In such a highly commoditized (and competitive market) A Specialty Box’s core competency lies almost entirely within their ability to customize their client’s orders. 

Unfortunately, their previous eCommerce platform was severely limiting, specifically with respect to capabilities regarding the visualization of their custom offerings and product options. 

Consequently, the company partnered with us for a migration to BigCommerce paired with custom site redesign and development. 

Shift4Shop to BigCommerce Migration

One of this client’s biggest concerns with their preexisting eCommerce platform, Shift4Shop, was that it was highly limiting with respect to the way product options were visualized. 

That puts it lightly. Their previous platform actually offered no visualization functionality for prospective clients. Even to get a quote for a custom box required prospective customers to actively reach out to them.

You can see this illustrated in the image below. Requesting a specific customization is not possible from the product page and worse, there is no visualization feature for the product requested.

This resulted in a poor customer experience and an ineffective, unpleasant journey, to say the least. 

We worked closely with A Specialty Box to migrate their data over to a newly designed BigCommerce website. This was not a standard migration and to execute it we needed to work hand-in-hand with them to make sure their data populated appropriately. 

Because of the non-typical nature of this eCommerce data migration, we had to perform a series of quality control checks to ensure that their data synched and populated properly during the course of the migration.

Fortunately, thanks to the native product options functionality of BigCommerce, no particularly heavy custom development lift was necessary in order to fix this shortcoming. The data migration and re-platforming initiative alone redressed most of the concerns here. 

It was also the case that on the old website, product options that were displayed as available (without requesting direct outreach and a custom quote) populated as entirely different products, not as options. This was confusing and made for a cumbersome user interface. We condensed the website hierarchy to minimize this conflict so that each product option would be nested under the product and not listed separately as a unique one.

The new BigCommerce storefront, that we redesigned for them, addressed these concerns. 

Custom Homepage Redesign and Optimizations 

For this project, we redesigned the company homepage and also redesigned the product page template to make it more user friendly. 

As for the homepage, we didn’t overhaul the design or rebrand anything; we just worked with what we had to modernize it. As you can see from the image below, the new interface of the homepage simply has a more modern look and feel. We also updated navigation by prominently featuring main and top categories on the homepage just below the banner. 

We also improved the dynamic slider banner which lives on the homepage just under the megamenu; on this banner their custom product options and capabilities are prominently displayed to drive engagement and conversions. 

In addition, we improved the categorization and visual aspect of the mega menu, including images to streamline the customer journey, while also making the overall interface afforded by the menu more succinct, more accessible, and less overwhelming.

The new website design, built on BigCommerce, also offered a much better mobile experience than their old storefront did, with visual elements and text that scale more appropriately and responsively to the screen used to view the website. 

This aspect of the migration and redesign strongly benefits the user experience, but it also benefits the domain’s overall SEO score, which is a big consideration since our digital marketing team is also undertaking an eCommerce SEO campaign for them, which was running concurrently with the design and development work. 

Otherwise, we kept the bones of the branding and store design fairly intact, at least on the homepage. 

Product Page Redesign and Doogma Integration

Our most extensive redesign efforts were to the product page template, which, as stated, previously had no visualization functionality to showcase the company’s product customizations and options. 

Doogma offers fairly robust product visualization functionality; we integrated this tool with their BigCommerce website, but otherwise, our designers and developers took the initiative to build the product page customization features for customers to utilize. 

This joint effort between our designers, developers and the basic functionality of Doogma enabled us to create a conversion-optimized product page template for A Specialty Box that offers a pleasant, streamlined user experience, as depicted below.

Altogether, these changes we made to the product page, on our end and through partnership with and integration of Doogma, significantly improved the customer experience and journey,  better positioning A Specialty Box to meet the changing needs of prospective customers, while also ensuring it occupies a more competitive position to address unseen future challenges. 

Explore Our Other eCommerce Case Studies 

This strategic initiative we undertook for A Specialty Box, though impactful, only represents a handful of our technical and digital marketing capabilities. To learn more about other client transformations we have authored in the past, please see our full collection of eCommerce case studies.

The post Improving Product Option Visualization and UX: A Case Study appeared first on 1Digital® Agency.

Still, there are times when a migration becomes effectively an imperative. Here’s what you should know about when it’s time, how to prepare, and how to vet a provider of website migration services, all from a very high level, of course.

When Website Migration Services Might Become Necessary 

There are some big indicators that might tip you off that it’ll be time for you to get off your current platform sooner rather than later. These are some of the most salient.

• Website support is ending or becoming untenable

Have you just been informed that your current platform administrator or hosting provider will no longer be able to support your website’s operations in the near future? This is one of the most straightforward indicators of all. If this happens (and it does, I’ve heard it from actual clients) then the case is not that you might need to migrate. You will have to.

• Your current setup can’t handle your website traffic

For any of various reasons, a hosting provider or even a platform itself might not be well suited to shoulder the amount of traffic your website gets. For growing eCommerce websites and blogs, this is a serious problem that will result in a poor user experience or flat out crashes. 

• Your platform is too limiting

Some platforms, for better or worse, are difficult to customize. This is particularly true of open-source platforms that require you to have a good deal of development experience to make even the most basic changes. In that event, it might be far more expedient for your business if you get your website onto a more amenable platform with templated solutions, sooner rather than later. 

• There are security concerns

If your website is experiencing a larger than average number of fraudulent attempts or transactions, you might need to get onto a more secure platform or hosting provider. A situation like this can be a ticking time bomb so it’s better dealt with sooner rather than later. 

• You need a more scalable solution 

There are many reasons that a website platform limits your ability to grow, either in terms of what you offer, how much traffic you bring in, or what changes you anticipate making to it. Either way, once your platform becomes the limiter, it’s time for a new one. The longer you put it off, the harder the migration will be in the long run anyway.

• You want to move to an eCommerce-friendly platform 

Some websites start on open-source platforms like WordPress only to realize that there are much better solutions for eCommerce, like Shopify and BigCommerce, that are designed for managing customer accounts, order data, payment processing, and managing an inventory of products. 

How to Prepare for a Website Migration

Once you know a website migration is an inevitability, there are things you can do to make the process easier on yourself, as well as more secure for you and your users. 

Here are some of the steps you’ll want to take, again, from a high level. 

• Set your goals 

You shouldn’t be migrating simply because you think it’s a good idea (although it may be). You’ll want to know why. Are you moving for greater scalability? To handle a heavier traffic load? To make it easier for you to customize your website? 

Whatever the case, make sure you know what the goal is so you can measure before and after success. 

• Establish a plan 

Are you going to handle the migration on your own or work with a provider of website migration services? This is arguably the most important question you will want to answer before proceeding. 

If you’ll be handling the migration internally, make sure you have the skills on your team that you’ll need and that each person knows what their roles and responsibilities are before you get the wheels in motion. At a certain point you won’t be able to turn back.

• Inform users of any expected downtime 

Once you decide to move forward with plan to migrate your website, make sure your users are well informed of any delays in user experience that might be caused. Send out an email and alert them on social media about the move and let them know when and if to expect downtime – if any is planned. 

• Freeze the site and back up data 

You don’t want any changes to be happening to the data on your website while you’re working on migrating, so it will become necessary at some point to freeze your website (that means no more posting to your CMS platform or accepting new client orders) and back up all your data.

• Setup analytics

When going through a domain migration, you’ll want to set up analytics beforehand so that you’re ready to start tracking traffic, sessions, conversions and revenue as soon as the new site is live. This is particularly important because migrations can affect SEO (search engine optimization) and generally not favorably, unless 301 redirects are implemented properly. 

• Test redirects 

As stated, anywhere there is a change to a URL structure, a 404 error will occur in the wake of a migration. Without 301 redirects in place, this will cause a massive drop off in traffic after the migration. Test them before launching. 

• Launch the new site 

Once you’ve backed up your data, set up analytics, put redirects in place, you can export the data from the old site to the new site – that is, perform the actual migration  – then launch the site. 

• Run post-launch diagnostics/check functionality 

Once the new site is live, check it to make sure everything is where it should be and spot check integrations and pages for display and functionality. You won’t be able to spot check everything, but if a large set of random checks doesn’t turn up any errors, you’re likely in a good spot. 

