At some point, the conversation shifts. Your client’s WooCommerce store that started as a simple catalog with five plugins now runs on thirty-seven. Updates break things. Checkout is slow. The hosting bill keeps climbing, and every change requires a developer.
That is usually the moment an agency gets the question: “Should we move to Shopify?”
The answer depends on the client. But when the answer is yes, the execution cannot be improvised. Ecommerce migrations carry real risk — lost SEO rankings, broken customer accounts, revenue disruption during cutover. Agencies that treat migration as a weekend task end up managing fire drills for months afterward.
This post is a technical playbook for agencies handling WooCommerce-to-Shopify migrations. It covers what to audit before you touch any data, how to move products, customers, and orders without losing integrity, how to protect organic search traffic, and what to monitor after launch.
When Does the Migration Make Sense?
Not every WooCommerce store should move to Shopify. The migration makes sense when the client’s situation matches one or more of the following patterns.
Plugin dependency has become unmanageable. The store relies on 20+ plugins for core functionality. Updates conflict with each other. Security vulnerabilities appear faster than they can be patched. Every plugin adds load time, and the compounding effect degrades performance.
The client needs enterprise checkout without enterprise cost. Shopify’s checkout converts at a rate significantly higher than the average competitor checkout. For clients where conversion rate directly impacts revenue, this matters.
Hosting and infrastructure management are consuming the budget. WooCommerce requires managed hosting, CDN configuration, SSL management, and server-level caching. Shopify absorbs all of this into the platform fee. For clients who would rather spend that budget on marketing or product development, the trade-off is straightforward.
The client plans to scale internationally. Shopify Markets provides native multi-currency, multi-language, and localized payment methods. Replicating this in WooCommerce requires multiple plugins that rarely work seamlessly together.
The migration does not make sense when the client has deeply custom WooCommerce functionality (subscription logic, complex B2B pricing tiers, or highly customized checkout flows) that would require significant rebuilding on Shopify. In those cases, staying on WooCommerce — or moving to a fully custom solution on Laravel — is usually the better path.
The Pre-Migration Audit
The migration begins weeks before any data moves. The audit determines scope, timeline, and cost. Skip it, and you will discover problems during cutover when the stakes are highest.
Product Data Audit
Export the full product catalog from WooCommerce and review it for inconsistencies. Common issues include duplicate SKUs, missing product images, descriptions that reference WooCommerce-specific shortcodes, and product variations that exceed Shopify’s limits.
Shopify enforces a 3-option limit per product (for example: Size, Color, Material) and a 2,048-variant cap per product. WooCommerce has no such limit. If the client’s catalog has products with more than 3 option types, you will need to restructure those products before migration or use a third-party app to handle additional options. Note that some legacy themes and apps still only support 100 variants — verify theme compatibility before migration.
Customer Data Audit
WooCommerce stores customer passwords using a different hashing algorithm than Shopify. Customer passwords cannot be migrated. Every customer will need to reset their password on the new store. Plan the communication for this early — it directly affects post-launch customer experience.
Review customer records for duplicates, incomplete addresses, and inactive accounts. Migrating dead data inflates the Shopify customer list and can impact email marketing costs downstream.
Order History
Decide how much order history to migrate. Most agencies migrate 2-3 years of recent orders for customer service continuity. Older data can be archived in a separate system. Migrating the full order history of a 10-year-old store adds time and complexity without proportional value.
SEO Baseline
Before anything moves, crawl the existing site using Screaming Frog or Ahrefs. Document every URL, its corresponding page title, meta description, H1, and current organic ranking. This becomes the source of truth for your redirect map.
Pay particular attention to WooCommerce URL structures. Product pages follow /product/item-name/, category pages follow /product-category/category-name/, and blog posts use the WordPress default /blog-post-name/. All of these will change on Shopify.
Plugin-to-Feature Mapping
List every active WooCommerce plugin and document what it does. Then determine whether that functionality exists natively in Shopify, requires a Shopify app, or needs custom development. This mapping directly impacts the project estimate. Agencies that skip this step consistently underquote migration projects.
Choosing the Right Migration Method
There are three primary approaches to moving data. The right one depends on catalog size, data complexity, and how much custom data the store carries.
Automated Migration Tools (LitExtension, Cart2Cart)
Best for stores with standard product structures, straightforward customer data, and moderate order history. These tools connect directly to the WooCommerce and Shopify APIs and transfer data through a guided workflow. They support 140+ source platforms and have handled hundreds of thousands of migrations.
The limitation is flexibility. If the client has extensive custom fields, complex product relationships, or non-standard data structures, automated tools may not map everything correctly.
