What does a WooCommerce to Shopify migration move, and what stays behind?
A WooCommerce to Shopify migration moves your catalogue, customers, order history, content and search equity; it leaves behind the WordPress plugins, the PHP customisations and the hosting. Anything a plugin did (a size chart, a pincode checker, a bundle offer) must be rebuilt on Shopify with an app, theme code or a changed process.
It helps to split the store into three buckets before a single file is exported. The first bucket is data that transfers: products, variants, images, collections built from your categories, customers, addresses, historical orders, pages and blog posts. The second is configuration that must be rebuilt: payment methods, shipping zones and rates, tax settings, notification emails, checkout fields and the theme. The third is things that cannot move at all, such as customer passwords, which WordPress stores as one-way hashes that Shopify cannot use.
Shopify’s own help centre lists the routes open to you: copying data by hand, CSV import, its Store Migration app, third-party migration apps from the Shopify App Store, or hiring a Shopify Partner. None of them is wrong. The route depends on how much of your store sits in bucket two, and how much Google traffic you stand to lose if the URLs are handled carelessly.
- Transfers: products, variants, images, categories, tags, customers, orders, pages, posts
- Rebuilt: theme, payments, shipping, taxes, emails, checkout fields, plugin features
- Lost unless planned: passwords, plugin data in custom tables, URL structure
Should you move from WooCommerce to Shopify at all?
Move when running WordPress has become the job instead of running the store: plugin conflicts after updates, hosting that buckles during a sale, a checkout that breaks without warning, or a developer you depend on for every small change. Stay on WooCommerce when you rely on deep custom logic that would cost more to rebuild than the maintenance you are paying.
WooCommerce is free and flexible, and its documentation recommends PHP 8.3 or newer, MySQL 8.0 or MariaDB 10.6, a 256 MB WordPress memory limit and HTTPS. Keeping all of that patched, backed up and fast is your responsibility. Shopify handles hosting, security patches and checkout uptime for a subscription, which is exactly the trade many growing Indian D2C brands want.
Honest reasons not to migrate: a heavily customised B2B quoting flow, a multi-vendor marketplace built on WordPress plugins, content-heavy sites where the shop is a small corner of a large blog, or a store with very specific tax or invoicing logic tied into accounting. For those, a WooCommerce developer who cleans up the existing store can be the better spend.
Good signs for moving
Frequent plugin breakages, slow mobile pages, a small team without a developer, plans to sell internationally with Shopify Markets, or a wish to use Shopify’s POS and apps.
Signs to pause
Custom pricing engines, marketplace features, content that outweighs the catalogue, or an accountant’s workflow that depends on WooCommerce order data in a specific shape.
Migration app or manual migration: which WooCommerce to Shopify migration method fits?
Use a migration app for the heavy lifting of copying records, and a person for the decisions around it. A pure app run is fine for simple catalogues; a store with custom fields, bundles, subscriptions or thousands of ranking URLs needs mapping and testing that no app does on its own.
Migration apps connect to WooCommerce through its REST API or a plugin, read products, customers and orders, and write them into Shopify. Some also offer free demo runs so you can see how a sample of products lands. CSV import through the Shopify admin works for products and customers, but it cannot bring order history, which Shopify says needs a third-party app.
Our approach on a WooCommerce to Shopify migration is hybrid. We choose the tool that fits your data (billed to your account), run a test import into a development store, review the result against your live site product by product for a sample, fix mapping rules, and only then run the full import. Anything the tool cannot express, such as a custom “fabric care” field or a bundle rule, we handle with metafields, a Shopify app or theme code.
- App alone: under about 100 products, standard fields, little SEO history
- App plus mapping: most stores with variants, reviews and steady search traffic
- App plus custom scripts: custom plugin tables, bundles, B2B price lists, subscriptions
Mapping WooCommerce products and variations to Shopify options
Shopify allows up to three options per product and up to 2,048 variants, according to its help centre, so most WooCommerce variable products fit, but products with four or more attributes need a decision. Shopify’s WooCommerce guide warns that products with more than three options will not have their options imported by its Store Migration app.
Take a kurta listed with size, colour, sleeve length and fabric. On Shopify, size, colour and sleeve become options, and fabric becomes a metafield shown on the product page, or the product splits into two products by fabric. We pick based on how customers search and filter: if “cotton kurta” and “rayon kurta” are separate searches, separate products usually serve them better.
