Sturm-Miltec: Migration from WooCommerce to BigCommerce B2B
Sturm-Miltec is a long-established wholesale supplier of military surplus, tactical gear, and outdoor products, serving B2B buyers since 1983. Their business is built around account-based purchasing, customer-specific pricing, and operational accuracy, which meant their next website needed to do a lot more than look better.
When QuickBooks Commerce approached end of life, their WooCommerce-based setup was no longer a sustainable path forward. They needed a partner who could help them move quickly, protect the parts of the business that were already working, and build a BigCommerce B2B experience that made wholesale ordering, pricing, and fulfillment easier to manage. SwiftOtter helped Sturm-Miltec launch that new foundation in just 12 weeks.
The Challenge
Moving Off WooCommerce and QuickBooks Commerce Without Slowing Down the Business
Sturm-Miltec did not come to SwiftOtter looking for a cosmetic refresh. They came at a moment when the business needed a real operational shift.
Their existing setup relied on WooCommerce and QuickBooks Commerce, and with QuickBooks Commerce nearing sunset, the team had a limited window to make a smart move. The next platform had to support a wholesale business with customer approvals, specialized pricing, inventory accuracy, and dependable back-office workflows, all without creating disruption for the internal team or their customers.
There was also a practical reality behind the urgency. Sturm-Miltec needed to keep momentum in the business while making a significant technology change. This was not the kind of move where they could afford a long runway, a bloated implementation, or a disconnected partner. They needed clarity, speed, and a solution built around how they actually sell.
Project Objectives:
What the New BigCommerce B2B Build Needed to Solve
The goal was not simply to replace one platform with another. Sturm-Miltec needed a better operating foundation.
The new site needed to preserve product and customer data, support approval-based B2B purchasing, and make customer-specific pricing easier to manage. It also needed to connect cleanly with accounting and fulfillment tools, protect SEO value during the migration, and improve the experience for a customer base that increasingly shops from mobile devices. The live case study notes that nearly 70% of Sturm-Miltec’s traffic comes from mobile, which made responsiveness and usability a practical requirement, not just a nice-to-have.
Just as important, the team needed a partner who could guide the move without overcomplicating it. They were looking for confidence, not chaos, and a path that would help them launch strong now while leaving room for future growth.
The Solution
A BigCommerce B2B Store Built Around Wholesale Operations
Sturm-Miltec selected BigCommerce Enterprise with B2B Edition as the right fit for their wholesale business, and SwiftOtter led the transition from WooCommerce and QuickBooks Commerce into a new storefront built for how their team and customers actually work. The project was completed in 12 weeks, giving Sturm-Miltec a stronger B2B foundation on an aggressive timeline.
Building a Better Buying Experience
One of the most important pieces of the build was aligning the storefront with Sturm-Miltec’s wholesale model.
Not every visitor should be able to browse pricing and place orders. Sturm-Miltec works through an approval-based B2B structure, so SwiftOtter implemented a custom registration flow that hides pricing and add-to-cart functionality until a customer has been reviewed and approved. Once approved, buyers can access the purchasing experience that fits their account. 
The new BigCommerce B2B setup also made pricing and payment rules more intentional. Sturm-Miltec can now assign account-specific price lists, offer bulk pricing more cleanly, and control which payment methods are available to different company accounts, including credit card, net terms, and COD. Instead of relying on more manual pricing adjustments after an order is placed, the pricing structure is now built into the experience itself. 
This matters because it turns the site into a more useful wholesale tool. It gives customers a clearer buying experience and gives the Sturm-Miltec team more control over how pricing and purchasing are handled day to day.
Connecting Commerce to Accounting and Fulfillment
The migration also needed to improve what happened behind the scenes.
SwiftOtter connected BigCommerce with QuickBooks Online so completed orders could flow into accounting while inventory data remained synchronized with the storefront. That created a more dependable operational loop, helping ensure product availability stays accurate and reducing the friction that can happen when commerce and accounting systems drift apart. 