• Alternatively, work with a proven provider of website migration services 

While the high level pointers outlined here should give you a jumping off point for planning a migration yourself, a much safer avenue is to work with a professional provider of website migration services. A successful migration may hinge on their expertise. 

How to Vet a Company That Provides Website Migration Services 

While working with a provider of professional website migration services can help you avoid a disaster, it is equally important to make sure you’re working with one that can be trusted. Failing to do so can take a migration from bad to worse, and cost you money in the process. Here are some things to look for before signing with an agency. 

• Ask questions to be sure of the services offered

If there’s anything you need to be known about your website or hosting environment before migrating, make sure you ask. You can’t expect anyone else to know about the unique requirements for your project if you don’t publish them, but more importantly, you won’t know if the agency can handle the job if you don’t ask. 

• Make sure their services are SEO-friendly

Many agencies offer website migration services, not all of them are quality, and certainly, not all of them are executed with an eye on SEO. All in all, we are SEO experts here, even more than migration experts. We are no strangers to Google Analytics, Search Console, or implementing redirects. Call us and ask if you have concerns about drops in organic traffic before you enlist. We will be more than happy to explain any part of the process in detail. 

• Ask for case studies

Case studies are, in many ways, proof of the pudding. Talk is cheap when it comes to digital marketing services. Look for case studies that illustrate the process of a migration as well as what steps were taken to ensure that the project ran smoothly and as expected. 

• Read the scope of work 

The scope of work (SOW) will detail what the agency will be responsible and what (if anything) you will be responsible for. It is absolutely critical that you understand your role in the process before embarking. There are things an agency will not be able to do without your help. 

• Inquire into the migration process

Never sign with an eCommerce digital agency unless they have a proven migration process. I won’t pontificate. We have one – you can learn about our migration process right here – and we’ve handled hundreds. 

• Check reviews (offsite reviews are best) 

In the interest of fairness, I have to tell you to check reviews, and not just reviews that appear on our website. Check our offsite reviews, too. There’s no bias there, and you’ll get some insight into what clients that have actually worked with us thought of the interaction. 

Getting Ready for a Migration 

Just like so many things in life, though the prospect of a migration might be unwelcome, it’s best to just get it over and done with. Start planning the move and your reasons for it today, and if you need help, don’t be afraid to connect with a professional to shed some light on the anything that’s confusing you.

The post Website Migration Services: A Beginner’s Guide appeared first on 1Digital® Agency.

I’d even call it literally the same, except, one, of course, deals with physical goods, and the other with data. But they are both fraught with room for error and require complex protocols and processes in place to make sure everything ends up where it’s supposed to go. 

So let’s talk about the role of a data migration process in this big picture, and why it matters. 

Why a Data Migration Process Is Important 

Don’t let the apparently succinct nature of an online store fool you. There could be thousands, if not tens of thousands, of product entries, each on their own URLs, nestled under carefully organized categories. 

On each URL, there might be unique, optimized copy, titles, meta data, product imagery, and other user-generated content (UGC) like reviews and pictures. 

This alone is an immense amount of data to account for while migrating, but on top of that, there might be tens to hundreds of CMS pages, like blogs, user guides, and FAQs pages, along with thousands of entries associated with user account information, order history, pricing and options, and so much more. 

I am intentionally painting a curiously curt image of the sheer “amount” of data contained in your average online store, but even accounting for the glibness of my oversimplification, it is quite apparent to a reasonable mind that this is a monumentally large amount of data. 

Moving it, and putting it in the right place on a new platform or database is challenging enough, but then we have to deal with URL changes, which, in the absence of a proper redirect, will cause all that earned authority to collapse, resulting in massive drop offs in organic traffic. 

So, without overcomplicating it, these are some of the reasons that a data migration process is necessary to protect the functionality of your online store, provide for a continued positive user experience, and prevent a disaster with respect to SEO. 

Every provider might have its own data migration process, but now you know why it’s important, here’s ours. 

The 1Digital^Ⓡ Data Migration Process

I can’t stress this enough, but do not work with a digital agency that does not have a well-developed data migration process. You’ve been warned.

Now, to talk details, here are the phases of our data migration process.

1. Access to and Evaluating Data 

The first step in our data migration process is summing it all up. Our technical experts will need access to your data, either through your platform’s API (all in all, one of the best ways to migrate is an API transfer), through a CSV file, or through whatever external database/ERP you use. 

Once we have access to your website’s data, then we can account for some specifics associated with the platform, how the data is stored and arranged, and some other variables (many are unique to each project), we will evaluate it to determine whether or not the proposed method of transfer will be acceptable given the new platform’s constraints. 

If everything checks out, we can greenlight the next step in the process. 

1. Initial Data Transfer 

Once we have assessed the method we intend to use for the transfer, we can send over most if not all of your data to the new platform and check for accuracy, as well as to see that it all populated where it was supposed to. 

Our migration scripts do the heavy lifting here, and move the actual data. After it’s all transferred over, then the work of checking it all begins. 

1. Front-End Data Alignment and Testing 

Once we’ve run all our scripts and sent over all of your data to your new platform, we need to make sure that it went where it was supposed to go, which naturally will vary for each store and the each new platform.

If your project entails redesign and development work, this is also the point at which we will transfer the new design out of the sandbox and onto the new store so we can begin quality assurance testing. 

The data that will need to be checked will vary according to the project, but since many of our clients are in eCommerce, big things to check are product options, imagery, pricing, and items like that. 

Another aspect of this step in the process is sending out an email blast to your customers informing them that their account information has changed; the email will not be sent until the migration is complete but at this point we may ask your help in approving the copy.

1. Resync

During the time in which your new store was being built and all your data was being transferred, your “old” store was still live, which means it would still be taking orders, enrolling new customers, and going about the other day to day motions of an eCommerce website. 

Before the launch date of your new website we need to perform a resync to ensure all of that data on your new website is up to date, including all of the changes that have been made during the period associated with the initial transfer. That way, you don’t lose any orders or new customers during that period. 

This, however, requires a short freeze, known as a freeze period, during which your website cannot accept any changes. Our goal is to minimize this period so your website experiences as little downtime as possible, but we recommend that our customers manually track any new order submissions or new account sign-ups during this period so that they can be added to the new store once it is live. 

1. Front-End Alignment Testing – Resync

Most of the quality assurance testing we do comes right after we initially transfer your data, but there is still a chance that hiccups can occur after the resync and freeze period. 

For this reason, we do a second short QA after the resync, just to make sure everything is where it is supposed to be, and the integrity of the data quality has been upheld. 

This second QA testing must be performed during the freeze period, so our goal is to make sure it occurs as quickly as possible. 

1. Launch 

Now the fun part – this is when we go live. This is the point at which all of our efforts collectively pay off, but it is an intricate and intensive process made complicated by data migration. 

At this point, we will want to send the password reset email blast to your book of existing customer accounts so they know that in order to continue accessing your online store they will need to update their account with a new password.

We also recommend the implementation of 301 redirects as any part of a migration strategy. If you do not implement 301 redirects and any of your URLs are not exactly the same as the old ones, all of the authority of that page will be lost, and your SEO efforts will be wasted. A 301 redirect implementation strategy can help prevent this migration complication. 

We also monitor your Google Search Console for a period of time after we migrate data, that way we can check for crawler issues and make sure your website is being crawled as necessary. 

After that, if all else is in order, your new store is live, and your data migration project was a success. 

Questions About Our Data Migration Process? 

Given the scope of the different types of data migrations and application migrations, made more complex by the volume of data, the data format, the source and target systems in question, and the data migration tools being used, it can be stressful to move it all. 

That said, we are here to help and have handled hundreds of successful migrations in the past. If you are considering a migration and are unsure about the steps of a data migration process (or if it is worth it to move data in the first place) feel free to get in touch with us and one of our specialists will be more than happy to help. 

The post What Is a Proper Data Migration Process and How Does It Protect Your Online Store During a Migration? appeared first on 1Digital® Agency.