Other product details need care too. WooCommerce categories become Shopify collections (manual or automated by tag), grouped products become bundles or linked products, and downloadable products need a digital delivery app. Short and long descriptions merge into one body with clear headings. Image order, alt text and variant images are checked on a sample, because a wrong swatch image costs sales quietly for months.
Custom fields
Plugin fields such as size charts, ingredients or warranty text move into Shopify metafields with definitions, so your team can edit them in the admin.
SKUs and barcodes
SKU, GTIN and weight carry across per variant; weight matters because shipping rates and courier labels depend on it.
What happens to customer accounts and passwords in a WooCommerce to Shopify migration?
Customer names, emails, phone numbers, addresses and order links move across; passwords do not, because WordPress stores them as one-way hashes. Shopify’s newer customer accounts avoid the problem: its help centre says customers enter their email and receive a one-time six-digit code, and “a password isn’t required to sign in”.
That makes the switch far gentler than it used to be. A returning buyer types their email at login, receives a code and sees their imported order history, with no reset email campaign needed. If your theme still uses the older password-based accounts, we plan a short, friendly email explaining the change and linking straight to the account page.
Marketing consent needs its own attention. We import each customer’s email and SMS marketing status as it was recorded in WooCommerce and your email tool, not as a blanket opt-in. Customers who never agreed to marketing stay unsubscribed. Tags such as “wholesale”, “repeat buyer” or “COD blocked” carry over, so segments and discount rules keep working on day one.
Can you migrate orders from WooCommerce to Shopify?
Yes, historical orders can be migrated from WooCommerce to Shopify, but only through a third-party migration app or the API; Shopify’s CSV importer does not handle orders. Imported orders show in the admin and in customer accounts, but they are records, not live orders to fulfil again.
Decide how far back you need. Some owners want every order since launch for lifetime-value reporting; others want the last two years for customer service and returns. More orders mean longer imports and higher tool tiers. WooCommerce stores that use High-Performance Order Storage, which WooCommerce made the default for new installs from version 8.2, keep orders in dedicated tables, and we check that the chosen tool reads them correctly.
Keep your own archive regardless. Before the switch we export full order data from WooCommerce to CSV or a database backup that you keep, because GST records, invoices and accounting reconciliations should not depend on how a migration app formatted a line item. Order numbers can be kept so customers quoting “order 10482” on WhatsApp still make sense to your team, and new Shopify orders start above your last WooCommerce number.
Moving reviews, subscriptions and plugin data
Reviews and subscriptions are where most WooCommerce to Shopify migration plans are thinnest. Shopify’s WooCommerce guide says plainly that you cannot export reviews from WooCommerce into Shopify directly; you install a review app and import them there, usually from a CSV export matched to product handles or SKUs.
We export reviews with the rating, reviewer name, date, text and product, clean obvious spam, and import them into the review app you choose, keeping original dates. Photo reviews need the image URLs to be reachable during import. We also make sure only one app outputs review structured data, so Google does not see conflicting ratings.
Subscriptions are harder because payment tokens belong to the payment provider, not to WooCommerce. Shopify offers its own Shopify Subscriptions app, and its help centre describes importing and exporting subscription contracts, but renewals only continue without customer action if the payment details can legally and technically move between providers. For many Indian stores the practical plan is to import the subscriber list, then invite each customer to re-confirm their plan on the new checkout before their next renewal date.
- Wishlists: export and re-import only if the new wishlist app supports it
- Gift cards and store credit: recreate balances as Shopify gift cards
- Coupons: rebuild as Shopify discount codes with the same rules
- Loyalty points: move balances through the new loyalty app’s import
URL redirect mapping: how to keep SEO in a WooCommerce to Shopify migration
Every URL that Google has indexed or that other sites link to needs a 301 redirect to its closest Shopify equivalent. WooCommerce URLs such as /product/cotton-bedsheet/ or /product-category/bedding/ become /products/cotton-bedsheet and /collections/bedding, and blog posts gain a /blogs/news/ prefix.
We build the map from four sources: the WooCommerce database, your XML sitemaps, Search Console’s page and link reports, and a crawl of the live site. That catches URLs a sitemap alone misses: old category paths, tag archives, paginated URLs and attachment pages that picked up links over the years. Each row gets a destination chosen by a person, not by a “send everything to the home page” rule.
