If you’re here, then I guess you’ve probably figured that the Squarespace to Wix migration process is not as easy as it might seem, especially when it comes to ecommerce stores.
You see, while Squarespace and Wix are both user-friendly site builders and web hosts, they are not exactly the best of friends. They happen to operate very differently, and their ecosystems do not share a direct data transfer link.
So, of course, it’s incredibly difficult to manually map your Squarespace online store elements onto the Wix platform.
But, thankfully, it’s not entirely impossible. And, as it turns out, the whole process can be much simpler if you choose to leverage the right tools. So simple in fact, that even technically unskilled merchants can seamlessly migrate Squarespace to Wix stores within hours.
And that’s precisely what this article is all about. You can think of it as the ultimate Squarespace to Wix migration guide for ecommerce stores- because apart from exploring all the possible data transfer methods, it walks you through a fully-automated process of migrating online stores from Squarespace to Wix.
But, before we look into all that, let’s address this one burning issue. Is the Squarespace to Wix migration even worth the trouble in the first place? Or would your ecommerce store be better off staying put over the long haul?
Is Squarespace To Wix Migration Worth The Trouble?
There’s no denying that Wix and Squarespace are not exactly the first options that might come to mind when you think of ecommerce platforms.
But, that’s not to say they can’t do the job. Rather, it just so happens that while Squarespace and Wix pack a host of robust ecommerce tools, they tend to focus on a much wider spectrum of websites.
Hence, we can agree that these are not your typical ecommerce platforms. Instead, they are principally renowned for their site-building and website design capabilities.
So, of course, it might be confusing for typical online merchants when it comes to choosing between Wix and Squarespace. They are both all-inclusive site builders with decent ecommerce functionalities.
That means all SMBs should be fine with either of them, right?
Wrong. Although Wix and Squarespace share a couple of similarities, they approach ecommerce very differently.
Wix, for instance, has proven to be an ideal platform for small businesses that need to deploy their online stores quickly and seamlessly. Then Squarespace, on the other hand, is seemingly optimized for agencies and merchants in creative industries.
Now, when we dive deeper into their intricacies, you’ll notice that Wix outshines Squarespace on multiple ecommerce fronts. In addition to offering a simpler and less technical web design system, Wix manages to provide more payment gateways, SEO capabilities, and store management functionalities.
And that’s not all. Wix is also cheaper than Squarespace, and it comes with a better technical support system.
So, all things considered, there’s a lot to gain when you migrate Squarespace to Wix stores. Or, in other words, you could say that the Squarespace to Wix migration process is certainly worth the trouble.
But then again, how much trouble are we talking about here?
Well, that depends on how you choose to transfer your online store data between the two platforms. And to help you make the best selection, here’s a detailed breakdown of all the Squarespace to Wix migration methods…
Ecommerce Store Squarespace To Wix Migration Options
The sad bit about Wix is, you won’t find website migration among its list of services. So, forget about a free Squarespace to Wix migration if you were starting to get optimistic.
The only free transfer you could do here is moving a site from one Wix account to another. Otherwise, migrating from Squarespace to Wix is entirely up to you.
On a brighter note, though, at least there are several data transfer methods you could choose from. And to make things much simpler for you, we’ve categorized all the options into these three main approaches:
- Manual Squarespace To Wix Migration
- Assisted Squarespace To Wix Migration
- Automated Squarespace To Wix Migration
Manual Squarespace To Wix Migration
As you’ve probably guessed already, the manual Squarespace to Wix migration option is all about handling everything manually. Or, in other words, you can think of it as the physical hand-operated method of transferring data from Squarespace to Wix.
Now, to be honest, I’d say that this is probably the first option that comes to mind after learning that Wix doesn’t offer free migration from other platforms. You essentially imagine yourself copying data from your Squarespace online store and subsequently pasting it onto your Wix store.
Fair enough. But, sadly, it’s not that simple.
