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

Seamlessly Migrate Your Online Store from Shoper to PrestaShop

Embarking on an e-commerce platform migration can feel like a daunting task, but with the right guidance, transitioning your store from Shoper to PrestaShop can be a smooth and rewarding experience. This comprehensive guide, crafted by e-commerce content and SEO experts, will walk you through every critical step of moving your valuable data, including products, customer records, and order history, to your new PrestaShop platform.

PrestaShop offers unparalleled flexibility, a robust feature set, and a vibrant community, making it an excellent choice for merchants seeking greater control and scalability for their online business. While Shoper does not offer direct API integration for automated migration, we will leverage the CSV File Migration method to ensure a secure and efficient data transfer.

Essential Prerequisites for a Successful Migration

Before initiating your store migration, meticulous preparation is key to minimizing downtime and ensuring data integrity. Follow these crucial steps to set the stage for a seamless transition:

• Backup Your Stores: Always create full backups of both your Shoper data (export all available CSVs) and your new PrestaShop installation. This acts as a safety net in case any unforeseen issues arise during the data transfer.
• Set Up Your PrestaShop Store: Ensure you have a fresh installation of PrestaShop ready. Do not add any products or complex configurations yet, as a clean slate simplifies the migration process.
• Gather Access Credentials: You will need administrative access to your new PrestaShop store, including the Admin URL, and FTP/cPanel access to upload the connection bridge. For Shoper, ensure you can export all necessary data into CSV files. Read our guide on The Short & Essential Guide to Access Credentials for Cart2Cart for more details.
• Review Your Current SEO: Document your current URL structures and important pages. This will be crucial for setting up 301 redirects later, preserving your valuable SEO rankings and link equity.
• Prepare Your Source Store: For specific guidance on preparing your Shoper store (via CSV export), refer to our tips on How to prepare Source store for migration?
• Prepare Your Target Store: To ensure your PrestaShop environment is optimized for data import, consult our recommendations on How to prepare Target store for migration?

Performing the Migration: A Step-by-Step Guide

The migration process is streamlined through a user-friendly wizard. Follow these steps carefully to transfer your e-commerce data from Shoper (via CSV) to PrestaShop.

Step 1: Initiate Your Migration

Begin by accessing the migration wizard. This is where your journey to PrestaShop starts.

Step 2: Connect Your Shoper Store (Source)

Since Shoper requires a file-based migration, you will need to export your store's data into CSV files. Once exported, you will connect your source by selecting 'CSV File to Cart' from the dropdown list within the migration wizard.

For a successful migration, ensure your CSV files contain comprehensive data for entities like products (including SKUs, variants, and images), product categories, customer records, and orders. After selecting 'CSV File to Cart', you'll be prompted to upload your prepared CSV files.

Step 3: Connect Your PrestaShop Store (Target)

Next, configure your new PrestaShop store as the target platform. Select 'PrestaShop' from the list and provide its Admin URL. To establish a secure connection, you will utilize the 'Upload Connection bridge' method.

1. Download the Connection Bridge: The wizard will provide a link to download a unique connection bridge file.
2. Upload to Root Directory: Extract the downloaded zip file and upload the 'bridge2cart' folder to the root directory of your PrestaShop store via FTP or cPanel. The root directory is typically the folder where your PrestaShop installation files (like index.php or config/) are located. Need help finding it? Check our What is a root folder and where can I find it? guide.
3. Verify Connection: Once uploaded, the wizard will verify the connection, ensuring secure communication between the migration service and your PrestaShop store. Note that the Cart2Cart Universal PrestaShop Migration module is implicitly handled by this bridge connection.

Step 4: Select Entities and Configure Additional Options

This critical step allows you to define exactly what data will be transferred. You can choose to migrate specific data entities or all of them. PrestaShop supports a wide range of entities, including:

• Products, Product Categories, Product Manufacturers, Product Reviews
• Customers, Orders, Invoices
• Taxes, Stores, Coupons
• CMS Pages, Blogs, Blog Posts

Beyond entity selection, you'll find various Additional Migration Options that can significantly enhance your migration's outcome:

• Clear current data on Target store before migration: This option ensures your PrestaShop store is completely empty before importing new data, preventing duplicates.
• Preserve Product IDs, Preserve Orders IDs, Preserve Customers IDs: These options help maintain consistency and simplify post-migration tasks.
• Create 301 SEO URLs: Highly recommended to redirect old Shoper URLs to new PrestaShop URLs, preserving your SEO rankings and link equity.
• Migrate Images in Product & Category Descriptions: Ensure all visual content is transferred seamlessly.
• Migrate Customer Passwords: This crucial option allows your customers to log into their accounts on your new PrestaShop store using their existing credentials, enhancing user experience.

Step 5: Configure Data Mapping

Data mapping is essential for ensuring that information from your Shoper store is correctly categorized and displayed in PrestaShop. Here, you'll match customer groups, order statuses, and other relevant fields from your source CSVs to their corresponding fields in PrestaShop. This ensures data consistency and integrity.

Step 6: Run a Demo Migration & Full Migration

Before committing to a full data transfer, perform a Free Demo Migration. This migrates a limited number of entities, allowing you to review data accuracy and functionality on your PrestaShop store without any cost.

Once satisfied with the demo, you can proceed with the Full Migration. Consider adding a Migration Insurance Plan to your full migration. Migration Insurance offers the flexibility of re-running your migration multiple times within a specified period, which can be invaluable for fine-tuning or adding new data.

Crucial Post-Migration Steps

The migration doesn't end when the data transfer is complete. These post-migration tasks are vital for launching a successful PrestaShop store:

• Thorough Data Review: Log into your PrestaShop admin panel and meticulously check all migrated data. Verify products (SKUs, pricing, images, descriptions, variants), customer accounts, order histories, and CMS pages.
• Configure Store Settings: Set up your shipping zones, payment gateways, tax rules, currencies, and localizations specific to your business needs in PrestaShop.
• Install Essential Modules & Themes: Enhance your PrestaShop store's functionality and aesthetics by installing necessary modules and themes. These can include SEO optimization tools, marketing modules, and design elements to improve user experience.
• Set Up 301 Redirects: If you opted not to create 301 redirects during the migration, it is critical to implement them now. This ensures that old Shoper URLs seamlessly redirect to their new PrestaShop counterparts, preventing broken links and maintaining your hard-earned SEO rankings.
• Update DNS Records: Once you're confident in your new PrestaShop store, update your domain's DNS settings to point to your new hosting environment. This makes your PrestaShop store live to the public. Plan this step carefully to minimize any potential downtime.
• Comprehensive Testing: Conduct extensive testing of your new store. This includes performing test purchases, creating customer accounts, checking all navigation paths, forms, and ensuring mobile responsiveness.
• Monitor & Optimize: Post-launch, continuously monitor your store's performance using tools like Google Analytics and Search Console. Look for any crawl errors, broken links, or performance bottlenecks, and optimize accordingly.

Migrating from Shoper to PrestaShop is a strategic move that can significantly benefit your e-commerce venture. By following this detailed guide, you can ensure a smooth, secure, and successful transition, paving the way for growth and enhanced online presence on your new, powerful PrestaShop platform. Should you encounter any challenges or prefer expert assistance, our team is always ready to help. Contact us for specialized services like Migration Customization or Recent Data Migration.