Replatforming to Shopify: the migration checklist

Moving a store to Shopify, whether from WooCommerce, Magento, BigCommerce or a custom build, is mostly a planning job. The platform switch is quick. The damage, when it happens, comes from the details nobody listed.

This checklist covers what to move, what to rebuild and what to test, in the order we work through it. Use it to plan the project and to hold your agency or developer to a clear standard.

Before you start: what are you migrating for?

Write down the two or three problems the move must solve. Typical reasons are lower maintenance, a faster checkout, better apps or a simpler stack for a small team.

That list decides scope. A migration is a good moment to clean up, but it is a bad moment to redesign everything at once. Every extra change makes it harder to tell what caused a drop after launch.

1. What data do you need to move?

Start with an inventory of everything the old store holds, then decide what moves, what gets cleaned and what stays behind.

Data	What to check
Products and variants	Titles, descriptions, options, SKUs, barcodes, weights, images and alt text
Collections and categories	How products are grouped, and whether old category logic maps to Shopify collections
Customers	Contact details, addresses, marketing consent status, tags and segments
Order history	Whether you need past orders in Shopify for service, reporting and repeat purchase data
Content	Pages, blog posts, policies, FAQs and their images
Discounts and gift cards	Active codes and outstanding gift card balances
Reviews	Whether your review app can import the history so products do not restart at zero

Clean the product data before the move, not after. Fix duplicate SKUs, missing weights and inconsistent option names. Bad data imports perfectly and then breaks shipping rates, filters and feeds.

Marketing consent needs extra care. Carry over who agreed to email and SMS, and do not treat imported contacts as subscribed unless they were.

2. How do you build the URL redirect map?

This is the step that protects your search traffic. Shopify uses its own URL patterns, such as /products/ and /collections/, so most old URLs will change.

1. Export every URL that matters. Use your sitemap, a site crawl, and the pages with traffic or links in Google Search Console and your analytics.
2. Map each old URL to the closest new page. Product to product, category to collection, article to article. Send to the home page only as a last resort.
3. Load the redirects into Shopify. They live under Content, then Menus, then View URL Redirects in the admin. For long lists, Shopify suggests using an app. Shopify’s guide to URL redirects lists the limits.
4. Test them after launch. Crawl the old URL list against the live site and confirm each one lands on the right page in one hop.

Two details from Shopify’s documentation catch teams out. A redirect only works when the old URL is broken on the new store. And paths Shopify reserves, such as /products and /collections, cannot be used as redirect sources.

3. Which apps and integrations need replacing?

List every plugin, extension and connection on the old platform and what job it does. Then decide for each one: a Shopify app, a built-in Shopify feature, or nothing.

• Order flow: payments, tax, shipping rates, 3PL or warehouse connection, and the ERP or accounting sync.
• Marketing: email and SMS, reviews, loyalty, subscriptions, product feeds for Google and Meta, and tracking pixels.
• Storefront features: search, filters, bundles, product options and wishlists.

Keep the app list short. Each app can add scripts and slow the store. We cover how apps affect conversion in why is my Shopify conversion rate so low?

4. How do you move email and subscriptions?

These two programs hold much of a DTC brand’s repeat revenue. They are also where migrations quietly break.

Email and SMS. Reconnect your email platform to the new store before launch. Check that every automated flow still triggers: welcome, cart abandonment, post-purchase and win-back. Events from the new store often have different names, so flows can stop without any error.

Subscriptions. Moving active subscribers is a project of its own. It involves the subscription app, the payment details stored with your payment provider, and the billing dates. Agree the plan with both providers early, test it with real test orders, and tell subscribers what to expect.

Customer accounts. Decide how existing customers will sign in on the new store and test it from their side. Prepare a short email explaining the change, ready to send at launch.

5. What SEO checks should you do before launch?

Run these on the new store while it is still password protected:

• Page titles and meta descriptions carried over for your main pages.
• Product and collection copy moved in full, not shortened.
• Image alt text present on key products.
• Structured data in place for products, with price and availability.
• Internal links in content updated to the new URLs.
• Canonical tags pointing to the right versions of each page.
• An XML sitemap ready to submit in Search Console on launch day.

Record your current rankings, organic traffic and top landing pages before you switch. Without a baseline you cannot tell a normal wobble from a real loss.

6. How do you plan a staged launch?

Do not launch on your busiest day of the season. Pick a quiet period and a time when the team is available for several days afterward.

1. Freeze changes on the old store a few days before, except orders.
2. Run a final data sync of new customers and orders.
3. Place test orders on every payment method and shipping option, including a discount code and a refund.
4. Switch the domain and confirm the SSL certificate is active.
5. Turn on redirects, submit the sitemap and check that the old store is no longer reachable on the main domain.
6. Keep the old store’s data accessible for a while in case you need to check something.

7. What should you monitor after launch?

Watch these daily for the first two weeks, then weekly for the next couple of months:

• Orders, conversion rate and revenue per session, by device and traffic source.
• 404 errors and redirect hits, fixing any missing redirects as they appear.
• Organic traffic and impressions for your top pages in Search Console.
• Email and SMS flow sends and revenue, compared with before the move.
• Ad tracking: conversions reported by each ad platform against actual orders.

Some fluctuation in organic traffic after a replatform is common. A steady decline on specific pages usually points to a missing redirect or missing content.

Storefront builds and migrations are part of our Shopify storefront hub. If you are planning a move and want a second pair of eyes on the plan, start with a free needs assessment.

Frequently asked questions

How long does a Shopify migration take?

It depends on the size of the catalog, the number of integrations and how much custom functionality the old store has. A simple store moves far faster than one with subscriptions, an ERP connection and several sales channels. Plan the schedule around testing time, not just build time.

Will I lose SEO rankings when I move to Shopify?

Some short-term movement is common. Large losses usually come from missing redirects, removed content or changed page titles. A full redirect map and pre-launch SEO checks protect most of your traffic.

Can I move my order history to Shopify?

Usually, yes, with a migration app or tool. Decide first whether you need past orders in Shopify for customer service and repeat purchase reporting, or whether an archive outside Shopify is enough.

What usually breaks after a Shopify migration?

The most common problems are missing redirects, email flows that stop triggering, tracking pixels that no longer fire, and shipping rates that changed because product weights were missing.