Volusion, a popular platform in the eCommerce industry, has gained fame for its extensive inventory and excellent analytics tools. On 27th July 2020, this platform announced that it had started the filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy process in Texas. The Volusion Bankruptcy shocked a lot of merchants, especially for those who are basing their stores on this platform.
Now that you may be wondering: What is the reason for the Volusion Bankruptcy? If you’re still on Volusion, does the bankruptcy mean your store will disappear from the internet immediately? And what is the action you should take now? Let’s take a look at these most notable issues of the Volusion Bankruptcy and find the ways to deal with them!
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Volusion data breach – the reason for Volusion Bankruptcy
Marcel Afrahim is a researcher at the security firm Check Point. On 8th October 2019, he noticed the compromise while browsing on the Sesame Street Live store, a Volusion website. Hackers attacked the Google cloud infrastructure of Volusion and added malicious JavaScript that steals payment data when customers check out.
To be specific, Afrahim discovered JavaScript code loading from Google Cloud Storage (storage.googleapis.com) on the checkout page. Weirdly, the malicious JavaScript is loaded from a strange resource instead of related websites like “sesamestreetlivestore.com” or “volusion.com”. The code is “resources.js” and comes from “volusionapi” bucket. 
Hackers carefully edited the name of the folders to make them look completely harmless. However, analyzing the code shows that the script can read the credit card information, encode and keep it in the temporary browser. They then sold more than 239.000 payment card records on a dark web for about $1.6 million.
According to Gemini Advisory, the Volusion data breach affected at least 6.589 small and mid-sized merchants. What’s more, the total number of records exposed amounts to nearly 20 million. Given this figure, the cost of the Volusion data breach’s damage was estimated as high as $133.89 million.
After researching different options, the company decided to file for Chapter 11 to resolve an unstable capital structure involving matured debt. Chapter 11 refers to a reorganization bankruptcy. Put simply, it allows a business to restructure its debt and stay in operation.
Explaining for choosing Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, Volusion believes it is the best way in their case.
Through this protection, they have time to recapitalize the company, finance future developments, and improve the cash flow. At the same time, they can continue to operate the company as usual.
Is it really the end of Volusion?
Undoubtedly, the Volusion data breach caused this eCommerce platform to suffer heavy losses. However, as mentioned above, Chapter 11 protection provides a fresh start for the debtor. In other words, Volusion bankruptcy is not the end of this company!
“Volusion is open for business and is not going anywhere”, claimed Volusion Staff.
Volusion is undergoing a restructuring of its business, debts, and assets. Importantly, the company is operating business as usual. They ensure to remain the level of services and support. Besides, the company expresses its optimism when sharing the next steps in the future. They still commit to launching VOLT, their new eCommerce platform, after emerging from the Volusion bankruptcy process.
What does Volusion Bankruptcy mean for eCommerce merchants on this platform?
Volusion reassures that Chapter 11 bankruptcy would not negatively impact either their clients or their partners. It seems that the company will make a huge effort to stay active and support its customers. However, please note that Chapter 11 is an expensive and complex form of a bankruptcy process. It means that Volusion is still bearing huge risks with Chapter 11.
There are some risks you will face if you are still on Volusion:
- Fewer updates: Volusion absolutely focuses on restructuring at the moment. Hence, there will be less updated versions for the store owners. In other words, it is so difficult for the company to fix its current issues regarding blogging features, design options, or SEO features.
- Losing your customers: Needless to say, the Volusion data breach makes your customers put a big question about your website’s data security. The data here means not only your business information like orders, products but also the customer data. Your shoppers might wonder whether their information, especially the payment data, will be secured. As a result, it affects your reputation and you may lose your customers.
- Losing your business: The worst-case scenario is that Volusion fails to reorganize. It means that you will lose your store.
Therefore, you need to take all necessary steps to minimize the impact of Volusion bankruptcy event on your business.
What should you do to minimize possible risks from Volusion Bankruptcy?
1. Backup your Volusion store
If you are still on the Volusion system, you should take a backup of your store data as soon and regularly as possible. Here is the video that shows you the steps to export your data into CSV files:
2. Migrate your Volusion store to another platform
In case Volusion is not able to stabilize as soon as possible, there is no other choice but to migrate your store to another platform.
You need to find out the alternatives to Volusion, weighing all their advantages and disadvantages. It’s important to determine the features that you need and can make your next platform better than Volusion. Please remember that you don’t look for the best platform in the eCommerce market, you need to choose the best one to fit your store.
One thing to consider is security. Although there is no platform that can guarantee the absolute absence of security risks, there are some platforms that offer a bunch of essential security measures and updates to protect your online store.
Shopify is one of the best alternatives to Volusion as both of them are hosted eCommerce solutions. Besides, this platform has the most comprehensive set of sales tools, features, and third-party integrations, and really helps your business flourish. Till now, there have been more than 3,300 Volusion store owners deciding to migrate to Shopify.
Migrate from Volusion to Shopify
After determining the next destination for your store, it’s time to perform the Volusion migration process. It is undeniable that switching a platform is a risky, complex, and time-consuming process. The reason is that each platform has its own database structure. You have to deal with tons of tasks to make changes to your Volusion’s CSV files to match the target store’s structure and requirements.
In this case, using LitExtension is the most optimal solution to save your time, secure your data, sales, and revenue. LitExtension provides an automated migration tool for merchants and eCommerce experts to switch from the current store to another platform.
Data security is the highest priority of LitExtension. The tool has been developed so as to limit almost all human intervention to migrate data automatically. You can transfer your important data including customers, orders, products, and other related data. Plus, there are additional options for you to choose such as 301 redirects, migrating customer passwords, etc.
Conclusion
The Volusion data breach scandal is one of the main factors that drives Volusion to come to the decision on filing for bankruptcy. It will be a difficult time for the company, nevertheless, it is not yet the end of this platform.
However, for those who are owning a Volusion online store, it is time to have a complete roadmap for your long-term growth. If you have a plan for moving to your right platform, LitExtension – #1 Shopping Cart Migration Solution is here for you! You can also try a free demo to check how the process works.
Till now, LitExtension has delivered more than 150.000 successful migrations for over 50.000 customers all over the world. You can contact our support team anytime to have further instructions. We also have our Facebook community for you to exchange and update eCommerce information, please check it out!
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