Switch to osCommerce
Having had a plenty of customers recently switching from other Ecommerce solutions to osCommerce, or willing to switch from other versions of osCommerce to our TrueLoaded, we decided to publish some details of this mysterious (as referred by a customer) process to make it easier for our customers to understand what exactly is going with their online shop.
There may be many reasons why an online store owner would like to change Ecommerce platform and start using osCommerce. Most of the customers report the lack of features and not enough flexibility with their current solutions, others complain about not being able to support their sites, when with osCommerce you get support of the whole development community. And even though “plain” osCommerce is perhaps not the best solution for online retail business - it is the relatively big retailers who contact us to have their businesses backed by osCommerce solutions. As osCommerce can be enhanced with the features suitable for business management that not many other Ecommerce solutions have.
As it was easy to guess the switch usually consists of several steps. The main goal behind this process is to make it as smooth and seamless for online trading as possible.
And the first step is to ensure the Hosting Platform for the new web site is suitable to host osCommerce.
The second step would be to copy design of the existing web site and integrate it into osCommerce as close to the original as possible. Sometimes customers ask to improve design though.
The third step is to copy the database, products and images, customer accounts, orders and all current configurations and settings (taxes, currencies, design settings, everything…). Ideally end customers should be able to log into their accounts and check previously placed orders in the new osCommerce web site, same as they would do that in the old web site.
The fourth step is about copying payment and shipping methods, and all other specific features implemented in the current site.
Finally after all tests are passed the new web site can be launched. It all may sound a little bit too simple, but each project like that requires a lot of attention to details and concentration as customer’s online business should only benefit from the switch to osCommerce!