Preserving NCR Product Attributes During Platform Migration

When NCR Retail Online is replaced, the visible catalogue is only part of the migration. Product names, prices and images may transfer cleanly while the less obvious information that makes a store useful—fit notes, material details, care instructions, compatibility data and merchandising flags—gets lost or flattened. Learn more about Top 5 Free Audio Editors For Windows That Aren T Audacity 826.

Preserving NCR’s custom product attributes during migration requires a controlled process rather than a simple export and import. Australian retailers moving to Magento, WooCommerce or another platform should treat each attribute as business data, document how it is used, and test the result across products, variants, search and checkout.

Start With A Complete Attribute Audit

Begin by listing every field in NCR Retail Online, including fields that appear only on selected product types. Capture the attribute name, data type, permitted values, whether it is required, and where it appears on the storefront. A field called “size” might be a dropdown for clothing, free text for equipment, or part of a variant structure for a different range.

The audit should include operational fields as well as customer-facing content. Identify attributes used for filtering, product feeds, search rules, promotions, stock alerts and reporting. A retailer selling jeans may rely on waist, leg length, fit and wash as separate values, while a gift catalogue may use recipient, occasion and personalisation options. Combining those fields into a single description will make the catalogue harder to browse and maintain.

Export a representative sample before making changes. Include bestsellers, products with multiple variants, discontinued items, products with missing values and products with unusually long descriptions. This sample creates a baseline for later comparison and can expose issues that a full export hides in a large spreadsheet.

Build A Durable Mapping Model

The destination platform will use different terminology and structures, so create a mapping document before importing anything. For each NCR field, record its destination field, data type, allowed values, transformation rule and treatment of blanks. A yes/no field should not become inconsistent text such as “Y”, “Yes” and “true” across different products.

Separate global attributes from product-specific information. Global attributes such as brand, colour or material usually deserve reusable taxonomies in Magento or WooCommerce. Product-specific information, such as a warning for one appliance, may belong in a custom field or structured description. This distinction affects search performance, filters, templates and future catalogue updates.

Preserve the original NCR field name in the mapping document, even when the new platform uses a different label. That historical reference helps staff trace errors and supports later integrations with accounting, warehouse or point-of-sale systems. It is especially valuable when an NCR Counterpoint partner is performing the migration and several people are working across data, development and merchandising.

Protect Variants And Relationships

Attributes often have relationships that are easy to damage during migration. Size and colour may define separate variations, while a product code, barcode and stock record must remain tied to the correct combination. If the import treats every value as plain text, the storefront may show a product correctly but send the wrong inventory request to the back office.

Create a stable identifier for every product and variation. Do not use a row number that can change when the spreadsheet is sorted. SKU, parent SKU and variation SKU should be retained, and any new platform IDs should be stored alongside them. This makes it possible to reconcile records after import and prevents duplicate products when a second migration run is required.

Images, downloadable files and related products need the same care. An attribute that controls a swatch or image gallery should point to a valid destination value, not to an old NCR path. For example, a clothing store’s fit or colour selector should remain connected to the correct image set, while a product such as men’s pants and jeans should retain its useful size and style distinctions rather than presenting one undifferentiated listing.

Clean Values Without Erasing Meaning

Migration is a good opportunity to standardise spelling, capitalisation and duplicate values, but cleaning should be evidence-based. “Navy”, “navy blue” and “navy” may be duplicates, or they may represent different merchandising decisions. Ask the catalogue owner before merging values, and keep an archive of the source data so the original meaning can be recovered.

Normalise units and formats consistently. Dimensions should use one measurement convention, weights should have a clear unit, and care instructions should not mix HTML fragments with plain text. Australian retailers may need to handle metric measurements, Australian spelling and local product terminology, while selling to customers across both metropolitan areas and regional communities.

Do not discard values simply because they are not currently displayed. Hidden attributes may support marketplace feeds, customer service searches or future personalisation. A “gift suitability” field, for instance, might later power a campaign for gifts for him. Retaining structured data gives the merchandising team options after launch.

Test The Storefront And Integrations

A successful import is more than a row count. Compare source and destination records by SKU, then inspect attribute values on category pages, product pages, search results, filters, cart and checkout. Check mobile layouts as well, because Australian shoppers frequently browse on phones while travelling, commuting or comparing products in-store.

Test integrations with inventory, point of sale, fulfilment and customer communications. An attribute used by a stock rule may need a different format in the new system. Real-time availability is particularly important for retailers coordinating stores and online orders; guidance on real-time stock alerts illustrates why inventory signals should be checked as part of the wider catalogue workflow.

Include edge cases in user acceptance testing. Try products with no value, multiple values, special characters, long text and translated or supplier-provided content. Confirm that filters do not return empty pages, that structured data remains valid, and that customer service staff can still find products using the terms they know.

Account For Australian Trading Conditions

Australian retail data often needs local context. Prices should be reviewed for Australian dollars and GST treatment, while delivery rules may differ between Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and remote areas. Product attributes can influence freight, eligibility or delivery promises, so a field such as dangerous goods, oversized item or refrigerated product should not be treated as decorative content.

Check local spelling and catalogue language, including “colour”, “favourite” and “licence” where appropriate. Size information can also need explanation because Australian shoppers encounter local, UK and US sizing across fashion and footwear. If the store serves regional customers, consider how slow connections or limited stock visibility affect the display of rich product data.

External dependencies deserve a practical check. A retailer operating outside major cities may rely on satellite connectivity, and a reference about aligning an NBN satellite dish is a reminder that connectivity assumptions should be documented for regional teams. Test admin access, imports and order workflows from the locations where staff actually work, not only from a head office network.

Migration Checks Worth Building Into The Runbook

A repeatable runbook reduces reliance on memory and makes the handover to an NCR Counterpoint partner clearer. Record the export date, source system version, transformation scripts, import sequence, error logs and sign-off owner. Keep a frozen copy of the original export and a separate working copy for cleansing.

Use these checks before approving the final cutover:

• Count products, variations and attribute values before and after migration.
• Compare a controlled sample across product pages, filters, search and checkout.
• Confirm that required fields, SKUs and parent-child relationships remain intact.
• Test GST, Australian currency, shipping rules and regional delivery conditions.
• Review values used by inventory, point-of-sale, feeds and marketing automation.
• Run an accessibility and mobile check on attribute labels, selectors and messages.
• Keep a rollback export and document who can authorise a restore.

Schedule a short content freeze for the final delta rather than repeatedly editing both systems. Import the last changes, rerun reconciliation, and have merchandising, operations and customer service approve the results. This approach is safer than discovering after launch that a late supplier update changed a variation or removed a filter value.

Keep Attribute Governance After Launch

The new platform should have an owner for the attribute catalogue. That person or team can approve new fields, prevent duplicate taxonomies and ensure suppliers use agreed values. Without governance, a clean migration can deteriorate quickly as staff create near-identical fields such as “fabric”, “material” and “main material”.

Monitor search terms, zero-result pages, filter usage and customer service requests during the first weeks. These signals show whether the migrated structure matches how Australian shoppers describe products. If customers search for “trackies” while the catalogue uses only “jogger pants”, the data model may need a synonym rather than a new duplicate attribute.

Document every post-launch change and link it to the original mapping. Before the NCR environment is retired, export the final catalogue, attribute definitions and integration notes, then store them with the migration records. The immediate next step is to create the attribute inventory and mapping sheet, beginning with the representative product sample.