You see, the thing is, neither Squarespace nor Wix will give you a migration template for copying and embedding your online store data. Then to make matters worse, the platforms happen to run their web stores on varying ecommerce frameworks. Hence, you can’t exactly migrate Squarespace to Wix stores by simply copying and pasting data.
Instead, you’re required to keenly study both platforms, figure out how they work, and then systematically transfer your store data from Squarespace’s directories.
In the meantime, you’re also expected to customize your Wix elements down to the last detail, as well as restructure your data to align the store with its new home.
Now, if you think you can do this from the standard Wix site builder, then you’re in for a rude awakening. The most you could do with the builder is create a new site by customizing one of the default themes to resemble your Squarespace store.
Otherwise, if you intend to rework the individual site elements and the entire ecommerce structure, then you have to dive much deeper and get your hands dirty. That, in short, means you need to tweak even the underlying code.
All in all, this is not a job for the average joe. Only merchants who happen to be technically skilled can afford to proceed with the manual Squarespace to Wix migration.
But, while they’re at it, they should take extra precaution. Transferring even a basic site is an intricately complicated process that could potentially be compromised by even the slightest error.
Assisted Squarespace To Wix Migration
For merchants who don’t possess the requisite technical skills, the most reasonable option would be seeking alternatives from third-parties. And that’s precisely where assisted Squarespace to Wix migration comes in.
In essence, assisted Squarespace to Wix migration is largely a human-controlled approach. But, unlike the manual migration option, this one relies on professionals. You basically hire an agency or an individual to migrate Squarespace to Wix stores on your behalf.
The good thing about this approach is, everything is handled by real professionals. They know exactly what to do and how to do it effectively.
It doesn’t come cheap though. Ecommerce migration agencies typically charge hundreds to thousands of dollars for a basic site transfer.
Now, imagine coughing up all that just to hand over all your business data to third-parties, for a manual data transfer process that could take days to complete.
Automated Squarespace To Wix Migration
Automated Squarespace to Wix migration is another option for technically-unskilled merchants. But, instead of hiring a team of professionals, you basically entrust the whole process to a specialized migration tool.
The tool then picks up from there and proceeds to transfer your store data automatically. So, in the end, you get to avoid the troubles and risks that come with human-controlled migration procedures.
Now, it just so happens that we’ve tried out quite a number of tools over the past couple of years. And so far, Cart2Cart has proven to be one of the most outstanding performers when it comes to Squarespace to Wix migration.
You can easily find it on the Wix App Market. And that’s not all. It turns out Wix itself recommends Cart2Cart as the official migration tool for Wix stores.
Overall, Cart2Cart is an automated site migration service that specializes in ecommerce platforms. You can read all about it from our comprehensive Cart2Cart review article, which reveals pretty much everything you need to know about the tool.
That said, let’s now discuss the specific features that set Cart2Cart apart from the rest when it comes to Squarespace to Wix Migration.
Benefits of Using Cart2Cart To Migrate Your Online Store From Squarespace To Wix
Official Partnership With Wix
Cart2Cart, to begin with, isn’t just a migration tool for Squarespace and Wix. It has established itself a robust but flexible solution that supports more than 85 shopping cart platforms.
WooCommerce, OpenCart, Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, PrestaShop, 3DCart, you name it. Cart2Cart allows you to automatically migrate online stores between all the major players in the ecommerce industry. So, you can be certain you’re not messing around with an amateur.
What’s more, Cart2Cart has officially partnered with Wix. This consequently gives Wix-based migrations an edge over the rest of the services- which translates to a much faster, smoother, and cheaper data transfer process.
Fully-Automated
Cart2Cart is not one of those solutions that require users to export data from their stores before proceeding with the migration process. On the contrary, Cart2Cart is a fully automated solution that handles pretty much everything on your behalf.
That essentially means that apart from reading the data from your Squarespace store, it’ll go ahead and automatically map it onto your Wix store. The whole process is systematically performed without any human control.
