Shopify Migration Services

A Shopify migration is more than exporting products from your old store and importing them into Shopify.

Your existing store may contain products and variants, customer records, order history, custom fields, images, URLs, and data created by plugins or other integrations. Not all of that maps directly to Shopify.

The first step is to identify what your current store contains and decide where each piece of data belongs in Shopify.

For example:

The exact approach depends on how your store is built. A simple catalog may need very little transformation, while a store with custom fields, complex products, subscriptions, or external integrations needs more planning.

This is where the migration should start: understanding the existing store before moving the data.

WooCommerce and Shopify organize product data differently, so a product export cannot always be imported into Shopify without changes. WooCommerce supports product types such as simple, variable, grouped, external, virtual, and downloadable products, while Shopify uses a product-and-variant structure.

For a migration, we first identify how each WooCommerce product is structured and then map it to the closest Shopify structure.

For example:

The important part is the variant mapping. A WooCommerce store may use attributes such as size, color, material, or finish to create variations. Those attributes need to be mapped into Shopify's product and variant structure rather than simply copied as separate fields.

Some products also need a different approach. Grouped or external products may not have a direct Shopify equivalent, while products with complex variation structures may need to be split, reorganized, or created programmatically.

The goal is not just to move the product records. It is to make sure the products still behave correctly after the migration.

Customer and product data often contain information that is not part of the standard WooCommerce fields.

For example, a WooCommerce store might have fields such as:

material
technical_drawing
care_instructions
product_width
product_height

These don't simply become ordinary Shopify product fields. We first decide what each field represents and then map it to the appropriate Shopify metafield.

For example:

material
        ↓
custom.material

product_width
        ↓
custom.product_width

care_instructions
        ↓
custom.care_instructions

The metafield definitions need to be set up in Shopify before the corresponding data is imported. Simple product-level metafields can be handled through Shopify's CSV tools when they use supported data types, while more complex data or variant-level metafields may require programmatic processing through the Admin API.

The important part is not just moving the values. We need to preserve what those fields are used for in the old store and make sure the new Shopify theme, apps, and workflows can use the migrated data correctly.

Product images and other media are handled differently in WooCommerce and Shopify.

In WooCommerce, product images are usually stored on the WordPress server under /wp-content/uploads/ and connected to products through the WordPress Media Library. Shopify handles product media through its own hosted media system.

During a migration, Shopify's CSV importer uses the image URL from the old store to fetch the image. The image needs to be available through a public HTTP or HTTPS URL so Shopify can retrieve it.

For example:

WooCommerce image
/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/product-image.jpg
        ↓
Public image URL
https://oldstore.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/product-image.jpg
        ↓
Shopify import
        ↓
Shopify-hosted product media

This is why the old WooCommerce store needs to remain available while the media is being imported. If Shopify cannot reach the source image, that image can fail to transfer.

For larger or programmatic migrations, media can also be handled through Shopify's API. In that case, the migration process needs to account for the fact that Shopify may still be processing an uploaded file before it can be attached to a product variant.

The goal is to transfer the media itself as well as the connection between each image and the correct product or variant.

Customer data can be moved from WooCommerce to Shopify, but the process is more than copying names and email addresses.

Shopify supports importing customer profiles through CSV. The file can include information such as names, email addresses, phone numbers, addresses, marketing preferences, tags, and other supported fields.

For example:

WooCommerce customer
        ↓
First name
Last name
Email
Phone
Address
Tags
Custom data
        ↓
Shopify customer profile

The main limitation is customer passwords. Shopify does not allow passwords from another ecommerce platform to be migrated through a customer CSV, so existing customers need to complete Shopify's supported sign-in or account setup process.

With Shopify's current customer account system, customers can sign in using a one-time verification code sent to their email instead of creating a traditional password.

For stores with additional customer data, we first identify which fields can be imported directly and which need to be mapped to Shopify metafields or handled through an API-based process.

The goal is to move the customer profiles correctly while making sure customers can still access their accounts after the migration.

Past orders are one of the parts of a WooCommerce to Shopify migration that usually needs more planning.

