How to Migrate from Shopify to WordPress/WooCommerce

Moving from Shopify to WooCommerce is a significant project but it’s manageable with the right plan. Common reasons for migrating: lower costs at scale, more design control, better content marketing capabilities, or the desire to own your platform completely.

This guide covers the full migration process — products, customers, orders, SEO, and launch.

Before You Start: Pre-Migration Checklist

Before moving a single file, complete this checklist:

• Export all Shopify data (products, customers, orders)
• Set up WordPress and WooCommerce on a staging environment
• Document all your Shopify URLs (product pages, collection pages, blog posts)
• Note your current Google Search Console data and rankings
• Inform your payment processor of the platform change
• Back up everything on Shopify before touching anything

Never migrate directly on your live Shopify store. Build and test on staging first.

Step 1: Set Up WordPress Hosting and WooCommerce

Choose managed WordPress hosting optimized for WooCommerce:

• Kinsta — best for high-traffic stores
• WP Engine — excellent managed WooCommerce hosting
• SiteGround — best value managed WooCommerce

Install WordPress, then install WooCommerce from Plugins > Add New. See our getting started with WooCommerce guide for the full setup.

Step 2: Choose Your Theme

Select a WooCommerce-compatible theme that matches your existing brand identity. Key options:

• Flatsome — closest equivalent to many Shopify themes for clothing and general merchandise
• Astra — most flexible, excellent starter templates
• Woodmart — best for large product catalogs

See best WooCommerce themes for a full comparison.

Step 3: Migrate Products

Method A: Automatic Migration (Recommended)

Use the Cart2Cart or LitExtension migration service:

1. Install Cart2Cart or LitExtension on your new WordPress site
2. Connect to your Shopify store via API
3. Select what to migrate (products, customers, orders)
4. Run the migration

These tools handle image migration, category mapping, and metadata. Paid but worth the cost for larger catalogs.

Method B: Manual CSV Import

1. In Shopify admin: Products > Export → Export all products to CSV
2. In WooCommerce: Products > Import → Import the CSV file
3. Map Shopify CSV columns to WooCommerce fields

Limitations: Images need separate migration. Order and customer history requires additional steps.

Step 4: Migrate Customers and Orders

Customer and order history can’t be imported via WooCommerce’s built-in importer. Use Cart2Cart or LitExtension, which supports full order history migration.

Note: Migrated customers will need to reset their passwords — WooCommerce uses a different password hashing system than Shopify.

Step 5: Set Up Payment Gateways

Shopify Payments doesn’t work outside Shopify. Set up equivalent payment gateways:

• Stripe for WooCommerce — equivalent to Shopify Payments; same card processing
• PayPal — same as Shopify’s PayPal integration
• WooCommerce Payments — Stripe-powered, native WooCommerce option

Step 6: Configure Shipping

Recreate your Shopify shipping zones and rates in WooCommerce > Settings > Shipping. If you used Shopify Shipping for discounted USPS/UPS rates, sign up for similar discounts via EasyPost, ShipStation, or WooCommerce Shipping.

Step 7: SEO Migration — The Critical Step

This is where migrations go wrong if done carelessly. A poor URL migration will destroy your Google rankings.

1. Map All Shopify URLs to New WooCommerce URLs

Shopify URL structure:

• Products: /products/product-name
• Collections: /collections/collection-name
• Blog posts: /blogs/news/post-title

WooCommerce URL structure:

• Products: /product/product-name or /shop/product-name
• Categories: /product-category/category-name
• Blog posts: /blog-post-title/ (or your custom structure)

Create a spreadsheet mapping every Shopify URL to its new WooCommerce URL.

2. Set Up 301 Redirects

In WordPress, use the Redirection plugin or Rank Math’s Redirections to create 301 redirects from every old Shopify URL to the new WooCommerce URL.

A 301 redirect tells Google: “This page has permanently moved. Transfer all the SEO value to the new URL.”

3. Update Your Sitemap in Google Search Console

After launch, submit your new WooCommerce sitemap to Google Search Console. Remove the old Shopify sitemap property if possible.

4. Monitor Rankings Post-Launch

Expect some ranking fluctuations for 4–8 weeks as Google processes the migration. If rankings haven’t recovered after 3 months, audit your redirects for errors.

Step 8: Testing Before Launch

Before pointing your domain at the new WordPress site:

• All products visible and purchasable on staging
• Checkout completes successfully (test with real card)
• Shipping rates calculating correctly
• Email notifications sending (use WP Mail SMTP)
• All redirects from old Shopify URLs working
• Mobile layout looks correct
• Page speed tested (PageSpeed Insights)

Step 9: The Launch

1. Point your domain DNS to your new WordPress hosting
2. Update Shopify to redirect all traffic to your new domain (Shopify allows setting a redirect when you remove the domain)
3. Monitor Search Console for crawl errors
4. Watch your Google Analytics traffic for 48–72 hours post-launch

Post-Migration Optimization

With WordPress, you now have access to the full SEO and performance optimization stack:

• Install Rank Math for comprehensive SEO optimization
• Configure WP Rocket for caching and performance
• Set up daily backups with UpdraftPlus

Read our WooCommerce SEO guide and how to speed up WooCommerce for the next steps.

Useful resources:

• Cart2Cart migration service
• LitExtension migration service
• Redirection WordPress plugin
• WooCommerce documentation