Store migration means moving all your online store's stuff, like products, orders, customers, and more, from one eCommerce platform to another. If your current eCommerce website is too slow, expensive, complex, or lacking features, and you want to make a change without starting from scratch, consider moving to Shopify.
Shopify is a great platform with lots of benefits. You can also utilize the expertise of an eCommerce migration company to easily move your entire store, including products, customers, and orders, to the Shopify platform.
Thus, in this blog, we will explore everything you require to know while migrating to Shopify. It involves the mistakes you need to avoid, the process of Shopify migration, and finally, why you should choose Shopify as your eCommerce solution.
Reasons To Shift Your Online Store To Shopify
There are many advantages to transferring your online store to Shopify. The most significant ones have been highlighted below.
Shopify Is Easy to Use
Shopify is a user-friendly platform for creating your online store. Even if you don't know much about technology, you can start selling online easily. Shopify offers a drag-and-drop editor that makes adding products to your store simple. The platform also provides an easy-to-use dashboard for managing your store.
No Hidden Costs in Shopify
Managing an online store involves various expenses like development fees, server costs, hosting fees, and customization fees. Shopify offers a cloud service that allows you to set up an ecommerce store for a low cost. You can upgrade the plan as needed without any hidden fees.
Shopify AI Chatbot
A Shopify chatbot is a program that enables interaction with customers. Businesses can integrate chatbots on the Shopify platform, which uses AI and ML technology to provide fast and helpful responses. This makes the online store more user-friendly.
Provides Strong Security
Data security is crucial for any organization. Shopify is a secure ecommerce platform with built-in SSL certificates for all hosted stores. It regularly updates to protect against vulnerabilities, ensuring the safety of business and customer information.
Multiple Apps Available in Shopify
Shopify comes with various built-in features, and you can further extend its functionality with different apps. These apps, both free and paid, cover areas like marketing, customization, and accounting. This ensures that your business has all the features it needs.
SEO-Friendly
While migrating to Shopify may change your product URLs, it doesn't affect SEO. You can retain your search ranking for every product page, making it a seamless transition for your online presence.
Third-Party Integration
Integrating your online store with other systems is important for automating operations. Shopify makes third-party integration, such as ERP, CRM, and payment gateways, easy through its app store.
Cloud Hosting is an Advantage
Shopify is hosted in the cloud by default, providing an ideal solution for businesses of all sizes. With excellent documentation and support, you won't need to pay for infrastructure or servers, as Shopify takes care of hosting your ecommerce website.
These are the reasons that tempt businesses to build their brand on it. Now, move further toward the process of migrating to Shopify with ease.
How Migrate Data From Current Platform To Shopify
Certainly, these are some of the steps that you have to follow to import all your store data from the current platform to Shopify.
Step 1: Import Your Store's Content to Shopify
Before moving your content to Shopify, create a store on Shopify if you haven't already. After creating your Shopify store, review your existing one and decide what data to move, like products, customers, historical orders, gift cards, blogs, and pages. Choose a method to transfer each type, ranging from copying content to using third-party migration apps.
Step 2: Verify and Organize Products After Import
Once you import products to Shopify, check for errors. Ensure details like price and inventory are correct. Fix common issues, such as changes in product information or products not being published. Review and organize product details, create collections, and understand inventory management.
Step 3: Make Your Website Look Great
Customize your website's appearance using themes. Choose from free themes within the admin or buy paid ones from the Theme Store. Try a paid theme before purchasing. Customize themes to match your brand colors and style. Set up your online store's theme to create an appealing look.
Step 4: Set Up Your Shipping
Configure accurate shipping rates based on your location. Create shipping zones for different regions. Set up shipping rates and methods, considering the dimensional weight. Decide on a shipping strategy, choose fulfillment services, and determine whether you will handle shipping or delegate it.
Step 5: Configure Your Taxes
Understand and set up taxes based on your location. Configure tax settings for products, apply shipping taxes automatically, and keep track of taxes throughout the year. Use tax overrides for specific regions or products if needed. Ensure compliance with sales tax regulations.
Step 6: Setting Up a Payment Provider
Set up a payment provider to accept credit card payments securely. Choose between Shopify Payments or third-party providers. Configure payment capture and authorization settings. Consider using Shopify Payments to avoid additional fees.
Step 7: Place Some Test Orders
Test your payment settings by running various transactions. Complete successful and failed transactions, refund or cancel orders, fulfill or partially fulfill orders, and archive successful orders. Check the emails customers receive for each action and edit templates as needed.
Step 8: Add Staff to Your Store
If you have staff helping manage your store, add them to Shopify with personal logins. Set permissions to restrict access to certain areas for security. Ensure sensitive information is kept secure by managing staff permissions.
Step 9: Set Up Your Domain
Buy a new domain through Shopify or transfer an existing one. Disconnect any existing domains from your previous platform's settings to avoid errors. Set your Shopify domain as the primary one displayed to customers and set up email forwarding for custom domain email addresses.
Thus, this is the simple way to move your business to Shopify. Now, let's explore the mistakes you need to avoid for successful results.
Common Mistakes To Avoid During Shopify Migration
Out of many, these are some of the most common mistakes that you must elude.
Inaccurately organizing the migration:
When moving your website, not planning it well can cause delays and data loss. It's vital to map out the process carefully, set goals, involve your team, create timelines, and make an inventory of your content.
Failure to verify the website migration:
Testing ensures everything works. Check for broken links, missing images, and other problems that can upset users. Test on different browsers and devices to make sure everything runs smoothly.
Not modifying or redirecting outdated URLs:
If you change URLs during migration, set up 301 redirects from the old to the new. This is crucial to avoid broken links, maintain SEO, and keep users happy. Failing to redirect can lead to lost traffic and revenue.
Not providing search engines with an updated site map:
Search engines need updated site maps to discover and crawl your new pages. If you don't submit them, search engines won't know about changes affecting your site's indexing. Follow the steps above to submit updated site maps and maintain good search engine visibility.
Conclusion
Therefore, this blog is a comprehensive solution to Shopify store migration that contains all the relevant and crucial information that you must know before starting with the process. By practicing the above-mentioned steps, you can effectively build your store the way you ever want.
Also, You can get help from Shopify migration service providers such as MakkPress Technologies, an e-commerce marketing company that helps brands build, design, market, promote, and maintain their digital stores. With MakkPress Technologies, you can simply migrate your website to Shopify with the expertise of MakkPress's Shopify migration experts.
