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

A Seamless Transition from digiSHOP to Volusion

As your e-commerce business evolves, replatforming to a more robust or feature-rich solution becomes a strategic necessity. Migrating your online store from digiSHOP to Volusion offers an opportunity to enhance your operational capabilities, improve scalability, and provide a superior shopping experience for your customers. This comprehensive guide will walk you through every critical step of transitioning your valuable store data, including products, customers, orders, and more, ensuring a smooth and successful move to Volusion.

Given that digiSHOP isn't directly supported by a standard connector, this migration process will leverage a highly efficient CSV File Migration method, treating your digiSHOP data as a CSV source. This approach guarantees that all your essential information is accurately transferred, preserving data integrity and maintaining continuity for your business.

Prerequisites for a Successful Migration

Before initiating your data transfer, thorough preparation of both your existing digiSHOP store and your new Volusion platform is essential. These steps will minimize potential issues and ensure a more efficient migration process.

For Your digiSHOP (Source) Store:

• Data Export: Prepare to export all critical data from your digiSHOP store into CSV files. This includes product information (SKUs, variants, descriptions), customer details, order history, product categories, manufacturers, reviews, invoices, taxes, coupons, and CMS pages. Ensure your CSV files are well-organized and accurately reflect your current store data.
• Data Cleaning: Take this opportunity to review and clean your digiSHOP data. Remove any outdated products, inactive customer accounts, or redundant information. This helps improve data integrity on your new Volusion store.
• Media Assets: Gather all product images and other media files. While data will be transferred via CSV, images and other files often need to be uploaded separately or linked correctly on the new platform.
• Full Backup: Always perform a complete backup of your digiSHOP store's database and files. This is a crucial safety measure before any major data operation. For more details on preparing your source store, refer to our FAQ on preparing your Source store.

For Your Volusion (Target) Store:

• Volusion Store Setup: Ensure you have a live and accessible Volusion store. This can be a brand-new installation or an existing one where you intend to migrate your digiSHOP data.
• FTP/Admin Access: You will need full administrator login credentials and FTP access to your Volusion store. This is vital for installing the Cart2Cart Volusion Migration module, which facilitates the connection and data transfer. For guidance on access credentials, see The Short & Essential Guide to Access Credentials for Cart2Cart.
• Plugin Installation: The Cart2Cart Volusion Migration module is required for the migration. This will need to be installed on your Volusion store via FTP to enable bridge-based connection.
• Theme and Extensions: Plan for your new Volusion theme and any essential apps or extensions (plugins) you intend to use. While data is migrating, consider how these additions will integrate.
• Backup Existing Data: If your Volusion store already contains data, perform a full backup before migration, especially if you plan to use the "Clear Target" option. Learn more about preparing your target store at our FAQ on preparing your Target store.

Performing the Migration: A Step-by-Step Guide

Utilizing a specialized migration tool simplifies the complex process of data transfer. Here's how to execute your digiSHOP to Volusion migration using a migration wizard:

1. Start Your Migration Journey

Begin by accessing the migration wizard. This initial screen will guide you through the process, offering options to start a self-service migration or request expert assistance.

Step 1: Configure Your Source Store

Since digiSHOP's data will be imported via CSV files, select "CSV File to Cart" as your Source Cart. You will then upload your prepared CSV files containing all your digiSHOP data. The system will process these files to extract the information for migration.

Step 2: Set Up Your Target Store

Next, choose "Volusion" as your Target Cart. Provide the full URL of your Volusion store. Crucially, you will also need to install the Cart2Cart Volusion Migration module, which typically involves uploading a bridge file via FTP to your Volusion root folder. This module establishes a secure connection for data transfer.

Step 3: Select Entities for Migration

This critical step allows you to define exactly what data you want to move. You can choose to migrate all supported entities—such as products, product categories, customers, orders, reviews, CMS pages, and more—or pick specific ones. This ensures only the necessary data is transferred to your Volusion store.

Step 4: Configure Additional Migration Options

Enhance your migration with various additional settings. These options include:

• Preserve Product IDs, Preserve Category IDs, Preserve Customer IDs, Preserve Orders IDs: Recommended for maintaining continuity and simplifying post-migration data management. Learn more about how Preserve IDs options can be used.
• Migrate Images in Description: Essential for transferring all product visuals.
• Password Migration: Allows existing customer passwords to be migrated, improving user experience.
• Create Variants from Attributes: Crucial for products with variations (e.g., size, color).
• Clear Target Store Data: Useful if you want to start with a completely fresh Volusion store, removing any existing demo data. Read more about the Clear current data on Target store before migration option.
• Create 301 SEO URLs: Highly recommended to preserve your SEO rankings and link equity by automatically redirecting old digiSHOP URLs to their new Volusion counterparts.

Step 5: Map Data Fields

In this step, you will align your digiSHOP (CSV) customer groups and order statuses with the corresponding fields in your Volusion store. This data mapping ensures that customer roles and order statuses (e.g., "Pending", "Processing", "Shipped") are correctly categorized on your new platform, maintaining consistent data integrity.

Step 6: Run a Free Demo Migration

Before committing to a full migration, conduct a free demo migration. This trial run transfers a limited number of entities (e.g., 10 products, 10 customers, 10 orders) to your Volusion store. It's an invaluable opportunity to preview how your data appears on the new platform, identify any potential issues, and verify data integrity without any commitment.

Step 7: Initiate Full Data Migration

After a successful demo and any necessary adjustments, proceed with the full migration. Review the final migration cost and consider adding a Migration Insurance Plan for added peace of mind, allowing for re-migrations if needed. Once confirmed, the full transfer of all selected digiSHOP data to your Volusion store will commence.

Post-Migration Steps

The migration doesn't end when the data transfer is complete. A few crucial post-migration tasks are necessary to ensure your new Volusion store is fully operational and optimized.

• Thorough Testing: Conduct extensive testing of your Volusion store. Verify product pages, add-to-cart functionality, the checkout process, customer accounts, and order management in the admin panel. Test all critical aspects from both the customer and administrator perspectives to ensure everything functions as expected.
• Verify 301 Redirects: If you enabled 301 redirects during migration, meticulously check that old digiSHOP URLs correctly redirect to their new Volusion counterparts. This is vital for maintaining SEO rankings, link equity, and a seamless user experience.
• Update DNS Settings: Once you are confident in your new Volusion store, update your Domain Name System (DNS) records to point your domain to the Volusion platform. This makes your new store live to the public.
• Configure Shipping and Taxes: Set up your shipping zones, methods, and tax rules within Volusion to ensure accurate calculations for your customers.
• Install Essential Apps/Plugins: Integrate any third-party applications, plugins, or tools that are crucial for your business operations (e.g., marketing tools, analytics, customer service apps).
• Update Tracking Codes: Install and verify analytics tracking codes (e.g., Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel) and any other conversion tracking scripts on your Volusion store.
• Review and Update Content: Go through your CMS pages, blog posts, product descriptions, and metadata on Volusion. Ensure all content is accurate, formatted correctly, and optimized for SEO.
• Decommission Old Store: Once your Volusion store is fully live, tested, and performing optimally, you can safely decommission your old digiSHOP platform.
• Ongoing Monitoring: Continuously monitor your new store's performance, especially SEO rankings, site speed, and user engagement, to identify and address any issues promptly.

By following these detailed steps, your transition from digiSHOP to Volusion will be thorough, efficient, and set your business up for continued growth and success on its new platform.