7 WooCommerce to Shopify Migration Steps: Full 2026 Guide

Published September 2026 · Last updated and fact-checked 4 November 2026

Short answer: A WooCommerce to Shopify migration moves products, customers, orders and URLs between the two platforms, and it takes 2 to 6 weeks in my projects. I run it in seven steps, and the redirect map matters most: Google asks site movers to keep redirects for at least 1 year (Google Search Central).

Key takeaways

• Shopify and WooCommerce use different URL patterns, so most product and category addresses change and each one needs a one-to-one 301 redirect. Shopify allows up to 100,000 redirects per store (Shopify Help Center).

• Wang and Strong (1996) sorted data quality into 15 dimensions from the data consumer's view, so I check product data for more than spelling before it moves.

• Passwords do not travel in a customer CSV, because Shopify says passwords are encrypted outside the platform (Shopify documentation). Plan the account invitation email as part of launch.

• Shopify's own Store Migration app reads a WooCommerce product CSV, and Shopify's guide also covers customers, historical orders and reviews (Shopify).

• On my pricing, migration adds $1,875 to the build, so an eight-page store with up to 25 products comes to $12,825.

Days are my estimates from client work, not a study. They overlap, which is why the whole move takes two to six weeks.

1. Audit every URL and decide its fate: the step that protects organic traffic

A URL audit lists every address on the WooCommerce store with its traffic and revenue, then gives each page one decision: keep, merge, improve or retire. It is the base for the redirect map in step 4, and it shows which category pages earn the organic traffic, usually a small share of the site.

• Owner: marketing lead, with me running the crawl

• Time: 2 to 4 days for a store under 500 URLs

• Output: one sheet with URL, title, meta description, monthly organic visits, orders and a decision

• Pull from: a full crawl, Google Search Console and your sales report

In my projects the category pages and the blog posts carry the traffic, and the individual product pages carry less than owners expect. That changes how I spend the week. A product that sold twice last year can be retired with a redirect to its category, while a category that ranks for a buying phrase needs its title, copy and internal links carried across by hand.

Record the baseline before anything moves: twelve weeks of organic sessions, orders and revenue. Kohavi, Longbotham, Sommerfield and Henne wrote a survey and practical guide to controlled experiments on websites (Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, 2008). Their field depends on a stated metric and a comparison period, and a migration with no baseline has nothing to be compared against. Choose the window carefully. Twelve weeks smooths out a single odd month, and you should note any sale, seasonal peak or ad campaign that inflated it, so the comparison at day 14 and day 90 is fair.

"A migration with no baseline has nothing to be compared against," wrote Joshua Jackai, founder of Demand Designer, in this guide.

2. Clean the product data before it moves: errors multiply on import

Product data clean-up means fixing titles, SKUs, variants, images and descriptions in WooCommerce before the export, because an import copies every mistake faithfully. Shopify's side has its own structure, so the clean-up also decides how variable products map to options and variants.

• Owner: store manager, with me reviewing the export

• Time: 3 to 7 days, driven by variant complexity

• Output: a clean product CSV with one row per variant and consistent option names

• Check first: duplicate SKUs, missing images, empty alt text, inconsistent option names

Wang and Strong (Journal of Management Information Systems, 1996) surveyed data consumers and grouped 15 dimensions of data quality into four categories: intrinsic, contextual, representational and accessibility. A product catalogue touches all four. A wrong price is an intrinsic fault, a missing size chart is contextual, inconsistent option names are representational, and an image that fails to load is an accessibility fault.

Pipino, Lee and Wang describe the state of practice plainly:

"Currently, most data quality measures are developed on an ad hoc basis to solve specific problems," wrote Pipino, Lee and Wang (Communications of the ACM, 2002).

I turn that into a short rule set before the export: every SKU unique, every product with at least one image and alt text, every variant option named the same way across the catalogue. Products carry three options on Shopify, and the platform moved the cap from 100 to 2,048 variants per product (Shopify Community). A WooCommerce product with four attributes needs a decision about which one becomes a separate product. I make that call with the store manager before the export, because changing it afterwards means re-importing the whole catalogue and re-checking every image, price and stock count.

3. Choose the migration route: app, CSV or a team

There are three routes: Shopify's Store Migration app with a WooCommerce CSV, a paid third-party migration app, or a team that builds and moves the store together. The right one depends on catalogue size, variant complexity and how much history must arrive.

• Shopify Store Migration app: reads the product CSV from WooCommerce; Shopify's guide also covers customers, historical orders and reviews

• Paid apps: LitExtension and Matrixify are named in published guides, with fees by record count

• A team: the right choice when the design changes at the same time as the platform

• My rule: under 100 products and no redesign, an app is usually enough

Most published guides stop at the app, and I understand why: for a small catalogue the app does the job. The route changes when the store design also changes, because a new theme means the product templates, collection filters and checkout all need building, and an import into a theme that has not been designed yet creates rework. That is why most of my migrations are priced as a build with migration included, not as a data job.

