Shopify Migration Checklist: What to Plan Before You Replatform

Moving your store to Shopify is exciting. You're leaving behind slow updates, plugin conflicts, or a platform that costs more every year to maintain.

But most migration problems don't happen on launch day. They happen weeks earlier, when nobody wrote down which apps the old store relied on, which URLs bring in search traffic, or how wholesale customers get their pricing.

This checklist is built to catch those things early. It covers what to plan before you move, in the order it usually happens, so you launch on Shopify with your data, your rankings, and your customers intact.

The Short Answer

A Shopify migration has seven phases: audit your current store, map your data, build the new store and integrations, protect your SEO with redirects, test everything, launch, then monitor closely for the first 30 days. The planning phases matter most. Problems found before launch are cheap to fix; problems found after launch cost sales.

The Migration at a Glance

Here's the full journey before we go into each step:

1. Audit everything your current store does today.

2. Map your data so products, customers, and orders land in the right place.

3. Build the new store, theme, apps, and integrations.

4. Protect your SEO with redirects and clean metadata.

5. Test checkout, data, integrations, and redirects.

6. Launch with a clear plan for the switch.

7. Monitor sales, traffic, and errors for the first 30 days.

You can work on some of these in parallel. Design work, for example, often starts while data mapping is still underway. But don't skip ahead to launch until each phase has been checked off.

Phase 1: Audit What You Have Today

Before you move anything, write down everything your current store does. This is the step that prevents the "wait, the old site used to do that automatically" moment after launch.

Your Data

• How many products, variants, and collections you have

• How many customer records, and which ones are still active

• How many years of order history you want to keep

• Gift cards, store credit, and loyalty points still in circulation

• Blog posts, landing pages, and policy pages

• Product reviews and where they're stored

A migration is also a good moment to clean house. Old products that haven't sold in years, duplicate customer records, and outdated pages don't need to come with you.

Your Apps, Plugins, and Custom Features

List every plugin, extension, and custom feature on your current store, then note what each one actually does. Some will have a Shopify app equivalent, some are already built into Shopify, and a few will need custom development.

Pay special attention to features your team uses every day without thinking about them: custom product options, wholesale pricing, subscriptions, store locators, and special checkout fields.

Your Integrations

Write down every system your store talks to. That usually includes your ERP or accounting software, warehouse or 3PL, email marketing platform, CRM, review platform, and analytics tools. For each one, note what data flows in which direction and how often.

Your SEO Baseline

Before anything changes, capture where you stand today:

• Export every URL on your current site

• Note your top pages by organic traffic and revenue

• Record the keywords those pages rank for

• Save a copy of your current page titles and meta descriptions

This baseline is how you'll know, after launch, whether anything has slipped.

Phase 2: Map Your Data

Data mapping means deciding exactly where each piece of old data will live in Shopify. Every platform structures things a little differently, so this step needs real attention.

What Moves and How

Shopify's own migration guide lists the main options for each type of data:

For larger or more complex catalogs, many teams use a dedicated import app or a custom script built on the Shopify API. Shopify also offers its own Store Migration app for simpler moves.

Import in the Right Order

Shopify recommends importing products first, then customers, then historical orders. That way each order can link to the right products and the right customer. Get the order wrong and you'll end up with orders that don't connect to anything.

One more tip from Shopify's guide: when you import historical orders, staff set to receive new order notifications will get an email for every imported order. Turn those notifications off before you import, then switch them back on.

Decide How Much Order History to Bring

At minimum, bring every order that's still inside your return window, so customers can return or exchange items without friction. Shopify's Plus launch checklist suggests importing the past two to five years of orders.

Things That Need Extra Planning

• Customer passwords can't be moved. They're stored encrypted on your old platform, so customers will need to set up access again on Shopify. Plan a friendly email that explains why.

• Gift cards should be migrated right before launch, so balances reflect the latest spending on your old store.