Despite the challenges of the prospect of a re-platforming project, the benefits may be well worth the time and effort necessary to migrate off your current platform and onto BigCommerce, a platform that currently hosts over 45,000 live websites. This post will explore in detail the best reasons to re-platform to BigCommerce and how it can empower your eCommerce business, especially if you work with a certified BigCommerce agency partner to help you during the process. 

1. Scalability for Growth:

One of the most compelling reasons to re-platform to BigCommerce is its scalability. Whether you’re a small business looking to expand or an enterprise-level company with high traffic volumes, BigCommerce can handle your growth seamlessly. With its scalable infrastructure and performance optimizations, you can focus on growing your business without worrying about technical limitations. BigCommerce is also available in 4 different service plans, Standard (starting at only $29 per month), Plus, Pro, and Enterprise (a custom package), so the platform is well-equipped to grow with your business and its marketing strategies. You can proactively upgrade your BigCommerce store at any time, and all 4 plans do not incur additional transaction fees, while offering unlimited bandwidth for staff accounts and file storage. 

2. Extensive Feature Set:

BigCommerce offers an extensive range of built-in features designed to meet the diverse needs of eCommerce businesses. From inventory management, order processing, and customer management to advanced marketing tools, reporting, and analytics, BigCommerce covers all essential aspects of running a successful online store. This comprehensive feature set eliminates the need for many costly third-party integrations and simplifies your operational workflows, despite the fact that BigCommerce remains easily integrable with a wide range of robust third-party apps and tools (as well as many that are expressly designed for BigCommerce. 

3. Flexibility and Customization:

Your brand’s unique identity is crucial when it comes to standing out from the competition. BigCommerce provides a highly flexible platform that allows you to customize your online store according to your brand’s aesthetics and requirements. With an extensive collection of responsive themes and the ability to modify design elements, layout, and color schemes, you can create a visually stunning storefront that resonates with your target audience. There are 15 free BigCommerce themes with 5 different theme styles and countless other premium versions are available, but you can also work with an accredited BigCommerce partner to develop a customized, brand-integrated theme for your BigCommerce website. 

4. Seamless Integration Capabilities, Many Apps Available 

BigCommerce boasts a vast ecosystem of third-party integrations, with over 100,000 apps available in the BigCommerce app store, enabling you to extend the functionality of your online store effortlessly. From popular marketing tools like Mailchimp and HubSpot to payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe, BigCommerce seamlessly integrates with various applications to streamline your operations and enhance customer experiences. This integration versatility allows you to tailor your eCommerce stack to your specific business needs.

5. Mobile-First Approach:

In 2022, almost a full half of all eCommerce sales were mobile sales, and in the mobile-centric era, optimizing your online store for mobile devices is essential. BigCommerce understands this and offers mobile-friendly and responsive themes, ensuring that your store looks and performs flawlessly on smartphones and tablets. By providing an exceptional mobile shopping experience, you can reach and engage a wider audience and increase conversions. BigCommerce is not only inherently mobile-friendly, but it enables mobile-design optimized shopping carts as well as the flexibility to sell through other websites (like eBay and Amazon) opening up additional opportunities for conversions.

6. Enhanced Security and Compliance:

Protecting your customers’ sensitive information is paramount. BigCommerce takes security seriously and provides robust built-in security features to safeguard your online store. With regular security updates, SSL encryption, and PCI DSS compliance, BigCommerce ensures that your customers’ data is protected, enhancing trust and credibility for your brand. Another great thing about the platform that gives BigCommerce merchants peace of mind is that since BigCommerce is hosted, security is taken care of automatically. Unlike open-source platforms, in which security can suffer if users miss a patch or update, BigCommerce has site security automatically buttoned up. That helps SEO, too – speaking of which…

7. SEO-Friendly Architecture:

Search engine visibility is crucial for driving organic traffic to your online store. BigCommerce offers an SEO-friendly architecture, empowering you to optimize your website for search engines effortlessly. With features such as customizable URLs, meta tags, sitemaps, and responsive design, you can improve your store’s search engine rankings and attract more qualified traffic. BigCommerce offers other features that make it appealing from a search engine optimization perspective as well. It automatically generates and updates a sitemap, offers excellent site speeds and security, and comes with a built-in blog. For the other aspects of SEO, however, such as keyword research, content production, backlink building, and other components of SEO strategies, it’s best to work with an accredited BigCommerce SEO agency. 

8. Streamlined Checkout Process:

A smooth and hassle-free checkout process is essential for maximizing conversions. BigCommerce provides a streamlined checkout experience with features like guest checkout, one-click purchasing, and support for various payment gateways. By reducing friction during the buying journey, you can minimize cart abandonment rates and boost overall conversion rates. BigCommerce also accepts a number of different popular payment gateways and methods and is compatible with several BNPL (buy now pay later) providers like Sezzle and Affirm.

9. Shipping, Simplified

BigCommerce has a built-in shipping calculator that makes it easy and straightforward for your customers to come up with accurate shipping estimates associated with their orders. Moreover, the eCommerce platform easily integrates with major carrier accounts like UPS, FedEx, and USPS, streamlining shipping for both the merchant and the customer. 

1o. Built-in Analytics

It’s never a bad idea to brush up on Google Analytics and Google Search Console, but with BigCommerce, you don’t need to be a Google expert, because the platform is pre-configured with robust analytics and reporting functionality. BigCommerce analytics is a powerful tool that offers insights into user behavior, buying trends, and even offers the ability to analyze customer segments. 

11. Overall Ease of Use

If there’s one great thing about BigCommerce, perhaps more than all of the other things I’ve covered so far, it’s that you don’t have to be an eCommerce developer to figure out how to build a legitimate-looking online storefront. In fact, pretty much everything about the platform is straightforward and easy to use. I don’t personally have any experience with open-source eCommerce platforms like Magento, but I have both heard and read nightmare tales about making the most mundane of customizations with platforms like that. With BigCommerce, writing a blog, creating a new product, updating metadata, and integrating most apps and tools, is as easy as a few keystrokes and button clicks. Not every platform can say that. In fact, most can’t.

12. Outstanding Customer Support

BigCommerce offers exceptional customer support to assist you at every step of your eCommerce journey. Their knowledgeable support team is available via email, phone, and live chat to address any concerns or issues you may encounter. Additionally, BigCommerce provides a vast library of documentation, tutorials, and community forums where you can find resources and best practices, so if you don’t know how to do something from personal experience, there’s almost definitely a white paper or guide out there on how to get it done.

13. A Large BigCommerce Ecosystem of BigCommerce Experts Is at Your Disposal 

Thanks to its large pool of users, there is a robust, multi-hued, talented pool of BigCommerce partners out there. Through its BigCommerce Partner Program, the platform vets and certifies a wide range of BigCommerce experts, including marketing experts, website designers, and development agencies, all based on their experience with the platform and with their respective spheres of expertise. There are three tiers: BigCommerce Partner, Preferred Partner, and Elite Partner, all with varying levels of experience and capability. 

14. Because Migrating Doesn’t Need to Be a Hassle 

Finally, and thanks in part to both the large support network of BigCommerce partners and the platform’s own customer service, migrating to BigCommerce doesn’t need to be a hassle, especially when you work with an experienced BigCommerce partner that specializes in eCommerce migration and support services. While the prospect of migrating thousands if not hundreds of thousands of categories, products, orders, and customer accounts may be daunting, with the help of a BigCommerce agency that follows a proven migration process, it really can be a walk in the park, one that can pay off big in the long run.

The post Top Reasons to Re-Platform to BigCommerce appeared first on 1Digital® Agency.

When it comes to eCommerce platforms, few offer the same level of raw functionality. 

But there’s a catch. Since the user is responsible for hosting the platform, security, speed, and functionality all come down to the user.

Some eCommerce merchants just can’t justify staying on a platform like Magento. For some, the convenience and cost savings associated with SaaS platforms like Shopify outweigh the potential benefits of customization and integration that Magento offers. 

So let’s take a closer look at why some merchants might benefit from a Magento to Shopify Plus migration, as well as how to prepare for it.

