Migrating from WooCommerce to BigCommerce

Are you considering migrating WooCommerce to BigCommerce? It makes sense because BigCommerce developers prefer their stable and scalable platform. Besides reducing stress, the cost of ownership in some cases is 75% less. With BigCommerce, there is significantly less coding required, allowing your in-house team or outsourced BigCommerce designers to focus on more productive activities.

Companies that re-platform to BigCommerce show positive revenue and conversions almost immediately.

When Henna Caravan made the switch to BigCommerce, they realized a 33% increase in revenue through BigCommerce SEO expert team management, saw, and a 2X industry average conversion rate, all within two weeks of launch.

After moving to BigCommerce, motor vehicle company, Awesome GTI increased YoY revenue by over 95%, saw conversion rates increase by nearly 15%. Also, they achieved almost a 17% increase in Average Order Value each year.

Upon successful migration, you no longer have to worry about maintaining, debugging or patching the system. BigCommerce includes support plus knowledge base and training videos.

If you are migrating WooCommerce to BigCommerce, This article is a brief overview of the process of transferring an entire catalog.

The Differences Between WooCommerce and BigCommerce

Before we get started, let’s review the main difference between the two platforms. WooCommerce is self-hosted, and BigCommerce is a cloud-based hosted solution.

There are some definitive trade-offs between the two. A hosted platform like BigCommerce provides a turnkey solution that is easy to use and eliminates having to maintain the server or manage upgrades.

WooCommerce is a self-hosted platform allowing users more freedom to customize. However, it also requires more technical skills and a dedicated IT department due to constant updates and maintenance. Your company is responsible for any hosting issues, upgrades, and support.

Here are some of the other features for comparison.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a self-managed system that works only with WordPress to create customized online stores. Although it is free, you’ll need to purchase various extensions and plugins to get all the functionality that an eCommerce store requires. You’ll also pay extra for hosting. It can become unmanageable at enterprise levels of volume.

WooCommerce is an open-source plugin, allowing you to integrate many apps into your website. It is one of the most flexible eCommerce solutions out there. Unfortunately, integrating the variety of apps and plugins becomes an ongoing issue which increases the cost of ownership significantly.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a dedicated, cloud-based, hosted platform. It has all of the necessary functionality built-in and is ready to use. Their primary advantage is they have marketing technology, development, and IT staff in one place.

The monthly fee covers hosting on a secure web platform with HTTPS and Level-1 PCI compliance. It comes with all the necessary tools built in to run and manage enterprise-level businesses.

BigCommerce is compatible with any website. Although there are fewer third-party apps than WooCommerce, the app store has everything you need to customize any size store.

Their open API allows for complete customization. This means that a BigCommerce development agency will create customizations that go far beyond apps as well as complete BigCommerce data migration services.

Before migrating, choose one of their ready-made themes. They are mobile-optimized and developed expressly for rapidly expanding eCommerce businesses.

Preparing for The BigCommerce Migration

Keeping the domain name? It’s best to keep the name because it already has brand recognition and page rank. You’ll lose both if you change it.

Sometimes, a domain name change is unavoidable due to:

• Rebranding or a new acquisition or partnership
  
  
• To make it recognizable and easy to remember
  
  
• A specialty store requiring a new identity and a subdomain

You can keep the existing domain, register a new one through BigCommerce or use any third-party registrar.

Once you have the domain name, there are three steps to take before proceeding to the migration. They are:

1. Make a Plan – Create a migration schedule that includes the time it will take to develop the new site. Then transfer all data, thoroughly testing it before and after migrating to BigCommerce. Now, launch your new store. Be sure to document each step and track your progress as this can help you to troubleshoot later.
   
   
2. Back-Up Your Files – Export your data or archive it to keep it safe. Don’t take the chance, you don’t want to lose order, customer, product data and website content should the unthinkable happen.
   
   
3. Confirm Your New Host Meets All Your Requirements – Before you change your store, confirm with BigCommerce that your new store will have the same or better functionality as the original. For example, the WooCommerce transfer app can only move product catalogs of 10,000 SKUs or less. Contact BigCommerce if you have a highly customized store with more than 30,000 SKUs.

They can set up a test using a working model. Before starting the catalog migration to BigCommerce, ask as many questions as possible and take advantage of their documentation and tutorials.

What to Expect During the Catalog Migration Process

BigCommerce has a variety of apps and tech support people to handle the details of migrating the catalog. Of course, you can always use a BigCommerce data migration services agency to handle the job.

They have a 27-point migration checklist to follow covering strategy, design, development, and post-launch.

Here is an overall checklist of how to complete migrating to BigCommerce.

1. Compare the functionality of built-in vs. third-party applications.
   
   
2. Determine and initiate integration redirects.
   
   
3. Meet with all stakeholders and test the platform.
   
   
4. Determine the data shopping cart migration service and launch migration.
   
   
5. Redesign site, relaunch in beta, and QA with stakeholders.
   
   
6. Relaunch site publicly, and redirect URLs.

BigCommerce offers a Store Launch Guide providing a comprehensive map on getting your new store up and running.

Advice When Migrating to BigCommerce

Migrating from one platform to another takes commitment and planning. There are hundreds of details to consider and thousands of bits of data to manage. It is a daunting task, and the launch is no time to do it alone. Delegating the task of moving your catalog to experts, saves time and reduces errors. Use a Certified Elite partner and BigCommerce developer to get your store online much faster.

Lastly, start promoting your new store by emailing your list and publicizing it on your social media channels. It’s the perfect opportunity to offer grand opening discounts and promotions to drive new traffic and make new customers.