Magento to Shopify Migration : The Ultimate Guide [9-Steps Checklist]

Magento to Shopify Migration is well thought out when you know Magento 1 has reached End-of-Life and upgrading to Magento 2 is no way a simple decision, which is equal to spending money on building a new website from scratch. Migrating to Magento’s biggest competitor, Shopify saves you money and time, and its scalability as you grow gives you a pleasurable experience.

However, the simpler the word ‘migration’ sounds, the more challenging the process is, especially when handling massive datasets. Magento to Shopify migration- in fact, every platform migration involves daunting processes and several factors, making the methods unmanageable not only for non-tech individuals, but also for those with technical abilities.

Data is sensitive to mishandling, and missing out on a single data point could mean a mismatch of data between the source platform to the target platform- violation of data integrity- adding more days to the project delivery deadline. As a result, the customer interaction and experience get affected that impacts your conversion goal.

Provided the complexities involved with open-source and PHP-based ecommerce platforms, it is imperative to know how to migrate from Magento to Shopify in the most flexible way.

Here’s a rundown of how you can achieve a seamless migration from Magento to Shopify without losing data and impacting SEO performances.

1. Magento vs. Shopify: Why choose Shopify over Magento?

The pricing and flexibility are the two most significant factors that could probably put Shopify ahead of Magento.

Hosting development:

Except for Magento Commerce Cloud, merchants must set up their hosting and pay for server maintenance with Magento Open Source and Magento On-Prem. Traffic volume and website complexity can add to the steep rise in hosting costs.

Additional development cost:

Magento releases new versions once a quarter, while security patches are released frequently. It is an additional monthly financial burden for open-source users to implement the updates and to ensure a secure environment. Also, there is a high risk of losing version control with the updates, prompting another set of customization fixes in exchange for development cost.

Backend control:

PHP-based Magento requires a steep learning curve to work with its backend. It is not easy for non-technical users to customize and develop.

Building with SaaS-based Shopify is flexible, economical, and scalable. There is no burden for hosting, costly security patches or upgrades, and store development. And switching to Shopify gives you an excellent start to the way of managing a growing ecommerce business.

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2. How to migrate from Magento to Shopify?

Before the migration project starts, implementation planning is key to determining how safely you can move to Shopify. There are three essential methods to migrating from Magento to Shopify.

1. Manual migration to move to Shopify

Manual migration involves your time and effort in exporting and importing data between source store to target store. It is not just a data transfer between two stores- instead, Magento to Shopify migration needs intense, careful insights and maneuver to avoid even the slightest mistake because an error means starting all over again.

The manual migration process requires exporting data to CSV files or Excel files from Magento, the source store, and importing it to Shopify, the target store.

• Compare both database structures. Make sure the CSV files you import should match the CSV file format on Shopify. If there is a mismatch between the two databases, you need to fix it.

• You can only export product and customer data to CSV files. For other data types - manufacture, orders, and coupon, etc., you need to copy and paste them.

It is a lengthier process. If there is massive data, burnout is another level of frustration for you.

2. Automated migration with Shopify apps

Shopify App Store offers many automated migration tools that promise to provide more seamless and faster data migration. It is valid to some extent that you can migrate data at high speed. Get data exported to CSV files and import to Shopify using any of the migration tools. But, the process does not provide a complete solution.

• It requires manual effort because an automated process often misses out on crucial data to import.
• Apps do not provide the customization support you may need for your new store.
• Both stores have different extensions. New integration on Shopify requires more than automated processes.
• Automated migration also poses security risks.

3. Hire technical assistance

The secret to success for Magento to Shopify migration is hiring a certified Shopify agency. The flexibility with a Shopify expert lies within leveraging their expertise and insights into implementation planning at the full scope. You will be confident about getting your Shopify migration project successfully completed with complete support for customization, integration, SEO performances, and post-migration testing and compatibility. As the migration engineer takes care of the whole process, you can focus more on things that matter to your business growth and less on the things that are painful and confusing.

NOTE: Make sure you hire a Shopify Partner that can provide support through its PHP team, Shopify development, SEO team, and QA so that you can collaborate with everyone on the same platform, communicate necessary changes or modifications, and direct your project to a successful path.

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3. What are the critical considerations while migrating Magento to Shopify?

Platform migration does not mean data transition only. It also requires working with other variables, which is significant for making the store’s UX/UI compatible with user flexibility, improving search results and user experience.

