Shopify migration services for Canadian stores that cannot afford to lose rankings or orders

What do Shopify migration services include, and when does a Canadian store need them?

Shopify migration services cover moving your catalogue, customers, orders, content and URLs from another platform to Shopify, then rebuilding the settings that cannot be copied, such as tax, shipping, payments and languages. A good service also protects your search traffic through redirects and checks what Google does after the switch.

Canadian merchants usually call when the old platform has become a daily cost. WooCommerce owners are tired of plugin conflicts and hosting upgrades. Wix and Squarespace sellers have outgrown the product and tax options. BigCommerce stores want Shopify's app range or POS. Lightspeed eCom users want their online store on a platform more of their tools connect to. None of these reasons are wrong, but each source platform brings its own export quirks.

The honest first question is whether you should move at all. If your WooCommerce store works and your team knows it well, the fix might be speed work rather than a migration; our WooCommerce developer page for Canada explains when staying put is cheaper. When moving does make sense, the service is about sequencing: what gets exported, in what order, tested how, and switched over when.

• Data: products, variants, images, customers, orders, gift cards, pages, blog posts
• Structure: collections, navigation, filters and product metafields
• Settings: taxes, shipping, payments, notifications, markets and languages
• Search: URL inventory, redirects, metadata, sitemap and Search Console
• Launch: domain switch, test orders, staff training and monitoring

Which platforms can you migrate to Shopify from?

Almost any, but the method changes. Shopify's free Store Migration app lists Square, WooCommerce, Etsy, Wix, Amazon, eBay, Clover and Lightspeed R/X (Vend) as supported sources for product and customer data, and anything else can come across through CSV files, a paid third-party migration tool or Shopify's API.

Each source platform has its own habits. WooCommerce stores often carry years of custom fields, product add-ons and plugin-generated URLs, so the export needs reviewing before import. Wix stores tend to have simpler catalogues but less flexible exports. Squarespace product data exports cleanly enough, although blog content and page layouts need rebuilding by hand. BigCommerce stores frequently have deep category trees and custom URL patterns that make redirect mapping the biggest job. Lightspeed eCom is not in the Store Migration app's list, so those stores usually move by CSV or a paid tool, with extra care if the physical shop's POS stays in place for a while.

Whatever the source, we run a test import into a development store first, compare record counts and spot-check products, customers and orders with you before touching the live store.

Will you lose Google rankings when you migrate to Shopify?

Some movement is normal; a lasting drop usually means something was missed. Google's own guidance on site moves with URL changes warns that rankings may fluctuate while pages are recrawled and reindexed, and it recommends permanent redirects such as 301s and keeping them for as long as possible, generally at least a year.

Shopify uses its own URL structure. Products live under /products/, collections under /collections/, pages under /pages/ and blog posts under /blogs/. Your old platform almost certainly used different paths, so every old address that Google knows about or that another site links to needs a redirect to its closest new equivalent. Skipping this step is the single most common reason a Canadian store loses traffic after a Shopify migration.

The other causes are quieter: product titles and meta descriptions not carried over, category text that ranked well left behind, image file names changed, internal links pointing at dead pages, and French pages collapsed into English ones. Each is preventable with a proper inventory before launch and a checklist on launch day. Nobody can guarantee that rankings will not dip, but a well-run migration usually recovers within weeks rather than months.

How 301 redirect mapping works in a Shopify migration

You build a spreadsheet of every old URL and its new Shopify destination, then import it into Shopify's URL redirects as a CSV. The work is in building the list accurately, not in loading it.

We assemble the old URL list from four places: the old platform's sitemap, a full crawl of the live site, Google Search Console's page reports, and your analytics landing pages. Then we match each one to a new address: product to product, category to collection, old blog post to new blog post, and retired products to the most relevant collection rather than the homepage.

Shopify's help centre sets a few rules that shape the map. According to Shopify's URL redirect documentation, a redirect only works from a URL that is broken on the Shopify store, because a live page takes priority. Stores can hold up to 100,000 redirects, and Plus stores up to 20 million. You cannot redirect from fixed Shopify paths such as /products and /collections, and old URLs carrying query strings may not behave as expected, so we test those individually.

• Crawl the old store and export its sitemap
• Pull indexed and linked pages from Search Console
• Match every URL to the closest new page, never a blanket homepage redirect
• Import the redirect CSV into the new store before switching the domain
• Test a sample of old URLs, including French and image URLs, on launch day

Can you move customers and order history to Shopify?

Yes. Shopify's migration checklist lists products, customers, historical (already fulfilled) orders, gift cards, certificates and store credits, blog posts and pages among the data you can bring across, using CSV files, migration apps or the API depending on the complexity.

Order history matters for more than record-keeping. Customer service needs it when someone asks about a past purchase, marketing needs it to find repeat buyers, and your team needs it to answer warranty questions. We agree with you how many years to import, because very old orders add time without adding much value.

