Magento to Shopify migration guide: Proven steps and best practices for a smooth transition

Migrating from Magento to Shopify involves more than moving data — it requires rethinking how your store is structured, managed, and extended.

This guide is tailored for growing brands moving from Magento Open Source to Shopify’s standard plans, covering everything from key platform differences to step-by-step execution and post-launch readiness.

Whether you're leading the migration internally or working with a partner, this guide will help you preserve performance, minimise disruption, and confidently relaunch on Shopify.

What you need to know before the Magento to Shopify migration

Migrating from Magento to Shopify introduces a number of constraints that may impact how your store is structured, how your data is handled, and which features need to be rebuilt or rethought.

Before you begin, it’s essential to understand the key differences that will shape your migration strategy:

Magento to Shopify: What data migrates — and what needs extra work

While many core data types (such as products, customers, and orders) can be migrated from Magento to Shopify, there are important limitations in structure, field compatibility, and import order. Some elements will require reformatting, manual recreation, or third-party apps to function correctly in the Shopify environment.

The table below summarises which types of data are partially supported and what adjustments you’ll need to plan for:

Platform functionality gaps to prepare for

Understanding the structural and feature differences between Magento and Shopify is critical to planning a smooth migration. Below are key areas where merchants often encounter functional mismatches:

How to migrate Magento to Shopify: A step-by-step guide

Now that you understand what does and doesn’t carry over from Magento, the next step is to plan and execute the migration in a structured way. The process below outlines how to move your Magento store to Shopify with minimal disruption — from initial auditing to post-launch follow-up.

1. Pre-migration planning & Magento store audit

Before migrating from Magento to Shopify, take stock of your Magento store’s structure, functionality, and dependencies. This helps identify what needs to be rebuilt, simplified, or replaced — and ensures you don’t overlook critical features.

Review your current Magento setup:

• Document your key store components — including products, categories, CMS pages, customer groups, tax rules, and shipping zones — to understand the scope of what needs to be migrated.

• Document third-party integrations: List all external systems connected to your Magento store — such as ERP, CRM, PIM, on-site search, reviews, and email marketing. Determine whether these can be integrated directly into Shopify or need alternatives.

• Multi-store or multi-region setups: If your Magento store serves multiple regions, brands, or customer types using separate storefronts (e.g., different domains, languages, or pricing by country), document how each one is structured. Shopify handles this differently — you’ll need to decide whether to consolidate under a single store using Shopify Markets or maintain multiple Shopify stores. This decision affects how you manage currency, content, fulfilment, and reporting going forward.

• Custom logic and business rules: Identify any custom-built workflows or logic that go beyond Magento’s default features. Examples include:

• • Customer-specific pricing or discounts

  • Bundled or grouped product logic

  • Checkout customisations (e.g., split shipping, gift messages)

  • Store credit systems or loyalty point logic

  • Advanced tax or shipping calculations

          These types of logic don’t always have direct equivalents in Shopify. Some can be replicated using Shopify apps, while others may need to be simplified or adapted.

Decide what to carry forward:

• Determine which features will be:

• Migrated as-is

• Replaced with Shopify-native functionality or apps

• Simplified or removed entirely

• Flag unsupported elements (e.g., multi-store setup, advanced checkout customisation) and plan alternatives

Define the migration scope and team roles:

• Set your timeline, key milestones, and content freeze date

• Assign responsibilities across data preparation, store setup, testing, and communication

• Establish pre-launch benchmarks: traffic, conversion rate, site speed, SEO performance

2. Prepare and export your Magento data

Before anything is moved into Shopify, your Magento data needs to be reviewed, cleaned, and exported in a consistent format. This allows your new store to be populated accurately — without missing products, duplicated customers, or broken links.