Shopify's normal product CSV can be used to import products, and customer data can also be imported separately. Historical orders are different. Shopify's migration documentation lists migration apps, the Order API, and the Transaction API as options for moving historical orders.

The migration also needs to happen in the right order. Products should be available before historical orders are connected to them, and customer records should be handled before importing orders that need to reference those customers.

A simplified flow looks like this:

WooCommerce
    ↓
Products + variants
    ↓
Shopify products
    ↓
Customers
    ↓
Shopify customers
    ↓
Historical orders
    ↓
Shopify order records

The order data itself can contain much more than an order number. Depending on the store, we may need to account for line items, quantities, prices, taxes, discounts, customer information, payment information, fulfillment status, refunds, and order dates.

There is also an important difference between WooCommerce stores. Modern WooCommerce stores can use High-Performance Order Storage (HPOS), which stores order data in dedicated tables instead of the older WordPress post and postmeta structure. A migration process needs to determine which storage system the source store is using before extracting the order data.

For a small store, a migration app may be enough. For a store with a large order history or custom order data, an API-based migration can give more control over how the records are transformed and imported.

The goal is not just to make the old orders appear in Shopify. The customer, products, dates, totals, and other important order information should remain connected and usable after the migration.

Your existing WooCommerce store may have years of indexed product, category, blog, and other URLs. When you move to Shopify, the URL structure can change, so those old URLs need to be mapped to the correct new URLs.

For example:

WooCommerce
/shop/category/product-name
        ↓
Shopify
/products/product-name

The old URL should not simply be deleted. Where the content has a suitable replacement, we create a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one. Shopify supports importing URL redirects through CSV, which can be useful when a store has a large number of URLs to migrate.

Before the migration, we can build a URL mapping that looks like:

Not every old URL should point to the homepage. If a relevant replacement exists, we map the old URL to that page. If there is no suitable replacement, the URL may need a different treatment rather than creating a large number of irrelevant redirects.

We also check the new URLs after launch to make sure the redirects work and important pages remain accessible to search engines.

The goal is to make the URL change predictable: old visitors and search engines should be sent to the right new page instead of hitting a broken link.

A WooCommerce store can rely on plugins for much more than the storefront. A plugin may handle subscriptions, reviews, shipping, inventory, email marketing, accounting, or a custom business process.

When moving to Shopify, those plugins cannot simply be copied to the new store. We first identify what each plugin does, what data it stores, and whether Shopify has a suitable app, native feature, or API-based alternative.

For example:

WooCommerce plugin
        ↓
What does it actually do?
        ↓
Shopify native feature
        OR
Shopify app
        OR
Custom integration

A product review plugin might be replaced with a Shopify review app. A custom inventory integration may need to connect to Shopify through the Admin API. A system that receives order updates can use Shopify webhooks so it can react when relevant events occur. For unique business workflows, explore our Custom Shopify Development services.

We also check whether the old integration stores important data that needs to be migrated. Removing a plugin without understanding its data can leave products, customers, or business workflows incomplete.

For each integration, we document what needs to move, what needs to be rebuilt, and what can be replaced rather than migrated.

The goal is to make sure the systems around your store continue working after the move, instead of treating the Shopify storefront as the only part of the migration.

We don't wait until launch day to find out that a product, image, customer, or integration did not migrate correctly.

We first create the Shopify store and test the migration with a smaller part of the existing catalog. This lets us find mapping problems before the full migration.

For example:

Products        ✓
Variants        ✓
Images          ✓
Metafields      ✓
Customers       ✓
Orders          ✓
Redirects       ✓
Integrations    ✓
Checkout        ✓

We compare the migrated data with the original store and investigate anything that does not match.

For complex stores, this can include checking product options, custom fields, image associations, customer records, order information, and URLs before the final migration.

We also test the storefront itself. Product pages, collections, search, cart, checkout, account access, and important integrations should all work on the new store before the domain is switched.

After the final data sync, we run the same checks again so that changes made on the old store during development are not missed.

The purpose of the test migration is simple: find problems while the old store is still running, not after the new store is live.