Jigoshop to Square Migration - Step-by-Step Guide & Expert Services

A Comprehensive Guide to Transitioning from Jigoshop to Square

As your e-commerce business grows, the need for a more robust and scalable platform becomes paramount. Migrating your online store from Jigoshop, a foundational WordPress e-commerce plugin, to Square, a modern and integrated solution, can unlock new opportunities for growth, streamline operations, and enhance the overall user experience. This detailed guide will walk you through the entire process of moving your valuable data, including products, customers, and orders, ensuring a smooth transition with minimal downtime.

Square offers a comprehensive ecosystem that simplifies payments, inventory management, and even point-of-sale systems, making it an attractive replatforming choice for merchants seeking an all-in-one solution. This transition involves carefully transferring your existing data to maintain SEO rankings, preserve customer history, and ensure business continuity.

Prerequisites for Migration

Before you embark on the data transfer journey, it's crucial to have a few things in order to ensure a successful and efficient migration process. Preparing both your source (Jigoshop) and target (Square) stores will save time and prevent potential roadblocks.

• Full Administrative Access: You will need full administrator credentials for both your Jigoshop store (WordPress admin, FTP/SFTP access) and your new Square account. This includes any necessary API keys or tokens for connecting to Square. Learn more about access credentials.
• Jigoshop Bridge Installation: For a successful Jigoshop data extraction, the migration tool will require a connection bridge. This involves uploading a specific migration module (e.g., Cart2Cart Jigoshop Migration module) to your Jigoshop store's root directory via FTP or SFTP.
• New Square Account/Store: Ensure you have an active Square account and have initiated the setup of your new Square online store. While the migration tool handles data transfer, you'll still need to configure basic store settings like currency, tax rates, and shipping zones post-migration. If you haven't yet set up your Square store, it's recommended to do so beforehand. For more details on preparing your target store, refer to our guide on target store preparation.
• Data Backup: Always create a complete backup of your Jigoshop store's database and files before initiating any migration. This is a critical step to safeguard your data in case of unforeseen issues.
• Review Data Scope: Understand which data entities can be migrated. For Jigoshop, this typically includes products, product categories, customers, orders, manufacturers, reviews, invoices, taxes, stores, coupons, and CMS pages.

Performing the Migration: A Step-by-Step Guide

Migrating your store data from Jigoshop to Square can be efficiently handled using an automated migration service. Follow these steps to guide you through the process:

Sub-step 1: Account Registration and Initial Setup

Begin by signing up or logging into your chosen automated migration service. On the main dashboard, you'll typically find options to start a new migration. Click the "Start Migration" button to begin configuring your source and target platforms.

Sub-step 2: Configure Jigoshop as Your Source Cart

In the migration wizard, select "Jigoshop" from the list of available source shopping carts. As Jigoshop utilizes a bridge-only connection method, you will be prompted to provide your Jigoshop store's URL. Next, you will need to upload the required Cart2Cart Jigoshop Migration module (the connection bridge) to the root directory of your Jigoshop installation via FTP/SFTP. Once the bridge is successfully uploaded, provide the bridge URL. The system will then automatically detect and validate the connection to your Jigoshop store, allowing access to its database and data entities.

Sub-step 3: Define Square as Your Target Cart

Proceed to set up your target store. Select "Square" as your desired target e-commerce platform. You will then need to enter the necessary credentials for your Square store, which typically involves providing your Square store URL and any required API keys or access tokens to allow the migration service to connect and import data into your new Square environment. Ensure your Square store is ready to receive data.

Sub-step 4: Select Data Entities for Transfer

This crucial step allows you to specify exactly which data entities you wish to transfer from Jigoshop to Square. A comprehensive list of supported entities will be displayed. For Jigoshop, this includes:

• Products
• Product Categories
• Manufacturers
• Product Reviews
• Customers
• Orders
• Invoices
• Taxes
• Stores
• Coupons
• CMS Pages

You can choose to migrate "All entities" or selectively pick the specific data types that are essential for your new Square store. Consider what information is vital for your new platform's functionality and historical record-keeping.