You just need to point Cart2Cart towards your stores and voila. Once you click the full-migration button, you can leave it to handle the rest.
User-Friendly
Although Cart2Cart runs on a rather complicated AI framework, its frontend is designed to keep things simple. So simple in fact, that you won’t need any technical skills to perform a full Squarespace to Wix migration.
The system itself comes in the form of an intuitive and user-friendly wizard, which seamlessly directs you through all the pre-migration options.Simply enter your store details, pick the store entities you’d like to migrate, pay for the service, and launch your Squarespace to Wix migration.
In the end, you should be able to set up a full migration in just three or so steps. A couple of minutes tops and you’re done.
The system will then proceed with the data transfer process while you wait.
Zero Downtime
Admit it. You probably expect to have your site offline during the migration.
But, get this. While manual migration tweaks often trigger downtime, Cart2Cart happens to operate differently.
And to be precise, it is built to perform all the data transfer tasks in the background without interfering with the principal stores. So, you can count on it to keep your Squarespace website online without any form of service disruptions or downtime.
Consequently, you should be able to maintain the normal business operations throughout your Squarespace to Wix migration. You can even serve customers, process orders, and facilitate transactions.
Then once your Wix site is up and running, you could go ahead and redirect all your web visitors to the new store.
24/7 Technical Support
Although Cart2Cart’s interface is incredibly simple, it doesn’t leave you to figure out everything by yourself. A technical support team, which is made up of migration experts, will have your back every step of the way.
And the best thing is, they never go offline. Cart2Cart’s technical support team is available round the clock both day and night, on weekdays, as well as weekends. So, in case of any technical hitch, you can quickly reach out to them via phone, email, or live chat. The choice is yours.
Cost-Effectiveness
Going by these features alone, you’d expect Cart2Cart to cost more than hiring a professional site migration professional. Besides, it’s more accurate, and substantially less risky than human-controlled procedures.
On the contrary, though, it turns out Cart2Cart shines even in the price war. Yes, that’s right, it’s considerably cheaper than hiring professionals.
While the latter option would cost you hundreds to thousands of dollars, Cart2Cart rarely goes beyond $100, though it depends on the amount of store data that needs to be transfered. In fact, it should cost you less than $50 to migrate Squarespace to Wix stores if you’re dealing with a basic site.
Then get this. You won’t be forced to pay for the service during registration. Cart2Cart is generous enough to not only offer you a free account, but also allow you to set up your Squarespace to Wix migration for free.
And that’s not all. Cart2Cart further gives you the chance to perform a free demo migration before the big one. You could run as many demo instances as you want without paying anything. The issue of payment only comes up if you choose to proceed with a full migration.
The surprises don’t end there though. As you perform a full Squarespace to Wix migration, you’ll notice that Cart2Cart additionally transfers data much faster than human-controlled procedures.
While its fully automated system could migrate Squarespace to Wix stores in a matter of minutes and hours, professional agencies typically take days.
So, whichever way you look at it, Cart2Cart seems like a great migration option for budget-minded merchants.
And with that said, allow me to walk you through the whole procedure of using Cart2Cart to import your store from Squarespace to Wix.
How To Migrate Squarespace To Wix Stores With Cart2Cart (Step-by-Step Tutorial)
Pre-Migration Step: Set Up a Wix Store
Before we even begin leveraging Cart2Cart, you need to create a site on Wix, which will ultimately act as your target store.
Now, for a Squarespace user, this should be a straightforward procedure. Start by signing up for an account with an appropriate business plan.
Wix offers three ecommerce packages- Business Basic for beginners, Business Unlimited for growing businesses, and Business VIP for demanding businesses.
After making your selection and registering an account, you can go ahead and begin working on the site straightaway.
You might want to pick a template that comes with Wix Stores by default. But, it’s not a requirement. You can still proceed with a standard template, as Wix allows you to add the Wix Stores functionality separately.
