Nexcey Editorial Team · Sources checked 12 September 2026 · Editorial standards. Nexcey provides website services; links to Nexcey are self-promotional.
Moving a store is more than importing products. A WooCommerce-to-Shopify migration changes data structures, application behaviour, account access and often URLs. The launch is ready only when the new store can sell, fulfil and support orders correctly—and the valuable old pages have a deliberate destination.
Use this checklist as a project framework. The exact import method depends on your catalogue, order history, extensions and account model. Confirm current limitations with the selected migration tool and Shopify documentation before committing to a cutover date.
1. Decide what the migration must preserve
Write the business reason for moving and the requirements the target store must meet. List payment providers, shipping rules, markets, discounts, subscriptions, reviews, memberships, bundles, customer-specific pricing and fulfilment systems. Prove the difficult requirements first; a standard product import does not prove that a subscription or custom pricing workflow will survive.
Capture a baseline of sales, checkout completion, top landing pages and organic-search performance. Keep the time window and measurement definitions consistent. A later traffic change is hard to interpret if analytics events changed at the same time.
Shopify's WooCommerce migration guide describes multiple transfer routes, including CSV, migration apps and professional help. It treats products, customers, reviews and order history as distinct workstreams. Choose a method for each dataset rather than assuming one export contains the entire store.
2. Build a data and URL inventory
| Inventory | Fields or behaviour to preserve | Acceptance check |
|---|---|---|
| Products and variants | Stable identifiers, SKU, options, prices, weights and availability | Counts plus field-level samples across product types |
| Media | Product association, image order, alternative text and downloadable files | Files load and describe the intended product |
| Customers | Identity, addresses, consent records and account-access plan | Representative profiles and customer journey verified |
| Orders | Historical references, totals, currencies, statuses and refunds | Reconciliation against source reports |
| Content | Pages, posts, categories, titles, descriptions and internal links | Important buyer questions still answered |
| Extensions | Subscriptions, reviews, loyalty, gift balances and custom fields | Separate migration or replacement agreed for each |
| URLs | Indexable pages, linked files and valuable legacy paths | Every important old URL has an approved outcome |
Store a protected export and a tested backup before making changes. Keep raw source data separate from transformed import files. Restrict access to customer information, and do not put real customer records into public testing tools or shared demo stores.
3. Map fields and run a small rehearsal
Use the current destination CSV template or tool schema. Define how source fields map to destination fields, which values need conversion and which cannot be represented directly. Preserve identifiers used by your ERP or fulfilment software; relying on a product title as the only join key can create avoidable ambiguity.
Start with representative products: a simple item, a multi-variant item, a discounted item, an out-of-stock item and any unusual fulfilment type. Verify currency, decimal values, weight units, inventory location and option combinations. Log rejected records and correct the transformation before importing the full catalogue.
Shopify's documentation notes that product and customer CSV files need the appropriate destination format; some data requires other methods. Historical orders and reviews also need their own import arrangements. Check your selected method's treatment of notifications, duplicate records and existing destination data before a full run. Source: Shopify migration guidance.
4. Plan customer accounts and historical orders
Shopify's customer import documentation explains that customer passwords cannot be migrated through the customer CSV workflow. Decide how returning customers will access accounts under the account configuration you choose, and prepare clear communication. Do not promise that old credentials will simply continue working.
Treat subscriptions and stored payment arrangements as separate projects with the relevant app and payment providers. Confirm whether historical orders are needed for customer self-service, support, reporting or all three. An archive can be acceptable for one purpose and inadequate for another. Preserve an accessible, secure source of historical records when the destination import cannot reproduce every detail.
5. Create a page-by-page redirect map
Combine a crawl, the existing sitemap, analytics landing pages and Search Console data to find important URLs. Give each old page one intended outcome: retain the path, redirect to a relevant replacement, consolidate into a genuinely equivalent page, or retire it with an appropriate not-found response.
