How to Migrate WooCommerce to Shopify: Step by Step

To migrate WooCommerce to Shopify, you export your products and customers from WooCommerce as CSV files, import them into Shopify, move order history and reviews with an app, rebuild your pages and blog, and set up 301 redirects from every old URL before you switch the domain. The data import is usually the quick part. Redirects, product options and testing take the real time.

I’m Zain Saeed, a Shopify Partner and WordPress developer. I’ve shipped 120+ projects over 8+ years and won Fiverr’s Millionaire Award for $1M+ in orders. This is the order I follow when I move a store between these two platforms.

Short answer: what moves and how

Shopify’s own guide to migrating from WooCommerce splits the data like this:

Data	How it moves	Notes
Products	Store Migration app or CSV import	Variants with more than 3 options need rework
Customers	CSV import	Passwords cannot be moved
Historical orders	Third-party migration app	Not part of the basic CSV import
Product reviews	Third-party review app import	Export from WooCommerce, import into the review app
Pages and blog posts	Copy over or use a migration app	Not moved by the product import
Redirects	Create in Shopify (bulk CSV)	Your job; nothing does this automatically

1. Plan before you export anything

Start with a list of what the store does today, not just what data it holds. WooCommerce stores often rely on plugins for things like subscriptions, product add-ons, bookings, wholesale pricing or custom checkout fields. Each of those needs a Shopify app, a theme change or a different process.

• List every active plugin and write down what it does for customers or staff.
• Pull your top pages from Google Search Console and analytics. These are the URLs you must not lose.
• Check product structure: count products with more than three attributes used for variations.
• Decide what history you need. Some stores need every past order for support and accounting. Others are fine with a CSV archive.

If you are still deciding whether to move at all, my Shopify vs WooCommerce comparison covers the trade-offs.

2. Move products, customers, orders and reviews

Products

Export products from WooCommerce under Products, then Export, which gives you a CSV. Shopify’s guide says you can upload this file to the Store Migration app without editing it, or reformat it to match Shopify’s product CSV template and use the standard import.

The main thing to watch is product options. Shopify’s guide states that it only allows 3 product options, and products with more than 3 won’t have their options imported. A WooCommerce product with size, color, material and length has to be restructured, for example by splitting it into separate products or moving one choice into a line item property.

After the import, check:

• Variants and prices: spot-check products with the most variations.
• Images: confirm the right image is attached to each variant.
• Inventory: make sure stock levels came across and are tracked.
• Collections: WooCommerce categories do not become Shopify collections by themselves. Rebuild them as manual or automated collections.
• SEO fields: check product titles, meta descriptions and image alt text.

Customers, orders and reviews

Customers come across with a CSV import. Two points matter here:

• Passwords do not transfer. Passwords are encrypted, so customers have to set up their accounts again. Plan an email inviting them to do that after launch.
• Marketing consent: only mark customers as accepting email marketing if they actually opted in on your WooCommerce store.

Historical orders and reviews need third-party apps. For reviews, export them from WooCommerce and import them into the Shopify review app you plan to use. Do this before launch so product pages do not go live with zero reviews.

3. Rebuild the theme, pages and blog

Your WordPress theme does not move to Shopify. The storefront has to be rebuilt in a Shopify theme. This is a good point to fix the layout problems you have been living with, but keep the content and navigation familiar so returning customers can find things.

Pages like About, Shipping and Returns can be copied into Shopify pages. Blog posts can be moved by hand for a small blog or with a migration app for a large one. Keep the same titles and content so the posts keep ranking.

Also set up the parts customers never see until they break: shipping zones and rates, taxes, payment providers, notification emails and staff accounts. Shopify’s guide lists these as tasks to finish before launch.

4. Set up 301 redirects

This is where most migrations lose traffic. Shopify uses fixed URL paths: products live under /products/, collections under /collections/, pages under /pages/ and blog posts under /blogs/. WooCommerce uses /product/ and /product-category/ by default. Almost every store URL changes.

Build a redirect map: one row per old URL, with the new URL next to it. Then import it in Shopify under Content, Menus, View URL redirects, using the import option. Shopify’s URL redirect documentation notes a few rules:

• Redirects only work from broken URLs. If a page exists at the old path on Shopify, the redirect will not fire.
• Some paths cannot be redirected, including /cart, /orders and the base /products and /collections paths.
• Limits: standard plans allow up to 100,000 redirects.

Google’s site move guidance recommends permanent (301 or 308) redirects and keeping them for as long as possible, generally at least one year. Redirect each old URL straight to its closest match, not everything to the homepage. If rankings matter to your business, this is the step to have someone check. It is the core of my SEO services work on migrations.

5. Test, launch and watch the first weeks

Before you point the domain at Shopify:

1. Place test orders with each payment method and check the confirmation emails.
2. Check shipping rates and taxes for a few real addresses.
3. Test your redirect list. A simple crawl of the old URLs should return 301s to the right pages.
4. Check that analytics and ad conversion tracking fire on Shopify.

After launch, connect the domain, submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console and watch the Pages report for 404s over the following weeks. Some ranking movement after a move is normal. A steady drop usually means missing redirects.

Frequently asked questions

Can I migrate WooCommerce to Shopify myself?

For a small catalog with simple products, yes. The CSV and Store Migration app handle products well. Hire help when you have many variants, custom plugins, a large blog or rankings you cannot afford to lose. Before you hire, read how to choose a Shopify Partner developer.

Will I lose my Google rankings?

Not if every important old URL has a 301 redirect to a matching new page and the content stays the same. Expect some movement for a few weeks while Google processes the change.

Do customer passwords transfer?

No. Customers need to set up their accounts again on Shopify. Send them an invitation after launch.

Can I keep my domain name?

Yes. You connect your existing domain to Shopify at launch. Keep the WooCommerce site live until the switch so there is no downtime.

Should I keep the old WooCommerce site afterward?

Keep a backup and an order export for your records. You do not need to keep the old site public once the redirects are working.

If the migration is more than a CSV import, I handle WooCommerce to Shopify moves as part of my Shopify website development work. If you want a fixed-price quote for your WordPress or Shopify project, send me a short brief and I’ll tell you what it will take.