Advantages of Shopify Plus

There are a number of reasons that SaaS models like Shopify Plus are attractive to eCommerce merchants. 

Many of these are attributable to the fact that Shopify Plus provides all necessary hosting and infrastructure, performs load testing, and provides security patches and upgrades as necessary. That takes a load off the shoulders of the platforms’ customers. 

Shopify Plus also offers its users access to internal architects, Shopify Plus developers, and retainer-based consulting. 

In addition, the Shopify Platform: 

• Integrates with Google Ads.
• Has a native, built-in blogging engine, which supports SEO, content marketing, and other digital marketing efforts. 
• Offers 8 free themes and dozens of other premium themes. 
• Has a native coupon code feature (all subscription models).
• Allows easy HTML and CSS editing, which is necessary for developers to make customizations. 
• Has a live-chat integration feature. 
• Is easily integrable with a huge range of Shopify apps. 
• The platform has an abandoned cart recovery feature. 
• Shopify supports the use of multiple currency settings.
• Integrates easily with most major shipping carriers like UPS and FedEx. 
• Easily integrates with a large range of payment providers.
• Supports a large Shopify ecosystem of designers, developers, and digital marketing specialists.
• Has its own analytics reporting functionality. 

In addition to the general benefits of the Shopify platform, mentioned above, there are some exclusive benefits to the use of Shopify Plus, such as:

• Shopify Flow, an automation feature that enables users to automate workflows using premade templates. Workflow automation can also be customized. 
• Script Editor, which enables easy customizations to multiple aspects of your Shopify Plus store.
• Some apps are Shopify Plus exclusive. 
• It allows you to create unlimited staff accounts.
• And finally, a subscription to Shopify Plus gives you access to a dedicated account manager. 

Drawbacks of Open-Source (Magento)

For many eCommerce merchants, the reason a migration from Magento to Shopify Plus becomes necessary has more to do with the investment required to run a Magento store than from the specific benefits of Shopify Plus. 

While it is true that Magento’s open-source nature makes the most robust customizations possible, doing so requires no small deal of Magento development expertise. In fact, you need to be very code-savvy to do so. 

Moreover, since users have to host their own platforms, server loads, security, speed, and integrations can all become headaches quite quickly. 

There is a large community of Magento developers out there, but at the same time, some issues associated with managing a Magento store include: 

• Magento is associated with high development costs due to the complex nature of the platform.
• Becoming familiar with the platform entails a steep learning curve and a large investment in time. 
• Magento hosting is resource intensive.
• According to some users, Magento is far too over-engineered for average users – who, by the way, generally happen to be eCommerce entrepreneurs and not computer scientists. 

All of this might sound simple but really it adds up to one glaring truth: running a Magento store gets expensive, quickly. 

Why Magento to Shopify Plus Migration Can Benefit Your Business?

In terms of the cost and time investments it takes to launch and run a Magento website, we can break it down according to averages associated with how much it costs to launch, how long it takes to launch, and what the total monthly costs are. 

Of course, these figures will vary according to the scope of a store’s operations and functionality, but here are some basic figures. 

• On average, it costs about $75,000 to $170,000 to build a Shopify website, compared to $400,000 to $600,000 for a Magento store. That makes the Magento route up to 3 times more on average. 
• It takes on average 2 to 4 months to build a fully-functional Shopify Plus website, compared to 5 to 8 months for Magento. 
• And, on average, a Shopify Plus website costs $2,500 to $5,000 in monthly maintenance, compared to $10,000 to $15,000 for Magento. 

So, Magento is just more expensive (in both dollars and resources) to manage than Shopify Plus. That much is hardly up for debate. 

Here’s how to go about planning a Magento to Shopify Plus eCommerce migration. 

Planning for a Magento to Shopify Plus Migration

There is actually a way to manage your own Magento to Shopify Plus Migration. 

To do so, you will need to set up a Shopify account. You can actually start with a free trial that will let you get familiar with the platform before you choose the paid plan that works for you – though you will need to choose one before the trial is over. 

After you set up your Shopify account, the next thing you will want to make sure you do is to create a backup of your Magento store. This is perhaps the most important step of all because if something goes wrong (if anything goes wrong, really) and you haven’t made a backup, you could lose literally all of your product, customer account, and payment information, along with all of your CMS pages. 

You can back up your Magento store through the platform’s Admin sidebar – under System, Tools, and Backups. 

Once you’ve made a backup of your Magento website, you can use an app called the “Import Store” app for Shopify that enables you to migrate your data over to the new Shopify store once you’ve exported it from Magento. 

You can use Magento’s Admin sidebar to export your data, too, just like you used it to back it up. 

Under System, go to Data Transfer, then Export. Select the entity type, then export it as an XML or CSV. format.

Log into your Shopify admin page, and under your apps, select Import Store; Upload the files through Magento and then select Continue Import. 

At this point, the technical aspect of the migration should be complete. Now you need to review your data and ensure that everything survived the migration. 

Then you need to customize and configure your new Shopify store and select a subscription plan before your trial expires. 

Now for the reality check. The process I just described for a Magento to Shopify migration might sound overly simplistic. It is, and on paper, the process is really very easy, but in practice, like so many other website administration “things,” there is actually quite a lot of room for error

And that room for error increases with websites that have thousands of products, variants, and customer accounts.

So, before you take up the banner, I highly suggest you reach out to one of our Shopify Plus developers to talk to us about our migration process. We’ve handled hundreds of eCommerce migrations in the past without a blip thanks to our watertight migration process that ensures no data loss and implements 301 redirects to address changes to URLs during the process. 

You’ll thank yourself later for letting professionals handle it. 

The post Planning for a Magento to Shopify Migration: What You Need to Know appeared first on 1Digital® Agency.

The products on BigCommerce now use the platform’s Catalog v3 API. The Catalog v3 API varies from the v2 API in terms of functionality and usability, and there are some clear markers that indicate that some merchants should migrate to the new version – whereas others might be better served by v2. 

Here’s a high-level view of what you need to know.

BigCommerce v2 vs. v3: What They Offer 

There are several differences between BigCommerce v2 and v3 which can make a substantial impact on the user experience. These can be broken down into several sets of categories: 

• User Experience: In v2, product details are split across multiple tabs. In v3, details can be edited on a single page; a custom view of frequently-used or edited sections can be pinned to the sidebar for ease of product entry/management.
• Customs Information: In v2 customs information can only be added through the API; in v3 it can be added through the API or directly to products through the control panel. 
• Option Organization: In v2, options are organized into sets that can be set as optional or required. In v3, there are two tops of options, variant and modifier options, which can be applied either to individual products or to groups of products. 
• Option Data: In v2 Option Data is based on parent product data and can be applied either individually or using the option set. In v3, price and weight can be directly assigned to variant options without rules; there are also modifier options that allow for several display formats.
• SKU Management: In v2, SKUs can be added manually or automatically generated using the Auto-SKU Generator. In v3, SKUs are automatically generated when creating variant options. 
• Bulk Product Updates: BigCommerce v2’s Bulk Edit feature allows certain product details to be edited in bulk. A CSV import can be used to create or apply products, options, option sets, or rules. In v3, the Bulk Edit feature remains, and products, variant options, and rules can be applied via CVS import, but to make individual modifier options, shared variant options, or shared modifier options, you’ll need to use the Catalog API.

These are some of the main differences between the BigCommerce v2 and v3 experience. Some other noteworthy differences include: 

• Navigation: In BigCommerce v2, navigation functionality is placed at the top of the screen. In v3, however, navigation runs through a sidebar at the left of the screen. 
• Creating new categories is a little easier: One good feature about the v3 experience is that if you start creating products and forgot to create a separate category for them, you can go back and make one without leaving the product edit section of the backend.
• V3 requires you to assign SKUs to each variant: BigCommerce v2 didn’t require the assignment of SKUs to each variant, but BigCommerce v3 does. 

Who Should Migrate to BigCommerce v3?

Given the updates relevant to the BigCommerce v3 experience, there are some indicators that a move will be in your favor. 

You should consider migrating from BigCommerce v2 to v3 if you want to be able to view and edit all product details on a single page, instead of through multiple different tabs. 

