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

A Comprehensive Guide to Transitioning from ShopWired to Volusion

Replatforming your e-commerce store is a strategic move that can unlock new growth opportunities and enhance your operational efficiency. If you're currently operating on ShopWired and considering a switch to the robust and feature-rich Volusion platform, this guide is designed to provide you with a clear, actionable roadmap for a successful data transfer. Volusion offers a powerful suite of tools for inventory management, marketing, and customer relationship management, making it an attractive destination for merchants seeking scalability and comprehensive control over their online presence. Due to ShopWired's platform characteristics, the migration of your valuable store data will be seamlessly managed through a CSV file export and import process. This guide will walk you through every critical step, ensuring a smooth transition of your products, customer data, orders, and more, all while preserving essential elements like SEO rankings and customer experience.

Prerequisites for a Successful Migration

Before initiating your store migration from ShopWired to Volusion, it's crucial to prepare both your source and target platforms. Proper preparation minimizes potential disruptions and ensures data integrity throughout the process.

• ShopWired (Source Store) Preparation:

  Since ShopWired does not typically offer a direct API or bridge connection for automated migrations, your data will need to be exported in CSV format. This will involve:

  • Accessing your ShopWired admin panel to export all relevant data: products (including SKUs, variants, descriptions, images), product categories, customer records, and order history. Ensure these exports are as comprehensive as possible.
  • Organizing your exported CSV files, ensuring they are clean and well-structured. For detailed guidance on this method, refer to our CSV.File Data Migration service.
  • Creating a complete backup of your ShopWired store data. While the migration process is secure, having a backup provides an extra layer of safety.
• Volusion (Target Store) Preparation:

  Your Volusion store needs to be ready to receive the incoming data. This includes:

  • Setting up your new Volusion store and ensuring you have full administrative access.
  • Familiarizing yourself with the Volusion admin panel.
  • Obtaining FTP access credentials for your Volusion store. This is essential for uploading the necessary Cart2Cart Volusion Migration module (bridge file) which facilitates the secure connection between your CSV data and your new Volusion platform.
  • Ensuring your Volusion store is free of any placeholder or test data that might conflict with the incoming migration. For more details, consult our How to prepare Target store for migration? guide.
  • Reviewing Volusion's specific requirements for product attributes, categories, and customer groups to anticipate any data mapping needs.
• General Preparations:
  • Review Current Data: Take stock of the quantity and types of data you plan to migrate. This includes products, customers, orders, reviews, and CMS pages.
  • Plan for Downtime: While most of the migration process runs in the background, plan a brief period for testing and final DNS changes post-migration.
  • Allocate Time: Depending on the volume of your data, the migration can take several hours. Ensure you have dedicated time to monitor the process and perform post-migration checks.
  • Secure Credentials: Keep your Volusion admin and FTP credentials secure. For more information on credential safety, see The Short & Essential Guide to Access Credentials for Cart2Cart.

Performing the Migration: A Step-by-Step Guide

Follow these steps to seamlessly transfer your e-commerce data from ShopWired to Volusion using an automated migration tool.

Step 1: Start Your Migration

Begin by navigating to the migration wizard. This initial step will guide you through setting up your source and target stores.

Step 2: Configure Your ShopWired (Source) Store

In the source store setup, you will specify that your data is coming from CSV files. Select 'CSV File to Cart' from the dropdown list. You will then upload the carefully prepared CSV files containing your ShopWired store's products, customer information, orders, and any other entities you wish to move. This method ensures all your valuable data, from product SKUs and variants to customer purchase history, is ready for transfer.

Step 3: Set Up Your Volusion (Target) Store

Next, select 'Volusion' as your Target Cart. You will need to provide your Volusion store's URL. Critically, you will also be prompted to install the Cart2Cart Volusion Migration module, often referred to as a 'bridge file,' via FTP to your Volusion root directory. This bridge is essential for establishing a secure connection and enabling the migration tool to write data to your new store.

Step 4: Select Data Entities for Migration

This is where you choose precisely which data types, or entities, you want to migrate from your ShopWired CSVs to Volusion. Common selections include products, product categories, customers, orders, product reviews, manufacturers, taxes, stores, coupons, and CMS pages. You can opt to migrate 'All entities' or pick them individually based on your specific requirements. This control helps maintain data integrity and focuses the transfer on essential information.