There is one trap worth knowing. Shopify's checklist notes that when historical orders are imported, any staff member set to receive new order notifications, including the owner, gets a new order email for each imported order. We turn those notifications off before the import and switch them back on afterwards, so nobody's inbox fills with thousands of messages.

Customer records need care for another reason: marketing consent. Canada's anti-spam law expects you to have consent before sending commercial email, so we carry across each customer's existing consent status rather than subscribing everybody by default. How returning customers get back into their accounts after the move is agreed with you before launch.

Re-creating GST/HST, PST and QST after a Shopify migration

Tax settings never migrate; they are rebuilt. You enter each registration you actually hold in Shopify's Canadian tax settings, and Shopify calculates the rate by province at checkout. The migration's job is to reproduce what your old store did correctly and fix what it did wrong.

The Canada Revenue Agency's GST/HST rate page lists 13% HST in Ontario, 15% in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island, and 14% in Nova Scotia, which dropped from 15% on April 1, 2025. The other provinces and the territories charge 5% GST, and British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec add their own provincial taxes on top when you are registered with them.

Old stores often carry out-of-date tax tables, particularly WooCommerce stores whose rates were typed in by hand years ago. A Nova Scotia rate still set at 15% is a common find. We compare the old store's settings with your current registrations, re-apply any product overrides your accountant has advised, and place test orders to several provinces. Which registrations you need is your accountant's decision; we implement it.

Keeping French URLs alive when a Quebec store moves to Shopify

Every French page on the old store should land on a French page on Shopify, not on its English twin. That means translated handles for products and collections on the new store and a separate redirect line for each old French URL.

Bilingual stores on WooCommerce usually use a translation plugin that puts French pages under /fr/ or on a subdomain, with slugs such as /fr/produit/chandail-laine/. On Shopify, a published French language usually sits under its own subfolder, and product handles can be translated through Shopify's Translate & Adapt app or a translation app. We export both languages, import the French content as translations of the matching English products, and map the old French addresses to the new French ones.

Google looks for alternate-language annotations that point both ways between versions; its documentation on localized versions says each language version must list itself and all other versions. We check that those tags are present and reciprocal on the live store after launch. French copy stays as your translator wrote it; we move and structure it, we do not rewrite or machine-translate it. For the language-law side, see what Bill 96 means for store websites.

When should a Canadian store switch over? Timing a Shopify migration around BFCM and Boxing Day

Switch over when traffic is low and nothing big is on the calendar: for most Canadian retailers that means late winter, spring or early summer, and never the six weeks before Black Friday. In 2026 Black Friday falls on November 27 and Cyber Monday on November 30, and Boxing Day sales follow on December 26.

Work backwards from your peak. A store that relies on fourth-quarter sales should have migrated, tested and settled by early October at the latest, so there is time to fix anything Search Console flags and to run a small promotion on the new checkout before the big one. If a project starts in September, it is often wiser to finish everything on a development store, run the holiday season on the old platform, and switch in January once returns calm down.

Seasonal sellers have their own peaks. Garden and outdoor stores peak in spring, back-to-school sellers in August, and gift shops before Mother's Day. The rule is the same: switch in the quiet weeks, on a weekday morning Canadian time, with the team available to check orders. We cut over in your early morning, which is our evening in India.

• Avoid switching in the six weeks before your biggest sales event
• Freeze product edits on the old store during the final data sync
• Switch the domain on a weekday morning, not a Friday evening
• Keep the old platform's subscription active for a few weeks as a safety net

How much do Shopify migration services cost in Canada?

Quotes vary widely, because a thirty-product Wix shop and a bilingual WooCommerce store with ten years of orders are different jobs. With us, a migration that includes a rebuilt Shopify storefront starts at US$750, and each part of the work is itemised so you can see where the effort goes.

Five things set the size of a Shopify migration quote: catalogue size and variant structure, the volume of order history to import, how many URLs need redirects, whether the store is bilingual, and how many integrations have to be replaced or reconnected. Design changes add to that if you want a new look rather than a faithful copy of the old one.

Some costs sit outside our quote and go straight to the vendor: your Shopify plan, any paid migration tool for platforms the free app does not cover, new app subscriptions, and a theme licence if you choose a paid theme. We list these with their pricing pages so you can check them before approving. For a first-year view of running a store, see ecommerce website cost in Canada.

How long does a Shopify migration take?

Most migrations run four to eight weeks from approved quote to cut-over, matching our ecommerce timeline. Smaller catalogues on simple platforms sit at the short end; bilingual stores with deep order history and many integrations sit at the long end.

The weeks break down roughly like this. Week one is the audit: exports, URL inventory, tax and integration review. Weeks two to four cover the development store, theme, test import and redirect map. The later weeks are for the full import, French content, integrations, test orders and your team's review. The cut-over itself takes hours, followed by a final delta sync of orders placed on the old store during the last days.

What slows migrations down is rarely the code. It is waiting for access to the old platform, decisions about which products to retire, translated copy for new French pages, or a payment processor account to be approved. We agree those dates in week one.