1. 301 Redirect mapping- keeping SEO intact

Remember, migrating from Magento should not impact customer interaction on the new site Shopify, requiring you to carefully map and set up 301 redirects. Provided it is a complicated side of a thing, prefer hiring a well-conversant Shopify 301 Redirects Management team to check old URLs, offsite links, backlinks of product, catalog, and the webstore and redirect them to the relevant pages on the new site. This helps customers land on the appropriate page by clicking on the old link, preventing frustration of being redirected to the 404 error page.

2. Migrate images to maintain current traffic

Images are key to retaining the SEO rankings and encouraging conversions. Images of products, collections, and content pages can be transferred. But, until you match alt data and work with 301 redirects, they are unable to bring the expected results on Shopify.

3. Keep old content relevant

Old content, including blogs, products, social posts, help boost organic search rankings. Taking care of tags of old content on Shopify helps retain the rankings.

4. Review integrations on the source store

Third-party integrations you would use on your new store would not be similar to the old ones. Review if similar apps are available in the Shopify App Store or if you need all of the extensions as earlier. Choose applicable ones to automate and streamline processes. 

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4. Pre-migration steps to Magento to Shopify migration

Much before you start the most complicated and daunting task of Shopify migration, making yourself acquainted with several vital things makes things look easy.

Use a free trial to get familiar with Shopify

Knowing how Shopify backend works helps you get prepared with the migration processes. Shopify free trial is the best option to get yourself familiar with its features and modules to some length and boost your confidence about the procedures.

What Magento features do you want to implement in your new store?

It is crucial to analyze which features on Magento must accommodate your new store. For example, if Magento supports more than 3 product options, you can explore which third-party apps for Production Options from the Shopify App store must meet your needs. Review your technology stack, customization needs, and support with HulkApps Shopify experts.

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5. Steps to migrate Magento to Shopify

It is time to get through the most crucial steps of migrating your existing store from Magento to Shopify. As we said earlier, each stage is critical and nerve-wracking. It is always easy and painless if you prefer technical migration support. Let us see how the process should commence.

Step 1. Get your Magento store ready

There are three critical steps to getting your Magento store ready. Here they are-

 

1. Take a backup of Magento store

It is better to be safe than sorry. Yes, taking a backup of your legacy store helps you retrieve data and reuse them for migration if you inadvertently lose or corrupt data. Be sure to take the latest version of the data. Using the Magento backend, you can access the process that allows you to backup your data in three ways-

1. System Backup allows you to take a complete backup of your data.
2. Database and Media Backup works for specific databases and media folders.
3. Database Backup allows backup for databases only.

2. Magento data analysis

Do a complete audit of inventories on Magento. Review Product Name, Product Details, Customer Name, and Passwords, including other critical information to decide which data you need and which one you can omit.

Step 2. Prepare your Shopify store

Configure Shopify store settings. Since it is your target store, you must get everything ready from storefront to necessary app integrations.

 

Create a Shopify account

If you have already got your hands dirty with Shopify storefront functionality using its free trial, it is time to choose a suitable plan for your business. You can find plans including Basic Shopify, Shopify, and Advanced Shopify. However, there are plans for Shopify Plus and Shopify Lite also.

• - Get your About us, Policies correctly done for your new store
• - Implement your URL redirects as well as protocols like HTTP, HTTPS correctly

Choose a theme

Shopify now offers Online Store 2.0 compatible themes. The default theme Dawn is available for every merchant. However, you can choose your preferred paid themes. Customize it to maintain compatibility with OS 2.0 standards post-migration.

Get app integrations

You may need apps for more functionality. Find out similar apps you have used on Magento via Shopify App Store.

Step 3. What data to migrate from Magento to Shopify?

This is an important stage where you decide which data you need to migrate from Magento to Shopify.

Here you can have a Technical Shopify migration partner to map data for you. Some critical data pieces to migrate from Magento to Shopify are-

• Products
• Name, SKU, Status
• Variants
• Meta title, meta descriptions
• Prices
• Product images, etc.

• Customer details
• First name, last name, email, newsletter
• Shipping address, billing address

• Historical orders
• Order date, order status
• Quantity, discounts, total price, shipping price
• Customer address

• Product reviews
• Store credits
• Pages (About Us, Contact, Blogs)

Step 4. Get an import app

To move your data to Shopify from Magento, you can choose to import apps from the Shopify App Store. There are a few apps like- Cart2Cart and LitExtension, among others. However, you can choose to hire a Shopify agency for the migration work. Our migration team can handle any type of migration to Shopify for small or complex needs.

NOTE: Import products, customers, and historical orders, respectively.

