Shopify Migration Services
HelloDevs moves your store to Shopify from WooCommerce, Magento, BigCommerce or a custom platform — products, customers, orders and URLs — with a rehearsed cutover and a way back if launch day goes wrong.
- Six years on Shopify
- Redirect map built before launch, not after
- Fixed quotes, not hourly guesses
Most migration horror stories are not the import. They are the redirects nobody mapped, the customers who cannot log in and the cutover with no rollback. HelloDevs plans those first.
Which kind of migration is yours?
Which kind of migration is yours?
A migration is shaped by where you are coming from and what you must not lose. Find your situation below.
| Your situation | What it usually calls for |
|---|---|
| You are on WooCommerce and tired of plugin conflicts and hosting upkeep | A full migration with plugins replaced by Shopify apps or native features, and the WordPress side either retired or kept for the blog, with redirects mapped across both. |
| You are on Magento or Adobe Commerce and the upgrade and hosting bill keeps growing | A larger data and logic migration. Custom modules are audited one by one: replaced by native Shopify, an app, or a custom app. |
| You are on BigCommerce or another hosted platform | Usually the most direct move: the catalogue and customers map cleanly, and the effort goes into the theme, apps and redirects, and then into conversion work once traffic is back to normal. |
| You have a custom or legacy platform with unusual data | A data audit first. We map what the old system actually stores before promising what will move, and write custom export and import scripts for the gaps. |
| Your organic traffic is the thing you cannot afford to lose | SEO-led migration: crawl of the current site, a complete redirect map, preserved metadata and structured data, and monitoring after launch. See our Shopify SEO work. |
| You want a new design and a new platform at the same time | Often better split into two stages, or run as one project with a custom theme built in parallel with the data migration. We will say which fits your timeline. |
Six parts of a Shopify migration
A migration is several jobs that fail in different ways. HelloDevs scopes each on its own, so the plan covers the parts that usually get skipped.
The platforms we migrate from
The platforms we migrate from
Each platform stores products, customers and orders differently and breaks in different places. The migration is built for the one you run, not a one-size template.
- WooCommerceData lives in WordPress tables with plugin-specific extras for variations, subscriptions and custom fields. The work is untangling what a plugin stores from what the store sells, and replacing plugin behaviour with Shopify equivalents.
- Magento and Adobe CommerceRich catalogue structures, customer groups, tier pricing and custom modules. Usually the heaviest migration, because the logic in the modules matters as much as the data.
- BigCommerceA hosted platform with a clean API, so product and customer data move predictably. Attention goes to theme rebuild, app parity and URL structure.
- Custom or legacy buildsBespoke databases and admin tools. We start from an export or read-only database access and a conversation about what the system really does, then write the migration scripts.
- Wix, Squarespace, PrestaShop, OpenCart and othersSmaller catalogues are often fine with CSV exports and Shopify's own import tools. We use those when they are enough and write custom scripts only when they are not.
- Something elseTell us the platform and we will say honestly whether a migration is sensible and what is likely to be awkward.
What moves, and what needs a plan
What moves, and what needs a plan
Not everything transfers directly. Knowing where the edges are in advance is the difference between a surprise on launch day and a line in the plan.
- Products and variantsMove reliably, within Shopify's limits on options and variants. Catalogues that exceed them are restructured, using metafields or separate products, with the approach agreed in the mapping stage.
- Customers and passwordsCustomer records move; password hashes do not. Customers sign in with a one-time code on Shopify's customer accounts, or reset their password, and the launch email is planned so nobody is surprised.
- Order historyImported as historical records. They appear in the admin and customer accounts, but they are archive data, not live orders to fulfil.
- Subscriptions and saved payment methodsThe hardest to move. Stored payment tokens belong to the payment processor, so a subscription migration needs a coordinated token transfer with the processor and the chosen subscriptions app. We scope it separately and early.
- Reviews and ratingsExported and imported into your chosen reviews app, with the product mapping checked so reviews land on the right product.
- SEO equityPreserved through redirects, metadata and structured data, not by the import itself. Shopify's URL structure differs from most platforms, so every old URL needs a destination.
Where migrations actually fail
- Almost always unmapped URLs: old product, category and blog addresses that now return a not-found page. A complete redirect map, tested before DNS changes, is the cheapest insurance in the project.
- Passwords cannot be imported, so a migration without a customer-account plan produces a wave of support requests. The launch email, the sign-in method and the support responses are prepared in advance.
- The old store keeps trading while the new one is built. A final delta import at cutover captures orders and customers created in between, with counts reconciled before the old store is switched off.
- Things like custom shipping rules, tiered pricing or an order-notes workflow vanish because nobody listed them. The plugin audit exists to find them before launch, not after a customer notices.
- Shopify's tax settings, shipping profiles and markets work differently from the source. A test order for each country you sell in, UK, US, Germany, Australia and New Zealand included, is placed before cutover.
- Changing DNS records carelessly can break email or domain verification. The DNS plan lists every record, and the change is made in a quiet window with a reduced TTL.
