5 Tips to Migrate Your Website to a New eCommerce Platform

You built an eCommerce site some years ago, and it was perfectly fine at that time. Time has changed, new technologies are transforming everything, and now your site feels outdated. Does your eCommerce site load slowly? Has your product line outgrown your eCommerce site? Is it becoming tough to compete at the level of your competitors? Maybe it’s time to switch to a new eCommerce platform.

eCommerce platform migration brings plenty of benefits, but it is never without risk. And that’s why it is important to hire an efficient website design company and follow a proven process.

What Is eCommerce Platform Migration?

eCommerce platform migration is the process of transferring a website from one place to another. It is also known as eCommerce re-platforming. The eCommerce platform migration procedure transfers site data, website content, and other important integrations to the new platform. eCommerce brands like Walmart, Target, Adidas, Sephora, etc. have enabled eCommerce platform migration to optimize their site’s performance and ensure a seamless user experience.

Why Do Businesses Migrate Their eCommerce Sites?

No doubt, migrating your eCommerce website is a big decision. This was an expensive choice and required solid time and effort. Apart from this, it contains risks and requires a transition period to let the team understand how to use the new platform. On the other hand, continuing with a website that does not work properly can be more costly in the long run. Weigh the costs and benefits of eCommerce platform migration and then decide whether it is suitable for your business or not.

Here are some of the reasons that push eCommerce businesses to upgrade to a new platform:

Poor Performance

If your eCommerce site is not performing well due to its platform, you should upgrade it. If your site loads slowly or you face frequent technical issues, consider an upgrade.

Outdated Technology

You know technology changes rapidly, so if you’re using an old, outdated platform, upgrade it to stay competitive and enhance it with modern features.

Business Growth

Over time, size, sales, and product lines increase, and an old website cannot meet all the growing needs. A platform upgrade may keep everything perfectly streamlined.

Scope for Efficiency

If the platform migration can bring you significant improvements in efficiency via automation capabilities, analytics, or content management, try it and welcome new opportunities.

Tips for eCommerce Website Platform Migration

eCommerce platform migration is a multi-step process that requires a lot of time. A small error in a single step can ruin the entire outcome. So, be cautious while migrating your eCommerce website.

1. Outline eCommerce Platform Migration Steps

eCommerce platform migration requires careful planning. Sit down with your hired web design company and outline everything that the migration process should include.

• What changes do you want to make to your website?
• Will you move the entire thing as it is or change some parts?
• Prepare a migration checklist and take steps accordingly.

Also, you need to consider some important factors such as domain, SSL certificate, URLs, etc.

Domain: Make sure you have access to your domain. So that in the future, if you change the host, you can easily point your DNS record to the correct servers.

SSL: Certificate: Generally, SSL vendors provide accurate instructions on how to handle it during migration. If your site has an SSL certificate, you have to migrate it too and make sure it’s perfectly compatible with the new platform.

URLs: Do you want to change the URL structure after you migrate your eCommerce site? If yes, you need to set up 301 redirects. It is effective in preventing your site from losing search engine rankings, and users can reach your new site by following the URLs.

2. Catalog Your Existing Content

In order to successfully move everything to the new platform, you should organize all the content that you want to move over from your old site. You can create an outline showing all your pages, as it will help you keep track of all the content.

3. Design Your New Site

Before the moving process, you should have the design for your new site ready. Ask your website designer to craft a new responsive web design with the new platform in mind. You can keep the website design on a staging site and test it. It will help you understand the areas that still need some improvement so you can fix them before the final launch of the site.

4. Back-Up Your Data

Data is crucial, and you should try to migrate as much data as possible to the new platform. It won’t only save a lot of time but also help you maintain order histories, customer details, etc., which are invaluable information. Take the help of expert website developers to create a data import script and let that work for your new site. Remember, you need to back up the most recent version of your website, as it will help you recover everything if something goes wrong during the data migration procedure. If it feels tough to handle on your own, hire expert website design services in India and complete data backup with efficiency.

5. Migrate Important Data

Once you complete the data backup, you need to start migrating the important data. Instead of doing everything at once, migrate a specific part of your site and test it to make sure that everything is working accordingly. If it successfully works, you should continue with other parts of your eCommerce data migration. Always take the help of an expert eCommerce website developer to complete the work without causing any harm to your website or its reputation.

When it comes to safe and successful data migration, many prefer to use a file transfer protocol (FTP) element. For example, they often use Filezilla to transfer static files safely. For dynamic eCommerce sites that run on a database, you can import the database to the new web host or platform. If your new platform is much different than the old one or if the content has changed, you have to be more careful about the migration process.

Either you manually reformat and safely move the data or let expert developers craft a custom script for such a migration. The script can automatically read and reformat the data across platforms. In order to keep customer accounts and order histories, you may also need to craft a separate migration process. Consult with the best website design companies in India and know what’s more suitable for your requirements and goals.

These are the five major steps or tips that you have to be careful about. Once the migration process is done, you should conduct full testing, and there’s no scope for skipping it. According to eCommerce development experts, major errors lie in cross-browser testing. After migration, the site may work well in IE but not in Firefox or other browsers. Make sure all parts of the site and cross-browser checking are done before launching. It’s also true that you won’t find everything, but it’s wise to fix the major bugs.

Conclusion

Without any doubt, eCommerce platform migration is a hard task. However, if you plan accordingly, follow this guide, and take the help of an expert eCommerce development company, you can easily achieve success.

If you prefer to get professional-grade help for your eCommerce site platform migration, consider Logo Design India, a leading website design company in India. We have been in this domain for over a decade, helping businesses of all sizes and in all industries with creative web design services and next-gen mobile solutions. We are prepared with a highly skilled team of more than 150 employees and can handle any complex project. In order to learn more about how we can help you with eCommerce platform migration, call us at +919830721090.