How to Migrate BigCommerce to WooCommerce (Without Losing Data or Sales)

We have sat across the table from more than a few store owners who were paying BigCommerce monthly fees and quietly wondering what they were getting for the money. The platform works, but at some point the transaction fees, the locked templates, and the ceiling on customization start to feel like a lease you cannot get out of. Migrating BigCommerce to WooCommerce puts you back in the driver’s seat, full ownership, no platform rent, and a plugin ecosystem that can do almost anything you need. This guide walks you through exactly how we do it: what to prepare, how to move your data cleanly, and what to verify before your new store goes live.

Why Businesses Switch From BigCommerce to WooCommerce

The short answer is cost and control. BigCommerce charges monthly subscription fees that scale with your annual revenue, once you cross certain thresholds, you get bumped to a higher plan whether you want to or not. WooCommerce, built on WordPress, is free to install and charges no percentage of your sales.

But pricing is only part of the story. WooCommerce runs on WordPress, which means you own your hosting, your database, and every line of code on your site. That ownership matters when you want to build custom checkout flows, connect a niche CRM, or redesign your store without waiting for a platform to approve a theme.

According to Digital Commerce 360, independent merchants increasingly prioritize platform flexibility as their stores grow, particularly when third-party integrations become mission-critical. BigCommerce has a solid integration library, but WooCommerce, backed by GitHub‘s vast open-source community, has thousands of plugins covering everything from subscription billing to advanced inventory management.

Here is what we hear most often from clients who make the switch:

• Lower overhead. No tiered revenue caps, no surprise plan upgrades.
• More design freedom. WordPress themes and page builders give you pixel-level control.
• Better SEO tooling. Plugins like Yoast and Rank Math sit directly in the admin, not bolted on through an API.
• Ownership of your data. Your product catalog, customer records, and order history live on your server.

If you have already looked at moving off another platform, the process shares a lot of DNA with something like migrating from Shopify to WordPress. Different source platform, same core logic: export, map, import, verify.

What to Do Before You Start the Migration

Skipping the prep work is the single fastest way to corrupt your data or miss something that costs you sales. Before you touch any tools, spend time in these two areas.

Audit Your Current BigCommerce Store

Start by cataloging everything you are moving. Open a spreadsheet and list:

• Products, SKUs, variants, prices, stock levels, descriptions, and images
• Categories, their hierarchy and URL slugs
• Customers, names, emails, and addresses (note: passwords cannot transfer due to encryption)
• Orders, historical records you want to preserve for reporting
• Blog posts and pages, if you have content on BigCommerce
• 301 redirects, your current URL structure, so you can map old paths to new ones

The BigCommerce blog covers platform export options in their support documentation. Use their built-in export tools to pull CSV files for products and customers. Save everything locally before you do anything else, this is your safety net.

Also document which apps or integrations you are currently running. Some will have WooCommerce equivalents: others will need a different solution.

Set Up Your WordPress and WooCommerce Environment

Do not migrate into a live, blank WordPress install. Set up a staging environment first. This gives you a place to test the import, fix problems, and confirm everything looks right before real customers ever see the new store.

Here is the baseline setup:

1. Install WordPress on a staging subdomain or local environment.
2. Install WooCommerce and run the setup wizard, configure currency, shipping zones, and tax settings to match what you had on BigCommerce.
3. Install your chosen theme and any required plugins before importing data, so product pages render correctly from the start.
4. Install an import plugin. Cart2Cart and LitExtension are the two tools we use most. Both support BigCommerce as a source platform and handle products, customers, orders, and categories in one pass.

If you are also planning other platform consolidations, our guide on how to migrate Magento to WooCommerce covers staging setup in more detail, the principles carry over directly.

How to Transfer Your Store Data to WooCommerce

This is the core of the process. You have two realistic paths: use an automated migration tool or do it manually with CSV files. For most stores, we recommend the automated route first, it handles relational data (like linking order records to customer accounts) that CSV imports struggle with.

Option 1: Automated Migration Tool (Recommended)

Cart2Cart and LitExtension both work the same general way:

1. Connect your BigCommerce store as the source (usually via API key).
2. Connect your WooCommerce store as the destination.
3. Select which entities to migrate: products, categories, customers, orders, coupons.
4. Run a free demo migration on a small batch of records to check for errors.
5. Run the full migration.

The demo step is not optional, treat it like a required checkpoint. It will surface field-mapping issues before they affect your entire catalog. For example, BigCommerce uses “Brand” as a product attribute: WooCommerce does not have a native brand field, so you need to decide whether to map it to a custom attribute or a taxonomy before the full run.

For reference on how product data travels between platforms, our post on exporting WooCommerce products with images explains the underlying CSV structure, useful background even when using an automated tool.

Option 2: Manual CSV Import

If your catalog is small (under 200 products) and your order history does not need to transfer, manual CSV import through WooCommerce’s built-in product importer is a reasonable option. Export your BigCommerce product CSV, reformat the column headers to match WooCommerce’s expected format, and import. Images need to be hosted somewhere accessible, WooCommerce pulls them by URL during import.

