The Shopify migration checklist: from old platform to launch day

A store migration has four jobs. Move the data, keep the rankings, rebuild the checkout and integrations, and launch without losing orders. The first two are where stores get hurt, because a missed redirect or a broken product import is hard to spot until traffic falls.

Allow time. A straightforward move to a premium theme takes 4 to 6 weeks in our Launch package, and a bespoke build with a full redirect map takes 8 to 10 weeks in Custom. Platform-specific notes live on our migration pages for WooCommerce, Neto and Maropost, BigCommerce, Magento, Wix and Squarespace.

1. Step 1

   Audit the old store

   Export a list of every indexed URL from Search Console, your analytics and a crawl of the live site. Note your top pages by traffic and revenue. Record page titles, meta descriptions, and any content that is not in the platform database, such as hand-built landing pages. This is the baseline you will compare against.

2. Step 2

   Decide what to move and what to retire

   Not every product, page or blog post needs to come across. Remove discontinued products with no traffic and no backlinks. Merge thin pages. A smaller, cleaner catalogue is easier to manage and faster to load.

3. Step 3

   Clean and export the data

   Export products, variants, images, collections, customers, orders, discount codes, gift cards, reviews and blog posts. Fix inconsistent SKUs, duplicate handles and missing images before import, not after. Check barcodes and weights, since shipping rates depend on them.

4. Step 4

   Build the redirect map

   List every old URL and the new Shopify URL it should land on. Match product to product, category to collection, blog post to blog post. Where there is no equal, send the visitor to the closest relevant page, not the home page. Keep this in a spreadsheet with old URL in one column and new URL in the next.

5. Step 5

   Set up the Shopify store

   Choose and configure the theme, add the structure of navigation and collections, and import the data. Set up GST, shipping zones, payments and taxes. Our guides cover GST, shipping and payments.

6. Step 6

   Carry over the SEO details

   Copy page titles and meta descriptions, rewrite them where they are weak, and keep the same URL handles where you can. A product at /products/blue-shirt that used to live at /product/blue-shirt needs a redirect, but one that keeps the same words in the URL keeps more of its context. Run through our Shopify SEO checklist as well.

7. Step 7

   Rebuild integrations

   List every system the old store talked to: accounting, inventory, shipping labels, email, reviews, loyalty, subscriptions, marketing pixels. Decide which become Shopify apps, which use native features and which you retire. Install and test each one on the development store.

8. Step 8

   Test on a staging store

   Run through the test plan below with real devices and real test orders. Do this before you announce a launch date, not the week of.

9. Step 9

   Freeze changes and plan the cutover

   Agree a content and product freeze on the old store for a short window before launch. Choose a quiet time, such as a weekday morning, not a sale weekend. Write a launch-day script with who does what.

10. Step 10

    Launch

    Follow the launch-day list below. Keep the old store accessible for a few weeks if you can, in case you need to look up an order or a product detail.

11. Step 11

    Monitor for the first 90 days

    Watch Search Console, analytics and orders daily in the first week, then weekly. Fix new 404s fast.

Google's guidance for moving a site with URL changes is clear. Build a complete list of old URLs and where each should go, implement server-side permanent redirects such as 301 or 308, avoid redirect chains, and test them. Google also says to keep redirects for at least a year, and to consider keeping them indefinitely.

How to load redirects in Shopify

• In Shopify admin, go to Content, then Menus, then URL redirects, and choose Import. Upload a CSV, review it and import. A sample file is available to download as a template.
• Standard stores can hold up to 100,000 redirects. Plus stores can hold up to 20,000,000.
• A redirect only works on a URL that currently returns an error. If the old URL still loads a valid page on Shopify, the redirect will not apply.
• Some paths cannot be redirected, including those starting with /apps, /cart, /orders, /services and /shop, and the fixed paths /products, /collections and /collections/all.
• A .html URL cannot redirect to the same URL without .html, and URLs with query strings may not behave as expected.
• Browsers and search engines cache 301 redirects, so a redirect you remove may keep working for some visitors for a while.

Place at least one live test order with a real card and refund it. A sandbox order proves the flow works. A live order proves your payment account, tax settings and shipping label setup are correct.

1. Step 1

   Lower DNS time to live

   A day or two ahead, reduce the TTL on your domain records so the switch takes effect quickly. Note your current DNS records, including email.

2. Step 2

   Take final data from the old store

   Export orders and customers placed since the first import, and import the new ones. Stop new orders on the old store at the agreed time.

3. Step 3

   Point the domain at Shopify

   Update your A record and www CNAME as Shopify instructs, and set your primary domain. Leave your email records alone.

4. Step 4

   Load the redirects

   Import the redirect CSV as soon as the domain is connected. Test ten old URLs straight away.

5. Step 5

   Remove the password page

   Take the storefront password off. Check that the SSL certificate is active and the site loads on https.

6. Step 6

   Submit the sitemap

   In Search Console, add sitemap.xml for your domain. Google says that once the new sitemap is submitted you can remove the old one.

7. Step 7

   Place a final live order

   Buy one low-cost item, check the confirmation email, then refund it.

8. Step 8

   Tell your customers

   If customers need new logins, email them with a link to reset their password.

Expect some movement. Google says to expect temporary ranking fluctuations after a move, and that for a medium-sized site it can take a few weeks or more for new URLs to replace the old ones. Do not panic in the first fortnight, but do check the data.

• Sitemaps report: the new sitemap should gradually show more indexed pages.
• Pages report: watch for a rise in not found (404) or redirect errors, and fix the cause.
• Performance report: compare queries and clicks by page with your pre-launch baseline.
• Crawl stats and server errors: look for spikes after launch.
• Analytics: compare organic sessions and revenue week on week against the same period before launch.
• Customer service inbox: broken links and login problems usually show up here first.

If an important old URL is returning 404 in Search Console, add it to your redirect list and re-test. If you want a team to run the migration and watch the data for you, see our Shopify migration service or get in touch.