How to migrate to Shopify: a step-by-step plan

Moving a store is less glamorous than opening one. Nobody admires your redirect spreadsheet. But it's the part that decides whether your existing customers, links and Google rankings follow you to Shopify, or quietly stay behind on a 404 page. This is the order we'd follow, based on Shopify's own migration guides and Google's advice on site moves, with the spots where a migration usually goes sideways.

Who this is for

This is for a small or medium store moving to Shopify from WooCommerce, Wix, Squarespace or another platform, without an agency. If you're still deciding whether to move at all, start with what Shopify and WooCommerce actually cost, or our Shopify vs Wix and Shopify vs Squarespace choosers. Shopify has platform-specific migration guides for WooCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, Etsy, Square and several others. Keep the one for your platform open alongside this post, because menu names on your old platform change more often than the plan does.

Step 1: Decide what moves, and what doesn't

Start a Shopify store (you can build during a free trial; check Shopify's pricing page for current plans and trial terms), then take stock of your old one. Shopify's guides list the usual candidates:

• Products
• Customers
• Historical orders (ones that are already fulfilled)
• Gift cards, certificates and store credits
• Blog posts and pages, such as your shipping policy, contact and about pages
• Reviews

Shopify also points out that a migration is a good time to drop old, low-performing content. Fair enough, but be careful what you call low-performing. A blog post with no sales might still bring in search traffic and links, so check your analytics before you leave it behind.

While you're taking stock, make a list of your old URLs. You'll need it for redirects in step 5. Google suggests starting with the URLs in your sitemap, the pages that get the most traffic in your analytics, and the pages that other sites link to, which Search Console shows you. Include image and PDF URLs if people link to them.

Finally, pick a quieter week. Google recommends timing a site move for a recurring dip in traffic, and changing one thing at a time. If you also want a redesign and a new domain name, the move alone is enough excitement for one month.

Step 2: Move products, customers and orders

Shopify lists your options from least to most technical: copy and paste, CSV export and import, a migration app, hiring a Shopify Partner, or a custom solution built on the Shopify API. A handful of pages can be copied by hand. A catalogue of hundreds of products needs a CSV file or an app.

Import in this order: products, then customers, then historical orders. Shopify says the order matters so that imported orders connect to the right products and customers. Everything else can go in any order.

Shopify's Store Migration app

Shopify has its own Store Migration app. Its App Store listing says it imports product and customer data from platforms including WooCommerce, Wix, Square, Etsy, Amazon, eBay, Clover and Lightspeed, either from a CSV file you upload or, on supported platforms, by connecting your old account. Squarespace isn't on that list, and Shopify's Squarespace guide uses CSV files instead. A few things to know before you rely on it:

• Shopify's Help Center describes the app as early access, available only for certain stores and on desktop. If you tell Shopify during sign-up which platform you're moving from, the setup guide links to it when it's available to you.
• Products can have at most three options in the import. Products with more options won't have their options imported.
• From Wix, prices by location aren't supported, so products get their highest price.
• The listing itself warns that some platforms don't export all data, so expect to make small edits in Shopify afterwards.

CSV imports

The CSV route works for products and customers on every platform. Export from your old store, reshape the file to match Shopify's CSV template, then import it from the Products or Customers page of your Shopify admin. Shopify's platform guides include column-by-column mapping tables. Some details that save a second attempt:

• Back up first. Shopify says a product import can't be cancelled once it starts, and you can't see a history of past imports.
• Don't sort the file in Excel or Numbers. Shopify warns that sorting can detach products from their image links and lose the images.
• Watch the size. A product CSV can't exceed 15 MB. Split bigger files into several smaller ones.
• Convert weights. Shopify's file expects grams, so pounds and kilograms in your old export need converting.
• Untick "Publish new products to all sales channels" when you import, as Shopify's migration guides do, so nothing goes live before you've checked it.
• Customer files must match Shopify's headings exactly. Shopify says there's no data mapping for customer imports.

