Shopify to WooCommerce migration service
We move a Shopify store to WooCommerce on WordPress. Products, customers, past orders and content are carried across, the design is rebuilt, and each old address is redirected to its new one. For store owners who have decided to move and do not want to do it themselves.
In short
- Products, customers, past orders, pages and blog posts are carried across. The design is rebuilt in a WordPress theme, not copied.
- Customer passwords do not leave Shopify. Each customer sets a new one on the new store.
- Each old Shopify address is redirected to its new one, and the redirects are checked before the domain is changed.
- Your Shopify store stays live while the new one is built.
- It starts with a free assessment and a fixed quote in writing.
- A Shopify theme that will not do what you want can be changed without leaving. Read the decision guide before you ask.
Shopify gives you hosting, store software and checkout in one subscription. WooCommerce is a plugin that turns a WordPress site into a store, on hosting you choose. Moving from one to the other is part transfer and part rebuild: Shopify exports your products, customers and orders as files, and the look of the store and the work of its apps are made again.
This service is for the point where you have decided to move to WooCommerce and want someone else to carry the store across. You get a written list of what moves and what is rebuilt before you decide anything.
Who it is for, and who it is not
It fits when you have decided to move, for a reason that is about what Shopify is. One of these, for example:
- you need to change something Shopify fixes, such as the paths its addresses sit under
- you take payment through a provider other than Shopify Payments. Shopify says it charges a third-party transaction fee on those orders, at a rate that depends on your plan
- the site is mostly content with a store attached, and you want articles, pages and products in one system
- you want the store's database and files on hosting you chose
And when you do not want to reshape the export files, rebuild the design and map every address yourself.
It is not for you, or not yet, in these cases.
- The trouble is a theme that will not do what you want. Shopify's help center says a theme's code can be edited, and suggests hiring a Shopify Partner if you do not write code. That is a smaller job than leaving.
- Nobody will look after the store afterwards. Shopify runs the servers and the software for you. On WooCommerce the hosting, the updates and the backups are yours to arrange. If the honest answer is "nobody", stay on a hosted platform, or plan to pay for upkeep: what WooCommerce maintenance costs says what that should buy.
- You are still deciding. Read when to switch between WooCommerce and Shopify first. It sets out the decision in both directions.
- You would rather do the move yourself. How to migrate from Shopify to WooCommerce goes through it step by step.
- You want a different look. Rebuilding the look you have is part of the move. A new one is WordPress design and development.
- The store is already on WooCommerce, and only its hosting is changing. That is a copy with a fixed price: see WordPress migration.
What you get
- A written list before you decide. What moves by itself, what has to be rebuilt, and each app matched by a WooCommerce extension or a WordPress plugin, or left behind.
- A fixed quote in writing. The assessment that comes before it is free, and you owe nothing after it.
- Your records in the new store. Products with their variants and images, customers, past orders, pages and blog posts are carried across.
- The look you have, made again in a WordPress theme. It is rebuilt, not copied.
- Old addresses that still lead somewhere. Each is redirected to its new one, and the redirects are checked before the domain is changed.
- A new store you have gone through before your customers see it. It is built on a staging copy while your Shopify store stays live and keeps taking orders.
What moves, and what is rebuilt
| What | How it gets there | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Products and variants | Shopify's product export, a CSV file | Shopify lists each variant on a row of its own. WooCommerce wants a variable product with its variations under it, so the file is reshaped on the way. |
| Product images | Copied into the new site's media library | The export holds links to the images, not the images. They are copied while the Shopify store is still open. |
| Collections | Rebuilt as product categories | Shopify's product export leaves the collection column out. |
| Customers | Shopify's customer export, a CSV file | Names, email addresses and addresses come across. Passwords do not: WooCommerce's documentation says they cannot be exported. Each customer sets a new one. |
| Past orders | Shopify's order export, a CSV file | WooCommerce's documentation warns that payment details are not transferred and that shipping, tax and coupon lines may not map exactly. |
| Pages and blog posts | Carried across as WordPress pages and posts | Each one gets a new address. See the next section. |
| Design | Rebuilt | The look you have is rebuilt in a WordPress theme, not copied. |
| Apps | Matched or left behind | What an app did is done by a WooCommerce extension or a WordPress plugin, or left behind. What an app stored, such as reviews, comes across only if the app can export it. The written reply names each one. |
| Payments, shipping and tax | Set up again in WooCommerce | The account with the payment provider is yours. |
| Gift cards | Listed in the written reply | Shopify exports gift cards as a file. The reply says how outstanding balances are honored on the new store. |
| Addresses | Redirected | See the next section. |
What happens to your old addresses
Shopify puts every kind of page under a fixed path. A product is at /, a collection at /, a page at /, and a blog post under / followed by the blog's name and the post's.
WordPress and WooCommerce build addresses from their permalink settings. By default a product is at / and a product category under /. A page sits at its own name, such as /. So almost every address on the store changes.
