Migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify

Key takeaways

• WooCommerce to Shopify migration is well-supported. Shopify’s free Store Importer app handles products, customers, and orders for most stores.
• The work that takes longest isn’t the data - it’s the theme rebuild, the redirect map, and verifying every integration (payment, shipping, ESP) on the new platform.
• Plan a 4-8 week migration window for stores under 1,000 SKUs. Larger catalogues scale linearly.
• Cut over outside peak season. Don’t migrate during BFCM or your biggest annual period.

To migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify, set up the Shopify store, import products, customers and orders with Shopify’s Store Importer or Matrixify, rebuild the theme, map every old URL to a 301 redirect, test, then switch DNS. The data migration is straightforward; the surrounding work (theme, integrations, SEO redirect) is what determines a clean cutover.

Why you can trust us

Jacques has over 15 years of dev experience, and we have worked in the Shopify ecosystem for more than four years, completing several WooCommerce-to-Shopify migrations along the way. The patterns below come from real cutovers. We also build Fudge, the AI operator for Shopify stores, with a 4.9 rating on the Shopify App Store.

Before you migrate

Decide whether migration is the right call.

Good reasons to migrate

• WooCommerce maintenance and hosting are taking meaningful engineering time
• Plugin compatibility issues at WordPress updates are breaking the store
• Performance / speed has plateaued and isn’t recoverable without major work
• You want Shopify-native features (Shop Pay, native Markets, Plus B2B)

Reasons not to migrate

• You have deep custom WooCommerce functionality that doesn’t translate cleanly to Shopify (specific tax setups, complex subscriptions, unusual fulfilment flows)
• Your team has WordPress expertise and no Shopify expertise
• You’re under a year old and haven’t given WooCommerce a fair run

The migration sequence

Step 1: Set up the Shopify store

• Create the Shopify store (trial → paid when you’re ready).
• Install a base theme (Horizon, Shopify’s default, suits most stores; see best free Shopify themes).
• Configure currency, languages, regions, tax basics.
• Add your domain in Shopify, but don’t change its DNS yet.

Step 2: Export data from WooCommerce

WooCommerce export tools (built-in plus plugins like WP All Export):

• Products: SKU, name, description, prices, variants, images, inventory.
• Customers: email, name, address, marketing consent.
• Orders: history for revenue and customer LTV continuity.
• Reviews: if you’ll keep them (depends on review app on the Shopify side).

Export to CSV. Audit the CSVs for character-encoding issues, missing data, malformed prices.

Step 3: Import into Shopify

Use Shopify’s free Store Importer app (it imports WooCommerce products, customers and orders), or Matrixify or LitExtension for larger or messier catalogues:

• Store Importer - Shopify’s free official app, with WooCommerce as a supported source.
• Matrixify - widely-used migration app, handles WooCommerce well.
• LitExtension - paid migration service for stores wanting hands-off.

For complex stores, paid migration is often worth the cost - $500-2,000 for full migration vs days of cleanup if you DIY incorrectly.

Step 4: Rebuild the storefront

This is usually the longest step. Your WooCommerce theme doesn’t transfer.

Approach options:

• Use Horizon + customise. Free, fastest, fits most stores.
• Use Fudge to describe the storefront from your existing WooCommerce design - landing pages, PDPs, homepage as native Shopify theme code, each as a draft you approve. Once the store is live, the same app can work on SEO and conversion and compare search clicks before and after each change.
• Use a Shopify page builder. Slower than AI, more hands-on visual control.
• Engage a developer. Best for complex bespoke storefronts.

Step 5: Map redirects

This is the SEO-critical step.

For every URL on the WooCommerce store, map to its Shopify equivalent:

• WooCommerce /product/xyz/ → Shopify /products/xyz
• WooCommerce /shop/category/ → Shopify /collections/category
• WooCommerce blog /blog/post/ → Shopify /blogs/news/post

Build the redirect map in a spreadsheet. Import into Shopify via Online Store → Navigation → URL Redirects (or use a bulk import app like Matrixify).

Test 50 URLs before cutover. After cutover, monitor 404s for the first month and patch.

Step 6: Re-integrate everything

• Payment gateway (Shopify Payments + alternatives)
• Shipping carrier integrations
• ESP (Klaviyo, Mailchimp, etc.) - re-authorise; verify list sync
• Reviews app (migrate review data from WooCommerce reviews plugin)
• Subscription app (Recharge, Bold) - if you ran subscriptions on WooCommerce, this is one of the harder integrations to migrate
• Analytics (GA4, Meta Pixel, TikTok pixel) - update tracking
• Helpdesk / chat (Gorgias, Zendesk, Intercom)

Step 7: Test end-to-end

• Place a test order on the new Shopify store. Confirm payment, shipping calculation, email confirmation, order appears in admin.
• Test on mobile.
• Test the redirect map with 50 known URLs.
• Test the ESP integration: create a new customer, confirm it syncs.

Step 8: Cutover

• Lower the DNS TTL 24 hours before cutover (so the switch propagates fast).
• Cutover during low-traffic hours (Tuesday-Thursday early morning is typical).
• Switch DNS to point your domain at Shopify.
• Monitor the new store live: orders coming through, errors in admin, analytics events firing.
• Keep the WooCommerce store live but unindexed for 90 days as a fallback.

Step 9: Post-cutover monitoring

• Watch search rankings for 4-8 weeks. Some drop is normal; major drop = redirect map gap.
• Watch 404 logs. Patch any URLs you missed in the redirect map.
• Watch conversion rate. Some normalisation period is normal; sustained drop = something broken in the new flow.

What’s harder than it looks

Subscriptions

WooCommerce Subscriptions → Shopify Subscriptions migration is one of the harder parts. Customer payment methods, schedules, and history need to transfer cleanly. Often requires manual handling for some customers.

Complex tax setups

US sales tax with nexus rules, EU VAT with regional thresholds, marketplace tax. Verify your tax setup matches your current calculation before cutover.

SEO continuity

A clean redirect map is 90% of SEO continuity. The other 10% is matching meta titles, descriptions, structured data, and content structure. Don’t simplify content during migration - keep the SEO-positive structure intact.

Custom fields and metadata

WooCommerce stores often have custom fields (ACF, custom taxonomies). These map to Shopify metafields. Plan the metafield schema before migrating; backfilling later is painful.

FAQ