Migrating from Miva to Shopify?

There are many things to consider when migrating your website from Miva Merchant to Shopify.

Before you begin this process, it is best to contact After Dark Grafx via Chat (bottom right of this website), via our Contact Form – click here or via Phone Toll Free (888) 578-8300 or if in San Diego (619) 702-7377.  This will save you in both time and money and the 30 minute consultation is FREE!

TAKE AN INVENTORY OF YOUR MIVA STORE:
You will want to take an inventory of what functionality is currently in place within Miva and see if this same type of functionality is available within Shopify. In some cases, you can change or alter the the functionality to best suit your needs but in some cases, you will either need to add a paid or free app from the Shopify App Store or contact a developer (like After Dark Grafx wink! wink!). To perform the upgrade or add advanced custom coding that Shopify or the theme that you choose does not offer.

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT SHOPIFY BEFORE MOVING (PROS, CONS, LIMITATIONS & BENEFITS)

VIEW EXISTING SHOPIFY THEMES

VIEW EXISTING APPS

CONTACT A SHOPIFY DEVELOPER (We are Shopify Experts)

USING A THIRD PARTY MIGRATION SERVICE PROS & CONS

EXPORTING AND IMPORTING DATA

INTEGRATING DESIGN CHANGES

CODE FUNCTIONALITY CHANGES

INSTALLING FREE AND PAID APPS

SETTING UP THIRD PARTY SHIPPING AND THE COSTS INVOLVED

SETTING UP PAYMENT GATEWAYS AND THE  COSTS

POINTING YOUR DOMAIN NAME

LAUNCHING YOUR NEW STORE

UPDATING THE SITE MAP WITH GOOGLE

USING REDIRECTS SO YOU DO NOT LOSE “*SEO JUICE”

This is just a basic list of what needs to be done before, during and after a migration from Miva Merchant Shopping Cart to the Shopify Platform.

You can Sign Up for a 14 Day Free Trial with Shopify – Click Here!

Contact us today click here for a FREE, 30 MINUTE, NO OBLIGATION consultation.
Toll Free (888) 578-8300
Local: (619) 702-7377

Shopify’s post about Migrating to Shopify Click Here

After Dark Tip: Make a Backup of your entire site and database before starting or making any changes or migrations. In your Miva Control Panel (not admin.mvc) you can export the database and all files from within Miva’s ecosystem. Their my.miva.com control panel allows you to login to the server and export the database and files OR just contact Miva Tech Support and they will do this for you.

*SEO JUICE = Your current SEO standings or what links you currently have within the search engines.

You should also take into consideration the age of your Miva website. Was it developed recently or years ago. Sometimes, performing a migration will not grab all of the data correctly. Utilizing an online utility to migrate your data, in most cases, does not grab all of the data you need because there is no “face-to-face” or human interaction analyzing what your site actually needs.

Over the years, as you utilize Miva for your eCommerce website, you have probably added modules and custom code to make the website perform in a certain fashion needed for your company. Some of these modules or functionality will need to be re-added to your Shopify store in the form of paid or free apps plus custom coding.

So, what do you do? Call After Dark Grafx for a FREE, No Obligation Migration Consultation and Cost Analysis. This way, you can understand what exactly you need and how your website will be affected by the move.

It is best to spin up a test store, put it onto a paid plan and integrate and add the apps you need before moving the entire website.

Note: All existing customers will have to RECREATE their passwords. You can send them out an invite one-by-one (Shopify Plus allows for mass invites) otherwise, you can use your email system like Mail Chimp, Constant Contact or other to send emails to your existing customers notifying them that you are moving to a new system and they will have to recreate their password on your website.

Have a Rewards System in place? We should talk.

What about Email? We should talk.

Have other special coding or integrations that you may have forgotten about? We should talk.

It is always best to keep your Miva Merchant account live as you transition away for the first few weeks to make sure everything is running efficiently.

There are a multitude of other things to consider when migrating pertaining to orders, customers, categories and so forth so you should do yourself a favor and contact After Dark Grafx for a FREE Miva to Shopify Migration Consultation!