01 / the trigger
The fee math flipped
The June 1, 2026 Open Payment Provider Fee charges self-serve plans on third-party gateways: Core 2.0%, Growth 1.0%, Scale 0.6%. Shopify Payments waives transaction fees.
Why teams are moving in 2026
BigCommerce changed the deal. The exit got expensive to delay.
On June 1, 2026 BigCommerce re-architected its plans and added an Open Payment Provider Fee on non-embedded gateways. The historic "no transaction fees" pitch reverses for many merchants while Shopify Payments waives them. App ecosystem, admin and total cost have been drifting the same way for years.
02 / the drift
Ecosystem and admin
A thinner app ecosystem, a heavier admin, and a total cost of ownership that quietly favors Shopify for most stores once build, processing and apps are counted, not just the platform fee.
03 / the lens
DTC and B2B together
Shopify Plus now does native multi-entity B2B and 2,048 variants per product. The old reasons to stay on BigCommerce have narrowed to a short, specific list.
Lose my data
Products, customers, orders, content. The thing the business runs on, mid-flight between two platforms.
→ a reconciliation line itemLose my rankings
Every URL changes on Shopify's fixed prefixes. Skip the redirect map and organic traffic drops.
→ a 1:1 301 map, loaded before launchGo dark in the switch
The dread of a storefront down for migration while customers and revenue wait.
→ a DNS cutover, not an outageLose a feature
Especially B2B pricing logic, quotes, and approvals that took years to tune.
→ carried where it moves, rebuilt where it mustOur position
Every fear on that list is an execution line item, not a platform property. Your data moves cleanly. What we rebuild, and where the value is, is the storefront, your product configurator, and your B2B pricing logic, re-engineered to be more maintainable on Shopify Plus.
The data-migration map
What moves, in what shape, and where the model bends.
Most records move on a known path. The risk is not the data: it is the four places BigCommerce and Shopify model the world differently. We surface those before the build, not after launch.
Source of record, kept live
BigCommerce
exported, never deleted
The migration pipeline
Makro Middleware.
map · reconcile · redirect
The new storefront
Shopify Plus
DTC and native B2B
Master data: BigCommerce → pipeline → Shopify, one way, in dependency order
The old store: stays selling through the build, frozen only at the final delta
Products & variantsShopify now allows up to 2,048 variants per product, so the old 100-variant blocker is gone. The live risk is the 3-options-per-product cap and BigCommerce modifiers, which become line-item properties, metaobjects, Shopify Functions, or an app. A per-product decision, not an automated field map.BC → Shopify
Categories → collectionsBigCommerce's nested category tree flattens. Shopify collections are flat; the hierarchy is rebuilt in menus and automated-collection rules. The shape changes, the navigation does not have to.BC → Shopify
Customers & passwordsCustomers migrate, including store credit. Passwords never migrate. They are hashed irreversibly, so every customer gets a Shopify account-activation invite at launch. Planned for, not discovered.BC → Shopify
OrdersHistorical orders migrate with their original processed dates and customer links, via a migration app or the Admin API, not the native admin CSV, which cannot import orders at all. Imported orders are records, not live transactions: nothing re-charges. Notified staff are muted before the run.BC → Shopify
Content & URLs / redirectsPages and blogs migrate; URLs change on Shopify's fixed prefixes. A complete 1:1 301 map is built from the live crawl, never assumed, and ships before launch. Migration apps do not build it. It is a separate, judgment-heavy deliverable.BC → Shopify
Feature parity, honestly
Where Shopify is better, at parity, different, and where the real gaps are.
The accurate answer is not "Shopify can do everything." It is a map: better in places, a different model in others, and two real gaps we name rather than bury. That honesty is what makes the rest of the map credible.
