Migration is mostly about not losing three things
Moving platforms sounds scary, but it comes down to protecting three assets: your products, your customers, and your search rankings. Get those across cleanly and the rest is just setup. Here's how to switch from Shopify or WooCommerce without dropping any of them.
Export everything first
Before you touch a new platform, pull a full export from the old one. Products with image links, variants, and prices. Customers with contact details and consent. Orders for your records. Both Shopify and WooCommerce export to CSV. This file is your safety net - keep it somewhere safe.
What a Shopify export gives you
| Data | How it exports | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Products | CSV, emailed if any product has over 100 variants | Image files are not in the file, only links |
| Customers | CSV from Customers, then Export | Consent columns for email, SMS and WhatsApp |
| Orders | CSV; large exports are emailed to you and the store owner | Very large exports can take hours |
Save your product images before you close
Shopify's product export does not include your image files. The CSV holds links to where the images sit now. Those links only help while the images stay publicly available. So download your images before you close the old store. WooCommerce's importer has a similar rule. Images must be uploaded already or reachable online. It cannot use links behind redirect scripts, such as some cloud-storage share links. Keep a full image folder on your own drive, named to match your products.
Import products cleanly
Import products into the new store from your CSV. Check the fields that break most often: variants, prices, images, and stock counts. Import a handful first, confirm they look right, then bring in the rest. A careful test batch saves you re-doing hundreds of listings later.
Leaving WooCommerce? Mind the server limits
WooCommerce has a built-in CSV exporter and importer under Products. It handles products and their variations. In an export, the first image listed is the featured image. Large files depend on your server's memory, upload limits and processing time. If an export stalls, split it into smaller batches, or ask your host to raise the limits. For very large catalogues, WooCommerce points to a paid import extension.
Bring customers with consent intact
Move your customer list, but respect marketing consent. Only keep people who opted in as opted in. This keeps you on the right side of the rules, and it protects your sender reputation on day one instead of risking spam complaints.
Match consent column by column
Shopify's customer export has a column for each channel. Accepts Email Marketing, Accepts SMS Marketing and Accepts WhatsApp Marketing each hold yes or no. Treat each channel on its own. A buyer who said yes to email may have said no to WhatsApp. Map each column to the matching field on your new platform. If the new platform has no field for a channel, keep those buyers off that channel's list rather than guess.
Protect your SEO with redirects
This is the step most people miss. Your old product and page URLs carry rankings and backlinks. If the new URLs differ, set up redirects from old to new so search traffic and links follow you. Skip this and you can lose months of hard-won ranking overnight.
Build your redirect map before launch
- List every old product, collection and page URL from your exports and sitemap.
- Write the new URL next to each old one in a spreadsheet.
- Import the list as 301 redirects on the new platform.
- After launch, open a sample of old URLs in a browser.
- Fix any that land on an error page the same day.
How long to keep redirects
Keep them for a long time. Google's Search Console help, in its guide to moving a site, recommends 301 redirects from your old pages. It says to keep the redirects for at least 180 days, and longer if Google still sends traffic to the old URLs. Old links also live in Instagram bios, WhatsApp chats and supplier catalogues. So there is little reason to ever delete a redirect that still works.
Changing your domain at the same time?
If you also move to a new domain, tell Google. Search Console's Change of Address tool is for moving from one domain or subdomain to another, like example.com to example.org. It is not for moving pages around within the same site. So if you keep your domain and only change platform, the tool does not apply. The page-by-page redirects above do that job instead.
Pick a quiet day to switch
Timing matters as much as the steps. Avoid the festive season and any week you plan a sale. Pick a weekday when orders are usually low. Take your final export that morning, then stop editing products on the old store so nothing changes after the copy. Fulfil any open orders from the old store before you move. That way no buyer falls between two systems on switch day.
Test payments and tax before you launch
- On the new store, place a real test order end to end.
- Check UPI, cards, and COD.
- Confirm GST is applied correctly.
- Confirm the invoice is right.
- Fix anything now, on a quiet store, not later with live customers watching.
Switch over, then watch
Point your domain at the new store and keep the old data safe for a while. Watch orders, search traffic, and errors closely for the first couple of weeks. Keep the old export until you're completely sure everything landed.
Reconnect everything the old store touched
- Connect your payment gateway and place one live order.
- Link your courier account and check pickup addresses.
- Submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console.
- Update the store link in your Instagram bio and WhatsApp profile.
- Tell opted-in buyers by email that the store has a new home.
Read your first week's numbers
Compare the first week on the new store with a normal week on the old one. Look at orders per day, the share of COD, and failed payments. In Search Console, check clicks from Google and any pages reported as not found. A small dip is normal while search engines catch up. A sharp drop on one page usually means a missing redirect, so fix that page first.
Where The Storemate helps
The Storemate is built to receive a move like this. Import your customer list and your redirect map from CSV files, get UPI, cards, and COD live, and generate GST-correct invoices from the first order. Slug-rename redirects help your SEO follow you across. Start free, migrate a test batch, and switch when it all checks out.