Shopify’s redirect tool accepts CSV imports and allows up to 100,000 redirects on standard plans and 20,000,000 on Plus, according to its help centre. It also notes that redirects only work from broken URLs, so a redirect from a path that still resolves does nothing. After import we crawl the old URL list against the new domain and fix every chain, loop or 404 before switching DNS. For stores that want deeper SEO support afterwards, our Shopify SEO expert page explains the ongoing work.
Will I lose Google rankings after migrating from WooCommerce to Shopify?
You should not lose rankings permanently if every indexed URL redirects correctly and the content on each page stays at least as good, but a short wobble is normal. Google’s site-move documentation says to expect ranking fluctuations while it recrawls and reindexes, and advises keeping redirects for at least a year.
Most lasting losses after a WooCommerce to Shopify migration come from avoidable mistakes: category pages replaced by empty collections, long product descriptions trimmed to fit a new template, titles and meta descriptions reset to defaults, internal links still pointing at old paths, or image URLs that changed without redirects for image search traffic.
We protect against those by carrying over titles, meta descriptions, descriptions and category text; rebuilding structured data in the Shopify theme; updating internal links inside product and blog content to the new paths; and submitting the new sitemap in Search Console right after the switch. If you keep the same domain, Search Console’s Change of Address tool is not needed; Google says it applies only when moving to a different domain or subdomain.
Week one after launch
Daily checks of Search Console coverage, 404 reports and a crawl of the old URL list.
Weeks two to eight
Weekly comparison of clicks and impressions for top pages against the same weeks before the move.
Rebuilding payments, shipping and taxes for Indian buyers
Payments and shipping do not migrate; they are set up again on Shopify and tested with real orders. Shopify Payments is not offered in India according to Shopify’s list of supported countries, so Indian stores use a third-party payment provider that supports UPI, cards, net banking and wallets, and Shopify’s India pricing page notes that third-party transaction fees may apply, at a rate that depends on your plan.
We shortlist providers that work with Shopify in India, you open the merchant account in your business name, and we connect it and run test and small live transactions across UPI, a debit card and net banking. Cash on delivery is configured as a manual payment method with any pincode or order-value limits you already use.
Shipping zones, weight-based or price-based rates, free-shipping thresholds and courier integrations are rebuilt to match what customers saw on WooCommerce, because a surprise change in delivery charges on launch day looks like a price rise. Tax settings are configured to your accountant’s instructions; we set up the store, and GST treatment stays your accountant’s call. Invoices can be produced through a GST invoice app that your accountant approves.
Zero-downtime cut-over: how switch day actually works
A zero-downtime cut-over keeps WooCommerce taking orders until the last possible moment, syncs whatever changed since the main import, then points the domain at Shopify. Customers see either the old store or the new one, never an error page.
The main import runs a week or two before launch into the Shopify store, which stays password-protected while you review it. On switch day we agree a short freeze window, usually a low-traffic evening, when product edits stop on WooCommerce. We run a delta sync for new orders, customers and stock changes, import the redirect CSV, remove the storefront password, and update DNS records at your domain registrar to Shopify’s values.
DNS changes can take time to reach every network, so a few visitors may still land on WooCommerce for a while. We keep WooCommerce in a mode that still accepts orders during that window and check it afterwards for stragglers, which we add to Shopify by hand. Then WooCommerce is put into maintenance mode, but the hosting and database stay available for at least a few weeks as a safety net and archive.
- T minus 14 days: full import into the password-protected Shopify store
- T minus 7 days: your team reviews products, prices, emails and checkout
- Switch evening: freeze, delta sync, redirects, DNS change, test orders
- T plus 1 to 30 days: crawl checks, Search Console monitoring, fixes
How much does a WooCommerce to Shopify migration cost in India?
With BtechWaleTech, ecommerce projects including a WooCommerce to Shopify migration start at ₹50,000 (US$750 for clients outside India). Other freelancers and agencies quote very differently for what sounds like the same job, and the gap usually comes down to what is excluded: order history, redirects beyond the top pages, reviews, or any testing after launch.
