Import from another platform

The Migration Tool brings an existing catalog into Brainerce. It is a one-time, read-only import: it reads from your old platform and writes into Brainerce, and then it is done.

That is worth being precise about, because it is not what people expect from the word "connect":

• Nothing is written back to the old platform. Brainerce never touches it.
• There is no live mirroring. Change a price in Brainerce afterwards and the old store won't know.
• It runs once. It is a move, not a sync.

If you were looking for a live two-way connection to Shopify or WooCommerce, that no longer exists. Those connectors were retired, and this import replaced them.

What it brings across

Products, their categories, and orders. They arrive as normal Brainerce records, which you then manage here.

Imported orders do not use up your monthly order allowance. They are a record of sales you already made elsewhere, so a large history import cannot push you over your plan's order cap or stop your store taking new checkouts. Your imported products do fill product slots, which is a separate limit; see plans and limits.

Orders keep their original date. An imported order shows the date the customer actually placed it on your old platform, not the day you ran the import, so your order history and your sales reports still line up.

Digital products stay downloadable, but their files do not move. A product marked downloadable on the old platform arrives marked downloadable here, with its download limit and expiry. The files themselves are still hosted on your old site: Brainerce links to them rather than copying them. So if you shut the old site down, or it blocks links from other sites, your customers' download links stop working. Re-upload each file in the product's Downloadable Product settings before you close the old store.

What it does not bring across

Customers do not migrate. There is no customer import: your customer list, their addresses, and their accounts stay on the old platform. Shoppers create a Brainerce account the first time they buy from you, or check out as guests.

Also left behind: passwords (never transferable between platforms), gift-card balances, discount codes, reviews, blog posts and CMS pages, theme and storefront design, and app configuration.

Outstanding gift cards need re-issuing by hand. Brainerce does have gift cards, but nothing imports them, and the old codes will not work here. Export the unspent balances from your old platform before you close the old store, or you will have no record of what you owe. You then issue a matching card in Brainerce for each one and send the customer the new code. Note that gift cards are still in rollout, so there is no Gift cards entry in your sidebar yet and you cannot issue those replacements today. Keep the exported balances safe until it arrives.

Plan for this before you switch. If your customer relationships matter, a loyalty base or a wholesale list, export that data from your old platform for your own records first, and expect to email your customers to tell them they will need to sign up again.

Running an import

The Migration Tool is a marketplace app. Install it from Apps, then open it and follow the wizard. It walks you through connecting the source platform, choosing what to bring, and confirming.

You need a store selected before you can start.

Before you import

• Take a backup first if your store already has data. Import adds to what's there.
• Expect to tidy up afterwards. Categories, images and variant structures rarely map perfectly between platforms; plan to review the catalog once it lands rather than assuming it's finished.
• Media takes time. Images are fetched and re-uploaded in the background, so a large catalog will look incomplete for a while before it settles.

How many products can I import on my plan?

The import fills every product slot your plan allows and stops there. It does not fail, and it does not delete anything: the products that fit are imported normally and become live Brainerce products.

If your old catalog is bigger than your plan, the import card shows the exact number that was left out, for example "480 products were not imported". Upgrade your plan from Settings -> Billing and run the same import again; the products already imported are recognised and updated rather than duplicated, and the run continues into your new free slots.

Orders are not capped this way. Imported orders are history, not new sales, so they do not count against your monthly order allowance.

After importing

Your products are now Brainerce products. The next step is usually connecting a storefront so customers can actually see them.

What's next?

• Connect your storefront to wire a site to your newly imported catalog.
• Managing products to bulk-edit the imported catalog into shape.
• Bulk import from CSV is the other way to bring products in.