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

A Comprehensive Guide to Transitioning from GoDaddy to PrestaShop

Are you looking to enhance your e-commerce capabilities, gain more control over your online store, and unlock advanced customization options? Migrating your existing GoDaddy store to PrestaShop could be the strategic move your business needs. PrestaShop offers a robust, open-source platform known for its flexibility, powerful features, and extensive community support, making it an excellent choice for scaling merchants.

While the prospect of replatforming can seem daunting, a well-planned data transfer can be smooth and efficient. This guide provides a detailed, step-by-step walkthrough to help you successfully move all your critical store data, from products and customer records to orders and reviews, from GoDaddy to PrestaShop. We'll cover everything from initial preparations to post-migration checks, ensuring data integrity and minimizing downtime.

Ready to begin your migration journey?

Prerequisites for a Smooth Migration

Before initiating the data transfer, it's crucial to prepare both your source GoDaddy store and your target PrestaShop store. Proper preparation helps ensure a seamless transition and safeguards your valuable e-commerce data.

For Your GoDaddy Source Store:

• API Access and Custom App Development: GoDaddy's connection method is primarily API-based, which requires specific API credentials (clientId, clientSecret, refreshToken, storeId, adminEmail, adminPwd). You may need to engage in custom app development to generate these API scopes and ensure admin API access tokens are available.
• HTTPS Requirement: Your GoDaddy store must operate over HTTPS for secure API communication.
• Install Cart2Cart GoDaddy Migration App: A dedicated migration application or module might be required to facilitate data extraction. Ensure any necessary integration app is in place.
• Data Backup: Always create a full backup of your GoDaddy store's data, including products, customer information, and order history, before starting any migration. This is a critical safety measure.
• Review Limitations: Be aware of potential API rate limits that could affect the speed of the data transfer.

For more detailed information on preparing your source store, read our How to prepare Source store for migration? guide.

For Your PrestaShop Target Store:

• Fresh PrestaShop Installation: It's highly recommended to start with a fresh, clean installation of PrestaShop. Ensure it's up-to-date and fully functional.
• Admin URL and FTP Access: You'll need the Admin URL of your PrestaShop store. FTP access is also supported and might be necessary for uploading the Connection Bridge.
• Install Cart2Cart Universal PrestaShop Migration Module: PrestaShop's connection method often relies on a Bridge. You will need to install the Cart2Cart Universal PrestaShop Migration module to enable this connection.
• Sufficient Hosting Resources: Ensure your PrestaShop hosting environment has adequate resources (disk space, memory, CPU) to accommodate all your migrated data and handle potential traffic.

To learn more about preparing your target store, consult our How to prepare Target store for migration? article.

General Preparations:

• Access Credentials: Have all necessary login details for both your GoDaddy admin panel and PrestaShop admin area readily available. This includes API keys for GoDaddy and FTP credentials for PrestaShop. For guidance on securing these, refer to The Short & Essential Guide to Access Credentials for Cart2Cart.
• Understand Data Entities: Familiarize yourself with the types of data that can be transferred, such as products (including SKUs and variants), product categories, customer records, orders, product reviews, and CMS pages.

Performing the Migration: A Step-by-Step Guide

The migration process is typically facilitated by a wizard that guides you through each stage. Follow these steps carefully to ensure a successful transfer of your e-commerce data.

Step 1: Initiate Your Migration

Begin by accessing the migration wizard. This initial step sets the stage for your entire data transfer, prompting you to select your source and target platforms.

Step 2: Connect Your Source GoDaddy Store

First, specify GoDaddy as your source platform. You'll then need to provide your store's URL and the API credentials required for connection. This typically includes your Client ID, Client Secret, Refresh Token, Store ID, Admin Email, and Admin Password. Remember, GoDaddy requires an API-only connection, often necessitating prior custom app development and the installation of the Cart2Cart GoDaddy Migration App.

