What to know before you migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify

Moving from WooCommerce to Shopify makes sense when you want hosting, scaling and security handled for you, but it is not always worth it for heavily customised stores. Check which critical features Shopify supports, migrate your content with a proven app, and set up 301 redirects so your SEO survives the move.

WooCommerce has long been a favourite ecommerce platform for us because it is easy to use, highly extendable and free. If you have a WordPress website and you want to sell online, it is a no-brainer.

However, over the last three to five years Shopify has really upped its game and given many people the ability to set up online stores quickly and easily. A number of our WooCommerce clients have recently considered moving to Shopify, hence this article.

WooCommerce is great. It is open source (free, in other words) and has hundreds of plugins for everything from gift cards and integrations to online bookings and multiple payment gateways. For this reason we have loved using it and recommending it to our clients.

The main issue is that you have to manage hosting and updates, keep WordPress up to date and, in some cases, fix bugs and conflicts. One of the biggest problems store owners find is server related: slow sites, lost revenue, and then a struggle to fix it.

This is why many people consider moving to Shopify.

What is the main reason to move to Shopify?

Things like the server and scalability are baked in, so you do not have to worry about them. Shopify also has abandoned cart messages, detailed analytics and a good level of security built into the platform.

Taking this into account, many store owners decide to migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify and resolve these problems once and for all.

Moving is not always the right call, and the grass is not always greener. If you have done a lot of customisation on your WooCommerce store, moving to Shopify can be more complex and in some cases not worth it.

The power of WordPress and WooCommerce is that you can dig into the code and tweak it to fit your use case. Although you can edit Shopify templates and even create custom apps, other areas such as the cart are locked off.

Shopify also has limits on variations (100 per product, although we have read this was going to be increased at some point).

So before moving, do an in-depth analysis of the critical features your store has and whether Shopify can support them.

When you first decide to move to Shopify you are greeted with a fairly smooth set-up process. It takes a few minutes to create your development store, and you (or your web developers) can start on design straight away. There is no complex coding or server set-up: register and away you go.

Look at Shopify themes when you begin. There is now a solid range of professional themes, although they can cost more than WooCommerce ones. Shopify's theme builder is easy to get to grips with, and once you know how templates work you can create some decent designs with the right theme.

As you build your pages you should find that page load speed is good (depending on the complexity of your site), and Shopify also compresses and converts your images when you upload them.

The biggest hurdle is actually moving your content. That means pages, blogs, products, images and categories, and in some cases customers and orders too. Doing this manually can be frustrating and time-consuming unless you are very diligent with your CSV uploads.

We have used a variety of tools and find that the MigrationPro app is one of the best. Their chat support is great, and connecting your old store to the new one is very simple. Using an app will save you considerable headache.

Bear in mind that categories are called collections in Shopify, and they are not hierarchical like in WooCommerce. There are a few other quirks, but with support from MigrationPro it should make your life somewhat easier.

Do you need 301 redirects when you move?

Yes. One thing many people forget is making sure your old store URLs redirect to your new store. Products and pages may have different URLs on Shopify, so you need 301 redirects that send visitors using old links to the right place.

This prevents broken links (404 errors) and helps make sure your SEO is not affected too badly. Shopify has this feature built in, and MigrationPro also offers the service.

If you are thinking of moving your WooCommerce store to Shopify and have no idea where to begin, get in touch with us. We have completed a few migrations now, of various complexities, and we can build and manage the entire process for you through our Shopify development and ecommerce development services.

Our main aim is a good-looking, modern store on Shopify that does not lose important data from WooCommerce. A professional migration saves you time and money and lets you focus on more interesting things, like new site design and winning more customers.