Upgrading nopCommerce from v4.10 to v4.40.4

Hello everyone;

We are in the process of upgrading nopCommerce for a client from v4.10 to v4.40.4.

Of course, we are first doing all of this work on a development site. We have brought the nopCommerce system to its latest version. We will now be purchasing a new theme to replace the current one. We will also be updating or installing missing plugins, etc.

My question is the following...

Do we need to perform ALL OF THIS WORK AGAIN on the live, production site, or is there a faster way of doing this?

Obviously, we do realize that the live site has been receiving new orders, new client registrations, and so on while we've been working on the development site.

How do we bring in these new orders, new clients, and so on to the fully upgraded development site? Is there a way to do this? Is there a faster, more effective way to do this instead of redoing ALL THE WORK on the production site?

I would really appreciate your feedback and comments.

Thank you!
Norm A.

Once you have finished the developed site you can publishing the website to the production server
Have you changed the database in development ?
If not you can connect the new production website to the existing production database by editing the App_Data\dataSettings.json file
If you have changed the database in development then you need to upgrade your production database first then connect it to the production website

There are tools that can compare and sync schema and data.
Free: SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) for Visual Studio
And paid: e.g.  red-gate and  apex