Is your Magento online store holding you back from developing your business? Are you tired of complex store management and high support costs? If so, migrating from Magento to BigCommerce might be the solution you’re looking for.
Comparing Magento with BigCommerce is difficult, as it requires you to compare fully custom code across varying store configurations. While Magento has many capabilities, Magento stores are more expensive and harder to maintain than BigCommerce stores, as all updates and rework require custom development. This is why migration from Magento to BigCommerce is a hot topic. This article will help you understand why companies choose this path, the benefits and challenges it brings, and practical advice to complete the migration process successfully.
Path from Magento to BigCommerce
First things first: When talking about reasons for transferring your ecommerce website to a new platform, we do not mean to downplay the significance of your current platform. All leading e-commerce platforms have numerous strengths, and you no doubt chose your current platform based on the specifics of your business. However, it may happen that your plans have changed over time or more suitable opportunities have appeared on other platforms, so data migration may seem like the right solution. This article (like all of our articles on this blog) is intended to highlight reasons for moving to a new platform and how to ensure a smooth transition, but it in no way aims to discredit any ecommerce platform.
Main reasons for Magento to BigCommerce migration
Ease and speed are the first things that come to mind when considering why you might want a new BigCommerce store. However, these are far from the only reasons. Comparing Magento and BigCommerce is difficult, and the key to choosing between them is determining whether you need custom solutions or are satisfied with an out-of-the-box setup. Let’s take a closer look at reasons for transferring your store to another platform.
According to Gartner research based on ratings and reviews, business owners find the BigCommerce platform to provide better service, support, evaluation — and find it easier to integrate as well. While Magento is a well-established player, it’s important to consider the unique benefits of BigCommerce. Over the platform’s long history, some processes within Magento have become unwieldy. This is where the BigCommerce platform, with its composable commerce approach, shines. It offers a fresh perspective and innovative solutions, making it a compelling choice for your e-commerce needs.
Challenges of a Magento store
If you have or are planning to build a Magento store, it’s best to be at least theoretically prepared to face challenges like the ones described below. Having 10 years of experience in the industry, we can say that the most common challenges with Magento are:
Magento vs BigCommerce
You may have specific questions about Magento’s functionality; let’s figure out whether migration will solve them. To do this, let’s start by comparing Magento and BigCommerce in terms of their technical capabilities.
Time to market
Magento Custom Magento solutions usually take 2–3 months, but your pace strictly depends on the experience of your development team.
BigCommerce Compared to near-custom development on Magento, it’s much easier to reach the market when using out-of-the-box functionality offered by BigCommerce.
Architecture and scalability
Magento The modular architecture offers deep customization, but at the same time can be difficult to maintain. Magento’s scalability depends on the version (Community, Enterprise) and server settings.
BigCommerce is a SaaS platform with a well-thought-out architecture that automatically scales under load. It is less flexible but is faster and more reliable.
Performance and speed
Magento The platform’s speed depends on server settings, the number of installed modules, and the volume of the product catalog. Magento requires careful tuning to achieve high speed.
BigCommerce usually shows better speed out of the box thanks to platform optimization and automatic caching.
Integrations
Magento offers a wide range of possibilities for integration with other systems due to the many modules and APIs that are available.
BigCommerce supports many integrations, though fewer than Magento. However, tools are available for most common tasks.
Security measures
Magento requires regular updates to fix vulnerabilities. The level of security depends on the server settings and installed modules as well as the way everything is configured.
BigCommerce is responsible for the platform’s security by conducting regular audits and updates.
Development and customization
Magento requires strong knowledge of PHP, MySQL, and other technologies. Deep customization is available due to a large number of modules and themes.
BigCommerce has fewer options for customization at the code level but provides a large selection of ready-made templates and applications.
SEO
Magento is good for SEO but requires careful tuning.
BigCommerce is optimized for SEO, but some features may be limited.
Support and community
Magento The large community of developers is a solid reason to choose Magento. However, official support options may seem limited compared to any SaaS platform, and a support team of skilled Magento developers can cost more compared to BigCommerce.
BigCommerce provides its own support, and the community, although much smaller than Magento’s, is quite active.
How to migrate Magento to BigCommerce? Main steps for successful migration
On the internet, you will definitely find guides like “How to migrate Magento to BigCommerce.” But it’s worth realizing that Magento 2 to BigCommerce data migration is a complex process that is best entrusted to professionals. Understanding the stages of the migration process is crucial to ensure you’re not paying for unnecessary services and that your data will be kept safe during transfer. So, what are the main steps of migration?
