We help you sell moreRequest a Free QuoteRightToBear.com is a veteran-owned store for AR-15 parts, build kits, and firearms that lists only what it has in stock. We redesigned it on Volusion, then moved it to BigCommerce with the catalog, the design, the daily deals, and the old product links intact.
The screenshots on this page are from the two projects. The store still runs on BigCommerce and has added departments since, among them barrels, suppressors, and optics.
Published . Updated .
The challenge
RightToBear.com describes itself as a veteran-owned business made up of retired veterans. It sells AR-15 parts, build kits, upper receivers, Glock parts, and firearms, and it runs on one promise, printed across the top of every page: live inventory, no backorders ever, fast shipping guaranteed. The store stocks only what it can ship within 72 business hours, and says in-stock items usually leave within 24 business hours.
The first problem was the storefront. The Volusion store was a fixed-width page with a long sidebar: seven links under Specials, more than twenty product categories, and a list of other calibers under those. It was built for a desktop screen, and the daily deals were one link in that sidebar.
The second was the platform under it. A Volusion template cannot be taken anywhere else, and neither can its addresses, so leaving meant rebuilding the store and protecting every link that search engines and customers had saved. That weighs more for a firearms retailer than for most: Google Ads prohibits ads for firearms and gun parts, and Meta and TikTok ban them, so search rankings do the work that paid ads do elsewhere. It is why we treat firearms website development as a specialty.
What we did
First a responsive design on the platform the store already had. Then a migration that carried that design, the catalog, and the old addresses to BigCommerce.
First project · Design
We replaced the sidebar layout with a design that works on a phone as well as a desktop. The promise moved to the top of every page. The logo gained the words "Veteran Owned". The three sidebar lists became one menu across the top: departments, AR parts, the engraving shop, other calibers, the Glock store, firearms and receivers, brands, and specials.
The daily deals moved from a sidebar link to the middle of the homepage: a row of cards, each with the deal price, the regular price, the percentage saved, the date the deal ends, and a Buy button. A "Deals of the Day" tag in the header led to them from every page.
This is the work our Volusion web design team does, built on responsive design so one layout serves every screen.
Second project · Data
Volusion identifies each product by its product code, and everything else hangs on it: stock counts, order lines, supplier sheets, and the product's own address. So the code came across unchanged as the SKU on BigCommerce. The Spikes Tactical bolt carrier group that was ST5BG01 on Volusion is ST5BG01 today.
Around the codes, the rest of the catalog was rebuilt in BigCommerce's terms. The sidebar lists became a category tree, with bolt carrier groups, for example, sorted by caliber under AR15 Parts. Product photos left Volusion's file folders and were attached to their products. Options were set up again as BigCommerce options.
Customer accounts and order history move in the same pass on a migration like this, with one exception no platform allows: passwords. Customers choose a new one the first time they sign in. Our BigCommerce data migration page lists what moves and how it is counted.
| Part of the store | On Volusion | On BigCommerce |
|---|---|---|
| Product identity | Product code, for example ST5BG01 | SKU with the same value |
| Product address | /Spikes-Tactical-AR15-Complete-Bolt-Carrier-Group-p/st5bg01.htm | /spikes-tactical-ar15-complete-bolt-carrier-group-st5bg01/ |
| Categories | Three sidebar lists: Specials, Products, Other Calibers | A category tree under a department menu |
| Daily deals | The built-in Deal of the Day: a deal price with a start and an end date | A Deals of the Day category, shown as a homepage carousel |
| Design | A Volusion template | A Stencil theme built to match it |
| Stock promise | A ticker line: "If you can add it to the cart, it's yours" | The same promise, with an in stock label on every listing |
The product code and the two addresses were checked on the live store in October 2026.
Second project · SEO
Volusion addresses do not survive a move. Products sit at a name, then "-p/", then the product code and ".htm". Categories use "-s/" and a number. BigCommerce uses plain paths. Without a redirect for each one, every ranking, bookmark, and forum link the store had earned would have led to an error page on launch day.
Old addresses were matched to their new pages and loaded as redirects on the new store. Keeping the product code in the new address made the match exact: one code, one product, one destination.
It still holds. In October 2026 we followed two Volusion product links that search engines continue to list. Both opened the right product on the BigCommerce store. That is the part of a migration BigCommerce SEO depends on, and for this category, where ads are closed, it is the part that protects revenue. See firearms SEO services.
Second project · Design
None of the Volusion template could be reused, so we rebuilt the design as a theme on Stencil, BigCommerce's theme framework. Returning customers would find the store they knew: the promise across the top, the Deals tag, the Veteran Owned logo, the search box, and the cart in the same places.
The menu was reorganized around how the catalog had grown: AR15 parts, upper receivers and parts, build kits, other AR calibers, sights, optics and mounts, the Glock store, firearms, brands, and specials. On a phone, the header folds to the promise, the logo, a menu button, the search box, and the cart, and the deals show one card at a time with an Add to Cart button.
Theme work like this comes from our BigCommerce web design and Stencil theme development teams.
Second project · Features
On Volusion, Deal of the Day is part of the platform: the merchant picks a product, enters a deal price, and sets the dates it starts and ends. The redesign had made those deals the center of the homepage, so they could not be left behind.
