Do you have a Prestashop eCommerce website that you want to expand? WooCommerce might be your choice as it has proved itself from time to time as an adequate eCommerce platform. In this tutorial guide, I am going to explain simple steps to migrate from Prestashop to WooCommerce.

Prestashop is an open source CMS that is one of the best eCommerce platforms. It enables site owners to sell their products with out-of-the-box features and grow their business. Currently, it powers over 270,000 online stores worldwide. Moreover, it has an exceptionally intuitive interface to manage your online store easily. Furthermore, the open-source platform is obviously cost efficient. In addition, it offers some bold and lively themes to build a website that reflects the nature of your business. In fact, platforms like TemplateToaster that offer Prestashop theme maker to create unique looking online stores.

WooCommerce, on the other hand, is one of the great WordPress plugins instead of a stand alone ecommerce platform. But wait, it is a great advantage. We know that WordPress comes with unlimited themes and plugins. Therefore, you get access to all the themes and plugins with WooCommerce. First of all, WooCommerce is a free  plugin which means it is cost efficient. Secondly, it effectively streamlines the entire eCommerce website development process to offer you a functional online store. Lastly, the extensions and features offer reliable scalability to grow your online store. In addition, it comes with some out-of-the-box selling features like the ability to add custom product tabs. Similarly, you can create a custom WooCommerce theme to give a personal touch to your online site.

Why migrate from Prestashop to WooCommerce?

Prestashop is a great platform unless you need to grow your business and need to accommodate a large traffic on your website. Both WooCommerce anfd PrestaShop are free platforms/plugins but Prestashop mostly offer paid modules that can lead to a very expensive scaling. WooCommerce, on the other hand, offers great scalability and store improvement features within a fixed budget. Moreover, WooCommerce has managed to integrate all the good things of WordPress CMS while bringing great selling features with the WooCommerce plugin. Furthermore, you can boost your online business with a much more 360 strategy using WooCommerce. Here is list of best PrestaShop hosting providers and Woocommerce CRMs. You may also learn how to speed up Woocommerce store.

Pre migration process

Before you start the migration process, you need to make some advanced arrangements to ensure everything goes as planned. And if anything goes wrong, you have a way out. Therefore, here are some things you need to take care of-

  1. Back up your Prestashop Store

First of all, backup your data. It protects you from losing data and critical cases. Indubitably, it is not a compulsory data but it is essential for your own safety. Generally, backing up Prestashop process involves two major steps, as mentioned below-

Backing up Prestashop Database: Locate your database manager and check all the tables and select Export option. It will create an SQL file which is further exportable. Save the ‘.sql’ on your local device to successfully create a backup of your database.

Backing up Prestashop files: After backing up the database, it’s time to back up all the files and folders of your Prestashop site. Connect to the public_html folder of your file through FTP client you use. I’ll cover the steps using FileZilla for the sake of this guide. Firstly, copy the folder containing your site’s files and paste them on your local device. That’s it.

  1. Install a new WooCommerce store

Before you start the migration process, you need to have a functional WooCommerce site first. In other words, you need a WordPress website, a domain name, a WordPress hosting provider, to set up your WooCommerce site. We recommened Bluehost for WordPress and Woocommerce as it is officilly endorsed by WordPress project.Here is a detailed guide on . Here is an overview of general steps involving WordPress installation-

  1. How to Download and unzip the WordPress zip file
  2. Create the database and the admin
  3. Upload your website files on your webserver
  4. Run the WordPress installation wizard

Once you have your WordPress website up and running, go to your WordPress admin area. Navigate to Plugins> Add new and locate WooCommerce. Click Activate to add the WooCommerce plugin to your WordPress site. That’s it, you’ve successfully installed WooCommerce store.

How to Migrate from Prestashop to WooCommerce:

moving from PrestaShop to WooCommerce

There are two ways to migrate from Prestashop to WooCommerce: Using a plugin and manual way. Manual way is the lengthy way which takes forever to complete. Also, it is suitable for tech-savvy users only because it is pretty complicated. If you have decided to migrate from Prestashop to WooCommerce using a plugin, there are various plugins that can help you do that. We recommend FG Prestashop to WooCommerce extension because it enables a quick and trouble-free migration process.

Follow steps to migrate from Prestashop to WooCommerce

Step 1. Both Prestashop and WooCommerce are self-hosted platforms which means the action algorithm is the same. It means you can install FG Prestashop to WooCommerce plugin on both the eCommerce platforms. After installing the plugin, you will see an ‘import’ link in the plugin’s box.

Step 2. Next step is to choose the data types you want to transfer from Prestashop to WooCommerce along with the additional migration options. The plugin will redirect you to the plugin’s settings page where you can fill your Prestashop database information including Store URL, Database Name, Database User and Password. Leave the rest of the settings on default.

Important Note: Do not close the import progress window once it reaches 100% because it goes beyond that. Instead wait for it to complete and inform you about the completion. You can read how to add subcriptions to Woocommerce.

Post migration process

Now that you are done with the migration process, there are few things you want to check to ensure that your WooCommerce online store is working fine-

  1. Check your new WooCommerce store for random errors like correct categorization of products, visibility, perform a few searches, inspects links, etc.
  2. Inspect your WooCommerce store and install all the essential extensions to make your store have all the features you need that are not included in the custom version of WooCommerce.
  3. Upgrade to the recent data migration service which will redirect your visitors to your new WooCommerce site if they still visit your old Prestashop URL.

Migrating from Prestashop to WooCommerce – Conclusion

Both are self-hosted, free eCommerce platforms that come with some exceptional sales features. Moreover, the plethora of automatic migration plugins make the entire migration process smooth and easy. Using an adequate plugin like FG Prestashop to WooCommerce ensure a complexity-free, smooth migration process. This is all you need to know in order to carry out a successful migration from Prestashop to WooCommerce. If you want us to send regular updates directly to you, subscribe to us.

Hopefully, this guide helped you understand the migration process of Prestashop to WooCommerce. In case you have any questions, reach out to us in the comments below!