Ecommerce platforms are a significant part of an online business. Every now and then, a store owner decides to move to a different platform, such as from Magento, WooCommerce, BigCommerce or even a custom solution to Shopify. Migrating an online store is a major technical and business change. It affects all aspects of a store, such as products, customers, orders, search engine rankings and payment services. A proper Shopify migration can be the start of fast growth, easy management and excellent customer experiences. However, a bad migration can result in losses, broken pages and lots of time to fix everything.
The checklist below outlines about Shopify Migration what you need to do before, during, and after the Shopify Migration to ensure a smooth store transition and set up your online store for growth and improved management.
Shopify Migration: Why Do Businesses Migrate to Shopify?
Most store owners decide to migrate to Shopify for one of a few reasons. They are running an old platform that is very hard to scale, they are running a self-hosted solution that costs too much to maintain, their mobile solution isn’t good enough, there are too few apps in the app store for them to choose from, or they simply want a more reliable and secure solution. They then opt for a Shopify Website Migration.
However, in our experience of many Shopify Store Migrations, the hardest part of a migration is making sure nothing breaks. Yes, the transfer of the site can take a while to set up. Yes, there are lots of things to check before a migration is complete.
Step 1: Audit Your Current Store for Shopify Migration
- Product catalog – SKUs, variants, images, descriptions, and metafields
- Customer data – accounts, order history, saved addresses
- Content – blog posts, landing pages, static pages
- Integrations – payment gateways, shipping tools, email marketing, ERP/CRM systems.
- Apps and custom functionality – anything built specifically for your current platform
During the migration process to Shopify, Store owners need to audit their existing Store, content and applications. This gives them a solid basis to map out the migration to Shopify in detail. A number of retailers opt for using Shopify Migration Services during this phase of the migration. They can help perform the complex audit of the content, applications, and setup on the existing Store to create a roadmap for migration to Shopify. Many of the integrations, and custom applications, that have been created on the current setup can easily be missed during the audit. By utilizing Shopify Migration Services during the Store audit, you can rest assured that all content, applications and integrations have been discovered.
Step 2: Choose the Right Plan for Shopify Migration
For the number of staff members that will be working on the Shopify store, there are several different plans available. This includes the number of reports that can be generated. Additionally, for users who are looking to include advanced checkout customizations, there are several different plans available for that as well. If you have a large number of SKUs, for example, you will want to research a few of the different plans available to ensure that you are not paying too much for your Shopify store, but are also not paying too little. A Shopify Migration Company can assist you with choosing the right plan for your needs.
Step 3: Plan Your Data Migration Strategy
This is the technical core of any Shopify Store Migration. You’ll need a clear plan for:
- Product data – names, descriptions, images, pricing, inventory levels, variants, and tags.
- Customer records – profiles, order history, and marketing consent status.
- Order history – for reporting continuity and customer service reference
- Reviews and ratings – often overlooked, but critical for social proof
To properly migrate large complex catalogs (with 1000s of SKUs, custom fields, etc. and multiple currencies), many teams use dedicated migration apps (like Cart2Cart, LitExtension, etc. – see the list of the best Shopify migration apps here: https://matrixify.io/ecommerce-migration/platforms/shopify-migration-apps). However, these apps have limitations and for complex projects, it is highly recommended to work with experienced Shopify Migration Experts that will create custom import/export scripts and validate all migrated data on a line-by-line basis.
Step 4: Protect Your SEO Rankings During Shopify Migration
Make sure to protect your SEO rankings during the migration. Document all your current URLs and their performance metrics, such as traffic, backlinks and keyword rankings. After the migration of your Shopify store, set up 301 redirects from your old URLs to the new ones in your Shopify store.
- Set up 301 redirects from old URLs to their new Shopify equivalents.
- Recreate meta titles, descriptions, and header tags
- Resubmit your sitemap to Google Search Console
- Step 5: Test Payment Gateways and Checkout
- The full-service Shopify Migration Agency will work your SEO preservation into the bulk of the work of your full Shopify Migration Services to launch with the new online store before it ‘goes live’.
Step 5: Test Payment Gateways and Checkout
Your checkout experience is the core of your store, and will be where your revenue is generated. Therefore, you should test all of the payment gateways that are supported natively by Shopify, in a sandbox environment, before going live with your new Shopify store. Some payment gateways are not supported by Shopify out of the box, and therefore you will need to use an alternative that is compatible with Shopify. It is worth checking with your Shopify Migration Services provider as to what alternatives are available.
