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

Migrate Sellfy to Volusion: A Comprehensive Guide for a Seamless E-commerce Transition

Stepping up your e-commerce game often means seeking a platform that offers greater scalability, advanced features, and more robust control over your online store. If you’re currently operating on Sellfy and looking to replatform to Volusion, you’re on the path to unlocking a powerful suite of tools designed for serious online retail. This guide will walk you through the entire process of transitioning your store data, ensuring a smooth and efficient migration.

Given that Sellfy does not offer direct API integration for automated migration tools, the transition to Volusion will primarily involve exporting your data from Sellfy into CSV files and then importing them into our migration service, which will then seamlessly transfer them to your new Volusion store. Volusion, as your target cart, utilizes a secure bridge connection and requires a specific module for data transfer, ensuring accuracy and data integrity throughout the process.

Prerequisites for Migration

Before you embark on your store migration journey, it’s crucial to prepare both your existing Sellfy store and your new Volusion environment. This preparation will streamline the data transfer and minimize potential issues.

For Your Sellfy (Source) Store: Exporting Data

• Data Export: Since Sellfy lacks a direct API connection for automated migration tools, you’ll need to export your critical store data into CSV (Comma Separated Values) files. This typically includes:
  • Products (SKUs, descriptions, images, prices, variants)
  • Customer information
  • Order history
• Data Review and Cleanup: Before exporting, take this opportunity to review your Sellfy data. Clean up any outdated products, duplicate customer entries, or incomplete order information. This ensures that only relevant and accurate data is transferred to your new Volusion store.
• Understanding Limitations: Be aware that certain Sellfy-specific features or custom fields might not directly translate via CSV and may require manual recreation on Volusion.

For more details on preparing your source store, you might find our How to prepare Source store for migration? FAQ helpful, and for the CSV process itself, explore our CSV.File Data Migration service.

For Your Volusion (Target) Store: Setup and Access

• Volusion Account Setup: Ensure you have an active Volusion account and your new store is set up with a basic theme and necessary configurations.
• Admin Access: You will need full administrator access to your Volusion store. This includes your admin login credentials, your admin URL, and the main store URL.
• FTP/SFTP Access: Volusion typically uses a bridge connection method for data transfer. This requires installing a specific migration module (Cart2Cart Volusion Migration module required) onto your Volusion store via FTP. Ensure you have your FTP access details ready. Volusion supports FTP access, which is crucial for bridge installation.
• Check Target Data: Decide if you want to clear any existing demo data or partial entries from your Volusion store before the migration begins. The migration tool offers an option to 'Clear Target' store data.

For guidance on setting up your Volusion store for migration, refer to our How to prepare Target store for migration? FAQ.

Performing the Migration: A Step-by-Step Guide

With your preparations complete, let's proceed with the step-by-step process of migrating your e-commerce data from Sellfy to Volusion.

Step 1: Start Your Migration

Begin by initiating the migration process on our platform. You'll typically be presented with options to start a do-it-yourself migration or explore assisted services.

If you prefer a hands-off approach or require specialized assistance, don't hesitate to Contact Us to discuss our tailored migration services.

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

This is where you'll tell the migration wizard about your current Sellfy store. Since Sellfy doesn't support a direct connection, you will select 'CSV File to Cart' as your source platform.

Upload the CSV files you exported from Sellfy. Our system will validate the files to ensure they are correctly formatted for migration. This step is crucial for feeding your Sellfy data into the migration pipeline.

Step 3: Connect Your Target Volusion Store

Next, you’ll specify your new Volusion store as the destination for your data. Select 'Volusion' from the list of supported platforms.

You will need to provide the complete URL of your Volusion store. As Volusion uses a 'Bridge only' connection method, you will be prompted to install the 'Cart2Cart Volusion Migration module required' onto your Volusion root directory via FTP. This bridge acts as a secure data conduit between your Volusion store and our migration service. You will also need to provide the necessary connection fields, including your Volusion admin login, password, and the admin URL.

For more information on the required access credentials, review The Short & Essential Guide to Access Credentials for Cart2Cart.

