WP Engine and BigCommerce Partner to Scale WordPress Stores

WP Engine has officially launched Commerce Connect, a strategic partnership with BigCommerce designed to help ecommerce stores scale without suffering downtime or losing hard-earned SEO rankings. This isn’t about forcing a platform swap. Instead, Commerce Connect offers a safe path to modernize and grow while preserving every element of a brand’s digital identity.

The core promise of this announcement is straightforward: migrate and scale an ecommerce business without interrupting operations or damaging search visibility. Scaling and modernizing an online store often comes with the risk of tanking organic traffic. WP Engine’s new solution tackles that head-on by keeping the WordPress SEO, design, and user experience intact, making the decision to grow a much easier one.

Heather Brunner, Chairwoman and CEO at WP Engine, emphasized the importance of choice:

“Growing ecommerce brands shouldn’t have to choose between the WordPress experience they’ve invested in and the commerce capabilities they need to scale. Our partnership with BigCommerce gives brands the flexibility to scale confidently, adapt as their business evolves, and build for what’s next.”

That focus on “what’s next” is critical, especially with the rapid rise of AI-powered shopping. Commerce Connect is built to help brands adapt to these shifts.

The official announcement details how the integration works:

“By connecting BigCommerce’s enterprise commerce platform with WP Engine’s platform, high-growth midmarket brands can scale their ecommerce capabilities while leveraging the power of WordPress. Keeping content and commerce connected also helps brands maintain consistent product information across their digital experiences, creating richer shopping journeys while strengthening product visibility as AI-powered search and discovery continue to evolve.”

To get a deeper understanding, Search Engine Journal spoke with Keith Fafel, VP of Product at WP Engine. He clarified how the product helps ecommerce stores grow.

Not About Replacing Platforms

When asked what signals indicate a WordPress store has outgrown WooCommerce and needs to modernize, Fafel stressed that this is not a platform replacement.

“We see WP Engine Commerce Connect for BigCommerce as solving a broader growth and platform challenge, while helping growing brands scale with confidence. It’s not about replacing one platform with another. Each ecommerce solution takes a different approach to helping brands create a successful online store. We want to keep growing the WordPress ecosystem, and this solution provides optionality for scaling ecommerce sites. WP Engine Commerce Connect for BigCommerce provides several advantages to merchants. The biggest advantage is that it enables them to preserve the WordPress experiences they’ve already built while adding the enterprise commerce capabilities needed to support larger catalogs, higher traffic, and continued growth.”

How Commerce Connect Preserves SEO

Many businesses pour resources into content, SEO, and custom WordPress features before they outgrow their current platform. How does this partnership protect those investments?

Fafel explained:

“WP Engine Commerce Connect for BigCommerce preserves build investments by allowing brands to keep their existing WordPress content, themes, custom designs, URL structures, and SEO foundation. Instead of rebuilding the consumer-facing experience, brands can modernize the commerce platform underneath it, reducing disruption while gaining the scalability and capabilities needed for continued growth.”

A Safe Path to Scale Ecommerce and Keep What Works

How does this partnership change the game for WordPress merchants?

Fafel responded:

“This partnership gives growing WordPress brands a new path to scale. Instead of choosing between preserving the digital experiences they’ve built or adopting more advanced commerce capabilities, they can now do both. This means merchants can continue to scale while preserving the content, design, SEO, and customer experiences that drive their business. This solution provides WP Engine customers with a choice for how they operate and scale their ecommerce business, while keeping them in the WordPress ecosystem.”

This underscores a key point: Commerce Connect is not a WordPress replacement. It is a way to keep everything that works while modernizing the backend.

Who Benefits Most from Commerce Connect?

Fafel described the ideal candidate for this solution as high-growth, mid-market brands generating under $1 million in GMV that are hitting the ceiling of their current platform.

“WP Engine Commerce Connect for BigCommerce is designed for high-growth, mid-market brands generating <$1M in GMV that are reaching the next stage of their ecommerce journey. They typically have established WordPress websites with significant investments in content, design, and SEO, and are experiencing growing product catalogs, higher traffic, and more complex commerce needs. Rather than rebuilding what already works, these businesses want a way to modernize their commerce capabilities while preserving the digital experiences that have helped drive their growth.”

When asked what capabilities businesses typically discover they need as they scale, Fafel noted:

“As merchants grow, they typically need to support larger product catalogs, higher traffic volumes, more complex operations, and need greater flexibility to adapt as their business evolves. Through our partnership with BigCommerce, the platform gives brands an enterprise-ready commerce foundation that scales with those needs, while allowing them to preserve the WordPress experiences that already drive their business.”

For more details, visit the Commerce Connect page.