Haravan to PrestaShop Migration - Step-by-Step Guide & Expert Services

Seamlessly Migrating Your E-commerce Store from Haravan to PrestaShop

Embarking on an e-commerce platform migration can be a pivotal moment for your online business. This comprehensive guide will walk you through the process of transferring your store data from Haravan to PrestaShop, ensuring a smooth and efficient transition. PrestaShop, renowned for its flexibility, open-source nature, and robust features, offers a powerful environment for growing your online presence. While Haravan typically doesn't offer direct API access for third-party migration tools, we will leverage a widely accepted method: exporting your critical data into CSV files and then importing it into your new PrestaShop store via a specialized migration service. This approach ensures data integrity and a precise transfer of your valuable store information.

This article is designed to be your authoritative resource, covering everything from essential preparations to detailed step-by-step instructions and crucial post-migration checks.

Prerequisites for a Successful Migration

Before initiating the data transfer, careful preparation of both your Haravan (source) and PrestaShop (target) stores is paramount. Adhering to these prerequisites will significantly reduce potential complications and ensure a smoother replatforming experience.

For Your Haravan Source Store (via CSV Export):

• Data Export: As Haravan requires a CSV-based approach, you must export all essential data entities from your current store. This includes, but is not limited to:
  • Products (with all their SKUs, variants, descriptions, images, and associated metadata)
  • Product Categories
  • Customer records (including their passwords, if supported by the migration tool and Haravan's export options)
  • Order history (with status, invoice details, and customer associations)
  • Manufacturers
  • Product Reviews
  • Taxes, Coupons, CMS Pages, and Blog Posts
  Ensure your CSV files are well-organized and contain all necessary fields for a complete transfer.
• Data Review: Thoroughly review your exported CSV files for any inconsistencies, missing information, or formatting issues. Cleaning your data at this stage will prevent errors during import.
• Backup: Always create a complete backup of your Haravan store data before exporting, as a failsafe.

For more details on preparing your source store, please consult our guide on How to prepare Source store for migration?

For Your PrestaShop Target Store:

• Fresh Installation: Ensure you have a freshly installed PrestaShop store. It's generally recommended to start with a clean slate to avoid conflicts with existing data.
• Hosting Environment: Verify that your PrestaShop hosting environment meets all the system requirements and has sufficient resources (disk space, memory, PHP version) to handle your entire dataset, especially if you have a large inventory or extensive customer base.
• FTP/Admin Access: You will need full administrative access to your PrestaShop backend and FTP/SFTP access to its root directory. These credentials are vital for connecting the migration tool to your target store. Read more about The Short & Essential Guide to Access Credentials for Cart2Cart.
• Required Plugin: PrestaShop requires a specific plugin for migration via a connection bridge. The Cart2Cart Universal PrestaShop Migration module is necessary. This module facilitates secure data transfer between your CSV files (representing Haravan data) and your PrestaShop store.

To learn more about preparing your target store, visit our FAQ: How to prepare Target store for migration?

Performing the Migration: A Step-by-Step Guide

Follow these detailed steps to migrate your store data from Haravan (via CSV) to PrestaShop using an automated migration wizard:

Step 1: Initiate Your Migration and Account Setup

Begin by signing up for an account with a reputable migration service that supports CSV file imports and PrestaShop as a target. Once logged in, you'll typically be presented with an option to start a new migration.

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

Since Haravan is not directly integrated via API, you will select the 'CSVTOCART' option as your Source Cart. Upload the prepared CSV files containing your Haravan store's data.

• Choose 'CSVTOCART': From the dropdown list of supported platforms, select 'CSVTOCART'.
• Upload CSV Files: Follow the instructions to upload your product, customer, order, and other relevant CSV files. The migration tool will then process these files to understand your source data structure.

The system supports a wide range of entities for CSV migration, including Products, Product Categories, Product Manufacturers, Product Reviews, Customers, Orders, Invoices, Taxes, Stores, Coupons, CMS Pages, and Blog Posts. For more on this, refer to our CSV.File Data Migration service.

Step 3: Configure Your Target Store (PrestaShop)

Next, you'll set up your new PrestaShop store as the destination for your data.

• Select 'PrestaShop': Choose 'PrestaShop' from the list of target shopping carts.
• Enter Admin URL: Provide the administrative URL of your PrestaShop store.
• Establish Connection: For PrestaShop, the connection method is 'Bridge only'. You will need to install the Cart2Cart Universal PrestaShop Migration module. Typically, you can choose between:
  • Automated Bridge Upload: Provide your PrestaShop admin credentials (email and password), and the system will automatically upload the connection bridge.
  • Manual Bridge Upload: Download the connection bridge file, extract the 'bridge2cart' folder, and manually upload it to the root directory of your PrestaShop installation via FTP/SFTP.

The connection bridge is a small file that enables secure data exchange between the migration service and your PrestaShop store. Understanding what a root folder is can be helpful here. Rest assured, providing your access details to a trusted migration service is generally safe, as explained in Is it safe to provide your company with my access details?

