Hey. I'm looking for some advice on a website move. Currently, I run an online store with a custom eCommerce system that the agency (who designed the website) own. It's got 2,500 to 3,000 products (including variable products) and receives approximately 600-1,000 visits per day.

I'm looking to move over to a new eCommerce system where I have more control and can manage the functionality myself. I'm looking to better track conversions, and also integrate eBay and Amazon as I also sell on there (which would cost me an arm and a leg if I go through the same agency to custom develop). My preliminary choices are between Magento, Woocommerce, Shopify and Bigcommerce.

I have experience with Woocommerce and Shopify (I'm proficient in web design and coding myself)); would such a large product inventory run effectively on Woocommerce? Or would I be best going down the Magento, Shopify or Bigcommerce route?

In terms of the migration, the only thing I'll have available is a .csv of all the products (which I'll be able to move over). When it comes to the pages, I'll need to create many from scratch. I'll also need to make sure URL's and category structures are the same as the original website so it helps to prevent loss of organic search.

I plan to make a test website where I'll do all the work and testing (so that the existing website can still run with no downtime with no pressure). I've got some ideas of how to do this in my head, but you'll probably need to correct me where I'm going wrong. When it comes to the URL, say the original shop is www.shop-a.com, and my test website is www.shop-b.com. I will develop everything on www.shop-b.com so that:

www.shop-b.com/category-a/

www.shop-b.com/category-a/product-a/

When the new website is fully developed, tested and I'm happy with it, how will I move the URL over so that:

www.shop-b.com/category-a/ becomes www.shop-a.com/category-a/

www.shop-b.com/category-a/product-a/ becomes www.shop-a.com/category-a/product-a

Thanks in advance for any help and advice.

Welcome to the forums.

2-3000 products isn't a huge amount in the grand scheme of things, so any half decent platform should work. The thing I'd be looking at is how good the platform is with many more products and orders in case you need to scale up in the near future.

I suggest you list out all your requirements, both what you need now and what you might need in the near future. Then look at as many cart systems as you can to find the best match. There's are many hundreds of ecommerce platforms out there so don't just stick to the big names!

For old/new URL's get a master list of all your current pages. Then when you launch the new platform add some 301 redirects where necessary so any page value is transferred to the new URL.

Thanks for the helpful reply BlueDreamer. If I'm planning on using the same domain name, but only after I've got everything right and as I want it, will I still be required to 301 redirect? Or can I just change the name servers, point the domain to the new server and be good to go? This is the part I'm struggling with.

If you're going to use the same domain name you'll only need to add redirects if any page URL's change (or at least the ones you want to redirect, some you may want to go 404-not found).

If you're changing web host yes you'll need to update nameservers to point to your new host.