Move From WooCommerce To Shopify Without Losing Rankings Or Revenue

Not if the migration is done correctly. Every existing URL gets a 301 redirect to its Shopify equivalent, and metadata moves across with the content, so rankings typically hold within a few weeks of cutover. The redirect map is the part that decides the outcome, and it is built and reviewed before launch rather than patched afterward once traffic has already dropped. WooCommerce and Shopify structure product and category URLs differently, so a clean one-to-one mapping does not happen by itself. We also carry over your existing title tags and descriptions instead of letting a new theme regenerate them, which is a common way rankings quietly slip after a rebuild.

Most migrations take 6 to 14 weeks depending on catalog size, custom functionality and how many third-party integrations need rebuilding on Shopify. The catalog itself is rarely the long pole. What stretches a timeline is custom checkout logic, subscription or membership behavior, and integrations with systems that have no direct Shopify equivalent. We scope those during the audit phase so the estimate reflects your actual store rather than an average one. If you are working to a fixed launch date, say so early, because it usually changes which items get rebuilt before cutover and which follow shortly after.

Products, variants, images, categories, customer accounts, order history, blog posts, static pages, SEO metadata and active discount codes. The list matters less than the verification behind it. After each import we reconcile counts against the source, spot-check variants and pricing, and confirm order history is attached to the right customer records rather than left orphaned. Passwords are the one thing that cannot transfer, because WooCommerce stores them hashed rather than readable. Anything genuinely custom, such as fields added by a plugin, is identified during the audit and mapped deliberately instead of being dropped on the way across.

No. Customer accounts and order history are migrated, so returning customers can log in with their existing details and still see what they bought previously. The one exception is passwords, which cannot be moved because they are stored hashed rather than in readable form. Shopify handles this with an account invite or a password reset on first login, and we plan that message with you before cutover so it does not land as a surprise. Bringing order history across matters more than it sounds, because it is what stops repeat customers and your support team losing their history overnight.

Each plugin is mapped to its closest Shopify app or native feature equivalent during the audit phase, so functionality is replaced rather than lost. Some things Shopify does natively that WooCommerce needed a plugin for, which quietly reduces what you carry forward. Others have no direct equivalent and need either a different app or a small custom build. The audit hands you that list up front, plugin by plugin, with the replacement and any change in ongoing cost. It is usually the point where a store discovers it has been paying for several plugins nobody has used in a year.

Either. We can rebuild your current design as a Shopify theme, or treat the migration as the right moment for a design refresh, whichever fits your goals and budget. Keeping the existing design makes the launch easier to judge, because if conversion moves afterward you know the platform caused it rather than a new layout. A refresh makes more sense when the current theme is already dated or awkward to maintain. What we would avoid is changing platform, design and navigation all at once with no way to tell which change did what.

No. Migration happens on a staging store that is fully tested before cutover, so your live WooCommerce store keeps trading until the Shopify store is genuinely ready. The switch itself is a DNS change, which propagates rather than flipping instantly, so we schedule it for a quiet window based on your own traffic. Orders placed in the final hours on WooCommerce are reconciled after cutover so nothing is stranded between the two systems. The old store stays accessible for a period afterward as well, which makes it straightforward to check anything that looks off.

Large catalogs mainly extend the data mapping and testing phases. The same process applies regardless of catalog size. What actually adds work is not the number of products but how consistent they are: variant structures that differ between ranges, images attached in different ways, or categories reorganized several times over the years. We sample the messy areas first, because those set the mapping rules that then run across everything else. For very large catalogs we import in stages and reconcile counts at each stage, rather than moving everything at once and then hunting for what went missing.

Yes. Custom functionality is assessed during the audit and rebuilt using Shopify apps, Shopify Functions or custom app development, depending on complexity. Shopify Functions now cover a lot of what used to require checkout workarounds, including custom discounts, shipping rules and payment customization. Where something genuinely has no equivalent we tell you the options and their real cost instead of promising a like-for-like rebuild. Occasionally the honest answer is that a piece of custom WooCommerce behavior is not worth recreating, because it was built around a limitation Shopify does not have in the first place.

Yes. The cutover step includes DNS changes, SSL and final testing, timed to minimize disruption to live traffic. We lower the DNS time to live in advance so the switch propagates quickly rather than trickling through over a day, and we confirm the certificate is issued and valid before pointing traffic across. Straight after cutover we run a real transaction end to end, check that redirects resolve, and watch for errors rather than assuming it worked. Keeping the old store intact means that, if something does need reverting, the decision is still available to you.

Yes. A migration is a natural point to add AI-assisted product search, recommendations or support that WooCommerce may not have supported natively. The reason to do it during the migration rather than after is that your product data is already being cleaned and restructured, and that data is exactly what these features depend on to be any good. Recommendations built on inconsistent categories or thin product descriptions tend to disappoint. We would still treat it as a separate decision with its own scope, so it does not quietly extend a migration timeline you have already committed to internally.

Cost depends on catalog size, custom functionality and design scope. We provide a fixed quote after the initial audit, not a vague estimate. The audit exists precisely so the number reflects your actual store rather than an assumption, and it is a short piece of work. What moves the figure most is custom functionality and the integrations needing a rebuild, not the product count, which is why two stores with similar catalogs can quote very differently. You get the scope in writing alongside the number, so it is clear what is included before cutover and what would sit in a later phase.