A migration to Shopify succeeds or fails on preparation, not on the import itself. Take an inventory of every kind of data and every URL that earns traffic, decide what moves and how, map old addresses to new ones with 301 redirects, and rehearse the move on a copy of the store before launch day. Treat the first 30 days after launch as part of the project, because that is when search, feeds and customers settle.
Before you start: be clear why you are moving
Write down what the move must achieve: selling in more markets, fewer moving parts, a better mobile experience or less time spent on updates. Those goals decide what is worth carrying across and what is better left behind. If you are still weighing platforms, our guide to choosing between Shopify and WooCommerce comes first.
The steps are much the same whether you are moving from WooCommerce to Shopify, from Magento to Shopify, or from a Turkish platform such as ikas, Ticimax, IdeaSoft or T-Soft. What differs is how data is exported and how URLs are structured, and both are covered below.
Then check two practical points. Confirm what your current platform lets you export, and in which formats. Read your contract for notice periods and data-access terms, especially with hosted platforms, where your data lives on the provider’s systems.
Step 1: take an inventory of your data
List everything the current store holds, then decide what happens to each item. The table below is a starting point for a migration to Shopify; your store will have its own additions.
| Data | Usually moves? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Products, variants and images | Yes | Clean them before the move, not after |
| Attributes and custom fields | Yes | Rebuilt as Shopify metafields and metaobjects |
| Categories | Yes | Rebuilt as manual or automated collections |
| Customers and addresses | Yes | Passwords cannot move; consent must |
| Order history | Usually | Imported as historical orders, without notifications |
| Reviews | Usually | Through the review app’s own import, unedited |
| Gift cards and store credit | Case by case | Balances need reconciling; the method depends on your plan |
| Promotional codes | Rarely | Usually recreated for the new store |
| Blog posts and pages | Yes | Content kept intact and URLs mapped |
| Subscriptions | Case by case | Depends on the subscription app and payment provider |
Reviews deserve particular care. UK consumer law now bans fake reviews and the misleading presentation of reviews, so move them as they are, without removing the unflattering ones.
Step 2: products, variants and metafields
Clean product data before it moves: consistent option names, one convention for colours and sizes, no orphaned variants, and images at a sensible resolution with alt text. Shopify organises products by options and variants, so the structure in your old store may need reshaping. A product listed separately for each colour, for example, can become one product with a colour option or stay as separate products, depending on how you want it to appear.
Attributes that lived in custom fields or plugins, such as materials, dimensions, care or frame measurements, move into metafields and metaobjects. They can then be designed into product pages and reused in filters and feeds. Map every field before the import, because anything left unmapped is lost without warning.
Use a dedicated migration tool, or Shopify’s own spreadsheet import for simpler catalogues, and run it more than once. The first run reveals the problems; the final run happens just before launch.
Step 3: customers and consent
Customer records, addresses and marketing preferences can be moved; passwords cannot, because platforms store them in a form that cannot be transferred. Shopify’s newer customer accounts sign people in with a one-time code sent by email, so customers simply use their email address after launch. Tell them before launch day what will change.
Consent moves with the data. Carry across each customer’s marketing consent exactly as recorded, with its date and source where your systems hold them, and never treat an imported customer as subscribed unless they were. Update your privacy notice to reflect the new platform and any apps that will process customer data.
Step 4: order history
Order history lets customers see past purchases and keeps your reporting in one place. Orders are imported as historical records through a migration tool or Shopify’s API, with notifications switched off so nobody receives a confirmation for a purchase made years ago.
Decide how far back to go, check totals and taxes against the old platform, and spot-check a sample of orders by hand. Whatever you import, keep a full export from the old platform archived.
Step 5: URL mapping and 301 redirects
This is the step that protects your search visibility. Shopify uses fixed URL patterns, such as /products/ and /collections/, so almost every address in your current store will change. Each old URL that earns traffic or links needs a permanent 301 redirect to its closest new equivalent.
- Crawl the current store and export every URL: products, categories, content pages and blog posts.
- Add data from Google Search Console and analytics, so URLs with impressions, clicks or backlinks come first.
- Map each old URL to one new URL: product to product, category to collection. Send discontinued items to the closest relevant collection, not to the home page.
- Import the redirects into Shopify in bulk, and test a sample before and after launch.
- Avoid chains: an old URL should reach its final address in a single step.
Step 6: preserve what search engines know
Redirects tell search engines where pages went; the pages still need to deserve their rankings. Carry over page titles, meta descriptions and headings, keep the product and category copy that ranks, and add structured data for products. If you sell in several languages, set up hreflang properly from day one.
At launch, submit the new sitemap in Search Console and keep the property verified. Some movement in rankings during the first weeks is normal; a steady decline is a sign that something was missed.
Step 7: apps, payments and checkout
Replace plugins with fewer apps, not one for one. Many features that needed a plugin elsewhere are built into Shopify, and a lean app list keeps the store fast. For each remaining need, choose a well-supported app or consider a custom integration.
Set up payments early. Shopify Payments is available only to businesses registered in certain countries, so confirm it applies to you; if it does not, choose a third-party provider and include Shopify’s additional transaction fee in your costs. Test every payment method, including refunds, before launch.
Step 8: marketplaces and feeds
Product feeds are easy to forget and costly to break. Reconnect Google Merchant Center and your Meta catalogue through their Shopify channel apps, and check whether product IDs will change: new IDs can be treated as new products, which may mean fresh reviews before listings run again.
Marketplaces such as Trendyol connect through integration apps or services, and they differ in what they sync: some update stock and price only, others also pull orders into Shopify. Match products by SKU or barcode before switching anything over. Our work for Soho Optik, a luxury eyewear store with around 1,200 products, included Trendyol and Google Merchant integrations.
Step 9: test as if you were the customer
Build on a development store or an unpublished theme, and test with real scenarios:
- place test orders for each payment method, market and shipping option, then refund one;
- check taxes, duties and delivery prices for each country you sell to;
- read every customer email and notification, in every language;
- sign in as an imported customer and view an old order;
- test a sample of redirects, starting with your highest-traffic URLs;
- review key pages on the mid-range phones your customers use;
- confirm that analytics, the consent banner and feeds work as intended.
Launch day
Pause changes on the old store, so no new products or orders are lost in the move, then run the final import of new orders and customers. Point the domain to Shopify, switch on redirects, submit the sitemap and place a live order. Keep access to the old platform’s admin and data until every record is reconciled.
Choose a quiet day for the switch, never the eve of a major sale or launch.
The first 30 days
The weeks after launch decide whether a migration is remembered as smooth. Each week:
- check Search Console for crawl errors and pages not found, and add redirects for any that matter;
- compare rankings and organic traffic for key pages with the pre-launch baseline;
- confirm that Google Merchant Center, Meta and marketplace feeds are approved and in sync;
- review conversion on mobile and remove friction from product pages and checkout;
- remove apps installed for the move that you no longer need.
If you would rather we watched these for you, our Care & Growth retainers cover monitoring, updates and SEO.
How we can help
Migration to Shopify is part of our e-commerce service: we plan the data and URL map, move products, customers and orders, and stay close through the first weeks. If you would like an outside view of your current store first, the Commerce & Brand Audit returns prioritised fixes, and its fee is credited against the project.
Moving so you can sell abroad? Our guide to selling to the UK covers what a new market asks of the store.
Start a project with the platform you use today and the markets you serve, or book a private consultation.