Shopify Migration Checklist [2026]

Why a Checklist Makes the Difference

A platform switch to Shopify is a project with hundreds of individual steps. Products, customers, orders, content, SEO data, integrations, DNS — everything must be coordinated. Without a structured checklist, things get forgotten. And forgotten things cost time, money, and rankings after go-live.

This checklist covers the entire migration process — from inventory to data migration to post-launch monitoring. It works for switches from WooCommerce, Magento, Shopware, Jimdo, and any other platform to Shopify.

For the SEO-specific part, read our pillar article on Shopify migration and the redirect mapping guide.

Phase 1: Inventory (4-8 Weeks Before Go-Live)

Data Inventory

Count products: How many products, variants, collections exist?
Customer count: How many customer accounts exist? Will passwords be migrated?
Order history: How far back should orders be carried over?
Content pages: Blog articles, landing pages, static pages — create complete list
Media: Product images, banners, downloads — assess storage requirements

SEO Baseline

URL inventory: Crawl all indexed URLs (Screaming Frog + Search Console)
Ranking baseline: Document top keywords and top traffic URLs
Backlink audit: Identify URLs with external links
Meta data export: Export titles, descriptions, alt texts

Technical Inventory

Integrations: Which apps/plugins/APIs are in use? (Payment, shipping, ERP, CRM)
Custom functions: Is there custom code or plugins that need to be rebuilt in Shopify?
Email system: Newsletter tool, transactional emails — how are they configured?
Analytics: Google Analytics, tracking pixels, conversion tracking

Shopify Plan and Setup

Choose Shopify plan: Basic, Shopify, Advanced, or Plus — based on requirements
Create store and set up team access
Choose theme or plan custom theme
Identify apps: Which Shopify apps replace existing functionality?

Phase 2: Data Migration (2-4 Weeks Before Go-Live)

Products

Export product data (CSV or API export from old platform)
Clean data: Inconsistent fields, missing SKUs, duplicate entries
Prepare Shopify import: Adapt columns to Shopify CSV format
Check variants: Are all variant options correctly transferred?
Product images: Export images and upload to Shopify
Metafields: Identify custom fields and create as Shopify Metafields
Set up collections: Configure automatic and manual collections
Test import: Import first 10-20 products and verify

Customers

Export customer data (name, email, address, tags)
GDPR check: Is there consent for the data transfer?
Password migration: Shopify cannot import passwords from other systems — customers must reset passwords
Customer groups/tags: Recreate segmentation in the new system
Test import: Import 5-10 customers and test checkout function

Orders

Export order history (if desired)
Import to Shopify: Orders can be imported via API — but only as archived orders
Decision: Import old orders or archive in old system?

Content

Blog articles: Export texts, images, meta data and convert to Shopify blog format
Static pages: Create About, FAQ, Contact etc. as Shopify Pages
Category texts: Fill collection descriptions with SEO-relevant texts
Media: Upload all images to Shopify media library

Phase 3: SEO Migration (Parallel to Phase 2)

Create redirect mapping: Old URL → New URL for every indexed page
Transfer meta data: Titles and descriptions for all important pages
Check canonical tags: Shopify sets canonicals automatically — watch for edge cases
Structured data: Implement schema markup (Product, BreadcrumbList, Organization)
XML sitemap: Shopify generates automatically — check if all URLs are included
robots.txt: Check Shopify default, adjust if needed
Hreflang tags: Set correct language tags for multi-language stores
Internal linking: Build navigation and cross-links in the new store

Phase 4: Technical Migration (1-2 Weeks Before Go-Live)

Integrations

Payment provider: Set up and test Shopify Payments or external provider
Shipping: Configure shipping rules, zones, prices
Tax settings: Configure VAT rules correctly (EU, international)
ERP/CRM: Set up interfaces and run test orders
Email: Customise transactional emails (order confirmation, shipping etc.)
Newsletter: Integration with Klaviyo, Mailchimp, or other tool

Testing

Test orders: Place at least 5 orders with different scenarios
Checkout flow: Test complete purchase process
Mobile: Test entire store on different devices
Speed: Check PageSpeed Insights / Lighthouse
Cross-browser: Test Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge
Forms: Test contact forms, newsletter signup

Phase 5: Go-Live

On Launch Day

DNS changeover (set TTL to 300s beforehand)
SSL certificate activated and verified
All 301 redirects activated
noindex tags removed (double-check!)
robots.txt updated
New sitemap submitted to Search Console
Analytics verified: Tracking works on new domain?
Top 20 URLs manually checked: Redirect correct? Content present?

Phase 6: Post-Launch Monitoring (1-12 Weeks)

First 48 Hours

Check Search Console for crawl errors
Identify 404 pages and add missing redirects
Request indexing of new sitemap
Brief customer service: common questions about the new store

First Week

Monitor rankings of top 30 keywords daily
Compare traffic with previous week
Compare conversion rate
Catch new 404 errors

First Month

Check indexing status of all important URLs
Check backlink profile: links transferred to new URLs?
Collect and implement customer feedback
Compare performance metrics (load times, Core Web Vitals)

Platform-Specific Notes

WooCommerce to Shopify

WooCommerce URLs have no fixed prefix like Shopify. Product pages often sit directly under the domain (/blue-jacket/), while Shopify expects them under /products/blue-jacket. The redirect mapping must cover every URL individually.

Magento to Shopify

Magento stores are often larger and more complex. Challenges: deeper category hierarchies than Shopify supports, custom attribute sets that need to be mapped as metafields, and multi-store setups that need to be converted to Shopify Markets.

Shopware to Shopify

Shopware uses SEO URLs that often sit directly under the domain. Like WooCommerce, every URL must be individually mapped.

Realistic Timelines

Project Type	Duration	SEO Effort
Small store (<200 products)	3-5 weeks	1 week
Medium store (200-2,000 products)	6-10 weeks	2-3 weeks
Large store (>2,000 products)	10-16 weeks	4-6 weeks
International store (multiple markets)	12-24 weeks	parallel

Summary

A platform switch to Shopify is achievable and worthwhile — when systematically planned. This checklist gives you the structure to ensure nothing is forgotten. The most critical points: complete redirect mapping, clean data migration, and consistent post-launch monitoring.

Further reading: Shopify Relaunch: Preserve Rankings | Relaunch SEO Audit | Shopify Migration Hub