Migrating to Shopify involves transferring your entire online store (products, customers, orders, content) from your current platform to Shopify, without interrupting sales or sacrificing SEO. Allow 6 to 10 weeks on average for a well-executed migration, including an SEO redirection plan.
At Stellar Projects, we have supported over 50 migrations to Shopify since 2018, from PrestaShop, WooCommerce, Magento, Wix, and about fifteen other platforms. None of our clients experienced lasting traffic loss during the switch, for a simple reason: URL redirects are anticipated from day one of the project, not handled the day before going live. This page brings together everything these projects have taught us: the 8-step process, the preparation checklist, the redirection plan, and our 20 detailed guides, CMS by CMS.
Summary
Why migrate to Shopify?
Businesses migrate to Shopify when their current platform hinders growth: blocked features, increasingly expensive maintenance, recurring bugs, or impossible redesigns. Shopify addresses all four of these problems at once, which is why the question of migration comes up every month in our discussions with e-merchants.
Specifically, here are the situations that most often trigger a migration for our clients:
- Your CMS no longer supports your growth. A growing catalog, international sales, a B2B channel to open: when every evolution becomes a development project, the platform has become the bottleneck.
- Your total cost of ownership is spiraling. Hosting, licenses, paid modules, security updates, emergency developer interventions: these costs often exceed the cost of a Shopify subscription, which includes hosting, security, and updates.
- You want to automate. Shopify connects natively to hundreds of tools (ERP, accounting, logistics, CRM) and automates repetitive tasks that cost you hours each week.
- Technical problems are multiplying. A SaaS platform like Shopify centralizes security and stability: no more sleepless nights because of a plugin breaking the payment funnel.
- Your store deserves a better visual. Thousands of themes and a modern editor allow you to build a site that reflects your brand, without relying on a provider for every modification.
If you are still hesitating between modernizing your current site and changing platforms, our analysis redesign or Shopify migration provides a complete decision-making framework, criterion by criterion.
Our 8-step migration process
A successful migration always follows the same process: audit, backup, configure, import, customize, redirect, test, launch. This is the process we apply to each of our projects, regardless of the starting platform.
- Audit and framing. Inventory of existing elements: catalog, customer accounts, order history, content, specific functionalities, and current SEO performance. This is where the rest of the project is determined.
- Data backup and export. A complete copy of the original store is made before any manipulation, then the data is exported in formats usable by Shopify.
- Shopify store configuration. Administrative settings, taxes, currencies, shipping zones and methods, payment methods: the technical foundation is laid before importing anything.
- Data import and mapping. Products, variants, customers, orders, and content are imported and then verified line by line. Mapping ensures that each field from the old system finds its place in Shopify.
- Design and functionalities. Choice or creation of the theme, integration of your brand identity, installation of applications that replace your old modules.
- SEO redirection plan. Each old URL is 301 redirected to its new Shopify address. This is the number one point of vigilance, detailed below.
- Tests and acceptance. Test orders, complete customer journey, verification of transactional emails, control of imported data, and mobile performance.
- Go-live, training, and monitoring. Domain name switch, monitoring of Google positions in the first weeks, and training of your teams on the back-office.
For a narrative and detailed version of this process, including the pitfalls specific to each phase, read our article Shopify migration: our agency's guide.
20 migration guides, CMS by CMS
Each platform has its own export formats, pitfalls, and shortcuts. We have therefore written a dedicated guide for each of the 20 platforms we encounter most often in projects. Select yours:
| Original Platform | Migration Specificity | Dedicated Guide |
|---|---|---|
| PrestaShop | The most frequent migration in France, pay attention to modules and parameterized URLs | Migrate from PrestaShop to Shopify |
| WooCommerce | Native CSV export on the WordPress side, vigilance on extensions and the blog | The WooCommerce to Shopify guide |
| Magento | Most complex migrations: large catalogs, multi-stores, connected ERPs | Leaving Magento for Shopify |
| BigCommerce | Similar data structures, facilitated transfer by import tools | BigCommerce to Shopify |
| Shopware | Widespread platform in Europe, specific mapping of product attributes | Switching from Shopware to Shopify |
| Wix | Recovery of editorial content and redesign of product structure | Migrate from Wix to Shopify |
| Squarespace | Limited export, careful reconstruction of pages and catalog | Squarespace to Shopify |
| Webflow | Retention of original design or redesign on Shopify theme | Webflow to Shopify |
| Weebly | Often simple stores, quick migration with good preparation | Leaving Weebly for Shopify |
| Jimdo | Manual catalog export, redirects to build one by one | Jimdo to Shopify |
| WiziShop | French solution, product sheet and SEO recovery | WiziShop to Shopify |
| Lundi Matin | Cash register and stock synchronization to be reconfigured on the Shopify side | Lundi Matin to Shopify |
| e-monsite | Complete migration of content and SEO | e-monsite to Shopify |
| Wshop | Specialized guide for this French solution | Wshop to Shopify |
| Drupal Commerce | Rich content to remap, critical redirects | Drupal Commerce to Shopify |
| Ecwid | Store integrated into an existing site, switch to a standalone store | Ecwid to Shopify |
| OpenCart | SQL export to transform, catalog cleanup recommended | OpenCart to Shopify |
| Octave | French e-commerce ERP, close coordination with the editor | Octave to Shopify |
| SiteW | Reconstruction of the catalog and content pages | SiteW to Shopify |
| Sylius | Custom framework, essential technical framing | Sylius to Shopify |
Are you still hesitating between keeping PrestaShop and switching to Shopify? Our PrestaShop or Shopify comparison, rated criterion by criterion with 4 client migrations to back it up, will help you decide before choosing your guide.
