From Legacy Systems to Modern eCommerce: 10 Data Migration Steps
The eCommerce industry is on a continuous upward trajectory, with competition popping up at every corner and more room for growth for stores big and small.
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But while it might seem like it should all be smooth sailing in such a vast global market, the truth of the matter is that growth-oriented brands are struggling to stay competitive. Why?
While there is certainly more competition, the consumer mindset is changing, technology is evolving, and some businesses are falling behind the change curve.
Yes, you need to personalize your operation, and yes, you need to start leveraging AI to get the most out of your eCommerce growth strategy. But are you even capable of implementing meaningful change if you’re still running on outdated software?
The answer is no, which is why today’s topic is all about eCommerce modernization and why you absolutely need to modernize your operation if you want to stay relevant in 2024 and beyond.
Here’s everything you need to know about updating legacy systems to modern eCommerce!
Table of Contents
- Do You Need to Migrate Your Data?
- Analyze and Categorize Legacy Data
- Understanding Data Migration per Platform
- Data Synchronization and Mapping
- Ensuring Data Quality and Integrity During Migration
- Using the Right Data Migration Tool
- Validation and Data Testing on the New Platform
- Preparing for Potential Migration Fails
- Employee Training on New eCommerce Platforms
- Optimizing the Post-Migration System
Do You Need to Migrate Your Data?
The short answer is, yes — if your operation is running on legacy systems.
But there’s a lot more to it, so let’s delve a bit deeper to uncover the reasons and the benefits behind data migration.
First of all, what is a legacy system?
In computing, a legacy system can be a platform, process, technology, application, or computer system that is outdated by modern standards, typically lacking key features to compete with modern solutions.
These systems are often unable to keep up with evolving industry standards due to their outdated frameworks and data architecture. They’re also often unable to comply with the evolving laws and regulations that demand implementation of certain features — typically to protect customer data and ensure cyber security.
Why Migrate?
While there are many practical reasons to migrate from legacy systems, there are some added benefits you might not have considered before.
For one, if you’ve been wondering why your Google traffic dropped recently, or steadily over the years, even though you’re doing everything right — your outdated applications and systems might be at fault.
When taking eCommerce rankings into account, you need to keep in mind that modern solutions offer important SEO features, both in the backend and the frontend. You need to leverage all available features in order to be competitive in the SERPs.
Aside from your standing in the search results, migration is important for simply being able to deliver all of those quality-of-life features and services expected from a modern eCommerce operation. Things like better customer service, higher security, seamless checkouts, and much more.
Analyze and Categorize Legacy Data
Legacy systems are typically found on actual business hardware and are solutions that have been built specifically for the business. In other words, these are custom-built solutions that have run their course.
Because data is stored on local drives and in onsite data centers, migrating to more modern platforms can seem like a difficult task — which is why the first step is categorization.
Data categorization means analyzing and categorizing data based on type, relevance, date, department, volume, and more.
Some data types include:
- Customer information
- Order history
- Financial data
- Security data
- Sales data
- Demand data
- Inventory data
- Forecasts and reports
The types of data you’re handling and the sheer volume of the data can be the main hurdles you need to overcome for a successful migration.
The key here is to avoid losing business continuity when you’re working to set up eCommerce operations on new platforms, and when you are migrating your data. The best thing you can do is to work with a dedicated eCommerce migrator that can categorize and prioritize the data.
Understanding Data Migration per Platform
So, you understand the need for data migration and you’re getting a sense of the scope of the project.
If you have already decided which platform best serves your needs, you should know how to best migrate to each of them. So let’s talk about the most popular options and what to expect.
Shopify
Shopify is the biggest eCommerce platform in the world, and there are many reasons why it’s so popular.
Not only is it easy to set up a Shopify store in mere minutes, but the platform is constantly evolving and adding new features.
Migration Options:
- Manual migration. This first option requires you to manually copy your data from your existing platform to Shopify. This leaves room for human error, so make sure your data is clean and that you follow the Products-Customers-History sequence when migrating.
- Automatic migration. As the name suggests, you can also use a Shopify app called Multichannel Migrator to migrate your data automatically. Again, make sure your data is clean (more on that in a bit) to avoid errors.
- Shopify help. You can also hire a Shopify migration expert to migrate the webstore for you.
Key features:
- Drag-and-drop store builder
- AI-driven features
- App store to enhance your operation
- Easy branding and design customization
- Marketing and lead gen tools
Magento
Magento, now Adobe Commerce, is another powerful platform that thousands of merchants worldwide prefer.
