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Migrating From Magento Go

Recently, big news shook up the world of retail technology and the world of e-commerce.

It has been announced that Magento Go, the popular software platform for small business, will be closing out as of February 1st of 2015. This will have a major impact on users of the eBay-owned shopping cart, all of whom will need to switch their e-commerce to a new host prior to that date.

Increased Competition

Magento Go faced quite a bit of competition from services like BigCommerce and Shopify. BigCommerice is one of the world leaders in SaaS e-commerce, and Shopify has made quite a name for itself as well. In addition, the small-business-focused software was among two other tiers of e-commerce services, one being Magento Community (a free, open-source solution) and the other being Magento Enterprise (for large-scale use, requiring annual licensing fees). These factors were most likely big drivers behind the decision to cut Go from the program roster.

Making the Transition

Migrating from Magento Go may be important to the success of your business, because transitioning into a new service and program can be a difficult and heavily involved process if you don’t choose the right platform or service provider. Inevitably, there will be a few inconveniences during Go’s shutdown prior to the February 1st end date, so it’s best to have all of your ducks in line with a plan for transition sooner than later. You don’t want to find yourself scrambling for a move come mid-January.

What’s important to remember is that you want to be able to re-launch your online store and continue selling without interruption; it’s best to avoid an extended period of offline time or service suspension, as this can bring headaches to your future business: Unfortunately, most online shoppers don’t like to see a “come back soon” notification.

A Few Tips and Strategies

Here are a few tips and strategies for successful migration from Magento Go to a new program:

-Be aware of any needs for 301 redirects: If you aren’t already familiar with the term, a 301 redirect basically refers to changing the URL of a page as it appears in search results. When migrating to a new program, some of your URLs may change through the migration process.

-Update your robots.txt files (if using a dev environment): your robots.txt file provides a search engine robot’s point of view for a file. Make sure that this is properly updated through your migration process. You’ll be glad you did.

We Can Help

If you’re a small business or retailer in the process of migrating from Magento Go, you might be feeling a little confused as to what steps you need to take the transition to a new service. Have no fear. Check out this link to find out more about the Magento hosting process, and check out this link to find out more about a new service for payment processing. As always, feel free to contact us if you’d like to find out more or inquire about moving forward through the Magento Go shutdown. We can give you a quote on new services, and we even have premium partnerships with the folks at BigCommerce and Shopify. We’re here to help.

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