Volusion is the oldest ecommerce platform, released in 1999 when other ecommerce platforms like Magento and Shopify were established in 2008 and 2006 respectively. The company remains a trusted company provided cloud-online hosted for online stores despite many newly arriving competitions.
Currently, the platform is still chosen by over 30,000 online stores due to its multiple payment methods and analytic features.
On the 27th of July, Volusion filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection, began the process of recapitalizing the company, reorganizing debts, and strengthening its balance sheet. This does come as a shock to Volusion ecommerce users, especially businesses that have a strong base in the platform.
Many merchants who are on Volusion are looking for other alternatives to migrate their store, and people who are considering choosing Volusion hesitate to step into the platform.
So what exactly happened that led to the Volusion ecommerce platform to this point? And which platforms are out there for you to consider next? Read on.
The Story Behind Volusion Chapter 11 Bankruptcy: What Happened?
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In September 2019, hackers breaches Volusion and stole credit card data from the eCommerce, web hosting, and support platform. They attacked the Google cloud infrastructure of Volusion and included malicious Javascript that could get payment data as customers checkout.
To be more specific, the hacker disguised the code as a relatively harmless “resources.js” loaded from “volusionapi” source. But, in fact, the script is able to read, encode, and store credit card information in a temporary browser.
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The breach was not discovered until October 2019, and, by then, more than 239,000 credit card records had been stolen and sold on the dark web market.
The hack affected 6,589 stores among 30,000+ small and mid-size merchants of Volusion. And,
given the total amount of data exposed close to 20 million, the damages from this Volusion data breach was about as high as $133.89 million.
Volusion ecommerce platform also has been losing more customers to their competitors, majorly due to the hacking, but there are also other factors such as high pricing and plans, etc.
(Source: Buildwith)
So after the incident, until July 2020, it seems that Volusion has filed for Chapter 11 due to unstable capital structure involving mature debts.
What does Volusion Say?
Related to the declaration of bankruptcy, in August 2020, Volusion has released their response to explain their decision. They stated that the ecommerce stores will operate as usual for merchants, and will focus on helping businesses through their service and support.
You can read the full release here.
“Volusion is open for business and is not going anywhere. We have sufficient cash on hand to continue to operate while we seek to recapitalize the company through the Chapter 11 process. Our level of services and support remain in place and unchanged. We are operating business as usual.” – Volusion Staff claimed.
What should you do as an ecommerce merchant?
Still, Volusion is rather playing it risky, as Chapter 11 bankruptcy is the most complex of all bankruptcy cases. It is also usually the most expensive form of a bankruptcy proceeding.
For these reasons, a company must consider Chapter 11 reorganization only after careful analysis and exploration of all other possible alternatives.
Some of the notable companies who have come back from Chapter 11 are General Motors, K-Mart, and United Airlines. There is still some light at the end of the tunnel.
However, people would be more concerned about what options do they have as a merchant on Volusion. After the Volusion hack incident, many small businesses have left as they couldn’t deal with a system that has security issues.
But Volusion is working hard to improve its platform, so you can choose to stay with Volusion, or backup your ecommerce store for safety reasons.
Stay on Volusion
In case you decide to stay with the Volusion ecommerce platform, there are some factors, as well as risks that you should consider for your business.
With Chapter 11, Volution still has some milestones to accomplish by specific deadlines, and some of the business decisions will have to be approved by the court. The chapter is designed to protect you as customers and the creditors that the company has.
Everything considered, there is a chance that Volusion doesn’t make it out of Chapter 11.
But even when Volusion ecommerce did indeed not make it out of Chapter 11, the sudden changes won’t just happen overnight, and there should be enough time for you to weigh the big decision.
After all, platform migration is an expensive affair. Although it can help you negate some of the risks of Volusion data breach if it happens again, there are many stores that have custom systems and integrations for their Volusion stores, and might be afraid to lose them during the migration process.
So if you want to play safe and migrate; first you need to look through what the website development provider can offer you. If you think that the website development agency can provide what your business’s new website needs, then you can begin your decision to move.