This solution, however, is heavily focused on IT teams, in the sense that it provides a seamless platform for innovation and for building a secure store with ready-to-go features.
With that in mind, it might be a good option for businesses looking to migrate seamlessly to a modern eCommerce system.
Migration Options:
- Use the Adobe migration tool. One of the simplest ways to migrate to the Magento platform is to use Adobe’s dedicated tool, which does a lot of the work for you. The tool will monitor the process, verify data quality and consistency, and provide detailed datalogs.
- Use a third-party migrator. Many companies specialize in Magento migration, so it can be a worthwhile investment if you don’t want to risk jeopardizing your data during migration or setting your store up incorrectly.
Key features:
- Very developer-friendly
- Omnichannel features and personalization
- Numerous apps and extensions
- Auto-scaling depending on demand and traffic
Amazon eCommerce
Amazon is the largest eCommerce marketplace in the world, and of course, you can choose to build your store on the Amazon platform.
This is one of the most popular platforms to migrate to if you want to have a brand presence on a giant global marketplace, and especially if you want to take advantage of PPC ads. Leveraging internal advertising is one of the biggest advantages of the platform, and Amazon PPC can give your products added visibility.
What’s more, PPC advertising within the Amazon ecosystem is a great way to offset some of the cost of data migration by improving revenue immediately after migration.
Migration Options:
Migrating to the Amazon eCommerce marketplace is a bit different, because you’re not just setting up a store, you’re operating in an entirely new ecosystem.
To migrate successfully, you will need to follow all the steps laid out in your Amazon store settings upon creating a new seller account. Then, you will need to export your original store’s data and use the Amazon product data upload tool to transfer your product listings. Do the same for your customer information.
Key features:
- Easy and intuitive store builder
- Numerous features and tools within the Amazon ecosystem
- High SEO potential for Amazon stores
- Consumer trust and high Amazon marketplace traffic
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is an open-source platform, which means that it thrives on community innovation and the talents of developers across the globe.
Typically used by small eCommerce businesses, WooCommerce is a good option for those who want a no-code experience building their store.
Plus, the migration options are pretty straightforward.
Migration Options:
- Migrate manually. You can export all your store data, including products, customers, history, and more. Then, you can use the platform’s CSV importer to import all that data to WooCommerce.
- Use a WooCommerce migration tool. You can use migration tools like the All Import WP plugin to migrate all your data to WooCommerce without causing downtime for your original store — meaning, you can keep operating normally in the background.
- Hire a WooCommerce expert. Of course, you can choose to work with a professional who will handle all of this for you to migrate your store quickly and safely.
If you’re just starting out, WooCommerce a good option, but if you’re looking to migrate, perhaps it’s good to check with your IT team if this platform is the right fit.
BigCommerce
Finally, BigCommerce is an enterprise-level solution for established businesses, and a full-service one, at that.
BigCommerce allows you to migrate seamlessly to the platform from legacy systems, and they provide a bespoke experience based on your needs.
Migration Options:
BigCommerce is a full-service, enterprise-level platform.
Therefore, their migration architecture is built for big stores that can’t be manually migrated. You’ll need to talk to their experts and get a custom-built migration strategy that they’ll execute for you.
Key Features:
- Geared toward established eCommerce brands
- Dedicated eCommerce and migration experts
- Full suite of eCommerce functionalities
The best thing about these platforms, in our humble opinion, is that StoreYa works with all of them, so you can set it up and start growing faster than ever before!
Data Synchronization and Mapping
Circling back to getting ready for migration, the next step would be to ensure a comprehensive overview of your entire data stack.
The first and most important step is to tend to meticulous data synchronization that will give you a unified view of your legacy data — but it will also help you replicate that data onto new systems.
Make sure that your IT team understands the modern data formats used by the platforms we mentioned above, and how to transform legacy data into those formats. You can also work with outside IT experts and consultants if you don’t have an in-house team.
For example, the aforementioned BigCommerce team offers its own experts for successful eCommerce migrations from legacy systems.
Ensuring Data Quality and Integrity During Migration
Migrating to another eCommerce platform is not just about copy-pasting data from one system to the other.
Rather, it’s about ensuring a seamless replication of data without losing business continuity, corrupting the data, or losing data functionality on the new system. And of course, it’s about ensuring security in the process — after all, you’re dealing with sensitive data.
- Make sure to cleanse legacy data of duplicates and outdated files.