Better on Shopify
At parity
Different model
A real gap to rebuild
DTC catalog & checkout
The storefront most of your traffic touches.
| Variants per product | 2,048 on Shopify vs 600 SKUs on BigCommerce better |
| Options per product | Still 3 on Shopify; 4+ option products need a combined listing or an app gap |
| Checkout extensibility | Checkout extensions, metaobjects, structured content better |
| Modifiers (file upload, text, date) | No native file-upload modifier; rebuilt with properties or an app different |
| DTC member / logged-in pricing | No native catalog for DTC tiers; rebuilt with Functions or tags gap |
| Multi-storefront / international | Splits into Markets (per country) and Plus expansion stores (per brand) different |
B2B engine
Where the real platform decision is usually made.
| Companies, locations, contacts | Native B2B objects on Shopify Plus parity |
| Contracted catalogs & price lists | Native, with fixed prices, percentage adjustments, volume breaks parity |
| Catalog count | Unlimited on Plus; capped at 3 on lower plans, so Plus is effectively required parity |
| Workflow model | Self-serve contracted-catalog led vs BigCommerce quote-and-rep led different |
| Native quoting | No quote object; rebuilt on draft orders or an app gap |
| Saved lists, invoice portal, masquerade | Quick order lists are native; the rest are app or custom builds gap |
The honest line
"Shopify can't do B2B like BigCommerce" is false. Shopify Plus does native multi-entity B2B that often fits real B2B better. The difference is the workflow model and a few specific gaps, not raw capability.
B2B, carried vs rebuilt
Your customer list and orders move. Your pricing engine gets re-engineered.
This is the split that decides a DTC-plus-B2B migration. No migration tool imports catalogs or price lists. Said plainly so nobody is surprised at go-live: done right, the rebuild is an upgrade.
Carries over
The directory and the records move
- Company / location / contact directorybulk import
- Customersincl. store credit
- Order historyapp / Admin API
- Net-terms policyre-applied
- Volume / quantity-break conceptnative rules
- Quick order listsnative
A tooling path exists for everything in this column. It moves on a known route.
Gets rebuilt
The pricing engine and workflows are built
- Catalogs & price listsAdmin API
- Native quotingdraft orders / app
- Saved shopping listsapp / custom
- Buyer / invoice portalapp / custom
- Storefront masqueradeapp / custom
- Multi-tier approval chainrebuilt
Plan this column as a build line, not a migration line. Price data extracts; the catalogs are re-created via priceListCreate.
SEO and redirect preservation
The number-one fear, and the cleanest thing to prove.
SEO loss is a symptom of skipping the redirect map and the pre-launch crawl. It is not a property of Shopify. An agency that crawls the live store and ships a 1:1 redirect map is the difference between this fear being false and true.
Why every URL changes
Shopify forces fixed URL prefixes (/products/, /collections/, /pages/) that cannot be edited. BigCommerce's structure is configurable, with Short, Long and Category presets plus custom. For most stores that means every product and category URL changes, so a 1:1 301 map is mandatory, not optional.
We crawl the live store and never assume its URL structure: presets and trailing-slash variants are read off the crawl. We map one-to-one, never many-to-one, because mass redirects read as soft-404s and lose equity. 301s, no chains, held a year, shipped before launch.
Scale is never the constraint. Shopify Plus accepts up to 20,000,000 redirects against 100,000 on standard. And 301s do not lose PageRank: that is Google's own position. Expect a few weeks of fluctuation while Google re-crawls, then recovery.
BigCommerce URL301 → Shopify URL
/shop-all/widget-x/301/products/widget-x✓
/categories/fasteners/301/collections/fasteners✓
/content/shipping-policy/301/pages/shipping-policy✓
/blog/2025/spec-guide/301/blogs/news/spec-guide✓
/brands/northbridge/301/collections/northbridge✓
01Old indexed URLs 404 after launchPreventionCrawl the live store, build a 1:1 301 for every indexed URL, load it before the DNS flip so no URL is ever live without its redirect.
02Mass redirects to the homepage or a collectionPreventionMap each product URL to its exact new page. Many-to-one redirects are read as soft-404s and shed the equity you are trying to keep.
03302s or redirect chains dilute equityPrevention301 permanent only, with no chains. A 301 passes accumulated link equity; a 302 signals temporary and a chain leaks it hop by hop.
04Map assumed from a preset, not the real crawlPreventionRead the actual preset and trailing-slash variants off the live crawl. The configured structure is frequently not what is indexed.
05Redirects retired too earlyPreventionHold the full redirect map for at least a year and submit the new sitemap to Search Console so Google re-crawls onto the new URLs cleanly.
06Migration app assumed to handle SEOPreventionMigration apps move records, not the redirect map. It is a separate, manual, judgment-heavy deliverable, owned and QA'd, not generated.
