Let us know if you want to migrate from BV Commerce to Shopify

Seamlessly Migrate Your BV Commerce Store to Shopify

Stepping into the future of e-commerce often means embracing platforms that offer greater scalability, advanced features, and a robust ecosystem. If you're currently running your online store on BV Commerce, a platform that has served its purpose but might now be limiting your growth, transitioning to Shopify can unlock a world of opportunities. Shopify is renowned for its user-friendly interface, extensive app store, and powerful sales tools, making it a top choice for merchants looking to expand their digital footprint and enhance their customer experience.

This comprehensive guide will walk you through the entire process of migrating your valuable e-commerce data from BV Commerce to Shopify. We'll cover everything from essential prerequisites to a step-by-step migration process, ensuring you understand each phase of this critical replatforming journey. Our aim is to provide clear, actionable insights to help you achieve a seamless data transfer, preserve your SEO rankings, and set your new Shopify store up for success.

Why Migrate from BV Commerce to Shopify?

• Scalability and Growth: Shopify effortlessly handles growth, from startups to enterprise-level businesses, with plans like Basic Shopify, Shopify, Advanced Shopify, and Shopify Plus.
• Feature-Rich Ecosystem: Access to a vast Shopify App Store for extended functionality, including advanced marketing tools, inventory management, and customer service integrations.
• User Experience: Both for merchants and customers, Shopify offers an intuitive interface and a smooth shopping experience across all devices.
• Reliability and Security: Benefit from Shopify's robust infrastructure, including PCI DSS compliance and 99.99% uptime, ensuring your store is always secure and accessible.
• Ongoing Innovation: Shopify consistently updates its platform with new features and improvements, keeping you at the forefront of e-commerce trends.

While BV Commerce has provided a solid foundation for many online businesses, moving to a modern platform like Shopify is a strategic investment in your store's future.

Prerequisites for Migration

Before embarking on your data migration journey, a thoughtful preparation phase is crucial. This ensures a smoother transfer of your valuable e-commerce assets and minimizes potential disruptions. Here’s what you need to prepare for both your BV Commerce (source) and Shopify (target) stores.

For Your BV Commerce (Source) Store:

• Data Export: Since BV Commerce typically requires manual data extraction for migration tools, you will need to export your store's data into CSV files. This includes products (with SKUs, variants, images, descriptions), product categories, customer records, order history, and any relevant CMS pages or blog posts. Ensure these CSV files are well-organized and clearly labeled. Read more on how to prepare your source store for migration.
• Data Cleanup: This is an excellent opportunity to clean up your data. Remove outdated products, duplicate customer entries, or irrelevant order statuses. Clean data leads to a more efficient and accurate transfer.
• Backup Your Store: Always create a complete backup of your BV Commerce store's database and files before initiating any migration process. This safeguards your data against unforeseen issues.
• Understand Your Data Structure: Familiarize yourself with how your data is structured in BV Commerce. This will be vital during the data mapping phase to ensure accurate transfer to Shopify.

For Your Shopify (Target) Store:

• Create a Shopify Store: If you haven't already, sign up for a new Shopify account. You can choose a plan that best suits your business needs, such as Basic Shopify, Shopify, Advanced Shopify, or Shopify Plus. Ensure you have administrator access to your new store. Learn more about how to prepare your target store for migration.
• Install the Cart2Cart App: Shopify requires the installation of the Cart2Cart Store Migration App to facilitate the data transfer. This app acts as the bridge between your exported BV Commerce data and your new Shopify store.
• Consider Shopify Limitations:
• Orders in "Pause and Build" Plan: Be aware that the "Pause and Build" plan on Shopify blocks orders. Ensure your plan allows for active sales once you're ready to launch.
• Reviews Functionality: Migrating customer reviews to Shopify often requires a dedicated app. Consider installing an app like 'AirReviews' or a similar solution to support product reviews on your new store.
• Disable Notifications: It's highly recommended to disable email and other notifications on your Shopify store during the migration process to avoid sending confusing messages to your customers.
• Familiarize with Shopify Admin: Spend some time exploring the Shopify admin panel. Understand where products, customers, orders, and themes are managed.

By diligently completing these prerequisites, you lay a solid foundation for a successful and smooth transition from BV Commerce to Shopify.

Performing the Migration: A Step-by-Step Guide

Migrating your store's data can seem daunting, but with the right tool and a clear process, it becomes manageable. We'll use an automated migration service, which typically involves a multi-step wizard, to guide you through the transfer of your BV Commerce data (via CSV files) to Shopify.

Step 1: Get Started with the Migration Wizard

Begin by accessing the migration tool's wizard. This is usually the starting point for setting up your data transfer.

You'll typically be presented with options to start a new migration, get a price estimate, or request assisted service.

Step 2: Connect Your BV Commerce (Source) Store

This crucial step involves connecting your BV Commerce data. Since BV Commerce is not directly integrated via API with most migration tools, the process will involve uploading your previously exported CSV files.

First, select "CSV File to Cart" as your source cart type. You will then be prompted to upload the CSV files containing your products, customers, orders, and other data extracted from your BV Commerce store. Ensure your files are correctly formatted according to the tool's guidelines for optimal data recognition. You can find more information about CSV.File Data Migration.

Step 3: Connect Your Shopify (Target) Store

Next, you'll set up your target store – Shopify. This involves providing the necessary credentials for the migration tool to access and populate your new Shopify instance.

Select "Shopify" from the list of target shopping carts. The recommended method is to connect via the Cart2Cart Store Migration App. Click the provided link to install the app from the Shopify App Store, follow the on-screen instructions, and then return to the migration wizard to complete the connection.