Clean and prepare your data:

• Remove discontinued or inactive products that no longer need to be migrated

• Consolidate or archive unused categories and outdated CMS pages

• Standardise SKUs, product titles, tags, and attribute values

• Ensure all product images are publicly accessible via URL (required for Shopify import)

• Deduplicate customer records and verify formatting for names, emails, and addresses

• Review order records and remove test or incomplete entries

• Map Magento attributes (such as colour, material, or brand) to Shopify-compatible fields like tags, options, or metafields

Export the following datasets:

Note: Once your data is exported, freeze all catalogue, content, and customer edits in Magento. Continuing to make changes at this stage increases the risk of inconsistency or data loss later in the process.

3. Set up your Shopify store

With your Magento data prepared, the next step is to create a private Shopify staging environment where you can safely configure settings, apply branding, and test functionality without disrupting your existing store.

Create a non-public staging store:

• Open a new Shopify account and set up your store under a .myshopify.com subdomain

• Disable indexing via theme settings or robots.txt to prevent early exposure to search engines

• Keep your Magento site live during this period to avoid sales disruption

Configure core business settings:

• General settings: store name, contact details, time zone, language, currency

• Tax and shipping rules: zones, rates, tax registration numbers, and fulfilment workflows

• Payment gateways: Shopify Payments, PayPal, or other preferred providers

• Legal pages: terms and conditions, privacy policy, shipping and returns

Set up your admin team and branding:

• Create staff accounts and assign appropriate permissions

• Upload brand assets: logo, favicons, colour palette, fonts

• Choose a theme or framework that suits your product range and business model

4. Import your product data to Shopify store

Once your Shopify store is configured, begin by importing your product data. This ensures collections, search, inventory, and merchandising can be set up correctly before moving on to other datasets.

Import and validate your products:

• Use a migration tool (e.g., Matrixify or LitExtension) or prepare files using Shopify’s product CSV format

• Check that all SKUs, titles, descriptions, and images are correctly mapped

• Ensure inventory quantities, pricing, and product statuses (draft vs. active) are accurate

• Check for compliance with Shopify limits:

• Maximum 100 variants per product

• Maximum 3 options per product (e.g., size, colour, material)

Note: If your Magento store uses grouped, bundled, or configurable products, they won’t import exactly as they appear. These complex product types will be restructured and rebuilt in Step 8: Adapt store logic and rebuild essential features.

5. Transfer your Magento customer data into Shopify store

Once your products are in place, the next step is to import your Magento customer records into Shopify. This allows you to preserve account-level data and order associations, supporting continuity in customer service and marketing segmentation.

Import and verify customer records:

• Use a migration app (e.g, Matrixify, LitExtension) or Shopify's customer import CSV format

• Include core fields: name, email, billing/shipping addresses, phone number (if collected)

• Ensure customer records are unique and formatted consistently (especially emails and name casing)

• Validate that imported records are linked to the corresponding historical orders

Note: Shopify does not support password migration. Customers must be prompted to reset their passwords after launch. Plan this as part of your post-launch communication strategy (see Step 12).

6. Move historical orders to your Shopify store

After products and customers have been successfully imported, you can migrate your Magento order history into Shopify. While these records are read-only in Shopify, they remain valuable for account context, analytics, and support.

Import your historical orders:

• Use a migration tool (e.g., Matrixify, LitExtension) that supports order import and preserves relationships with customer and product records

• Include key fields: order number, customer email, product SKUs, prices, payment status, fulfilment status, shipping details, order timestamps

After import, verify the following:

• The total number of imported orders matches the source data

• Orders appear in the correct customer accounts

• Financial and fulfillment statuses are accurate

• No missing line items or misattributed products

Note: Imported orders in Shopify are for reference only — they are not editable and do not count toward financial reporting or inventory tracking. However, they remain accessible in the customer’s account history (if the email matches) and in the admin panel for your team.

7. Rebuild your CMS pages and content blocks on your Shopify store

Magento CMS pages and static blocks (e.g., homepage sections, About Us, Contact, policy pages) do not transfer automatically to Shopify and must be recreated manually or with third-party tools.

Recreate core CMS content:

• Manually rebuild static pages such as:

• Homepage

• About Us

• Contact

• FAQs

• Shipping, returns, and privacy policies

• Recreate reusable content blocks (e.g., banners, trust badges, promotional sections) using your Shopify theme or a visual page builder like Shogun or PageFly.

