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

Seamlessly Transition Your E-commerce Store from Merchium to Volusion

As your online business grows and evolves, the need for a more robust, scalable, or feature-rich e-commerce platform often arises. Migrating from Merchium to Volusion can be a strategic move to unlock new capabilities, enhance performance, and improve the overall user experience for your customers. This detailed guide provides a clear, actionable roadmap for replatforming your store, ensuring a smooth data transfer and preserving critical SEO elements.

We'll walk you through every essential step, from initial preparations to post-migration checks, leveraging a professional migration service like Cart2Cart to ensure data integrity and minimize downtime.

Prerequisites for a Successful Migration

Before initiating the migration process, it's crucial to prepare both your existing Merchium store and your new Volusion environment. Proper preparation is key to a smooth and efficient data transfer.

For Your Merchium Source Store:

• Admin Access: Ensure you have full administrative access to your Merchium store's backend.
• API Credentials: Merchium requires an API-only connection. You will need to generate specific API credentials including clientId, clientSecret, refreshToken, storeId, adminEmail, and adminPwd. Note that obtaining these credentials often involves custom app development within Merchium to ensure the necessary API scopes are granted and you have an Admin API access token. Your Merchium store must also use HTTPS.
• Cart2Cart Merchium Migration App: The migration process requires the installation of the specific Cart2Cart Merchium Migration App to facilitate the connection and data export.
• Data Backup: Always perform a complete backup of your Merchium store's data before starting any migration. This safeguards your information in case of unforeseen issues.
• Review Limitations: Be aware of Merchium's API rate limits, which may influence the speed of data extraction.

For Your Volusion Target Store:

• Live Volusion Store: Set up a fresh Volusion store that is ready to receive your data. Ensure it is accessible online.
• Admin Access: You will need full administrative login credentials for your Volusion store.
• Bridge Installation: Volusion utilizes a 'Bridge only' connection method. This involves uploading a small bridge file to your Volusion store's root directory via FTP access. The Cart2Cart Volusion Migration module is required for this connection.
• Clear Target Store (Optional but Recommended): If your Volusion store already contains sample data, consider clearing it before migration to prevent conflicts and ensure a clean transfer. Read more about the Clear current data on Target store before migration option.

For more detailed information on preparing your platforms, please refer to our guides on How to prepare your Source store and How to prepare your Target store. You can also find essential information on access credentials for Cart2Cart.

Performing the Migration: A Step-by-Step Guide

With your preparations complete, you're ready to begin the migration wizard. Follow these steps carefully to ensure a successful data transfer.

Step 1: Initiate Your Migration

Begin by navigating to the migration wizard interface. This is where you'll start configuring your move from Merchium to Volusion.

Step 2: Connect Your Merchium Source Store

First, select Merchium from the list of supported shopping carts for your Source Store. You will then be prompted to enter your Merchium store's URL and the specific API connection details: clientId, clientSecret, refreshToken, storeId, adminEmail, and adminPwd. As previously noted, these credentials are typically obtained through custom app development within your Merchium admin panel to grant the necessary API access. The system will then attempt to establish a connection.

Step 3: Configure Your Volusion Target Store

Next, select Volusion as your Target Store platform from the dropdown menu. Enter the URL of your new Volusion store. To establish a connection, you will need to download and install the Cart2Cart Volusion Migration module, which involves uploading a 'bridge' file to your Volusion store's root folder via FTP. The system will guide you through the bridge location detection and validation process to ensure a secure connection.

Step 4: Select Data Entities for Transfer

In this crucial step, you choose exactly which data entities you wish to migrate from Merchium to Volusion. You can select all available entities or pick and choose based on your specific needs.

Commonly Supported Entities:

• Products: Including SKUs, variants, images, descriptions, and metadata.
• Product Categories: Maintaining your store's organizational structure.
• Product Reviews: Preserving valuable social proof.
• Customers: Transferring customer accounts and associated data.
• Orders: Migrating complete order history and statuses.
• CMS Pages: Moving static content like 'About Us' or 'Contact' pages.
• Coupons: Ensuring your promotional strategies remain intact.

