Lightspeed To Shopify Migration: The Ultimate Guide

Lightspeed is a good platform, but it’s mainly for selling in person. If you want to focus more on selling online while still wanting to connect seamlessly with your offline channels, Shopify might be a better choice.

Migrating from Lightspeed to Shopify is easier than you might think. It doesn’t require technical skills or a lot of money and effort. In this article, I’ll guide you through the process step-by-step so you can do it yourself.

Let’s get started!

Key Takeaways

• Migrating from Lightspeed to Shopify can help you improve your online store’s performance, design, and scalability.
• You must prepare your data, choose a migration method, and test your new store before going live. Moreover, you can use migration apps or hire experts to help you with the migration process.
• You should also consider the costs, benefits, and best practices of Lightspeed to Shopify migration.

Types of data to migrate from Lightspeed to Shopify

Products

Lightspeed offers flexibility with both variants and custom options for products. Shopify primarily supports variants and can accommodate custom options through combinations, with limitations on the number of options and variants.

Product Categories

Lightspeed supports hierarchical product categories for organized categorization. Shopify does not support hierarchical categories but allows for brilliant types based on product attributes.

Orders

In Lightspeed, a single status represents both payment and shipment for orders. Shopify distinguishes between payment and fulfillment statuses, with fulfillment not necessarily implying shipment. Migration may require status mapping.

Customers

Both platforms prioritize customer data and require valid email addresses and addresses for customer accounts, enhancing security.

Blogs

Both Lightspeed and Shopify offer blogging capabilities alongside online stores. Shopify provides a feature-rich blog page creation dashboard. Note that third-party website design modules may impact blog post compatibility with Shopify.

Others (Reviews, Manufacturers, etc.)

Lightspeed and Shopify support additional features like product reviews, manufacturers, and more. The structure of these additional data types is remarkably similar between the two platforms. This restructured content maintains the original information while categorizing it according to the specified structure for easier reference and understanding.

Lightspeed to Shopify migration: Preparation

1. Backup your Lightspeed store:

Before making significant changes to your online store, it’s crucial to back up your data. This way, if any errors occur during the migration process, your store’s performance won’t be affected.

Rest assured, LitExtension won’t change anything in your Lightspeed Source Store database. Your data will be smoothly transferred. For a manual Lightspeed backup, follow these simple steps on your Onsite server:

•    Go to Tools > Utilities > Backup Database from the OnSite Dashboard.
•    Select “Backup” and wait a few minutes.
•    Your store data is now securely backed up.

If you’re using the Lightspeed eCommerce plan, exporting data into a single folder for future reference is easy. Here’s how:

•    Open the Tools > Exports page.
•    Click “New export.”
•    Choose the types of data to export from the dropdown menu.
•    Click the “Export” button.

With your backup complete, let’s move on to the next phase!

2. Creating a Shopify Store:

Since you’re transitioning to Shopify, you must first set up your store on this platform. After enjoying a 3-day free trial, Shopify offers new users a chance to extend their trial for just $1 per month for the next three months.

After signing up for a free trial, you should:

• Choosing a Shopify plan
• Selecting a theme and customizing it to align with your brand
• Setting up payment gateways and shipping options

Considerations Before Migrating from Lightspeed to Shopify

When you’re planning to switch from Lightspeed to Shopify, there are several important factors to consider:

Customer Experience Improvement: 

Ensure you have easy access to all the essential resources like photos, theme styles, and style sheets. If you remember this step, managing your store might become more complicated, and your customers might have a better experience.

Customer Passwords: 

Different platforms use various methods to encrypt passwords and store data. When you move from Lightspeed to Shopify, your customers’ old passwords won’t work anymore. This could be a hassle and affect their satisfaction with your products. To address this, we recommend checking out our Customer Password Migration service for future reference.

Community and Support:

In terms of getting help and support:

• With Lightspeed, you can reach out for general inquiries, but for tech support, you’ll need to make appointments in advance. You can also contact them through their AskLightSpeed Twitter account.
• On the other hand, Shopify offers 24/7 technical and customer assistance. Their support features include a helpful center, webinars, video tutorials, and a dedicated support team that is always ready to assist you.

Step-by-Step to Migrate from Lightspeed to Shopify

There are 2 ways to migrate from Lightspeed to Shopify:

• Manually export products, customers, and orders from your Lightspeed and import them to Shopify using CSV files.
• Automatically migrate all your data using Shopify migration apps or services like LiteExtension, Cart2Cart, or NextCart

The first method gives you full control over the data, but it requires much more time and effort. So, in this section, I personally suggest and will guide you through the simpler route – using a Shopify app. And I’ll use Next-Cart for demonstration.