Ensure consistency and functionality:

• Copy across headings, body content, embedded images, and video assets

• Check that internal links point to the correct Shopify URLs (e.g., updated product or collection handles)

• Restore forms (e.g., contact or newsletter) using Shopify’s native contact form, an app, or theme functionality

• Maintain page-level SEO by reapplying meta titles and descriptions where applicable

Tip: If your Magento homepage relied on widgets or block-driven layouts, work with your Shopify theme’s custom sections or use a page builder to replicate the layout and content structure.

8. Adapt Shopify store logic and rebuild essential features

Magento often includes logic and structural features that don’t have direct equivalents in Shopify. Now that your data is in place, this stage is to rebuild essential functionality for merchandising, pricing, and navigation.

Restructure product types and catalog logic:

• Split or duplicate products that exceed Shopify’s variant limits (100 variants, 3 options)

• Rebuild grouped or bundled products using apps such as Bundler or PickyStory

• Convert Magento attributes used for faceted filtering into tags or metafields for use with a filtering app (e.g., Boost Product Filter)

• Migrate important custom fields (e.g., technical specs) into Shopify metafields and connect them to product templates

Rebuild your category structure as Shopify collections and menus:

• Create collections to represent Magento categories

• Manually recreate your main menu to reflect Magento’s category tree: Nest menu items (e.g., Clothing → Men → Shirts) to guide navigation

• Test breadcrumb and navigation logic across mobile and desktop

Recreate business rules and promotions:

• Replace customer group pricing with Shopify discounts or tag-based rules 

• Rebuild store credit workflows using apps like Rise.ai

• Simplify or replicate tax/shipping rules using Shopify Markets or third-party apps like Intuitive Shipping

• Reconfigure product recommendations, upsells, and loyalty tools like ReConvert or LoyaltyLion.

9. Preserve your SEO metadata during migration

Magento provides full control over SEO metadata, but this information doesn’t carry over automatically to Shopify. This step ensures your key SEO signals are preserved on the new platform.

Reapply on-page SEO elements:

• Manually add meta titles and descriptions to:

• Product pages

• Collections

• CMS pages

• Reapply canonical tags where applicable (via your Shopify theme or an SEO app such as Smart SEO or SEO Manager

• Restore structured data (e.g., product schema, review markup) using:

• Your Shopify theme’s built-in JSON-LD

• A dedicated SEO app like Smart SEO or SEO Manager

Optional but recommended:

• Generate and submit your new sitemap via Google Search Console

• Monitor crawl activity, indexing status, and page performance after launch

10. Test and QA your Shopify store

Before switching domains or inviting customers to use the new store, perform a full round of testing across devices, user types, and key workflows.

Test all core storefront functions:

• Navigation: main menu, collections, search, filtering

• Product pages: variants, availability, pricing, image zoom

• Cart and checkout: add-to-cart, discount codes, shipping rates, payment gateways

• Tax and shipping: Simulate orders across multiple regions to confirm correct tax rates and shipping logic are applied

• Forms: contact, newsletter signup, account creation

Review imported data for completeness and accuracy:

• Products: titles, prices, inventory, variant logic, metafields

• Customers: addresses, order history associations

• Orders: financial and fulfilment statuses, line items

Evaluate app integrations and custom logic:

• Confirm that key apps (e.g., filters, bundles, loyalty, reviews) function as expected and are properly embedded in your theme

• Test custom workflows ported from Magento, such as:

• Bundled or grouped product logic

• Tag-based pricing or promotions

• Customer group emulation or segmentation

Validate store performance and responsiveness:

• Test on desktop and mobile devices

• Check page speed using Shopify’s admin reports or Google PageSpeed Insights

• Review theme responsiveness and styling across browsers

Verify SEO setup:

• Check that meta titles and descriptions appear as expected

• Use the Google Rich Results Test to confirm that structured data is valid

• Spot-check canonical tags and preview how product or collection pages appear in search

11. Go live your Shopify store and set up URL redirects

When you're ready to launch, you'll make your Shopify store publicly accessible and point your primary domain to it. Once the domain connection is verified, you can upload your 301 redirect map to protect SEO and ensure a smooth transition from Magento URLs.

