Partial redirect of traffic / Server configuration

[Alien(PL)]

Guys do you have an idea of how to solve this.

We are creating a new store based on Presta 1.7.6.
The client asks us is it possible to launch it, but redirect only part of the traffic to the new store, and the majority of it should still point to the old store

Server admin I think suggest it should be done in .htaccess but I'm not sure if he grasped the concept.

[Knowband Plugins]

You need to use some A/B testing tool to achieve the same. You can try google A/B testing tool.

You need to keep 2 versions of the site on the different URLs (May be new site on the subdomain) & redirect the traffic from the original domain to subdomain (New version fo the site).

We hope you will aware of impact which will happens by keeping the versions of the sites (Means 2 separate DB,  Chances of the generating the same order ID to customers) & when you finally moving to the any of the site (New OR OLD), Merging orders/customers from one site to another site will be a tough tasks.

[Alien(PL)]

@Knowband Plugins Thanks!
Is it possible to connect it with modrewrite in htaccess so the user has the experience it's on the same domain?

[Knowband Plugins]

With .htaccess, its not possible.

You can add some code in the prestashop index.php (root directory)  & apply some logic (At the top of the page) like generate random number between 1 to 10 using rand function. and if rand function output is either 1 OR 2 then redirect the user to new website using the php. (Redirect only in case of 1 OR 2 means 20% traffic i.e. 2 times out of 10. Using probability cocept).

But Ideally its not the correct solution because A/B testing tools handle such scenario like If same customer opens the site again in the same browser then he will see the same site (Either OLD OR new) which were last time so no randomness on the repetitive visits. 

Anyway Google A/B testing tool is a free tool.