How to Migrate Your Website from WordPress to Shopify?
For many WordPress-powered store owners, website maintenance seems difficult due to its complex nature requiring expensive technical resources.
Such an obstacle pushes them to move to Shopify, which comes with comprehensive e-commerce capabilities and is easy to handle.
However, migrating from one platform to another seems daunting at first.
This guide will resolve the matter of how to migrate WordPress to Shopify. Let’s see how it works!
Why Migrate from WordPress to Shopify?
Before you learn how to migrate WordPress to Shopify, learn why it is essential.
1. E-commerce Optimization: As a leading ecommerce store builder, Shopify comes with easy-to-access tools and features that fit the immediate needs of online businesses. Easy process to list products, multiple payment options with shipping/tax rate calculator, easy inventory tracking, advanced SEO features, email marketing, and social media integrations are some of these.
2. Speed and Performance: No need to approach website hosting providers; Shopify comes with secure PCI-compliant website hosting. All you get is automatic backups, CDN network infrastructure, and unlimited bandwidth in your Shopify site for the best performance and site speed.
3. Scalability: The rich network of apps lets you adjust your growing business without getting stuck in back-end technicalities. Its flexible plans offer the potential for unlimited item listing, multi-channel selling, and robust APIs and integrations. Shopify's advanced version, called “Shopify Plus,” is for large enterprises with abundant pro features, tools, and integrations.
4. User-Friendliness: Shopify's customizable themes, drag-and-drop feature, and much more altogether combined that can be viewed in a single dashboard, making it a user-friendly platform. In contrast, WordPress comes with plugins and theme management that are not for non-tech-savvy users.
Pre-Migration Checklist
1. Backup Your WordPress Website: First, you need to prepare yourself to back up all website content (posts, pages, media, etc.). A copy of your WordPress site is essential —in case anything falls apart during the migration, you have the backup. Data loss during migration can be disastrous, and it’s hard to re-develop altogether from the start. Your web hosting company does offer automatic backup, or you can use plugins such as BackupBuddy and UpdraftPlus to create your backup.
2. Choose a Shopify Plan: Now, it’s time to pick a preferred plan for your Shopify website. Shopify has two plans: The first plan includes four options: Basic for solo entrepreneurs, Shopify for small teams, advanced version as your business scales, and plus for more complex businesses. The alternate plan includes three options: starter for simple online stores, retail comes with advanced features, and enterprise commerce, which is available upon request.
3. Choose a Domain Name: Next is picking and adding the domain name. Domain names help with SEO and make your brand search process easy for users. You can buy a domain from Shopify or connect your current domain to Shopify, but make sure to understand Shopify URL structure as it uses different URL formats.
4. Prepare Your Product Data: Before you begin the process of migration, organize and clean up your product data. Organize your SKUs and product details, and double-check their prices. Make sure that all product images and other media (e.g., videos) are properly labeled and organized. Your product listings should be categorized in the right category with the right tags. If you have any shipping rates, such as location-based rates or weight-based rates, these should be well-organized.
How to Migrate from WordPress to Shopify: Step-by-Step
Step 1: Set Up Your Shopify Account
The first step is setting up the account. Do all the necessary actions such as putting personal info, storing domain name, etc. As you are signing up for your trading purpose, you also need to enter your business address, the purpose of creating a Shopify account, and your niche.
Once done, pick a Shopify plan as we discussed above. If you don't choose a plan, your store will stay in a trial mode, meaning it's not fully online, and you won't be able to start selling. Once you pick a plan and activate it, your store will be ready to go live.
Don’t forget to select a theme for your store and customize it as per your brand’s colors, logo, and desired layout—this can also be done after the migration process; for now, select the default theme.
Before you start migrating the data, understand how Shopify performs. When you sign in, you will first see a Shopify Merchant Dashboard, a location where you can migrate data and keep your sharp focus there. When you feel you understand the Shopify structure and flow, move on with the migration task.
Step 2: Export Content from WordPress
You can take out the data from WordPress using the “Export” tool. But before you do that, you need to make sure certain things:
Set your privacy settings for the public to make sure images are also exported.
