAE we run these moves end to end. With no server to relocate, the work is data quality, apps and redirects.
This guide covers what exports, the differences that matter, the steps, a cost example and what to check in each market.
01 Why Move From BigCommerce to Shopify
Owners who move usually cite one of three things: an app ecosystem they want to use, a team that already knows Shopify, or a custom feature that is easier to build on Shopify. None of these needs a rebuild from scratch, which is why this migration tends to be calmer than moving from a self-hosted platform.
It is not always the right move. If BigCommerce already does what you need, and your checkout, B2B setup and integrations work, the cost and risk of any migration may not repay itself. We say so after a short audit.
02 What Exports From BigCommerce
BigCommerce's product export help says to go to Products, then Export, and choose CSV, which BigCommerce recommends because other file types will not import. You need the Manage Products, Import Products and Export Products permissions on your user account, and for large catalogs the help center suggests saving the export to the server for later download, recommended for 1,000 or more products.
The customer export help follows the same pattern: Customers, then Export, with CSV recommended, and built-in templates that include a Bulk Edit version with most fields and a Default version with basic details. If you use BigCommerce B2B Edition, orders placed by company accounts export separately from orders placed by B2C customers, so we plan for both.
Once the files exist, the import follows the order Shopify's migration guide recommends: products, then customers, then historical orders, with counts compared after each pass.
03 The Differences That Cause Work
Both platforms are hosted, so the work centers on what sits on top of the data.
| Area | What changes | What we do |
|---|---|---|
| Theme | Layouts do not transfer between platforms | Rebuild or adapt the theme, and keep page structure for pages that rank |
| Apps | App stores differ | List every app and choose a Shopify app or a custom app |
| Product options | Option and variant models differ | Check option names and values after import |
| Checkout and payments | Gateways must be set up again | Rebuild and test each payment method |
| Customer accounts | Sign-in behavior may differ | Check in the audit whether sign-in details carry over, and plan a message to customers either way |
| URLs | Addresses change | Map and redirect every old URL |
The customer accounts row deserves a communication plan: tell customers before the switch, and test the sign-in flow with real accounts.
04 The Redirect Map for a BigCommerce Store
Both platforms generate addresses their own way, and Shopify's migration guide warns that Shopify's link structure is likely to be different, so old links "likely won't load for customers." Build a list of every old product, category, brand, page and blog address, match each to a new page, and load the matches into Shopify's redirect tool.
Redirects go into Shopify's redirect tool, which per Shopify's URL redirect help holds up to 100,000 entries. A catalog with brand and filter pages can approach that, so count early. Google advises permanent redirects held for a year or more (Google's guidance on site moves), and adds that if the domain stays put, path-only changes need no Change of Address.
05 Step by Step: BigCommerce to Shopify
- Audit. Export products, customers and orders, list apps and integrations, and record your top pages by traffic and revenue.
- Decide what stays. Mark each app and custom feature keep, replace, build or drop.
- Clean the exports. Fix duplicate SKUs and inconsistent option names in the CSVs.
- Build the URL map and prepare the redirect file.
- Import and compare. Products, customers, then orders, with counts checked each time.
- Rebuild the front end and checkout. Theme, navigation, payments, shipping and tracking.
- Go live and track. Test orders first, bulk redirect checks, the switch itself, then several weeks of watching the numbers.
06 Checks for the US, UK, Australia, Canada and the UAE
Payments are the main thing to rebuild per market. The supported countries page lists the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and the United Arab Emirates, provided your business is located in one of them, so a store in any of our five markets can check that route. Any local gateway you used on BigCommerce needs a Shopify equivalent.
Tax is the second check, and Shopify's tax page is uneven by country: Shopify Tax is listed for the EU, the UK and Canada, Basic Tax for Australia, and the UAE is absent. For Canada, registration comes before configuration (Shopify's Canadian tax setup help). Your accountant confirms every setup, because Shopify states that tax is your responsibility.
If you run several BigCommerce storefronts for several countries, plan how Shopify Markets will replace them: it lets currency, availability, domains, languages and taxes differ by region.
07 What a BigCommerce to Shopify Migration Costs
Pricing is either a fixed fee between $500 and $100,000 depending on scope, or an hourly rate of $10 to $100 depending on the developer.
Example (an estimate, not a quote). Take a BigCommerce store with 800 products, 2,500 customers, two years of orders and eight apps to replace, at one illustrative rate of $40 an hour:
| Work | Hours |
|---|---|
| Audit and app decisions | 12 |
| URL map and redirects | 18 |
| Export cleanup and product import | 30 |
| Theme, checkout and payments | 35 |
| Replacing eight apps | 30 |
| Customer and order import | 18 |
| Testing and launch | 20 |
| Total | 163 hours, about $6,520 at $40 an hour |
Because both platforms are hosted, this is often quicker than a self-hosted move, but app replacements and a custom theme can change that.
08 How to Tell Whether It Worked, and Where Devvista Fits
Compare against your baseline: Search Console clicks and indexing errors, order counts and revenue, purchase events in analytics, and the redirect list in Shopify. A lasting drop on a redirected page points to a missing redirect or changed content.
Devvista is a software development and growth agency that migrates BigCommerce stores to Shopify and builds the custom apps that replace what the old store did. A good fit: a store with real traffic and apps that have Shopify equivalents. Not a fit: a store that already works well on BigCommerce. Book a call and we will review your app list and top pages.
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