Data migration projects are a field where 1Digital Agency excels and are considered 1Digital®’s specialty. As opposed to outsourcing the actual process of migrating a client’s data to a 3rd party transfer services, we perform all of our migrations in house using custom-built and implemented scripts and our servers as intermediaries to move your data safely from one platform to another.
Additionally, in order to maintain the integrity of a client’s data, the actual data importation process is generally always performed by taking advantage of the new platform’s API, as this ensures the importation is as accurate pristinely located. We take these extra precautions because data migration is notoriously complex and protecting the integrity of data is paramount not just to a successful but an impressive data migration. Even with our meticulous process, unique issues present themselves with almost every data set we move. In many cases, we need to step in and perform some portion of the data migration manually as transferring from one system to another while safeguarding the data’s structure and layout requires human oversight as opposed to an entirely automated process.
If you’re considering moving to a new eCommerce platform, we’ve created this guide to familiarize you with some of the most common roadblocks within a migration project and how to avoid them. Although data migrations have a reputation of being messy by nature, the experienced 1Digital® team is fluent in all platforms and has completed more than the fair share of this projects in order to be there to help you through any unforeseen scenarios that may arise.
When you consider data migration, it’s worthwhile to think about other aspects of your eCommerce website to update as well. Transitioning to a new environment requires all-hands-on-deck attention and coordination. Here at 1Digital®, we have specialized teams that work together seamlessly to update your website to an optimized, well-designed, and more reliable solution.
Learn more about parallel services for a seamless migration.
Before we begin, we need to see how much data and what type of data will be involved. If you’re looking for 1Digital® to move your data set from one platform to another, we’ll need admin access to your current store or system to check the data. Additionally, other levels of access may be necessary in order to accurately scope the data migration in its entirety. We’ll need to see how much of your data set’s integrity can be maintained when taking into consideration the new platform of choice considering not all platforms handle data the same way. Furthermore, we’ll let you know about any changes to the data you’ll need to make to fit into the new platform, however, unforeseen scenarios do occur and most merchants will need to configure their data further once it’s been moved to its new home.
This process of planning a data and/or platform migration is performed by 1Digital®’s development team and account managers in tandem and the scope of work 1Digital® constructs prior to projects beginning always detail the ways data will move, possible data points that require special development, and other potentially important notes to keep in mind. At 1Digital®, we believe proper planning leads to better projects and we pride ourselves on being overly detailed during these preliminary stages as avoiding grey areas at the start only leads to a better and more impressive project once it begins.
Keep in mind, our platform migration process can differ from project to project depending on complexity. We may not have a “1-shoe fits all” solution and may need to provide a detailed strategy to properly migrate the data into the new system. The strategy we put together can typically be unforeseen additional work that we could not have scoped during the initial proposal phase of the project. In some circumstances, when a custom migration strategy is proposed, 1Digital® may require an additional scope of work for the migration process.
We start by doing a large data migration during the design and development of your new store. This is when 90% of your data will be moved over into your new platform. Once our team is ready, we’ll let you see how most of your data will display in the backend of your new platform. It’s a good idea to check at this point for any fields or values that may be in an unexpected place.
Just before launch, we will perform a data resync. Your site will have continued to accrue data during the design and development process and we need to bring that over as well so your site can launch with the most up-to-date data set. We will ask, at this point, that you freeze changes to the site for a few days directly preceding launch while this second migration runs. We include only one resync with each project so it’s imperative to refrain from making further changes to the data during this period.
We recommend that all migration projects also include a 301 redirect submission. After the site is launched, we will submit a form to Google which records all your old URLs and their new structure on the new platform. This will make sure Google knows your site did not disappear, and any page authority you had built up transfers with you.
In order to plan and execute a platform to platform data migration, our team will need full access to your admin area with store login credentials, database credentials & FTP access. If we’re working with an XML or CSV file to upload data, we’ll need that information too. We will also need the highest level of access to your store on the day the final launch is to take place. You can provide us your store credentials using our secure credentials form.
Your project manager will, of course, let you know everything that you need to contribute to this process well before it begins. The final thing we will need is your communication! We try to foresee every complication but even with our vast experience, we can’t anticipate every scenario. If you have a unique field, a concern about how something will display, or just a question about the best way to manage the transfer, let your project manager know.
Furthermore, although preliminary discussions between 1Digital® and the client are paramount to the scope of work construction process, it’s important to keep in mind that it is a collaborative effort to ensure a scope of work is vetted to encompass all required data and functionality is included in a new project. This collaborative process includes the 1Digital® team’s expertise when evaluating a site but also the client’s insight in regards to knowing what functionality is and is not required for their eCommerce store. And of course, we’re here to lend you our years of experience and make this process as painless as possible!
1Digital® has migrated hundreds of stores from old outdated platforms to new eCommerce platforms. The difference in eCommerce platforms can be night and day. We’ve helped migrate clients from outdated Yahoo carts to BigCommerce or Magento, and we’ve seen 10x improvements! From usability to SEO, client engagement, e.g. You can’t afford not to move! Let 1Digital® help migrate your precious data from your old shopping cart to a new one we’ll pick together!