The de-risk method
Six gates. Nothing advances until the evidence passes.
We sell the method, not a list of promises. The differentiator is that the whole migration is observable, reversible, and staged. Each phase is a gate with a deliverable; the work moves forward only when the prior gate's evidence checks out.
Gate 01
Audit
Count and export everything on the live BigCommerce store: products, variants, customers, orders, existing redirects, and the live URL crawl.
→ the reconciliation baseline→ Gate 02
Data map
An explicit old-field to new-field map plus an exception list of what will not round-trip cleanly: 4+ option products, modifiers, B2B price lists.
→ the exception list→ Gate 03
Build
Import into a non-production Shopify Plus store in dependency order: products, then customers, then orders. Orders via API or app, never CSV.
→ the staging store→ Gate 04
Parallel run
Both stores live. Reconcile counts against the baseline and run the full launch-checklist test matrix, including B2B catalog parity. Zero customer exposure.
→ reconciliation report + passed matrix→ Gate 05
Staged cutover
Pre-warm DNS to a low TTL a week ahead, take redirects live before the switch, run the final delta sync, then flip the domain. A managed freeze window, not a big-bang flip.
→ redirects-first, delta-synced flip→ Gate 06
Rollback & verify
DNS-revert rollback with BigCommerce untouched and exported, never deleted. Verify zero 404s, submit the new sitemap, hold redirects at least a year.
→ verified, reversible, heldClaims you can check
What you have heard, against what the docs actually say.
Every myth here is the same failure dressed differently: a property of a careless DIY migration restated as a property of Shopify. Each claim is paired with the deliverable that neutralizes it.
01The claim"You'll lose your SEO."+
The reality
A mishandled replatform loses rankings, not a replatform. Shopify's fixed prefixes change nearly every URL, so a 1:1 301 map, crawled, loaded before launch, and held a year, preserves the equity. 301s do not lose PageRank.
Source: Shopify Enterprise, Google, Numen Technology
02The claim"Shopify can't do B2B or complex catalogs like BigCommerce."+
The reality
Shopify Plus has native multi-entity B2B: companies, locations, contracted catalogs, volume pricing, quantity rules, net terms, and 2,048 variants per product. The difference is the workflow model plus specific gaps (3 options, DTC member pricing, native quoting), not raw capability.
Source: Shopify Help, Ecommerce Partners
03The claim"Migration means downtime."+
The reality
Near-zero storefront downtime. The new store is built and QA'd on staging while BigCommerce keeps selling. Cutover is a DNS change plus a short final-sync freeze, scheduled in a low-traffic window. Not an outage.
Source: Shopify Enterprise
04The claim"Just run the automated importer."+
The reality
The most dangerous true-sounding claim. The native importer handles products and customers but does not import orders, builds no redirects, and silently drops 4+ option products. That is how you keep the data and lose the business.
Source: Shopify, FireBear, Cart2Cart docs
05The claim"You'll lose your order history."+
The reality
Orders migrate with original processed dates and customer links, via a migration app or the Admin API, not the native admin CSV, which cannot import orders at all.
Source: Shopify Admin API, Matrixify
06The claim"Our B2B price lists will just move over."+
The reality
Price data extracts, but catalogs and price lists are rebuilt via the Admin API. There is no Matrixify import path for them. Plan it as a build line, not a migration line.
Source: Matrixify docs, Shopify dev
07The claim"We'll keep our quotes and approvals."+
The reality
There is no Shopify quote object to import into. Quoting is rebuilt on draft orders or an app, and the multi-tier approval chain is rebuilt on top of the two per-location roles Shopify provides natively.
Source: Shopify dev, Shopify Help
08The claim"BigCommerce has no transaction fees, so it's cheaper."+
The reality
True historically for embedded gateways, but the June 1, 2026 Open Payment Provider Fee charges self-serve plans (2.0 / 1.0 / 0.6%) on non-embedded gateways, while Shopify Payments waives fees. The fee advantage reverses for most third-party-gateway merchants.
Source: BigCommerce 2026 Pricing Update, Commerce-UI
Tools vs a hand-built migration
Tools move records. They do not re-architect.
00 / 07
Shopify itself ranks "hire a Shopify Partner" and "custom API solution" as its top migration tiers, above CSV and apps. Here is each hard problem, what a tool-only run produces, and what gets owned instead.
