You’re likely not new to online selling if you’re reading this Cart2Cart Review. You must have seen the rapid changes in ecommerce tech over recent months.
Based on the many reviews we have done, it is evident that ecommerce continues to grow at an incredible rate. As they compete in an already competitive market, there have been many feature updates and improvements made by different selling platforms in 2019.
You could argue that ecommerce platforms enjoy the benefits that come with better tools. It’s fair enough. Online merchants are, however, the largest beneficiaries.
It’s amazing, think about it. You love this platform and praise its features. Then, you discover a better shopping cart. It has smarter features than any other platform.
Let’s face it, we all have different opinions. Are you willing to stick with your platform, or would you consider other options?
It’s not, I think! You can’t outshine your competition if you want to be the best. Also, you should be ready to move to a better fit if it is available.
Here’s the catch. It’s not an easy task, even for those who have tried it before. It’s almost like doing brain surgery. It is time-consuming, difficult, and technically challenging. It’s not something you would be able handle without the right technical skills.
Cart2Cart Review: Overview
Although it may sound like one, Cart2Cart does not provide a shopping cart solution. It’s the platform that you use when you need to move from one shopping cart to another.
What does this mean?
Okay, let’s get back to the migration process and take a moment to analyze it. Is it difficult and cumbersome?
Yes, data and code are the main issues here. Both code and data must be moved concurrently from one host provider to the next. This requires both expertise as well as a lot of effort. It is also very risky and expensive.
You could lose your business for a few days due to code errors or data corruption. Imagine the potential losses and the effort required to fix the issue and restore your website.
Okay, I get it. Are ecommerce platforms able to offer website migration services for customers?
It turns out that they do. However, not all of them offer this option. Most users have to manage their website migrations themselves.
These problems eventually prompted MagneticOne, an ecommerce-solutions firm, to launch Cart2Cart 2009 The platform has been helping online entrepreneurs for over ten years. It automates the entire process.
It can be viewed as a solution to simplify the entire process by migrating a specific shopping cart.
You should also be able move your website to different ecommerce platforms without having to code a single line. This means that you don’t require any technical knowledge. It is possible to move forward without having to hire a developer.
I’m not denying that Cart2Cart is a great tool. Cart2Cart can’t support any website migration. It supports migrations between more 85 platforms at the moment.
It’s a small selection, I must admit. Despite that, the list includes most of the popular solutions, such as Shopify, WooCommerce and BigCommerce, PrestaShop or X-Cart. Magento to Shopify is one of the most requested migrations.
Combining their numbers over the years shows that tens of thousands have used Cart2Cart so far to switch between these platforms.
It’s not terrible, but it isn’t bad at all. What exactly does Cart2Cart offer in return for its users?
As we know, Cart2Cart automates the entire migration process. Only two things you need to do manually are registration and specifying your site’s migration options. It takes only three steps to export your site data to a new shopping basket.
The best part is that you can still sell during the migration process. Cart2Cart won’t take down your website. While complex migrations take place in the background, everything is preserved in the frontground. This means that you can choose to change platforms mid-sales season.
Cart2Cart’s support team is comprised of highly-experienced professionals who are able to overlook the technical aspects. You can reach them anytime of the day or night if you have any questions. Cart2Cart ensures fast problem resolution and optimal responsiveness.
This sounds promising. However, is Cart2Cart really able to support site migrations? What should you expect from the service when you first use it?
This is exactly what the Cart2Cart review focuses on. We have used Cart2Cart several times. Here’s a comprehensive review of the entire process, customer support, pricing, and all other services.
We also cover the pros and cons of Cart2Cart’s ecommerce platforms.
Cart2Cart: The pros and cons
Pros of Cart2Cart
- Cart2Cart doesn’t require any technical skills. Cart2Cart automatically migrates your online shop and all associated data from one shopping cart into another. The setup process is simple enough for everyone, even beginners.