The examples below are fictional path mappings. Verify your actual handles and whether an old route conflicts with an active destination page.
| Old WooCommerce path | New destination | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| /product/linen-shirt/ | /products/linen-shirt | Same product |
| /product-category/linen/ | /collections/linen | Equivalent product collection |
| /shipping-information/ | /pages/shipping-information | Same customer information |
| /journal/fabric-care/ | /blogs/journal/fabric-care | Preserved editorial guide |
Shopify's redirect documentation describes native redirects and their restrictions. Redirects do not override an active page, and some fixed paths or prefixes cannot be redirected. Test old URLs against the real target routing; uploading a spreadsheet is not proof that every rule works.
Google recommends permanent server-side redirects, relevant destinations and direct paths without unnecessary chains. Keep redirects for at least a year where possible. Avoid sending unrelated old products to the homepage. A domain Change of Address request is not needed just because paths change on the same domain.
6. Rebuild the content and search signals
Preserve useful product descriptions and editorial material before attempting a broad rewrite. Check titles, descriptions, headings, images, canonical URLs, structured data and important internal links. Translate the intended behaviour into Shopify templates rather than copying obsolete markup blindly.
Check the generated sitemap, language and market versions, and the final robots rules. Remove temporary launch-blocking directives from pages intended for search. Google also advises updating canonicals, internal links and sitemaps during a move; temporary visibility fluctuations can occur while the changes are processed. Source: Google site-move guidance.
7. Run a controlled cutover
- Assign ownership. Name one launch lead and contacts for catalogue, payments, fulfilment, DNS and SEO.
- Agree the change window. Define when source edits stop and how new orders or inventory changes will be reconciled.
- Run the final transfer. Import the agreed delta, record counts and check differences before changing the live route.
- Verify operations. Test representative shipping zones, tax settings, discounts, payment flows, refunds, email delivery and fulfilment handoff.
- Switch the domain carefully. Preserve email-related DNS records, confirm certificates and prevent duplicate order processing.
- Check old and new URLs. Verify redirect status and destination, then check the important pages directly.
- Record the decision. Document launch approval, known issues, rollback criteria and who is on call.
A rollback after new orders arrive is not simply pointing DNS back. You must reconcile orders, payments, stock and customer changes created on the new system. Decide in advance which failures justify rollback and which can be repaired safely in place.
8. Verify the first day, week and month
On launch day, prioritise payment success, order delivery, inventory and high-value landing pages. During the first week, review errors, redirects, customer account issues and indexing signals daily where practical. Over the following weeks, compare equivalent reporting periods and investigate important landing pages individually rather than reacting only to total sessions.
Keep a migration issue register with the old URL or record ID, observed problem, owner, severity, fix and retest date. Close the project only when critical issues are resolved and support can access the information it needs. Use our product-page SEO checklist for page-level review and our platform comparison if the target decision is still open.
Frequently asked questions
Can WooCommerce customer passwords be imported into Shopify?
Not through the Shopify customer CSV workflow. Plan returning-customer access for the account configuration you choose and communicate any required steps.
Will we lose SEO rankings when moving?
No provider can promise zero movement. Preserve useful content, map changed URLs, test redirects and monitor important pages as search engines process the migration.
Do we need Shopify Plus to migrate?
The migration itself is not a reason to buy Plus. Choose the plan from required features, scale and commercial terms, then confirm the chosen import method.
Can we redirect every old page to the homepage?
That usually creates a poor destination for users. Map valuable pages to relevant replacements and retire genuinely obsolete content deliberately.
Plan the next step
Discuss your website project with Nexcey. Bring your current platform, goals, constraints and available evidence so the next decision can be scoped clearly.
Sources & further reading
Official documentation and provider information checked 12 September 2026. Pricing and features can change; confirm the applicable contract before purchasing.
- Shopify's WooCommerce migration guide
- Shopify's customer import documentation
- Shopify's redirect documentation
- Google recommends permanent server-side redirects
