Your WooCommerce to Shopify Migration Will Fail Without These 5 Critical Steps

Critical Step 1: The “Data Anatomy” Audit (Pre-Flight)

Before you move a single byte of data, you must understand *what* you are moving. WooCommerce databases are notoriously messy. Years of installing and deleting plugins leave “orphan data” in your `wppostmeta` table.

The Problem: Hidden Dependencies

You might think an Order is just an Order. But in WooCommerce, an Order is linked to:

• A User ID (Customer)
• A Product ID (Line Item)
• A Variation ID (Color/Size)
• A Coupon ID (Discount)
• A Payment Token (Stripe/PayPal)

If you migrate Orders without migrating Coupons first, the order totals won’t match. If you migrate Products without migrating Variations correctly, the order history will show “Product Deleted.”

The Protocol

1. Map the Schema: Create a spreadsheet listing every field you need. (e.g., Customer Phone, Order Note, Subscription Renewal Date).
2. Audit Source Data: Run SQL queries to find “NULL” values. Do 20% of your customers lack a phone number? Do 5% of your products have duplicate SKUs?
3. Sanitize: Fix the duplicate SKUs in WooCommerce before you export. You cannot fix them in transit.

Expert Insight: We often find that 10-15% of WooCommerce “products” are actually old drafts or trash. Deleting them pre-migration saves days of cleanup later.

Critical Step 2: The SEO “Bridge” Construction

This is where businesses die. If you do not build a bridge for your Google rankings, they will fall into the abyss.

The Problem: URL Mismatches

• WooCommerce: example.com/shop/mens/blue-shirt-v2
• Shopify: example.com/products/blue-shirt-v2

Google has indexed the WooCommerce URL. If you launch the Shopify site without telling Google “The page moved here,” Google will send traffic to a 404 Error. After a few days of 404s, Google de-indexes the page. Your traffic drops to zero.

The Protocol

1. The “Crawl”: Use Screaming Frog to crawl your live WooCommerce site. Save the list of every URL that returns a “200 OK” status.
2. The Matrix: Build a “Redirect Matrix” spreadsheet.
   • Column A: Old Relative Path (/shop/mens/blue-shirt/)
   • Column B: New Relative Path (/products/blue-shirt)
3. The Upload: Import this CSV into Shopify’s “URL Redirects” section.
4. The “Wildcard” Trap: Do NOT just redirect everything to the homepage. Google hates this (it’s called a “Soft 404”). You must redirect Product to Product, Category to Collection.

Critical Step 3: The “Sandbox” Validation Phase

You would never fly a plane without testing the engines. Yet merchants launch stores without testing the data.

The Problem: The “Looks Good” Fallacy

You glance at the new Shopify store. The homepage looks good. The products are there. You think you are ready. But:

• Does the “Reset Password” link work for imported customers?
• Do the “Related Products” widgets actually link to live products, or broken IDs?
• Does the Tax calculation match the old store?

The Protocol

We build a Staging Sandbox. It is a password-protected duplicate of your future store.

1. The “Shadow” Import: We import all data into the Sandbox.
2. The User Acceptance Test (UAT): We give your team a checklist.
   • “Log in as Customer X.”
   • “Try to buy Product Y.”
   • “Check the Order History of Customer Z.”
3. The Verification: We do not proceed to launch until the UAT checklist is 100% green.

Critical Step 4: The Integration “Handshake”

Your store does not live in isolation. It talks to Klaviyo, Yotpo, ShipStation, and NetSuite.

The Problem: Broken Pipes

On launch day, you get an order. But ShipStation doesn’t see it. Why? Because the API keys weren’t swapped. Or, a customer buys a product, but Klaviyo doesn’t send the “Thank You” email. Why? because the “Placed Order” metric wasn’t re-mapped.

The Protocol

1. The Ecosystem Map: Draw a diagram of every tool connected to your store.
2. The “Auth” Refresh: Generate new API Keys for Shopify.
3. The “Dry Run”:
   • Connect Klaviyo to the Sandbox.
   • Place a test order.
   • Verify: Did Klaviyo receive the event? Did the flow trigger?
   • Verify: Did ShipStation pull the order?

Critical Warning: Ensure you turn off “Transactional Emails” in your old WooCommerce platform right before launch, or customers might get double emails (one from Woo, one from Shopify) during the transition window.

Critical Step 5: The “Delta” Migration (The Final Cutover)

This is the step that prevents data loss during the transition.

The Problem: The “Gap” Orders

• Day 1: You export data from WooCommerce.
• Day 2-14: You build the Shopify store. Customers are still buying on WooCommerce.
• Day 15 (Launch): If you launch with the data from Day 1, you have lost 2 weeks of orders.

The Protocol

1. The Initial Load: We migrate 99% of data in Week 1.
2. The Freeze: On Launch Day (e.g., Tuesday at 9 AM), we put WooCommerce into “Maintenance Mode.” No new orders can be placed.
3. The Delta: We run a targeted script to fetch only the Customers and Orders created/modified since the Initial Load.
4. The Merge: We import these “Delta” records into Shopify.
5. The Switch: Only after the Delta is confirmed do we update the DNS to point to Shopify.

The Cost of Skipping Steps

We recently audited a brand that skipped Step 2 (SEO Redirects).

• Pre-Migration: 50,000 organic visitors/month.
• Post-Migration: 12,000 organic visitors/month.
• Loss: ~$40,000/month in revenue.

We audited another brand that skipped Step 5 (Delta).

• Result: They launched with 300 missing orders. Customer service was flooded with “Where is my order?” calls. They had to manually copy-paste orders from the old database for 3 days.

Secure Your Migration

These 5 steps are non-negotiable. If your current agency or developer is saying “we can skip the Sandbox” or “redirects are automatic,” run.

Contact Presta to engage a Migration Architect who follows this rigid protocol. We don’t just move data; we protect your business continuity.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I do the Delta migration manually?

If you have low volume (10 orders/week), yes. You can manually re-enter them. If you have 100 orders/day, manual entry is impossible. You need an API script.

How long does the “Freeze” last?

With our automated Delta scripts, the freeze typically lasts 15-30 minutes. We can grab 1,000 orders in minutes.

What if I forget a redirect?

Monitor your “404 Errors” in Shopify Analytics daily for the first 2 weeks. If you see a spike on a specific URL, add the redirect immediately. You can catch stragglers this way.

Sources

• Shopify Migration Checklist
• Google: The 301 Redirect