Migrating your online store from WooCommerce or WordPress to Shopify can feel daunting, but it’s often a strategic move for businesses looking to scale, simplify maintenance, and improve performance. This guide covers everything you need to know, from planning and auditing your store to avoiding common pitfalls and optimising post-migration.
1. Why Businesses Consider Migrating
- Scalability: Shopify’s hosted infrastructure grows with you, handling more traffic, orders, and products without complex hosting setups.
- Maintenance & Reliability: No more updates, plugin conflicts, and server management. Shopify takes care of uptime, security, and backups.
- Built-in Features & Integrations: From abandoned cart recovery to SEO-friendly tools, Shopify often reduces the need for multiple plugins.
- Predictable Costs: Fixed monthly fees make budgeting simpler.
Explore our bespoke website design work to see how we optimise UX and performance across Shopify builds.
2. Things to Audit Before Migration
Before starting, review these key areas:
- Product Data: Ensure all SKUs, variants, and product images are clean. Consider Shopify’s three options per product limit.
- Custom Code & Plugins: Identify which WooCommerce extensions you use and their Shopify equivalents. Custom themes or scripts may need re-implementation.
- SEO & URL Structure: Export URLs, meta descriptions, and content to plan redirects.
- Orders & Customers: Export historical data to avoid losing important order history.
3. What Doesn’t Move Automatically
Some elements will require manual work:
- Theme Customisations: Your WooCommerce theme won’t transfer as Shopify uses a different framework. Layouts, product filtering, and navigation often break, so designs typically need rebuilding from the ground up. This is also a key opportunity to enhance usability, speed, and conversions. Our Bespoke Website Design team creates Shopify-ready storefronts that elevate brand experience and performance.
- Plugin/Extension Equivalents: Shopify uses apps; not every WooCommerce plugin has a direct match.
- URL Structures: You may need 301 redirects to preserve SEO.
4. Steps in Migration
- Planning: Audit data, apps, SEO, and functionality.
- Data Export & Import: Products, customers, and orders.
- Theme/Design Transfer: Rebuild in Shopify, preserving brand identity.
- SEO Redirects: Map old URLs to new Shopify URLs.
- Testing: Validate checkout flow, payment gateways, and integrations.
5. Common Pitfalls & How to Avoid Them
- Missing Data: Double-check exports and imports to avoid lost products or orders.
- Downtime: Schedule migration during low traffic periods.
- SEO Drops: Implement comprehensive redirects and monitor performance post-launch.
6. Post-Migration Checklist
- Test every page, form, and checkout process.
- Monitor analytics to catch issues early.
- Check site speed and UX, optimising for conversions.
- Refine navigation and menus based on user behaviour.
Book a consultation with our Shopify experts, and we’ll help you create a smooth, high-performance migration plan tailored to your business.