The Sharetribe team can migrate your marketplace data from Go to Sharetribe so that you can continue to grow your marketplace and take advantage of the new capabilities offered by Sharetribe. This document describes how a migration works, what data is migrated, and the steps to completing a successful migration.
What does it mean to migrate from Go to Sharetribe?
Migrating from Go to Sharetribe describes moving your marketplace from running on Go to running on Sharetribe. After completing migration, your users visit your marketplace at the same URL as before, with the same accounts, and view the same data, but now will be doing so on software supported by Sharetribe instead of Go.
The migration has several steps detailed below. Overall, you will work with our team to run a test migration during your building period on Sharetribe. This practice run helps make sure we are on the same page and allows you to configure your Sharetribe marketplace using test data relevant to your use case. After you are done building and are ready to migrate your marketplace to Sharetribe, we run a Live migration together. Our team transfers your data so that your users can start using your Sharetribe-powered marketplace. We also inactivate your Go marketplace to ensure all your marketplace action happens on your Sharetribe marketplace from then on.
What data is migrated
Listings
Title
Description
Price (as a number amount)
Location
Images
Listing fields
Category or subcategory
Custom fields created in Go
Shipping data for marketplaces offering shipping
Shipping price
Shipping options: Pickup and/or Delivery
Listing comments are not migrated. Listing order types and listing availability are transformed during the migration to suit how Sharetribe works. The transformation is described below.
User profiles
First name
Last name
Display name
Primary email address
Password hashes (so user can use the same credentials to log in)
Profile image
Phone number
Stripe accounts used for payouts to providers
Migrated profiles do not include usernames, custom user field data, followers, email preferences, or social login credentials. Also note that since Sharetribe does not support PayPal out of the box, no PayPal information is migrated.
If your users used Facebook, Google, or LinkedIn to sign up in your Go marketplace, they will still be able to log in to their existing accounts with these in your Sharetribe marketplace, if their Facebook, Google or LinkedIn email address matches the email address in your marketplace. The first time they log in to their existing account in your new marketplace with a social login, the login provider will ask them for the same permissions it asked when they originally signed up.
Reviews
Grade (thumbs up/down) converted to 5 point scale (stars)
Text
Transactions
Past transactions and messages are not migrated.
Static page content
Content and styles of the different static pages in Go are not migrated. You should rebuild any content you created in Go using Pages found in Console at Content > Pages.
When should I request a migration?
You should request a migration when:
You have a marketplace operating on Go with real user data
You know you want to transfer your Go users and listings to Sharetribe. If you’d prefer to restart your marketplace with a blank slate, then a migration is not needed.
You have a free Sharetribe account
I’m ready to migrate. What are the steps to complete a migration?
Request a migration to your Test environment from your Go marketplace
Build your Sharetribe marketplace with your test migration data
Take your Sharetribe marketplace Live with your Go marketplace data
Sharetribe inactivates your Go marketplace
1. Request a migration to your Test environment from your Go marketplace
When you know you want to move your marketplace from Go to Sharetribe, contact us to request a test migration. We will copy your Go data and transfer it to your Test environment in Console.
The goal of doing a test migration is for you to be able to see what data we are migrating, to be able to make adjustments in your marketplace to suit your Go data, and to provide us with feedback on modifications we should make so that your Go data suits your Sharetribe setup.
Since Sharetribe and Go have different features, choices need to be made about how certain data should be modified during the migration process.
For all marketplaces:
Go marketplaces that use categories and subcategories must choose whether the category or subcategory is migrated to Sharetribe. Sharetribe does not currently support listings belonging to a category and subcategory without using coding to build this feature.
The default is that the subcategory is migrated to Sharetribe as the category.
For marketplaces selling products:
What amount of stock should migrated listings take? Since Sharetribe has support for stock management, you need to decide how much stock existing listings from Go should have.
The default is a stock of 1. Exactly one purchase of a listing can be made when stock is 1.
For marketplaces using the availability calendar:
When should migrated listings be available? Listings in Sharetribe can be booked either nightly, daily, or hourly. You need to decide when migrated listings are available after the migration, as the existing availability data from Go is not migrated.
The default is that migrated listings have availability for all times and days in their calendar. Buyers can make bookings for any time and/or day.
What time zone should be used in your listings? Since Sharetribe has support for time zones, you need to decide what time zone existing listings should take.
Default is UTC
Seats. The default for a no-code marketplace will be a seat of 1. Exactly one booking can be made against the timeslot when the seat is 1, just like how it works in Go.
If you are going to customize your marketplace with code, you can ask our team to migrate a different seat schema. But bear in mind that you need to add the support for handling multiple seats.
Note that the choices are currently universal, so it is impossible to configure one listing to take one value while a different listing takes another. For instance, if you decide that availability should be in the time zone GMT, every listing will be migrated to the GMT time zone. Listing authors and admins can edit particular listings to take particular values after the migration is complete.
2. Build your marketplace in the Test environment
After the test migration is completed, you need to review the data transformation and use Console to create listing fields that match what you have in Go.
Reviewing your data transformation is about understanding how your Go data changed to match the capabilities in Sharetribe. Though the feature set between Go and Sharetribe is similar, they are not entirely the same. We outlined the list of modifications that happen to your marketplaces in the previous section. Now is the time to review those modifications and ensure they are what you need. You can contact our team to request a re-run of the migration if you would like to change how your Go data is transformed during the migration.
One thing you will need to do is make sure your Listing field IDs in Console match the listing field IDs of the migrated listings. We will tell you what those listing field IDs should be in Console during the test migration to make sure everything works smoothly.
3. Take your marketplace Live
When you are ready to switch running your marketplace to Sharetribe and inactivate your Go-powered marketplace, our team will facilitate migrating your real user data to your new Live environment.
To start the live migration, please subscribe from Console. Press your environment dropdown menu in the top left and select “Go Live”. Select your preferred plan, and billing period, and mark “Yes” under “Do you have an existing Sharetribe Go subscription?”
From here, please follow our going Live instructions.
Note that if you plan to use the same custom domain for your Sharetribe marketplace that you used for your Go marketplace, then our team will prepare and send you unique DNS records to use during the migration. Contact our team if you have not received these records yet. These unique records ensure there is as little downtime during the migration as possible.
You can use the records recommended here if you plan to use a different custom domain from your current Go custom domain.
4. Sharetribe deactivates your Go marketplace
In addition to migrating your Go marketplace data to your Live environment, our team will work with you to make sure any ongoing transactions are completed successfully.
After you point your DNS settings to your Sharetribe marketplace, we will make the Go marketplace available at example.sharetribe.com. You can communicate to your users that, if they have ongoing transactions, they can follow how they are progressing and finish them there.
We will prepare the legacy Go marketplace so that it doesn't allow new transactions. Your Go marketplace’s new URL will be marketplace-name.sharetribe.com. Existing users cannot post new listings, or comments, or start new transactions there, though they can review any ongoing transactions. No new accounts can be created on your Go marketplace.
Legacy Go marketplaces are hosted by Sharetribe for 6 months and then shut down.
Start your test migration
Ready to migrate your marketplace to Sharetribe? Get in touch from your Go marketplace Admin panel using the chat widget found in the bottom right of your screen.