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Part of Ecommerce migration: UK costs, platforms and hiring
Ecommerce migration: UK costs, platforms and hiring
UK ecommerce migration costs by platform route, how Shopify, WooCommerce and BigCommerce differ, data-transfer questions and a four-step hiring sequence.
What to take away
- Illustrative UK ecommerce migration fees for a full replatform run from about £4,000 for a small catalogue to £30,000 or more once ERP and warehouse integrations are involved.
- The agency fee is only part of it. Redirect mapping, payment token migration and post-launch fixes each add cost.
- The platform pair shapes the jobleaving Shopify is largely a data export, while moving into WooCommerce adds hosting and extension costs.
- Under UK GDPR the merchant usually remains the controller, so a written processor agreement is not optional.
- Check the supplier's Companies House record and ask for two references on the same platform pair before paying a deposit.
The platform pair decides the work
A platform comparison tells you what the software can do. The migration work depends on the pair you are moving between: order history, customer accounts and the redirect map all have to survive the move, and that is the agency's job.
Most failed migrations do not fail at checkout. They fail on URL structures, subscription records and saved payment details that cannot simply be copied across.
So the useful question is not who charges least. It is who has moved a store of your size between your two chosen platforms.
How Shopify, WooCommerce and BigCommerce compare on migration
Platform comparisons usually stop at features and monthly fees. For a replatform, the comparison that matters is what each route demands of your data. Leaving Shopify is largely an export exercise: products, customers and orders export as CSV files, but the theme, apps and saved payment tokens do not transfer with them.
Moving into WooCommerce means taking on WordPress hosting, extension updates and maintenance that a hosted plan bundles into one subscription. BigCommerce is another hosted option, but the setup spend behind it is heavier. Shopify's own platform comparison cites a commissioned TCO study: BigCommerce's platform costs were 32% higher than Shopify's, its operational and support costs 21% higher, and its implementation and setup costs 88% higher.
Read across the three and the pattern for a migration budget is the same: data exports are cheap, rebuilds are not. Ask every shortlisted agency which of these platform pairs it has moved a store between, and for references on that exact pair.
Typical ecommerce migration costs in the UK
The bands below are illustrative planning figures, not quotations. Scope, integrations and data quality move them most, and the platform pair decides which shape of project you are buying.
Migration costs by project shape
Project shape
- Data-only transfer
- £2,500–£6,000
- Small store (<500 SKUs)
- £4,000–£10,000
- Mid-market (500–5,000 SKUs)
- £10,000–£30,000
- Headless/custom front end
- £30,000–£80,000+
- Post-launch retainer
- £500–£2,500/month
Illustrative fee (ex VAT)
- Data-only transfer
- Catalogue, images, order history
- Small store (<500 SKUs)
- Theme, redirects, payments
- Mid-market (500–5,000 SKUs)
- ERP, warehouse, CRM
- Headless/custom front end
- Bespoke build, hosting, testing
- Post-launch retainer
- Support, releases, monitoring
Main cost drivers
- Data-only transfer
- Small store (<500 SKUs)
- Mid-market (500–5,000 SKUs)
- Headless/custom front end
- Post-launch retainer
Typical ecommerce migration costs
| Project shape | Illustrative fee, excluding VAT | Main cost drivers |
|---|---|---|
| Data-only transfer (products, customers, orders) | £2,500 to £6,000 | Catalogue size, image handling, order history depth |
| Small store, under 500 SKUs | £4,000 to £10,000 | Theme rebuild, redirect map, payment setup |
| Mid-market store, 500 to 5,000 SKUs | £10,000 to £30,000 | ERP, warehouse and CRM integrations |
| Headless or custom front end | £30,000 to £80,000 and above | Bespoke build, hosting, testing, longer timelines |
| Post-launch retainer | £500 to £2,500 a month | Support hours, release cadence, monitoring |
Most agencies quote excluding VAT. If your business cannot reclaim it, add 20% to every figure; the registration thresholds are set out in GOV.UK's VAT registration guidance.
Payment tokens are the line most often missed. A saved card reference usually cannot be exported from one gateway to another, so returning customers must re-enter details after cutover. Budget for a re-tokenisation or vault migration step.
A blank template forces you to give redirect engineering and payment re-tokenisation their own lines. Burying both inside a single agency fee hides the real number. Start with the blank platform budget before you compare quotes.
Fixed fee, day rate or hybrid
A fixed fee protects you when scope is genuinely frozen. It protects the agency when the scope keeps moving, which is why so many quotes carry a change-control clause.
Day rates suit discovery work: data auditing, redirect planning and integration testing. Expect a blended rate covering a lead, a developer and a tester, quoted per day.
Hybrid deals fix the build and charge hourly for post-launch support. That split is reasonable, provided the support rate is written into the contract rather than agreed later.
What to ask about UK data transfer
Customer and order data usually stays with the merchant as controller. That means the agency, and any subcontractor it uses, needs a written processor agreement covering purpose, retention and deletion. The ICO's guide to the UK GDPR sets out the terms such an agreement must contain.
Ask these before signing:
UK data transfer questions
- Who is the controller and who is the processor for order and customer data?
- Where will the data be hosted, and will any of it leave the UK or the EEA?
- What happens to saved addresses, subscription records and payment tokens at cutover?
- How long will the old store stay read-only, and who deletes the data afterwards?
A four-step hiring sequence
- Freeze the scopeSKU count, integrations, redirect list, data sets and acceptance tests.
- Request fixed-fee quotes against that frozen scope, from at least three agencies.
- Check each company's registered number and filing history at Companies House.
- Sign the processor agreement, rehearse the cutover on staging, then go live with a rollback date.
If you are moving between hosted platforms, the redirect work is the part most often underquoted. Switching from Shopify to WooCommerce shows how much of the cost sits in preserving search visibility rather than in moving products.
Four-step hiring sequence
- Freeze scopeSKUs, integrations, redirects, data, tests
- Request fixed-fee quotes from at least three agencies
- Check registered number and filing history at Companies House
- Sign processor agreement, rehearse cutover, set rollback date
Common questions
How much does an ecommerce migration cost in the UK?
For a small catalogue, £4,000 to £10,000 excluding VAT is a reasonable planning band. Add integrations, subscriptions or a custom front end and £30,000 is not unusual. Get three fixed-fee quotes against identical scope.
Can I move from Shopify to BigCommerce myself?
Products and customers are straightforward if the catalogue is flat. Subscriptions, metafields and URL redirects are where DIY moves break, so budget for help on those parts.
Do I need a UK-based agency?
No. What matters is a written processor agreement, a contact who works your hours, and evidence that checkout wording meets UK consumer rules.
Should I keep the old store running after launch?
Keep it read-only for at least one full billing cycle. You need it to compare orders, refunds and search rankings before you delete the source data.