This process must be carefully sequenced to prevent broken links and indexing issues. 

Make your Shopify store public:

Disable storefront password protection and remove any noindex tags added during staging. These changes ensure your new site is crawlable as soon as it goes live.

Point your primary domain to Shopify:

Update your DNS records so your main domain (e.g., yourstore.com) resolves to your Shopify storefront. DNS propagation can take up to 48 hours, but usually completes within a few hours.

Reassign your Magento store:

Move your old Magento site to a temporary subdomain (e.g., old.yourstore.com) and add a noindex directive to prevent it from being indexed. Keeping it accessible helps with post-launch order referencing or content recovery.

Apply 301 redirects (after the domain is connected):

• Upload a complete 301 redirect map to Shopify to ensure traffic from legacy Magento URLs is routed to the correct Shopify pages. Shopify URLs differ in structure from Magento, so skipping this step will result in 404 errors and SEO ranking loss.

• Redirects should only be applied after the domain has been pointed to Shopify. Applying them too early will break links while the store is still behind a password or staging domain.

Sync final data before launch (if needed):

If customers continue placing orders or creating accounts on your Magento store after the initial data export, you’ll need to transfer that new data to Shopify before going live. Instead of re-exporting everything manually, use API-based syncing to copy only the new orders and customer records automatically.

On Tap provides expert support for API-led sync workflows, helping you migrate live stores without downtime or data loss — even when orders are still being placed during the transition.

12. Customer communication & password reset

After launch, returning customers will need to access their accounts on your new Shopify store; however, Magento passwords cannot be transferred due to encryption differences. A direct, well-timed message helps avoid support issues and builds trust.

Inform customers about the migration:

• Send a branded email explaining that your store has moved to a new platform

• Reassure them that their order history and account details are preserved

• Highlight any improvements (e.g., faster performance, mobile experience, new features)

Prompt customers to reset their passwords:

• Include a link to Shopify’s password reset page

• Encourage them to log in and update their details

• If possible, offer a small incentive to complete the reset (e.g. loyalty points or a discount)

Use on-site messaging to reinforce the transition:

• Add banners or modals reminding logged-out customers to reset their passwords

• Place help links in the account login area to guide confused users

• Update your FAQ or Help Centre to address common questions

13. Monitor your Shopify store performance after launch

Once your new Shopify store is live, closely monitor how it performs — both technically and from a user perspective. This ensures you can quickly respond to any unexpected issues and continue refining your setup based on real-world usage.

Track technical performance and stability:

• Use Shopify Analytics for high-level insights, and supplement with GA4 or Hotjar for deeper behavioral analysis.

• Check for any failed orders, fulfillment errors, or app-related issues

• Monitor site speed and responsiveness on mobile and desktop

• Use tools like Google Search Console to watch for crawl errors, indexing issues, or broken links

Validate SEO migration success:

• Review how key pages are appearing in search results

• Confirm that 301 redirects are working correctly and no important pages return 404 errors

• Track organic traffic and keyword rankings to identify any drops or recoveries

Gather customer feedback:

• Monitor support requests for common issues (e.g., login problems, missing orders, confusion with navigation)

• Use surveys or feedback widgets to collect insights from real users

Magento to Shopify migration: Common issues and how to resolve them

Even with a well-executed migration, some issues may only become visible once your Shopify store is live. Below are common post-migration problems and how to resolve them quickly to restore functionality and minimise disruption.

Missing or inconsistent data after import

What happens: Some products, customers, or orders are missing, incomplete, or incorrectly formatted.

Why it happens: Field mismatches, unsupported data formats, or improperly structured CSV files can lead to partial or failed imports, especially when using bulk data tools without validation.

