WooCommerce to Shopify migration

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Sometimes I get quote requests for migrating a WooCommerce store over to Shopify. I can provide a ballpark figure after getting clarity in some areas, namely:

• Which official Shopify theme (or well maintained third party theme) fits the design requirements?
• How much data needs to be brought over (pages, posts, products, coupons, categories, customers, order histories)?
• Which services (Apps) are needed in the new environment?
• Will the WordPress or WooCommerce site remain online for certain traffic?

Ballpark cost estimates

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In order to get a more accurate estimate, I first need to put together a project plan where we agree on our solution, which I then break down into tasks and line item estimates. Here’s general items to cover:

• General approach
  • Shopify best fits more standardized stores that can take full advantage of its built-in tools.
  • Shopify has less core and App updates than WooCommerce, but it has more theme updates.
  • Themes are powerful though less customizable as they control more and have more opinionated designs.
  • To un-complicate theme updates I never edit theme code, instead use the Theme Customizer.
    • Avoid getting lost in theme code and Apps, just use things as they were intended.
    • I use App Embeds to insert features site-wide or into specific templates.
  • Shopify Payments is a must to avoid extra fees and to get full support and use of the built-in toolset.
    • Getting approved for Shopify Payments also gets your products listed in the Shop App.
• It only takes a few hours to setup a Shopify store with an official theme (e.g. the default theme is Dawn).
  • A bigger portion of my time gets spent in these areas:
    • home page design
    • product & coupon imports
    • product collections & sorting
    • customer data
    • App setups
    • other pages & contents
    • custom metadata and interface tweaks
• App necessities
  • You only need a handful of Apps in Shopify as they have 99% of the typical needs built right in.
  • We can connect the existing Klaviyo, GA4, Google Shopping, and product review service accounts.
  • Some services like GA4 offer a separate data stream for subdomains.
  • Hybrid set-ups that sell the same product on multiple sites long term need canonical URLs set to enhance SEO.
• Options to consider
  • Shopify has an optional customer import (which will send emails), but offers no order importing anymore.
  • Order histories can be imported via third party Apps or over the API, but it has some limitations, less common to do.
  • You can keep basic WooCommerce in a reduced state for a year or two for historic order access.
  • Deciding whether to keep WordPress
    • When there’s a content marketing strategy, it’s typical to keep the WordPress site for the blog and other SEO contents.
    • Hybrid set-ups with Shopify on a subdomain require similar designs so the customer can’t tell as they navigate.
    • If launching Shopify on the main domain we’ll need to set-up redirects and migrate pages and posts.
• Next steps
  • I first spin up a free dev site and get their feet wet with it.
  • Later I pre-launch on shop subdomain for a period at least, if not permanent use on subdomain.
  • As soon as I transfer the free dev site ownership we all lose access until client pays for a plan.

Beware that agencies who provide up-front pricing are quoting off-the-shelf project plans that never quite fit a store’s unique circumstances, and usually cost more over time due to inefficient Apps and decisions, theme hacking, and leaving messes behind for somebody like me to clean up later.

In summary, I can help folks ease into change and save them a truckload of money by making wise decisions and releasing changes in smaller chunks.

Are you in this boat? Email me for a free consultation!