LOOK for MORE tips for a Magento Website Development Agency to aid you in migrating your website!
The last thing you need to be aware of is some of the drawbacks when still staying on Volusion.
- Fewer updates: Volusion is focusing the resources on restructuring the company at the moment. Which means there will be fewer updates or security patches for store owners.
- Losing customers: Volusion data breach has affected over 6,500 stores in the system, and customers now question your website’s security. They are afraid of providing you with the product order information, payment, and private data because they can’t be sure that the information is secured. You will lose consumers’ trust, and it would have a negative impact on your reputation.
- Lose your existing store: Although Volusion is still a trusted system with many clients, the Volusion hack made its reputation sink further, and lost more and more businesses. The worst scenario would be if Volusion ecommerce couldn’t get back on their feet. In that case, you will lose your store.
Backup your Ecommerce store
Another action you can consider that will give you faster results is backup your ecommerce store data. It’s essential to keep all of your store data, especially order records from customers, previous orders, and product-related information.
By making sure that your business data is backed up and updated all the time, you will have the preparation for what’s to come, and give you some room to prepare for migrating your ecommerce store in the worst scenario.
Migrate to other Ecommerce platforms
This data breach has shown that Volusion ecommerce has some security problems. Suppose you want to play safe and in case Volusion couldn’t stabilize the situation as soon as possible. In that case, customers should seek an ecommerce web development service, and switch to Bigcommerce, Shopify, or Magento quickly.
Add up to the tips for finding an ecommerce web development service we have stated above; you should also find a suitable platform to migrate your ecommerce store to.
We have listed below the two platforms that might be alternatives to Volusion, and are constantly improving in security to ensure that “Volusion hack” similar incidents wouldn’t happen to these platforms again.
Magento
Magento is one of the most popular ecommerce platforms with 260,000 online stores using it. The platform stood out to their competitors for the freedom in hosting solutions, the customized and extensive features, as well as a strong security system to protect merchants against hackers and malware.
Multiple hosting options: When it comes to Volusion vs Magento, the first aspect distinguishes the two are hosting options. Magento allows you to freely choose the hosting company for your store, hence keep the owner in full control of store elements customization.
A wide array of features and extensions: Magento provides you with customizations and endless extensions to tailor your site according to the extra needs of your business. Although, in order to secure your store, you should seek out the trusted Magento extension builder to create and customize modules for your store.
Security and Encryptions: Magento often releases their security patches and critical updates to improve their quality, reduce “bugs” and increase their security, which can help store owners ease their worries of similar Volusion hack problems that might occur in the system.
Above all three points, Magento also was contributed by a large community of developers and experts compared to Volusion, which can offer support and test the plugins so you can choose the best option for your store.
Although Magento has many benefits, it’s worth noted that you should have an estimated budget for your new website. Choosing between Magento Open Source and Commerce, or calculating the development costs are essential, and there are Magento website development company with years of experience that can offer you some rough calculation of your website development expenses. For example providers like BSSCommerce, Tigren, etc.
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Shopify
Shopify is another platform that could be one of the best alternatives for your Volusion store, as both of them are hosted ecommerce solutions. They are an all-in-one ecommerce pack for business to establish, deploy customization, and develop further as the business grows.
With Volusion merchants, Shopify is easing the transition a little bit, since both platforms are similar to each other.
However, Shopify does have a slight edge in customer service and security as well as being a part of a giant expert community, which means business owners can reach out for support and security issues whenever they feel the need.
CHECK OUT our Shopify app store and choose the right app for your business’s needs!
In conclusion
While bankruptcy is a negative term, and it causes concerns when Volusion ecommerce filed for bankruptcy, it’s not the end for the platform just yet. Volusion data breach has damaged the system greatly, but there are still chances the company will make it out of Chapter 11. And while being protected by bankruptcy Chapter 11, merchants have enough time to make necessary decisions, either play safe and opt-out of the system, or stay with Volusion whilst backing up the store for precautions.
We have listed the possible outcome of this affair, and the effect each decision could influence your store, and if you still have questions, do not hesitate to reach out to us at any time.
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