Bien Bien Habillés: the shop moved from PrestaShop 1.7 to 8.2 without downtime

Bien Bien Habillés (BBH Concept) sells responsible, multi-brand menswear from a physical shop in the 17th arrondissement of Paris and online, to customers in France and Europe. The site exists in French and English, and more than 25,000 visitors a month use it. In September 2026, the shop had to move from PrestaShop 1.7 (PHP 7.4) to PrestaShop 8.2 (PHP 8.1), onto a new theme bought by the brand, with a blog and stronger visibility in search and AI engines. Four constraints were not negotiable: no downtime before the switch, no data loss, the current search rankings kept, and a layout fitted to phone, tablet and desktop. A change of domain to bbh.paris is planned for later.

The official upgrade had failed and left the site half-migrated. A copy of production, full of live payment keys, customer e-mail addresses and third-party connections, had to be neutralised before any work. Some third-party modules were not compatible with PrestaShop 8, and the site had neither a sitemap nor structured data. Sensitive files were publicly reachable, and some legal and promotional content was out of date (a sale category outside the legal sales period, an incorrect legal notice). Finally, a till sync system links the store’s catalogue and stock to the shop: it must never be triggered by mistake during the work.

We first reproduced the whole migration locally, in an isolated Docker environment that can be replayed exactly. The switch-over comes down to three commands: launch the new shop, open it, and roll back if needed. It only runs after a verified backup and a tested restore. We then dressed the purchased theme in the brand’s colours and content, starting with the phone: a header that stays visible, a buy bar that requires choosing a size, delivery options shown as cards, and the Colissimo pick-up point window full screen. The search ranking was kept through the whole switch, then the shop was audited (interface, accessibility, performance, SEO, legal notices) before opening.

• Migration reproduced locally, in a replayable Docker environment, before any switch-over
• Switch-over in three commands (launch, open, roll back), preceded by a verified backup and a tested restore
• Production copy neutralised before any work, then an isolated test environment
• Purchased theme dressed in the brand’s colours and content, designed for the phone first
• Header that stays visible when scrolling, and a buy bar that requires choosing a size
• Delivery options as cards, and the Colissimo pick-up point window full screen on mobile
• Search and filters made relevant across the whole catalogue
• Blog created and built into the shop
• CNIL-compliant cookie banner; the chat loads only after consent
• Search ranking kept: same page addresses, 301 redirects for removed pages still visited, sitemap, FR and EN language tags
• Product, Store and Organization structured data, and an llms.txt file for AI assistants
• Security hardened: HTTPS enforced with HSTS, security headers, sensitive files closed, old access disabled
• Old shop archived on a protected subdomain hidden from search engines; audits before opening and uptime monitoring

• Shop opened to the public on 17 October 2026.
• No data lost: catalogue, customer accounts and order history carried over to the new shop.
• Migration done without downtime for a shop that receives more than 25,000 visitors a month.
• No address known to Google was lost.
• The till sync system stays connected to the shop.
• Clearly faster mobile display on the slowest pages.