Step 1: Setup the Connection

To start the migration, you must establish connections between your Lightspeed site and your Shopify site using our eCommerce platform migration tool. Here’s how:

• For your Lightspeed site, you can choose to migrate from either your eCom or Retail POS account. Detailed instructions in the migration tool will guide you through this.
• For your Shopify site, generate an Access Token from your Shopify admin page per the instructions. Then, enter the Access Token into the target setup form.
• Once you’ve entered all the necessary information, click “Next Step” to proceed with the migration configuration.

Step 2: Configure the Migration

In this step, you can select the specific types of data you want to move from Lightspeed to Shopify. Next-Cart’s migration tool supports various data types, including products, categories, reviews, customers, orders, coupons, blog posts, and CMS pages.

You can also customize the migration process using Additional Options. If your Lightspeed site is multilingual, you must map the languages in the Advanced Attributes Mapping section.

For order migration, ensure that you map the order statuses correctly. Lightspeed and Shopify use different order status systems, so choose the correct mappings based on your order processing. For instance, “Completed” in Lightspeed might correspond to “Paid” and “Fulfilled” in Shopify.

Once you’ve completed the necessary configuration, click “Next Step” to start the data migration.

Step 3: Start the Migration Process

After confirming your migration configuration, the migration process will begin. At this point, all you have to do is wait!

The migration duration depends on the amount of data on your Lightspeed site, which can range from a few minutes to several hours. Once the migration is finished, you’ll receive a “Congratulations” notification confirming the successful transfer of your data to Shopify.

Costs of Lightspeed to Shopify Migration

The total cost of switching from LightSpeed to Shopify can vary significantly depending on your chosen approach. Doing it yourself might seem cost-effective, but it’s not recommended due to the high technical skill required and potential data transfer challenges.

Alternatively, you can seek assistance by hiring a developer or web agency. Their hourly rates typically range from $50 to $80. However, finding a web design firm or freelancer with in-depth knowledge of platform data structures can be challenging. This might lead to longer wait times and higher maintenance costs.

Go-live Checklist of Lightspeed to Shopify migration 

When you use Shopify migration apps or services, your current website will continue to work as usual while transferring from Lightspeed to Shopify. Any new orders or customers will be updated in your database.

Before launching your Shopify store after the migration, do the following:

• Double-check that all products, customers, and orders are correctly imported and displayed as expected.
• Perform a test order to ensure the checkout process, payment gateway, and shipping calculations work seamlessly.
• Verify meta titles, descriptions, and alt texts for products and pages.
• Set up 301 redirects from old Lightspeed URLs to the corresponding Shopify URLs.
• Review the store design for consistency with your brand identity (logos, colors, fonts).
• Train your team on using the Shopify admin dashboard to manage orders, inventory, and customer queries.
• Announce the migration to your customers.
• Keep a backup of all imported data and your final Lightspeed data for reference.
• Monitor your Shopify store performance closely for the first few weeks to address any issues.

Benefits of Lightspeed to Shopify migration

Both Lightspeed and Shopify have their strengths and weaknesses, but upon closer examination, Shopify appears to have a competitive edge for several reasons. Let’s delve into why migrating from Lightspeed to Shopify is an ideal choice step by step:

1. Cost-Effective:

1.1. eCommerce Version:

First, let’s consider their monthly pricing plans. Lightspeed initially offered lower fees for their eCommerce version. However, when you examine the features, Shopify stands out with more extensive capabilities, including the number of products and sales channel integrations. You can start small and scale up as your business grows.

1.2. POS System:

Lightspeed’s most common offering is its POS system, and it costs you additional money. On the other hand, Shopify POS is free and included in all Shopify pricing plans. You can also opt for POS Pro for more advanced features at any of your stores for $89/month ($79/month if billed annually), which is cheaper than Lightspeed’s POS plan.

2. Enhanced Inventory Tracking:

Shopify’s inventory tracking features and applications can save you money on shipping and handling. Orders are processed quickly without sacrificing efficiency or accuracy, ultimately boosting inventory efficiency. Additionally, inventory reporting capabilities provide valuable data for efficient storage, prompt distribution, and minimized shipping costs.

3. Powerful Customization Tools:

While Lightspeed emphasizes its POS systems, its eCommerce collection offers 50 different themes, some of which come at a cost of around $26.50 per month. The downside is that your website’s functionality depends on the chosen theme, limiting advanced customization options.

In contrast, Shopify offers 130+ themes, both free and paid, suitable for various industries. Premium themes are one-time payments, saving you money compared to Lightspeed’s subscription model. Moreover, Shopify’s customization tools empower merchants to fine-tune every aspect of their website, including access to coding for greater design control.

In conclusion, Shopify’s cost-effectiveness, robust inventory tracking, and powerful customization tools make it a compelling choice for migrating from Lightspeed.

FAQs

Bottom line

Migrating from Lightspeed to Shopify isn’t too complex if you’ve followed the steps carefully. While the migration process requires careful planning and execution, the benefits of enhanced functionality and growth potential make it well worth the effort. Follow this guide step-by-step, and you’ll set your store up for long-term success on Shopify.