Are you considering a migration from Shopify to WooCommerce? The process might not appear to be simple and you are not the only one facing this situation. Website migration is considered to be quite a dreadful procedure for website owners. As there are a lot of variables involved in the process, there are high chances of errors and the process going wrong. A simple mistake can lead to serious technical issues for an eCommerce business.
This is why most of the website owners opt for professional developers to do the migration on behalf of them. However, though it appears to be the best way to migrate from Shopify to WooCommerce, there are automated migration tools such as Cart2Cart which have proved to be cheaper, faster, and accurate in contrast to manual methods of migration. they also enable the owner to perform the entire migration without the requirement of technical knowledge or assistance.
This post simplifies and breaks down the whole process of how completely automated data migration from Shopify to WooCommerce with Cart2Cart.
Reasons to Migrate from Shopify To WooCommerce
Without a doubt, Shopify is indeed a biggie in the industry of e-commerce and boasts of having. 20% global market share in the eCommerce industry. If you look at its hold in the U.S., you will observe that Shopify caters to 31% or more of the online stores in the US. This indicates that Shopify is amongst the dominant platforms in e-commerce these days.
Shopify is an all-inclusive online business platform and is preferred over others because it has simplified the concept of eCommerce. At present, it enables merchants who are technically unskilled the ability to construct their own digital stores from the start, install supplementary functions, tweak various in-built features, and manage their business operations via a user interface that is intuitive and easy-to-use.
Additionally, Shopify is very flexible and suits every business. It effectively supports startups, medium-sized businesses, small businesses, and large enterprises having many stores across countries.
So, the question that arises, is that why would a site owner want to migrate from such an amazing platform to WooCommerce?
Well, though Shopify has some amazing features, there are a few weaknesses as well, and WooCommerce offers the solution to avoid these issues. So, let us have a look at the reasons why the migration from Shopify to WooCommerce is preferred.
(i) Reduction in Costs
Shopify has been praised a lot for its cost-effectiveness. The platform has all that you require for a long term at affordable rates.
For example, Shopify Lite, helps you start at just $9 per month, the Shopify Basic plan, offers all the required eCommerce features at just $29 per month. The Medium-sized enterprises and businesses can opt for the Shopify plan available for $79 every month, or the Advanced Shopify that is available for $299 per month or even opt for its Shopify Plus package that has customized pricing.
However, Shopify does bill you for some of the addons, themes, or the transaction processing through their default service of Shopify Payments. Also, in case you opt for any alternate third-party payment services, you will be penalized by Shopify, and you are charged an additional rate for every transaction.
On the other hand, WooCommerce provides a way out.
Firstly, WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that is free and you will not be charged for subscription or installation. Also, This platform is a CMS platform that is free. Therefore, a migration from Shopify to WooCommerce will automatically minimize your subscription charges. It also offers many free options in contrast to Shopify, which means that you can minimize the standard costs of usage quite a lot in the long run.
(ii) Better Customization
The best part regarding Shopify is that it offers comprehensive customization capabilities. It offers users a responsive as well as easy-to-use and simple site builder. Experience developers get the opportunity to work on HTML and CSS that accompanies the platform by using the Liquid templating language of Shopify. If you require more functionalities, you can install an app from the App Store. Though Shopify appears to be generous, it is nowhere close to the customization capabilities of WooCommerce.
WooCommerce is an eCommerce platform that is open-source, which indicates that if you are aware of the source code, anything can be edited easily. It permits the user to configure the underlying code depending on their business framework and requirements. Also, you do not have to be a great coder to get this done. You can find some intuitive site builders, pre-built plugins, and themes on WordPress. You can also source for extra compatible choices from various third-party platforms like WordPress or WooCommerce which are supported by a vast community of developers.
(iii) Better Community Support
As Shopify is quite a dominant platform in eCommerce and has a big market share, it definitely has a huge supporter community. The Shopify Community Forum has 600,000 or more Shopify experts, merchants, and partners who engage together in useful conversations. Though this appears to be a huge number, it isn't equivalent to that of WooCommerce. There are about half a billion eCommerce websites that operate on WordPress, and approximately 4 million of these websites use WooCommerce in particular. Additionally, both WordPress and WooCommerce are open-source platforms and their source code is distributed freely worldwide. Both these platforms have built a huge global community that includes millions of experts, developers, and users.
(iv) Enhanced SEO
Along with configuring the core elements along with web search protocols, the platform Shopify enables optimal customization of their website's structure. The user can work on their page as well as product URLs, meta-data, keywords, etc. Though this is quite admirable, WooCommerce is way deeper. If you migrate from Shopify to WooCommerce you will get to conduct some SEO optimization of a higher level on all the crucial elements of your website. You can also benefit from the SEO plugins such as Yoast for WordPress and this enables improving the customization. Overall, when you migrate from Shopify to WooCommerce, you can improve the search engine ranking of your online store easily.
Options to Migrate from Shopify To WooCommerce
So, once you have decided to migrate from Shopify to WooCommerce your store data, what are the various methods that can be used for the migration? There are plenty of options available to conduct the migration from Shopify to WooCommerce. However, to make it simple, they have been categorized into three main options:
1. Manual Migration
2. Assisted Migration
3. Automated Migration
1. The Manual Migration
The manual migration from Shopify to WooCommerce includes the transfer of all the elements of your store website manually from one platform to another. In this method, data from the Shopify system is exported and deployed to the WooCommerce platform.