Five measurable things move the quote. Catalogue size and variant count. The number of indexed URLs that need individual redirects. Whether historical orders and reviews must come across. The number of plugins adding behaviour that Shopify will need an app or custom code for. And the theme: using a well-chosen theme with light customisation costs far less than recreating a bespoke WordPress design pixel for pixel.
Running costs change too. You stop paying for WordPress hosting, premium plugin renewals and some developer time; you start paying a Shopify subscription, app subscriptions and payment provider charges. We list those running costs in the quote so you can compare the two years ahead honestly. For a wider view of Shopify budgets, see Shopify store cost in India.
How long does a WooCommerce to Shopify migration take?
Most WooCommerce to Shopify migration projects fall inside our usual ecommerce window of 4 to 8 weeks. A simple catalogue on a ready theme sits at the short end; custom features, many plugins, large order histories and your review speed push it toward the long end.
The calendar is rarely set by the import itself, which can run in hours. It is set by decisions: how to map awkward products, which apps replace which plugins, what the new theme should look like, and how quickly your team checks the test store. Payment provider onboarding can also take days, so we ask you to start that application in week one.
A realistic split looks like this: one week of audit and mapping, one to three weeks of theme and app setup, a week of test imports and fixes, a week of your review, then the switch and a month of monitoring. We give you a dated plan with the quote, and flag early if anything on your side, such as missing product photos, puts a date at risk.
Ownership, access and handover after the migration
You own the Shopify store, the domain, the payment provider account, every app subscription and all exported data. We work through a collaborator or staff account with limited permissions, and you can remove it whenever you like.
Before we start, you create the Shopify store in your name, or we create a development store and transfer ownership to you before launch; either way billing sits with you from the first paid day. Your WooCommerce hosting, database backups and full CSV exports stay with you too, so the old store can be consulted or restored later.
At handover you receive the redirect sheet, the data mapping document, a list of installed apps with what each replaces, admin notes for common tasks (adding products, running a sale, handling COD returns), and login-free access to everything we used. Two months of free maintenance follow launch, then maintenance continues from ₹8,000/mo a month if you want it; our Shopify maintenance page lists what that covers.
WooCommerce to Shopify migration for stores across India
We run every WooCommerce to Shopify migration remotely, and Indian stores share a few common needs whatever the city: UPI at checkout, COD rules by pincode, GST invoices, Hindi or regional-language product names, and pages that load well on budget Android phones over mobile data.
Kitchen and appliance sellers in Coimbatore, diamond and textile traders in Surat, organic food brands in Pune, orange and snack sellers in Nagpur, handicraft stores in Jodhpur, sports goods makers in Jalandhar, ayurvedic brands in Thiruvananthapuram and fashion labels in Hyderabad often started on WordPress because it was cheap to begin with, then outgrew the upkeep.
Language and search terms matter during the move. If product names mix English and Hindi (“pital ka diya”, “cotton ki bedsheet”), we keep those words in titles and handles where your buyers search that way, so the new URLs still match real queries. We work in English and Hindi, over WhatsApp and calls, from 7 days a week messaging to scheduled review sessions.
Worked example: a hypothetical WooCommerce to Shopify migration for a kitchenware store
Say a Coimbatore kitchenware brand runs WooCommerce with 650 products, 2,100 variants, 38,000 past orders, 1,400 reviews, a subscription plugin for monthly spice boxes and around 5,000 indexed URLs. This is an illustration of how we would plan a WooCommerce to Shopify migration, not a client story or a promised result.
Mapping: size, material and finish become Shopify options; capacity in litres becomes a metafield used in filters; a “grouped” cookware set becomes a bundle. Orders from the last three years come across for service and returns; the full history stays in a WooCommerce export the owner keeps. Reviews go into a review app with original dates, and the 120 spice-box subscribers are invited to re-confirm on Shopify before their next renewal.
SEO: the 5,000 URLs come from the database, sitemaps and Search Console. About 900 tag and attachment URLs with no traffic redirect to their parent collection or product; every product and category URL gets its exact match. Titles, descriptions and category copy move over unchanged at first, so any ranking shift can be traced to the platform move rather than content edits.
Switch: a Tuesday evening freeze of 90 minutes, delta sync, redirect import, DNS change and four test orders across UPI, card, net banking and COD. Then a month of daily and weekly checks before the WooCommerce hosting is finally cancelled.