• Custom product data such as specifications, size charts, or downloadable files will need a home in Shopify, usually metafields.

• Product options and variants may be structured differently on your old platform. Check how complex products will look in Shopify before you import thousands of them.

Phase 3: Build the New Store and Integrations

With your audit and data map in hand, you can build with confidence instead of guessing.

Theme and Design

Decide early whether you'll use a theme from the Shopify Theme Store, customize one, or build a custom theme. A migration is a natural time to fix design problems you've lived with for years, but keep the scope realistic. Every extra feature adds time to the project.

If you already have designs in Figma, make sure they account for Shopify's page types: home, collection, product, cart, and content pages.

Apps and Features

Go back to the feature list from your audit. For each item, decide whether it will be handled by a built-in Shopify feature, an app, or custom development. Fewer apps usually means a faster, simpler store, so don't install one just because the old site had a plugin for it.

Integrations

Reconnect every system from your audit: ERP, warehouse, email marketing, CRM, and analytics. Some will have ready-made Shopify connectors; others need custom work through the Shopify API.

Test each integration with real data before launch. A sync that sends inventory the wrong way, even once, can oversell stock fast.

Store Settings

Shopify's guide lists the basics that are easy to overlook in a busy project:

• Shipping zones, rates, and package sizes

• Tax settings for every region you sell to

• Payment providers and how payments are captured

• Store policies (refunds, shipping, privacy, terms)

• Customer notification emails, edited to match your brand

• Staff accounts and permissions

Phase 4: Protect Your SEO

Your URLs will almost certainly change. Shopify uses a fixed structure for most pages, such as /products/, /collections/, /pages/, and /blogs/. Shopify's own example: a shipping policy page at example.com/policies/shipping-policy on your old site might become example.com/pages/shipping-policy.

Without redirects, every old link from Google, other websites, emails, and bookmarks will hit an error page.

Set Up Redirects Before Launch

• Match every old URL from your audit to its new Shopify URL

• Prioritize the pages that bring in the most traffic and revenue

• Import the redirects in bulk with a CSV file (under Content > Menus > View URL Redirects in your Shopify admin)

• Redirect removed products to the closest relevant collection, not the homepage

Carry Over Your On-Page SEO

• Page titles and meta descriptions for products, collections, and pages

• Image alt text

• Product descriptions and collection content that rank well today

Don't rewrite your best-performing content during the migration. Move it first, measure, then improve it once the new store has settled.

After Launch

Shopify generates a sitemap.xml file automatically. Submit it to Google Search Console as soon as the store is live, then spot-check your most important old URLs to make sure each one redirects correctly.

We'll cover this in much more depth in our upcoming guide on protecting SEO during a Shopify migration.

Phase 5: Test Everything

Testing is where a good migration becomes a calm launch. Check the store the way a customer would, then the way your team would.

Checkout and Orders

• Place test orders with every payment method you accept

• Test a failed payment, a refund, a cancellation, and a partial fulfillment

• Check every discount code and automatic promotion

• Confirm shipping rates and taxes for different regions

• Read every customer email that gets triggered along the way

Data

• Spot-check products: prices, variants, inventory, weights, and images

• Open a sample of customer records and their linked order history

• Confirm gift card balances match the old store

Integrations and Redirects

• Confirm orders reach your ERP, warehouse, or 3PL correctly

• Check that inventory updates flow in the right direction

• Test a list of your most important old URLs against the redirects

Devices

• Browse and buy on mobile, tablet, and desktop

• Check the main browsers your customers use

Phase 6: Launch Day

Pick a quiet time to switch, not the week before a big sale. A simple launch plan keeps everyone calm:

• Do a final sync of new orders, customers, and gift cards from the old store

• Disconnect your domain from the old platform first. Shopify notes that skipping this can cause SSL certificate errors.

