WordPress to Shopify Migration Guide

Moving is, let's face it, a chore. Switching to a new e-commerce platform does not require any strenuous labor, yet it might be intimidating nonetheless. If you decide to use migrate to Shopify as your e-commerce platform, you should be prepared to move your products and content. Whether you have a few goods or a marketplace with hundreds of SKUs, there are several best practices and apps that help make the process go more smoothly.  

You don't want to lose any data, so make sure the transfer goes easily and precisely. The more you can move, the less you'll have to rebuild yourself. In this post, we will go over the complete WordPress to Shopify migration process. Continue reading to discover more about the Shopify migration.

About WordPress - a Quick Overview

WordPress is a highly adaptable e-commerce platform that powers about 30% of all online companies worldwide. It is open-source and free. However, there is a catch for new users. Creating a WordPress site entails obtaining a domain name and a hosting service. So, even if you can readily obtain expert advice to set up WordPress, the first setup method is not for everyone.

Once the initial phase is completed, WordPress makes the process considerably easier. There are several themes available to help you create the appearance and feel of your store. The availability of different plugins is a huge aid when it comes to introducing additional functionality. Furthermore, when you use WordPress, you will not suffer any additional expenses or transaction-based fees. And, for the most part, the extensions will only require a one-time purchase, with yearly fees just for maintenance and upgrades. That means you'll be able to quickly manage practically all of your store's e-commerce functions, such as payment integration, shipping options, customer service, making changes, and so on.

About Shopify - a Quick Overview

Shopify, on the other hand, is slightly more expensive in general but incredibly user-friendly. Starting a new e-commerce site on Shopify is extremely simple and can be completed in minutes. If you have a significant amount of capital to establish your online business and are not very tech skilled, Shopify is a better option than WordPress. However, bear in mind that extra functionality, as well as recurring expenses such as transaction fees, might be costly with Shopify.

When it comes to design, Shopify provides a plethora of alternatives. Despite the fact that there aren't as many options as there are in the WordPress ecosystem, you can get a variety of free and paid themes in the Shopify themes shop. Similarly, there are a number of applications accessible in the Shopify app store for enhancing the capabilities of your online business. Furthermore, Shopify provides various reporting capabilities that may be quite useful in evaluating the performance of your business.

Shopify is an excellent choice if you place a high value on customer experience and support. Furthermore, if you want more customization possibilities and a more cost-effective solution, WordPress is the way to go.

How to Migrate Data From WordPress to Shopify - Our Approach

There are a few options if you currently have a set of products and customers on your WordPress site and wish to move to Shopify. The first will be to manually export WordPress products, customers, and orders and then import them into Shopify.

What data can be migrated from WordPress to Shopify?

Let’s get started with the actual WordPress to Shopify migration process -

Step #1 Pre-migration SEO Health Check

Auditing the performance of the existing WordPress site is critical for prioritising SEO migration work and processes. For the previous 3+ months, our specialists documents the existing keyword rankings, optimal landing pages, traffic statistics, and so on.

Google Analytics (GA) and Google Search Console (GSC) are excellent tools for this.

Step #2 Export data from WordPress

The first step is to export your WordPress store's entire site data. We like to use a WordPress plugin named WP - DB Backup. This plugin aids in the creation of a backup of your complete website, including your database, current WP core, and all of your themes, plugins, and uploads.

Here’s a view of the plugin:-

Step #3 Data Rectification & Data Mapping

Our team of migration professionals will go over the backup that was obtained from WordPress. This involves quintuple all of the relevant fields. In some cases, the source platform permits more than 99 variants of a single product. However, due to the Shopify variation limitation, our specialists have periodically incorporated an external Shopify app to overcome this limitation. Here’s an app that our migration team uses in such cases - Hulk Product Options App

Following that is the data mapping procedure, in which our professionals map the fields of the WordPress site to Shopify. For example, titles, handles, tags, variants [options 1], variants [options n], and so on.

Step #4 Data Sync between WordPress & Shopify

We believe in home baking, thus we don't utilize any third-party apps to map and migrate data from WordPress to Shopify. Instead, our in-house Shopify professionals create bespoke scripts to assist us in migrating the mapped data from WordPress to Shopify.

Step #5 Test Data Migration from WordPress to Shopify

We feel it is critical to emphasize that testing a data migration should begin far before the actual data is migrated. This stage will offer an overview of the data mapping from WordPress to Shopify and will show any irregularities. To facilitate a successful migration to Shopify, these discrepancies may necessitate a design redesign or re-mapping.