Step 6: Set Up Your Theme and Design
Migrating platforms is also a chance to refresh your storefront design. Decide whether you’ll:
- Use a Shopify theme (free or premium) and customize it
- Rebuild your existing design as a custom Shopify theme
- Hire a developer to recreate your current website’s UX elements.
The vast majority of full-service providers offering Shopify Migration Services, also referred to as Shopify Store Migrations, can set up and customize a theme for you as part of the service. They can make it look and even function better than your old store.
Step 7: Migrate Customer Accounts Securely
Customer accounts and passwords require special care. Typically the passwords are hashed. That’s why all data about customers and orders is transferred but all customers are forced to change their passwords on their first login to the new online store. This must be communicated to all customers in advance of the go live date. Preferably by email to avoid panic when they log in for the first time.
Step 8: Plan for Minimal Downtime
- Build and test the new Shopify store in parallel with your live site
- Do a final data sync (orders, inventory, customers) right before cutover.
- Switch DNS and go live during low-traffic hours
- Monitor closely for the first 24–48 hours
Step 9: Post-Launch QA
Once live, systematically test:
- Checkout flow across devices and browsers
- Payment processing
- Redirects and internal links
- Site speed and mobile responsiveness
- Email notifications (order confirmation, shipping updates)
Final Thoughts
It doesn’t matter if you decide to migrate a shop in-house or have it done by a specialized Shopify Migration Company. Using a structured checklist for a platform switch will guarantee the smoothest migration possible, whilst protecting your most valuable assets: your revenue, your SEO equity, and your customer relationships. If the migration is complex and of high value, it is best to seek the help of a professional Shopify Migration Agency or even directly Shopify Migration Experts.
FAQs
1. What is Shopify Migration?
Shopify Migration is the process of moving an existing online store — including its products, customer data, order history, content, and design — from another e-commerce platform (such as Magento, WooCommerce, or BigCommerce) onto Shopify’s hosted infrastructure.
2. Which are the best tools for migrating an online store to Shopify?
Popular tools include Cart2Cart, LitExtension, and Matrixify (formerly Excelify), which handle bulk data transfer for products, customers, and orders. For complex or highly customized stores, custom scripts built by Shopify Migration Experts often outperform off-the-shelf tools in accuracy and flexibility.
3. How to transfer product data efficiently during Shopify migration?
Export your product catalog into a clean, structured format (usually CSV), map fields to Shopify’s product schema (title, SKU, variants, images, tags), and use a bulk import tool or app. Always run a test import with a small batch first to catch formatting issues before migrating the full catalog.
4. What is the cost of migrating an e-commerce site to Shopify?
Costs vary widely based on catalog size, customization needs, and whether you use automated tools or a full-service provider — ranging from a few hundred dollars for small, simple stores using self-serve apps, to several thousand dollars for large catalogs requiring custom development, theme rebuilds, and dedicated Shopify Migration Services.
5. How to migrate customer reviews when switching to Shopify?
Export your existing reviews (via your current review app’s export feature or database), then import them into a Shopify-compatible review app such as Judge.me, Loox, or Yotpo, matching each review to its corresponding product using SKU or product ID.
6. How long does a typical Shopify migration take with a third-party service?
Most migrations take anywhere from one to six weeks, depending on catalog size, the number of integrations, and how much custom design or development work is involved. Simple stores can move faster; enterprise catalogs with thousands of SKUs typically take longer.
7. Can I migrate my existing payment gateways during Shopify migration?
In many cases, yes — Shopify supports major gateways like PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize.net, along with its native Shopify Payments. If your current gateway isn’t supported, you’ll need to switch to a compatible alternative or explore a custom integration.
8. How to handle URL redirects after Shopify migration?
Map every old URL to its new Shopify equivalent and set up 301 redirects using Shopify’s built-in URL redirect tool or a redirect app for bulk uploads. This preserves SEO rankings and prevents visitors and search engines from hitting broken links.
9. Do migration services include theme setup and customization on Shopify?
Most comprehensive Shopify Migration Services include theme selection, setup, and customization as part of the package, ensuring the new store’s design matches or improves upon the original rather than launching with a generic, unconfigured theme.
10. How to migrate customer accounts and passwords to Shopify securely?
Customer profile and order data can be migrated directly, but passwords are typically hashed and can’t be transferred as-is. The standard secure approach is to import account details without passwords and prompt customers to reset their password on their first login after launch.
11. How to migrate Shopify stores while minimizing downtime?
Build and thoroughly test the new Shopify store in parallel with your existing live site, perform a final data sync immediately before cutover, and switch your domain/DNS during a low-traffic window — with close monitoring for the first 24–48 hours after launch.
