If you’re a dropshipper who’s outgrown BigCommerce, a bigcommerce to shopify migration is one of the smartest moves you can make in 2026. BuildYourStore.ai can get your new Shopify store live in under two minutes using AI, so half the battle is already handled before you even start moving data. This guide walks you through the full migration process: why merchants are leaving BigCommerce, how to prep your store, step-by-step data transfer, setting up redirects, and launching without losing traffic or sales.
Key takeaways: bigcommerce to shopify migration
- A bigcommerce to shopify migration is straightforward with the right tools, and most dropshippers can complete it in a single day.
- BuildYourStore builds a conversion-ready Shopify store with AI in under 2 minutes.
- Products, customers, and orders can be moved using free tools like Shopify’s Store Importer or Matrixify.
- Setting up 301 redirects is critical. Skip this step and your search traffic disappears.
- BYS includes 10 winning products, a free .store domain, and a high-converting theme to get you selling immediately.
Why BigCommerce merchants are moving to Shopify in 2026
BigCommerce’s 2026 pricing changes are pushing a lot of merchants toward the exit. The new Open Payment Provider Fee adds extra charges for using non-BigCommerce payment gateways, eating into margins that are already tight for dropshippers.
Shopify’s app ecosystem is another major pull factor. With thousands more apps than BigCommerce’s marketplace, you get far more options for automation, supplier integrations, and marketing tools. Shopify commands 28% of the global eCommerce platform market with 5.6M+ active stores, and enterprise adoption through Shopify Plus continues to accelerate year over year.
For dropshippers specifically, Shopify offers better automation workflows, more supplier connections through apps like DSers and Zendrop, and direct integration with BuildYourStore’s AI store builder. If you’re considering dropshipping on Shopify and want room to grow, Shopify is where the infrastructure already exists.
What to do before you start the migration
Rushing straight into a migration without prep work is how you lose data and break things. Spend an hour on these three tasks first, and the actual migration will go smoothly.
Back up your BigCommerce data
Log into your BigCommerce admin and export everything you might need. Start with your products CSV (including variants, descriptions, and pricing), then export your customer list and order history. Download all product images to a local folder since they won’t transfer automatically in every migration method.
Save your current URL structures too. Open a spreadsheet and document every product URL, collection URL, and page URL that gets organic traffic. You’ll need this list when setting up redirects later.
Set up your new Shopify store with BuildYourStore
Before you migrate anything, you need a Shopify store to migrate into. Head to BuildYourStore.ai and sign up for free. Choose your niche, and the AI builds a complete store with a high-converting theme, 10 winning products, and a free .store domain in under two minutes. No credit card required, and you keep the store forever.
This gives you a fully functional Shopify store as your migration destination. You can customize the theme and products later, but having a professional-looking store ready from the start means you’re not building and migrating at the same time.
Map your URL redirects
This is the step most people skip, and it costs them months of lost search traffic. Open the spreadsheet you started during your data backup and add a second column for the new Shopify URLs.
BigCommerce and Shopify use different URL structures. BigCommerce product URLs often look like /product-name/ while Shopify uses /products/product-name. Map each old URL to its new Shopify equivalent so you can set up 301 redirects after the migration.
Get these three tasks done before you touch anything else and the actual migration becomes straightforward.
How to migrate from BigCommerce to Shopify step by step
With your data backed up, your new Shopify store ready, and your redirect map prepared, it’s time to move everything over. Follow these five steps in order.
Step 1: Import your products to Shopify
With your BYS-built Shopify store ready as the destination, you have three solid options for importing products, depending on how much control you need.
Shopify Store Importer is free and built right into Shopify’s admin. Go to Settings, then Import Store, select BigCommerce as the source, and upload your product CSV. It handles most standard product data including titles, descriptions, prices, variants, and images.
For stores with complex product data, Matrixify gives you more control over field mapping. It supports bulk imports with custom columns and lets you preview changes before committing. The free tier covers up to 10 products, and paid plans handle unlimited imports.
If you’d rather not touch the data yourself, Cart2Cart offers a managed migration service. It’s paid, but they handle the entire product transfer for you. This makes sense if you have thousands of products or complex catalog structures.
Whichever method you choose, review your imported data carefully. Check that product images loaded correctly, variants are mapped properly, and pricing is accurate. Fix any issues before moving to the next step.
Pro tip: Run a test import with 5-10 products first to confirm field mapping is correct before importing your full catalog.
Step 2: Transfer customers and orders
Customer profiles can be imported to Shopify using the Store Importer or Matrixify. Names, email addresses, shipping addresses, and order history all come across. One important limitation: customer passwords cannot be migrated between platforms. There’s no workaround for this.