If that’s the case, you can introduce Wix Stores from the Editor menu by clicking on the Add + button. Next, go to the Store and choose Add to Site.
Wix will then place a new My Stores button on your Editor menu. This is where you’ll find a huge variety of elements for building an online store.
At this stage, though, just focus on the core elements and leave out the advanced tools. Your target store should be as basic as they come, since complex customizations could cause data migration errors.
Step 1: Launch Cart2Cart
With your Wix store up and running, you can now install Cart2Cart and launch the service.
Now, as it turns out, there are two approaches you could use here. You could either install the Cart2Cart Wix Migration module from the Wix App Market, or simply proceed with the main site version.
Whichever you choose, the subsequent process of registering a Cart2Cart account is completely free of charge and quite straightforward.
You just need to type in your personal details and you’ll be good to go. Alternatively, you could sign up with your Google or Facebook account. The choice is yours.
Once you’re done, Cart2Cart will immediately direct you to your user account, from where you should be able to configure the Squarespace to Wix migration options.
Now, to get started, pick Squarespace as the source cart from where you’ll be migrating from, and Wix as the target cart on which you’ll be migrating to.
Then next, hit the Start Free Demo Now button to launch the Cart2Cart migration wizard.
Step 2: Enter Your Squarespace Source Cart Details
The first window on the migration wizard is all about your source cart. Cart2Cart requires you to point it towards your source cart, as well the corresponding source store.
So, begin by picking Squarespace from the Source Cart list of options.
Next, enter your Squarespace store’s link in the Source Store URL input field.
Then finally, type in your Squarespace admin account email, as well as the accompanying account password.
With that, Cart2Cart should be able to establish a connection with your Squarespace store, plus set up a bridge that’ll eventually facilitate the data transfer process.
Step 3: Enter Your Wix Target Cart Details
When you’re done with the source cart details, Cart2Cart will prompt you to repeat the procedure with your target cart details.
It’s not entirely identical though, as Cart2Cart requires you to install its Wix migration plugin to your Wix store before proceeding. So, after picking Wix from the Target Cart list of options, you should click the Install Plugin button if you don’t have the module already.
Cart2Cart will then redirect you to the Wix app marketplace, from where you should be able to effortlessly install the plugin. This will subsequently set up a connection bridge on the target cart, which Cart2Cart will use to map data from the Squarespace store.
Step 4: Select The Online Store Entities You’d Like To Migrate
Once the target store is ready to roll, hitting the Next button will push you to the entities selection stage.
Basically, this is where you get to specify all the forms of data you’d like to transfer from your Squarespace store to the corresponding Wix target store.
That said, you’ll find four principal options- Coupons, Orders, Products, and Select All.
Coupons, to begin with, stands for the Name, Coupon Code, and Discount Amount.
Then Orders, on the other hand, is usually accompanied by Order Status, Order Products (Final Price, Name, SKU), SubTotal Price, Discount Price, Total Price, Customer Name, Email, Billing Address (First Name, Last Name, Company, Address 1, Address 2, Country, State, City, Zip Code), and Shipping Address (First Name, Last Name, Company, Address 1, Address 2, Country, State, City, Zip Code).
Last but not least is the Products group, which includes entities such as Name, SKU, Full Description, Status, Price, Product Image, Additional Images, Quantity, Weight, Options (Name, Price), Product Variants (SKU, Weight, Quantity).
Now, all things considered, the best option here is proceeding with all the available entities. This allows Cart2Cart to perform a full Squarespace to Wix migration. You get to transfer not only your inventory data, but also the corresponding orders, as well as the accompanying customer list.
Step 5: Specify The Additional Migration Options
This section gives you the chance to customize your store migration process even further.
And usually, Cart2Cart offers a range of options for free, while others come at a premium price. This is a standard trend in most of the shopping cart migrations on Cart2Cart.