Customer and order data are harder to move manually and usually require a dedicated plugin either way.

After the import, do these three things immediately:

• Cross-check product counts between your BigCommerce export and your new WooCommerce catalog.
• Verify that product images loaded correctly and are not broken.
• Check that category assignments carried over and products appear in the right collections.

If you have moved other stores before, the process rhymes with what we covered in our guide to moving a WooCommerce site to a new server, different trigger, same discipline around data verification.

Post-Migration Checklist: What to Test Before Going Live

A successful import is not the finish line. Before you point your domain at the new WooCommerce store, work through this checklist methodically. Rushing this step is where stores lose revenue.

Storefront and Products

• [ ] Product pages load correctly with accurate titles, descriptions, prices, and images
• [ ] Product variants (size, color, etc.) display and add to cart correctly
• [ ] Category pages show the right products in the right order
• [ ] Search returns relevant results

Checkout and Payments

• [ ] Add a product to cart, go through the full checkout flow in test mode
• [ ] Payment gateway is connected and processing test transactions successfully
• [ ] Order confirmation emails send correctly
• [ ] Tax calculations match your configured rates

Customer Accounts

• [ ] Imported customer records appear in WooCommerce with correct names and emails
• [ ] Customers can reset their passwords (they cannot reuse old ones, send a password reset prompt post-launch)
• [ ] Order history displays correctly under customer accounts

SEO and Redirects

• [ ] 301 redirects are in place for all old BigCommerce URLs pointing to their WooCommerce equivalents
• [ ] Google Search Console is connected and your sitemap is submitted
• [ ] Page titles and meta descriptions are set on key pages

This is also a good moment to evaluate whether your new setup is ready for organic traffic. If SEO configuration on WooCommerce is new territory, our breakdown of moving a Shopify store to WordPress includes an SEO transition section that applies here too.

One more thing worth checking: the Shopify blog and BigCommerce both publish post-migration guidance aimed at keeping customers on their platforms, reading the counterargument can help you anticipate gaps your new WooCommerce setup should address, like abandoned cart recovery and loyalty program continuity.

When everything passes, update your DNS, monitor your analytics for the first 48 hours, and watch your error logs. Most post-migration issues surface in that first window and are straightforward to fix once you know where to look.

Need a hand with the BigCommerce to WooCommerce migration process itself, or want someone to do the technical heavy lifting? That is exactly what we do at Zuleika LLC.

Conclusion

Migrating BigCommerce to WooCommerce is not a small project, but it is a well-understood one. Audit your data, set up a proper staging environment, use a migration tool that handles relational records, and test everything before going live. Do those four things and the risk drops considerably.

The bigger picture: owning your platform means your store grows on your terms. No revenue-based pricing tiers, no waiting on a SaaS roadmap for a feature you need today. WooCommerce gives you that, and WordPress gives you the content infrastructure to support it long-term.

If you want a team that has done this before and can manage the migration end-to-end, reach out to us at Zuleika LLC. We handle the technical work so you can stay focused on running your business.

Frequently Asked Questions About Migrating BigCommerce to WooCommerce

How long does a BigCommerce to WooCommerce migration typically take?

Timeline depends on store size. A small store (under 200 products, minimal order history) can migrate in a day or two. Larger stores using automated tools like Cart2Cart or LitExtension may take several days, especially when factoring in staging setup, demo migration testing, and post-migration QA before going live.

Will my customer passwords transfer when I migrate BigCommerce to WooCommerce?

No — customer passwords cannot be transferred due to encryption differences between platforms. However, all customer names, emails, and addresses migrate successfully. After launch, send a password reset email prompting customers to create new credentials for their WooCommerce accounts.

What is the best tool to migrate BigCommerce to WooCommerce?

Automated tools like Cart2Cart and LitExtension are the top recommendations. Both connect BigCommerce as the source via API, handle relational data such as orders linked to customer accounts, and support a free demo migration to catch field-mapping errors before your full catalog is transferred.

Do I need to set up 301 redirects after migrating from BigCommerce to WooCommerce?

Yes, 301 redirects are essential. BigCommerce and WooCommerce use different URL structures, so without redirects, your existing search rankings and inbound links will lead to 404 errors. Map every old BigCommerce URL to its new WooCommerce equivalent before pointing your domain to the new store.

Is WooCommerce really free compared to BigCommerce?

WooCommerce itself is free to install and charges no percentage of your sales or revenue-based tier upgrades. You pay for hosting, your domain, and any premium plugins you choose. BigCommerce, by contrast, charges monthly subscription fees that automatically scale upward once your annual revenue crosses set thresholds.

Can I migrate my BigCommerce blog posts and pages to WooCommerce?

Yes, blog posts and static pages can be migrated. You should catalog all existing content before starting and include it in your migration plan. Since WooCommerce runs on WordPress, your content will benefit from native SEO plugins like Yoast or Rank Math once transferred, improving long-term organic performance.