How to fix domain expiry on BigCommerce

Steps for BigCommerce

1. BigCommerce does not sell or manage domain registrations. Your domain lives at a separate registrar.
2. Log in to your registrar (e.g. GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains), navigate to your domain management page, and turn on auto-renew.
3. Under your registrar account settings, ensure your payment method and contact email are current.
4. In BigCommerce Admin → Store Setup → Store Profile, verify the store URL is correct so you notice immediately if the domain ever changes status.

What is domain expiry?

Every domain name (e.g. yourstore.com) has an expiry date — the date your registration ends and the name becomes available for anyone else to buy. Registrars (the companies that sell domains) require you to renew periodically, typically every 1–10 years. Most registrars offer an auto-renew feature that charges your payment card automatically before the expiry date. If auto-renew is off and you miss the deadline, your domain enters a grace or redemption period before it is released to the public — during which your store goes completely offline.

An expired domain is an instant, total outage: your store URL stops resolving, every page returns an error, and all sales stop — often within hours of expiry. Google treats a domain that goes offline as a significant negative signal and can rapidly drop your rankings; recovering lost positions after a prolonged outage can take weeks or months. Worse, cybersquatters and brand-hijackers actively monitor expiring domains and will register yours the moment it is released, potentially holding it for ransom or using it to deceive your customers. For an established store, losing a domain even temporarily can cost far more in lost revenue and recovery effort than years of renewal fees.

See the complete Domain expiry guide for every platform and the full background.