Online sellers using eBay’s store-hosting platforms must make some tough decisions after learning on Tuesday that the company would be closing ProStores and Magento Go. eBay is giving them 7 months before shutting down the services for good on February 1, 2015.
Online seller Darlene Shirran said she was “really disappointed” to learn the ProStores platform was closing. She sells on LampPostGlobes.com. “It is going to be very difficult for me unless I can find a new platform that can migrate all of my information from ProStores to the new platform. I am not a website designer I’m a marketer.”
She also sells on outdoorlightglobes.com, powered by Volusion, and has a store on Yahoo, but said her ProStores site was by far the most successful and produced the majority of her online sales.
Shirran said she was grateful ProStores gave merchants 7 months before closing. In selecting an alternative platform, she said, “Price will be a major factor, but more importantly will be the easy of the transformation.”
eBay is recommending merchants use Magento Enterprise Edition and Magento Community Edition and is also suggesting Bigcommerce as a solution for those who want to continue using a hosted service.
Bigcommerce is offering to quickly relaunch merchants’ stores “with free migration and an exclusive offer of up to $900 in free and discounted services” on a special landing page. In a statement from Bigcommerce, the company said Magento had conducted extensive due diligence and selected Bigcommerce as its exclusive migration provider. 50,000 companies currently use Bigcommerce, and it said 10,000 stores were currently hosted on Magento Go and ProStores.
Magento’s head of marketing Craig Peasley told EcommerceBytes through a spokesperson that Magento was dedicated to ensuring that the transition for merchants was as smooth and seamless as possible. “We’ve made several great transition options available to these merchants. These include hosted Magento Community Edition offerings from Magento Solution Partners, such as Llama Commerce, Pixafy and Neoverve, as well as Magento Enterprise Edition.”
He said Magento selected Bigcommerce as an additional option because of their shared commitment to merchant success and their proven track record of migrating large groups of merchants onto their platform. eBay confirmed it has made no investment in BigCommerce, which is approaching $4 billion in GMV processed on its platform.
Kurt Davey, Founder and President of Neoverve, said he had been expecting the closure of ProStores since eBay purchased Magento in 2011. Neoverve has been developing for ProStores even before eBay acquired it in 2005. It is also a Magento certified developer supporting Magento Enterprise and Community Editions – it stopped designing for Magento Go over a year ago, Davey said.
See more coverage of eBay’s closure of ProStores and Magento Go in Tuesday’s Newsflash newsletter.
