Migrating from WooCommerce

A WooCommerce move is mostly exports and imports, plus the WordPress housekeeping you leave behind. Work through the steps in this order and you will not have to redo anything.

Considerations

• Orbit recognises a WooCommerce product export and matches its columns for you. You should not need to map anything by hand.
• Product images come across from the web addresses in the file, so keep your WordPress site live until the import has finished.
• Passwords never move. Customers set a new password the first time they sign in.
• WooCommerce variable products become Orbit products with variants.
• Products import live unless the file says otherwise. A product with no price imports as a draft.

1. Set up your Orbit store first

1. Create the store and choose your plan.
2. Set your currency, timezone and units.
3. Set up your shipping zones and rates.
4. Leave your domain where it is. You point it at Orbit at the very end.

2. Move your products

1. In WordPress, go to WooCommerce, then Products, then Export. Export all columns and all product types as a CSV.
2. From your Orbit dashboard, go to Products and click Import.
3. Click + Add file and choose the WooCommerce CSV.
4. Leave Create new products ticked and click Upload and preview.
5. Check the product count against your old catalogue, then open Column mappings and read what Orbit matched.
6. Click Import products. You can close the dialog and the import carries on.

Tip: Import ten products first and check a variable product on your storefront before you run the full file.

3. Move your customers

1. Export your customers from WooCommerce, with their email, name and billing and delivery addresses.
2. From your Orbit dashboard, go to Customers and click Import.
3. Add the file, check the mapping and import.
4. Plan an email telling customers about the new shop and asking them to set a new password.

4. Rebuild your categories and content

1. Create a category in Orbit for each WooCommerce product category you want to keep, then add products to it in bulk using the category column from your export.
2. Copy the blog posts that earn you traffic into Orbit, with their title, text and image.
3. Rebuild your About, Contact and policy pages as Orbit pages.

5. Finish before you point your domain

1. Add a redirect for every old product and page address that matters. WordPress permalinks never match Orbit's addresses, so this is what protects your search traffic.
2. Set up your taxes again. WooCommerce tax plugins do not export anything you can import.
3. Recreate your active coupons as Orbit discounts.
4. Reissue any gift cards that still have a balance on them.
5. Order something on the Orbit store yourself and check the whole checkout.
6. Point your domain at Orbit.

Warning: Leave your WordPress plugins switched on until the domain has moved. Turning one off part way through can break the image addresses your import is still reading.

Related guides

• Importing and exporting products
• Importing and exporting customers
• Redirecting an old URL to a new one
• Setting up taxes