There are three ways to migrate an e-commerce store to WooCommerce.
Manual migration involves the store owner exporting all the old store data, including products, orders, users, their payment information, etc., from the existing store and importing it to the new WooCommerce store.
You can use the WooCommerce default product CSV importer for this purpose, provided all data has been mapped correctly.
This may sound like a straightforward process, but it's riddled with difficulties that even experienced experts struggle with. This option is not recommended as it is very time consuming and frustrating unless you are moving a small, uncomplicated store with few products.
Another option is to hire an expert, in this case, a WooCommerce expert. WooCommerce developers know the platform and can handle the migration expertly.
However, this choice can hurt your pocket. You will get knowledge and reliability but at a price. Hiring an expert is the most expensive option. Hiring an expert will certainly get the job done faster, but there may be a better option that gives you access to expert knowledge at an affordable price.
Cart2Cart Universal WooCommerce Migration extension transfers store data like products, customers, orders, etc. to WooCommerce in a fully automated way, without the downtime of the current store. It is a user-friendly solution that doesn't require deep technical knowledge.
Cart2Cart has proven itself as a reliable solution, trusted by thousands of store owners who have used it multiple times to move their online stores to a different platform.
The Cart2Cart migration app is free to download. After installation, there are two migration options:
Demo Migration (free) – With this option, you can move a limited number of entities (ten) from your current store to a live WooCommerce store (or test Cart2Cart store) within 30 minutes.
Full Migration (paid) – With this option, you can move all your store data to the new WooCommerce site, while your existing store stays open for business.
You don’t need any technical knowledge to migrate your store to WooCommerce. Simply follow the instructions in the Cart2Cart Migration Wizard, and your data will be transferred automatically and accurately. Follow these steps.
Once you've installed the Cart2Cart app, set up your Source cart (your existing cart) and your Target cart (WooCommerce). Here you must provide Username, API Token, and API Path.
Identify the specific data that should be transferred from your source cart to your target cart. This can include any or all of the following:
Cart2Cart offers a range of migration extras to ensure a comprehensive transfer. Here is a limited list of the choices you have:
The additional options that you can choose from depending on your source cart. You will have to check the complete list for the cart you are moving from.
Keep in mind that Cart2Cart offers a 40% discount to store owners who choose all the extra migration options.
Run the free Demo to see how the migration works and if your new store looks and performs right. The demo migration limits you to migrating 10 products and customers/orders related to them. Still, it's enough for you to test the new store by creating an order and setting up shipping details and payment options.
Once you've done the demo migration and are satisfied with the result, go ahead with the full migration.
SEO migration is an integral part of e-commerce store migration from one platform to another. It involves the migration of all factors that contribute to a store's ranking status in search engines, such as product URL structures.
The e-commerce migration checklist has got dozens of points to inspect and control. This is because you have to provide the new website structure for indexing and collect all the potential problems before you set up and start the shopping cart migration.
Store owners must plan to preserve SEO during migration. Otherwise, you may lose both traffic to your new site and your search engine ranking.
The fact is, any site migration jeopardises traffic volume until Google realizes the site has a new address and adjusts its index accordingly.
Because ranking on Google is crucial for online business, and because re-platforming can affect SEO standing adversely, site migration must be planned with the utmost care.
The extent of the impact on SEO will depend on the reason for any type of migration planned. For instance, site migration because of a change in site design won't affect SEO because URLs won't be affected. However, migration from a hosted to a self-hosted platform or vice versa will definitely affect URLs.
Shopping cart migration tool Cart2Cart can assist you with a detailed SEO migration strategy, outlining all the aspects you need to take into consideration in preparation for SEO migration.
Scrutinize your site for any current issues related to SEO. For instance, you should have a record of all URLs, broken links, and redirects already on your site.
For this purpose, do the following:
If URL redirection is done properly during website migration, all your links from the old store will work on the new store. This means your customers will still be able to find your store after the migration.
This is also applicable to pages on your website with inbound links that bring traffic from another website.
Permanent URL redirects come into play for pages that won't undergo any changes. This is achieved through a 301 redirect. A 301 redirect tells search engines that the page has moved permanently. This instruction will ensure that the page keeps its SEO status.
The more pages with 301 redirects, the quicker your new site will enjoy the same search engine authority as your old site.
Set up your new store. If you're going for a hosted option, simply register an account with your new host, and a store will be created for you.
If you are going for a hosted option, you will know what to do since your WooCommerce store is also a hosted solution. Remember to take steps to prevent search engine crawlers from accessing your new website while you are in the migration process.
Before you start the full migration process, create a sandbox to test your database on the new platform. This precautionary step lets you test the effect of the migration on the new platform while leaving the operation of your existing store untouched.
When the store migration is completed, conduct a post-migration check-up to make sure everything works, and nothing has been overlooked.
Note: Your site SEO will take a dive for a while. It is inevitable as Google will not immediately index everything correctly.
The decision to move your WooCommerce store to another platform has far-reaching implications for your business. It is not a step to be taken lightly.
It is prudent to capitalize on the expertise and experience of professional shopping cart migration services. They can see to it that platform migration proceeds smoothly with certain preservation of all data and related SEO.
If you are planning to migrate your store to another platform, you can make use of the e-commerce migration services of Cart2Cart. Cart2Cart is an automated shopping cart migration service that follows a sound e-commerce migration strategy to ensure safe and secure data and SEO migration for online store owners.