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A WooCommerce to Shopify migration checklist covers four phases: planning (plugin audit, backups, URL list), building (import products and customers, replace plugins, set up payments and shipping), launch day (final data sync, redirects, domain switch, test order) and the first 30 days (redirect checks, Search Console, customer emails). Tick each item before moving on.
Last updated: October 2026
Key takeaways
- Most migration problems start in planning: a forgotten plugin, a missing URL, or orders placed after your export.
- Plan a final data sync on launch day for orders and customers that came in while you were building.
- Don't switch platforms in the weeks before Black Friday or your busiest season.
- Customer passwords and reviews never transfer automatically. Plan for both.
- The work isn't finished at launch. Check redirects and Search Console for the first 30 days.
This checklist is the companion to our step-by-step guide to migrating WooCommerce to Shopify, which explains how to do each task. Print this page or copy it into a spreadsheet and tick items off as you go.
Phase 1: Plan before you export anything
Do this while WooCommerce is running normally. It usually takes a day or two and saves weeks of fixes later.
- ☐ Pick your launch date. Avoid the six weeks before Black Friday and any other peak season. If you're already close, finish your Black Friday prep on WooCommerce and migrate in January.
- ☐ Take a full backup of your WordPress site and database, and store it somewhere other than your host.
- ☐ List every plugin and what it does for customers. Mark each one: replace with a Shopify app, built into Shopify, or no longer needed.
- ☐ Flag the hard ones: active subscriptions, memberships, bookings, wholesale pricing, product add-ons and custom code. Confirm the Shopify replacement can do the same job before you commit.
- ☐ List every URL that matters from your sitemap and Google Search Console, especially pages with clicks or links from other sites.
- ☐ Save your SEO details for top pages: page title, meta description and main heading.
- ☐ Note open money: unused gift card balances, store credit and unfulfilled pre-orders. These need a plan of their own.
- ☐ Check your email setup. If your mailbox runs through your WordPress host, plan where it will live after the move.
- ☐ Decide what you'll move: products, customers, past orders, reviews, blog posts. Moving past orders usually needs a paid app.
Phase 2: Build your Shopify store
WooCommerce stays live and keeps taking orders the whole time.
- ☐ Create your Shopify store and choose WooCommerce as your current platform during sign-up, so Shopify can offer its migration tools. You can start a free Shopify trial for this.
- ☐ Export products from WooCommerce as a CSV, and customers and orders with an export plugin.
- ☐ Reformat the files to Shopify's templates. Convert weights from pounds to grams (multiply by 453.6), split option values into separate rows, and use two-letter country codes for customers.
- ☐ Keep product handles the same as your WooCommerce slugs.
- ☐ Import a test file of ten products, check them, then import the rest with publishing to sales channels switched off.
- ☐ Spot-check ten random products against WooCommerce: title, price, variants, images, weight and stock.
- ☐ Import customers, and past orders with a migration app if you need them.
- ☐ Re-import reviews into a reviews app, keeping original names, dates and wording.
- ☐ Install replacement apps from your plugin list, and only those.
- ☐ Set up your theme, logo, colors and menus.
- ☐ Rebuild key pages: homepage, About, Contact, FAQ, and blog posts that get traffic.
- ☐ Add policies: shipping, refunds, privacy and terms.
- ☐ Set up payments. Use Shopify Payments if it's available in your country, and add PayPal if your customers use it.
- ☐ Recreate shipping zones and rates for every country you sell to.
- ☐ Set up taxes, including whether prices include tax.
- ☐ Turn on your abandoned checkout email and check its wording. Our guide to reducing abandoned checkouts covers the settings.
- ☐ Recreate gift cards and store credit for customers with open balances.
- ☐ Build your redirect map: old WooCommerce URL in one column, new Shopify URL in the next. For example, /product/blue-mug/ goes to /products/blue-mug.
- ☐ Import the redirects in Shopify under Content, then Menus, then URL Redirects.
- ☐ Place test orders on phone and laptop, including shipping, tax and a discount code, then refund them.
- ☐ Check speed on mobile for your homepage, a collection and a product page.
