How do I move my current e-commerce store to Shopify?

At this point, I probably won't have to do much convincing that Shopify is probably a better platform that you're currently on. But one big question remains: how do you migrate or move your current store, customer and product data without damaging your current online reputation, or losing store functionality? In this article, we'll go over things to consider before you make "the big move", and migrate your store.

Shopify Provides Data Importing Tools

If you're on WooCommerce, BigCommerce or Squarespace - Shopify's Store Import tool can be a simple start to transfer product data into your new Shopify store. If you have a small product set, and not a whole lot of custom functionality, this tool works like a cream puff. It may be all you need to make the move.

With all migrations, an important thing to keep in mind, is that your current live store is still taking orders, making customer accounts and general store edits. So, a one-time import will not capture all the store data before a store is migrated and ultimately transferred to the live domain.

The data you import may not format exactly to your liking either. Each platform has many different ways of formatting data, and not all fields will be imported into the new store, so you may be left wondering how to do this without spending the next year migrating data manually. If you find the import lacks some of the data you want to bring over, you may have considered a migration app service.

Migration App Services

These services appear to be the answer to all your migration problems. You've probably Googled them, and are considering them as an option. We've been there, used those - they're not perfect. Every store has minor tweaks, historic business functionality that can get lost in translation.

While these apps cover quite a few bases, they usually fall short due to the complexity of each platform, and edge-case scenarios for many stores. I would caution that a migration app service will be as smooth and easy as their marketing touts.

There are always snags, and when a snag needs fixing, you end up in a support queue, waiting in line, then paying a premium for the app service to manually migrate portions of your data. 

Do I have to pay for a Shopify store subscription while I work on moving my store?

Not if you contact us. We can set you up with a development store, where you can import and test your data before going live. Depending on the size of plan and depth of functionality your store requires, depends on the plan you ultimately choose. Most merchants can get a lot of their existing functionality out of a standard Shopify Plan ($79/mo). 

Here are some important store functionality questions to consider before migrating:

You sell wholesale and retail from a centralized database of products

You use an ERP system to fulfill orders

You sell customizable and/or personalized products that will need to be migrated

You organize product data into variants with variant images

Your store has a blog and many content pages driving organic traffic

You utilize ongoing promo codes and coupons

You sell gift cards and/or gift certificates online

You provide gift wrapping and gift orders as a service

If any of the above apply to your current store, you'll most likely need to hire a Shopify migration developer (us!) to help your migration go smooth. Migration apps do not have access to some of the API's that manage the data on the Shopify side, and they must comply with API rate limits - which may take days just to import store data, and may not be able to migrate it at all.

Is migrating to Shopify really worth it?

All we can say is - we haven't had a migration to Shopify that didn't produce immediate, positive results. Good migrations take time, consideration, and great collaboration between store owner and developers like us. 

We can help! 

We've done many migrations over the years and have experience with many platforms. Have questions? Comment below, and we'll help find the answer. Or, if you have a migration you need help with, contact us.