Volusion to BigCommerce Migration - Step-by-Step Guide & Expert Services

A Comprehensive Guide to Transitioning from Volusion to BigCommerce

As your e-commerce business grows, the need for a more scalable, feature-rich, and robust platform becomes essential. Many merchants find themselves outgrowing platforms like Volusion and seeking a powerful solution like BigCommerce to support their expanding operations and ambitions. Migrating your online store, also known as replatforming, is a significant undertaking that, when executed correctly, can lead to enhanced performance, improved user experience, and greater flexibility for future growth.

This comprehensive guide is designed to walk you through every step of migrating your e-commerce store from Volusion to BigCommerce. We'll cover the necessary preparations, the detailed migration process, and crucial post-migration tasks to ensure a smooth transition and maintain data integrity, minimizing potential downtime and preserving your valuable SEO rankings.

Prerequisites for Migration

Before initiating your store migration, careful preparation of both your Volusion source store and your BigCommerce target store is vital for a seamless data transfer. Addressing these prerequisites will set the foundation for a successful transition.

• Backup Your Volusion Store: Always create a complete backup of your Volusion store's data, including databases, files, and images. This safeguards your information in case any unforeseen issues arise during the migration process.
• Prepare Your BigCommerce Target Store: Ensure your BigCommerce store is set up with basic configurations. This includes selecting a theme, configuring general store settings, and preparing for the incoming data. For more detailed guidance, see our FAQ on how to prepare your Target store for migration.
• Obtain BigCommerce API Credentials: BigCommerce utilizes an API only connection for data transfers. You will need to generate specific API credentials within your BigCommerce admin panel. This involves creating a Custom App with required scopes (permissions) to provide a Client ID (Username), an Access Token (API Token), and an API Path. Ensure you grant sufficient access for the migration tool to read and write data. Be mindful of BigCommerce's API rate limits, which can affect the speed of bulk data transfers.
• Install Volusion Migration Bridge/Module: Volusion typically uses a Bridge only connection method. This requires installing the Cart2Cart Volusion Migration module on your existing Volusion store. This often involves uploading a 'bridge' file to your Volusion store's root directory via FTP access, which allows the migration tool to securely connect and extract your data. You can find more information on how to prepare your Source store for migration.
• Review Volusion Specifics: Be aware of Volusion's inherent limitations, such as multi-store limitations for BigCommerce variants and SEO options excluded for blogs, as these may impact how specific data and SEO metadata transfer to BigCommerce.
• Data Inventory and Planning: Take stock of all the data entities you wish to migrate. This includes products (SKUs, variants, images), customer accounts, order history, product categories, reviews, coupons, and CMS pages. Understanding your data landscape will help you make informed decisions during the migration process.

For a comprehensive understanding of securing your access details, please refer to The Short & Essential Guide to Access Credentials for Cart2Cart.

Performing the Migration: A Step-by-Step Guide

With your preparations complete, you're ready to initiate the migration process using the automated migration wizard. Follow these steps for a guided transition of your Volusion store to BigCommerce.

Step 1: Get Started with the Migration Wizard

Your migration journey begins by accessing the intuitive migration wizard. This initial step sets the stage for transferring your store data efficiently.

Step 2: Connect Your Volusion Source Store

The next step is to establish a connection with your current Volusion store. You will be prompted to select 'Volusion' from the list of source carts and provide your store's URL. As Volusion uses a Bridge only connection, you will also need to install the Cart2Cart Volusion Migration module. This typically involves uploading a secure bridge file to your Volusion store's root directory via FTP, allowing the migration tool to securely access your administrative login, password, and other necessary store data.

Ensure the bridge is correctly installed and accessible for a successful connection.

Step 3: Connect Your BigCommerce Target Store

Now, configure your BigCommerce store as the destination. Select 'BigCommerce' as your target cart and enter your store's URL. For the connection, BigCommerce requires API only access. You will need to provide the Client ID, Access Token, and API Path. These are generated when you create a custom API app within your BigCommerce admin panel, ensuring you've granted the necessary API scopes for data transfer.

Refer to our guide on access credentials for detailed instructions on obtaining these API keys.

Step 4: Select Data Entities for Transfer

This crucial step allows you to choose precisely which data entities you want to move from Volusion to BigCommerce. You can opt to migrate all available data or select specific items. Common entities supported for transfer include:

• Products (including SKUs, variants, images, descriptions, and attributes)
• Product Categories
• Product Manufacturers
• Product Reviews
• Customers
• Orders (including order IDs and statuses)
• Coupons
• CMS Pages

While Volusion also supports Invoices and Taxes, BigCommerce's API handles these within its order structure. Note that Volusion's inherent limitations on blog SEO options might affect the transfer of detailed blog post metadata, though BigCommerce fully supports `Blogs_Posts` as an entity.