- Ensure uniformity by standardizing all data formats.
- Scan for inconsistencies and inaccuracies.
- Find data you need to enrich and supplement with missing values.
- Define your data quality metrics.
- Use a secure migration tool that encrypts the data during transit.
- Have data validation rules in place to verify data on the new platform.
Speaking of tools, let’s discuss the software elements needed for a successful migration project.
Using the Right Data Migration Tool
Depending on your internal capabilities, you can task your IT team or service with data migration, or you can use external specialists.
If you don’t have onsite IT experts, modern platforms will provide you with their own migration staff and tools.
Here’s what the ideal tool should have in terms of features:
- Data mapping
- Scalability
- Security features
- Synchronization
- Multi-source data extraction
- Monitoring and reporting
- Customization and integrations
- Disaster recovery and error management
- Documentation and support
- Scheduling for specific data migration tasks
Make sure to talk to your provider about these and other features their solution offers in order to ensure a smooth process. Most importantly, this process needs to ensure security for the business and your customers.
Validation and Data Testing on the New Platform
During data migration, and especially once all the data has been successfully migrated, you need to make sure that all your services are up and running.
Firstly, utilize continuous monitoring during migration to validate data integrity and quality. This means you’ll encounter fewer errors, post-migration. Keep SEO in mind as well, and make sure that all SEO elements have been migrated. This will include everything from negative keywords to backend data and optimizations. Also, make sure that all backlinks are working properly.
This also includes other marketing data, such as your PPC campaigns and all the data associated with your website — you have to make sure that your ads lead to your new eCommerce platform.
Next, you’ll need to run the new platform in preview, or safe mode, until you’re ready to go live. This means that once all the data has migrated, you’re going through the entire system on the new platform and testing all the features one by one.
It’s important to test features individually, but also in various combinations to ensure the customer gets a seamless experience throughout their journey.
Preparing for Potential Migration Fails
You can do everything right, and still, things can go wrong.
Migration fails can happen, and certain tasks will need to be repeated. Don’t worry, it’s part of the process.
The key is to keep monitoring performance and to enable secure cloud computing for your team and all applications in order to ensure continuous oversight and error management. When your team gets an alert, they need to be able to quickly log in and deal with the problem, or simply restart a specific migration task.
The internal or external migration teams should establish clear rollback and contingency procedures so that the migration process can start again with minimal delay.
As with anything in modern eCommerce, this will rely on a strong team!
Employee Training on New eCommerce Platforms
You can’t just expect your staff to start using the new platform without any training, so this is the next step in your migration journey.
One of the most significant selling points of modern eCommerce platforms is their AI capabilities, so you have to make sure that your employees know how to leverage their potential.
Generative AI is all the rage right now, so when you’re choosing an AI copywriting tool for eCommerce (such as AI ChatGPT descriptions), you have to make sure that it integrates seamlessly into the platform and that you have the right prompters for the job.
Your team also needs to know how to set up advanced AI search functions, among other features offered by Shopify and other platforms.
Take the time to train your staff on these modern features they didn’t have before at their disposal, and of course, the other services offered by your new system.
Optimizing the Post-Migration Environment
These new platforms are relatively easy to use, we’re not arguing that point.
However, they’re difficult to master, and they’re definitely not out-of-the-box solutions like they might lead you to believe.
Once you’ve migrated, you need to conduct a store-wide data and functionality audit. If everything is working properly, the next step is to start optimizing every process to your needs.
By default, a platform will have certain processes and applications turned on or off, or set to a specific value based on user averages. Take the time to go into every application, integration, and setting to make sure that you set them up in a way that maximizes your operation.
And finally, make sure to monitor performance continuously in order to refine over time.
Your new store needs to evolve with the trends in the industry and the consumer market, and you’ll need to optimize and re-optimize your applications and services frequently in the first six months.
This is the adjustment period, make sure to embrace it!
Over to You: Are Your Legacy Systems Holding You Back?
That was a rhetorical question, because you can’t hope to deliver the kind of experience modern customers expect if you can’t leverage modern systems, features, and technologies.
Without a doubt, migrating your data to a modern platform like Shopify or Magento will allow you to take advantage of those advanced features and integrations that can skyrocket your business. For example, StoreYa works with all of the top modern eCommerce platforms, and it only takes minutes to set up.
The same goes for other tools and software solutions you might want to use, depending on your specific needs.
Now’s the time to start your data migration journey in order to solidify your position in the market, stay relevant, and grow more easily in the months and years to come.
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