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

Seamlessly Migrate Your E-commerce Store from JoomShopping to Volusion

Are you looking to enhance your online store's capabilities, scalability, and overall user experience? Replatforming your e-commerce store from JoomShopping to Volusion can open up a world of new opportunities, offering robust features for product management, customer engagement, and sales growth. This comprehensive guide will walk you through every critical step of migrating your valuable store data, including products, customers, orders, and more, ensuring a smooth and successful transition. We’ll cover everything from essential prerequisites to post-migration verification, helping you preserve your SEO rankings and maintain data integrity throughout the process.

Prerequisites for Migration

Before embarking on your data transfer journey, it's crucial to prepare both your existing JoomShopping store and your new Volusion platform. Proper preparation minimizes potential hiccups and ensures a more efficient migration.

• For Your JoomShopping (Source) Store:

  You will need administrative access to your JoomShopping store. The migration process utilizes a connection bridge, requiring you to upload a small file to your JoomShopping root folder via FTP/SFTP. This bridge facilitates secure communication for data extraction. Ensure you have:

  • Admin Login and Password: For your JoomShopping administrator panel.
  • Store URL: The full web address of your JoomShopping store.
  • FTP/SFTP Access: To upload the necessary migration bridge files. What is a root folder and where can I find it?
  • Cart2Cart JoomShopping Migration Module: Plugin installation is required for seamless data extraction.
  • Data Backup: Always create a complete backup of your JoomShopping store's database and files. While the migration process is read-only, having a backup is a best practice.

  For more detailed preparation steps, consult our guide on How to prepare Source store for migration?

• For Your Volusion (Target) Store:

  Your new Volusion store needs to be set up and accessible. Similar to JoomShopping, a connection bridge will be used for data import. You will need:

  • Admin Login and Password: For your Volusion administrator panel.
  • Store URL: The full web address of your new Volusion store.
  • FTP/SFTP Access: To upload the necessary migration bridge files for Volusion.
  • Cart2Cart Volusion Migration Module: Plugin installation is required for data import.
  • Empty Store (Recommended): Ideally, start with a fresh Volusion installation or clear any existing demo data to avoid conflicts and ensure a clean data import.

  For additional insights into preparing your target store, please refer to How to prepare Target store for migration?

• General Prerequisites:
  • Reliable Internet Connection: A stable connection is essential for the migration tool to connect to both platforms.
  • Sufficient Time: While the process is automated, allow time for configuration, data transfer, and post-migration checks.
  • Access Credentials: Ensure you have all necessary access details readily available for both platforms. For guidance on securely providing credentials, see The Short & Essential Guide to Access Credentials for Cart2Cart.

Performing the Migration: A Step-by-Step Guide

Migrating your JoomShopping data to Volusion can be streamlined using an automated migration wizard, such as Cart2Cart. Follow these steps to perform the data transfer:

Step 1: Start Your Migration

Begin by navigating to the migration wizard. You'll be prompted to start a new migration process.

Step 2: Connect Your Source Store (JoomShopping)

First, specify your current e-commerce platform. From the dropdown menu, select JoomShopping as your Source Cart. Then, enter your JoomShopping store's URL and proceed with the bridge installation. This typically involves downloading a connection bridge, uploading it to your JoomShopping root folder via FTP, and verifying the connection. The process requires the Cart2Cart JoomShopping Migration module.

Step 3: Connect Your Target Store (Volusion)

Next, configure your new store. Select Volusion from the dropdown menu as your Target Cart. Input your Volusion store's URL. Similar to the source store, you will need to install a connection bridge on your Volusion platform. This step ensures the migration tool can securely import data into your new store. The Cart2Cart Volusion Migration module is required here.

Step 4: Select Data Entities for Migration

This crucial step allows you to choose exactly which types of data you want to transfer from JoomShopping to Volusion. You can select individual entities or opt to migrate all of them. The supported entities include:

• Products: Including SKUs, descriptions, pricing, images, and variants.
• Product Categories: Maintaining your store's organizational structure.
• Product Manufacturers: Transferring brand information.
• Product Reviews: Preserving valuable social proof.
• Customers: Including customer groups, billing, and shipping addresses.
• Orders: With all relevant order statuses and details.
• Invoices: Ensuring financial records are transferred.
• Taxes: Migrating tax rules and settings.
• Stores: If you have a multi-store setup.
• Coupons: For promotions and discounts.
• CMS Pages: Transferring static content.