- Even large sites can be moved without the need to install any software. Cart2Cart, a web-based software that uses Hetzner servers for its complex migrations, is powered by Hetzner servers.
- One Cart2Cart migration instance can transfer all website data and any accompanying entities including customer details and product categories.
- Cart2Cart offers a flexible and dynamic site migration framework. You could also pay for partial migration via its Recent Data Migration service.
- Cart2Cart includes an Estimator to help you determine your exact migration costs. Pricing is flexible because it considers the amount of data being transferred.
- Cart2Cart’s Demo migration tool allows you to see a preview of your site before you start a full migration. The best part is that the entire process is free.
- Your online shop is moved from one platform to the next without any downtime. This allows you to continue your business operations during the entire process.
- Your site’s original entity structure will remain intact after it has been moved. Images, tags, coupons and multiple stores are just a few of the common entities that are linked.
- Cart2Cart provides 24/7 customer support via email, phone and live chat. The technical support team at Cart2Cart is extremely knowledgeable and responsive.
- Cart2Cart can transfer large amounts of data quickly. For example, an online store that has 5,000 entities shouldn’t take more than one hour to transfer data.
- Cart2Cart allows migrations to more than 80 ecommerce platforms. It offers everything you need, from self-hosted and hosted shopping carts to market leaders and lesser-known platforms.
- Cart2Cart has 12 partnerships with the most renowned ecommerce platforms, including Shopify, WooCommerce and 3dcart.
Cons of Cart2Cart
- For newbies, setting up a connection between self hosted platforms can be difficult. Downloading a zip file is all that’s required. Then, you need to unpack its contents in your store’s root directory via FTP.
- The Minimum Rate of 50% on the Full Migration Price is the Current Data Migration Service. This could mean that the service may end up costing you more than you anticipated.
- Cart2Cart’s Migration Preview Service supports only a few shopping carts. Only eight platforms allow you to preview your online store.
Cart2Cart Review: Ease of use (How it Works)
Getting Started
Signing up is the first step to migrate from one platform into another. You won’t need to wait long as Cart2Cart allows you to proceed with your Google or Facebook accounts.
If you are wondering if you need to subscribe to a package in order to access the system dashboard then the answer is yes. Cart2Cart will grant you free migration setup privileges. After you have adjusted the migration settings and unrolled the actual thing, payments will not be made.
You can log in to the system while you wait. After that, click on the “Create New Migration” button. It will open a setup interface. On this interface Cart2Cart asks you to enter the source cart and target options for your online store.
Hosted vs. Self-Hosted Cart Migrations
This is where it gets a little tricky for self-hosted ecommerce platforms such as WooCommerce and Magento. It’s easy to establish a connection between source and target carts with hosted platforms. You only need their URLs and API details.
It is as simple as copying and pasting the relevant website information and platform info to move from Shopify to BigCommerce.
Cart2Cart cannot set up a valid link for self-hosted shopping carts. This is because Cart2Cart uses a “Connection Bridge” to establish a valid link. This zip file is downloaded from Cart2Cart. Then, you can unzip the contents to your root folder with FTP.
You could also give Cart2Cart the FTP credentials of your store and it will unpack the connection bridge for you.
The bridge’s purpose is to facilitate data transactions throughout the entire migration process.
Don’t make any mistake. One connection bridge instance won’t suffice if you want to migrate between two self hosted platforms. Instead, connect to both your source and target platforms with a connection bridge.
Okay, I get how complicated that might sound to someone who is new to FTP clients. Although it may seem complicated, it is actually quite simple. It’s as easy as downloading and unzipping any web file. It takes only a few seconds to complete the task.
You’ll soon notice that this is the only area you will need technical knowledge. The rest is easy.
Selection of Migration Entities and Other Options
For example, the next stage is about choosing which website entities you want to migrate. Simply select the entities you want to migrate and check off their boxes in Cart2Cart. You’ll find products, customers and reviews as well as orders, categories, taxes, orders and tax information. You’ll find all the same stuff on ecommerce websites.