What data could be tested during this migration?

• Customer data
• Blogs, Articles, and
• Orders

Step #6 The Finale - Migration from WordPress to Shopify

Here's the phase when the WordPress site is completely migrated to Shopify. After this phase, we make certain that data cleansing is performed on the Shopify site that houses and maintains data.

The reviews are then imported from WordPress to Shopify. This might include a third-party Shopify app (based on the client). To facilitate a smooth transition of reviews, we mostly employ the Shopify apps listed below -

• Product Reviews App
• Yotpo
• Stamped.io

Mapping URLs and Creating 301 Redirects

During migration, we make every effort to keep the URL name and content as consistent as conceivable. For example, if your discounted Items catalogue was previously placed at www.xyz.com/catalog/discounts, be sure you keep it on the new site at www.xyzg.com/catalog/discounts. This little but critical action ensures that all inbound links remain consistent, hence maintaining page traffic and search engine rankings. But the above example does not necessitate redirects, it is useful to note that URL customisation is not allowed sometimes. When this occurs, it is essential that we make a 301 redirect from the former URL to the new one.

Step #6 Post-Migration Rituals

Tracing and Repairing Broken Links (404s)

On the new site, we keep a close eye out for any pages that have been changed or removed. To avoid future difficulties, we perfer to crawl the previous WordPress site and new sites Shopify site and compare the indicated differences. We compare all relative URLs since many root URLs will be mismatched until the Shopify site goes online.

There will always be broken URL links, no matter how thorough you are (unless you are an expert). This is why it is critical to have a good set of tools on hand to track down any 404 errors and rectify them as soon as they are discovered.

Here's a great tool to that effect - Google's Search Console (GSC)

Index Coverage is tracked by Google Search Console. It aids in the prevention of difficulties with URLs provided for indexing (i.e., from your sitemap).

Subscription Details Migration via Recharge app

If the site is subscription-based, our WordPress to Shopify migration specialists correctly and securely migrate subscription data to Shopify using the Recharge subscriptions app.

Gap Migration

This phase accounts for migrating the new pages/products, etc. that were created during the migration process and after the data was backed up. The new WordPress data is merged into the migration process and migrated to Shopify.

Step #7 Post-migration SEO Health Check

In the days, weeks, and months following launch, our migration experts monitor GA and GSC for fluctuations. Cleanup as needed (it is crucial to actually execute and deploy these improvements in a timely way!). If we find larger-than-expected drops in traffic, we use the documents gathered in Phase 1 to figure out why (e.g., which pages are experiencing traffic drops? Are other channels, such as PPC, declining, or is it simply organic traffic? Is there a problem with those pages? Etc.)

Step #8 Data Reconciliation

Traditional data reconciliation methods frequently relied on basic record counts to determine if the intended number of records had been migrated. The processing power necessary to complete field-by-field validation was often the source of this. However, the problem with this is that missing records are only one type of error that can occur during a data migration. As a result, the other flaws will go unnoticed.

HulkApps employs current platform migration solutions that include data prototype functionality and comparative reconciliation capabilities, allowing for full volume data reconciliation testing – which aids in identifying where errors, such as duplicate entries, have occurred. Some of the data that our professionals reconciled during the WordPress to Shopify migration process are listed below.

• Customer report
• Revenue report
  • Monthly, yearly, Old vs new platform report
• Product statistics
• Subscription
  • Active report
  • Next month billing report
  • Next prepaid order

Post-migration Tips to Consider

Protocol assets: Remove particular protocols, such as HTTP and HTTPS, from their URLs. It simplifies access to all assets.

URL Redirects: Don't forget to configure URL redirects for the URLs that have bookmarked. This is a critical step when migrating from WordPress to Shopify in order to maintain existing customers.

Customer credentials: Because customer passwords are encrypted, they cannot be migrated. To gain access to their Shopify accounts, you must request that they create it.

Blog posts and articles: Follow the relative route to remove embedded images from blog posts and articles when moving them.

Conclusion

So, with all of the procedures and activities listed, we made sure to cover everything so that you understand our WordPress migration process entirely. Still, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Needless to say, no migration is without complications, and some external assistance may be necessary. HulkApps WordPress to Shopify migration service, on the other hand, can assist in making data transfer across to Shopify as painless as feasible.