If your eCommerce store is running on BigCommerce, you’ve likely either migrated there from another platform, or started your online store there from scratch. But if you’re like many of our clients and are starting to feel like the time has come to look at Shopify, moving to the platform could be the game-changer you need to breathe new life into your store.
Shopify powers millions of stores worldwide, offering a more intuitive, scalable, and feature-packed platform that leaves others, like BigCommerce and Turbify, looking and feeling outdated. In this article, we’ll dive into one of the most common questions we, as a developer on both platforms, get almost daily – “Why should I move to Shopify?”
Well, here’s our top 10 reasons why Shopify outperforms BigCommerce in key areas and how they can help grow your business. Whether you’re a small business or scaling enterprise, these are a few reasons why so many are making the switch:
1. Shopify’s User Interface is Much More Intuitive & Easier to Use
Shopify’s dashboard is known for its simplicity and user-friendliness, making it easier for beginners and busy operators to manage their stores without a steep learning curve. One peek inside and you can see right away how it’s organized, with all key areas and stats right up front and easy to get to. BigCommerce, while they’ve tried to reorganize their interface many times over the years, still feels more complex and overwhelms users.
Plus, if you’re just starting out on Shopify, their onboarding process is streamlined, allowing you to set up and customize a store quickly right out of the box without the need for a developer, so you can start selling literally right away!
2. Shopify’s App Store is HUGE and Offers an App for Just About Anything
It’s no secret that some developers are pulling their apps from the BigCommerce app store, leaving store owners without a viable replacement. Their reason? To focus on growing their app where there’s a larger base of stores – Shopify! With over 12,000 apps in the Shopify App Store, you have access to a massive selecting of free and paid-for apps that add functionality for just about anything you could possibly need for your store.
Need advanced inventory management, email marketing, or AI-driven tools such as chat and personalized shopping? There’s an app for that! Switching to Shopify opens up a universe of apps and tools that integrate seamlessly, helping you customize your store without breaking the bank or hiring developers.
3. Shopify Offers More Themes and Way More Design Flexibility
Shopify’s theme marketplace offers a much wider selection of modern, responsive themes that are easier to customize with drag-and-drop editors, such as their new (100% free!) Horizon theme just introduced this summer that is a total game-changer. While BigCommerce’s themes are functional, they’re functionality is limited and often times requires code tweaks either from the theme developer, or your own developer, for the perfect look.
Shopify’s free and premium themes are easy to customize using the built-in editor which offers a lot more flexibility than BigCommerce’s Page Builder, which many express frustrations with over its clunky and hard to use interface.
4. Shopify’s Scalability is Perfect for Growing Businesses
As your store grows, Shopify scales along with you allowing you to start off on one of their basic plans and as your business grows, seamlessly upgrade to Shopify Plus which offers even more functionality and is designed to handle high traffic stores without performance dips. BigCommerce is scalable too, but Shopify Plus unlocks tools and infrastructure to support growth more reliably. If your goal is to grow, you’ll find that Shopify reduces the risk of outgrowing the platform.
5. Shopify Integrates Marketing, SEO, and Automation Tools
Shopify excels with built-in SEO features, such as customizable meta tags, alt text for images, and sitemaps, plus marketing tools like abandoned cart recovery and email campaigns which are baked into the platform, eliminating the need for expensive 3rd party apps. While BigCommerce has some marketing capabilities, Shopify’s tools are far more comprehensive, easy-to-use, and are designed to convert without the need for complex programming and are ready to use right away.
Plus, Shopify Flow handles the repetitive stuff such as low-stock alerts, high-risk order routing, tagging VIP customers, nudging customer service reps when orders need follow up, and more! Shopify Flow’s easy to set up automation rules can be created to handle simple or more complex tasks, with many templates ready to go out-of-the box and an easy-to-use editor to create your own custom automations to help save time so you can focus on the more important stuff. Flow is built for merchants, not just developers, and it connects with tons of apps.
