It should be no surprise to anyone that Magento Go and eBay ProStores are closing down. Not today, February 1st 2015. I called it a long time ago. Magento Go in particular was a ghost. No blog, Facebook or Twitter updates. No new features, no pricing changes, no support updates, no marketing pushes. It was just left to die.
It always bugged me, especially as they are making no effort to move Magento Community Edition forward. Magento Go seemed like a low cost way for Magento customers to stay with the platform that they had committed so many resources to but it was next to impossible to recommend with support and speed issues never resolved.
The great news to come out of this is that Magento chose Bigcommerce to pick up the slack for them, which means (in my opinion) all those Magento go and ProStores customers are about to get a huge upgrade.
Bigcommerce have put on extra staff and added 24 hour 7 day a week support – but regardless, do not wait until the last minute to begin your migration because with the holiday selling season getting earlier and earlier every year you want to be on a modern platform ASAP.
Need more help deciding? Read and of these Bigcommerce Reviews for a full run down on this exciting ecommerce platform.
Why stick with Bigcommerce after the shut down?
- I like them – and isn’t what I like most important ;0)
- The Bigcommerce platform is similar in features to Magento Go and has the capability to compare to Prostores
- Special Pricing offers
- Bigcommerce have already migrated 6,000 Prostore resellers to Bigcommerce so they are well practiced and have fine tuned the process
- 24×7 support
- Comparable pricing
- Shopify (with it’s amazing AppStore) would also work nicely but I don’t know if hey are doing special pricing
- Special plans for higher GMV merchants that include priority support and account management, so there is no reason not to be on a hosted environment anymore. Shopify also have Shopify Plus which is very similar
Why would you not choose to migrate to Bigcommerce?
No idea. It is a superior platform in every respect except eBay integration for ProStores customers – but ProStores was unique with how it allowed deep eBay integration. Bigcommerce are adding more functionality and there are third party tools until then. You will need to get your site redesigned (or have a developer convert your Magento/ProStores design to Bigcommerce) but this is a plus in my books because the templates on offer at Bigcommerce are more modern, better optimised, work across multiple devices and look great.
The big issues I saw I emailed to the very handy Kirsten who replied – I have shared those answers here.
Will Bigcommerce be improving their eBay integration to offer Prostores customers a better experience?
Bigcommerce has work under way to improve our built-in eBay integration to make it easier to list, sell and manage products on eBay by using Bigcommerce as your central business hub. We are looking forward to making it available soon.
What will Bigcommerce be migrating for customers?
Migration includes moving store information like product, category and customer data, plus some visual content like logos and favicons – but not a full pixel perfect redesign. We will coach merchants on which modern template to use when they come across and expect that many will want to upgrade to a new template from our recently released responsive themes. For merchants who do want to replicate the exact look and feel of their prior store, we have a select group of partners we can refer to help them go live quickly.
Andrew’s Note: this will not include importing your order history. Bottom line this is a massive task and involves a significant amount of resources to make sure products, customers and order line items all lined up. More often than not this process fails. Your most sensible plan would be to export them from your current store to Excel and save them so that you can refer to them later. You could enter notes into your customer records on Bigcommerce to keep totals and order preferences handy.
Have you put on more staff in the short term to get through the migrations or is it first come first serve in a queue?
We’ve bolstered both our staffing and underlying systems to help handle the increased influx of migrating clients and expect that most migrations will take 10-12 business days start to launch-ready.
Who else can you migrate to?
Shopify have an offer for Magento Go or Prostores customers that includes migration assistance and 10% of. You can get those details by clicking here
Lemonstand are also offering migration assistance you can get in touch with them by clicking here
Volusion are claiming 4 times more sales than Magento Go can offer customers which is rather compelling. I don’t know how they worked t out but I hope one of you signs up and let’s me know. Trial them by clicking here
Prestashop has modules for Prostore customers to manage eBay listings and have partnered with Cart2Cart to handle migrations. A good option for people wanting out of the cloud.
Can’t decide between Bigcommerce vs Shopify? Try Bigcommerce or Shopify for a simple one minute wizard to walk you through choosing.