When customers visit your new Shopify store, they’ll need to create a new password using the “Forgot Password” flow. Send a notification email to your customer list before you switch over, letting them know you’ve upgraded your store and they’ll need to reset their password on the first visit.
Order history imports as reference data in Shopify. Past orders won’t be editable, but they’ll be visible in the customer’s account and in your admin for support purposes.
Step 3: Set up 301 redirects
This is the most important post-migration step. Without proper 301 redirects, every link pointing to your old BigCommerce URLs will hit a 404 error. That means lost search rankings, lost referral traffic, and confused customers.
In your Shopify admin, go to Settings, then Navigation, then URL Redirects. You can add redirects one at a time or upload your redirect spreadsheet in bulk. If you have hundreds of redirects, Matrixify can import them from a CSV file.
After uploading, test your redirects. Tools like Screaming Frog can crawl your old URLs and verify each one resolves to the correct new page. Spot-check your highest-traffic pages manually too. A single broken redirect on a top-ranking page can cost you significant revenue.
Step 4: Configure payments, shipping, and settings
Set up Shopify Payments as your primary payment processor. It’s built in, has no transaction fees on Shopify plans, and supports all major credit cards plus Apple Pay and Google Pay. If you need additional gateways, Shopify supports over 100 third-party payment providers.
Configure your shipping zones and rates to match (or improve on) what you had on BigCommerce. Set up tax settings for your selling regions. If your BuildYourStore store is your migration destination, many essential apps come pre-installed, saving you the time of researching and configuring them individually.
Review your store policies, email notification templates, and checkout settings before going live. Small details like order confirmation emails and shipping notification copy make the difference between a polished store and one that feels half-finished.
Step 5: Test and go live
Place a test order using Shopify’s Bogus Gateway to verify the entire checkout flow works. Check every product page for correct images, descriptions, and pricing. Test on mobile since the majority of eCommerce traffic comes from phones.
Confirm your 301 redirects are working by visiting a handful of old BigCommerce URLs. They should land on the correct Shopify pages without errors. When everything checks out, point your domain’s DNS records to Shopify. Shopify’s admin walks you through this under Settings, then Domains.
Your BigCommerce to Shopify migration is complete. If you used BuildYourStore to set up your destination store, you already have a professional theme, winning products, and essential apps in place. All that’s left is to start driving traffic.
Follow these five steps in order and you’ll have a fully operational Shopify store with no data gaps and your SEO intact.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a bigcommerce to shopify migration cost?
The migration itself can be done for free using Shopify’s built-in Store Importer and manual CSV exports from BigCommerce. If you want a managed migration service like Cart2Cart, expect to pay between $29 and $299 depending on the number of products and customers. BuildYourStore sets up your destination Shopify store at no cost, so your only ongoing expense is Shopify’s monthly plan starting at $39/month.
Will I lose my SEO rankings when I switch platforms?
Not if you set up 301 redirects correctly. Redirects tell search engines that your pages have permanently moved to new URLs, transferring the link equity and rankings to your new Shopify pages. Expect a small temporary fluctuation in rankings during the transition, but traffic should stabilize within a few weeks as Google recrawls your site.
Can I migrate customer passwords from BigCommerce to Shopify?
No. Customer passwords are encrypted differently on each platform, so there is no way to transfer them. Your customers will need to use the “Forgot Password” option to create a new password on your Shopify store. Send them a heads-up email before you switch to reduce confusion and support requests.
How long does a BigCommerce to Shopify migration take?
Most dropshippers can complete the full migration in one day. The data transfer itself takes a few hours depending on your catalog size. Setting up your new Shopify store with BuildYourStore takes under two minutes, which removes the biggest time sink from the process. Budget an extra day for testing and fixing any issues before going fully live.
Do I need to redesign my store after migrating to Shopify?
If you use BuildYourStore to create your Shopify store, you get a high-converting theme that’s already designed for dropshipping. You can customize colors, fonts, and layouts, but the foundation is ready to sell from day one. Most merchants find they can start taking orders immediately after migration without any additional design work.
These are the most common concerns dropshippers have before switching platforms, and every one of them has a clear solution.
Start selling on Shopify: skip the setup
Migrating from BigCommerce to Shopify gives you access to a bigger app ecosystem, better dropshipping integrations, and lower payment processing fees. The migration process is manageable in a single day when you follow the steps in this guide.
BuildYourStore.ai builds your Shopify store with AI, pre-loads winning products, and gives you a free domain, so you can focus on migrating your business, not designing a store from scratch. If you’re planning a bigcommerce to shopify migration, start with the store itself and let BYS handle the heavy lifting.
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