What is hard to migrate to Shopify, and how is it handled?

Some data does not have a clean Shopify equivalent, and it is better to know before you start. Product reviews, active subscriptions, loyalty points, custom product options, wholesale price lists and customer-specific pricing all need a plan of their own.

Reviews usually move through the new review app's import feature, and we keep star ratings in structured data so product pages stay eligible for rich results. Subscriptions are the most delicate: payment tokens often cannot move between processors, so customers may need to re-enter card details, and that needs a clear email before cut-over. Loyalty balances are exported and reloaded into the new loyalty app. Product add-ons from WooCommerce plugins become Shopify variants, metafields or an options app, depending on how they price.

Wholesale buyers deserve their own conversation. Shopify's built-in B2B features depend on your plan, and apps cover some needs. If your wholesale logic is complex, it may be better to keep it off the storefront entirely, with a custom ordering portal alongside the store.

Reconnecting apps, POS, shipping and accounting after the move

Every plugin on the old store needs a decision: replace it with a Shopify app, rebuild it in the theme, or drop it. Stores that bring across every old habit end up slower and more expensive than before.

We list each integration on the old platform with what it does and who relies on it. Shipping is usually Canada Post or a discount courier connected through an app. Accounting often means QuickBooks Online, where the order-to-invoice mapping and tax codes must be set up again. Email marketing platforms reconnect through their Shopify apps, and the consent status we carried across decides who receives campaigns. If you run a physical shop, Shopify's migration checklist includes moving POS as its own step, with inventory locations to match.

The goal is fewer moving parts than you had before, each documented, each billed to your own card. Integration details for bookkeeping are covered on our QuickBooks Online integration page.

Running a Shopify migration with a team in India from Canada

Most of a migration happens while you sleep, which suits a store move. We work through exports, imports and redirect testing in our day, and you review results over coffee in the morning. Calls happen in Eastern or Pacific mornings, and WhatsApp stays open seven days a week.

The first two weeks look like this. A video call covers your platform, catalogue, languages, tax registrations, integrations and peak dates. About two working days later you have an itemised quote in USD. After written approval you create a Shopify store in your business name and invite us as a collaborator or staff member, give us read access to the old platform, and we begin the URL inventory and a test import. By the end of week two you should be reviewing sample products, customers and orders in the development store.

You pay in USD or CAD through Wise, bank wire or PayPal, against the schedule in your written quote, and invoices come from India. Nothing is billed before you approve. Terms that are not in the quote are covered in our published terms.

Access, backups and ownership during a Shopify migration

The new store is opened by you, in your business name, and the old store stays yours until you close it. We never need an owner password: collaborator or staff access is enough for both platforms, and you can remove it at any time.

Before we touch anything we take a full export of the old store: products, customers, orders, pages, and a copy of the database and files where the platform allows. That backup goes into storage you control. If anything about the cut-over goes wrong, the old store can be reconnected to the domain within minutes, because we keep it running and untouched until the new store has proven itself.

After launch you receive the redirect CSV, the URL inventory, a record of the tax settings entered, the list of apps with their purpose and cost, and the theme code in a repository you own.

Worked example: moving a bilingual WooCommerce boutique to Shopify

A hypothetical to show the shape of a real plan, not a past client. Say a women's clothing boutique in Gatineau sells online in English and French through WooCommerce, has around four hundred products with size and colour variants, six years of orders, and customers across Ontario and Quebec. It is registered for GST/HST and QST.

The plan would start in February, well away from the holidays. Week one: exports, a crawl of both language versions, and Search Console data. The URL inventory might show roughly three thousand URLs, many of them old filter and tag pages that get grouped into a handful of collection redirects. Products import with both languages linked, French handles translated, and each old /fr/ URL mapped to its French Shopify equivalent.

Tax is rebuilt for GST/HST and QST, and test orders go to Ottawa, Gatineau and Halifax addresses. The final sync and domain switch happen on a Tuesday morning Eastern time, with the old store kept live on a staging address for a month. The quote would itemise each step, starting from US$750 for the storefront.

Shopify migration cut-over checklist for Canadian stores

Use this list on launch day. Every item should be ticked by the developer and double-checked by someone on your team.

• Final delta import of orders and customers placed since the last sync
• Order notification emails switched back on after the import
• Redirect CSV loaded and a sample of old English and French URLs tested
• GST/HST and provincial registrations entered; test orders placed per province
• Shipping rates tested to a remote postal code and to the US if you ship there
• Payments live under your business, with a real small order refunded
• Domain pointed to Shopify and SSL active on both www and root
• Sitemap submitted in Google Search Console and analytics verified
• Old store kept running on a private address as a fallback
• Team briefed on the new admin, orders and refunds

For weeks after cut-over we check Search Console's page indexing and 404 reports and add redirects for anything missed. If you later want to push rankings further, Shopify SEO for Canadian stores picks up from there.