The relocation runway
Observable, reversible, staged. The whole move on one runway.
A migration is a relocation: cargo carried gate to gate, reconciled against a counted baseline, with the entities that need hand-shaping visibly diverted, never silently dropped, and a rollback lane back to the source the entire way.
BigCommerce
→
Shopify Plus
cutover window · TTL 300
Manifest reconciled
167,036 / 167,036
Diverted to hand-built bay
2 classes
Cutover window
redirects-first · delta freeze
Rollback
DNS revert, source intact
Runway: master data, one way
Hand-built bay: diverts visibly, then rejoins
Rollback: revert to BigCommerce at any gate
Counts shown are illustrative demo data, not a real client. The point is the shape: every crate carries a count that reconciles against the baseline, nothing is dropped in silence, and the source store is never deleted.
Proof and replatform muscle
The pattern, with real numbers, none invented.
We have run legacy and Magento to Shopify Plus replatforms with the exact center of gravity a BigCommerce DTC-plus-B2B move needs: migration integrity at scale, and a B2B pricing and quote engine rebuilt the right way.
60,000+ SKUs
Wire America / DWC · Shopify Plus B2BA Shopify Plus B2B build and migration over a 60,000+ SKU industrial catalog. 100% of SKUs were structured, attributed and imported into Shopify. We architected the platform from the ground up: data model, product discovery, pricing logic, quoting workflows and freight rules. The closest existing migration-integrity and B2B-rebuild proof to a BigCommerce DTC-plus-B2B move.
82% ↓
NewPro ContainersSupport tickets down 82% after a full Magento to Shopify Plus wholesale replatform, with "data migration issues" listed among the solved challenges.
44% ↑
Mobile order completion up 44% on the same NewPro replatform.
100%
SKUs structured, attributed and imported on Wire America. Counted reconciliation, not a rounded outcome stat.
Signed
A Magento to Shopify replatform (7-Eleven Canada), plus legacy-to-Plus moves on JC Perreault and TA Appliances. The replatform pattern, proven repeatedly.
The honest gap
We have no BigCommerce-source case yet, so the proof is the pattern. For the buyer's number-one fear, the data-migration map and the six-gate redirect method are the substitute proof: migration integrity you can count, not an outcome stat to take on faith.
Frequently asked questions
The questions every BigCommerce merchant asks first.
Answered the way we would answer them on a call, with the honest caveats included rather than buried.
01Will the store go down during the migration?+
A well-orchestrated migration has effectively zero downtime. The new store is built in parallel and the DNS cutover takes 15 to 30 minutes, scheduled in a low-traffic window with a rollback plan. The old BigCommerce store keeps selling until the moment you flip the domain.
02Will I lose my SEO and rankings?+
Shopify forces fixed URL patterns (/products/, /collections/) that differ from BigCommerce, so a complete 301 redirect map is mandatory, not optional. Built from a live crawl, mapped one-to-one, and loaded before launch, it preserves your rankings; 301s do not lose PageRank. Expect a short re-crawl window, then recovery.
03What about my order history and customer accounts?+
Order history, with original processed dates and customer associations, migrates via a proper import pipeline (a migration app or the Admin API), not the native CSV importer, which cannot import orders. Customers migrate too, but passwords never do: they are hashed irreversibly, so every customer receives an account-activation invite at launch.
04Can't I just run an automated migration app?+
Migration apps move products, collections, customers, and orders. They do not move 301 redirects, custom theme logic, third-party integrations, payment configuration, or B2B price lists, which is where migration projects actually fail. The app is a component, not the plan.
05Can Shopify handle our B2B, and does the pricing engine move?+
Shopify B2B on Shopify Plus supports company accounts, customer-specific catalogs and price lists, quotes via draft orders or apps, and purchasing controls. Migrating B2B is the most complex case because price lists and approval logic do not transfer through standard migration apps and must be rebuilt deliberately, on Shopify's native primitives. Done right, that rebuild is an upgrade.
Bring your store URL and your renewal quote. We'll crawl it and walk you the real scope.
A real conversation about your catalog, your B2B pricing logic, your indexed URLs, and the cutover window, not a templated importer run.
Still comparing? Read BigCommerce vs Shopify (the deep-dive guide) ->