For fulfillment, ShipStation was brought in to streamline shipping workflows and customer tracking updates. Mailchimp integration also supported ongoing email marketing needs. Together, those integrations helped turn the new site into more than a front-end improvement. It became a stronger operational system for a small team that needed efficiency as much as it needed a better website.
Launching Fast While Protecting SEO and Mobile Usability
Speed mattered, but so did continuity.
SwiftOtter led the migration of products and customer data into BigCommerce while also helping protect the visibility and usability Sturm-Miltec needed to carry forward. The SEO transition included HTML structure improvements, sitemap and robots.txt support, and the implementation of 301 redirects to prevent broken links and preserve discoverability. After launch, organic search represented 56% of Sturm-Miltec’s total website traffic, which reinforces how important that technical transition work was. 
At the same time, the new storefront needed to work well on mobile. With mobile traffic representing such a large share of visits, the design had to support a cleaner, more cohesive experience across devices without slowing the project down. SwiftOtter used BigCommerce’s B2B-friendly theming approach to create a more modern storefront while keeping the project on track.
Enhanced B2B Features
- Custom B2B Registration Flow: Sturm-Miltec's B2B business structure necessitates customer approval prior to any purchase. Recognizing this unique requirement, SwiftOtter implemented a custom registration workflow. This system conceals pricing details and "add-to-cart" options for guests. Only after a customer registers and receives Sturm-Miltec's approval do these features become visible.
- Payment Options: Sturm-Miltec offers a variety of payment methods, encompassing credit cards, net payment terms and COD, among others. However, these methods aren't available to all customers. Fortunately, with BigCommerce's B2B portal, Sturm-Miltec was empowered to allocate specific payment methods to individual company accounts.
- Price Lists: Sturm-Miltec uses BigCommerce's B2B portal to cater to customers with unique pricing agreements. Through specialized price lists, they set custom pricing for individual products, directly assigning these lists to designated company accounts. Unlike the previous manual order adjustments after order submission, this integration automates the pricing assignment, boosting efficiency and precision.
The Results
What the WooCommerce to BigCommerce Migration Changed
The biggest win here was not simply that Sturm-Miltec got off a sunsetting platform. It was that the business came out of the transition with a stronger way to operate.
The new BigCommerce B2B store gave Sturm-Miltec a better wholesale buying experience, more structured account-level pricing and payment controls, cleaner connections between storefront activity and accounting, and a more efficient fulfillment flow. It also gave them a more modern mobile experience and a cleaner SEO transition, which helped protect traffic during a high-stakes move. 
Just as importantly, SwiftOtter helped reduce the pressure that often comes with a fast replatform. The site launched in 12 weeks, the business moved forward, and Sturm-Miltec gained a foundation that was easier to manage and better aligned with where they wanted to grow.
“Had it not been for SwiftOtter and literally being swift in their implementation, we would not have ever met the sunset deadline of our old software. They took an outdated and very basic website and rebuilt a brand new B2B website with a connection to our existing accounting software. We knew we were ready to grow again and we were forced to move quickly which is not ideal for any company. Making quick decisions and big financial decisions is difficult. Not knowing and having to trust in total strangers is scary. SwiftOtter eased our minds immediately and took a whole lot of STRESS off of our backs... We couldn’t have asked for a better team."
—Sherice Daniel, Office Manager at Sturm-Miltec
What’s Next: Building on a Stronger BigCommerce Foundation
Like a lot of successful B2B launches, this project was designed to get the right foundation in place first, then create room for additional improvements.
The next phase for Sturm-Miltec includes opportunities like better on-site search, live chat, email marketing automation, SPS Commerce integration for EDI workflows, improved shipping calculations through ShipperHQ, and continued refinement of catalog structure and operational workflows. The important thing is that these are now growth-stage improvements, not rescue work. The platform move created a stronger starting point for what comes next.
With the foundational elements in place and a clear roadmap for future enhancements, the company is well-positioned to harness the full potential of digital commerce.
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Sturm-Miltec needed to replace its WooCommerce and QuickBooks Commerce setup before QuickBooks Commerce reached end of life. The move to BigCommerce created a stronger B2B foundation for wholesale operations, with better support for customer approvals, pricing controls, and future growth.