December 2025 E-commerce Pulse: The Great Replatforming Accelerates & AI Drives Platform Evolution

Welcome to our December 2025 E-commerce Pulse report. This month's data reveals a vibrant market undergoing significant modernization, strategic platform adjustments, and increased adoption of advanced data management tools. Our analysis explores the reasons behind these trends, offering essential insights to thrive in the rapidly changing digital landscape.

A comic illustration showing various e-commerce stores (old and new) migrating their data upwards towards a futuristic cloud platform, with an analyst studying data charts.

Insights & Trends

The December migration data clearly demonstrates a strong movement towards digital infrastructure modernization, which we've termed the 'Great Replatforming'. We've seen many stores, aged between 5 and 26 years, transition from platforms like Magento, PrestaShop, BigCommerce, and even older WooCommerce versions. This broad desire to update outdated systems highlights an industry-wide goal of achieving improved performance, scalability, and features often lacking in older systems.

Shopify remains a leading destination for businesses migrating from diverse source platforms, from smaller ones like Wix and BigCartel to larger Magento and Shopware deployments. This reinforces Shopify's standing as a versatile and appealing ecosystem for merchants with varied operational scales and complexities.

Interestingly, the data also emphasizes the resilience and ongoing development within open-source communities. We observed a significant number of internal migrations - for instance, numerous stores moving from one WooCommerce instance to another, or similar shifts within Magento. These are not platform changes, but rather strategic upgrades and optimizations within the same framework, showing a dedication to using the flexibility and control offered by open-source solutions. Furthermore, the consistent appearance of 'recent data' and 'remigration' types indicates an increased focus on maintaining continuous data integrity and agility post-migration, a crucial aspect for high-volume businesses.

Predictions for Q1 2026:

AI-Driven Shopify Surge: Considering the recent launch of Shopify's Winter '26 Edition, particularly the AI integration through Sidekick for B2B features and theme customization, we predict an accelerated migration wave to Shopify in Q1 2026. Businesses will increasingly aim to leverage these smart tools for a competitive edge.
Open-Source Optimization Boom: The trend of internal upgrades within platforms like WooCommerce and Magento suggests a growing market for specialized development and consulting services focused on optimizing existing open-source infrastructure. Merchants will invest in refining their current setups to gain maximum value without undergoing complete replatforming.
Sophisticated Data Sync Demands: As data volumes continue to grow, the need for advanced, continuous data synchronization solutions will become essential. Expect businesses to prioritize tools and strategies that ensure real-time data consistency across platforms, going beyond traditional one-time migration events.

A superhero-like AI, 'Sidekick,' rapidly implementing upgrades and new features across different e-commerce platforms, demonstrating dynamic technical evolution.

Platform & Technical Updates

December saw a surge of significant updates across leading e-commerce platforms, highlighting a collective drive towards more robust, intelligent, and developer-friendly ecosystems.

For Wix, key advancements include new methods in the Authentication API, providing more flexible sign-on, logout, and password management options for member interactions. The Bookings Staff Member Settings API now offers detailed control over staff contact privacy, while a new Data collections app extension enables automated CMS collection creation with predefined schemas upon app installation.

VirtueMart focused on refinement and security, with fixes for coupon handling issues and enhanced 404 error management. User fields in the cart now apply captcha only when registration is allowed without a product, improving security while maintaining usability.

Shopify unveiled its comprehensive Winter '26 Edition, a significant release with over 150 updates. Key features include B2B functionalities within Horizon themes, native SMS marketing support in Shopify Messaging, and innovative AI capabilities through 'Sidekick' for block generation, theme customization, and custom app creation. Additionally, new Inter-Location Transfers Reporting provides detailed inventory insights, and US Shopify Balance merchants can now configure automated payout splits by percentage into various accounts.

BigCommerce enhanced its developer toolkit, expanding translation support for product filters and options via GraphQL, streamlining multilingual stores. They also introduced faster, batch-capable record creation in their Price List API for improved efficiency in pricing management, and a new beta experience for Catalyst storefronts to sync products with Makeswift.

Our internal development teams successfully resolved several critical issues this month, including a Wix product import error related to URL slug validation, and UI/UX improvements to our migration estimator, such as adding option prices and direct scroll links to additional options. These improvements ensure a smoother, more transparent migration experience for our clients.

A vibrant newsroom scene filled with busy reporters and analysts, with screens showing trending e-commerce news and a prominent 'Weekly News Desk' display.

From the Weekly News Desk

Stay informed about the latest happenings in e-commerce! Our weekly news desk compiles the most important developments, offering in-depth analyses of industry shifts, technological advances, and expert insights. Don't miss out on information that can shape your business strategy. This month's highlights include: