Both PrestaShop and Magento are functional to help online stores reach their targets in terms of sales, traffic, SEO, conversion, etc. However, when a business scales up and demands a more sophisticated structure, Magento can outperform PrestaShop. That’s why many e-commerce merchants are looking for strategies to migrate from PrestaShop to Magento. But how to resettle the process without any harm to the store’s performance? Let this article walk you through PrestaShop to Magento migration with a comprehensive guide.
Contents
Why Should You Migrate PrestaShop To Magento?
There are many reasons why merchants should migrate to Magento. Here are some of them:
Full Control Of The Administration
The Magento platform enables a dynamic and fully functional admin panel for merchants. You can control a wide range of elements, including content management, product import & export, order management, payment method, analysis, etc.
Other features such as private sales, rewards, gifting options, and automatic email marketing reminders, can also be activated. These features are modern, simple to use, and powerful. Apart from that, Magento provides complete flexibility when it comes to managing products. You can create as many product attributes as you want and assign them accordingly.
PrestaShop, on the other hand, doesn’t give you much control over product attributes. And merchants need to integrate third-party plugins on PrestaShop sites to use some default features of Magento.
SEO Improvement
Both PrestaShop and Magento provide fundamental SEO choices, including page titles, meta descriptions, or customized URLs.
In particular, Magento comes with enriched SEO features to easily optimize your website for better search engine visibility. Fast speed, independent navigation links, and schemas also contribute to the excellent SEO performance of Magento sites.
PrestaShop, on the other hand, doesn’t offer that many SEO features. Thus, you might have to put in extra effort to optimize your PrestaShop store for better ranking.
Smooth Scalability
Magento is a more scalable platform than PrestaShop. PrestaShop can be slow when your website starts getting a lot of traffic. On the other hand, Magento can easily handle large amounts of traffic without any issues. So even if you want to sell 1000+ products, Magento can fulfill the upload work smoothly.
Other than that, the Magento platform supports powerful caching. You do not need to sacrifice any component when your online store grows. Adding additional features or more challenging algorithms won’t impact your website’s speed. Magento’s scalability has fewer restrictions than the scalability of PrestaShop because of tools like Varnish Cache.
Better User-centric Storefront
Magento provides a better user experience with its advanced and user-friendly features. Effective site navigation makes it easier for users to quickly find what they’re looking for.
Other features that make Magento user-friendly and encourage visitors to make purchases and return to the website are the ability to zoom in, product reviews, and multiple images of a given product. In addition, users can enjoy a responsive experience across numerous devices with Magento.
On the other hand, PrestaShop has a relatively simple and basic interface that might not be as appealing to users.
In addition to the benefits already discussed, Magento exceeds PrestaShop in support and community development. While PrestaShop does not have an official support team, the large Magento community can be a terrific resource for learning and discussing.
How To Migrate PrestaShop To Magento?
Prepare
Data Backup
The first and most important thing that you need to do is take a backup of your PrestaShop store. This will ensure that you have a backup of your data in case something goes wrong during the migration process.
You need to log into your PrestaShop account and visit the back-end administration site to accomplish that. PrestaShop has a DB backup tool for this. The Database area has a “Download the backup file” option. Download and save the file for later retrieval.
Magento Installation
Once you have backed up the data from PrestaShop, you’ll need to install Magento. There are 5 steps to complete the installation:
- Prerequisites
- Download Magento package
- Set up FTP
- Transfer Magento archive to the hosted system with FireZilla
- Run Setup Wizard
You may refer to the Magento community since they’re a great source of online material when installing Magento. Make sure there is no error in the process by picking a well-skilled developer.
Magento Configuration
After installing Magento, time to configure it. This includes setting up your Magento store, adding products, and configuring shipping and payment methods.
Migrate PrestaShop to Magento
Once you have prepared for the PrestaShop to Magento migration, you can start the actual migration process.
Export & Import Data
The first step is to export your PrestaShop data. You can use a PrestaShop to Magento migration tool to do this for you. Then it is time to import the data into Magento. Navigate to the Magento account, and fill in the required information about Source Cart and Source Store URL.
Before the migration, it is advised to leave the default theme in place on your PrestaShop store. Otherwise, any additional setup at this time can restrict the migration of the Magento to the PrestaShop database.
Configure Migration
Choose the entities you want to move over to your Magento store from the PrestaShop store. With the help of the Advanced Attributes Mapping and Additional Options, you can modify the migration.
You can also configure a number of additional parameters to personalize your Magento to PrestaShop conversion. More precisely, you can transfer categories and product SEO URLs, import customer products, and generate 301 redirects on your PrestaShop store following the migration.
Perform Migration
Choose the data types you want to transfer, make sure they match up with Magento and then decide on extra migration choices. Check the list below for the migration work:
- Products
- Modules
- Customer Data
- Orders
- Reviews
- SEO URLs
- Custom Fields
- Security Settings
- Configuration Settings
- Extended Features
Check Migration
Once you have imported your PrestaShop data into Magento, the next step is to verify that all your data has been migrated successfully. You can do this by checking your Magento store for any missing data.
After verifying your data, the final step is to go live with your Magento store. This includes making your Magento store live on your domain and available to your customers.
Work On Post-migration
Install A New Template
With the new Magento store, you may want to set up a new theme that matches your brand identity. There are over 300 available templates from different sources, including Magento marketplace and third-party providers.
You can have the theme seller handle the installation for you, or you can install a new theme on your own by following their installation and instruction. Picking a good theme also improves the look of your store and helps you establish your own brand.
Add New Extensions
Using third-party extensions will allow you to enable seamless shopping experiences for online users. Utilizing such modules may speed up your store’s operations, boost conversion rate, keep clients coming back, enhance security, and much more.
On the Magento marketplace, you can find an excellent extension source, including marketing, customer service, accounting, report, and sales support.
Switch Domains
You should change the PrestaShop domain to Magento once your shopping cart migration is complete. You may refer to online material or hire a professional developer for the work.
Test
After successfully migrating from PrestaShop to Magento, test the work carefully to avoid any issues. The main categories of data for your e-commerce store are orders, customers, and products. Make sure every product has an accurate description. In addition, the price and image should be imported and presented accurately on the website.
Migrating PrestaShop to Magento can be daunting, but if you follow the steps outlined in this guide, you should be able to do it without any issues. Remember to back up your PrestaShop data carefully before the migration.
How To Avoid Mistakes When Migrating PrestaShop To Magento?
You must keep a few things in mind to avoid making mistakes when migrating PrestaShop to Magento.
1. Make sure you back up your PrestaShop data carefully before starting the migration process. This will ensure that you have a backup of your data in case something goes wrong during the migration.
2. Choose a PrestaShop to Magento migration tool that is reliable and easy to use. Many PrestaShop to Magento migration tools are available on the market, so make sure you choose one that is reputable and has good reviews, like the LitExtension tool.
3. Configure your Magento store properly before going live. This includes setting up your Magento store, adding products, and configuring your shipping and payment methods.
4. Verify your data after migrating PrestaShop to Magento. This can be done by checking your Magento store for any missing data.
5. After migrating PrestaShop to Magento, redirect the PrestaShop store to your Magento store. This can be done by editing your .htaccess file and adding a redirect rule.
6. More importantly, you should consult a professional agency to proceed with the migration. With their experience, they can ensure that nothing goes wrong, and you’ll have a smooth migration to Magento. This way, you spend a bit of money for migration but save tremendous time for your business to start selling again on a more robust platform.