Alternatively, some tools may offer an option to connect using API access credentials, which would require you to generate an Admin API access token within your Shopify admin and provide it to the migration tool. However, the app method is often simpler and more straightforward.

Step 4: Select Data Entities for Migration

At this stage, you'll choose precisely which data entities you wish to transfer from your BV Commerce CSV files to Shopify. Common entities include:

• Products (including SKUs, variants, images, categories)
• Customers (with associated data)
• Orders (with order history and statuses)
• CMS Pages
• Blogs & Blog Posts
• Coupons & Price Rules
• Product Reviews (note: these often require a separate app on Shopify, as mentioned in prerequisites)

You can usually select all entities or pick and choose specific ones based on your needs. For a complete replatforming, migrating all relevant data is usually recommended to ensure data integrity.

Step 5: Configure Additional Migration Options

This step allows for fine-tuning your data transfer with various optional settings that can significantly enhance the migration's outcome, especially for SEO and data preservation.

• Clear Target Store Data: The "Clear Target Store data before Migration" option is useful if you're performing a test migration or want to ensure a clean slate on your Shopify store before the final data import. Read about clearing target store data.
• Preserve Order IDs: This option helps maintain continuity by attempting to transfer your original order IDs to Shopify, which can be crucial for accounting and record-keeping. Learn more about preserving IDs.
• Migrate SEO URLs & Create 301 Redirects: Essential for maintaining your search engine rankings and link equity. This option helps to transfer your existing SEO-friendly URLs and automatically create 301 redirects from your old BV Commerce URLs to the new Shopify ones, preventing broken links and minimizing impact on your search visibility.
• Migrate Images in Description: Ensures that all product images embedded within product descriptions are also transferred to your new store.
• Migrate Customer Passwords: Some migration tools offer a secure way to transfer customer passwords, allowing your customers to log into their new Shopify accounts using their old credentials.

Step 6: Map Data Fields

Data mapping is a critical step where you align corresponding data fields between your BV Commerce source (via CSV) and Shopify target stores. This ensures that customer groups, order statuses, product attributes, and other custom fields are correctly associated in your new platform.

For instance, you'll map 'Pending' order status from BV Commerce to 'Pending payment' in Shopify, or specific customer roles to Shopify's default customer groups. Accurate mapping is vital for data integrity and consistent user experience.

Step 7: Run a Free Demo Migration and Full Migration

Before committing to the full data transfer, most migration tools offer a free demo migration. This allows you to migrate a limited number of entities (e.g., 10-20 products, customers, and orders) to your Shopify store. Use this opportunity to:

• Verify Data Accuracy: Check if products, images, customer information, and order details have transferred correctly.
• Test Functionality: Ensure basic store functions work as expected with the migrated data.
• Identify Potential Issues: Address any mapping or data integrity problems before the full migration.

Once you're satisfied with the demo results, proceed to the full migration. This will transfer all your selected data from BV Commerce to Shopify. Consider adding Migration Insurance Service, which provides multiple remigrations within a specified period, offering peace of mind. Learn how migration insurance works.

Post-Migration Steps

The data transfer is a significant milestone, but your journey isn't over. Post-migration tasks are essential for ensuring your new Shopify store is fully functional, optimized, and ready to welcome customers.

1. Review and Verify Migrated Data

Thoroughly inspect all migrated data on your Shopify store:

• Products: Check product descriptions, images, SKUs, variants, prices, and inventory levels. Ensure all categories are correctly assigned.
• Customers: Verify customer accounts, addresses, and any associated order history. Test password reset functionality if passwords were not migrated.
• Orders: Review a sample of orders to confirm their accuracy, including order status, items purchased, and customer details. Pay attention to fulfillment dates.
• CMS Pages & Blogs: Ensure all content has transferred with correct formatting and images.

2. Configure Your Shopify Store

Customize and configure Shopify to reflect your brand and operational needs:

• Choose and Customize a Theme: Select a professional Shopify theme and customize it to match your branding and aesthetic.
• Set Up Payment Gateways: Integrate your preferred payment methods, such as Shopify Payments, PayPal, or other third-party providers.
• Configure Shipping Settings: Define your shipping zones, rates, and carriers.
• Establish Tax Settings: Set up taxes accurately for different regions, noting that Shopify allows multi-tax configurations.
• Install Essential Apps: Head to the Shopify App Store to install apps for functionalities like customer reviews (e.g., AirReviews), marketing, SEO, and analytics.

3. Implement 301 Redirects (if not automated)

Even if you used an option to create 301 redirects during migration, it's wise to double-check. Map any remaining old BV Commerce URLs to their new Shopify counterparts to prevent 404 errors, preserve SEO rankings, and maintain link equity. This is critical for retaining search engine visibility.

4. Conduct Comprehensive Testing

Before going live, put your Shopify store through rigorous testing:

• Frontend Testing: Browse your site as a customer. Test product pages, add items to cart, and complete the entire checkout process.
• Backend Testing: Process a few test orders from the admin panel, manage inventory, and handle customer inquiries.
• Mobile Responsiveness: Ensure your store looks and functions perfectly on various mobile devices and tablets.

5. Update DNS and Go Live!

Once everything is thoroughly tested and confirmed, update your domain's DNS settings to point to your new Shopify store. This is the final step in making your Shopify store publicly accessible. Remember to disable any unnecessary notifications on Shopify before this step.

6. Consider Post-Launch Services

After your initial migration, new data might accumulate on your old BV Commerce store. Services like Recent Data Migration Service can help transfer this fresh data, ensuring your Shopify store is always up-to-date.

By following these post-migration steps, you'll ensure a smooth and successful transition, allowing you to fully leverage the power and potential of your new Shopify e-commerce platform. Should you encounter any issues or require further assistance, don't hesitate to contact us.