The pre-migration checklist
90% of migration problems are prevented even before opening the Shopify account. Here is the checklist we systematically go through at the start of a project, and which you will find implicitly in each of our 20 guides:
- Back up the entire original store: database, files, images, theme. No manipulation begins without a backup copy.
- Inventory the data to be transferred: number of references and variants, customer accounts, order history, content pages, blog articles, customer reviews, promo codes.
- Map all existing URLs: a complete export (crawl + Search Console) which will serve as the basis for the 301 redirection plan.
- List active functionalities and integrations: modules, payment methods, ERP or logistics connectors, to identify their Shopify equivalents.
- Freeze content developments: from the data export, any change on the old site will have to be manually replicated. It is better to reduce the window to the strict minimum.
- Inform your teams and providers: accounting, logistics, marketing. A migration affects the entire company, not just the website.
This preparation determines the actual duration of the project: a well-inventoried store migrates quickly, while a poorly known store holds surprises at every step.
SEO and redirects: the point that decides everything
The question that comes up in all our meetings: "will I lose my SEO when migrating?". The answer is no, on one condition: an exhaustive redirection plan, prepared before the switch. Of over 50 migrations supported since 2018, none of our clients have experienced a loss of organic traffic related to the switch.
This result is due to three anticipations that many projects neglect:
- Catalog changes. Between the start of the project and going live, products appear, disappear, or change names. The redirection plan must evolve with the catalog, not freeze a snapshot taken eight weeks earlier.
- Shopify's new URL structure. Shopify imposes its prefixes (/products/, /collections/, /pages/, /blogs/): each old URL must be individually remapped to its new address, not mass redirected to the homepage.
- Subdomains and subfolders. Blog on a subdomain, international version in a subfolder, old customer area: these forgotten perimeters are the primary source of traffic leaks after a migration.
We also take advantage of each migration to propose a content rationalization plan. Google now penalizes sites that accumulate low-value-added pages or cannibalize each other: migrating is the best time to merge, redirect, and start with a healthy architecture. This is an exercise we have just applied to our own site, merging dozens of satellite pages into strengthened pillar pages.
To learn more about optimizing your future store's SEO, consult our Shopify SEO guide.
Duration and budget according to complexity
A Shopify migration lasts between 4 and 16 weeks depending on the catalog size, the number of integrations, and the design ambition. The average observed on our projects is between 6 and 10 weeks, including redirection plan and acceptance testing.
| Migration Profile | Examples of Platforms | Observed Duration | What impacts the budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple: small catalog, few integrations | Wix, Squarespace, Jimdo, Ecwid | 4 to 6 weeks | Theme and content recovery |
| Standard: structured catalog, established SEO | PrestaShop, WooCommerce, WiziShop | 6 to 10 weeks | Redirection plan, custom design, apps |
| Complex: large volumes, ERP, B2B, multi-stores | Magento, Shopware, Sylius, Octave | 10 to 16 weeks | Integrations, voluminous data recovery, extended testing |
Regarding budget, everything depends on the level of support: an independent migration is limited to the cost of the subscription and a few applications, while an assisted project can cost thousands of euros, with the counterpart of securing SEO and data. We have detailed the ranges and cost items on our dedicated page: what budget to expect for migrating your store to Shopify.
Migrating alone or with an agency?
Migrating alone is feasible for a small store with no SEO stakes: Shopify's import tools are well-designed and our guides cover every step. However, as soon as your organic traffic generates revenue, your catalog exceeds a few hundred items, or business tools are connected to your store, support changes the project's risk level.
An agency brings three things that no import tool can replace: experience with the pitfalls specific to each CMS, responsibility for the redirection plan, and a single point of contact who coordinates data, design, and SEO while you continue to sell. This is exactly the role we play at Stellar Projects as a Shopify agency.
"We switched from Prestashop to Shopify at the end of 2022 with the Stellar team, and it was the best decision for our business (50% growth in 2023). We have since launched 5 new sites with them, with a project time of less than 2 months each time."
Noé Feretti, Digital Director
Other feedback from migrated clients can be found on our client testimonials page. And if you're preparing a migration, let's talk: contact our team for a free project assessment, or first discover what Shopify can bring to your store.