The process is not simple and does not just involve a copy-paste procedure. It is an intricate and complicated procedure and both the platforms involve many technical configurations. So, to conduct the manual migration, you will need technical skills along with experience to proceed without facing any difficulties. Also, note that the error rate is quite high in this method. Manual migration processes are prone to human-triggered issues and most of these are quite detrimental.
2. Assisted Migration
If you intend to migrate from Shopify to WooCommerce but do not have the required knowledge or skills for conducting the migration, assisted migration is a great alternative. The process is indeed a manual migration between the platforms. However, a third-party who possesses experience and knowledge in this area would be conducting the migration on your behalf. In short, you will be hiring a professional developer who will handle the process of migration from Shopify to WooCommerce.
This is a great option and there are plenty of professionals available who have the experience in these platforms and their migration processes. The drawback is that it isn't cheap. A single data migration procedure from Shopify to wooCommerce could prove to be quite expensive and can cost you a lot of money, especially if you have hired a specialized agency. And do not forget, the process is manual and the errors are bound to happen.
3. Automated Migration
This method of Automated migration from Shopify to WooCommerce is quite a popular one especially with merchants who are technically unskilled. Though the assisted method requires human experts to do the job, the automated migration option depends on various software tools. The entire data migration procedure from Shopify to WooCommerce is automatically done by a software solution specialized in this process. There are plenty of tools available online that offer the service of data migration, of which
Cart2Cart is a tool that offers many amazing benefits in the migration process from Shopify to WooCommerce.
Why Opt Cart2Cart to Migrate from Shopify To WooCommerce?
Cart2Cart is not an ordinary tool for site transfer. Instead, it is an automated migration tool and it focuses on eCommerce platforms and shopping carts, in specific. This is exactly the solution required when you decide to shift your store from a platform to your target platform and it's not limited to just migration from Shopify to WooCommerce.
Cart2Cart has partnered with more than 85 shopping carts- from Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, OpenCart, PrestaShop, eCommerce, and Magento, to Wix, Etsy, Weebly, and SquareSpace. Also, it can facilitate automated data between various platforms. It offers tools to import and export the elements of your online store across 850 or more different platforms. So let us look into the benefits of using Cart2Cart for the migration from Shopify to WooCommerce.
1. Simplicity
You need not worry about the procedures involved and the errors when you migrate from Shopify to WooCommerce. When you use cart2cart, you do not require advanced technical skills, because the whole process has been simplified by Cart2Cart. Its interface is simple and easy to use. It also has a migration wizard, wherein you enter the details of your store and the information is picked by the system.
2. No Downtime
When you migrate from Shopify to WooCommerce, you might expect your store to go offline during that period, and then once the data gets transferred, you expect the operations to resume. However, Cart2Cart operates differently. It conducts the data transfer in the background and ensures your store is online. So, with this tool, there will not be any downtime or service interruption experienced. You can keep processing your transactions while you prepare for the transition from Shopify to WooCommerce.
3. No Programming
Cart2Cart saves a lot of your time by taking care of the technicalities on its own. All you need to do is fill up details of your source and target online store. You will have to specify the elements and entities that need to be transferred. Other than this, the configuration widget gets completed in minutes and everything is taken care of by Cart2Cart. This process will not need technical knowledge and hence even beginners can do this job easily.
4. Free Demo
Before you pay for the service, there is a free demo offered by Cart2Cart wherein it proves its capabilities. Once you install the migration module for Shopify to WooCommerce free of cost, create an account, fill details of your store, and specify the entities that have to be migrated, you can check out the free demo. The toll will transfer a few entities in 30 minutes and this gives you an idea of the full-scale migration. If you are happy with the demo, you can proceed to pay for the complete migration from Shopify to WooCommerce.
5. Flexible Pricing
Cart2Cart does not have any fixed pricing rate for the data migration procedures from Shopify to WooCommerce. Also, it does not have any standardized pricing plan. What you pay totally depends on the migration process and the number of entities that have to be transferred during the process. Cart2Cart has a very flexible pricing system. If you have more entities to be transferred, the volume of data transfer is high, and the service will be costlier. The price begins at $29, however, your final billing rate can be higher in contrast to the initial estimate because of add-ons such as migration insurance, or a few premium customization choices.
6. Customer Support
Cart2Cart has a team of experts who offer technical assistance 24/7. You can contact the team through live chat, phone or web ticketing, live chat, or phone. They have a very advanced level of customer support.
How to Migrate Shopify to WooCommerce with Cart2Cart?
Customer Reviews
Conclusion-Shopify To WooCommerce with Cart2Cart
Shopify, though being one of the very dominant eCommerce platforms, has its own drawbacks which can be resolved by platforms like WooCommerce, which are not just open-source but also cheaper. The data migration process is quite a tedious and cumbersome process which is why most of the online merchants tend to avoid the manual migration process and opt for assisted migration.
However, with tools like Cart2Cart that offer automated migration services that are way cheaper than hiring professionals to do a manual migration. It becomes easier to migrate an online store from Shopify to WooCommerce with Cart2Cart.