For international sellers, adding customs information in v3 is easier and does not require you to use the platform API.

You should move to v3 if you want to be able to auto-generate SKUs for each variant instead of having to do it manually. 

You should also consider moving to BigCommerce v3 if the parent-data-import function associated with product data values is more of a headache than a time saver. 

You should also move to v3 if you want to be able to manually adjust or enter MSRP or sale prices for each product variant. 

What About Staying on BigCommerce v2?

For some merchants, it makes the most sense to stick with the BigCommerce v2 experience. 

You should stay on v2 if you already have a fully-built catalog of products and variants and you don’t wish to make any changes to it. 

If importing and exporting product option sets via CSV works for you, you should also stay on v2. 

If you prefer to add images via the control panel’s “Image Manager,” then staying on v2 is probably a good choice for you as well. 

If you’re big on selectively creating variants for products, you should stay on v2, as well as if you prefer to manage the catalog through the API.

One more thing: if you manage the fields used in automatic SKU generation through the Auto-SKU Generator, you should stay on v2. 

If you’re not entirely sure, you can test out the features and functionality of the v3 experience by creating a trial store beforehand. 

Requirements for Upgrading to BigCommerce v3

There are main three requirements your store will have to satisfy before upgrading to BigCommerce v3.

To do so, your store: 

• Must not have option sets associated with products or options present on products.
• Cannot have “Configurable Fields” enabled.
• Cannot have Google Shopping fields enabled on any products or categories. 

If your store meets all of these requirements, you will see an “Opt-In” banner for v3 whenever you add or edit a product. 

BigCommerce Development and Website Support Services 

Not sure whether or not you want to upgrade yet to BigCommerce v3? Our BigCommerce developers can help. We are BigCommerce Elite Certified, have an excellent relationship with BigCommerce, and have ten years of experience working with and customizing the platform.

If you have questions about the benefits of the new v3 experience or would like help planning for the upgrade, contact our BigCommerce developers at 888-982-8269. 

The post BigCommerce v2 to v3 Migration Guide: When Is It the Right Time to Migrate? appeared first on 1Digital® Agency.

1. Data Loss

One of the biggest and most unexpected challenges associated with website migration is the potential for data loss. When migrating a website, all data must be transferred from the old site to the new one. This includes content, images, customer information, and other data. If any of this data is not properly transferred or is corrupted during the process, it can lead to a significant loss of data which can throw a massive wrench into business operations. 

2. SEO Issues

Another big challenge associated with website migration is SEO issues. When transferring a website, it is important to maintain consistent SEO elements such as page titles, meta descriptions, and URLs. If any of these elements are changed during the migration process, it can have a negative impact on the website’s search engine rankings. Additionally, changes to the website’s structure can cause issues with the website’s internal linking structure, which can also lead to SEO problems.

Another problem can arise from unexpected URL changes. If a URL changes at all during the migration process, it will result in a broken link whenever someone clicks on a link that hasn’t been updated with the new link address. This will create 404 errors all over your website which will tank your SEO scores. 

While this latter problem is common, an eCommerce digital agency with a well-establish migration process will implement 301 redirects for all of your old URLs, thus preventing a loss of SEO value or a drop in traffic. 

3. Security Issues

Website migration also carries the potential for security issues. When transferring a website, all of the old site’s security measures must be transferred and implemented on the new site. This includes setting up secure protocols, such as HTTPS, and ensuring that all user data is encrypted. If the new site’s security measures are not properly implemented, it can leave the website vulnerable to security threats.

4. Performance Issues

One of the most unexpected challenges associated with website migration is performance issues. When transferring a website, it is important to ensure that all of the new website’s elements are optimized for performance. This includes optimizing images, minifying code, and ensuring that the website is being served from the most efficient server. If the website’s performance is not optimized, it can lead to slow loading times, which can have a negative impact on the user experience.

5. Compatibility Issues

Another potential challenge associated with website migration is compatibility issues. When transferring a website, it is important to ensure that all of the new website’s elements are compatible with the various browsers, devices, and operating systems that the website will be viewed on. If the new website’s elements are not compatible with these elements, it can lead to issues such as layout problems and broken links.

Website migration is a complex process that requires careful planning and execution. While there are many potential benefits to be gained from website migration, there are also some unexpected challenges that can occur. 

Understanding these challenges is half the battle, as some eCommerce businesses may not even be aware that these hurdles and roadblocks exist. Being aware can help you prevent them, or at least enable you to search for a qualified eCommerce digital agency partner that has an established process for website migrations, who can effectively prevent these issues for you. 

How Can an eCommerce Digital Agency Help Prevent or Solve These Challenges?

An eCommerce website migration is not a challenge you should take on by yourself, especially if you have no technical abilities. Migrating an eCommerce website is a complex process that requires time, resources and expertise. It can be a difficult task to undertake, and if done incorrectly can lead to serious issues, some of which we have covered in this article. A qualified, experienced eCommerce digital agency can help ensure that the migration process goes smoothly and without any problems.

When it comes to web migrations, there are a variety of issues that can arise. For example, a website may suffer from a decrease in traffic and sales, or there may be a decrease in rankings due to search engine optimization errors. Additionally, incompatibilities between the new platform and existing systems can cause problems, as can issues with user experience and functionality.

To prevent these issues, an experienced eCommerce digital agency can help ensure that the migration process is done correctly. They can provide advice and assistance throughout the process, helping to ensure that all steps are completed correctly and in a timely manner. They can also provide assistance with the technical aspects of the migration, such as setting up the new platform and ensuring that it is compatible with existing systems.

The agency can also help to ensure that the website is optimized for search engine performance. This includes making sure that the website is properly indexed, optimized for the correct keywords, and that the content is properly structured. This will help to ensure that the website is properly ranked in search engine results and that it will reach the maximum number of potential customers.

The agency can also help to ensure that the website is secure and that any data is securely stored. This includes making sure that all passwords are secure, that any data is backed up, and that any sensitive information is kept confidential. This will help to prevent any potential data breaches or other security issues.

Finally, the agency can help to ensure that the website is optimized for user experience and functionality. This includes making sure that the website is easy to navigate, that it is accessible to all users, and that it is optimized for mobile devices. This will help to ensure that the website is usable and that customers are able to find what they are looking for quickly and easily.

Overall, an experienced eCommerce digital agency can help to ensure that the website migration process goes off without a hitch and avoids the problems covered here. They can provide assistance and advice throughout the process, helping to ensure that all steps are completed correctly and in a timely manner. They can also help to ensure that the website is optimized for search engine performance, secure, and optimized for user experience and functionality. By working with a reputable eCommerce digital agency, businesses can be confident that their website migration will be completed successfully.

Don’t stay on an eCommerce platform that limits the functionality of your business. It might be comfortable, but comfort can destroy user experience as well as your digital marketing initiatives. If your platform is too clunky to change easily, too slow, or doesn’t offer good scalability or security, it may be time to move. 

We have performed over 100 successful eCommerce website migrations in our history and our many happy customers are a testament to our rock-solid, watertight web migration process. If you’re considering a migration but still would like to consult an expert about the possibilities, please reach out to us at 888-982-8269 or at Sales@1DigitalAgency.com.

The post Solving Common Problems Associated with eCommerce Website Migration appeared first on 1Digital® Agency.

Here are the key steps to follow when migrating your eCommerce website:

Plan and Prepare

The first step in any migration is to plan and prepare. This means identifying the reasons for the migration, the goals you want to achieve, and the resources you will need. You should also consider the timing of the migration and any potential disruption it may cause to your business. Working with an eCommerce digital agency that has a proven migration process and has handled countless migrations in the past can, in the long run, save you time and money.

Export Data

The next step in migrating your data is to export it from your current eCommerce platform. This includes products, categories, orders, customers, and any other relevant data. You will need to use the export tools provided by your current platform or use a third-party app or tool to extract the data.

Clean and Organize Data

Once you have exported your data, it is important to clean and organize it to ensure that it is ready for import into the new platform. This may involve removing duplicates, correcting errors, and formatting the data correctly.