The official route is documented on Shopify's WooCommerce migration page, which sends you to export products as a CSV and import it with the Store Migration app. It is a sensible start, and I read it as a baseline for scoping, not as a promise that every field maps cleanly.

Whatever the route, run a test import into a development store first. Look at 10 products by hand, including the most complicated variant product, one with a long description, and one with no image. If those ten arrive correctly the rest usually does.

4. Map every redirect one to one: where rankings are won or lost

A redirect map pairs every old WooCommerce URL with its new Shopify address, so a visitor or crawler arriving at the old link lands on the equivalent page. Shopify has no record of your old URLs, so every redirect is yours to create, and the map comes straight from the step 1 audit.

• Owner: me, checked by the marketing lead

• Time: 2 to 4 days

• Output: a CSV of old path and new path, imported under URL redirects

• Limit: up to 100,000 redirects per store, 20,000,000 on Plus

Google's guidance for site moves is direct:

"It's important to map your old site's URLs to the URLs for the new site," wrote Google Search Central in its site move documentation (site move documentation).

The same page asks for permanent server-side redirects such as 301 or 308, warns against sending many old URLs to the home page because it may be treated as a soft 404, and says to keep redirects for as long as possible, generally at least one year. It also asks that chains stay short, so each old URL should point directly at its final address.

Expect the patterns to differ. WooCommerce serves products and categories under paths you chose, while Shopify uses fixed /products/ and /collections/ paths with its own handle rules. I build the map by rule first, then fix the exceptions by hand: category pages first, then the top 100 products by revenue, then the blog. Then I test every row with a script that follows the redirect and reports the status of the final page.

I send the finished CSV to the client before launch, because they know which odd old links are in printed catalogues, emails and partner sites.

5. Move customers and orders on purpose: passwords never transfer

Customers can move with their names, emails and addresses, but not their passwords, and order history needs a decision about whether to migrate it, pay an app to move all of it, or archive it. Making that call in week one avoids a messy launch week and a flood of support email.

• Owner: store manager and me

• Time: 2 to 5 days

• Output: imported customer list, a reset or invitation email, and an order history plan

• Passwords: Shopify says they cannot be carried over in a customer CSV

Shopify documents that passwords are encrypted outside the platform, so customers need an account invitation to set a new one. Send a short heads-up email before launch, then the invitation on launch day, with a clear line on what changes. If your customers mostly check out as guests, this step is small. If you run a membership or reorder-heavy store, it is the step to rehearse.

Shopify's customer import documentation is the place to check the current import columns before you build the file. I also keep a test customer account on the old store, so I can confirm that the invitation email arrives and the new password works end to end.

Orders have three honest options. Migrate recent orders (the last 12 to 24 months) so customers see them in their account. Migrate everything through a paid app when the history carries legal or accounting value. Or archive the old order data in a read-only export and start Shopify clean. I choose by who needs the history, not by what the tool can do.

"I choose by who needs the history, not by what the tool can do," wrote Joshua Jackai, founder of Demand Designer, in this guide.

6. Replace what the plugins did: apps, payments, tax and shipping

WooCommerce stores run on plugins, and Shopify replaces many of them with built-in features and paid apps. This step is an inventory of every plugin on the old store, with a decision for each: built in, replaced by an app, or not needed.

• Owner: me, with the store manager

• Time: 3 to 10 days

• Budget: $50 to $300 per month for app subscriptions (my range from client stores, not a study)

• Check: payments, taxes, shipping rules, discounts, subscriptions, reviews, email capture, analytics

List the plugins first. The long ones are usually a subscription plugin, a custom shipping rule, a wholesale price list and a review widget. Each one needs a Shopify equivalent tested before launch, because a missing tax rule or a broken shipping rate is found by the customer at checkout. Where a plugin did something unusual, I write down what it did in one sentence and test the replacement against that sentence.

Do not copy the old store plugin for plugin. A store with 40 plugins often needs 8 apps, and the rest of the features were add-ons to fix problems WooCommerce created. Fewer apps means a faster store.

"Fewer apps means a faster store," wrote Joshua Jackai, founder of Demand Designer, in this guide.

Nah (2004) studied how long web users are willing to wait (Behaviour and Information Technology), which is why I count each app as a cost in load time. I also ask who will maintain each app, because an abandoned app is a risk the old plugin list hid.

7. Test, launch and monitor for 14 days: the first impression is fast

Launch is a short sequence: final redirect test, DNS change, sitemap submission, test orders, then daily monitoring of Search Console, sales and error reports for the first two weeks. The store should be live and tested before the old one is switched off.

• Owner: me, with the store manager on test orders

• Time: 5 to 14 days including the monitoring window

• Output: a signed-off launch checklist and a day 14 report

• Compare against: the twelve-week baseline from step 1

In a laboratory study, people formed visual-appeal judgments of a page within 50 milliseconds (Lindgaard et al., 2006), so the first screen of the new store, on a phone, is checked as carefully as the checkout. I test the home page, one category, one product, the cart and checkout on three phones before the DNS change.

