Big Cartel to Shopify
Migrating from Big Cartel to Shopify represents a strategic upgrade from a simple, artist-focused platform to a comprehensive eCommerce solution. In 2025, with Big Cartel's limitations in features, scalability, and app ecosystem, many merchants are making the switch to Shopify for better growth potential and professional capabilities.
This comprehensive technical blueprint covers Big Cartel's simple structure, field mappings to Shopify's REST API, and step-by-step migration execution.
1. The Strategic Pivot: Why Leave Big Cartel?
💰 Features & Functionality
The Big Cartel Pain: Big Cartel is designed for small artists with very basic features. Limited to 500 products on paid plans, minimal customization, and no advanced eCommerce features.
The Shopify Gain: Shopify offers unlimited products, advanced inventory management, multi-channel selling, and extensive features for professional eCommerce.
🚀 Scalability
The Big Cartel Pain: Big Cartel is designed for small stores. Limited scalability, basic performance, and product limits restrict growth.
The Shopify Gain: Shopify's infrastructure scales automatically to handle unlimited products and traffic. Built-in CDN and global edge locations.
🛠 App Ecosystem
The Big Cartel Pain: Big Cartel has no app marketplace. Very limited integrations and customization options.
The Shopify Gain: Shopify App Store has 8,000+ apps for marketing, fulfillment, customer service, analytics, and more.
⚡ Professional Features
The Big Cartel Pain: Missing advanced features like abandoned cart recovery, advanced analytics, multi-currency, and B2B capabilities.
The Shopify Gain: All advanced eCommerce features included or available via apps. Professional tools for growing businesses.
2. The Pre-Migration Architecture Audit
Big Cartel is a simple hosted platform with basic CSV export capabilities.
- Big Cartel Plan: Are you on Free (5 products) or paid plan? Export capabilities are basic.
- Data Export: Big Cartel allows CSV export of products. Customer and order data export is limited.
- Product Structure: Big Cartel has simple product structure. Easy to map to Shopify.
- No API Access: Big Cartel doesn't provide API access. CSV export is the primary method.
- Images: Big Cartel images need to be downloaded and re-uploaded to Shopify.
3. Exact Data Mapping: The Blueprint
Big Cartel's simple structure makes mapping straightforward.
🛍 Product Data Mapping
| Big Cartel Field (Source) | Shopify Field (Target) | Notes & Logic |
|---|---|---|
Product ID |
id (Product API) |
Shopify generates new IDs. |
Product Name |
title |
Direct string transfer. |
Price |
variants[].price |
Big Cartel has simple pricing. Maps to Shopify variant price. |
Description |
body_html |
HTML content. Images need re-uploading to Shopify CDN. |
Category |
collections |
Big Cartel categories become Shopify collections. |
4. The Toolkit: Selecting Your Vehicle
Option A: Automated Cloud Migration (Recommended)
Tools: Migration Shop, LitExtension, Cart2Cart
- ✅ Pros: Handles CSV import, preserves relationships, creates redirects.
- ❌ Cons: Cost scales with data ($100 - $300).
Option B: Manual CSV Import
Tools: Big Cartel Export + Shopify Import
- ✅ Pros: Free, direct control.
- ❌ Cons: Limited to products, manual image upload, high error risk.
5. Execution Protocol: Step-by-Step
Phase 1: Environment Preparation
1.1. Prepare Target (Shopify):
Create Shopify store. Enable password protection during migration.
1.2. Prepare Source (Big Cartel):
Export products CSV from Big Cartel (Settings > Export).
Phase 2: Data Collection
2.1. Product Export:
Export products CSV from Big Cartel. Review and clean data.
2.2. Image Collection:
Download product images from Big Cartel. Upload to Shopify's CDN.
Phase 3: Migration Execution
- Use Automated Tool: Recommended for handling CSV import and image migration.
- Create 301 Redirects: Critical for SEO preservation.
6. Financial Breakdown: Cost of Migration (2025)
Manual CSV
But Time Consuming
Automated Cloud
Average Cost
Agency Service
Starting Cost
7. Troubleshooting & SEO Preservation
Common Challenges
- Simple Structure: Big Cartel's simple structure makes migration straightforward, but some data may be lost.
- Image Migration: Big Cartel images need to be downloaded and re-uploaded to Shopify's CDN.
- Customer Data: Big Cartel customer export is limited. Customers may need to create new accounts.
The 301 Redirect Strategy
Big Cartel URLs differ from Shopify URLs. Automated migration tools create redirects, but verify in Shopify admin.
Ready to Scale Your Store?
Migrating from Big Cartel to Shopify unlocks professional eCommerce capabilities, unlimited scalability, and access to a powerful app ecosystem. Big Cartel's simple structure makes migration straightforward.