Free Demo Migration
But the good news doesn’t stop there. Cart2Cart actually has even more to offer. To be even more specific, Cart2Cart will perform a free demo migration so you can get a feel for the final product.
This is the important part. The demo will not move any entities to the target platform. It should take approximately half an hour.
That should demonstrate the power of Cart2Cart. To confirm that Cart2Cart is indeed the best migration tool for your online shop, you could examine the elements of the site.
If you are satisfied with what you see you can launch a complete migration. The service is not free, however, as it charges based on how many entities you want to migrate and the shopping carts involved.
A typical online store that has 1,000 products and 500 customers will require you to move 500 products from BigCommerce into Shopify. This will cost you approximately $69. Cart2Cart should allow you to complete such a migration in about one hour.
Cart2Cart can give you a rough estimate of the cost to migrate your store. Simply enter your customer and product numbers, then voila! Then you can budget accordingly.
Cart2Cart Review: Main Services
Although migration is essentially moving a website to another platform, site owners may choose to go down different routes. This is a complex task that involves many variables. People prefer to use custom parameters based on their particular needs.
Cart2Cart approaches the topic of migration dynamically. Instead delivering a single-size-fits all system, it breaks down migration into a variety of services that are tailored to different users
These include:
Data Migration Service Packages
Data migration service package includes technical support and website data transfer.
What does this all mean?
Cart2Cart professionals handle almost all aspects of the setup process. The support team handles everything, even the setup process.
This is not all. They also conduct pre-migration validation and migration results validation. Cart2Cart also provides a temporary personal account manager to help you manage your migration settings.
This data migration service is worth looking into if your schedule makes it difficult to manage website migrations. This service allows you to focus on your business while the experts handle the data transfer and any other tweaks.
The cheapest data migration service costs $299, and can accommodate 1,000 entities. Cart2Cart is a service that allows you to transfer more than 60,000 entities for a customized price.
Service for Data Migration
Cart2Cart’s migration process ensures that your site is online all the time. However, it is possible for new entities to visit the source store. These could be caused by new sales, product updates or increased order volumes.
This begs the question: What happens to new entities that arrive after root data folders have been moved? Cart2Cart should be paid again for a new full migration.
The Recent Data Migration service is here to save you the trouble of remigrating everything to the target platform. This service saves you the hassle of migrating everything to the target platform and focuses only on the most recent data changes from the source store. You can transfer specific datasets and not the rest.
Make no mistake. However, the Recent Data Migration service does not necessarily update your target store’s information by syncing all data with the source store. It introduces new entities based upon your selection. Cart2Cart transfers only the data you select.
This service saves time and is also cost-effective. Although a second full migration will only increase your costs, Recent Data Migration can save you 50%. Cart2Cart charges you approximately half of the full migration fee to perform a Recent Data Migrate.
However, it is worth noting that the 50% reduction rate does not always apply. This is the minimum fee that you should expect to be charged. Cart2Cart may add additional fees depending on which entities you wish to transfer.
Migration Insurance Service
The Migration Insurance Service acts as a backup plan in the event that your online store does not launch after data transfer.
There are many reasons why sometimes problems can develop after migration. Some websites fail to fully integrate with target carts. Other websites might have problems due to incorrectly modified data or corrupted modules. There are many other possible problems.
Let’s face facts. It is impossible to eliminate all possible risk factors. Cart2Cart can’t predict or prevent all issues on the ecommerce platforms it supports, even though it is a reliable solution for migration.
It does however offer a clever mitigation option. The Migration Insurance Service provides protection against unforeseeable difficulties and allows you to start the process over again.
The cost of the insurance is approximately 9-13% of the total price for data migration in your online store. The number of remigration cases you select will determine the percentage rate at which insurance is payable. The rate will go up the more you choose.
Here’s the catch. Cart2Cart won’t let you add options to your store’s initial migration process. If you insist, the platform will charge you separate for each option.