BigCommerce has no feature by that name. On the new store the deals are a category of their own under Specials. The homepage shows them as a carousel with a "view all deals" link, and the Deals tag in the header opens the list from any page. Each deal shows its sale price, its regular price, and the saving.
The stock promise moved the same way. Products show whether they are in stock on every listing, so "if you can add it to the cart, it's yours" is still true at a glance. Features that a platform does not ship with are the daily work of our BigCommerce development team.
Second project · Firearms
A firearms catalog brings rules a general store does not have, and they have to work on the new platform from the first order. Payment is the first: mainstream processors such as Shopify Payments do not accept firearms, so the store needs a provider that underwrites the category, connected and tested before launch.
Delivery is the second. A firearm bought online ships to a licensed dealer, an FFL, who completes the transfer. On RightToBear.com today, those products carry "FFL REQ." in their names, a purchasing guidelines page walks the buyer through choosing a dealer at checkout, and a shipping restrictions page lists what cannot go to which states.
None of this is optional, and none of it comes with a platform by default. Our firearms SEO and website development page covers how we set it up.
Second project · Launch
The way we run a move like this, the store never stops selling. The BigCommerce store is built and tested on a staging address while Volusion keeps taking orders. On launch day the latest orders and customers are synced, the redirects are already loaded, and the domain is pointed at the new store at a quiet hour.
For a store that promises no backorders, the last thing synced is the stock count, so nothing is sold on the new store that left the shelf an hour earlier on the old one.
The steps are the same for every route we run. Volusion to BigCommerce migration describes them in full, and the free migration audit builds the task list for your store in two minutes.
Before and after
The homepage before the first project and after it. The second screenshot dates from September 2019. Select either one to open it at full size.
Before, a sidebar of more than thirty links ran down the left, and the daily deals were one of them. Products sat in two columns on a textured background.
After, one menu runs across the top, a banner leads, and Deals of the Day has its own row, with the price, the saving, and the end date on every card.
Before
After
In detail
The first two lists are taken from the screens and from the store as it stands. The third is what a visitor finds there today.
The outcome
RightToBear.com came out of the two projects with a design that works on a phone, a BigCommerce store that carries its catalog under the product codes it always used, and old links that still open the right product long after the move. The store is live on BigCommerce today and has kept adding departments.
| Area | The original Volusion store | After both projects |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | Volusion | BigCommerce with a Stencil theme |
| Layout | A fixed-width page with a category sidebar | A responsive store with a phone layout |
| Navigation | Three sidebar lists with more than thirty links | One department menu across the top |
| Daily deals | A "Deal of the Day" link in the sidebar | A header tag, a homepage carousel, and a category of their own |
| Product addresses | Volusion addresses ending in the product code and .htm | Plain addresses, with the old ones redirected |
| Brand | A logo and a ticker line | "Veteran Owned" beside the name and the promise on every page |
The "original" column describes the store as it appears in the before screenshot on this page.
I had a great experience working with the team at MAKdigitaldesign. Will definitely come back for future projects. Our BigCommerce store looks great, and everything was done in a timely and orderly fashion.
What it shows
The catalog belongs to one retailer. The decisions apply to most stores leaving Volusion.
Stock, orders, and supplier files all key on it. Carried over as the SKU and kept in the address, it also makes every redirect exact.
Data can be imported twice. Rankings cannot. Match every old address before launch, most of all where ads are closed. See Volusion to BigCommerce migration.
Deal of the Day does not exist on BigCommerce, but a deals category and a carousel do the same job for the shopper. Start from what the feature does for the buyer.
The design came first and the platform second. Customers met the new platform through a store they already knew.
What we did for RightToBear.com and what it means for a store planning the same move.
Two projects. First a responsive redesign of the store on Volusion: a new header, a department menu in place of the sidebar, and Deals of the Day as a row on the homepage. Then the move to BigCommerce: the catalog with its product codes, redirects for the old addresses, and a Stencil theme built to match the design.
Yes. Volusion product addresses end in "-p/", the product code, and ".htm", and they were redirected to their new pages. In October 2026 we followed two such links that search engines still list, and both opened the right product on the BigCommerce store.
It is built into Volusion and not into BigCommerce, so it was rebuilt: the deals are a category under Specials, the homepage shows the deals as a carousel, and a tag in the header links to it from every page.
Accounts, addresses, and order history move. Passwords do not, on any platform migration, because they are stored in a form that cannot be converted. Customers set a new password the first time they sign in, and a launch email tells them how.
Three reasons. Google Ads prohibits ads for firearms and gun parts, and Meta and TikTok ban them, so lost rankings cannot be bought back with ads. Mainstream payment processors such as Shopify Payments do not accept firearms, so payment has to be arranged with a provider that does. And firearms ship to a licensed dealer, which the checkout has to handle. Our firearms SEO and website development page covers each.
Yes. It is the migration we have done most. Start with the free migration audit, read how the Tactical Machining migration went, or request a quote.
Send us your store address. We will reply with the task list for your catalog, a redirect plan for your old addresses, and a fixed price.
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