After launch, I resubmit the sitemap in Search Console, watch the coverage report for crawl errors and fix any redirect that fails within the first week. Orders get checked daily against the baseline. Traffic often dips for a short period after a platform change, and a monitored dip that recovers is normal, while an unmonitored one is not noticed.

Keep the old store available, read-only, for a defined period, normally 30 days. I tell clients the date it is switched off, so nobody is guessing, and I export a final order and customer backup before that day.

"A monitored dip that recovers is normal, while an unmonitored one is not noticed," wrote Joshua Jackai, founder of Demand Designer, in this guide.

How do the seven steps compare on effort and risk?

The steps differ most in how much of the work is judgment and how much is mechanical. Redirects and plugin replacement carry the most risk for the least visible effort, and product data carries the most hours. Use the matrix to decide where to spend the first week.

Effort and risk ratings are my judgment from client migrations, not measured values.

How much does a WooCommerce to Shopify migration cost?

On my pricing, migration adds $1,875 to the build price. An eight-page store with up to 25 products comes to $12,825, and a 26 to 150 product catalogue comes to $16,875. Add $50 to $300 per month for apps. These are my own fixed prices, listed on the pricing page.

Prices are Demand Designer's own price table, in US dollars, and apply to the stated scope. For the cost of the destination platform on its own, read the Shopify website cost guide.

Frequently asked questions

Will my product rankings survive a WooCommerce to Shopify migration?

Yes, with one-to-one 301 redirects from every old product and category URL and a monitored launch. Category pages usually carry the most organic value, so they are mapped first. Google asks that redirects stay in place for at least one year.

Can I migrate order history from WooCommerce to Shopify?

Yes, though it is the most involved part of the move. Shopify's guide covers historical orders, and paid apps can move more of the history. Many stores migrate the last one to two years of orders and archive the rest as a read-only export.

Do customer passwords transfer to Shopify?

No. Shopify says passwords are encrypted outside the platform, so they cannot be carried over in a customer CSV. Customers set a new one through an account invitation, so plan a heads-up email and the invitation itself as part of launch day.

How long does a WooCommerce to Shopify migration take?

Two to six weeks in my projects. A 50-product catalogue moves quickly, while 500 products with complex variants does not. The calendar time is driven mostly by redirect testing, plugin replacement and how quickly the client approves each stage, not by the data import.

Can I migrate WooCommerce to Shopify for free?

The Store Migration app handles the import, but you still pay for a Shopify plan, any paid apps and the hours to clean data, map redirects and test. The software step is cheap. The redirect and testing work is where cost sits.

Who runs this with you: how I handle a store move

I run a WooCommerce to Shopify migration as part of a fixed-price build: audit and redirect map first, then the store, then launch with a 14-day monitoring window. For Advisor Websites, organic traffic grew 58 percent and MQL conversion 28 percent after the rebuild (first-party client result).

If you want to see where your current store leaks before you scope a move, the free Pipeline Leak Scorecard takes about fifteen minutes. The other moves I run are in the migration guides hub, and the WordPress to Framer guide covers a different destination. To scope this one, book a free scoping call with your product count and current URL structure.

Sources

Peer-reviewed research

• Wang, R. Y., Strong, D. M. (1996). Beyond accuracy: what data quality means to data consumers. Journal of Management Information Systems. doi.org/10.1080/07421222.1996.11518099

• Pipino, L. L., Lee, Y. W., Wang, R. Y. (2002). Data quality assessment. Communications of the ACM. doi.org/10.1145/505248.506010

• Kohavi, R., Longbotham, R., Sommerfield, D., Henne, R. (2008). Controlled experiments on the web: survey and practical guide. Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery. doi.org/10.1007/s10618-008-0114-1

• Nah, F. (2004). A study on tolerable waiting time: how long are Web users willing to wait? Behaviour and Information Technology. doi.org/10.1080/01449290410001669914

• Lindgaard, G., Fernandes, G., Dudek, C., Brown, J. (2006). Attention web designers: you have 50 milliseconds to make a good first impression! Behaviour and Information Technology, 25(2). doi.org/10.1080/01449290500330448

Industry, vendor and first-party

• Google Search Central, site moves with URL changes, read 4 November 2026 (industry source, not peer reviewed). developers.google.com

• Shopify Help Center, URL redirects, read 4 November 2026 (vendor source, not peer reviewed). help.shopify.com

• Shopify, WooCommerce to Shopify migration guide, read 4 November 2026 (vendor source, not peer reviewed). shopify.com

• Shopify documentation, importing and exporting customer lists, read 4 November 2026 (vendor source, not peer reviewed). docs.shopify.com

• Shopify Community, 2k variants now generally available to all merchants, read 4 November 2026 (vendor community post, not peer reviewed). community.shopify.com

• Demand Designer prices, timelines, app budgets and the Advisor Websites result are from my own client work and price table, 2026 (first party, not peer reviewed). demanddesigner.com/pricing