However, when it comes to Squarespace to Wix migration, things seem to change slightly. Cart2Cart, as it turns out, doesn’t offer a variety of selections. Instead, you’ll only find one additional migration option- the choice to Clear current data on Target Store before Migration.
An affirmative selection here means Cart2Cart will delete entities from your Wix target store before conducting the migration. So, you might want to leave it blank if you prefer to retain all the data in your target store.
Step 6: Map The Data and Perform a Free Demo Migration
At this stage, Cart2Cart allows you to align the order statuses on your Squarespace source store with the corresponding variables on your Wix target store. The system will apply these data links during the migration process.
However, you don’t have to wait for the full migration to see how things will pan out. You could, instead, take advantage of the free demo migration feature, as it’s bound to give you a good idea of what to expect from your Squarespace to Wix migration.
Now, to perform a free demo migration, just leave the Skip Demo Migration checkbox blank and click on the Start Free Demo Migration button.
Cart2Cart will then swing into action and proceed to transfer data from your Squarespace source store to the corresponding Wix target store.
But, make no mistake about it. The free demo migration doesn’t transfer all selected entities. Rather, it only imports a limited number of entities. Just the bare minimum that you might need to analyze the type of store you might end up with.
That said, the migration process itself should take about an hour or so. Then subsequently, you’ll have yourself a basic mini-version of the expected Wix target store.
You might want to take the time to assess not only its overall structure, but also how it operates. Pay keen attention to the mapping of the entities, and examine the links between them.
If everything meets your expectations, you can go ahead and conduct a full migration.
But, if you’re not very impressed with the outcome, you can reconfigure your data transfer options, and perhaps perform additional demo migrations to track the changes. At least Cart2Cart is generous enough to facilitate an unlimited number of free demo migrations.
Step 7: Conduct a Full Migration
As the final step, the full migration is only ideal for store owners who are satisfied with their demo migration results.
It’s worth noting, however, that Cart2Cart will invoice you for the Squarespace to Wix migration service before proceeding. And what you end up paying depends on the number of entities you intend to migrate, as well as the premium extras you choose to add to your overall package.
You could, for instance, choose to protect yourself against the possible risks by purchasing migration insurance. This should give you the opportunity to remigrate your online store for free in case of an unsuccessful attempt.
But, hang on a minute. How’s that even possible?
Well, it just so happens that while Cart2Cart has proven to be reliably stable time and time again, the same cannot be said for all the other services involved in the data transfer process. Even a technical glitch on the part of Wix or Squarespace, for example, could compromise the entire migration.
So, all things considered, it would be a good idea to purchase migration insurance. The Basic Migration Insurance will only cost you an extra 9%, the Extended Migration Insurance goes for 11%, while the Premium Migration Insurance costs 13%.
And with that, you can go ahead and pay for the service, then finally, start the full Squarespace to Wix migration.
In the end, it should take a few hours to migrate Squarespace to Wix Stores. The precise amount of time depends on the number of entities you’ll be moving.
Fundamentally, small basic stores with few entities take the shortest time, while large enterprise sites with numerous entities tend to take much longer.
Thankfully though, at least you can be certain that Cart2Cart won’t interrupt your business activities in the meantime. Everything is expected to run smoothly as the data migration proceeds in the background.
In fact, you can even close your Cart2Cart browser window and wait for an email alert when the whole process is complete.
The Final Touches
Once Cart2Cart does its part and notifies you accordingly, it’s now over to you. The success of your project over the long haul substantially depends on the initial steps you take to safeguard the new Wix store.
For off, you should perform an in-depth analysis of everything. Keenly double-check even the finest details to ensure the entire store runs as it should. And while you’re at it, consider conducting a couple of mock purchases for additional clarity.
Then after confirming all that, you can begin customizing your store’s new home based on your specific business goals and needs.
The post How To Perform Squarespace To Wix Migration Using Cart2Cart appeared first on Ecommerce Platforms.
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