Step 5: Configure Additional Migration Options

Enhance your migration with a range of additional options designed to optimize the data transfer and post-migration SEO. Consider these valuable features:

• Migrate Images in Description: Ensures product and category images embedded within descriptions are transferred.
• Clear Target Store Data: If your Volusion store contains any existing data, this option (often recommended for new stores) will Clear current data on Target store before migration option to prevent duplicates.
• Preserve IDs: Maintain original product IDs, order IDs, and customer IDs to ensure consistency across systems and for historical data reference. More on How Preserve IDs options can be used?.
• Create Variants from Attributes: Essential for products with options like size and color, ensuring they are correctly configured in Volusion.
• SEO URLs & Create 301 SEO URLs: Crucial for preserving your search engine rankings and link equity. This automatically generates 301 redirects from your old ShopWired URLs to the new Volusion URLs, preventing broken links and maintaining a seamless user experience.
• Password Migration: Allows customers to log into their accounts on the new Volusion store with their existing ShopWired passwords.
• Migrate Invoices: Transfers your billing and invoice history.

Step 6: Map Data

The data mapping step allows you to align your ShopWired store's customer groups and order statuses with their corresponding equivalents in Volusion. For instance, you might map 'Wholesale Customers' from ShopWired to a 'B2B Group' in Volusion, or 'Pending Payment' to 'Awaiting Payment.' This ensures logical consistency and proper functioning of your customer and order management processes on the new platform.

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

Before committing to the full migration, run a free demo migration. This transfers a limited number of entities (e.g., 10-20 products, customers, orders) to your Volusion store. It's an invaluable opportunity to:

• Test the connection and data transfer process.
• Review the migrated data for accuracy and completeness.
• Identify any potential issues or data anomalies that can be addressed before the full migration.
• Familiarize yourself with how your data appears in Volusion.

Step 8: Initiate Full Migration

Once you are satisfied with the demo results and have made any necessary adjustments, you are ready for the full data transfer. Review your selected entities and additional options one last time. You may also consider adding a Migration Insurance Service, which provides peace of mind with options for remigrations if needed. Start the full migration, and the system will begin transferring all your chosen data to Volusion. You will be notified once the process is complete.

Post-Migration Steps

Congratulations on completing your data transfer! However, the journey doesn't end there. Thorough post-migration checks are essential to ensure your new Volusion store is fully optimized and ready for business.

1. Thoroughly Test Your Volusion Store:
   • Website Functionality: Navigate through your entire store. Check all pages, categories, product pages, and search functionality.
   • Checkout Process: Perform test purchases from various customer accounts to ensure the entire checkout flow, including payment gateways and shipping calculations, works flawlessly.
   • Customer Accounts: Verify that existing customer accounts are accessible and their order history is correct.
   • Forms and Integrations: Test contact forms, newsletter sign-ups, and any third-party integrations (e.g., analytics, marketing automation).
2. Verify Migrated Data:
   • Products: Double-check product details, including SKUs, pricing, stock levels, images, descriptions, and variants. Ensure all product data appears as expected.
   • Customers: Confirm customer information, addresses, and account details.
   • Orders: Review order statuses, associated customer data, and item details.
   • Reviews: Ensure customer reviews are correctly associated with products.
3. Configure Essential Store Settings & Apps:
   • Payment Gateways: Reconfigure and test all payment methods.
   • Shipping Methods: Set up and test all shipping zones and options.
   • Taxes: Verify tax settings and calculations are accurate for different regions.
   • Install Apps/Plugins: Explore the Volusion App Store for any essential apps or plugins that enhance your store's functionality or integrate with your business tools.
4. Implement SEO Best Practices:
   • 301 Redirects: If not handled during migration, manually set up 301 redirects for any critical old URLs to their new Volusion equivalents to preserve link equity and SEO rankings.
   • Sitemap & Robots.txt: Generate and submit a new sitemap to Google Search Console and ensure your robots.txt file is correctly configured.
   • Meta Data: Review product and category meta titles and descriptions.
5. Update DNS Records: Once you are confident everything is working perfectly, update your domain's DNS records to point to your new Volusion store. This is the final step to make your new store live to the public.
6. Educate Your Team: Train your staff on the new Volusion platform's interface and functionalities.
7. Monitor Performance: Keep a close eye on your store's performance, traffic, and sales in the weeks following the launch to quickly address any unforeseen issues.

Migrating from ShopWired to Volusion is a significant undertaking, but with careful planning and the right tools, it can be a seamless process. Should you encounter any challenges or require assistance, do not hesitate to Contact Us or refer to our extensive Frequently Asked Questions. A successful migration paves the way for a more robust and scalable e-commerce future on Volusion.