Each old address is redirected to its new one, and the redirects are checked before the domain is changed.
How it works
Step 1: Ask for a free migration assessment
Fill in the free migration assessment. Tell us that you are on Shopify, that you want to go to WooCommerce, and roughly how big the store is: how many products and orders, and which apps it relies on.
Step 2: Get a written reply and a fixed quote
We reply in writing with what moves by itself, what has to be rebuilt, and a fixed quote. Whether to go ahead is up to you.
Step 3: The new store is built on a staging copy
The WooCommerce store is built on a staging copy. Your Shopify store stays live and keeps taking orders while this happens.
Step 4: Old addresses are mapped to new ones
Each old address is matched to its new one, and the redirects are checked.
Step 5: You look at the new store
You go through the new store on staging. The domain is changed only after that.
What we need from you to start
For the assessment, the form asks for your name, an email address for the reply, where the store is now, where you want it, roughly how big it is, and its address if you can share it. In the message, say:
- roughly how many products and orders the store has
- which apps it relies on, and what each one does for you
- whether you sell subscriptions or gift cards
- anything the store could not do without, and when you would like to move
We use these details to reply to you about this request, and for nothing else.
For the move itself:
- Access to the Shopify admin, to the new WordPress hosting, and to wherever the domain is managed.
- The WordPress hosting, bought by you, and any paid extension the new store needs.
- Your account with the payment provider. Payments are set up again in WooCommerce, and that account is yours.
- Your Shopify plan, kept running until the new store is live. The product images are copied while the store is still open.
- An answer to where your email lives. Mailboxes are not moved.
What it does not cover
- Hosting and subscriptions. You buy the WordPress hosting and any paid extension the new store needs. The Shopify plan is yours to keep and to cancel. Shopify says access to the admin ends with a deactivated store's billing cycle, so keep the plan running until the new store is live.
- Saved cards and subscriptions. Card details are not in Shopify's exports. If you sell subscriptions, say so in the assessment.
- Email. Mailboxes are not moved. Find out where your mail lives before you cancel anything.
- A new design. Rebuilding the look you have is part of the move. A different look is a separate job. See WordPress design and development.
- Looking after the store afterwards. That is a care plan. See the WooCommerce maintenance service.
Before you ask: do it yourself, or check first
Each of these is free to use.
- When to switch between WooCommerce and Shopify. Which reasons for moving hold up, which can be fixed where you are, and what either move costs you besides money.
- How to migrate from Shopify to WooCommerce. The whole move by hand, and where it goes wrong.
- How to migrate a website without losing SEO. What Google and Bing document about a move.
- WordPress migration cost. What moves the price of a store's move, and what a quote should say. Hold ours against it.
- WooCommerce maintenance cost. What looking after the store takes once it is yours to run.
- Website migration checklist. The order of work before, during and after the switch.
- Redirect map builder and redirect checker. The first turns a list of old and new addresses into redirect rules. The second shows where an old address leads now, hop by hop.
- WooCommerce stores and moving a site or changing platform. Every page we have on each subject.
What it costs
Platform migration
Ask us for a quote
Moving a site or a store from one platform to another, with its old addresses redirected to the new ones.
- A written list of what moves and what is rebuilt, before you decide
- Old addresses redirected to the new ones, and checked
- The new site checked before the domain is changed
Common questions
Can I do the move myself?
Yes. How to migrate from Shopify to WooCommerce goes through it. Most of the work is in the rebuild and the redirects, not in the exports.
What will it cost?
It is quoted in writing, because no two stores are the same size. The assessment is free, and you owe nothing after it. WordPress migration cost lists what sets the size of a store's move: products and variants, whether order history comes across, subscriptions, and the number of addresses.
How long will it take?
This page gives no time, because that depends on the size of the catalog, on the apps to replace and on the design. The assessment form asks when you would like to move. Say so there.
Will the store be closed during the move?
Your Shopify store keeps selling while the new one is built, and the domain is changed only after you have looked at the new store. After any DNS change, some visitors still reach the old store for a while, until the change has spread. Keep the Shopify plan active until the new store has been taking orders without trouble.
Do my customers have to do anything?
One thing. Their passwords do not come across, so each customer sets a new one the first time they sign in to the new store.
What happens to my search rankings?
Nobody can promise what a search engine will do. What protects your place is that each old address answers with a redirect to the page that replaced it. Those redirects are checked before the domain is changed. How to migrate a website without losing SEO sets out what the search engines themselves say about a move.
Who looks after the store once it is on WooCommerce?
You do, or someone you pay. On WooCommerce the hosting, the updates and the backups are yours to arrange. Our WooCommerce maintenance service is a care plan for a store, with a checkout and payment test after every update.
Do you also move stores the other way?
Yes. See the WooCommerce to Shopify migration service, or the migrations page for every move we make.