If a migration quote does not mention redirects and rollback,
it is pricing the import and leaving the risky part for launch day. HelloDevs plans those first.
What a Shopify migration project includes
What every HelloDevs migration quote covers
Every quote covers all of this. If a migration proposal leaves any of it out, the cost returns as lost traffic or a bad launch day.
- Migration planWhat moves, what does not, what is replaced, and who signs off each piece, agreed before work starts.
- Data mapping documentSource field to Shopify field, for every entity, including the ones mapped to metafields.
- Test importsRun on a development store and reviewed with you, before the real import.
- Redirect mapEvery old URL with a destination, tested before launch and kept in your repository.
- Plugin-to-app auditEach existing plugin and what replaces it, with the recurring cost of each replacement.
- Reconciliation reportCounts and totals compared between old and new for products, customers and orders.
- Cutover plan and rollback pathStep by step, with owners and a decision point for going back.
- Source codeMigration scripts are yours, in your repository.
- Post-launch monitoringSearch Console, redirect and error checks in the period after launch, so problems are caught early.
How a Shopify migration runs
Five steps, with a rehearsal before anything goes live
Nothing changes on your live domain until the new store has been loaded, tested and rehearsed against the real data.
- Discovery and auditWe review the current store, its data, plugins and traffic, and tell you honestly what is simple, what is awkward and what is risky.
- Fixed quoteA written scope covering data, redirects, apps and cutover, a timeline and a price.
- Build and test importThe new store is built and loaded on a development store, and the import is run repeatedly until the reconciliation is clean.
- RehearsalA full dry run of the cutover steps, including redirects, test orders in each market and a check of every critical flow.
- Cutover and watchThe delta import, the DNS change and close monitoring afterwards, with the old store kept intact until you are confident.
Shopify migration tech stack
Scripted and repeatable, not copy-and-paste
Included because technical buyers ask, and because a migration you cannot rerun is a migration you cannot safely correct.
The Migration Stack
Export scripts against the source platform's API or database, transformation into a mapped intermediate format, and import through Shopify's GraphQL Admin API with bulk operations for large catalogues. Shopify's own import tools and migration apps are used where they are enough, and custom scripts where they are not.
- GraphQL Admin API
- Bulk Operations
- Node.js
- TypeScript
- JSONL
- URL Redirects
- Liquid
- scripts/export/source-products.ts01
- scripts/import/products.ts02
- redirects/redirect-map.csv03
- scripts/verify/reconcile-counts.ts04
Rerunnable by Design
Every record is keyed on its source ID, so a rerun updates what exists instead of duplicating it. That is what makes a clean final delta import possible.
await importProduct(row, {
externalId: row.sourceId,
});No Launch-and-Hope
We do not cut over without a rehearsal, a reconciliation and a rollback path. Hoping the redirects are right is not a plan.
launch-and-hope.zip
No Subcontracting
We do not subcontract. The people who audit your old store are the people who load the new one.
ExportImport
Shopify migration questions
- It typically depends on five things: the size and messiness of the catalogue, how much customer and order history comes across, how many plugins or modules need replacing, whether a new design is part of the project, and whether subscriptions are involved. We quote a fixed price once those are answered, not an hourly estimate that grows.
- It typically depends on data complexity and the theme work around it. A small catalogue on a hosted platform is a shorter job. A large Magento or custom store with many modules, a new design and subscriptions is considerably longer, and we give you a timeline after the audit.
- Any platform change carries some risk, and we do not promise otherwise. What reduces it is a complete 301 redirect map, preserved titles, descriptions and structured data, a sitemap submitted on launch and monitoring in Search Console afterwards. Rankings often wobble briefly and recover when this is done properly.
- Customer records and addresses move across, but password hashes cannot be imported into Shopify. Customers sign in with a one-time code or set a new password, and we plan the launch communication so the change is expected rather than a surprise.
- Yes, as historical orders. They show in the admin and in customer accounts, imported without notification emails and without affecting live inventory. They are a record of the past, not orders to be fulfilled.
- It should not be. The new store is built and tested on a development store, and cutover is a DNS change in a planned window after a final delta import. The old store stays intact until the new one is proven, which is also the rollback path. Once live, maintenance and support keeps it that way.
- Usually not. Most migrations work on standard Shopify plans. Some requirements, such as certain checkout customisations, depend on plan, and if yours does we will flag it during the audit. See Shopify Plus development for what Plus adds.
Tell us where you are moving from
Send the platform and what you cannot afford to lose. A developer at HelloDevs replies within one business day.
Project examples and buying guides
Review the work, compare your options and prepare a brief before choosing your next step.
- Theme or headless storefront?
Decide the storefront architecture before the data moves.
- Metafields or metaobjects?
Where data from the old platform goes when it has no native Shopify field.
- Customise or rebuild your theme?
Whether a new platform is also the moment for a new theme.
- Shopify theme development
The storefront build that usually runs alongside a migration.
Talk to us about a Shopify migration
Tell us where you are moving from
Send the platform and what you cannot afford to lose. A developer at HelloDevs replies within one business day.