Conducting a technical feasibility assessment
A technical feasibility assessment aims to determine whether it is technically feasible and profitable to switch to BigCommerce, assess the risks, and develop a detailed migration plan. During this assessment, we take the following important steps:
Analyze the existing store’s size, complexity, and integrations with other systems.
Compare platforms to determine if BigCommerce functionality meets your business requirements and whether it will solve the issues that made you decide to migrate.
Assess the data volume and complexity of migration, considering the risks and deciding whether backups are possible.
Analyze APIs and integration opportunities.
Develop a migration plan.
Planning migration
Every successful migration requires careful planning. These are the first steps we take when you entrust your migration to us:
Analyze data: We map your Magento data to the corresponding fields in BigCommerce, ensuring a seamless transition of critical information (products, customers, orders, etc.).
Choose an approach: Based on our findings, we recommend the most suitable migration approach considering factors like data volume, data complexity, and your business requirements.
Create a project plan: We develop a comprehensive project plan outlining migration steps, timelines, and resource allocation.
Only after completing these prerequisites will we begin the migration process for your Magento store.
Considering technical aspects of data migration
An essential part of the Magento to BigCommerce migration process is to back up data to make sure that nothing is missed when moving to your new BigCommerce store. At this stage, we provide:
Complete backup: We create a comprehensive backup of your Magento store, including all data files and configurations, to ensure a safe and reliable migration process.
Product migration: We carefully transfer your product data, including product information, images, attributes, categories, and variants, to your BigCommerce store, preserving the integrity of your product catalog.
Customer data migration: We migrate your customer data, including customer profiles, addresses, order history, and preferences, to your BigCommerce store, ensuring a seamless transition for your existing customers.
Design customization: We customize the design of your BigCommerce store to match your brand identity and preferences, ensuring a visually appealing and consistent experience for your customers.
Additional features and plugins: We integrate any necessary third-party features or plugins, ensuring a fully functional and customized BigCommerce online store.
Testing and launch
When our dedicated developers migrate Magento to BigCommerce, they ensure increased control, especially during testing and launch:
Functional testing: We conduct thorough functional testing to ensure that all features and functionalities of your BigCommerce store are working as expected, verifying data accuracy, product display, the checkout process, and more.
Performance optimization: We optimize your BigCommerce store’s performance, ensuring fast load times, smooth navigation, and a positive user experience even under heavy traffic conditions.
Public release: We assist you with the public release of your BigCommerce store, guiding marketing, traffic management, and ongoing support to ensure a successful launch.
What challenges can you face during Magento 2 to BigCommerce data-migration?
We want to protect you from expectations that don’t align with reality by considering possible transfer complications. Moving from Magento 2 to BigCommerce, especially when migrating large volumes of data, comes with several potential challenges. Here are some of the more common challenges you may encounter:
Structural differences between platforms (different database schemas, differences in attribute types, extension incompatibility)
Time-consuming migration with large amounts of data, especially when using a suboptimal approach
The migration process may additionally load the servers of both platforms
Data complexity (for example, if you used custom fields or tables in Magento, you will need to either migrate them to BigCommerce or abandon them)
Transferring historical data, which can complicate the migration process
Reconfiguring integrations with payment gateways, analytics systems, CRMs, etc. (some may not be mapped to BigCommerce)
Testing all store functions thoroughly after migration to ensure that all data has been migrated correctly and that the store is running smoothly
Tips to minimize the consequences of Magento to BigCommerce migration
Every migration project is unique, and migration challenges may vary depending on your store’s specifics. Here are some tips on how to minimize risks:
Plan: Create a detailed migration plan, including all steps of the process.
Choose the right tool: Use specialized tools for data migration.
Test: Perform thorough testing in a test environment before launching a migrated store.
Bring in experts: If you don’t have sufficient internal resources, consider bringing in external experts.
Back up: Make a full backup of your Magento store before starting the migration.
Choose the right team for your Magento to BigCommerce migration!
Why choose our Magento 2 to BigCommerce migration service?
Let’s look at some facts about our team:
Work with us to get a dedicated team for your Magento to BigCommerce migration!
Summing up Magento 2 to BigCommerce data-migration
Replatforming is a complicated process – sorry, there’s no magic pill. At the same time, replatforming from Magento to BigCommerce will set your business free from unnecessarily hard scalability, high maintenance costs, and platform limitations. And although Magento to BigCommerce migration takes time and effort, it’s much easier to find a company that will bite that bullet for you than to leave everything as is.
Best wishes for a smooth transition from your team at Dinarys!
Still looking for your team? Choose Dinarys for your Magento to BigCommerce migration.
