HikaShop to VirtueMart Migration: Comprehensive Overview

It`s not a mystery that today’s eCommerce is growing rapidly which causes many merchants to reconsider their platform choice and switch to other more advanced solution. We also know that any changes are accompanied with fear and hesitations. When it comes to Joomla shopping cart shifts, everything becomes even more tense. Beside the fact, the retailers are not sure which one of tons extensions available will better fulfill their needs, they’re afraid of frustrating migration results.

Taking into account that the two most popular Joomla extensions are HikaShop and VirtueMart, we decided to make a detailed switch overview to show you that there is nothing to be afraid of.

But first let’s discover WHY HikaShop to VirtueMart migration is worth it.

Why HikaShop to VirtueMart switch can be a worthy idea?

HikaShop is another powerful eCommerce shopping cart that currently runs 39,302 live websites. Thanks to its user-friendliness and high-level of flexibility, this e-platform became a perfect solution to thousand of merchants.

Key features:

#User-friendliness

HikaShop a perfect solution to those, who want to build the e-store in short period avoiding messing around with code issues and complicated setup procedures. It`s easy to configure and customize giving you the opportunity to set up your store simultaneously and personalize your store views, information fields, checkout, etc.

# Useful Plugins

If you need to tweak your e-store to a new level, HikaShop will help you to do that without tech expertise. There are three most used add-ons which you can benefit from: Manual shipping methods management, Alpha User Points, Geolocation plugin. By means of these plugins, you can set prices, logos, custom restrictions, track your customers/orders, enable payments facilities.

It`s important to mention that HikaShop supports integration with Joomla Search and Social networks (Facebook and Twitter) and powerful SEO extension. Also, you can create shipping and payment plugins on your own via simple API.

#Marketing tools

It`s not a secret that the success of your eCommerce retail depends on how much you interact with your buyers. Luckily, HikaShop knows that, this, offers you the integration with AcyMailing — an efficient newsletter and marketing component for Joomla eCommerce allowing you to create an attractive marketing campaigns without much effort.

Regarding statistic possibilities we cannot but mention that Joomla eCommerce software offers you the advantageous Reports tool, comprehensible Gauge and pie chart on sales, Heatmap of sales per country, Affiliate Tracking, effective Google Analytics Tracking, etc.

#Support

The same as VirtueMart, HikaShop takes care about its users and offers the profound documentation that covers the topics from installation to managing this extension. Also, it has an active forum with dedicated and responsive developers trying to provide the answers to all kind of issues.

VirtueMart overview

VirtueMart is the most popular Joomla eCommerce software empowering 74, 851 live websites all over the globe (builtwith.com). It`s one of the most powerful eCommerce online store builders that allows you to start selling your goods without much retail experience. What’s more, if you have some basic tech skills and enjoy digging up the code, VirtueMart will open to you new horizons for creating a store of your dreams.

Key features:

#Comprehensive set of tools

VirtueMart offers a wide range of beneficial add-ons, templates and extensions that can make your store blossom. You`re able to set up the unlimited products, take advantage of professional- looking templates responsive on all devices. Besides that, it provides its users with the enhanced out-of-the-box features like orders tracking, custom attributes, guest check-out, multiple currencies, multilanguage, etc.

What`s worth mentioning is that VirtueMart offers the inbuilt marketing tools allowing the retailers to please their customers with coupon codes, discounts and apply product reviews & ratings to their webpages.

VirtueMart offers basic SEO capabilities by default. Apart from this, there are many additional extensions which boost your Google ranking in its marketplace.

# Large number of supported gateways

We cannot but mention a big number of secure payment gateways this eCommerce software works with: PayPal, SystemPay, 2Checkout, Amazon Payments, etc. Taking into consideration that this software is PCI compliant, now your customers can pay with credit cards and be sure that that their personal data won’t be harmed.

# Support

If you have some questions, go to extensive VirtueMart forum. You don’t need to spend your valuable time on searching how to solve the issues as many of them are already answered.

HikaShop to VirtueMart: What`s the outcome?

As you can see, both these both Joomla shopping carts can fulfill various small/medium size business needs. We won’t exaggerate saying that VirtueMart in comparison to HikaShop is more robust and offers the larger number of advanced tools and integrations. This is a good solution to those retailers who are aiming to continually expand their business.

However, if you run a small e-shop and basic functionality fulfills your needs, using HikaShop solution won’t be a mistake. Everything depends on your targets and business revenue.

If you feel that the VirtueMart corresponds better with your targets, Cart2Cart will gladly help you with the HikaShop to VirtueMart migration. Here is the detailed guide of the switch procedure:

1. Register an account

Create a new Cart2Cart account or use your Google+ or Facebook account to sign in.

2. Set up your Source cart

Choose HikaShop from the drop-down menu as a Source Cart, provide the store’s URL. Then, download the Connection Bridge. Unzip and upload it to your Joomla root folder.

3. Set up your Target cart

Go to Target Cart type and paste VirtueMart URL into Target Store URL. Download the Connection Bridge. Unzip and upload it to your VirtueMart root folder.

4. Select the entities

Choose the entities you have the desire to migrate — products, categories, customers, orders, etc. If required, pick up some Additional Options which will broaden your migration opportunities.

5.Launch Free Demo

Now, evaluate how it works in action, start a Free Demo migration. A limited number of entities will be transferred to VirtueMart within 30 min.

6. Launch Full Migration

If you’re satisfied with the results, launch a full data transfer by clicking the “Start Migration” button. The process of HikaShop to VirtueMart data migration will start immediately and take up to couple of hours.

That`s everything you need to do! Start a Free Demo migration from HikaShop to VirtueMart and enjoy the seamless switch procedure with Cart2Cart!