Using a staging site to develop the new version of your store is a fantastic plan, but how do you sync orders that have happened since the staging site was set up? The tricky part of developing the new version is it’s not just files that have changed, but you’ve likely made changes to the content with this update. You can’t migrate just the files or that new content will be left behind. But if you’ve made sales on your existing, production site, then you’ll lose the records of those if you copy the staging database over the live one. What do you do?!

Here’s the easiest way to solve this dilemma. Use the Customer/Order CSV Export Suite to export your orders and any new customers since the staging site was created. Then import those into the staging site. After that, you can copy the entire staging site to the live one. You’ll have your new site, and still have all of your orders.

That’s not so bad after all. Now you can create in staging in peace, knowing that you don’t have to lose your orders after all.