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

Seamlessly Migrate Your Store from Dukaan to Volusion

Are you considering moving your e-commerce store from Dukaan to Volusion? While Dukaan offers a fantastic entry point for online selling, Volusion provides a more robust, scalable platform with advanced features for growing businesses. This comprehensive guide will walk you through every step of transitioning your valuable store data, including products, customers, and orders, from Dukaan to Volusion, ensuring a smooth and successful replatforming experience.

Since Dukaan does not offer a direct API connection for automated migration tools, the transfer of your store's data will be facilitated by exporting your information into CSV files. This method, often referred to as CSV.File Data Migration, allows for a structured and precise transfer of your e-commerce entities to your new Volusion store.

Prerequisites for Migration

Before embarking on your store migration journey, it's crucial to prepare both your existing Dukaan store and your new Volusion environment. Proper preparation minimizes potential downtime and ensures data integrity throughout the transition.

• Dukaan Data Export: You will need to manually export all essential data from your Dukaan store into CSV files. This typically includes:
  • Products (with SKUs, variants, descriptions, images)
  • Product Categories
  • Customer information
  • Order details
  • Any other relevant data like coupons or CMS pages if exportable.
• Volusion Store Setup: Ensure your new Volusion store is already set up and accessible. You'll need:
  • Admin access credentials (login, password, admin URL) for your Volusion store. Read our guide on access credentials for more details.
  • FTP access to your Volusion store's root folder. This is essential for installing the migration bridge. If you're unsure what a root folder is, consult your hosting provider.
  • The Cart2Cart Volusion Migration module installed on your Volusion store. This plugin is required to establish a secure connection and facilitate data transfer.
• Backup Your Data: Always create a comprehensive backup of your Dukaan store's data before initiating any migration. If your Volusion store already contains data, consider backing that up too, especially if you plan to clear the target store.
• Review Target Store: Familiarize yourself with Volusion's structure. Consider if you want to clear any existing demo data on your Volusion target store before the migration to avoid conflicts.
• Allocate Time: While the migration process is largely automated, allocate sufficient time for data export, setup, and thorough post-migration checks.

For more detailed information on preparing your stores, refer to our FAQs: How to prepare Source store for migration? and How to prepare Target store for migration?.

Performing the Migration: A Step-by-Step Guide

Follow these steps to successfully transfer your e-commerce data from Dukaan to Volusion using a migration wizard.

Step 1: Start Your Migration

Begin by navigating to the migration wizard. Here, you'll be prompted to initiate the process, either by starting a DIY migration or exploring assisted services.

Click on 'Start Your Migration' to proceed with the self-service wizard. If you prefer expert assistance, you can opt for a fully managed migration service.

Step 2: Configure Your Source Store (Dukaan via CSV)

As Dukaan is not directly supported via API, you will select 'CSV File to Cart' as your source platform. Upload the CSV files containing your Dukaan store's products, categories, customers, orders, and other data you exported earlier. Ensure your CSV files are well-formatted to guarantee accurate data mapping.

Step 3: Connect Your Target Store (Volusion)

Next, specify Volusion as your target store. You will need to provide the following connection details:

• Your Volusion store's URL.
• Your Volusion admin login and password.
• Your Volusion admin URL.

The migration tool will then guide you to install a connection bridge to your Volusion store via FTP. This bridge is a small piece of code that allows secure data exchange between the migration service and your Volusion database. Ensure your Cart2Cart Volusion Migration module is already installed as a prerequisite.

Step 4: Select Data Entities

This critical step allows you to choose exactly which types of data you wish to transfer. You can select all available entities or pick specific ones like products, reviews, product categories, customers, orders, invoices, taxes, stores, coupons, and CMS pages.

For a complete transition, it is generally recommended to migrate all relevant data to ensure a fully functional store on Volusion.

Step 5: Configure Additional Options

Enhance your migration with various additional options tailored to your needs. These options are crucial for maintaining SEO rankings, preserving customer history, and ensuring a seamless user experience post-migration. Popular choices include:

• Migrate Images in Description: Ensures all product and category images embedded within descriptions are transferred.
• Clear Target: If your Volusion store contains any existing data (e.g., demo products), this option will clear it before the migration, preventing duplication. Refer to our guide on clearing target store data.
• Preserve Product IDs, Preserve Orders IDs, Preserve Customers IDs: Retains the original IDs of your entities, which can be vital for maintaining consistency with external systems or accounting software. Learn more about preserving IDs.
• SEO URLs & Create 301 SEO URLs: Essential for maintaining your search engine optimization efforts. This option helps redirect old Dukaan URLs to new Volusion URLs, preserving link equity and preventing broken links.
• Password Migration: Allows customers to log into their new Volusion accounts using their existing Dukaan passwords.
• Create Variants from Attributes: If your Dukaan products use attributes that form variants, this option ensures they are correctly recreated in Volusion.

Step 6: Map Data Fields

In this step, you'll map various data fields from your Dukaan CSVs to their corresponding fields in Volusion. This ensures data consistency and integrity. Pay close attention to mapping customer groups and order statuses correctly to align with Volusion's structure.

Step 7: Perform Demo & Full Migration

Before initiating the full data transfer, it's highly recommended to run a free demo migration. This transfers a limited number of entities (e.g., 10-20 products, customers, orders) to your Volusion store, allowing you to review the results and ensure everything is transferring as expected. This step is crucial for identifying and resolving any potential mapping or data issues early on.

Once you are satisfied with the demo results, you can proceed with the full migration. You may also consider adding a Migration Insurance Plan, which offers additional remigrations and support, ensuring peace of mind during your replatforming.

Post-Migration Steps

After your data has been successfully transferred to Volusion, several crucial steps remain to ensure your new store is fully operational and optimized.

• Thoroughly Review Your New Store:
  • Products: Check all product details, including SKUs, descriptions, images, variants, prices, and stock levels.
  • Categories: Verify category structures and ensure products are assigned correctly.
  • Customer Accounts: Test customer logins and review order histories.
  • Orders: Confirm that all order details, statuses, and customer information are accurate.
  • CMS Pages & Blogs: Review all content pages and blog posts for formatting and completeness.
• Test Store Functionality: Conduct comprehensive tests of your Volusion store. This includes testing the entire checkout process, searching for products, using contact forms, and ensuring all navigation links work correctly.
• Update DNS Records: Once you are completely satisfied with your new Volusion store, update your domain's DNS settings to point to your new Volusion store. This will direct your customers to your new platform.
• Implement 301 Redirects: If you opted to create 301 SEO URLs during the migration, verify they are working correctly. If not, implement manual 301 redirects for any URLs that changed to preserve your SEO rankings and link equity.
• Update Third-Party Integrations: Reconfigure any third-party applications or services you use, such as payment gateways, shipping providers, accounting software, and analytics tools (e.g., Google Analytics).
• SEO Considerations: Submit your new sitemap to search engines (Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools) to help them quickly index your new store. Monitor your organic traffic and rankings.
• Inform Your Customers: Announce the successful migration to your customers. Highlight any new features or improvements they can expect on your new Volusion store.
• Archive Old Dukaan Data: Once your Volusion store is fully live and operational, you can safely archive your Dukaan store data.

For any new orders or customer data accumulated on your old Dukaan store during the transition period, consider using a Recent Data Migration Service to ensure no vital information is lost.