- 1. Mapping: Customer journey mapping – Usability testing on the current site, Persona exercises, and in depth analytics research contributes shows what shoppers expect from the brand online. Merchants ought to conceive how shoppers move through brand’s sites now versus at the last re-platforming. Project mapping – Merchants should feel confident to plot which aspects of the new technology roll out will be achieved at initial launch, and which can be phased in over time. With a complete picture of consumer behavior in mind, merchants moves particular features off the immediate launch list and slating them for 3-6 months away.
- 2. Cleanup Targets: Data feeds and reports: Merchants must streamline the core code that drives the Web site. They should examine import-export mundane to ensure that all are handled with extreme efficiency. They should be on the lookout for tags involving disused third-party features or apps ensure that their code sticks to the latest industry standards. Additionally, analytics tags and reporting should be refreshed and tested for accuracy.Merchants should carefully curate the publicly-available historic record and remove from active circulation defunct (dead) content to ensure that it contemplates favorably on the brand. Descriptions of long-discontinued products about dead initiatives not only jumble back-end administration systems but also turn up to a disappointing experience with the brand.
- 3. Domain Related Issues: URLs, Navigation and Migrations on the Same Domain are the common issues that is faced when a website is migrated. If this is taken care of considerably along with measuring the Impact of the Site Move, then there would be absolutely now major crisis or problems occur after switching. While Moving to a New Sub-domain, Domain or TLD, it is vital to check whether the migration has gone right or not.
- 4. Impact on Current Processes: Before you migrate, you need to reassert that the new solution offers suitable systems to suit your business by researching on how your new platform integrates with accounting systems, shipping vendors and payment processors.
- 5. SSL (secured socket layer) Certificate: You will have to move SSL Certificate to the new server if you have it with your current website,. Determine if the new provider offers a similar shared certificate or you will need to purchase a new one. Moving your certificate require some technical know-how but is not typically difficult. Not all certificates are compatible with all web server software. So, ensure that your current certificate will work before making the move.
- 6. Migrating the Data: A site migration can be challenging and straining if you don’t know how to easily move your data from one system to another. Ideally, you can export your products, accounts, and orders into a tab-delimited or comma-delimited format, then the data can be imported into the new system. The more complex your products are, the harder it will be to import your data.
- 7. Avoid Search Engine and Linking Bugs: Before migrating, it’s important to study the page titles and URLs of some sites using the new system. OR Install 301 permanent redirects of old URLs to new ones so that it will direct search engines and web browsers to a new URL on your site that replaced a previous one and entrust them that the change is permanent.
- 8. Email Interruptions: Sometimes site owners don’t correctly set list of email addresses up in the new environment and loses track. Once the new site goes live, test every address on the new site to ensure that the email is working alright.
- 9. TTL (time-to-live): This is one of the most important stairs to make a site transition occur fast. At least 48 hours before you displace your website to the new platform, you ought to log into the server management account at your old service provider and update the DNS records so TTL is established within 5-minutes. If you are ineffective to adjust the TTL (time-to-live), then you are dependent on the GIRS (Global Internet Routing System) to know if a site visitor sees your new/old site when he gets into your address.
- 10. Develop and Test First: Build new content to cover recently-discovered gaps. A refreshed look will confirm to the shoppers that the site is all-new. Thus, merchants should take the time now to contend with new streams of user-submitted content, such as image feeds from hashtag campaigns.Test from top to bottom. Merchants must give time to testing to ensure that the new site can run in parallel with the existing offering, product, content and data feeds as they’re updated. Before making your site live and actual customers are ready to order, work out the bugs, place some test orders and affirm that the new site is linked with your payment processing system.
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- 11. Schedule the Transfer: If you have access to the log files on the both (new and old) servers, you can check and analyze what is happening to your site’s traffic and it will also show you if visitors are getting to non-existing pages.
- 12. Keep the Old Site: Keeping the old site active for an overlapping month establishes you time to archive all old files so that you don’t miss any crucial file, script, or piece of information.
- 13. Product and Category Data:
- A good way of getting bulk data transferred is to use Cart2Cart platform-a service that maps and migrates data from other major shopping cart platforms to Magento.
- Export your data to a CSV and import with Magento Dataflow.
- Manually add your products.
In addition to catalog data you also need to reckon other data deported to your new Magento website. This could be : Newsletter subscribers, Blog posts, Customers, Orders and Pages.
Customer data migration is absolutely mandatory & it’s easy to transfer the main contact and address details from one platform to another. But it becomes increasingly difficult to transfer passwords and order history as passwords within Magento are encrypted in a specific way. Thus, the passwords in your customer data must be exactly in the right format for the import to work.
- 13. Product and Category Data:
- 14. Back Office Integration: If a Magento integration into your back office software is not possible, then you should definitely upgrade your systems and streamline your business processes. There are many solutions out there that make all of the routine warehouse tasks much rapidly and flexible; they will integrate with Magento out-of-the-box.
- 15. URL Retention: Landing page URLs built up a wealth of authority over time will have been cached by the search engines. It is vital that your existing products, categories, and CMS pages are all 301 redirected to their new URLs as your business cannot afford to start from scratch.
- 16. Merchandising and Promotions: Few of the suggestions that drives abundant traffic to your website for its re-launch: Banners and CMS Blocks, Social Media, Customer Segmentation, and Customer Rewards.
- 17. Redirects / URLs: If the old platform has pages already indexed on search engines it’s indispensable to redirect those pages to the equivalent on the new platform. If this doesn’t happen, the site will drop off a substantial volume of business.
- 18. Analytics: Analytics reporting should be reconfigured, update funnels and change goal pages as soon as possible. You’ll need to review the site at the earliest possible date and make any alterations.
So, if you really have to migrate, just make sure you consider all the above pitfalls, checks and reference. This article is not just simply to tell you which eCommerce platform to choose, but will also let you know the steps to take when you move to a new platform. Migration planning means a few critical checks, get them right and you will increase return. If you keep on ignoring them then you would certainly risk everything. Here are the collaborative steps that are necessary and sufficient in eCommerce Migrations. Stiil confused? Let us help you!
