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

A Comprehensive Guide to Transitioning from Arastta to Square

Embarking on an e-commerce platform migration can feel like a daunting task, but with the right strategy and tools, moving your store from Arastta to Square can be a smooth and beneficial transition. This guide is designed to provide Arastta merchants with a clear, step-by-step roadmap to successfully replatform to Square, unlocking new functionalities and scalability for your online business. Square, known for its intuitive interface and robust features, offers an excellent environment for growth, while a reliable migration service ensures your valuable data—from products and customer profiles to orders and reviews—is transferred with precision and integrity.

Given that Arastta is not directly supported by all migration tools via a direct API connection, this guide will focus on a highly effective and widely used method: migrating your store data via CSV files. This approach ensures that all your essential e-commerce assets are meticulously transferred to your new Square store, minimizing downtime and preserving your critical business information.

Prerequisites for Migration

Before you initiate the data transfer, thorough preparation of both your existing Arastta store and your new Square environment is crucial. This proactive approach helps to prevent common migration pitfalls and ensures a seamless transition.

Preparing Your Arastta (Source) Store:

• Data Cleanup and Audit: Before exporting, take the opportunity to clean up your Arastta store. Delete any outdated products, inactive customer accounts, or irrelevant data that you don't wish to transfer to Square. This reduces migration time and ensures a cleaner new store.
• Complete Data Backup: Always perform a full backup of your Arastta store's database and files. This is a critical safety measure, providing a restore point in case any unforeseen issues arise during the data export process.
• CSV File Export: As Arastta data will be migrated via CSV files (acting as 'CsvToCart' in the migration process), you will need to export all relevant data from your Arastta store into well-structured CSV files. Ensure that your exports include: products, product categories, manufacturers, product reviews, customers, orders, invoices, taxes, stores, coupons, CMS pages, blogs, and blog posts.
• Review Source Data Readiness: Ensure your exported CSV files are accurate and complete. For more detailed guidance, consult our How to prepare your Source store for migration? FAQ.

Preparing Your Square (Target) Store:

• Set Up a New Square Account: If you haven't already, create a new Square account and set up your basic store. Ensure it's a fresh installation, ready to receive data.
• Basic Configuration: Install your desired theme, configure essential store settings such as currency, time zone, and language. This foundational setup will help the migrated data integrate smoothly.
• Avoid Conflicting Data: Ideally, your Square store should be empty or contain only placeholder data that can be safely overwritten or merged during the migration.
• Understand Square's Structure: Familiarize yourself with how Square handles product variants, categories, customer groups, and order statuses, as this will be important during the data mapping phase. For further details on target store preparation, refer to our How to prepare Target store for migration? guide.

Performing the Migration: A Step-by-Step Guide

With your stores prepared, you're ready to use a migration wizard to transfer your data. This guide outlines the steps using a typical migration service, emphasizing clarity and data integrity.

Step 1: Start Your Migration

Begin by accessing the migration wizard on your chosen migration service platform. This initial step will guide you through the setup process for your e-commerce data transfer.

Step 2: Connect Your Source (Arastta) Store

Connecting your Arastta store involves selecting the appropriate source platform and providing your data. Since Arastta typically requires a CSV-based approach, you will use the 'CSV File to Cart' option.

1. Select Source Cart: From the dropdown menu, choose 'CSV File to Cart' as your Source Shopping Cart. This option is used when direct API connections are unavailable or when migrating from platforms like Arastta via exported CSV files.
2. Upload Arastta CSV Files: Upload the CSV files containing your Arastta store's data (products, customers, orders, etc.) to the migration tool. The system will process these files to extract your store's information.
3. No Plugin Required: For CSV file migrations, typically no plugin is required on the source side, simplifying the setup.

Step 3: Connect Your Target (Square) Store

Next, you'll establish the connection to your new Square store.

1. Select Target Cart: Choose 'Square' from the list of supported Target Shopping Carts.
2. Provide Access Credentials: Input the necessary API keys or access tokens for your Square store. This allows the migration service to securely write data to your new platform. For guidance on obtaining these, please refer to The Short & Essential Guide to Access Credentials for Cart2Cart.