Step 3: Connect Your Target PrestaShop Store

Next, select PrestaShop as your target platform. Provide the Admin URL of your newly installed PrestaShop store. For PrestaShop, the recommended connection method is via a Connection Bridge. This involves downloading a bridge file, extracting the 'bridge2cart' folder, and uploading it to the root directory of your PrestaShop installation via FTP. Ensure the Cart2Cart Universal PrestaShop Migration module is active on your PrestaShop store to enable this connection.

If you're unsure about the root folder, check out our guide on What is a root folder and where can I find it?

Step 4: Select Entities for Data Transfer

This crucial step allows you to choose exactly which data entities you wish to move from GoDaddy to PrestaShop. You can select all available entities or hand-pick specific ones based on your needs. For GoDaddy, supported entities include Products, Product Categories, Product Reviews, Customers, Orders, CMS Pages, Gift Cards, Coupons, and Blog Posts. PrestaShop supports these along with Product Manufacturers, Invoices, Taxes, and Stores.

Step 5: Configure Additional Options & Data Mapping

This stage offers powerful customization to ensure your data is transferred precisely as you intend.

Additional Migration Options:

Review and select various options to tailor your data transfer. Popular choices include:

• Clear Target Store Data: Opt to clear current data on your PrestaShop target store before migration to ensure a clean slate.
• Preserve Order/Product/Customer IDs: Crucial for maintaining historical data consistency and internal record-keeping. Learn more about How Preserve IDs options can be used?.
• Migrate Images in Description: Ensures all product images embedded within descriptions are carried over.
• SEO URLs & 301 Redirects: Automatically create 301 redirects to maintain your SEO rankings and link equity, preventing broken links.
• Password Migration: Enable the transfer of customer passwords for a smoother user experience post-migration.

Data Mapping:

Map your GoDaddy customer groups and order statuses to their corresponding equivalents in PrestaShop. This ensures that your customer segmentation and order workflow remain consistent on the new platform.

Step 6: Run a Free Demo & Full Migration

Before committing to the full migration, it's highly recommended to perform a free demo migration. This allows you to transfer a limited number of entities (e.g., 10 products, 10 customers, 10 orders) to your PrestaShop store, letting you review the data integrity and ensure everything is mapping correctly.

Once satisfied with the demo, proceed with the full migration. During this final step, you can also consider adding a Migration Insurance Plan. This service provides a set number of remigrations for a specified duration, offering peace of mind in case any adjustments or additional data transfers are needed later. Understand How Migration Insurance works?.

The duration of the full migration will depend on the volume of your data. You will receive a notification once the process is complete.

Post-Migration Steps

Your migration isn't truly complete until you've performed these crucial post-migration tasks to ensure your new PrestaShop store is fully operational and optimized.

• Thorough Testing: Conduct comprehensive testing of your PrestaShop store. Verify product displays, pricing, inventory levels, customer accounts, order processing, checkout flow, search functionality, and review migration. Ensure all links work and images load correctly.
• Update DNS Records: Once you're confident in your new store, update your domain's DNS records to point to your PrestaShop hosting. This makes your new store live to the public. Monitor for any propagation delays.
• Implement 301 Redirects: Even if you opted for automatic 301 redirects during migration, it's wise to double-check that all old GoDaddy URLs correctly redirect to their new PrestaShop counterparts. This preserves link equity and maintains your search engine rankings.
• Install Essential PrestaShop Modules/Themes: Customize your store's appearance and add any necessary functionality using PrestaShop's extensive module and theme marketplace.
• Configure Payment & Shipping Gateways: Set up and test all payment methods and shipping carriers in your PrestaShop store.
• Update Analytics & Webmaster Tools: Adjust your Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and any other tracking tools to reflect your new PrestaShop URLs.
• Notify Customers: Inform your customers about the transition and any new features or improvements they can expect.
• Consider Recent Data Migration: If your GoDaddy store remained active during the migration, you might have new orders or customer registrations. A Recent Data Migration Service can help transfer these latest updates to your PrestaShop store.

By following these steps, you can confidently transition your e-commerce business from GoDaddy to PrestaShop, leveraging a powerful platform to drive your future growth.