Airsquare to Square Migration - Step-by-Step Guide & Expert Services

A Comprehensive Guide to Transitioning from Airsquare to Square

Stepping into the future of e-commerce often means embracing platforms that offer enhanced features, scalability, and robust payment solutions. If you're currently operating on Airsquare and considering a move to Square, you're looking at a powerful upgrade, especially with Square's integrated POS capabilities and extensive ecosystem. This guide will walk you through the entire process of replatforming your online store, ensuring a smooth and efficient data transfer.

Since Airsquare does not offer a direct API integration for automated migrations via our service, the transition will leverage a robust CSV file export from Airsquare, followed by a streamlined import into your new Square store. This method ensures comprehensive data transfer for your key e-commerce entities, preserving your valuable customer data, product catalogs, and order history.

Prerequisites for a Successful Migration

Before initiating the data transfer, a few crucial steps need to be addressed to ensure a seamless transition and safeguard your store's integrity:

• Airsquare Data Export: You will need full administrative access to your Airsquare store to export all necessary data, including products (with SKUs and variants), customer information, order history, categories, and any CMS pages or blog posts you wish to migrate. Ensure all data is complete and up-to-date before export. For detailed guidance, consult How to prepare Source store for migration?
• Square Store Setup: Have your new Square account and online store fully set up. While it doesn't need to be populated with data, the basic store structure, payment gateways, and shipping zones should be configured. You'll need administrative access to this target store. You can find more information on preparing your target store here.
• Data Backup: Always perform a complete backup of your Airsquare store's data before beginning any migration process. This is a critical step for data integrity and peace of mind.
• Review Target Store Requirements: Familiarize yourself with Square's data import capabilities and any specific formatting requirements for CSV files.
• No Plugin Required: For the CSV-based migration, no additional plugins are required on either your Airsquare source (beyond its export functionality) or your Square target store for the data transfer utility itself.

Performing the Migration: A Step-by-Step Guide

Follow these detailed steps to transition your e-commerce data from Airsquare to Square using a trusted migration wizard.

Step 1: Get Started with Your Migration

Begin by navigating to the migration service platform. You will be prompted to choose your migration path – a do-it-yourself approach using the wizard, or opting for assistance from our expert team. For this guide, we'll focus on the self-service wizard.

Step 2: Export Data from Airsquare & Configure Source Store

As Airsquare requires a CSV-based approach, your first task is to export all relevant data from your Airsquare store into CSV files. Once exported, you will use the 'CSV File to Cart' option as your source platform in the migration wizard.

In the migration wizard, select 'CSV File to Cart' from the dropdown menu as your Source Cart. You will then upload your prepared CSV files containing your store data.

• Connection Method: File only.
• Limitations: This method is solely for source data and relies on a CSV file import.
• Plugin Requirements: No plugin is required for this source connection.

Step 3: Configure Your Square Target Store

Next, select 'Square' as your Target Cart from the available options. You will then need to provide the necessary connection details for your Square store, which typically involves an API key or other secure access credentials. Follow the on-screen prompts to establish a secure connection between the migration service and your new Square store, ensuring all access credentials are correctly entered as per The Short & Essential Guide to Access Credentials for Cart2Cart.

Step 4: Select Data Entities for Transfer

This crucial step allows you to choose exactly which data entities you want to move from your Airsquare CSV files to your new Square store. You can select all available entities or pick and choose based on your specific needs.

The supported entities for migration from your CSV export include:

• Products: Including SKUs, variants, descriptions, images, and pricing.
• Product Categories: Maintaining your store's organizational structure.
• Products Manufacturers: If applicable to your data.
• Products Reviews: Preserving valuable social proof.
• Customers: Customer data and associated details.
• Orders: Historical order data, ensuring continuity.
• Invoices: Transferring billing information.
• Taxes: Migrating tax settings.
• Stores: If you have multi-store data within your CSV.
• Coupons: Discount codes and promotions.
• CMS Pages: Static content pages.
• Blogs and Blog Posts: For content marketing continuity.

Step 5: Configure Additional Migration Options

Enhance your data transfer with various additional options that can significantly improve the migration outcome. Select those relevant to your store's requirements:

• Preserve IDs: Options like Preserve Category IDs, Preserve Product IDs, Preserve Customers IDs, and Preserve Orders IDs help maintain consistency for existing integrations or customer references.
• Create Variants from Attributes: Essential for products with multiple options (e.g., size, color).
• SEO URLs: Crucial for maintaining your search engine rankings and link equity by setting up 301 redirects to your new Square store.
• Migrate Images in Description: Ensures all product and content images are moved correctly.
• Password Migration: Allows customers to log into their accounts on the new Square store with their existing credentials.
• Clear Target: Opt to Clear current data on Target store before migration option if your Square store contains dummy data you wish to remove.

Step 6: Map Data Fields

To ensure data integrity and consistency, you'll need to map your Airsquare (CSV) customer groups and order statuses to their corresponding equivalents in Square. This step ensures that roles like 'Customer' or 'Wholesale' and statuses such as 'Pending' or 'Completed' are correctly translated to your new platform.

Step 7: Perform a Demo Migration & Full Migration

Before committing to the full replatform, we highly recommend performing a Demo Migration. This allows you to transfer a limited number of entities (e.g., 10 products, 10 customers, 10 orders) to your Square store for free, enabling you to verify data accuracy and functionality without any commitment. Once satisfied with the demo, proceed with the Full Migration. You can also consider adding a Migration Insurance Plan, which provides a safety net with multiple remigrations, detailed in How Migration Insurance works?

Post-Migration Steps

Once your data has successfully transitioned to Square, a few critical post-migration tasks will ensure your new store is fully operational and optimized:

• Thorough Data Verification: Conduct a comprehensive audit of your Square store. Check product listings (SKUs, variants, images, descriptions), customer accounts, order history, categories, and any migrated CMS pages or blog posts. Ensure everything is in its correct place and displays accurately.
• Configure SEO & Redirects: If not handled during the migration, set up 301 redirects for any changed URLs to preserve your SEO rankings and link equity. Update your sitemap and resubmit it to search engines.
• Test All Store Functionality: Perform test purchases, including various payment methods and shipping options. Verify customer registration, contact forms, search functionality, and review processes.
• Install Essential Apps & Plugins: Integrate any necessary Square apps or third-party tools for marketing, analytics, inventory management, or POS integration that were part of your Airsquare workflow.
• Update DNS Settings: Point your domain name to your new Square store to make it live for your customers.
• Notify Customers: Inform your customer base about the new platform, highlighting any improvements to their shopping experience.
• Monitor Performance: Keep a close eye on your website's performance, traffic, sales, and user experience to identify and address any issues promptly.

By following this comprehensive guide, your transition from Airsquare to Square will be a smooth, efficient, and ultimately successful journey, setting your business up for growth and enhanced operational capabilities on your new platform.