As an established business, the thought of changing platforms after a lot of growth can sound like a daunting task to anyone. Unfortunately, changing technologies means that on occasion, changes will need to be made after a company has already established itself on a certain platform.
Many Magento users are now finding themselves in this very position, as they become poised to switch to Shopify Plus. For smaller businesses, this may be a simple change, but established retailers must be able to make this change quickly and efficiently without losing business. Luckily, there are a number of tips and tricks that can make the transition easier for everyone involved.
There are many reasons a retailer may want to switch from Magento to Shopify Plus; many companies have reported that Magento is not very secure, and that they do not have the customer service to support their large user base. This is the result of using a free platform, and for large retailers it could mean major headaches at some point in time. In addition, many Magento users have reported that there are many bugs with the platform that simply cannot be worked around, which in turn can have a negative impact on the final result.
If that wasn't enough, many users have claimed that Magento is far from marketer friendly, and it can be difficult to make applications compatible with stores built using the Magento platform. Each of these issues may not seem unbearable on their own, but combined they can prove to be detrimental to companies who rely on this platform to do business. Because of this, more Magento users are switching to Shopify than ever.
Large retailers looking to switch from Magento to Shopify must understand that the process will not happen overnight, and will require a team of experts in order to complete successfully. It's important to guarantee that Shopify will be able to host and run your site without problem before attempting to switch, so it is absolutely necessary to contact the company prior to beginning the process in order to avoid any misunderstandings.
After you know that Shopify can handle your store, it's time to find a development team that can make the change happen. This team should be experienced using the Shopify set up, as well as the API. When they have experience doing this, it will mean they can more quickly establish your site on the Shopify platform, which in turn will make it easier and more effective to switch from one platform to the other.
After reasonable goals have been set, the change can begin. Any team of Shopify experts should know the ins-and-outs of converting from Magento to Shopify, however it is possible to run into further issues during the transition. There is a Magento to Shopify importer that works for some sites, but for larger stores this may prove to be less useful than it may seem. In addition, meta fields are not part of Shopify admin, meaning that meta fields must be imported separately. Finally, Shopify cannot be logged into using social login, which could prove to be an issue for some companies.
Despite some of the issues that may occur during the transition, there are a number of tools and apps that can be used to make the process as simple and easy as possible. Shopify has hundreds of apps that can be used by both large and small retailers in order to optimize their conversion rates, as well as improve the user experience. There is nearly no limit on what can be done using the many apps Shopify has available to its users.
