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    Moving from WordPress to Shopify: A Step-by-Step Guide

    By Rupert• October 7, 2026

    Most WordPress stores don't move to Shopify because they want a new website. They move because the current one is slowing them down. Plugin conflicts, a checkout nobody trusts, a hosting bill that creeps up, and a nervous feeling every time an update is due.

    Migration sounds daunting, but it's a project with a known shape. Here's what it actually involves.

    Before you start: is Shopify the right move?

    Shopify makes sense if you sell products, want a checkout that converts, and would rather spend your time on marketing than on maintenance. It is less of an obvious fit if your site is mostly content with a small shop bolted on, or if you rely on heavily custom WordPress functionality that has no Shopify equivalent.

    Be honest about this up front. A migration done for the wrong reasons is an expensive way to end up in the same place.

    Step 1: Audit what you actually have

    Before anything moves, list what exists:

    • Products, variants, and how many are genuinely still selling
    • Collections and categories
    • Customer accounts and order history
    • Blog posts and content pages
    • Plugins you rely on, and what each one really does
    • Your current URL structure

    This is the stage where most stores discover they have 400 products and sell 60 of them. Migration is a good moment to prune.

    Step 2: Plan your URL redirects

    This is the single biggest SEO risk in any migration, and the easiest one to get right.

    WordPress and Shopify use different URL patterns. Shopify puts products under /products/, collections under /collections/, and blog posts under /blogs/. Every old URL that has traffic or links pointing at it needs a 301 redirect to its new home.

    Export your URLs from Google Search Console and your analytics, map old to new in a spreadsheet, and load the redirects into Shopify before you go live. No guessing, no bulk redirects to the homepage.

    Step 3: Move your products and customers

    Products can be exported from WooCommerce as CSV and imported into Shopify, but the mapping is rarely one-to-one. Variants, custom fields, and product attributes usually need reshaping before import.

    Images are worth special attention. Re-upload clean, properly named files rather than dragging across years of inconsistent media library clutter.

    Customer records can come across too, but passwords cannot. Shopify will prompt customers to reset on first login, so plan an email that explains this rather than letting people hit a login wall unannounced.

    Step 4: Rebuild, don't copy

    It is tempting to recreate your WordPress design pixel for pixel. Resist it. Shopify themes have their own conventions, and fighting them means slow pages and awkward maintenance later.

    Start from a solid theme, keep your branding, and rebuild the pages that matter most: home, collection, product, cart, and checkout. Those five templates carry the majority of your revenue.

    Step 5: Replace plugins with apps, carefully

    Every WordPress plugin you loved will have two or three Shopify equivalents. You almost certainly don't need all of them.

    Shopify handles plenty natively that WooCommerce needed plugins for: payments, discounts, abandoned carts, basic SEO fields, and shipping rates. Start with nothing installed, launch, and only add an app when you have a genuine gap. Every app you add costs money and page speed.

    Step 6: Test before you switch

    On a password-protected Shopify store, work through the full journey:

    • Place a real test order on a phone, with a discount code
    • Check tax and shipping rates for every region you sell to
    • Confirm order confirmation and shipping emails look right
    • Test your payment methods, including Shop Pay and PayPal
    • Check your analytics and conversion tracking are firing
    • Spot-check your redirect list against live URLs

    Step 7: Launch, then watch closely

    Point your domain at Shopify, remove the password, and submit a new sitemap in Google Search Console.

    Then watch. Check Search Console for crawl errors and 404s daily for the first fortnight. Expect a small dip in rankings for a few weeks while Google reprocesses your URLs. That is normal and recovers, provided your redirects are solid.

    How long does it take?

    A small, straightforward store can move in two to three weeks. A larger catalogue with custom functionality and years of content is more like six to ten weeks. The catalogue size matters less than the number of exceptions and custom builds.

    Avoid launching in peak season. Moving a shop in mid-November is a decision you only make once.

    The part people underestimate

    The technical migration is the predictable bit. The harder work is deciding what not to bring: the products that haven't sold in two years, the eleven plugins doing the job of three, the page templates nobody visits.

    A migration is the rare chance to start lean. Take it.

    If you're weighing up a move from WordPress to Shopify and want a second opinion on whether it's worth it, we're happy to talk it through.