Migrating from BigCommerce to Shopify Plus: A Case Study

BigCommerce Enterprise is a capable platform, but it's consistently underwhelming on theme quality, app ecosystem breadth, and checkout conversion rates when compared directly to Shopify Plus. This UK outdoor sports retailer had been on BigCommerce for four years, spending heavily on custom development to compensate for platform limitations. When their contract came up for renewal, they called us to make the case for migration.

Why They Were Moving

• Custom BigCommerce theme required a dedicated BigCommerce developer — a scarce skill.
• The app marketplace was limited compared to Shopify — several integrations they needed didn't exist.
• Checkout conversion benchmarks consistently showed Shopify Plus outperforming BigCommerce by 10–15%.
• BigCommerce's headless offering required significant developer overhead they couldn't justify.
• Their fulfilment partner had native Shopify integration but only a partial BigCommerce connector.

The Migration Approach

We ran a 12-week migration project. The product data migration was straightforward — BigCommerce exports cleanly to CSV and we had transformation scripts from previous migrations. The more complex work was rebuilding the custom features they'd paid to have built on BigCommerce: a guided product selector, a trade account application flow, and a custom delivery date picker.

SEO Continuity

The client had built significant organic rankings over four years and was understandably anxious about SEO continuity. We ran a comprehensive URL mapping exercise across 6,800 product and collection URLs, implemented 301 redirects on day one, and monitored Search Console closely for the 90 days following migration. Organic traffic dipped 4% in week two, then recovered fully by week six.

Results After 90 Days

• Conversion rate improved from 1.5% to 2.2% — a 47% uplift.
• Checkout completion rate improved by 18 percentage points.
• Organic traffic fully recovered by week six post-migration.
• Technical development costs reduced by 60% thanks to Shopify's broader app ecosystem.
• Fulfilment integration errors dropped to near-zero with the native Shopify connector.

Platform Selection Advice

BigCommerce has strengths — particularly for complex B2B scenarios with native features. But for most UK DTC and omnichannel retailers in the £1m–£20m revenue range, Shopify Plus's ecosystem, checkout performance, and developer community represent a decisive advantage. The migration investment typically pays back within six months.