6. Shopify Payments Can Save You Money on Credit Card Processing
If you’ve ever looked at your credit card processing statement each month, you’ve probably shed a tear or just threw it away because it was too complex to even try to figure out. Chances are, if you’re using a traditional bank or credit card merchant processor, you can save money immediately with Shopify Payments. Shopify gets rid of all those extra transaction fees that make your head hurt if you use its native payment gateway. Rates are competitive, have zero hidden fees, and since it’s built-in to the platform, you won’t need any additional apps or software to take payments. This can add up to significant savings, especially for high-volume stores, making your operations more profitable.
Plus, Shopify Payments seamlessly integrates PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay and many more – again, with no 3rd party apps or additional coding required.
BigCommerce does not offer any form of payment processing, making this a no-brainer.
7. Shopify’s Shop Pay Offers Frictionless Checkout and High Conversion Rates
Speaking of payments, if you’ve ever watched a customer bail during checkout, Shop Pay is here to save the day. It’s one of Shopify’s standout features – a lightning-fast checkout that stores customer details securely for one-tap purchases, reducing friction and cart abandonment. Shopify reports Shop Pay lifts conversion by up to 50% over guest checkout and beats other accelerated checkouts by at least 10% and offers a 1.72× higher conversion rate vs. typical checkouts. That’s not a nice-to-have—it’s found money and should really be our #1 reason for considering moving from BigCommerce to Shopify!
BigCommerce lacks anything comparable to Shop Pay.
8. Shopify Has a Massive Store Owner Community & 24/7 Support
Shopify provides 24/7 support via chat, email, and phone, plus a huge community forum where store owners can turn to for quick advice, tips on best practices, or just to share some knowledge. BigCommerce offers solid support, but Shopify’s resources are more extensive, including detailed guides, training videos, and a much larger pool of developers available to share their expertise.
9. Shopify Storefronts and Admin are Built for Mobile
In a mobile-first world, Shopify’s themes and apps are optimized for seamless shopping on any device, with average load times of 1.3 seconds. BigCommerce supports mobile, but Shopify’s ecosystem ensures better performance and user experience on smartphones, where over half of eCommerce traffic originates. This leads to lower abandonment rates and higher mobile conversions for your store.
Plus, for store owners, Shopify has a mobile app that extends all the functions of the store admin to your phone or tablet. While BigCommerce has a mobile app, functionality is limited to just a few things, making it not so great for store owners on the go.
10. Shopify’s Analytics & Reporting are More Robust
Shopify’s built-in analytics dashboard delivers deep insights into sales, customer behavior, and inventory, with easy integration for other analytics tools like Google Analytics. BigCommerce has basic reporting which is somewhat limited, while Shopify’s is more intuitive and offers new AI features (hello Sidekick!) for store management.
Now What?
Made it this far and thinking, “I need to try this”? That’s where we come in. As a Shopify Plus Partner, we’ll provide you with a free, no-commitment development store so you can take Shopify for a real test drive—use it to kick the tires, peek under the hood, and see how it feels before you make a decision. Explore various themes, add products, place test orders—everything you’d do in a live store. If you love what you build, we’ll transfer ownership, and you’ll simply start on the current Shopify plan.
No strings.
Already on BigCommerce, Turbify, or another platform? A migration doesn’t have to be a headache. Our proprietary and proven process brings over your products, customers, orders, pages, and images, and preserves SEO with 301 redirects—so you keep your rankings while gaining a faster, cleaner, more robust store.
Just email us at support@yourstorewizards.com to get your free Shopify test store and a no-pressure migration consultation.
Scott Sanfilippo began his eCommerce journey in 1994 by co-founding one of the Internet’s first online retailers, TheFerretStore.com, which was acquired by PetCo in 2006. In 2001, he co-founded the eCommerce design and marketing firm Solid Cactus, which was acquired by web.com in 2009. Today, Scott is the General Manager of Your Store Wizards and lives in Delray Beach, FL. Scott can be contacted at scott@yourstorewizards.com.