WooCommerce to Shopify migration service

WooCommerce is a plugin on a WordPress site, on hosting you chose. Shopify hosts the store on its own servers. Nothing copies one into the other whole. The store's records are exported from WooCommerce and brought into Shopify by the routes Shopify documents, and the rest is set up again.

WP Ministry is a WordPress company, so here is our part, exactly. We move the store's products, customers, past orders, pages, blog posts and redirects. The store arrives on a Shopify theme you choose. Where you want it, we change that theme to fit your design as part of the quoted job, and the assessment says what that covers. A WordPress theme does not run on Shopify, so the design is rebuilt, not copied. We do not build Shopify apps.

Who it is for, and who it is not

It fits when you have decided to leave, for a reason that is about what the two platforms are. One of these, for example:

• you no longer want hosting, updates and backups to be your job, and you would rather not hire that out
• the store is a catalog, a cart and a checkout, and you use little else of WordPress
• a Shopify theme would do for the store, as it comes or changed to fit your design

And when you want the records and the redirects moved for you, by the routes Shopify documents, and the theme changed to fit your design if you ask for that.

Do not move, or not yet, in these cases.

• The reason is slow pages, plugin conflicts or the work of updates. Those are upkeep problems, and they can often be fixed without moving. That is what WooCommerce maintenance is for: on that plan updates are tested on a staging copy first, and checkout and payment are tested after every update. How to speed up a WooCommerce store goes through the causes of a slow store in order. Fix the fault first, then ask whether you still want to move.
• You have not settled it. When to switch between WooCommerce and Shopify sets out the decision in both directions. Write your reason down in one sentence and read it first.
• A plugin does a job nothing on Shopify would do. List what each plugin does for the store, and find what would do it there. A job with no answer is a reason to stay.
• Your product addresses begin with /shop. Shopify cannot redirect those. See the section on addresses before you commit.
• You need a Shopify app built. That is not our work.
• You would rather do the move yourself. Follow how to migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify.

What you get

• A written list before you decide. What moves by itself and what is set up again, the route for your past orders, each plugin and what would do its job on Shopify, any address Shopify cannot redirect, and what changing the theme covers if you want that.
• A fixed quote in writing. The assessment that comes before it is free, and you owe nothing after it.
• Your records in the Shopify store. Products, customers, past orders, pages and blog posts, on the Shopify theme you chose, changed to fit your design where the quote covers that.
• Old addresses that still lead somewhere. The list of redirects is imported into Shopify and checked against the new store before the domain is changed, and each redirect is tested as soon as the domain points at Shopify.
• A store you have looked at before your customers see it. Your WooCommerce store keeps serving customers while the data is brought in.

What moves, and what is rebuilt

What happens to your old addresses

Shopify's own guide says old links to specific pages likely will not load after a move, because its address structure is different.

WooCommerce lets a store change those bases, so we work from the addresses your store answers at. Each old address is matched to its new one, and the list is imported into Shopify as redirects. The list is checked against the new store before the domain is changed. Shopify answers for your addresses only once the domain points at it, so each redirect is tested as soon as it does.

One limit is Shopify's. It says it cannot redirect an address that begins with /apps, /application, /cart, /carts, /orders, /services or /shop. With WooCommerce's "Shop base" setting, product addresses begin with the shop page's name, which is /shop unless it was changed. A site with pages under /services/ has the same limit. The assessment tells you about any such addresses before you decide.

How it works

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 plugins it relies on, and what each one does for the store
• whether you sell subscriptions, memberships or bookings, and whether you collect reviews
• whether you want the Shopify theme changed to fit your design
• 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:

• A Shopify store, opened by you, and a theme chosen by you. The account and its billing are yours, and so are a paid theme and any app.
• An administrator login for the WordPress site, and access to wherever the domain is managed.
• A place for us in the Shopify store, and never its password. We come in as a collaborator whose request you accept, in the way Shopify's help center describes. Collaborator accounts are for Shopify Partners, and we hold a Partner account. If you would rather, you can invite a user instead. You choose what we may open, and you can remove us when the work is done.
• If you want the theme changed, the design it should fit.
• An answer to where your email lives. Mailboxes kept at your WordPress host are not moved.

What it does not cover

• A copy of your WordPress theme. A WordPress theme does not run on Shopify. The store arrives on the Shopify theme you chose, changed to fit your design where the quote covers that. The design is rebuilt, not copied.
• Shopify apps. We do not build them. Where a plugin's job needs an app, the assessment says so and the choice of app is yours.
• Saved cards. Saved payment methods do not travel in a customer file. Shopify treats moving them as a migration of its own, arranged with its support team. If you sell subscriptions, say so in the assessment.
• Fees. The Shopify plan, a paid theme, any app and your payment provider's charges are yours.
• Email. Mailboxes kept at your WordPress host are not moved. Find out where your mail lives before you cancel that hosting.
• Looking after the Shopify store afterwards. We maintain WordPress and WooCommerce sites, not Shopify stores.

Moves from other platforms are on the migrations page.

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 leaving hold up, which can be fixed where you are, and what a move costs you besides money. Read it before anything else here.
• WooCommerce maintenance cost. What it takes to keep the store you have, to set beside the cost of leaving it.
• How to migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify. The whole move by hand, in the order Shopify gives.
• 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.
• 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, Shopify's among them. The second shows where an old address leads once the domain points at Shopify.
• WooCommerce stores and moving a site or changing platform. Every page we have on each subject.