• Connect your domain to Shopify and set it as the primary domain

• Remove the store password so the site is public

• Place one real order to confirm everything works end to end

• Keep the old platform accessible (but not public) for a while in case you need to check old data

Phase 7: The First 30 Days After Launch

Launch isn't the finish line. The first month is when small issues show up, and catching them early keeps them small.

Daily for the first week:

• Compare orders and conversion rate against your pre-launch numbers

• Check that orders are reaching your warehouse and ERP

• Read customer support messages for patterns, such as login trouble or missing order history

Weekly for the first month:

• Review Google Search Console for crawl errors and 404 pages, and add redirects for any you missed

• Compare organic traffic on your top pages with your SEO baseline

• Check page speed, especially after adding new apps

• Collect feedback from your team on anything that's slower or harder than before

Some movement in search traffic right after a migration is normal while Google processes the changes. What you're watching for is a drop on specific pages that doesn't recover, which usually points to a missing redirect or lost content.

Notes for Specific Platforms

The checklist above works for any platform, but each one has its own quirks worth planning for.

WooCommerce. Because WooCommerce runs on WordPress, your store and your content site are often tangled together. Decide early what happens to blog posts and non-store pages. Also list every plugin carefully, since WooCommerce stores often rely on many small ones. See our WooCommerce to Shopify migration page for how we approach it.

Magento (Adobe Commerce). Magento stores tend to have large catalogs, configurable products, custom extensions, and sometimes B2B setups. Map how configurable and bundle products will translate into Shopify variants before importing anything. More on our Magento to Shopify migration service.

BigCommerce. Moving between two hosted platforms is often simpler, but product options and modifiers may not map one to one. Check your most complex products first. Learn about our BigCommerce to Shopify migration.

Salesforce Commerce Cloud. These are usually enterprise stores with deep integrations into other business systems. The integration plan often matters more than the data import itself. See our Salesforce to Shopify migration page.

Another platform? The same phases apply. Our migration from any platform to Shopify page covers other setups.

If you're moving from an enterprise platform, it's also worth deciding whether to land on a standard Shopify plan or go straight to Shopify Plus. Our guide on [Shopify vs Shopify Plus in 2026](BLOG #1 URL) can help with that decision.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does a Shopify migration take?

It depends on the size of your catalog, how much custom functionality you have, and how many systems need to be connected. A small store with a ready-made theme can move fairly quickly. A large store with custom design, B2B pricing, and ERP integrations takes considerably longer. The audit in Phase 1 is what gives you a realistic timeline.

What data can be migrated to Shopify?

Products, customers, historical orders, gift cards, store credit, blog posts, and pages can all be moved. Some data needs an app or the Shopify API rather than a CSV file, especially orders and gift cards.

Can customer passwords be migrated to Shopify?

No. Passwords are stored encrypted on your old platform, so they can't be transferred. Customers will need to set up access again on your new store, so plan a clear email to let them know.

Will I lose my Google rankings when I move to Shopify?

Not if you plan for it. Most ranking losses come from missing redirects, lost content, or changed page titles. Mapping every old URL to its new one and keeping your best content intact protects the rankings you've earned.

Can I keep my domain name?

Yes. You can connect or transfer your existing domain to Shopify. Disconnect it from your old platform first to avoid SSL certificate errors.

Should I redesign my store during the migration?

You can, and many brands do. Just be realistic about scope, and keep the content and URLs that perform well. Changing everything at once makes it harder to tell what caused any change in sales or traffic.

Planning a Move to Shopify?

A checklist tells you what to do. Having someone who has done it many times makes sure nothing slips through.

CodeVibez is a Shopify Plus Preferred Partner that has supported more than 1,000 Shopify stores across D2C, B2B, wholesale, ERP integrations, and point of sale. Our Shopify migration services cover the full journey, from the first audit to the weeks after launch. You can also ask us about a trial migration, so you can see how your data looks in Shopify before you commit.

Schedule a free call or contact our team to talk through your move.