Migrating from Joomla to Prestashop: it is possible!

When it comes to e-shopping, the choice of its e-commerce solution is critical and necessary but also remains a complex and can sometimes prove to be decisive in the future of the shop.

We will discover the testimony of an e-trader who started with a first solution for Joomla then migrate a few months later to Prestashop.

This testimony will help you discover the strengths and weaknesses of the two solutions, but also what an adventure it was to make this migration!

 - Hello, can you introduce abc.com (imaginary name) ?

abc is an Ecommerce site specializing in high-end accessories for PDAs, Tablet PCs, etc. .. LapTop

We want to offer our customers brand accessories to match their products hight tech darlings we work with brands that are not located in Country too.

Allowing us to have exclusive products and high quality that our customers love it!

- You created your shop on Joomla, can you explain why this choice?

And yes the first version of the shop was under Joomla Virtuemart. I actually achieved the opposite approach of what to do normally.

I first tried a basic template that I liked (clear, clean with a little stamp) I then enriched without looking at the CMS that supported it.

This allowed me to have a different design on the client side of my competition and it allowed me to stand out and have a good presentation of my products.

- Do you wish to limit this solution quickly? If so which ones?

 Clearly YES! If it all over again I do not think I would.

Too much lost time to retouch the base functionality of the CMS such as billing and others.

It has bugs and alterations to virtually anywhere, too many modules to be tested before they can activate a CMS and especially difficult to interface with existing Ecommerce services. Indeed it is practically supported by the community.

I think Virtuemart is clearly the end of life (this is my personal opinion)

- You have decided to migrate to Prestashop, can you explain this choice rather than Magento or SaaS?

Yes I decided to just go under Prestashop no longer meet all these problems.

But why Prestashop?

I wanted to have my independence in order to amend and extend the functionality I want. Can‘t make this stuff with a SAS solution.

Magento

 I had two quotes for a project in Magento, double the price that a development in Prestashop Also I had no use features that Magento offered me.

The Prestashop has been the best CMS for what I wanted to do on my website.

- How it happened?

 Well for me nothing complicated because I had warned the Agency Web NewQuest who developed my project that I was under Joomla Virtuemart and the need to consider migrating to Prestashop.

I leave the floor to Yann Coste, CEO of NewQuest on this subject:

Abc.com is a Prestashop we have greatly altered through a series of tools designed by NewQuest.

The Webstore and embeds a series of module Prestashop optimizing performance in terms of SEO, catalog management and release management area before and Push.

These tools allow us to include design interfaces very accomplished while leaving as much as possible by hand on the modification of the contents of the site managers.

ABC also operates Prestashop compressor we also designed and allowing us to further optimize processing times and displaying Prestashop.

Finally we spotted retain all the data from the old site to migrate from Virtuemart to Prestashop

- Could you give me the highlights of Joomla and PrestaShop? and weaknesses in your opinion.

The strengths of Joomla Virtuemart after using it for over a year is that all modules are almost free or very inexpensive. This allows you to add basic features that are not included.

But the low price is also a weakness because we are often disappointed by the quality of modules that are downloaded for free or we buy usually under $ 10.

With Joomla so I had galleys I confess I do not find him many advantages. If one can be is that the community on many blogs and forums help to find solutions to our problems.

Strengths under Prestashop is that everything just works!

No bug in the back office or in the forehead! All features to work and develop its Ecommerce are there by default and free!

Everything is well thought no attempt to find a feature 3h. The point a bit negative is that I find the modules a bit expensive but hey they are updated often, so it allows for quality and do not have any problems or bugs I'm willing to pay. What's great is that under Prestashop all services that are available for Ecommerce are compatible with Prestashop!

It arises not 40 times the question for how we will be able to interface the site with a particular service! So if you are still under Joomla, tip installs Prestashop (for migration will see pro is easier and faster)

- Advice you to merchants to migrate Joomla or it may not be necessary?

YES! I recommend it highly, because since we are under Prestashop is clear that happiness. We won as a service to our customers and our side we gain time in order management.

It is also thanks to the tool "Store Order" that I use every day to manage our product catalog. In terms of turnover, we also increased our sales. Difficult to quantify since our search is run by one of the best specialists in the profession of which we now rank better on search engines.

But in any case this new version of our website is a success for me!

Whether in terms of display speed, navigation, product presentation, everything is really well done.

Thank you for that NewQuest who really responded as best he could to our request on this project and soon we will disembark on mobile devices and mCommerce but that's another story.

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