Direct answer: a WooCommerce-to-Shopify migration should be designed as a data transfer and architecture rebuild, not as an automatic copy of the old website. Before importing anything I inventory data, URLs, plugins, integrations and workflows that must continue to work.
What can be migrated from WooCommerce to Shopify?
I map products, variants, customers, categories, content, images, indexed URLs and, when the project requires them, useful historical data. I do not assume every WordPress or WooCommerce object has a native equivalent: what does not is redesigned with metafields, metaobjects, an app or a suitable integration.
Account credentials should not be treated as a normal transferable field. The customer account flow must be designed around the Shopify account system actually used, including activation or a new login flow when necessary.
What should not be copied from the old site
Plugins, shortcodes, builders and WordPress workarounds are not transferred by inertia. For every feature I first check whether Shopify already provides it, then whether a suitable app exists, and only after that whether custom development is justified.
A migration is also an opportunity not to carry unused code, duplicated taxonomies and obsolete processes into the new store.
How I protect SEO during the migration
Before go-live I collect URLs that receive traffic, backlinks or are present in the index and build a coherent old URL → new destination map. I also check titles, main content, canonicals, internal linking and the sitemap.
301 redirects help transfer signals to the new structure, but nobody can guarantee identical rankings and traffic after a platform change. Monitoring therefore continues after launch with Search Console and site crawls.
Products, variants and categories
WooCommerce and Shopify model catalogs and taxonomies differently. Before import I normalize SKUs, options, variants, images and attributes. Categories and tags are not converted mechanically: I decide which become collections, filters, metafields or content.
Do payments, shipping and taxes migrate?
I do not treat them as simple records to copy. Gateways, shipping rules and tax configuration must be rebuilt and verified in the Shopify context, using the providers and markets actually served by the merchant.
Before launch I test representative checkout cases instead of considering the migration complete when the catalog is merely visible online.
Theme and features
The frontend is rebuilt on Shopify Online Store 2.0. Brand identity and useful content can be preserved without copying WordPress's technical structure. If a feature requires a backend, APIs or persistent data, I design it as an app or integration instead of forcing it into the theme.
How I organize pre-launch tests
- trial import with representative data;
- check products, variants, images and collections;
- verify customers and account flow;
- test payments, shipping, taxes and emails;
- crawl URLs and verify redirects;
- test key templates on mobile and desktop;
- check tracking and integrations;
- plan the data delta between the trial and final launch.
What I check after migration
After the switch I monitor 404s, redirects, indexing, checkout errors, orders, feeds and integrations. I do not consider go-live the end of the project: early checks are meant to catch differences that a staging environment cannot always reproduce.
How long does a WooCommerce → Shopify migration take?
There is no correct duration for every project. It depends on catalog, customers, content, number of URLs, plugins to replace, integrations and data quality. I define the scope first and then the testing and release sequence.
I am Francesco Guiducci, a freelance Shopify expert and Shopify app developer. I handle migrations on Basic, Grow and Advanced plans.
Updated September 6, 2026.
