any Shopify and/or Woo users? help needed

[balihr]

I'm hoping someone is willing to assist in the project I have planned - I want to build a plugin that allows to migrate from Shopify or Woo to Zen Cart (not the other way around). The idea is to have a simple way of transferring products, customers and orders from those platforms to Zen Cart.

If you're using any of the two platforms and are willing to help build this migration tool, please PM me for details. Thanks in advance!

[dbltoe]

I'm not sure there's enough need for such a product, although I could have used it myself on one occasion. It would be nice if they were beating a path to our door.

With DBIO, one should be able to take the three files from Shopify or WooCommerce, change the headers to match DBIO format, and import that data into Zen Cart.

With free readers like Google Sheets or LibreOffice Calc, simply modifying the first-row headers would make the data ready for import. Of course, field data size and format would need to be taken into account. I can't remember if I ran into any such problem bringing in data from Shopify. I have no experience with doing so from WooCommerce.

Perhaps the project should point more toward identifying the header changes for manual use for now and "fancy" it up if the need warrants it.

[balihr]

I know it's a matter of re-arranging headers and some adjustments, but you're missing the point...

We really MUST stop thinking about Zen Cart as a platform for developers and people who have extra time on their hands. I don't know how many times I've said this before: people nowadays NEED simplicity and they want the software to do the job for them. Nobody wants to mess around with CSV files (as simple as it may be) - just give me a button to click.

I see this as part of the main website revamp and a way of allowing new users to jump into Zen Cart with a few clicks. We want to attract people through simplicity, not by providing a PDF user guide on how to manipulate data. Welcome to the new age!

[dbltoe]

I'm all for the new age and often chastise clients for "clinging tenaciously to the trailing edge of technology".

IMHO, it would just be way down the list of priorities for me. I've only had one customer want to leave Shopify for ZC in five or six years. I've had more than one or two leave for Shopify over not being able to match a Shopify function in ZC.

DBIO and POSM were giant leaps forward. PayPal RESTful going to the core is great. USPS RESTful and others should join them.

3.0's template structure can be a tremendous help as well.

Still...

ZC added the ability to combine both retail and wholesale customers, but left out the ability to provide quantity discounts for one or the other or both.

lat9 did a fantastic job with her multi-ship module, but the advent of OPC (another fantastic submission) caused multi-ship to be left behind and I lost clients over the fact it's built in to Shopify. Once they found it available there, they would not even consider requesting a quote for updating the mod.

Until we can match the functions available elsewhere, my main efforts are to make us more competitive through common functions.

I applaud the initiative and will help in whatever way I can, as I fully appreciate your devotion to all things ZC.

[balihr]

IMHO, it would just be way down the list of priorities for me. I've only had one customer want to leave Shopify for ZC in five or six years. I've had more than one or two leave for Shopify over not being able to match a Shopify function in ZC.

I couldn't agree more and it's probably a waste of time, but if it brings 5 users in a year, it's a gain.
I know people hate Shopify for their ridiculous fees and costs and some might be willing to try an alternative if the switch was simple enough. If you need to jump through hoops and loops just to TRY a new platform, you're probably not even gonna give it a chance...
Woo has it - a detailed guide for CSV files, and a paid plugin to do it seamlessly. Well, if we offer a free plugin for a seamless migration, it might help someone with their decision.

Until we can match the functions available elsewhere, my main efforts are to make us more competitive through common functions.

My biggest hope lies in attracting theme developers - IMO, by far the weakest link in Zen Cart. Zen Cart is crazy powerful, but doesn't look good enough to attract enough attention. Users are willing to sacrifice a function or two (and look for alternatives) if the site looks professional, but it doesn't go the other way around - it can have all the bells and whistles in the world, but if it looks like s**t, shoppers will walk away because they don't trust the site and potential store owners are well aware of it...
Woo is inferior to Zen Cart when it comes to functionality, but it has an abundance of themes available and that's what sells it.

[balihr]

Here's a copy/paste from one of my client's email:
I spent a fortune in time and money moving it first to a Wordpress site and then to Shopify and it’s been a money pit disaster... I can’t even start to tell you how much I’ve invested and how much I’ve lost in sales over the years because of this…

We're now in the process of getting it back to Zen Cart. I've built a Shopify-to-ZenCart migration plugin and it's working like a charm. It allows to migrate all products (and images), customers and orders into Zen Cart by a stupid-simple click of a button.

I'm a little short on time to properly pack it up and submit as a plugin (documentation is pain), but will be doing it before the end of this month for sure.

If anyone here has any need for the plugin in the meantime, feel free to PM me or email me and I'll be happy to share it.

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Still looking for someone who is using Woo to help me complete the Woo-to-ZenCart plugin. It doesn't matter if it's a busy site or not, if it has just a few orders or thousands... I would just like to have something that is (or was) a real-world site so I can see the migration plugin works. So, if anyone is interested in helping out, please reach out.

[swguy]

Thanks for doing this. A huge asset for the product.