Phase 3: Launch day run sheet
Pick a quiet day of the week. Work through these in order.
| Order | Task | Done when |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Put WooCommerce into maintenance mode, or pause checkout | No new orders can come in on the old store |
| 2 | Export orders and customers created since your first export | You have a file of everything new |
| 3 | Import that final batch into Shopify | Shopify's customer and order counts match WooCommerce |
| 4 | Update stock levels | Shopify inventory matches what's on your shelves |
| 5 | Point your domain to Shopify and set it as primary | The domain shows as connected in Shopify. Allow up to 48 hours for DNS changes |
| 6 | Remove the Shopify store password | The store opens for anyone without a password |
| 7 | Test your top 20 old URLs | Each lands on the right Shopify page, not an error or the homepage |
| 8 | Place one real order and refund it | Order, payment, confirmation email and refund all work |
| 9 | Submit your sitemap in Google Search Console | yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml is submitted |
| 10 | Update links in your social profiles, email footer and marketplaces | Every profile points to the live store |
Some migration apps offer a paid option to transfer only new records since your first migration. If you used an app, check for it before step 2.
Phase 4: The first 30 days
- ☐ Email your customers to say the store has moved and that they'll set a new password the first time they log in. Include a direct link to the login page.
- ☐ Check Search Console weekly for "not found" errors, and add a redirect for every old URL that had traffic.
- ☐ Watch your Pages report as new Shopify URLs get indexed and old ones drop out. Google says this can take a few weeks for a small to medium site.
- ☐ Compare sales and conversion rate with the same weeks before the move. If they dip and stay down, our guide to finding why a Shopify store isn't converting shows where to look.
- ☐ Update internal links in blog posts and pages from old WooCommerce paths to new Shopify URLs.
- ☐ Keep your WooCommerce backup and cancel hosting only after 30 days with no surprises.
- ☐ Leave your redirects in place. Google advises keeping them for at least a year.
Common mistakes this checklist prevents
| Mistake | What happens | Checklist item that stops it |
|---|---|---|
| Migrating in peak season | Problems hit when traffic is highest | Pick your launch date |
| Forgetting a plugin | A feature customers rely on disappears | List every plugin |
| No final sync | Orders placed during the build are missing in Shopify | Launch day steps 1 to 3 |
| No redirects | Old links break and rankings fall | Build and import your redirect map |
| Gift card balances lost | Customers can't spend credit they paid for | Note open money |
| Silent launch | Customers can't log in and don't know why | Email your customers |
If you're in the UK, EU or Australia
Add two items to Phase 2: check that prices import with VAT or GST handled the same way as on WooCommerce, and confirm the local payment methods your customers use are available in Shopify. Update your privacy policy to name Shopify and any new apps that process customer data.
Do it yourself or have it done for you
Do it yourself: if your store is small and your plugin list is short, this checklist and our step-by-step guide are all you need. Start a free trial and work through Phase 1 this week.
Have it done for you: if your list includes subscriptions, custom code or hundreds of products, Komrex, a Shopify store design agency, can run the whole migration and launch day for you. Our team has built 900+ Shopify stores. See our migration service, or book a $50 video consultation to go through your plugin list with us first.
Frequently asked questions
What should I do before migrating from WooCommerce to Shopify?
Back up your WordPress site, list every plugin and what will replace it on Shopify, export a list of URLs that get traffic, and note any gift card balances, store credit or subscriptions. Pick a launch date away from your busiest season. Doing this first means fewer surprises once you start importing data.
How do I avoid losing orders during the migration?
Keep WooCommerce live while you build, then on launch day pause checkout on WooCommerce, export every order and customer created since your first export, and import that final batch into Shopify before you switch the domain. Check that the order and customer counts match on both platforms before you go live.
Should I put my WooCommerce store in maintenance mode during migration?
Only on launch day, and only for as long as the final sync and domain switch take. Keep the store open while you build on Shopify, so you don't lose sales. Pausing checkout for a few hours on a quiet day stops new orders landing on the old store after your last export.
When should I cancel my WooCommerce hosting?
Wait at least 30 days after launch. Keep a full backup of your site and database first. That gives you time to spot missing products, orders or pages, and to check your redirects in Search Console. Once everything has run smoothly for a month, download a final backup and cancel.
What can't be migrated from WooCommerce to Shopify?
Customer passwords, your WordPress theme and your plugins don't move. Reviews can't be exported directly and go into a reviews app instead. Past orders need a migration app. Gift card balances and store credit need recreating in Shopify. Everything else can come across with CSV files or an app.
Print this checklist, put a date next to each phase, and start your plugin list today.