There should be no mess within WordPress, such as deactivating unused plugins and no unwanted draft posts or pages—all should be cleaned.
Remove all possible pending comments, either deleted or approved.
First, select the right dashboard interface. For a default View, go to tools and click “Export All.” Wait a few moments, and you will get the download link from your Gmail address, which will remain active for 7 days. You will get a full XML file along with media links.
For a WP-Admin, go to tools, and click the “Export All” or “Download Export File” with selected content. Wait a few moments and you will get the download link.
Step 3: Import Content into Shopify
This migration part is the largest because the data you are filling in on the online store is the center of everything. You need to spend a lot of time and focus on migrating such big information.
First, decide which information you need to first transfer to the Shopify account. Sit down, think for a few minutes and create a list to come up with the best way of migrating the full-loaded data. The order in which you transfer data is a key.
You can gather an entire transaction history when you import data in the following order: Products, client’s data and order history.
Let’s look at the three approaches to migrating website content:
Shopify Migration App
The easiest method for migration is using the Shopify Migration App. The apps have multiple robust APIs that make the migration easy. This says that any new Shopify user can, within a few minutes, transfer data into the store.
Shopify has offered multiple migration apps (both free and paid version) exist within the Shopify store. Such apps are highly powerful and are capable of migrating a large amount of data from WordPress to Shopify within a few minutes.
The most prominent one is “Litextension”—just pick your URL, a source “WordPress,” target “Shopify,” and the data you wish for migration.
CSV File Manual Process
CSV are text archive files with plain text, where each line describes one data record. As you have already exported the data from WordPress in XML format. Convert that XML file into CSV file.
After opening the XML file, check the data.
Go to File > Save As, and choose Text (Tab delimited) from the list of file formats.
Save the file. Now you have a CSV file.
Note: Make sure that opening a CSV file multiple times can mess up the data. Open it only once to recheck and close it.
Once you have converted XML into CSV, it’s time to import it into your new digital home. Follow the given steps:
Go to Shopify Merchant Dashboard, and click on Products.
Next, click on Import to add the file.
Upload and continue.
You can also view the details of the item before importing it.
Copy & paste content
Do manual work by yourself, copying and pasting in the right places. This approach is preferable when you are uploading blogs, shipping data, policies, and website page content. Also, such methods are used by website owners who need to migrate a small amount of data.
Step 4: Setting Up Your Shopify Store
Theme Customization
As of now, you have set a default theme for your store. No time has come to customize your default into something fascinating—in alignment with your brand identity. You have two options to buy a theme, either the free version or a paid version.
For a free version, go to “Online Stores” on your Shopify Merchant Dashboard on the left side. Then, on the bottom page, you will see a Free Themes Section. Next, pick the one that grabs your attention. Thus, you have added a new theme to your store.
For a paid version, go to the “Shopify Theme Store” page and find the one that matches your brand style. You can preview the entire theme before purchasing. Once satisfied, customize it as per your preferences.
Payment Gateway Configuration
Next, set your payment gateways with Shopify. You can select your payment providers by clicking on Settings, then go to payments in your Shopify Merchant Dashboard.
Case:01: You’re new to Shopify and haven’t set up a payment method (no PayPal, no credit card processor). You go into the "Payments" section on Shopify. A popup will appear— enter your bank details or choose a credit card payment provider to complete the setup.
Case:02: You’ve already set up a way to accept payments, maybe through a PayPal or another credit card processor. Rather than setting everything up from scratch, you can activate Shopify Payments. Just click on the "Activate Shopify Payments" button in the Shopify dashboard.
Afterwards, you need to finish your store’s checkout process. On settings, click on “Policies” and copy/paste the policies to add your store payment policies. Also, edit your customer checkout data to configure the checkout experience—what information will you need before a buyer adds to the cart or purchase something.
Shipping and Taxes Management
What makes Shopify a leader as compared to others is that most of its processes are automated. With few tweaks, Shopify lets you manage and calculate all your shipping and taxes.
