WooCommerce to Shopify migration checklist

Most WooCommerce to Shopify migrations that go wrong don't fail on the big things. Products import, the new theme looks great, and launch day goes smoothly. Then search traffic drops because old URLs weren't redirected, or a subscription plugin's customers stop being billed, or tax is calculated differently from before.

This is the checklist we work from. It's ordered the way a migration actually runs, so you can use it whether you're doing the move yourself or checking the work of whoever is doing it for you.

1. Before you start: audit the store

• List every plugin and what it does. Not just the big ones. Plugins often do small jobs quietly: adding a field at checkout, sending a follow-up email, adjusting shipping rules. Each one needs a Shopify equivalent, a built-in feature, or a decision that it's no longer needed.
• Export a full list of URLs. Products, categories, pages, blog posts and any landing pages. You'll need this to build redirects. A crawl of the live site, plus your sitemap, catches most of them.
• Note your best-performing pages. From Google Search Console and Google Analytics, list the pages that bring in the most search traffic and sales. These get checked first after launch.
• Record a baseline. Monthly sessions, conversion rate, revenue and top search queries, so you can compare after the move.
• Decide what happens to the design. Rebuild the current look, refresh it, or start again. This choice drives most of the timeline.
• Choose your Shopify plan. Check whether anything you need (advanced B2B, checkout customisation) requires a higher plan.

2. Set up Shopify properly

• Payments. Shopify Payments is available in Australia and supports the major cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay. Set it up early, since verification can take a few days.
• GST. Configure Australian GST and check whether your prices are entered including or excluding tax. Getting this wrong changes every price on the site.
• Shipping. Rebuild your shipping zones and rates, and connect your carrier, such as Australia Post or a courier aggregator.
• Customer accounts. Shopify's current customer accounts are passwordless: customers sign in with their email and a one-time code. That's useful during a migration, because passwords can't be exported from WooCommerce anyway.
• Email notifications. Brand the order confirmation, shipping and abandoned checkout emails.

3. Move the data

• Products and variants. WooCommerce variable products become Shopify products with variants. Check option names, prices, compare-at prices, stock levels, weights, SKUs and images. Products with many options may need restructuring, so check these first.
• Collections. WooCommerce categories and tags become Shopify collections. Recreate the structure customers navigate by, not necessarily every category you ever made.
• Customers. Names, emails, addresses and marketing consent. Only import customers as subscribed if they actually opted in.
• Order history. Import past orders so customers can see their history and your records stay complete. Shopify's own Store Migration app focuses on products and customers, so order history usually needs a dedicated migration app.
• Reviews. Product reviews live in a plugin on WooCommerce and an app on Shopify. Export and import them with the review app you choose.
• Pages and blog posts. Move the content, images and authors. Shopify's blog uses tags rather than categories, so map categories to tags.
• Gift cards, store credit and subscriptions. These come from plugins and need their own plan. Active subscriptions in particular must move without customers being double-billed or not billed at all.

4. Protect your search rankings

This is the step that decides whether the migration costs you traffic.

• Map every old URL to its new one. Shopify uses fixed URL patterns, so nearly every address changes:

• Create the redirects. Shopify has built-in URL redirects, and they can be imported in bulk from a spreadsheet. Redirect each old URL to the closest matching new page, never everything to the home page.
• Carry across SEO titles and meta descriptions for products, collections, pages and posts.
• Keep image alt text.
• Check structured data. Product prices, availability and reviews should still show in Google's rich results.

We've written a full guide on migrating to Shopify without losing SEO if you want the detail.

5. Test before you switch

• Place real test orders with each payment method, including a refund.
• Check tax and shipping on orders to different states and postcodes.
• Test discount codes, including any carried over from the old store.
• Read every customer email the store sends.
• Compare counts: products, variants, customers and orders against the old store.
• Click through on a phone. Most of your customers will.
• Check tracking. Google Analytics, Google Ads conversions and the Meta Pixel should all record a test purchase.
• Test the redirects on your list of top pages.

6. Launch day

• Pick a quiet time, not the start of a sale.
• Point the domain at Shopify and confirm the SSL certificate is active.
• Keep the old store accessible privately for a few weeks, in case you need to check something.
• Submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console.
• Tell your customers about the new store, and how signing in now works.

7. The 30 days after launch

• Watch Search Console for pages Google can't find, and add redirects for any that were missed.
• Compare traffic and sales against your baseline weekly. A small dip in the first couple of weeks is normal; a steady decline isn't.
• Check that orders, stock and fulfilment are flowing correctly into any connected systems.
• Cancel the old hosting and plugin licences only once you're sure you no longer need them.

Doing it yourself, or getting help

A small store with a simple catalogue can be moved by its owner using Shopify's migration tools, with this checklist as a guide. Stores with lots of plugins, subscriptions, custom checkout rules or significant search traffic are where a botched migration costs real money, and where a team that's done it before earns its fee.

If you want help, see how our WooCommerce to Shopify migration works. Not sure Shopify is right for you? Read our honest Shopify vs WooCommerce comparison, or ask our WooCommerce support team to fix the store you already have. Or talk to us and we'll tell you which makes more sense.