Step 5: Configure Additional Options and Data Mapping

Additional Migration Options

This stage offers several powerful options to customize your migration, ensuring data is transferred precisely as you need it:

• Migrate Images in Description: Ensure product images embedded in descriptions are transferred.
• Clear Target: Highly recommended for a fresh start, this option clears all existing data on your Volusion store before the migration begins.
• Preserve Product IDs, Preserve Orders IDs, Preserve Customers IDs: Maintain original IDs from JoomShopping in Volusion. Learn more about How Preserve IDs options can be used?
• SEO URLs / 301 SEO URLs / Create 301 SEO URLs: Essential for maintaining your search engine rankings and link equity by creating redirects from old JoomShopping URLs to new Volusion URLs.
• Password Migration: Allows customers to log in to your new Volusion store with their existing JoomShopping credentials.
• Create Variants from Attributes: If your JoomShopping store uses attributes for product variations, this option helps translate them into Volusion variants.
• Migrate Invoices: Transfers all invoice data.
• Skip Custom Attributes: An option to exclude custom attributes if they are not needed on the target platform.
• Migrate Groups to Tags: Maps customer groups to tags in Volusion for better segmentation.

Data Mapping

The data mapping feature allows you to correctly match specific fields and statuses between your JoomShopping and Volusion stores. This is crucial for maintaining data consistency, especially for:

• Customer Groups Mapping: Ensure your JoomShopping customer groups (e.g., 'Wholesale', 'Retail') are correctly assigned to equivalent groups or tags in Volusion.
• Order Statuses Mapping: Map your JoomShopping order statuses (e.g., 'Pending', 'Shipped', 'Completed') to the corresponding statuses in Volusion.

Step 6: Run Demo or Full Migration

Before committing to a full data transfer, we highly recommend running a Free Demo Migration. This allows you to migrate a limited number of entities (e.g., 10-20 products, customers, orders) to your Volusion store. The demo helps you:

• Preview how your data will appear on the new platform.
• Verify data integrity and identify any potential issues.
• Test the functionality of your new store with actual data.

Once you're satisfied with the demo results, you can proceed with the Full Migration. At this stage, you'll also have the option to select a Migration Insurance Service, which provides additional remigrations if needed. Learn more about How Migration Insurance works?

Post-Migration Steps

Completing the data transfer is a significant milestone, but the journey doesn't end there. Several crucial steps remain to ensure your new Volusion store is fully operational and optimized for success:

• Thorough Data Verification: Rigorously check all migrated data on your Volusion store. This includes:
  • Products: Ensure all SKUs, descriptions, images, pricing, and variants are accurate.
  • Customers: Verify customer accounts, addresses, and order history.
  • Orders: Confirm order details, statuses, and associated customer information.
  • SEO Elements: Check product and category meta titles, descriptions, and URL structures.
• Test Store Functionality: Conduct extensive testing of your new Volusion store's core functions:
  • Checkout Process: Perform test purchases to ensure payment gateways and shipping methods are working correctly.
  • Search Functionality: Verify that customers can easily find products.
  • Contact Forms: Test all forms and customer service channels.
  • User Accounts: Confirm customers can log in, view orders, and update their details.
• Configure Store Settings:
  • Payment Gateways: Set up and test all desired payment processing options.
  • Shipping Methods: Configure your shipping zones, rates, and carriers.
  • Tax Settings: Double-check tax rules and calculations for accuracy.
  • Email Notifications: Customize and test order confirmation, shipping, and other automated emails.
• Implement 301 Redirects: While the migration tool can create 301 redirects, manually verify and add any additional redirects for pages that may have changed URLs. This is vital for preserving your link equity and SEO rankings.
• Update DNS Records: Once you've thoroughly tested and approved your Volusion store, update your domain's DNS records to point to the new platform. Plan this during off-peak hours to minimize potential downtime.
• Integrate Third-Party Services: Reconnect any third-party apps or services you use, such as email marketing platforms, analytics tools, CRM systems, or accounting software.
• Monitor SEO Performance: Keep a close eye on your website's performance in Google Search Console and other analytics tools. Look for any crawl errors, drops in organic traffic, or indexing issues and address them promptly.
• Ongoing Data Sync: If you continue to receive orders or customer registrations on your old JoomShopping store during the verification period, consider using a Recent Data Migration Service to transfer these new entries to Volusion without repeating the full migration.
• Launch and Promote: Once everything is validated and functioning perfectly, officially launch your new Volusion store and announce the exciting transition to your customers!

Migrating from JoomShopping to Volusion is a strategic move that can significantly benefit your e-commerce business. By following this detailed guide and leveraging automated tools, you can achieve a smooth and successful transition, empowering your store for future growth. If you encounter any challenges or require expert assistance, don't hesitate to Contact Us.