To manage your shipping and taxes when you migrate from WordPress to Shopify, go to Dashboard > shipping and delivery > Add your shipping address.
You can adjust shipping rates based on regions, weights and dimensions, and tax rates based on the region-based tax regulations. In case any product is exempted from taxes, you can uncheck it in the pricing section in the Product Section.
SEO Settings
During the migration, you also need to confirm that each item or page URL should contain the right keywords and is allied with your SEO planning.
Bear in mind the title and description are short, clear, and convincing for better click-through rates (CTRs) on SERPs.
Step 5: Test Your Store
After you migrate WordPress to Shopify, you need to double-check that everything is on the right track and in a flow.
To do so, you will go to the Settings and Payments Section. Afterward, deactivate your actual payment gateways: If you have enabled the credit card provider, click Manage and Deactivate it.
Afterward, on the same Manage Section, Switch to a third-party provider. Choose Bogus Gateway (a payment provider that any online store can use to test how the ordering process works?) under See all providers and click Activate.
Visit your online store, place an order, and enter:
· Card Name: Bogus Gateway
· CVV: 111
· Card number: 1(successful), 2 (failed), 3 (error)
· Expiry: Set any future date.
After testing, return to the Payments Section and deactivate the Bogus Gateway. If any issue is found, you will identify right away.
Note: The time required to move from WordPress to Shopify has not been fixed. It relies on the WordPress setup complexity level, content volume, and whether you're moving a complete ecommerce website or a certain part of it.
4. Key Considerations During Migration
Redirecting URLs: WordPress and Shopify use different URL structures. This can create a broken link if the same URL is applied, which can impact the SEO. You need to plan 301 redirects when you move the old URL to the new one for the Shopify website.
Handling SEO: Shopify heavily relies on JavaScript, especially for its dynamic content and interactive elements. This can sometimes affect the page's load time and can impact SEO when not optimized on time. Search engines don’t favor JavaScript and take a lot of time to index. So, double-check your indexed content to ensure nothing is missed.
App and Plugins Limitations: When you add more apps or plugins to your Shopify store, the website gets heavy because each plugin adds additional weight to the site, which in turn can impact load times. So, page load is a key SEO ranking factor—limiting your plugin is important.
5. Post-Migration Steps
Review Website Performance: Apart from testing the payments process, tests how each page speed performs, how responsive it is for mobile users, and is it compatible for all browsers.
Monitor Analytics: Set up alerts on Google Analytics to track user behavior, website traffic, bounce rate, conversion rate, and more. You can also use Shopify Analytics to track conversion rates, product performance, cart abandonment, etc.
Marketing and SEO: You need to perform content marketing, link building, technical SEO management, run paid ads and retargeting campaigns, and set up email marketing, as well as social media integrations, for constant growth.
6. Common Challenges During Migration from WordPress To Shopify (And How to Overcome Them)
Product Variants Issues
Most WordPress sites have complex product variations and customizations (e.g., different colors, sizes, styles, or other custom attributes). Consider creating custom fields or using apps (e.g., Infinite Options or Product Customizer) that extend the default product variations.
Design Limitations
WordPress allows more freedom when it comes to design and themes, along with extended customizations. In contrast, Shopify has limited design and theme options. To get it resolved, hire a developer with Shopify's Liquid language who can do some deeper design changes.
Data Loss or Formatting Issues
Transferring large and complex data can be a cause of data loss or formatting discrepancies during the migration process. This can be either due to information not being mapped correctly, missing content or inventory and order mismatches.
Therefore, use a reliable migration tool such as Cart2Cart, LitExtension, or Shopify’s own import features for a smooth migration. As well, you need to by yourself double check and adjust the data after the migration.
7. Conclusion
WordPress to Shopify Migration is a complex project yet rewarding. With the above steps mentioned, your website data can travel to Shopify successfully. All you now require is to make your website public and start your ecommerce.
Above all, are you in search of someone that helps in your migration process, connect with Crescentic digital, for a smooth transition as we assure your business uses Shopify with minimal interruption. Contact us for a consultation.
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