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

Seamlessly Migrate Your Gambio Store to PrestaShop

Are you considering moving your e-commerce store from Gambio to PrestaShop? The desire for enhanced scalability, a richer feature set, or a more vibrant community often drives such a transition. Replatforming your online business can seem daunting, but with the right approach and a clear guide, it can be a smooth and rewarding process. This comprehensive how-to article will walk you through every critical step of migrating your valuable store data from Gambio to PrestaShop, ensuring data integrity and minimal disruption to your business.

We'll cover everything from essential prerequisites to post-migration best practices, helping you transfer products, customers, orders, and more with confidence. Let's embark on this journey to a more powerful e-commerce platform.

Prerequisites for a Successful Migration

Before initiating your data transfer, adequate preparation of both your source Gambio store and your target PrestaShop store is crucial. These steps help ensure a smooth transition and safeguard your data.

• Backup Your Gambio Store: Always create a complete backup of your Gambio database and files. This is your safety net in case of any unforeseen issues during the migration process, ensuring all your valuable data, including product details, customer information, and order history, is secured.
• Clean Up Your Gambio Data: Use this opportunity to audit and clean up any outdated or unnecessary data from your Gambio store. Removing old products, inactive customer accounts, or irrelevant CMS pages can streamline the migration and improve performance on your new PrestaShop platform. For more details, consult our guide on how to prepare your source store for migration.
• Install a Fresh PrestaShop Instance: Ensure you have a clean, fully functional installation of PrestaShop on your chosen hosting environment. This provides a fresh foundation for your migrated data and helps avoid conflicts with pre-existing data. Make sure you have full administrative access to your new PrestaShop store. Need more tips? Check out how to prepare your target store for migration.
• Review Access Credentials: Gather all necessary access credentials for both your Gambio and PrestaShop stores, including administrator URLs and login details. For bridge connections, you'll need FTP access to upload the connection files. Learn more about access credentials in The Short & Essential Guide to Access Credentials for Cart2Cart.

Performing the Migration: A Step-by-Step Guide

This section outlines the detailed process of migrating your data, step by step, using a migration wizard.

Step 1: Start Your Migration

Begin by navigating to the migration service platform. You will typically be presented with options to start a new migration. Choose the 'Start Free Demo Migration' or 'Start Full Migration' option to proceed.

Step 2: Configure Your Gambio Source Store

On the Source Store Setup screen, you will need to specify your current e-commerce platform. Select 'Gambio' from the list of available shopping carts.

You will then be prompted to provide your Gambio store's Admin URL. The connection method for Gambio is 'Bridge only', which requires the installation of the 'Cart2Cart Gambio Migration module'. This typically involves downloading a connection bridge file, extracting the 'bridge2cart' folder, and uploading it to the root directory of your Gambio store via FTP. After uploading, verify the connection to proceed.

(Note: The screenshot above illustrates an example of a bridge connection setup. The process for Gambio involves installing its specific 'Cart2Cart Gambio Migration module'.)

Understanding your root folder is essential for successful bridge installation.

Step 3: Set Up Your PrestaShop Target Store

Next, configure your destination platform. Select 'PrestaShop' as your Target Cart. Similar to the source store setup, you will need to provide your PrestaShop store's Admin URL.

PrestaShop also utilizes a 'Bridge only' connection method, requiring the 'Cart2Cart Universal PrestaShop Migration module'. Download the bridge, extract the 'bridge2cart' folder, and upload it to the root directory of your PrestaShop installation. Once uploaded, verify the connection to establish the link between your two stores.

Step 4: Select Data Entities for Transfer

This crucial step allows you to choose exactly which data types, or 'entities', you wish to migrate from Gambio to PrestaShop. You can select all entities or pick specific ones based on your needs.

From Gambio, you can typically transfer: Products, Product Categories, Manufacturers, Product Reviews, Customers, Orders, Invoices, Taxes, Stores, Coupons, and CMS Pages. To your PrestaShop target, you can also migrate Blogs and Blog Posts.

Ensure you select all relevant data, including product SKUs, variants, customer profiles, and order histories, to maintain comprehensive records in your new store.

