Once your Shopify store reaches its limits on customization and flexibility you have two options, pay a lot more for a higher Shopify monthly plan or migrate Shopify to WordPress with WooCommerce as the store, which is the most common choice because it removes the platform limits and keeps your data under your control.
As a Toronto-based web company, IDL Web Inc can help with your Shopify to WordPress migration, the data transfer or a custom WooCommerce build, ask for a FREE audit or a FREE quote and we will tell you what your store needs.
Shopify to WordPress Migration Steps
Follow these steps in this order and keep the Shopify store live until the new WooCommerce store passes every test.
Backup your Shopify store
Make a backup of the Shopify store and the database, then analyze the website architecture and list every plugin and feature you use. Also record your URLs, your theme settings and your payment setup, so nothing is missing when you rebuild the store.
Set up WordPress and WooCommerce
Find a theme with the closest features or order custom WordPress development, then set up a WordPress and WooCommerce staging environment or let a web development company do it for you.
Choose the migration method
Decide between a plugin, a manual migration or a hybrid of both, keeping in mind that a paid WordPress plugin is your best bet to get complete data migrated to WordPress.
Migrate and review the data
Migrate the database, complete the import and review the imported data, then run step by step QA testing of every feature and check how the old data, especially the order history, was migrated.
Set up payments
Set up a payment gateway in WooCommerce, connect it to your bank account and check the processing, then compare fees and payment methods and choose the options that suit your customers by location.
Move catalog, blog and pages
Move the product catalog and attributes with care for product feedback, specific measures and price history, because plugin based migration often loses that data, then move the blog and pages such as About Us, Contact Us and Privacy Policy.
Test the full flow
Test the complete flow including signup, login, add to cart, checkout and payment completion, then check the SEO fields, the URLs, the 301 redirects and the 404 page.
Deploy to live
Deploy the staging site to the live environment once it is fully tested and ready to go. Keep the Shopify store available until the final checks and the redirects are confirmed, so no customer meets a broken page.
In some situations even paid plugins cannot migrate all your data from an existing Shopify store, so hire a web company that can import the Shopify XML export file correctly or move the data with a custom migration API. A custom solution has no limits and lets you build functionality on WooCommerce that was not possible on Shopify because of the platform core limits.
Checklist Once You Moved Shopify to WordPress
Once you confirm the migration was done properly you can go on with further plugins, setups and API integrations.
- Verify how the data migrated, checking for missing data, incorrect data or an incorrect structure.
- QA test all the features and how they work if WordPress and WooCommerce are already set up.
- Check the SEO fields, the URLs, the 301 redirects and the 404 page.
Worried about losing data or SEO in the move?
IDL Web Inc can audit your Shopify store, list the products, plugins and URLs that have to move and tell you what the migration to WordPress will take before you start.
Core Plugins to Migrate Shopify to WordPress
A couple of plugins were created especially to transfer data from Shopify to WordPress and WooCommerce while general migration plugins can also move one CMS to another.
S2W plugin
S2W is one of the most popular Shopify to WordPress plugins. It imports unlimited products with variations, attributes, category mapping, product status, images and detailed migration logs. The more customized your WordPress is the less a plugin can cover, so migrate the data before the customization to save time and costs.
Cart2Cart plugin
Cart2Cart has the most uploads and reviews. It is a bit more complicated to set up than S2W but more precise in data migration, it transfers products, customers, orders, categories and reviews with customizable field mapping, bulk product import and variation and image migration. For big stores it is better to migrate manually or build a specific plugin or API.
How to Estimate Migration Costs and Save Budget
- Analyze your Shopify catalog, the attributes structure and the amount of data you need to transfer.
- Choose and set up your next CMS and create the product categories and attributes structure as it is now in Shopify.
- Gather an estimate of the data migration process and calculate the cost of any additional plugins, tools or developer hours.
- Be ready for hidden costs such as QA testing, fixing missing data and restructuring data that was not transferred well.
How IDL Web Inc Helps Keep Your Shopify Migration Cost Down
- We keep the structure of your data (products, orders, articles) as it is and restructure it after the migration, so you do not pay twice.
- We use highly rated migration tools and test them first, because free tools can create a lot of issues and raise the cost later.
- We compare a plugin, a manual and a custom migration for your store, so you pay for the method that fits your data.
- We plan and schedule the work and track the progress after each step, so the budget stays on track.
Want to know what your Shopify migration will cost?
Send an IDL Web Inc consultant your store details and have your estimate by the end of the same day.
How IDL Web Inc Can Help
You can migrate the store yourself with the steps above, however, most Shopify stores have data or features that a plugin cannot move and that is where IDL Web Inc helps at every stage of the migration. We are a Canadian company and we help businesses in both Canada and the USA.
Auditing your Shopify store
We list your products, plugins, features and URLs and plan what has to move, so the migration to WordPress starts with a clear scope and budget.
Migrating to WordPress
We move your products, customers, orders and content to WooCommerce, see our migration to WordPress service for the full process.
Building custom WooCommerce features
If Shopify could not do something your store needs, we build it on WooCommerce, see our WordPress custom development services.
WordPress maintenance after launch
We keep WordPress, WooCommerce and your plugins updated and backed up with our WordPress maintenance and support plans.
Don't forget
Remember to always back up your Shopify store and database before each migration step. There are three main methods, a migration plugin, a manual data transfer or a custom plugin or API, while a hybrid of two or all three often works best for big websites with complex data.
The cost of a migration varies greatly, so plan the scope of features and the range of data first and then decide whether to outsource or keep it in-house based on the skills of your team in both CMSs. If you would rather not do it yourself, leave it to the WordPress developers at IDL Web Inc, ask for a FREE audit or a FREE quote and we will tell you exactly what your store needs. IDL Web Inc is a Canadian company that serves businesses in Canada and the USA. Keep up with us to know more of WordPress news/fixes!
Schedule Consultation with An Expert
IDL Web Inc can help with your Shopify to WordPress migration, the data transfer or a custom WooCommerce build, ask for a FREE audit or a FREE quote and we will tell you what your store needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I transfer my website from Shopify to a different platform?
Yes, you can migrate from Shopify to another CMS or website builder, usually with a plugin or a manual export from Shopify of the database, products, articles, purchase history and customer logins, then you plan the import into the new CMS.
How to transfer a Shopify store to WordPress?
Choose the ecommerce plugin to install with WordPress such as WooCommerce, set up WordPress with the plugin, create the catalog structure as a full copy of your Shopify catalog to avoid missing data, import the products, purchase history, customer data and articles, then check how the data migrated and export anything that was missed manually.
How much does it cost to migrate Shopify to WordPress?
A simple migration can start from $500 and rise to thousands for customized and big websites. The cost is made of the migration plugin (from about $60), the database migration (hourly, $100 per hour and more), the migration process itself and the fixing of missing or wrong data, so create a road map of the information to migrate and ask a web development agency for an estimate.
What is the best Shopify to WordPress migration plugin?
S2W is the most popular plugin to migrate from Shopify to WordPress, you can also try Cart2Cart, WP All-in-One Migration and the WooCommerce migration plugins.
