MivaMerchant to WooCommerce Migration
In this case study, we helped a U.S.-based flag retailer migrate their online store from MivaMerchant to WooCommerce. The project involved transferring over 15,000 entities, including products, customers, and orders, with several complicated requirements. Among them were products containing over 1,000 variants and discrepancies in variant pricing, which required special attention. Keep reading for more!
Data We Successfully Migrated
Products
Customers
Orders
Custom Data
About Our Client
Our client is a U.S.-based flag retailer with nearly 40 years of history in the industry. They offer a wide selection of products, from American and city flags to hotel and memorial flags, serving both individuals and organizations nationwide.
They started selling online in 1997 with MivaMerchant, making them one of the early adopters of eCommerce. However, as the platform became outdated and restrictive, they decided it was time to migrate to WooCommerce for a more modern and flexible online store.
With many years of selling online, our client had built up a massive database of over 15,000 data for products, customers, and orders. They needed a trusted partner to handle such a complex migration with precision. After reviewing options, they chose LitExtension for our proven expertise and reputation as a reliable migration service provider for enterprise-level projects.
Our Client’s Requirements
The client chose our All-in-One Migration Service, with a Personal Assistant handle the migration from start to finish. which provided them with a dedicated Personal Assistant to manage the entire process. Their primary requirement was to migrate all essential store data from MivaMerchant to WooCommerce, including products, customers, and orders, with complete accuracy.
In addition, they requested that only customers with at least one completed order be migrated. This approach helped keep the new store’s database clean and focused, avoiding unnecessary records from inactive or guest accounts.
The Challenges
During the migration, we ran into two notable challenges:
- Products with large number of variants: Some items in the client’s MivaMerchant store had over 1,000 variations. However, with WooCommerce’s default settings, only the first 1,000 variants can be migrated, which meant any additional variations would be excluded.
- Variant pricing discrepancy: In MivaMerchant, certain variants showed prices set to 0 in the admin panel but appeared differently on the frontend. These inconsistencies created a risk of inaccurate pricing being carried over during the migration, potentially leading to errors in product display and customer orders.
Our Solution
To handle products with a very large number of variants, we applied a workaround by migrating only the attributes and creating a single variant with “any” attributes. This kept the products functional in WooCommerce despite the 1,000-variant limit.
When it came to the variant pricing discrepancy, we reviewed the different ways MivaMerchant and WooCommerce handle attribute pricing. In MivaMerchant, variant prices are stored differently in the admin and frontend, which caused the prices set to 0 in the admin. By adjusting the data mapping to align with WooCommerce’s pricing structure, we resolved the issue and ensured all variant prices displayed correctly after migration.
For all remaining data, our LitExtension expert carried out a detailed data mapping and shared it with the client for confirmation. Then, we performed a demo migration to validate the setup. Once approved, we executed the full migration, followed by multiple rounds of testing to ensure that all data were migrated completely and correctly.
Project Timeline
Migration Preparation
- Technical consultation: 2 days
Demo Migration
- Run Demo Migration and wait for client’s confirmation: 1 day
Full Migration
- Run the Full Migration and review: 5 days
Project Handling
- Project reviewing based on client’s feedback: 4 days
What Customer Thinks About Us
“The LitExtension team are fanatical about support – really, really good. This is what makes them stand out from the rest of the crowd. They genuinely care about the success of your migration.
Our most recent one was a little complicated and the team went over and above what I expected to get the migration done. Nothing was too difficult. Nothing was too small.
A long term customer with another successful migration.”