Can’t decide between Bigcommerce vs Volusion? Try Bigcommerce or Volusion for a simple one minute wizard to walk you through choosing (yes I made another one)
FINAL- FOR RELEASE JULY 1, 2014
Magento Selects Bigcommerce as the SaaS E-commerce Migration Provider for ProStores and Magento Go Merchants
Bigcommerce to provide retailers smooth transition to its powerful platform in time for the holiday season
AUSTIN, Texas — July 1, 2014 — Bigcommerce, the fastest-growing commerce platform for successful and emerging merchants, today announced that Magento, an eBay Enterprise company, has named Bigcommerce as the SaaS e-commerce migration provider for ProStores and Magento Go, which will be discontinued on February 1, 2015.
Bigcommerce and Magento are committed to the future success of ProStores and Magento Go retailers. Magento is offering migration options that best suit the needs of each client, including migration to its Community and Enterprise Editions, and special migration offers to Bigcommerce. For those clients best served outside of the Magento portfolio, Magento recommends ProStores and Go retailers move their stores to Bigcommerce.
Magento and Bigcommerce carefully coordinated the design of a migration program to ensure that ProStores and Go retailers can begin making preparations to migrate their stores well before the critical holiday season. The program includes integration across sales, migration services, and client support, as well as exclusive offers on comparably priced packages.
“Magento is dedicated to helping fast-growing retailers succeed. We chose Bigcommerce to help with the transition because of their shared commitment to client success and their proven track record of migrating large groups of merchants onto their platform,” said Mark Lavelle, senior vice president of product and strategy, eBay Enterprise. “Throughout this transition period, we will fully support both ProStores and Go, and clients will receive the same level of customer service they’ve come to expect.”
Bigcommerce has previously migrated more than 6,000 ProStores retailers onto its platform and has migrated an additional 6,000 stores from other platforms, giving it the industry’s deepest expertise in terms of in-house professional services and tools to help clients successfully relaunch their stores. In addition, Bigcommerce’s client-centric culture, tight integration with PayPal and ability for clients to sell on eBay make it a natural choice as a Magento transition provider.
“We are prepared and excited to work with ProStores and Magento Go merchants to help them continue their success using the Bigcommerce platform,” said Eddie Machalaani, CEO of Bigcommerce. “We understand that the to-do list for small business owners is never ending, and our teams are standing by to deliver the very best migration and onboarding experience so merchants can focus on growing their businesses.”
Bigcommerce offers a comprehensive e-commerce platform designed to help growing small and mid-sized businesses sell more. By expanding its product and engineering teams, Bigcommerce further demonstrates its commitment to creating the best platform for SMB merchants, including beautiful and optimized design templates, built-in SEO, mobile optimization and easy integration with PayPal. In addition, Bigcommerce offers many free educational tools, support and professional services to ensure clients have everything they need to grow their businesses. New clients coming from Go and ProStores will join more than 50,000 companies currently on the Bigcommerce e-commerce platform. Current clients include established and emerging brands such as Grace and Lace, Josie Maran, Stupid Cancer, Gibson Guitars, and Schwinn.
About eBay Enterprise
eBay Enterprise is a leading global provider of retail-optimized commerce solutions, including the Magento platform, order management, fulfillment, customer care, and marketing solutions. We enable brands and retailers of all sizes to deliver consistent omnichannel experiences across all retail touch points to attract and engage new customers, convert browsers into loyal buyers, and deliver products with speed and quality. With unrivaled flexibility and control, our clients are armed to accelerate sales growth and win with today’s digitally connected consumer. eBay Enterprise is headquartered in King of Prussia, Pa. and has offices in Austin, Barcelona, London, Los Angeles, New York, and Shanghai. eBay Enterprise is an eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY) company. More information can be found at www.ebayenterprise.com and www.magento.com.
About Bigcommerce
Bigcommerce is the leading provider of e-commerce software and services for growing online brands. Founded in 2009 by two Aussies turned part-time Texans, Bigcommerce powers more than 50,000 online retailers, spanning 25 industries in more than 100 countries. Clients include: Enfamil, Grace and Lace, Gibson Guitars, Josie Moran and Schwinn. With expert professional services, an app store and an expansive partner network, Bigcommerce clients have all of the support they need to sell more. Bigcommerce has offices in Austin, San Francisco and Sydney.