Step 4: Select Data Entities for Migration

This critical step allows you to specify exactly which types of data you want to transfer from your Arastta CSV files to Square. You can choose to migrate:

• Products (including SKUs, variants, attributes, images)
• Product Categories
• Product Manufacturers
• Product Reviews
• Customers
• Orders (with full details)
• Invoices
• Taxes
• Stores
• Coupons
• CMS Pages
• Blogs & Blog Posts

You can either select all entities or pick and choose based on your specific needs.

Step 5: Configure Additional Migration Options

Enhance your data transfer with additional options that address specific migration requirements and maintain data integrity:

• Preserve IDs: Choose to preserve original IDs for categories, products, customers, and orders. This is vital for maintaining existing data relationships and for services that rely on these IDs.
• Create Variants from Attributes: If your Arastta products use attributes (e.g., color, size), this option ensures they are correctly converted into product variants in Square.
• Migrate Images in Description: Ensure that all product images embedded within descriptions are transferred.
• SEO URLs: Preserve your existing SEO URLs to maintain search engine rankings and link equity. This is crucial for avoiding a drop in organic traffic post-migration.
• Password Migration: Securely migrate customer passwords, allowing your customers to log into their accounts on Square without needing to reset their credentials.
• Clear Target Store Data: The Clear current data on Target store before migration option is highly recommended for a fresh start, especially if you've done any testing on your Square store beforehand.

Step 6: Map Data Fields

Data mapping is crucial for ensuring that information from your Arastta CSV files aligns perfectly with the corresponding fields in Square. The wizard will guide you through matching customer groups, order statuses, and other custom fields from your source to your target store. This step is essential for maintaining data consistency and a coherent user experience post-migration.

Step 7: Perform a Free Demo Migration

Before committing to a full migration, conduct a free demo. This transfers a limited number of entities (e.g., 10 products, 10 customers, 10 orders) to your Square store. Review the demo results thoroughly to ensure data accuracy and understand how everything appears in your new environment. This helps identify and resolve potential issues early.

Step 8: Launch Full Migration

Once you are satisfied with the demo results, proceed with the full migration. Review all your selected options and the total cost. Consider adding a Migration Insurance Plan, which offers additional remigrations and support if you need to perform the transfer again (e.g., for new data or adjustments). Learn more about how Migration Insurance works.

Post-Migration Steps

Completing the data transfer is a significant milestone, but your journey isn't over. Several crucial post-migration tasks will ensure your Square store is fully operational and optimized.

• Thorough Data Verification: Rigorously check all migrated data in your Square store. Verify product details (SKUs, variants, descriptions, images), customer accounts, order histories, and category structures. Ensure all numbers match your Arastta store and that no data is missing or corrupted.
• Configure Storefront & Settings:
• Theme Customization: Customize your Square theme to reflect your brand identity.
• Payment Gateways & Shipping: Set up and test your preferred payment methods and shipping zones/rates.
• Taxes: Configure your tax settings to ensure compliance.
• Apps & Integrations: Install and configure any necessary Square apps or third-party integrations (e.g., for accounting, marketing, or customer service).
• SEO & 301 Redirects: This is vital for maintaining your search engine rankings. Implement 301 redirects for any URLs that have changed during the migration. This ensures that old links redirect to new pages, preserving link equity and preventing a drop in organic traffic.
• Perform Test Orders: Place several test orders, involving different product types and payment methods, to ensure the checkout process, order fulfillment, and inventory management are functioning correctly.
• Update DNS Settings: Once you are confident that your Square store is fully functional, update your domain's DNS settings to point to your new Square store. This will direct live traffic to your new platform.
• Go Live & Monitor: Announce your new store and closely monitor its performance. Keep an eye on website traffic, sales, and customer feedback to address any immediate issues.
• Consider Recent Data Migration: If you continued to receive orders or customer registrations on your Arastta store during the migration period, consider using a Recent Data Migration Service to transfer only the newly added data without affecting your existing Square store content.

By following these steps, you can confidently transition your e-commerce business from Arastta to Square, paving the way for enhanced features, improved performance, and a better shopping experience for your customers. Should you require further assistance or specialized services, feel free to Contact Us.