Matrixify (Bulk Import/Export)
Best for complex stores where you need granular control over every data field. Matrixify pulls data directly from the WooCommerce API and maps it to Shopify’s data model, including custom fields to Shopify metafields. It handles files up to 20GB and works through Excel, Google Sheets, or CSV.
The trade-off is that Matrixify requires more technical skill. It is not a one-click solution. But for stores with extensive product metadata, custom taxonomies, or large variant matrices, it is the most reliable option.
Manual CSV Export/Import
Only appropriate for small stores under 100 products where a fresh start is acceptable. Note that Shopify’s native CSV import does not support orders, discount codes, or product reviews. Those require a third-party app or manual recreation.
Protecting SEO During Migration
This is where most migrations go wrong. Organic search traffic can take months to recover from a poorly executed platform change. The goal is zero ranking loss — and that requires precision.
URL Redirect Map
Build a complete 301 redirect map before launching the new store. Every WooCommerce URL must point to its corresponding Shopify URL. Focus on the top 20% of pages that drive 80% of traffic first, but do not skip the long tail.
Common URL structure changes include: /product/item-name/ redirects to /products/item-name, /product-category/category-name/ redirects to /collections/category-name, and /blog-post-name/ redirects to /blogs/news/blog-post-name.
Shopify has a native URL redirect tool, but for stores with thousands of URLs, use a bulk redirect app or handle it through the Shopify API.
Metadata Migration
Transfer page titles and meta descriptions exactly as they are. Do not “optimize” them during migration. Make the platform change one variable at a time. SEO improvements come after the new site is stable and traffic has recovered.
Structured Data
WooCommerce (with plugins like Yoast) generates structured data for products, reviews, and breadcrumbs. Verify that your Shopify theme generates equivalent structured data. If it does not, implement it through theme code or a structured data app before launch.
Google Search Console
Submit the new sitemap immediately after launch. Use the URL Inspection tool to request indexing for your highest-priority pages. Monitor the Coverage report daily for the first two weeks to catch crawl errors early.
Theme and Design Considerations
WooCommerce themes do not transfer to Shopify. The storefront must be rebuilt. Agencies have two paths.
Premium Theme Customization. Select a high-quality theme from the Shopify Theme Store (Dawn, Prestige, and Impact are strong starting points) and customize it to match the client’s brand. This is faster and more cost-effective for most standard ecommerce stores.
Custom Theme Build. For clients with unique design requirements or complex UX patterns, build a custom theme using Shopify’s Liquid templating language. For headless commerce requirements, use Hydrogen (Shopify’s React-based framework) with Oxygen hosting.
Regardless of the approach, the new theme must be mobile-first and optimized for Core Web Vitals. Test thoroughly on real devices, not just browser emulators.
Post-Launch Monitoring
The launch is not the finish line. The first 30 days after migration determine whether the project is a success.
Week 1: Critical Monitoring
Monitor 404 errors daily through Google Search Console and Shopify analytics. Every 404 is a broken redirect that needs immediate attention. Verify that all payment gateways are processing transactions correctly. Place test orders through every payment method the client accepts. Confirm that all automated emails (order confirmation, shipping notification, abandoned cart) are firing correctly with the right content.
Week 2-4: Data Verification and SEO Recovery
Compare organic traffic to the pre-migration baseline. A small dip in the first week is normal. A sustained drop beyond two weeks indicates a redirect or indexing problem. Audit customer accounts to verify that login, password reset, and order history are functioning for migrated customers. Check all blog posts for broken internal links that still point to old WooCommerce URLs. Confirm that analytics tracking (GA4, Meta Pixel, conversion tracking) is capturing data accurately on the new platform.
Timeline and Resourcing
A standard WooCommerce-to-Shopify migration takes 4-8 weeks depending on catalog size, design complexity, and custom functionality requirements. Plan for a 2-4 week overlap period where both systems are active to allow for thorough data verification before DNS cutover.
For agencies quoting this work: the most common mistake is underestimating the SEO redirect mapping and post-launch monitoring phases. Budget time for both. The data migration itself is often the simplest part of the project.
Where a White-Label Partner Fits
Migrations require a specific skill set — data mapping, Shopify Liquid development, SEO redirect management, and post-launch QA — that not every agency has in-house. If your team is strong on strategy and client management but needs technical execution support, a white-label partner can handle the build while you own the client relationship.
The key is finding a partner who has done this before and can work within your project timeline. Migration deadlines are real deadlines. A delayed cutover costs your client money.