Migration Preview Service
When you realize your online store would be more successful with a new shopping platform, migration becomes necessary. It might be difficult to identify the right target platform for your site.
Are you familiar with the dilemma of choosing among multiple ecommerce platforms that seem ideal?
Yes. It can be confusing, especially when your platform options are balanced in terms of feature benefits and drawbacks.
This is what you need to know. Cart2Cart’s Migration Preview Service helps you make informed decisions by showing you a small visual representation of each platform.
It allows you to see how your online store will appear on different platforms. After carefully analyzing each store design and the accompanying entities on various target shopping carts, you should be able make a decision.
Guess what? You don’t even have to pay anything for the service. Cart2Cart displays each test instance as an example of a migration demo, which can remain live for up three days. This gives you enough time to evaluate all parameters with your admin access credentials.
If you decide to go ahead with a full-scale migration, then payment will only be made. Cart2Cart will allow you to modify your target cart information, then it will apply the charges before actually executing the transfer process.
The Migration Preview service only supports a few platforms, which is a problem, if you think about it. There are only seven options for carts.
They are all, however, some of the most popular shopping carts. The service is available to anyone who uses BigCommerce, PrestaShop or Magento.
Cart2Cart Review – Customer Support
Site migration can be a complex process. Even if you are transferring a simple website, there are complex factors to consider. It is crucial that a migration service offers high-level technical support to its customers.
This is pretty much what we have here. Cart2Cart’s customer support system has been optimized to address your concerns promptly and professionally.
The staff is made up of web developers who are highly skilled and knowledgeable about web migration. You can trust them to help you if you have any problems while transferring your site’s data.
Technical support is available 24/7 via multiple channels. You should be able contact them via phone, email, and live chat. You have the freedom to choose.
Before you raise a ticket, it is worth reading the knowledge base if you are just getting started. Cart2Cart has video tutorials available for all its supported ecommerce platforms. There is also a comprehensive FAQ section. These resources, when combined, provide all the necessary information to get your ecommerce platform up and running.
Cart2Cart also offers comprehensive support for users who are not able to do the migrations. A personal account manager handles all aspects of your data transfer, including store installation, customizations, and validations.
Cart2Cart Review – Pricing
- Basic Migration Service – For a one-off fee of $299, this Basic Migration Service includes migration results validation, 1 free remigration within 7 business days of full migration, previews of migration results, migration set-up, premigration validation, free additional options and customization, a personal manager, five hours of technical support, as well as migration of up 1, 000 entities.
- Extended Migration Service- For a one-off fee of $549, this Extended Migration Service provides migration results validation, 2 pre-migration validations within 14 days, preview of the demo migration results and migration setup. It also offers free additional options such as migration customization, target cart install, a personal account manager, technical support for up to 10 hours, and migration of upto 20,000 entities.
- Premium Migrating Service – The Premium Migration Service costs $999. It includes migration results validation, 3 additional migrations within 21 days of full migration, preview of migration results, migration set-up, premigration validation and free additional options. Target cart installation and personal account management are included. Technical support is available for up to 25 hours and the migration of upto 60,000 entities.
- Ultimate Migration Service The Ultimate Migration Service offers superior services for more than 60,000 entities. Pricing is flexible and includes migration results validation, two remigrations within one month, preview of migration results, pre-migration validation and free additional options. Target cart installation, personal account manager, technical support for more than 25 hours, and migration of over 60,000.
Cart2Cart: Who should you use it?
We are now able to confirm that Cart2Cart is indeed what it says. Cart2Cart is a fully automated framework for transferring online shops from one shopping cart into another. It offers a variety of dynamic migration services and a simple interface.
Cart2Cart is an ideal solution for any online merchant. It can be used by online merchants as well as ecommerce startups, small businesses and freelancers. Its client base consists mainly of freelancers and web development agencies.
Cart2Cart is able to switch between more than 80 platforms quickly and easily as the ecommerce market changes. You save time, money, and effort.