Step 4: Select Data Entities to Migrate

Now, you'll choose exactly what data you want to transfer from your Sellfy CSV files to Volusion. Our tool supports the migration of a wide array of entities, including:

• Products (with variants, images, descriptions)
• Products_Categories
• Products_Manufacturers
• Products_Reviews
• Customers
• Orders
• Invoices
• Taxes
• Stores
• Coupons
• CMS_Pages

You can choose to migrate 'All entities' with a single click or select specific data types based on your needs. This granular control allows you to tailor the data transfer process.

Step 5: Configure Additional Options and Data Mapping

Additional Migration Options

This step allows you to fine-tune your migration with several powerful options:

• Preserve Product IDs, Orders IDs, Customer IDs: Recommended for maintaining internal data consistency and order tracking. Learn more about How Preserve IDs options can be used?
• Migrate Images in Description: Ensures product descriptions with embedded images are fully transferred.
• Password Migration: Allows customers to log into their accounts on the new Volusion store using their existing passwords.
• SEO URLs & 301 SEO URLs: Crucial for preserving your search engine rankings and link equity. This option creates 301 redirects from your old Sellfy URLs to the new Volusion ones, preventing broken links and SEO penalties.
• Clear Target: This option will remove all existing data from your Volusion store before the migration starts. This is often recommended for clean migrations. Understand what Clear current data on Target store before migration option entails.

Data Mapping

The data mapping step ensures that customer groups, order statuses, and other crucial fields from your Sellfy CSV files are correctly associated with their corresponding fields in Volusion.

You'll match elements like 'Pending payment' or 'Processing' from your source data to the appropriate statuses in Volusion. This ensures data consistency and operational continuity in your new store.

Step 6: Run the Free Demo and Full Migration

Before committing to the full data transfer, we highly recommend running a free demo migration. This allows you to transfer a limited number of entities (e.g., a few products, customers, and orders) to your Volusion store so you can review the data integrity and accuracy.

Once you are satisfied with the demo results, you can proceed with the full migration. This is also where you can choose a Migration Insurance Plan, which offers additional remigrations in case you need to run the transfer again. Learn more about Migration Insurance Service and How Migration Insurance works?.

The full migration will transfer all selected data from your Sellfy CSV files to your Volusion store. You'll receive a notification once the process is complete.

Post-Migration Steps

After your data has been successfully transferred to Volusion, there are several essential post-migration tasks to ensure your new store is fully operational and optimized.

• Thorough Data Review: Carefully check all migrated data. Verify products (SKUs, pricing, images, descriptions, variants), customer accounts, order histories, and CMS pages. Ensure everything looks as expected and images are loading correctly.
• Configure Store Settings: Set up your payment gateways, shipping methods, tax rules, and email notifications within Volusion. These are specific to your new platform and need to be configured from scratch.
• Implement 301 Redirects: Even if you selected the '301 SEO URLs' option during migration, it’s good practice to double-check that all critical old Sellfy URLs redirect properly to their new Volusion counterparts. This prevents 404 errors and preserves your hard-earned SEO rankings.
• Update DNS Settings: Point your domain name (e.g., yourstore.com) to your new Volusion store. This will make your Volusion store live to the public. Coordinate with your domain registrar for this step.
• Test Functionality: Perform comprehensive testing of your new Volusion store. This includes placing test orders, creating customer accounts, using search functionality, submitting contact forms, and checking mobile responsiveness. Ensure the entire customer journey is seamless.
• SEO Audit: Conduct an SEO audit to confirm that your site structure, meta descriptions, and keywords are optimized for Volusion and that search engines can crawl your new site effectively.
• Remove Old Sellfy Store: Once you are completely confident that your Volusion store is fully functional and live, you can then safely close down your old Sellfy store.
• Consider Ongoing Services: If you have new data or need further adjustments, consider our Recent Data Migration Service to keep your store updated.

By following these steps, you can achieve a successful and impactful transition from Sellfy to Volusion, positioning your business for future growth and enhanced e-commerce capabilities. Should you encounter any questions, our Frequently Asked Questions section or support team is always available to assist.