Step 5: Choose Additional Migration Options

Customize your migration with various additional options that enhance data integrity and optimize your new store's functionality:

• Preserve IDs: Maintain original Product, Category, Order, and Customer IDs to prevent disruptions in existing integrations or records. Learn more about how Preserve IDs options can be used.
• Create 301 SEO URLs: Automatically generate 301 redirects from your old Volusion URLs to the new BigCommerce URLs. This is crucial for preserving your existing SEO rankings and link equity.
• Migrate Customer Passwords: Transfer existing customer passwords for a seamless user experience, allowing customers to log into their new BigCommerce accounts without needing to reset them.
• Create Variants from Attributes: Ensure all product options and variations (like size, color, material) are correctly recreated as variants in BigCommerce, based on your Volusion product attributes.
• Clear Current Data on Target Store: This option allows you to remove all existing data from your BigCommerce store before migration, ensuring a clean slate and preventing duplicate entries.
• Migrate Invoices: Transfer invoice data associated with your orders.

Step 6: Map Data Fields

To ensure consistency across platforms, you'll need to map certain data fields. This critical step involves matching customer groups (e.g., 'Wholesale' to 'B2B Customer Group') and order statuses (e.g., 'Pending payment' to 'Awaiting Payment') from your Volusion store to their corresponding equivalents in BigCommerce. Proper data mapping is essential for maintaining accurate customer segmentation and efficient order management post-migration.

Step 7: Perform a Free Demo Migration (Highly Recommended)

Before proceeding with the full migration, it is highly recommended to conduct a free demo migration. This transfers a limited number of entities (typically 10-15 of each selected type) to your BigCommerce store. The demo allows you to thoroughly review the transferred data, identify any potential issues or discrepancies, and confirm that the migration process meets your expectations without any financial commitment.

Step 8: Initiate Full Migration

Once you are satisfied with the demo results and have finalized all your settings, you can proceed with the full data transfer. At this stage, you'll review the total migration cost and have the option to add a Migration Insurance Service, which provides additional remigrations if any unforeseen issues arise post-transfer. This offers peace of mind during your replatforming journey. For more details, see How Migration Insurance works?

With everything confirmed, the system will begin migrating all your selected data from Volusion to BigCommerce.

Post-Migration Steps

The migration doesn't end when the data transfer is complete. Several critical post-migration tasks are necessary to ensure your new BigCommerce store is fully operational, optimized, and ready for customers.

• Verify Data Integrity: Thoroughly review your new BigCommerce store to ensure all migrated data is accurate and complete.
  • Products: Check SKUs, variants, prices, images, descriptions, and product attributes.
  • Categories: Verify category structure and product assignments.
  • Customers: Confirm customer accounts, order history, and contact information.
  • Orders: Review order statuses, details, and associated invoices.
  • Other Entities: Examine reviews, coupons, CMS pages, and blog posts.
• Test Store Functionality: Perform comprehensive testing of your BigCommerce store's core functions. This includes the checkout process, payment gateways, shipping options, customer account logins, and search functionality. Ensure a smooth user experience.
• Configure BigCommerce Specifics: Fine-tune your BigCommerce settings. This involves:
  • Theme Customization: Brand your new store to match your identity.
  • Payment Gateways & Shipping: Set up and test your preferred payment processors and shipping rules.
  • BigCommerce App Marketplace: Explore and install essential apps to extend your store's functionality (e.g., marketing, analytics, accounting).
  • SEO Settings: Configure SEO-friendly URLs, meta descriptions, and sitemaps within BigCommerce.
• Update DNS and Go Live: Once you're confident in your new store, update your domain's DNS settings to point to your BigCommerce store. This is the moment your new store officially goes live. Monitor traffic and performance closely after the switch.
• Inform Your Customers: Announce the launch of your new store to your customer base. Highlight any new features or improvements they can expect.
• Monitor and Optimize: Utilize tools like Google Analytics and Search Console to monitor traffic, user behavior, and SEO performance. Address any broken links or crawl errors promptly to maintain link equity.
• Consider Recent Data Migration Service: If new orders or customer registrations occurred on your Volusion store during the migration period, a Recent Data Migration Service can help transfer this fresh data, ensuring nothing is missed.

By following these post-migration steps, you can ensure your transition from Volusion to BigCommerce is not only successful but also sets your business up for continued growth and success on your new, powerful platform.