Import Data

The next step is to import the data into the new eCommerce platform. This may involve using the import tools provided by the new platform or using a third-party tool. It is important to test the import process to ensure that all data has been transferred correctly.

Update SEO

SEO is an important factor in the success of any eCommerce website, so it is important to update your SEO strategy when migrating to a new platform. This may involve updating your meta titles and descriptions, redirecting old URLs to the new ones, and updating your sitemap. This is a vital component of your eCommerce migration checklist.

Add Code Snippets

If you have any custom code snippets or third-party integrations on your current eCommerce website, you will need to add them to the new platform. This may involve updating the code to ensure compatibility with the new platform or using different APIs or libraries.

Update Design 

The design of your eCommerce website is an important factor in the user experience and the success of your business. When migrating to a new platform, you should update the design to ensure that it is consistent with your brand and meets the needs of your customers.

Integrate Apps 

If you have any apps or integrations on your current eCommerce website, you will need to integrate them into the new platform. This may involve updating the code or using different APIs or libraries.

Post-Launch Considerations 

When you’ve finally launched your new eCommerce website, the hard work isn’t over. There are still several important post-launch steps that need to be taken to ensure your website is running smoothly and efficiently. At 1Digital® Agency, we understand that eCommerce platform migration can be a daunting task, but we’re here to help make the transition as seamless as possible.

The first step after launching your new eCommerce website is to ensure that the content is accurate and up-to-date. This means double-checking product descriptions, images, and other information to make sure that everything is accurate. Additionally, you should review your website’s navigation to ensure customers can easily find the products they’re looking for.

The second step is to conduct thorough testing to make sure that the website is functioning properly. This includes testing the website’s responsiveness, performance, and security. You should also test the website’s checkout process to make sure that customers can purchase products without any issues. This is an important component of customer support that you should never overlook in order to ensure long-term success.

Third, you should analyze the website’s analytics to get a better understanding of how customers are interacting with the website. This will help you identify any areas that need improvement and make changes accordingly. Additionally, you should also set up goals and conversions so you can track the success of your website.

Finally, you should keep an eye on your website’s performance and make sure that it’s running smoothly. This includes monitoring the website’s uptime, page loading times, and any errors that may arise. Additionally, you should also keep track of any customer feedback and make changes accordingly.

By following these steps, you can successfully migrate your eCommerce website from one platform to another, while minimizing disruption and maximizing the benefits of running your eCommerce business on the new platform.

Preserving Your Search Engine Rankings with 301 Redirects: A Guide for ECommerce Data Migrations

A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect from one URL to another. It is important to use 301 redirects when you are migrating your website from one eCommerce platform to another because it helps to preserve your search engine rankings.

When you migrate your website to a new platform, the URLs of your pages will most likely change. If you don’t set up redirects, search engines will see the old URLs as dead links, and your website’s ranking will suffer. With a 301 redirect in place, search engines will know that the old URL has been permanently moved to the new URL, and your website’s ranking will be preserved.

To set up a 301 redirect, you will need to modify the .htaccess file on your server. If you are using Apache, you can do this by adding the following code to your .htaccess file:

Replace old-url.html with the URL of the page you want to redirect, and replace http://www.yourdomain.com/new-url.html with the new URL.

If you are using a different server, you may need to use a different method to set up your redirects. It is a good idea to consult your server’s documentation or contact your hosting provider for more information.

It is important to note that setting up redirects can be time-consuming, especially if you have a large website with many pages. However, it is worth the effort because it will help to preserve your search engine rankings and ensure that your website’s traffic is not disrupted.

Expert eCommerce Migration Services from 1Digital® Agency: A Trusted Partner for Smooth Transitions

Over the past 10 years, 1Digital® Agency has successfully migrated hundreds of eCommerce websites from various platforms including Magento, Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce. Our team has extensive experience in migration projects of all sizes and complexities, and we have developed proven processes and strategies to ensure a smooth and successful transition.

When working with 1Digital® Agency, you can expect a consultative approach to your migration project. We will take the time to understand your unique business needs and goals, and outline a customized migration plan with clear timelines and scope of work. Our team will work closely with you to ensure that all aspects of the migration are carefully planned and executed, including the transfer of products, order history, customer account information, and other important data.

In addition to our technical expertise, 1Digital® Agency also has a deep understanding of the importance of search engine optimization (SEO) during a migration. We will work with you to ensure that your website’s ranking is preserved through the use of 301 redirects and other best practices. (We also offer free SEO audits, too, for the benefit of those online businesses who want some insights into the performance of their eCommerce stores.

Overall, 1Digital® Agency is a trusted partner for eCommerce migrations. We have the experience, knowledge, and resources to ensure that your migration project is a success. If you are considering migrating your eCommerce website, we encourage you to reach out to our team to learn more about how we can help.

The post Navigating the Challenges of eCommerce Website Migration appeared first on 1Digital® Agency.

However, it’s not as simple as just jumping ship from your current eCommerce platform to another that suits your needs better. Not only do you want to make sure you carry over all of the functionality of your current website, but you may also need to bring over all of your store’s data as well. A properly managed eCommerce data migration ensures that precious customer information and product data isn’t lost and that your new website will function as expected for users.

A data migration can be a complex technical process that requires a clear plan along with sure knowledge of the specific eCommerce platforms in question. When Mayfair Hotel Supply Company realized it was time to move to a more robust eCommerce platform, they got in touch with the development team here at 1Digital® in order to make sure everything went smoothly and that each of their specific requirements could be met.

Why is Data Migration Necessary?

There is a lot going on behind the scenes of most eCommerce websites. With a wide variety of different products, each with their own unique SKUs, as well as different identifiers for each individual product variation, and reams of customer data that can include order history and other preferences, store owners can’t be expected to manually input all this information into their new website or even worse, abandon it altogether.

One of the main reasons why a website migration might seem intimidating is because of the fear of losing or corrupting this data, which could render thousands of your users without working accounts or severely impact your ability to perform basic inventory management.

To compound the issue, migrations differ depending on which platform you are starting on and which one you are going to. There is no clear-cut path or blanket solution for eCommerce migrations. They require very specialized skills and knowledge, and enough flexibility to account for the numerous unique and custom features that a website may have, which also need to be carried over. Mayfair Hotel Supply Company also needed more than a standard data migration, as their move to eCommerce-powerhouse BigCommerce required numerous advanced development items in order to maintain certain features of their store, such as sub-category landing pages.

Data migration is necessary because it’s integral to the core functionality of an eCommerce store. The design or outward face of an online store is only one half of the picture, so if you are intending on switching to another platform, the data has to be taken into consideration. Not all store owners will need to switch over their data, however; this only applies to very specific cases of eCommerce replatforming.

How Migrations Improve eCommerce Stores

If migrations are such a hassle, what’s the point in following through with them at all? Wouldn’t it make more sense as a store owner to simply ride it out on your current platform and utilize custom development to get the necessary features or enhancements that you want?

While development can certainly fix a variety of issues, at a certain point it would become costly and counterintuitive to try and work around the limitations of certain eCommerce platforms. The truth is that not all platforms carry the same degree of functionality and specifications, especially when it comes to meeting the needs of larger businesses. For enterprise-level solutions, Shopify and BigCommerce offer a more reliable suite of options compared to platforms such as Wix or Ecwid. From both a functional and financial standpoint, it wouldn’t make sense to try and host a large and complex eCommerce store on Wix, as you would just be limiting yourself and providing a suboptimal experience for your user base.

An eCommerce migration can provide a wide range of benefits, from faster page speeds, larger and faster databases, greater shopping cart functionality, more theme options, more app integrations, and more room to grow. Some platforms also make it far easier to customize, making them especially enticing for store owners who want to really tailor the shopping experience for their users.

In Mayfair’s case, they were relying on WooCommerce to carry their business, and while this is certainly a great platform in its own right, the shopping experience could be made far better on a platform such as BigCommerce.

One of the main reasons for this is that WordPress was not originally designed to function as an eCommerce platform. While it can handle the task, as websites grow, WordPress stores tend to get sluggish and inefficient. Platforms that are eCommerce-centric such as BigCommerce also tend to have more high-quality shopping features right out of the box, and with backends that are built for eCommerce, managing your store can be simplified.

