Shopify to BigCommerce Migration

Our client is a US-based retailer specializing in firearm accessories and personal-protection gear. Their online store is the main hub of their business, offering products such as holsters, gun cases, weapon lights and home-defense equipment.

With most of their revenue coming directly through eCommerce, the team needed a platform that could support them more reliably as they grew. Shopify worked well early on, but it began to feel limiting for their catalog structure and the level of built-in functionality they needed. Meanwhile, BigCommerce offered stronger native features, more flexible product management and a setup that required fewer apps.

After reviewing several options for migration service provider, they chose LitExtension because of our experience with cross-platform migrations and our clear, guided workflow. The team appreciated having a straightforward plan and expert support throughout the transition.

For this project, the client required a full migration of all store data from Shopify to BigCommerce, including products, customers, categories and other essential records. They also requested to migrate only their pending orders, instead of the full order history, to keep the new store clean and focused on active workflows.

In addition, they chose the “Migrate categories and products SEO URLs” Additional Option to preserve navigation structure and maintain search visibility. This option was completely free of charge under their All-in-One Migration Service.

The main challenge came from the difference in structure between the two platforms. The client relied heavily on Shopify collections, while BigCommerce uses a category and sub-category system, making the mapping process more complex.

Another difficulty was the way each platform handles product variants. The client’s items included multiple options, and the variant logic in Shopify doesn’t align directly with BigCommerce’s option sets, which added extra complexity during migration.

To handle the structural differences between Shopify and BigCommerce, we began by analyzing the client’s existing store data in detail. Based on that, we created a clear mapping plan for both collections and product variants so they would fit BigCommerce’s category and option-set format.

After finalizing the mappings, we ran the full migration and then performed QA checks to ensure all products, variants and categories displayed correctly. This process allowed the new BigCommerce store to keep a consistent structure without losing any important data.