How to resolve it:

• Use Matrixify or a similar tool to inspect imported data and identify what’s missing or incorrectly mapped

• Compare item counts (e.g., total products, customers, orders) between Magento and Shopify

• Reimport only the affected records after correcting formatting or field mapping issues

Products not displaying on the storefront

What happens: Products appear in the Shopify admin but not on the live store.

Why it happens: Imported products may be set to "Draft," not assigned to the Online Store sales channel, or missing collection assignments.

How to resolve it:

• Use Shopify’s bulk editor to change product status from Draft to Active

• Add missing products to the Online Store sales channel

• Ensure each product is assigned to the correct collection and has inventory available for purchase

Incomplete filters or navigation

What happens: Shoppers can’t filter products the way they could on the Magento site.

Why it happens: 

Shopify doesn’t support layered filtering out of the box, so filtering relies on third-party apps like Search & Discovery or Boost Product Filter. These apps require product attributes to be mapped into Shopify-compatible fields — such as tags or metafields — during import. If this mapping step is skipped or applied inconsistently, filters may not appear or function correctly, even if the underlying data exists.

Separately, navigation issues can occur when Shopify menus are not manually rebuilt to reflect Magento’s category hierarchy. While this doesn’t affect filtering directly, it can lead to a disjointed browsing experience, with flat menus or missing category links at launch.

How to resolve it:

• Identify which Magento attributes were used for filtering (e.g., brand, size, material)

• Convert those attributes into tags or metafields during product import

• Use a filtering app like Boost Product Filter to replicate layered navigation

• Manually rebuild your Shopify menus to mirror your Magento category structure

SEO traffic drop post-launch

What happens: Organic traffic and search rankings fall after the new site goes live.

Why it happens: Metadata like titles, descriptions, and structured data may not be fully reapplied. Magento’s flexible URLs differ from Shopify’s fixed paths, so without a full 301 redirect map, search engines can’t properly index old links. Internal links in product content or CMS pages may still point to Magento URLs, leading to crawl errors and ranking loss.

How to resolve it:

• Reapply meta titles, descriptions, canonical tags, and structured data

• Upload a full 301 redirect map to preserve link equity and prevent 404 errors

• Update all internal links using new Shopify URLs — especially in product descriptions, menus, and CMS content. Internal links that still point to Magento URLs can confuse Google’s indexing, dilute page authority, or cause crawl errors.

• Submit the updated sitemap to Google Search Console only after internal links are corrected and the new site structure is stable. Submitting too early can result in outdated links being indexed or missed entirely.

• Monitor crawl and indexing reports in Google Search Console post-launch to catch any unresolved issues or missed redirects.

App conflicts or theme issues

What happens: Pages break or slow down after installing multiple apps.

Why it happens: Some Shopify apps inject JavaScript or make theme changes that conflict with each other or with your theme’s layout. This is common when multiple apps serve overlapping functions (e.g., reviews, bundling, upsells) or when code is installed directly into Liquid files without testing.

How to resolve it:

• Remove overlapping apps that serve the same purpose

• Test all new apps in a duplicate theme before applying changes to the live site

• Use apps that follow Shopify’s theme extension standards (app blocks or app embed blocks) for better compatibility.

Top tools & apps to support Magento to Shopify migration

The right tools can significantly reduce manual effort, speed up migration, and help preserve data integrity. Below are trusted solutions used by experienced teams to manage key parts of the migration process.

Data migration tools

These tools help transfer core data from Magento to Shopify efficiently and accurately, with support for bulk imports, mapping, and error recovery.

Matrixify

Website: matrixify.app

A powerful import/export app for Shopify that supports structured migration of products, customers, orders, metafields, redirects, and more. Ideal for staged or selective re-imports during QA.

Key features:

• Supports migration of products, customers, orders, variants, inventory, metafields, redirects, collections, and CMS content (via CSV/Excel)

• Allows flexible field mapping for complex data structures

• Enables staged or selective re-imports during QA

• Includes dry-run mode and detailed error logs

Best for: Large catalogues or complex data models that require validation

LitExtension

Website: litextension.com

An automated, all-in-one migration tool that connects Magento and Shopify directly via API. Best suited for merchants who want a faster, hands-off process with minimal configuration.

