Why retailers move to Shopify
Most of the retailers who talk to us about a migration are not unhappy with selling online. They are tired of their platform. The hosting bill that creeps up every year, the plugin that breaks on every update, the developer who is the only person who understands the checkout, the Saturday lost to a security patch. Shopify takes that whole layer away. Hosting, security, payments and the checkout are Shopify's responsibility, and your time goes back into the shop.
The second reason matters more as you grow. The things you want to do next, such as subscriptions, a trade price list, selling on marketplaces, a proper email programme or a till in a physical shop, needed a quote and a developer on your old platform. On Shopify they are usually an app or a settings change. You stop paying to stand still.
What a safe migration protects
A migration is not a rebuild with a data import bolted on the end. The value is in the things that are easy to lose and expensive to get back. Every migration we run is planned around protecting six of them.
- Search rankings. Years of Google trust are attached to your current URLs. We map every old address to its new home and put the redirects in place before launch, so your rankings follow you rather than starting again.
- Redirects that cover everything. Products, categories, blog posts, old landing pages that still get visits. The mapping is checked against your analytics and Search Console so nothing with traffic is left pointing at a dead page.
- Customer accounts. Names, addresses, marketing consent, tags and notes come across. Passwords cannot be copied between platforms, so we plan a clean sign-in route that does not feel like a fault on your side.
- Order history. Past orders arrive with the customers who placed them, so returns, reorders and lifetime value reporting work from the first day on Shopify.
- Product data. Titles, descriptions, variants, images, SKUs, stock levels, weights and the custom fields your old platform let you add over the years. We map them to Shopify deliberately rather than flattening them into a description box.
- Integrations. Accounting, couriers, stock control, marketplaces, email. Each one is listed, then replaced or reconnected, and tested before you switch.
How we migrate a store
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Audit and plan
We take stock of everything on the old platform: products, customers, orders, URLs, apps, integrations and the custom work you may have forgotten about. You get a written plan, a date and a fixed quote.
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Design and build the new storefront
The new store is built on Shopify while the old one keeps trading. This is the moment to fix what the old platform would not let you fix, not to copy its layout pixel for pixel.
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Migrate the data, then migrate it again
The first import is a rehearsal. We check the counts, open products at random, look for broken variants and missing images, and correct the mapping. Then we run it clean.
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Redirects, SEO and tracking
Every old URL mapped and redirected, page titles and descriptions carried over, structured data in place, analytics and ads tracking set up so your reporting does not go dark on launch day.
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Test like a customer
Real orders through real payment methods, shipping rates, VAT, discount codes, order emails, every integration and every device your customers use.
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Switch and aftercare
A final import of anything created since the rehearsal, the domain pointed at Shopify at a quiet time, and then we watch Search Console and your first orders closely. A care plan is there if you want us to stay.
Which platform are you leaving?
Each platform has its own traps, so we have written a page for the three we move most often.
- WooCommerce to Shopify: plugin sprawl, WordPress maintenance, and what to do with your blog.
- Magento to Shopify: attribute sets, configurable products, trade customers and large catalogues.
- Wix and Squarespace to Shopify: for retailers who have outgrown a website builder and want to know how little disruption a move causes.
We also move stores from BigCommerce, OpenCart, PrestaShop, EPOS-linked legacy systems and bespoke platforms, and we rebuild old Shopify stores whose theme has become impossible to edit. If your platform is not listed, ask. The process is the same and the audit tells us what is different.
Who this is for
Established UK retailers with a catalogue, a customer base and rankings worth protecting. If you have been putting off a move because you are worried about what you might lose, this service exists to take that worry off the table. You will know exactly what comes across, what gets replaced and what the whole thing costs before anything is touched.
Questions we get asked
Will I lose my Google rankings when I move to Shopify?
Not if the migration is planned properly. Rankings are attached to your URLs, so we map every old address to its new home, import the redirects before launch and test them, then watch Search Console for weeks afterwards. Some movement in the first fortnight is normal while Google recrawls. A lasting drop is a sign of a migration that skipped the mapping, and that is the part we never skip.
Will my store be offline during the migration?
No. Your current store keeps trading while we build and test the new one alongside it. The switch itself is a domain change at a quiet time of day, with a final import of any orders and customers created since the last test run. Most customers never know it happened.
Do my customers have to create new accounts?
Their details, addresses and order history come across, but passwords cannot be copied between platforms, for good security reasons. Depending on your store we either use Shopify accounts that sign in with a code sent by email, so no password is needed at all, or send a clearly worded invite to activate. Either way we write the message with you so it reads as an upgrade, not a fault.
How long does a Shopify migration take?
It depends on the size of the catalogue, how much custom functionality your old store has and how much of the storefront you want redesigned. A straightforward move from a website builder can be a few weeks. A large Magento store with trade pricing and an ERP behind it is a longer project. The audit at the start gives you a date and a fixed price together.
What does a migration cost?
Every migration gets a fixed quote after the audit, so you know the full price before any work starts. Our pricing page sets out our day rate and the honest ranges for typical projects.