Our Comprehensive Data Migration Process

Here at 1Digital, store owners count on us to seamlessly transfer all of their important data from one platform to another, while ensuring their website functions properly and has all of the right features as well. We have performed more than a few eCommerce data migrations, to say the least, which has given our team incredible insight into the process and how best to ensure the safety and integrity of the data while also allowing for plenty of flexible a la carte options.

We utilize custom migration scripts, alongside a trusted process, that provides an optimal experience for our clients. Our expertise helps us identify potential roadblocks and issues well in advance, which allows us to adeptly navigate them and solve complex migration issues with efficiency and surety.

For Mayfair, not only did we perform a complete eCommerce platform migration, but we cleanly carried over the data for over 3000 customers, along with nearly 400 product categories and in excess of over 2,500 individual products. The product data in question included everything from the product name, product image, prices, SKUs, UPC codes, SEO metadata, and even the proper category associations. All of this data was safely transferred over without missing a beat because we are experts at what we do and have developed a trusted migration system for eCommerce websites that businesses can put their full trust in.

One issue business owners might be concerned with during a migration process is that of their SEO. Will you lose your rankings if you transfer your website to another host or platform? This is actually a very real concern because if you mishandle a migration and don’t perform the necessary steps to ensure your SEO remains intact, years of positioning in search engines could be destroyed overnight, and recovering those rankings after the fact would be difficult indeed.

Here at 1Digital®, we don’t simply take the actual store and customer data into consideration when migrating your website. As we did for Mayfair Hotel Supply Company, our developers were able to deftly carry over years of important SEO work using properly implemented 301 redirects and by building their new BigCommerce site with time-tested SEO best practices. The Mayfair website did not lose their spots in Google, and in fact, have prospered since the migration due to our search engine optimization work.

From the initial data transfer through to the data resync and Google Search Console support, our migration services are rock-solid and ensures your website is up-to-date, fully functional, and will meet the high expectations of online shoppers, no matter what industry you are in.

Advanced Development and Customizations

The migration didn’t stop there, however, as Mayfair had several features on their WooCommerce store that needed to be carried over to BigCommerce manually through custom development. To capture the full functionality of their old store and provide the best possible experience for their users, we had to provide straightforward custom eCommerce solutions for several key areas of their website.

Critical Sub-Category Landing Page

One important aspect of the Mayfair WooCommerce website build was their unique category page structure. Rather than their main category pages simply displaying all of the products that fall under the specific category, their store was designed to display sub-category modules instead.

Because this feature is not native to Cornerstone, a common and highly functional BigCommerce theme that Mayfair’s website was being rebuilt on, a custom development solution had to be forged by our team. Due to the importance of category structure for user experience and SEO, this was a task that needed to be done right, in line with the intentions and design of their original website.

Mega Menu Implementation

When a user visits an eCommerce website, they want to be able to find what they are looking for with relative ease. While the search bar is one way to locate a certain item or brand, most users will first try to locate what they are looking for through the navigation that is available.

More eCommerce sites are utilizing the benefits of mega menus to help users find what they need without having to dig through the depths of the site with a search. During Mayfair’s migration to BigCommerce, we built them a standard mega menu with visual elements to help streamline the navigation process and help their users find key items in the store without having to do much work.

Mega menus are an attractive design option for any store owners thinking about simplifying their website a bit so that it favors the user better. If you have hundreds of categories on your website that feature thousands of products but are still relying on an old-fashioned navigation structure, chances are a mega menu could greatly enhance the effectiveness of your website.

Price Per Each Customization

This is another area of the Mayfair migration project that needed a smart custom development solution. On their WooCommerce site, each applicable product page included a “price per each” displayed above the “add to cart” button. This information is provided for products sold in packs, or groups, that Mayfair wanted to list the unit price of, for the benefit of the user.

Logic would need to be created, as well as appropriate adjustments on the frontend of the site, to accommodate this kind of custom functionality. By creating a custom field in BigCommerce, we developed an easy system where the administrator of the site could input the number of items in a given pack or group, which would divide the item’s sale price in order to reach a “price per each” amount that would be displayed in the store’s frontend.

Additions such as these are often necessary when migrating stores from one platform to another, because not every eCommerce platform has quite the same degree of functionality and various options available. This is especially true if a website already has prior customizations developed on it that need to be “redeveloped” or carried over to a new platform. 1Digital® has extensive experience in this area, so we know how to anticipate and navigate such hurdles with ease, with well-coded solutions that feel native to the platform.

Take Action if Your Website Needs a Data Migration

Making sure that you are able to transfer over all of your customer data and product specifications to a new eCommerce service is a big deal that may require the help of a skilled detail-orientated agency that understands your needs and can address them through a professional eCommerce data migration.

If you believe that it’s time for a change, it’s better to act sooner rather than later. A lack of speed or functionality could be hindering your sales and the overall user experience on your website. With growing expectations for what a professional online shopping experience should look and feel like, you need to make sure that your online store remains at the cutting edge and is ready to compete.

Get in touch with our team today at 888.982.8269 if you are interested in migrating your website to a platform that is a better fit for your business. You can feel confident that your important customer data and the functionality of your website will be seamlessly carried over, along with visual and technical enhancements at your request that can help you improve the experience for your shoppers and bolster your business in general.

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The post Navigating eCommerce Problems With a Data Migration appeared first on 1Digital® Agency.

Paravel needed a lot of basic eCommerce functionality to make it possible to run practical operations through its online store. Originally, they were built on an open-source platform called Spree, which has a lot of adherents and supporters because of the very fact that it is an open-source platform.

Spree, like other open-source platforms such as Magento, is extremely customizable. It can also be integrated with a very large number of third-party plugins and apps, it is highly scalable, and it exhibits a level of UI-intuition that makes developing a mobile-friendly interface easier.

While this is just a quick snapshot of the various functional features of Spree, some of them come at the same high cost as other open-source platforms. They may be nearly limitless in functionality, but they require a lot of development time and even more experience to accomplish. Without extensive coding experience or a background in development, platforms like Spree can quickly exhaust resources.

Paravel needed that one-of-a-kind shopping experience, but they also needed an out-of-the-box solution that offered a lot to their eCommerce merchants. The trouble for them was how could they get their already meticulously designed and developed eCommerce store from Spree to a more capable platform?

A Thorough Migration Process

After communication with our sales team, Paravel decided that a move to Shopify Plus was the answer – with a few stipulations. Among other things, Paravel did not want to experience any negative effects from the migration and they wanted their new store to offer all of the functionality of their Spree store and then some. To do so, Paravel needed more than a Shopify Plus partner – they needed a Shopify Plus expert.

While Spree offered nearly limitless options for customization, Shopify Plus, as a hosted eCommerce SaaS platform, could offer them so much more. With the help of a development team like 1Digital^Ⓡ, Shopify Plus could offer them all of the customizations that Spree offered and more. Shopify Plus also offered heightened security features, guaranteed uptime, fast site speed, similar compatibility with third-party apps and plugins, acceptance of a number of payment options, immense scalability, and much more. Paravel was, at this point, tasked with moving their existing Spree store, and it’s design and functionality, to Shopify Plus.

For some, the process of a website migration is harrowing, but we knew otherwise. With hundreds of successful migrations in the rearview and a team of developers to back our efforts, we knew it could be done with no trouble whatsoever. It just would take a thorough process.

The process was intensive, but nothing 1Digital^Ⓡ Agency couldn’t execute with flying colors. The project required the migration of 32 product fields (including names, descriptions, images, prices, and more) as well as more than 4,000 customer accounts and orders each. To do this, we set up a temporary Linux server and wrote a custom script to draw and categorize this information from the Spree inventory of their original site.

To move it over, we created another custom script to connect to the Shopify API before properly importing all of the relevant fields. During the process and afterward, data was checked in order to ensure that it was landing correctly in the new store, so that not only would nothing be lost, but it would all populate where it was supposed to go.