Step 4: Select Data Entities for Migration

This crucial step allows you to specify exactly which data types you wish to transfer from your Haravan CSV files to your PrestaShop store.

• Choose Your Data: You'll see a checklist of all supported entities, including Products, Product Categories, Manufacturers, Customers, Orders, Product Reviews, Invoices, Taxes, Stores, Coupons, CMS Pages, and Blogs/Blog Posts.
• Selective Migration: You can select 'All entities' for a comprehensive transfer or individually pick specific items based on your business needs.

Step 5: Configure Additional Options and Data Mapping

This stage is vital for fine-tuning your migration to ensure data consistency and to preserve critical SEO elements.

Additional Migration Options:

Review and select from various advanced options to customize your data transfer:

• Migrate Images in Description: Essential for transferring product images embedded within descriptions.
• Clear Target: If you wish to remove any existing data on your PrestaShop store before migration, select this option. Learn more about clearing target store data.
• Preserve IDs: Options like 'Preserve Product IDs', 'Preserve Orders IDs', and 'Preserve Customers IDs' maintain the original IDs from your Haravan data on your PrestaShop store. This is crucial for maintaining internal links and historical data integrity. Find out how Preserve IDs options can be used.
• SEO URLs & 301 SEO URLs: Configure to migrate SEO-friendly URLs and automatically create 301 redirects. This is critical for maintaining your search engine rankings and link equity from your Haravan store to PrestaShop.
• Password Migration: If supported by your Haravan export, this option allows customer passwords to be transferred, reducing friction for returning customers.
• Migrate Invoices: Ensure all billing and invoice data is carried over.
• Skip Custom Attributes: An option if you only want to migrate standard attributes.

Data Mapping Setup:

The system will automatically attempt to map your Haravan data fields to PrestaShop's structure. However, you'll need to manually confirm or adjust mappings for specific entities like customer groups and order statuses. This ensures that a 'Pending' order in Haravan correctly maps to a 'Pending' or equivalent status in PrestaShop, and customer roles are accurately assigned.

Step 6: Run a Free Demo Migration and Proceed to Full Migration

Before committing to the full data transfer, it's highly recommended to run a free demo migration. This allows you to transfer a limited number of entities (e.g., 10-20 products, customers, orders) to your PrestaShop store. Use this opportunity to:

• Verify Data Integrity: Check if products, categories, customer data, and orders have transferred correctly and display as expected.
• Test Functionality: Ensure images are showing, links are working, and basic functionalities are intact.

Once you are satisfied with the demo results, you can proceed with the full migration. At this stage, you'll often have the option to select a Migration Insurance Plan, which can provide additional remigrations if unforeseen issues arise. Understand how Migration Insurance works to determine if it's right for your project.

The full migration will then commence, transferring all your selected Haravan data to PrestaShop. Depending on the volume of your data, this process can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours. During this time, your current Haravan store remains operational, ensuring zero downtime for your customers.

For subsequent data transfers, such as new orders or customers acquired after the initial migration, consider our Recent Data Migration Service. If you need to re-run the entire process, our Cart2Cart Remigration Service is available.

Post-Migration Steps

Completing the data transfer is a significant milestone, but the migration isn't truly finished until you've performed these crucial post-migration tasks:

• Thorough Data Review: Spend time meticulously checking every aspect of your new PrestaShop store. Verify product listings, images, descriptions, pricing, inventory levels, customer accounts, order history, and CMS pages. Ensure all links are functional.
• Update DNS Settings: Once you're confident that your PrestaShop store is fully functional and all data is accurate, update your domain's DNS settings to point to your new PrestaShop hosting. This will direct traffic to your new store.
• SEO Check & Redirects: Confirm that all 301 redirects are properly implemented and functioning. Test key product and category URLs from your old Haravan store to ensure they redirect to the correct pages on PrestaShop. Submit your new sitemap to search engines (Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools) to expedite re-indexing.
• Theme & Design Configuration: Install and configure your chosen PrestaShop theme. Customize your store's appearance to match your brand identity and ensure an optimal user experience across all devices.
• Module & Extension Setup: Install any necessary PrestaShop modules or extensions (e.g., payment gateways, shipping calculators, marketing tools, analytics) that replicate or enhance the functionality you had on Haravan.
• Test All Store Functions: Critically, test the entire purchasing flow: adding items to the cart, checkout process, payment gateways, shipping calculations, and order confirmation emails. Also, test customer account creation, login, and password reset functionalities.
• Inform Customers: Consider sending out a notification to your customer base about your new store, highlighting any new features or improvements.
• Monitor Performance: Keep a close eye on your store's performance metrics, load times, and error logs in the weeks following the migration. Address any issues promptly.
• Decommission Haravan (Optional): Once your PrestaShop store is fully operational and stable, and you've confirmed all necessary data is transferred, you can consider decommissioning your old Haravan store.

Congratulations on completing your migration! If you encounter any unique challenges or require specialized assistance during or after this process, our team offers a Migration Customization Service to cater to your specific needs, or you can simply Contact Us for support.