Orders, reviews and the rest

Shopify doesn't list a CSV option for historical orders. Its options are migration apps or its Order and Transaction APIs, and its WooCommerce, Wix and Squarespace guides each name third-party migration apps for the job. Before you import orders, turn off new order notifications: Shopify says every staff member set to receive them, including the account owner, otherwise gets an email for every imported order. Turn them back on afterwards.

Reviews can't be exported from WooCommerce, Wix or Squarespace straight into Shopify. Shopify's guides point you to review apps such as Judge.me, Loox and Yotpo, which can import them. Gift cards, blog posts and pages can move with migration apps or Shopify's APIs.

Step 3: Check every imported product

Shopify's advice after an import is blunt: check the price, weight and inventory, because those mistakes cost you money. The usual problems it lists:

• Imported but not visible. Products marked as hidden aren't published until you make them available to a sales channel.
• Missing details. Open the product page and fill them in.
• Variants that failed. A product missing a variant option won't import. Add it by hand.

Then group products into collections, and review each product's description, images and meta description. Imports carry your old copy across, but not always your old care.

Step 4: Rebuild the parts that don't import

Your theme, shipping, taxes, payments and checkout settings don't come with you. Set them up in Shopify as you would for a brand-new store: theme, shipping zones and rates, tax registrations, a payment provider, policies and checkout settings.

Two migration-specific notes. First, if you're coming from WooCommerce, Shopify's guide describes an option to enter your WooCommerce store's URL and have Shopify generate a starting theme with templates similar to your current storefront. Second, shipping rules are often the most tangled thing in an old store. Write down exactly how your current rates work before you rebuild them in Shopify, then test the edge cases in step 6.

Step 5: Map your old URLs and set up redirects

This is the step that protects your SEO. Even if you keep the same domain, your paths will change. Shopify uses its own fixed paths, such as /products/ and /collections/, and its own example is a shipping policy that moves from example.com/policies/shipping-policy to example.com/pages/shipping-policy. Without redirects, every old bookmark, backlink and search result for that page lands on an error.

Take the URL list from step 1 and give each old URL a new home: the same product, the closest collection, or the matching page. Then add them in Shopify:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Content → Menus.
2. Click View URL Redirects, then Create URL redirect.
3. Enter the old path in Redirect from and the new one in Redirect to.
4. Click Save redirect.

For more than a handful, use the Import button on the same page to upload a CSV of redirects. Shopify offers a sample file to copy. Things worth knowing:

• Set them up before the domain switch. Shopify recommends this, so old links work from the moment your domain points at Shopify.
• Redirects only work from broken URLs. If a path still loads a real page on Shopify, the redirect won't fire.
• Some paths can't be redirected, including anything starting with /cart, /orders or /apps. Shopify's URL redirect page has the full list.
• Old .html URLs: Shopify can't redirect /page.html to the same path without .html, because it treats them as the same URL.
• Don't send everything to the homepage. Google says redirecting lots of old URLs to one irrelevant page can confuse people and may be treated as a soft 404. Redirect each URL to its real equivalent.
• Point straight at the final page. Google advises against chains of redirects.

Step 6: Test before you switch

Your old store is still taking orders, so test while it does. Shopify suggests placing test orders that cover:

• a successful and a failed payment
• a refund and a cancellation
• a full and a partial fulfilment

Use Shopify Payments' test mode, the Test payment gateway, or your payment provider's test mode, and read the notification emails each action sends. Check shipping rates and taxes against what your old store charged for the same carts. Then preview the storefront from Online Store → Preview store and click through it like a customer: search, menus, policies, a product with variants, checkout.

Finally, run down your top imported products against the old site one more time. Prices and stock levels are the mistakes customers notice first.