Sub-step 5: Map Data Fields

To ensure data consistency and integrity, the migration wizard will guide you through the process of mapping data fields. This typically involves matching customer groups (e.g., "Retail Customer" from Jigoshop to a corresponding group in Square) and order statuses (e.g., "Pending", "Processing", "Completed") from your Jigoshop store to their equivalents in Square. Accurate mapping is vital for preserving customer data, order history, and business logic.

Sub-step 6: Choose Additional Migration Options

The migration service often provides a range of additional options to customize your data transfer. These options can significantly impact the quality and completeness of your migration. Consider selecting:

• Preserve IDs: Options to preserve product IDs, order IDs, and customer IDs from Jigoshop to Square, which can be important for maintaining internal records.
• Create Variants from Attributes: If your Jigoshop products utilize attributes that define variants (e.g., size, color), this option ensures they are correctly transformed into Square product variations.
• SEO URLs & 301 SEO URLs: Crucial for maintaining your search engine rankings and link equity. This option helps to migrate your existing SEO URLs and create 301 redirects from your old Jigoshop URLs to the new Square URLs, preventing broken links and preserving your SEO value.
• Migrate Invoices & Password Migration: Transferring these sensitive data types ensures a seamless experience for both your administration and returning customers.
• Migrate Images in Description: Ensures that all product images embedded within product descriptions are transferred correctly.
• Clear Target Data: The "Clear current data on Target store before migration" option removes any existing data in your Square store before the import, which is often recommended for a clean migration to a new store.

Sub-step 7: Run a Free Demo Migration (Recommended)

Before committing to a full data transfer, it is highly recommended to perform a free demo migration. This step transfers a limited number of entities (e.g., a few products, customers, and orders) to your Square store. The demo allows you to:

• Preview how your data appears on the new platform.
• Verify data integrity and mapping accuracy.
• Identify any potential issues or discrepancies before the full migration.

It's an invaluable opportunity to ensure everything looks correct and functions as expected, mitigating risks for the main transfer.

Sub-step 8: Commence Full Data Transfer

Once you are satisfied with the results of your demo migration and have double-checked all settings and options, you can proceed with the full data transfer. Confirm your choices and initiate the migration. The process will run in the background, and you'll typically receive notifications on its progress and completion.

Consider adding Migration Insurance to your plan. This service can provide you with a specified number of re-migrations within a certain period, offering peace of mind if you need to run the migration again for any reason. Find out how Migration Insurance works.

Post-Migration Steps

After your data has successfully been transferred to Square, there are several crucial post-migration tasks to complete to ensure your new store is fully operational and optimized:

• Thorough Data Verification: Rigorously check your Square store to ensure all migrated data—products (SKUs, variants, images, descriptions), customer accounts, orders, reviews, and CMS pages—are present and accurate. Pay attention to pricing, inventory levels, and product relationships.
• Configure Store Settings: Set up essential configurations specific to Square, such as payment gateways, shipping zones, tax rules, and currency settings.
• Design and Theme Customization: Customize your Square store's theme to align with your brand identity. Ensure all branding elements, logos, and visual assets are correctly implemented for a consistent user experience.
• Implement 301 Redirects: If you did not use the automated 301 redirect option during migration or if you have specific URL structures that need to be maintained, manually set up 301 redirects from your old Jigoshop URLs to their new Square counterparts. This is critical for preserving SEO rankings and preventing lost traffic.
• Integrate Essential Apps: Explore the Square App Marketplace for any third-party integrations crucial for your business, such as marketing automation, analytics, customer service, or accounting tools.
• Test All Functionality: Conduct extensive testing of your new Square store. This includes testing the entire checkout process, customer registration and login, product searches, contact forms, and mobile responsiveness.
• Update DNS Records: Once you are confident that your Square store is fully functional and ready to go live, update your domain's DNS records to point to your new Square store. This will direct traffic to your new platform.
• Consider a Recent Data Migration Service: If your old Jigoshop store continued to receive orders or customer updates during the migration period, a Recent Data Migration Service can help transfer any new data that appeared after your initial full migration, ensuring nothing is missed.

By diligently following these steps, you can achieve a successful and seamless transition from Jigoshop to Square, empowering your e-commerce business with a modern, feature-rich platform.