nopCommerce Migration
With eCommerce sales growth expected to be nearly 18% in 2020, there’s no doubt — many sites need a new look or platform to carry them into the future. Migrating from Magento, Shopify, or even previous versions of nopCommerce can be a tricky process. Several factors go into a successful migration — all of which require skill and detailed planning.
Why change eCommerce platforms?
Some common reasons for migrating to nopCommerce may include outgrowing your current platform or needing to capture business processes that are not readily available in an out of the box solution. If you want a fully customizable solution — open-source nopCommerce is engineered for growth and can be tailored to fit your exact business needs.
Things to consider before migrating
Data Migration Consulting
It’s always a good idea to speak with a knowledgeable eCommerce specialist that understands the importance of successful migration. Moving platforms is not a minor task and should never be entered into lightly. From existing site structure and functionality to the physical data including customer, product, and previous order histories — each needs thorough evaluation and planning prior to migrating. Offering consultation services — noptim is a great resource to help you along the way.
Get the Facts
Do your research and try to understand all of your options. If you’re currently on a SaaS site like Shopify or BigCommerce, you may have found limited functionality, forcing you to leave money on the table with each transaction. Since business processes like product customizations are limited in a one size fits all package, an open-source platform like nopCommerce may be right for you.
Project your growth
Growth projections in the planning stages of migration will help you understand your current baselines. Careful evaluation of your existing site and business model, including marketing integrations and workflows, should be taken into account. Does your current site have traction, how many customers do you have, are you capturing every dollar on every transaction? These are all important questions to ask before moving from one platform to another.
Know the costs
Making a move — including theme, integrations, plugins and development can be costly. Ask yourself if you are happy with the content, imagery, and the look and feel of your current site? What will the monthly hosting cost be including marketing integrations, and what is required to maintain the site on a monthly basis? Cost should be evaluated both financially and based on the time it takes you to manage the site.
Ask questions
Your staff and customers are a wealth of knowledge, and may have valuable information that could help in making a decision. Are your vendors, production, and shipping teams receiving everything they need to get the orders processed accurately and on time? Are you leaving money on the table with each transaction — and if so, how can you capture those dollars? In an open-source platform like nopCommerce those issues can be addressed through customizations as needed.
Protect your data
Make sure your data is protected in migration. You worked hard to develop an online presence and your business future may depend on eCommerce growth. Losing data in migration could be a significant hurdle to overcome. Migration can be a complex process — below are a few items that should be done with any successful migration.
- Backup your data prior to migration
- Migrate to development site for testing prior to launch
- Transfer all customer information including login credentials
- Capture all product information applicable to the new platform including content, prices, images, specifications, and SEO content
- Past order information tied to products for customer reorder
- Static page content
- Internal site links
- Capture new customers, orders, and site changes that happened in live site after initial development migration
Truthfully this is just a small list of the complexities surrounding an eCommerce migration. Please let us know if you have questions about nopCommerce and whether a migration could help progress your online presence. We are here to help — at noptim you can expect our primary goal is to transition your site as smoothly as possible.
