How to Migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify (Step by Step)

Can you migrate a WooCommerce store to Shopify?

Yes. Shopify documents WooCommerce as a supported migration path, and most of your store data can move: products, customers, historical orders and content. What doesn't move cleanly is anything tied to WordPress itself, like plugins, theme code and customer passwords.

The work isn't the export button. It's the cleanup: mapping WooCommerce attributes to Shopify options, rebuilding what plugins used to do, and redirecting every URL that has rankings or backlinks.

What migrates from WooCommerce to Shopify (and what doesn't)?

Core commerce data migrates; platform-specific features have to be rebuilt. Here's how each data type usually behaves, based on Shopify's WooCommerce migration guide and its general migration documentation.

Why passwords don't transfer

Passwords are stored as one-way hashes, so they can't be carried across platforms in a usable form. On Shopify's current customer accounts this matters less than it used to: customers sign in with their email and a one-time 6-digit code instead of a password, per Shopify's customer accounts documentation. Still, tell customers in advance that the store has moved and how login works now.

Product options and variants

Shopify allows up to 3 options per product (for example size, color, material) and, since October 2025, up to 2,048 variants per product. Shopify's guide notes that WooCommerce products with more than 3 attributes won't have their options imported. Extra attributes that don't create variants usually belong in metafields instead.

Which migration tool should you use?

Use CSV for small, clean catalogs, a migration app for anything with orders or a few thousand SKUs, and a partner when the store has custom logic. The options:

• Shopify's Store Migration app: free, built by Shopify, and lists WooCommerce among supported sources for product and customer data. Shopify's help center describes it as early access for certain stores, so check availability in your admin.
• Manual CSV import: export from WooCommerce (products via the built-in exporter; customers and orders via a plugin such as Import Export Suite), reformat to Shopify's templates and import. Free, but customer CSVs must match Shopify's headings exactly because there's no column mapping.
• Third-party migration apps: LitExtension, Cart2Cart and Matrixify handle orders, reviews and more. Matrixify has a dedicated WooCommerce process and can import redirects, pages and blog posts. LitExtension offers a free demo with a small sample of products, orders and customers.
• A Shopify Partner: worth it when you have custom product builders, subscriptions, B2B pricing or heavy SEO equity to protect.

Our take: run a test migration of a small batch first, whatever tool you choose. Mapping problems show up in the first 20 products, not the last 2,000.

How do you migrate WooCommerce to Shopify, step by step?

Work in this order so data links correctly and nothing goes live half-finished.

1. Audit the current store. Export a list of all indexed URLs (from your XML sitemap, Google Search Console and analytics), top landing pages, plugin list and key settings.
2. Clean the catalog. Remove dead products, fix missing SKUs and decide how each WooCommerce attribute maps to a Shopify option, tag or metafield.
3. Import products. Deselect publishing to all sales channels on import so nothing appears before it's checked. Convert weights to grams if you're using the CSV route.
4. Verify products. Spot-check prices, variants, inventory, images and descriptions against WooCommerce. Shopify's inventory column only works for single-location stores; multi-location inventory uses a separate CSV.
5. Import customers. Use ISO country and province codes and keep marketing consent accurate.
6. Import historical orders. Turn off staff new-order notifications first, since imported orders can trigger them.
7. Rebuild the storefront. Theme, navigation, collections, pages, policies and app replacements for your WordPress plugins.
8. Configure operations. Shipping, taxes, payments, notifications and staff accounts. Place test orders.
9. Build the redirect map and import it. More on this below.
10. Run a delta migration and switch the domain. Import orders and customers created since your first import, disconnect the domain from the old host and connect it to Shopify.

How do URLs change, and how do you set up 301 redirects?

Nearly every WooCommerce URL changes, because Shopify uses fixed prefixes you can't remove. Without redirects, old links return 404 errors and rankings drop.

WooCommerce's default category base is product-category, per its permalink documentation. In Shopify, you add redirects under Content, Menus, View URL redirects, or import them in bulk with a CSV. Standard plans support up to 100,000 redirects and Shopify Plus up to 20 million, according to Shopify's URL redirect documentation. Redirects only fire when the old URL would otherwise 404.

Map each old URL to its closest equivalent, not to the homepage. Google recommends keeping redirects in place for at least a year, ideally longer, in its site move guidance. Our full process is in the Shopify migration SEO checklist.

How long does a WooCommerce to Shopify migration take?

A small store with a clean catalog can move in a couple of weeks; stores with thousands of SKUs, years of orders and custom plugins typically take one to three months. The data import itself is usually the fast part.

What drives the timeline:

• Number of products, variants and attributes that need remapping
• Whether you're keeping your theme look or doing a new design
• How many plugins need a Shopify app or custom replacement
• The size of the redirect map and how much SEO traffic is at stake
• Integrations with ERP, inventory, email or accounting tools

If you're still deciding whether to switch at all, read our Shopify vs WooCommerce comparison first.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Redirecting everything to the homepage instead of matching URLs one to one.
• Forgetting SEO titles, meta descriptions and image alt text stored in plugins like Yoast, which don't always come across with the product record.
• Importing orders before customers and products.
• Launching without testing checkout, taxes and transactional emails.
• Cancelling WordPress hosting on launch day. Keep a backup of the old site for a few months.

How we can help

We migrate WooCommerce stores to Shopify end to end: data, design, app replacements and the redirect map, all set up under your own Shopify account. If you'd like a second pair of eyes on your plan, see our Shopify migration service or get in touch.