Step 5. Export data from Magento

Export data from Magento in CSV or XML file. Go to the Magento admin, go to the path the following way,

1. System > Data Transfer > Export
2. Select your Entity Type from the Export Settings.
3. Entity Types are Products, Customers Main File, or Customer Addresses. Remember, to export each entity; you need to repeat each process.
4. For manual Magento to Shopify migration, choose CSV files.
5. choose an XML file if you use the ‘Import Store’ app.
6. If you want to migrate to Shopify Plus, use the ‘Transporter’ app.

Step 6. Migrate your store data to Shopify

By now, you have prepared your data to import to Shopify. By following the processes below, you can get it done the right way.

1. From Shopify admin, click ‘Apps’ > Importer Store
2. Select Magento from the drop-down menu
3. Look for ‘Upload Files.’ Export files by clicking ‘Add File’
4. Choose Magento File you have already exported
5. Click ‘Continue import’ and import

You can do the processes manually or choose to hire a Shopify development agency.

Step 7. Review imported data

We would always recommend you review your imported data on Shopify. It helps you avoid errors and encourages you to have a seamless migration experience. There are some issues you can encounter during migration from Magento to Shopify. Check them out to fix them.

 

Data that needs minor changes:

if imported data need minor changes, edit it manually. Go to View Items on the import summary to make changes.

 

Product variants did not import:

if you have missed production variants like size, weight, color.

 

Products without dimensions:

Add product dimensions using the product description field in Shopify.

Aside from these usual issues, there could be more such errors you must review and fix them manually.

Step 8. Customize your store

Initially, you have already picked a theme. In this stage, you can decide to keep the default theme or choose a paid theme specific to your business needs. Now, customize your store, which requires you to customize your theme as an essential part of steps to migrate Magento to Shopify.

It is recommended to take assistance from a Shopify development team to help you with customization and store setup. Follow the steps below to keep your store up and running once the migration is complete.

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10. Important things to consider while migrating

Asset with protocols:

Remove specific protocols, i.e., HTTP and HTTPS, from their URLs. It makes all assets easily accessible.

URL Redirects:

Do not forget to set up URL redirects for the pages costumes have bookmarked. This is a crucial step post-Magento to Shopify migration to retain existing customers.

Customer passwords:

You cannot migrate customer passwords since they are encrypted. You must request customers to create it to access their Shopify accounts.

Blog posts and articles:

Follow the relative path to remove embedded images from blogs and articles while migrating them.

11. Glossary

301 Redirect: A way to send users and search engines to a different URL than the one they originally requested. This is important for maintaining SEO rankings when changing URLs.

Magento: An open-source ecommerce platform that offers a high level of customization and control over the look, content, and functionality of an online store.

Shopify: A subscription-based software that allows anyone to set up an online store and sell their products. Shopify is known for its user-friendly interface, robust features, and excellent customer support.

SEO: Search Engine Optimization. The practice of optimizing your website to make it more visible on search engines.

URL: Uniform Resource Locator. The address of a web page.

Migration: The process of moving data from one platform to another.

Backup: A copy of data that can be used to restore the original in the event of data loss.

12. FAQs

1. Will migrating from Magento to Shopify affect my SEO?
Answer: To minimize the impact on your store's SEO after the migration, we recommend creating 301 redirects on your Shopify store and migrating SEO URLs of categories and products to preserve the Magento structure on Shopify.

2. Can I migrate customer passwords from Magento to Shopify?
Answer: No, due to security reasons, customer passwords cannot be migrated. You'll need to send your customers an invite to reset their passwords on Shopify.

3. How long does the migration process take?
Answer: The duration of the migration process depends on the amount of data to be migrated. However, with an automated migration tool, the process can be significantly faster than a manual migration.

4. Can I still operate my Magento store during the migration process?
Answer: Yes, your Magento store will remain fully functional during the migration process. You can continue selling and taking orders as usual.

5. What happens if something goes wrong during the migration?
Answer: That's why it's crucial to back up your data before starting the migration process. If something goes wrong, you can always revert to your backup and start over.

13. Conclusion

So with all the steps and tasks mentioned we made sure to clear each point so that you have no issues with the most user-friendly and helpful platform. Still, if you get stuck feel free to contact us.

So, are you migrating to Shopify or Shopify Plus? Be sure to read Shopify Migration: Answering Any and All Questions that’ll help you understand where you stand and what next steps should you take.

Needless to say that no migration is totally hassle-free, and some external guidance may be required. However, HulkApps Shopify migration service can more than help to perform data transferring across various shopping carts as trouble-free as possible.