Volusion also supports migrating Manufacturers, Invoices, Taxes, and Stores, while Merchium additionally supports Gift Cards and Blogs Posts. Carefully review the entities available and select all that are relevant to your business.

Step 5: Configure Additional Migration Options

This step allows you to fine-tune your migration with a range of additional options, which can significantly impact your store's functionality and SEO post-migration. Consider the following:

• Preserve IDs: Options like 'Preserve Product IDs', 'Preserve Order IDs', and 'Preserve Customer IDs' are crucial for maintaining consistency with external systems or for historical data lookup. Learn more about How Preserve IDs options can be used?
• SEO URLs & 301 Redirects: Selecting 'SEO URLs' and 'Create 301 SEO URLs' is vital for preserving your search engine rankings and link equity. This ensures that visitors and search engines are seamlessly redirected from old Merchium URLs to their new Volusion counterparts.
• Migrate Images in Description: Ensure product and category images embedded within descriptions are transferred correctly.
• Password Migration: For customer convenience, choose to migrate customer passwords (note: this often requires specific setup and may have security implications).
• Clear Target Store Data: The 'Clear Target' option will remove any existing data in your Volusion store before the migration, ensuring a fresh start.

Step 6: Map Data Fields

Data mapping is essential for ensuring that customer groups, order statuses, and other custom fields from Merchium are correctly assigned to their corresponding fields in Volusion. The migration wizard provides an intuitive interface to match these elements, preventing data inconsistencies in your new store.

Step 7: Run a Free Demo Migration & Full Migration

Before committing to a full data transfer, it is highly recommended to perform a free demo migration. This allows you to migrate a limited number of entities (e.g., 10 products, 10 customers, 10 orders) to your Volusion store. Review the demo results thoroughly on your Volusion platform to ensure everything has transferred as expected and that all settings are correctly applied.

Once you are satisfied with the demo results, you can proceed with the full migration. During this stage, you may also consider purchasing a Migration Insurance Plan, which offers additional remigrations within a specific period, providing peace of mind. For more details, see How Migration Insurance works?

Post-Migration Steps

After your data has successfully been transferred to Volusion, a few critical steps remain to ensure your new store is fully operational and optimized.

1. Thoroughly Test Your New Volusion Store: Navigate through your new Volusion store as both an administrator and a customer. Check product pages, category listings, customer accounts, the checkout process, search functionality, and overall site responsiveness. Place test orders to ensure everything functions correctly.
2. Update DNS Settings: Once you're confident in your Volusion store, update your domain's DNS settings to point to your new Volusion store. Plan this step carefully to minimize downtime for your customers.
3. Implement 301 Redirects: If you didn't use the automated 301 redirect option during migration or if you have specific legacy URLs, manually set up additional 301 redirects to preserve SEO rankings and guide visitors from old Merchium URLs to their new Volusion counterparts.
4. Install Essential Apps & Plugins: Replicate any third-party functionalities you had on Merchium by installing compatible apps or plugins from the Volusion App Store.
5. Update Integrations: Reconfigure any necessary integrations with third-party services like payment gateways, shipping providers, marketing automation tools, and analytics platforms.
6. Inform Your Customers: Announce your new store to your customer base. Highlight any new features or improvements to enhance their shopping experience.
7. Monitor Performance: Continuously monitor your store's performance, traffic, and SEO rankings in the weeks following the migration to identify and address any potential issues promptly.

Migrating from Merchium to Volusion is a significant undertaking, but with careful planning and the right tools, it can lead to substantial growth and improved efficiency for your e-commerce business. If you encounter any challenges or require additional assistance, don't hesitate to Contact Us or refer to our Frequently Asked Questions.