Key features:

• Supports automated migration of products, customers, orders, categories, reviews, SEO URLs, and passwords via direct API

• Preserves relationships, metadata, and unique identifiers

• Offers migration previews and rollback options

• Designed for minimal configuration and fast execution

Best for: Merchants seeking a quick, low-effort migration

Apps to rebuild Magento features

Shopify’s app ecosystem allows you to replicate key Magento-native functionality using flexible, purpose-built tools. These apps help close the feature gaps around filtering, bundling, loyalty, and customer reviews.

Boost product filter & search

Link on Shopify App Store: Boost Product Filter & Search

Recreates Magento-style layered navigation using tags or metafields. Also enhances search UX and handles large catalogues efficiently.

• Enables multi-attribute filters

• Compatible with Shopify metafields and tags

• Includes analytics and merchandising controls

Best for: Stores needing advanced product discovery

Bundler – Product bundles

Link on Shopify App Store: Bundler

Used to replicate grouped or bundled product setups from Magento. Allows merchants to offer combo pricing or cross-sell kits.

• Create fixed or mix-and-match bundles

• Display bundle savings on product pages

• Track inventory by individual SKUs

Best for: Merchants replacing grouped/bundled product types

Rise.ai – Store credit, loyalty, and gift cards

Link on Shopify App Store: Rise.ai

A Shopify app that replaces Magento store credit or loyalty extensions. Supports branded gift cards, rewards programs, and refunds via credit.

• Issue store credit instead of cash refunds

• Automate loyalty campaigns

Best for: Migrating merchants with existing credit balances or loyalty schemes

Customer review apps

Popular review platforms that replace Magento’s built-in product review system. All support importing historical reviews and displaying them with star ratings, photos, or videos.

• Judge.me Product Reviews

• Loox

• Yotpo Reviews

Best for: Migrating existing customer reviews and showcasing social proof

Apps for SEO redirect and management

Shopify does not automatically handle Magento-style URLs, so preserving SEO often requires a dedicated redirect tool. These apps help you bulk-import 301 redirects and manage post-launch SEO hygiene.

Plug in SEO – Metadata checks, bulk edits, and schema support

Link on Shopify App Store: Plug in SEO

Helps monitor, fix, and optimise SEO metadata post-migration. Also supports bulk editing and structured data validation to ensure pages are search-ready after launch.

• Detects SEO issues and broken links

• Allows bulk editing of meta titles and descriptions

• Supports basic schema markup (limited to product, article, and organization types).

Best for: Maintaining SEO rankings after launch

Easy Redirects – Bulk 301 redirect management

Link on Shopify App Store: Easy Redirects (via SEO Manager)

Included as part of the SEO Manager, this app allows you to import large sets of redirects from your Magento store. Helps preserve rankings, avoid crawl errors, and ensure a smooth SEO transition.

• Supports CSV import of Magento-to-Shopify URL mappings

• Detects and fixes 404 errors

• Allows manual and rule-based redirect creation

Best for: SEO continuity and reducing post-launch crawl errors

Conclusion

Migrating from Magento to Shopify involves more than transferring data — it requires careful adaptation of your product structure, business logic, SEO, and storefront experience. With the right tools, tested workflows, and expert guidance, you can avoid common pitfalls and launch your new store with confidence.

In this guide, we’ve covered:

• What carries over from Magento, what doesn’t, and how Shopify’s structure impacts your migration strategy

• A step-by-step migration process — from pre-migration planning through to post-launch monitoring

• Common issues that arise during or after launch, and how to resolve them effectively

• Recommended tools and apps to streamline data import, filtering, bundling, SEO, and more

If you’re looking for experienced, hands-on support, On Tap offers end-to-end Magento to Shopify migration services — including custom data handling, live order syncing during cutover, and tailored post-launch QA. As a certified partner for both platforms, we help merchants make the move efficiently and without disruption. Contact us today to explore how we can support your Magento to Shopify migration.