Step 5: Configure Additional Migration Options

Enhance your migration with a range of additional options designed to optimize data transfer and preserve important store attributes. These settings are vital for maintaining SEO rankings, customer experience, and data integrity.

• Preserve Product IDs, Order IDs, and Customer IDs: Highly recommended to maintain historical data consistency and external integrations. Consult How Preserve IDs options can be used? for more information.
• Create 301 SEO URLs: Essential for maintaining your search engine rankings and preventing broken links by automatically redirecting old Gambio URLs to their new PrestaShop counterparts.
• Migrate Images in Description: Ensures all product descriptions and CMS pages retain their visual content.
• Migrate Invoices and Password Migration: For a complete transfer of financial records and customer accounts.
• Clear Target Store Data: The 'Clear current data on Target store before migration option' allows you to remove existing data from PrestaShop before the migration, ensuring a clean slate.

Step 6: Map Customer Groups and Order Statuses

This step ensures that your customer groups (e.g., 'Wholesale', 'Retail') and order statuses (e.g., 'Pending', 'Processing', 'Completed') from Gambio are correctly mapped to their corresponding equivalents in PrestaShop. Accurate mapping is critical for maintaining data consistency and proper business logic in your new store.

Step 7: Run a Free Demo Migration (Highly Recommended)

Before committing to a full data transfer, execute a demo migration. This allows you to transfer a limited number of entities (e.g., 10-20 products, customers, orders) to your PrestaShop store for free. The demo helps you verify the migration process, check data accuracy, and identify any potential issues or adjustments needed. Think of it as a Migration Preview Service for your entire store. After reviewing the demo, you can proceed to the full migration.

Step 8: Initiate Full Migration

Once you are satisfied with the demo results and have made any necessary adjustments, you can proceed with the full migration. Review all the selected entities and options one last time. You may also consider adding a Migration Insurance Service, which offers additional remigrations within a specified period, providing peace of mind. For details on how this works, see How Migration Insurance works?

With everything confirmed, launch the full data transfer. The time required will vary based on the volume of data being moved. During this period, your current Gambio store will remain operational, minimizing downtime.

Post-Migration Steps

Completing the data transfer is a significant achievement, but a few crucial post-migration tasks are necessary to ensure your new PrestaShop store is fully functional and optimized.

• Thoroughly Test Your New PrestaShop Store: This is arguably the most critical step. Systematically check every aspect of your migrated store:
  • Verify all products, categories, and manufacturers.
  • Ensure customer accounts and order histories are accurate.
  • Test the entire checkout process, including payment gateways and shipping options.
  • Check product reviews, CMS pages, and any other migrated data.
  • Confirm that all images and links are working correctly.
• Update DNS Records: Once you are confident that your PrestaShop store is operating perfectly, update your domain's DNS records to point to your new PrestaShop hosting. This will direct all traffic to your new store. Plan this step carefully to minimize any potential downtime for your customers.
• Implement and Verify 301 Redirects: Even if you opted to 'Create 301 SEO URLs' during migration, it's essential to double-check that all critical old Gambio URLs correctly redirect to their new PrestaShop counterparts. This preserves your SEO rankings and ensures a seamless user experience, preventing '404 Not Found' errors.
• Install Essential PrestaShop Modules and Themes: Re-install and configure any necessary PrestaShop modules (plugins) and themes to replicate the functionality and branding of your old store. This includes SEO modules, payment gateways, shipping integrations, and any specific design elements.
• Remove Old Gambio Store: After thorough testing and verification that your PrestaShop store is running flawlessly, you can safely decommission your old Gambio store.
• Monitor Performance and User Experience: Keep a close eye on your new PrestaShop store's performance using analytics tools. Monitor traffic, conversion rates, and user behavior to identify and address any areas for optimization. This ongoing effort will help ensure your replatforming delivers the expected benefits of a website migration.

Migrating from Gambio to PrestaShop is a strategic move that can unlock new opportunities for your e-commerce business. By following this expert guide, you can execute a smooth, secure, and successful data transfer, setting your store up for future growth and success on the PrestaShop platform. If you encounter any challenges or prefer professional assistance, don't hesitate to contact us for specialized support services.