Moving a store from Magento 2 (Magento Open Source or Adobe Commerce) to Shopify is mostly a data problem. The theme gets rebuilt anyway; what decides whether launch week goes well is how carefully the products, customers, orders and URLs were mapped. This is the checklist we use when we plan a Magento to Shopify move for stores in the US, UK, Canada and Australia.
1. Take an inventory before you map anything
Export counts first, so you can check them after the import:
- Products by type: simple, configurable, bundle, grouped, virtual and downloadable.
- Number of attribute sets and attributes actually used on the storefront.
- Categories, CMS pages and blog posts (if a blog extension is installed).
- Customers, orders, and active gift cards or store credit.
- Store views and websites: each one may become a separate Shopify market, language or even a separate store.
These numbers become your acceptance tests. If Magento has 4,812 enabled products and Shopify shows 4,790 after import, you have something to chase before launch, not after.
2. Map the catalogue model
Magento and Shopify think about products differently.
| Magento 2 | Shopify |
|---|---|
| Configurable product + child simples | One product with variants |
| Configurable attributes (size, colour) | Product options |
| Custom attributes (material, care) | Metafields (or metaobjects for shared data) |
| Categories (tree) | Collections (manual or automated by rules) |
| Bundle / grouped products | Bundles app or Shopify's bundle features; check what fits |
| Tier and customer-group prices | B2B catalogues / price lists, or an app |
Two practical points:
- Options and variants have limits. Shopify caps the number of options per product and the number of variants. The limits have changed over time, so check the current numbers in Shopify's docs before you promise a product structure to the client. Products with very large attribute combinations may need splitting.
- Decide metafield definitions up front. Create the definitions (type, validation, storefront access) before importing, so the theme can rely on them.
3. Customers: plan for the password reset
Magento stores customer passwords as hashes, and Shopify can't import them. Every migrated customer needs to activate a Shopify account or set a new password. Plan it as a communication task:
- Import customers with their marketing consent status (important under UK GDPR / PECR and Canada's CASL).
- Send account activation invites in batches after launch, not all at once from a new sender.
- Put a short "We've moved, please reset your password" message on the login page.
4. Orders: history, not live data
Historical orders are useful for customer service and lifetime value, but they're read-only in Shopify. Decide how far back to bring them, and make sure imported orders don't trigger confirmation emails or inventory changes. Most import tools have a flag for that; test it on a development store first.
5. URLs and redirects
This is where most migrations lose traffic. Shopify uses fixed path prefixes:
/products/{handle}
/collections/{handle}
/pages/{handle}
/blogs/{blog}/{article}
Magento URLs such as /mens/shirts/oxford-shirt-blue.html won't exist anymore. Build a redirect map:
- Export every indexable Magento URL (from the sitemap and from a crawl).
- Pull the top landing pages from Search Console for the last 12 months.
- Map each old URL to the closest new URL, one to one. Avoid sending everything to the homepage.
- Import the map through Shopify's URL redirects CSV import.
- After launch, crawl the old URL list and check every one returns a 301 to a 200 page.
Redirect from,Redirect to
/mens/shirts/oxford-shirt-blue.html,/products/oxford-shirt-blue
/mens/shirts.html,/collections/mens-shirts
/customer-service,/pages/customer-service
6. Extensions to replace
List every Magento extension and decide: Shopify native feature, Shopify app, custom app, or drop it. Typical ones: layered navigation (Shopify Search & Discovery filters), reviews, loyalty, ERP connectors, B2B quoting, and custom checkout fields (now Checkout UI extensions, some only on Shopify Plus).
7. Launch-day checks
- Product, customer and order counts match the inventory from step 1.
- Ten random products: price, tax setting, images, variants, metafields.
- Taxes and shipping for each market (US states, UK VAT, Canadian GST/HST, Australian GST).
- Redirect crawl passes; no redirect chains.
- Analytics and Search Console: new sitemap submitted.
FAQ
Can I keep my Magento URLs exactly? No. Shopify's path prefixes are fixed, so plan 301 redirects instead.
Do customers keep their passwords? No. Passwords can't be migrated; customers activate their account or reset the password.
Should I migrate all order history? Only as far back as support and reporting need. Older data can stay in an archive export.
How long does it take? It depends on catalogue size, extensions and integrations. Map first; then estimate.
If you'd like a second pair of eyes on a migration plan, our Shopify migration team at Dzimark handles Magento, WooCommerce and BigCommerce moves for stores in the USA, UK, Canada and Australia.
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