Implementing a new ecommerce platform like BigCommerce can be an exciting yet challenging endeavor. With careful planning and execution, your business can leverage BigCommerce to drive online growth and better serve customers. However, missteps during implementation can lead to headaches, wasted time and money, and missed opportunities.

In this article, we’ll explore the top 7 mistakes companies make when migrating to BigCommerce, and how you can avoid them. Whether you’re tackling this project in-house or working with an agency partner, being aware of these pitfalls will set your ecommerce transition up for success.

1. Not Having Clear Business Goals

Before touching any aspect of technology, the first step should always be aligning on business goals. Why are you investing in a BigCommerce implementation? What specific outcomes are you working towards?

Common ecommerce goals include:

• Increasing online revenue by __% year-over-year
• Growing site traffic by __%
• Improving conversions from % to %
• Reducing cart abandonment by __%
• Decreasing workload for internal teams to manage the site
• Enhancing flexibility to add new product lines, run promotions, etc.

Whatever your objectives are, make sure executive sponsors and implementation teams understand them. These goals should actively guide decision making throughout the project. Without this alignment, you run the risk of buildling a site and platform that misses the mark for your business. Technically, everything could be executed perfectly…yet still fail to move the needle on what matters most.

2. Neglecting Performance Benchmarking

How will you know if your BigCommerce implementation is successful or not? The only way is by benchmarking key metrics before, during, and after going live.

Some areas to measure include:

• Site traffic – Visitors, unique visitors, page views
• Sales revenue – Online revenue, average order value, conversions
• Customer experience – Page load times, mobile experience scores
• Marketing costs – Cost per click, cost per acquisition
• Operational efficiency – Hours spent on updates, platform management

It’s easy to get caught up in the details of migrating to a new platform. But don’t lose sight that the end goal isn’t adopting technology – it’s positively impacting your business. Benchmark thoroughly so you can quantify if the investment in BigCommerce pays dividends.

3. Not Planning Content Strategy

The homepage is not the only important page for SEO and conversions. Every single URL needs to be mapped out within your content strategy before build begins. Consider:

• Information architecture – What pages and hierarchies do you need to effectively merchandise all products and share helpful information? Don’t solely mimic your old site structure without consideration.
• Metadata – Craft compelling title tags and meta descriptions so critical pages stand out in SERPs with customized messaging. Don’t rely on default platform templates.
• Page-specific keywords – Identify the search terms you want individual pages to rank for. Develop content that deliberately targets those words without stuffing.
• Crosslinks – Interlink related content across your site to enrich pages and inform search engines about structure.
• Imagery – Curate visual assets that align to each page’s angle; support pages with ALT text for accessibility and SEO.

This is just a snapshot of the content strategy work involved. Without diligent planning here, you may find yourself migrating thin, ineffective pages…then playing catch-up after the fact trying to optimize missed opportunities.

4. Being Unprepared for Data Migration

What’s under the hood of any ecommerce experience? Data. And lots of it. From product information to historical transactions to customer details – properly migrating ALL relevant data is imperative. Otherwise you launch an empty shell with no substance.

Common data migration issues include:

• Unexpected formatting headaches moving info between systems
• Custom attributes not transferring over
• Images and other media assets not coming across
• Losing historical transaction and customer data

Thoroughly audit what data exists today, how it’s structured, and what your BigCommerce setup requires.Identify gaps and build contingencies through batch upload/downloads, long-tail cleanup, manually entering data, or leaving legacy platforms running in parallel during transition.

All this takes significant time and expertise – so tap technical resources knowledgable in migrations. Trying a “lift and shift” without help can corrode foundational data integrity for your business.

5. Underestimating Testing Needs

So the new website is live and the team is ready to pop champagne…but have all scenarios been validated on desktop AND mobile? Consider:

• Page flows – Do key journeys like checkout function as expected? Can customers easily complete desired actions?
• Visual review – Are images properly sized and pages displaying correctly across all devices?
• Link validation – Are navigation and calls-to-action clicking through to correct pages?
• Performance – Have site speed and server loads been stress tested during peak demand times?

Skimp on testing timelines and you may quickly learn that assumptions missed the mark. Be relentless inspecting all components front and back. Significantly underestimating testing efforts remains one of the most common reasons go-live dates get pushed.

6. Launching Before Conversion Optimization

Day one represents the START of optimizing your new BigCommerce site – not the finish line. Don’t fall into the trap of checking implementation off your to-do list then moving onto the next thing once live.

Reality is you won’t know what needs improvement until real customers interact with the new experience. Traffic should be carefully ramped as you monitor behavior flows. Be proactive uncovering friction points turning visitors into customers. Actively tweak and test all aspects of the customer journey until conversions clearly escalate.

This not only means monitoring metrics, but also personally walking in customer’s shoes. What questions do YOU have navigating the new site for the first time? Where do you instinctively expect to find certain information or functions?setMaxListeners Your insights will be invaluable improving usability issues.

7. Not Investing in Optimization Assistance

Transitioning to BigCommerce brings a tsunami of new tools, options, and customization capabilities. But more control also requires greater expertise getting the platform properly tuned.

This intimidates many merchants who don’t realize the investment involved beyond initial implementation. But the fact is realizing BigCommerce’s full potential rests upon understanding best practices around:

• Performance optimizations – caching, CDNs, lazy loading
• Design configurations – filtering, faceted search, mega menus
• Enhanced merchandising – custom sorting, additional recommendations
• Integrated marketing – personalized email automations, popups and banners
• Advanced analytics – custom dashboards, goal tracking

Lacking know-how in these areas will bottleneck benefitting from everything BigCommerce offers…wasting time trying to self-teach an overwhelming stack. We strongly advise working with specialists for at least the first 6 months after go-live. Quickly unlocking small site optimizations will vastly expand revenue capabilities over the following years.

Why Choose Anchor Group for BigCommerce Implementations

As highlighted throughout this article, missteps during your BigCommerce implementation can undermine hitting business goals. But the good news is most pitfalls can be avoided by choosing the right digital agency partner.

For  years, Anchor Group has specialized in complex B2B and B2C platform implementations. Out top-tier BigCommerce developers and analysts offer:

Proven Launch Methodology – Our 6 stage onboarding process ensures all client goals, requirements, and responsibilities are aligned before kicking off. Nothing is left to assumption.

Performance Engineering – We build high-traffic ready architecture designed for speed, security, and scale. Own the best infrastructure from day one.

Conversion Rate Optimization – We bake in conversion best practices from 20+ years of testing. Benefit from CRO designed in…not bolted on later.

Ongoing Platform Support – We provide U.S. based support for technical issues, third party integrations, feature releases and more.

Visit INSERT URL to learn more about our end-to-end implementation services ensuring your BigCommerce success.