Our thorough process prevented the loss of data, but what about the loss of traffic? If there’s one thing that turns off eCommerce clients from the prospect of a replatforming (even if it will come with huge benefits), it’s the fear of losing traffic or domain authority.

Luckily, our migration process prevents damage to SEO as meticulously as it prevents data loss. With Paravel, as we have done with every migration project, we collected all of the URLs associated with their website and then set up 301 redirects to the associated URLs on the new Shopify website. Unsurprisingly, Paravel suffered no loss in traffic or fluctuation in ranking after the migration was complete.

Support – Just in Case

Migrating to Shopify went along without a hiccup, and Paravel was well on its way to a new Shopify Plus store with enhanced functionality and a better user experience, but just to be safe, we included a free 30-day support period with the migration project. Any Shopify migration agency with a proven process should do so; it’s just part and parcel of a successful migration strategy.

The length of free support periods vary according to the scope of the project, but in the case of Paravel’s migration, we allotted 30 days. This gave them a full month’s time to investigate their new website and address any migration bugs that might pop up – which we would fix, free of charge.

Even after, we allowed them to remain on retainer, asking no deposit of them; simply billing for any changes that they would log after the free website support period ended. Little things like these go a long way towards ensuring good customer service, and we aim to ensure that migrations go smoothly, even when everything is checked, double-checked, and checked again.

A Newly Developed Website

But it wasn’t over with a migration. Paravel had criteria for the move associated with the customer experience that the new site would offer, and to ensure that, we had to develop a brand new Shopify Plus website for them.

As part of their project, 1Digital^Ⓡ Agency’s developers crafted a brand new homepage for them that was better brand integrated and helped to position their products in a more desirable light. It featured updated product and background imagery that better aligned with the interests and perceptions of their target market. Consider the sleek, sophisticated impression of the new homepage, below, with a still of the old homepage beneath it.

For visitors to their homepage, the new layout is immediately striking not only for the superior aesthetics of its imagery but for the most concerted effort it makes to place the value of Paravel’s products front and center. You will also note that there is a menu at the top of the new homepage layout that was lacking in the previous design; the way to access their products previously was by scrolling down the page to where there was a button labeled “shop the collection”. The new page features much better site navigation features, as you can see above.

Scrolling down the homepage, visitors can see reviews via a sliding banner, learn more about popular product categories, and even see how customers are using the products via social media, as you can see in some of the screenshots below.

In addition to the homepage, 1Digital^Ⓡ crafted a new category page template along with an “Our Story” page for Paravel, on top of several other system pages. Among those pages that were developed were their cart and checkout pages, login pages, gift certificate pages, and “Thank You” pages. Finally, we customized a number of content pages including their “FAQ” and “Terms” pages.

The importance of a high-quality responsive website design is critical to eCommerce nowadays, and 1Digital^Ⓡ developers were careful to prepare an updated responsive website for Paravel as part of the project. In the interest of Paravel’s user experience, the new responsive design by 1Digital^Ⓡ automatically adapts to smaller screens, resizing and reformatting text accordingly.

Advanced Development – Category Page Functionality

When 1Digital^Ⓡ developers transferred over all of the information associated with Paravel’s product categories, we also added in some new functionality for them to pass along to their customers thus improving customer experience.

We installed a Metafield Editor into their category page template so that Paravel could make quick changes to some of the badges that appeared on their category page display. This allowed them to edit custom fields so that promotions associated with “new,” “bestseller,” or “featured” products could be more prominently displayed.

This seemingly simple feature gives a lot of power back to Paravel’s admins to make quick and easy changes to the display of their website without working with a developer. A man can be given a fish or taught the art, and we provided detailed instructions to Paravel on how to use and manage the app so that they would easily be able to make changes even after the project had closed.

Similarly, 1Digital^Ⓡ developers created Product Swatches and Quick View functionality on Paravel’s collections pages. We created a custom script for their Shopify Plus collections page that was able to fetch and display the desired information.

The script for these swatches also ensured that when a customer clicked on the swatch associated with the color of interest, the product image would be displayed in that color. In addition, it would display the applicable pricing associated with the change as well as any options for “personalization,” or, if necessary, an “out of stock” message.

Advanced Development – Product Page Functionality

Paravel places a huge emphasis on customer experience, and as such, they required a great deal of additional functionality out of their product page template, including added abilities to help personalize the shopping experience.

Therefore, as part of the advanced development aspect of the project, 1Digital^Ⓡ helped create a new and better set of features to personalize the shopping experience on their website, specifically on their product page.

We configured their product page template so that it displayed similarly to their old Spree store. We then created a stick “add to cart” bar that would remain at the bottom of the product page display. That was the easy part.

We also developed a tool for their product page template that would allow shoppers to personalize their shopper experience and make it more realistic. In addition to offering their customers the ability to see what a given bag (or other product) would look like using the swatch functionality described above, Paravel also gives its customers the ability to personalize their products.

Paravel was interested in the conversion-boosting features of a realistic tool that would allow its customers to actually see what their products would look like once personalized, so we created a tool enabling them to do so.

The tool we built for Paravel displayed a popup with the words “Personalize” when a customer visited the product page We then created a tool that would enable the customer to personalize the product according to the style and color of the lettering that would appear as a monogram with their initials.

This tool displays as a widget on the product page after the customer clicks on “Personalize” and is very easy to manipulate and customize according to their preferences. In order to ensure that the product would display the personalization properly, we had to create a custom script that would accurately display the letters that the customer had entered, in the style they selected, over the right area of the product, as can be seen in the image below. As a final level of functionality, we created a “Nylon Template” that would enable Paravel’s customers to customize their products with embroidered letters instead of hand-painted letters or Appliqué.

There were a few more customizations we created for Paravel’s product pages, including the implementation of four tabs from the product pages on their old Spree store via HTML coding. We also recreated the “Choose Your Own Adventure” functionality from Paravel’s Spree store, which enables customers to further personalize Paravel’s products with Applique and hand-painted designs, on top of a few other customizations to preserve the integrity of the original functionality that appeared on their Spree store.

Integration with Critical Apps

To secure the functionality of their new Shopify Plus store and ensure a smooth, enjoyable user experience, 1Digital^Ⓡ Agency had to integrate Paravel’s new store with its business-critical apps.

Among other things, Paravel’s customers relied on reviews and testimonials that Paravel was able to draw and display via YotPo, which we ensured was seamlessly integrated for them. Paravel also relied heavily on the use of Zaius for customer engagement and CRM, so we performed that integration as well as the aforementioned.

On top of these, Paravel makes use of the functionality afforded not only by RJ Metrics but also by Talkable. These apps provide valuable data to Paravel’s admins and allow for secure referral marketing programs.

1Digital^Ⓡ Agency integrated all of these apps with Paravel’s new store in addition to  coding and developing their new Shopify Plus website. We concluded this project, comprehensive in scope, entailing a migration and advanced custom development, with no hang-ups. That is to say, the client experienced no undue interruptions in business, no loss in traffic, and moved onto a newly developed store with advanced custom functionality without so much as a hiccup. To do that takes experience and thorough processes, both of which 1Digital^Ⓡ integrates into our workflow.

The Complete Solution

Some providers tune their services to one or two highly specialized services, but we know that the problems faced by eCommerce merchants are diverse. If we were only able to offer development services, we wouldn’t have been able to migrate Paravel from Spree to Shopify Plus, which is one of the leading eCommerce platforms for online merchants. Similarly, if we limited ourselves to performing migrations, we wouldn’t have been able to customize their new store the way they wanted.

Shopify Plus design and development services, even when paired with our migration services, are only a small snapshot of what 1Digital^Ⓡ Agency offers. On top of our Shopify custom design services, we also offer comprehensive digital marketing campaigns including highly competitive, thoroughly researched, and targeted SEO and PPC campaigns.

This success story hinges on the fact that we were able to migrate Paravel off of Spree and onto a newly developed Shopify Plus store with advanced functionality. Many of our other eCommerce case studies focus on other eCommerce platforms like BigCommerce design and development, similar Magento services, and digital marketing campaigns. Take a look through our repertoire, and if you want to see how we can solve the problems that face your online business, give us a call at 888-982-8269.

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