Step 7: Switch your domain and launch

You have two ways to bring an existing domain to Shopify, and Shopify's advice is to start with the simpler one:

• Connect it. You update DNS records at your current provider to point at Shopify, and keep paying and renewing there. Shopify says this takes minutes to 48 hours, and recommends it if you registered or transferred the domain in the past 60 days, or if its extension can't be transferred.
• Transfer it. Registration moves to Shopify and you manage it in your Shopify admin. Shopify says this can take up to 20 days, and a domain already in use can see downtime if you transfer it without connecting it first.

A few cutover details from Shopify's domain guides:

• Disconnect the domain from your old platform's settings. Shopify says you might need to, and warns you can get SSL certificate errors if you don't.
• Change only the records Shopify asks for. Its manual steps point the root A and AAAA records and the www CNAME at Shopify. Leave other records, such as the ones your email depends on, alone. Shopify has step-by-step guides for providers including Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy and Cloudflare.
• Don't proxy it. Shopify says third-party proxies aren't supported.
• No certificate to buy. Shopify creates a TLS certificate automatically when you add a domain.

Then launch. A trial store sits in private mode behind a password page. To go public, Shopify requires a subscription plan, a store address in your business details, and a payment method with test mode turned off. Launch from Online Store → Preferences or the launch button in your admin.

After launch: the first few weeks

• Test your redirects for real. Shopify suggests typing your most-visited old URLs into a browser and confirming each lands on the right page. Google's URL Inspection tool in Search Console works for individual URLs.
• Submit your new sitemap. Shopify generates sitemap.xml automatically. Submit it in Google Search Console, and check that your verification still works on the new platform.
• Changed domain name too? Google says to use the Change of Address tool in Search Console. You don't need it if you kept the same domain.
• Watch for "Not found" errors. Google says it often sees redirects pointing at wrong or non-existent URLs, and suggests checking Search Console for an unusual number of "Not found" errors. Add redirects for any old URLs you missed.
• Update the links you control: social profiles, ads, email templates and marketplace listings, so they point at the new URLs instead of leaning on redirects.
• Keep the redirects. Google recommends keeping them for at least a year, and ideally for good.
• Be patient with rankings. Google says a small or medium site can take a few weeks for most pages to move in its index, and rankings can wobble while it does.

We'd also keep your exports, and your old platform account if you can, until the first month of orders has gone smoothly. Once things settle, work through our Shopify SEO checklist to tidy up titles, descriptions and alt text that came across from the old store.

FAQ

Can Shopify's Store Migration app move my whole store?

No. Its App Store listing says it imports product and customer data from platforms including WooCommerce and Wix, by CSV upload or, where supported, by connecting your old account. Shopify's Help Center still calls it early access for some stores. For historical orders, Shopify's guides point to third-party migration apps or its API, and reviews need a reviews app.

Will I lose my Google rankings if I move to Shopify?

Expect some movement. Google says rankings can fluctuate while it recrawls a moved site, and a small or medium site can take a few weeks to settle. Permanent redirects from each important old URL to its closest new page are what carry your rankings over, and Google says 301 redirects don't lose PageRank.

In what order should I import my data?

Products first, then customers, then historical orders. Shopify says that order lets imported orders connect to the right products and customers. Turn off new order notifications before importing orders, or every staff member who gets them receives an email for each imported order.

Should I connect or transfer my domain to Shopify?

Connect it first. Connecting only changes DNS records at your current provider and takes minutes to 48 hours. A transfer moves registration to Shopify, can take up to 20 days, and Shopify warns a domain already in use can have downtime if you transfer without connecting it first. You can transfer later if you want everything in one admin.

Why do my old URLs need redirects if I keep the same domain?

Because the paths change. Shopify uses its own fixed paths such as /products/ and /collections/, and pages live under /pages/, so a link to your old shipping page or product page likely won't load on Shopify. A URL redirect sends visitors and search engines from each old path to its new home.

Rebuilding shipping rules is often the fiddliest part of a move. If your old store had conditional shipping rules, Giraffe Shipping lets you set them up for Shopify checkout without code or theme edits.

If you're ready to start the move, a Shopify trial lets you import your products and build the new store before you pay for a plan or switch your domain.

Start a Shopify trial →