Why WooCommerce stores move to Shopify
WooCommerce is free, and that is the last time it is free. To run a real shop on it you add a plugin for variations, one for shipping rates, one for reviews, one for subscriptions, one for SEO, one for security, one for backups, one for caching and one to make the checkout look decent. Each has a renewal. Each has an update. Any one of those updates can break the checkout on a Friday afternoon, and the fix is a developer.
Then there is the layer underneath: hosting, PHP versions, WordPress core updates, SSL renewals, the plugin that has been abandoned by its author. It is maintenance, and none of it sells a single product.
Shopify removes that layer. Hosting, security, payments, the checkout and every update are Shopify's job. The app store replaces the plugin pile with tools that are built for a shop rather than bolted on to a blogging platform. What is left for you is the part you actually wanted: the products, the customers and the marketing.
What maps cleanly, and what does not
We would rather tell you this now than discover it together halfway through.
Moves across cleanly
- Simple products with their images, prices, SKUs, weights and stock levels
- Categories, which become Shopify collections, and tags
- Customer records, addresses and marketing consent
- Order history, so returns and reorders work from day one
- Pages, and the SEO titles and descriptions from Yoast or Rank Math
- Discount codes, recreated as Shopify discounts
Needs proper thought
- Variable products. WooCommerce lets you attach as many attributes to a product as you like. Shopify gives you three options per product, such as size, colour and material. Most catalogues fit comfortably. Where yours does not, we restructure: splitting a product, moving an attribute to a metafield, or using an app. We decide this product by product, not with a blunt import.
- Custom fields. Advanced Custom Fields, plugin fields and the data hiding in product meta become Shopify metafields. That only helps if the metafields are defined properly and the theme displays them, so we do both.
- Blog posts. Posts move as Shopify articles. Categories become tags, shortcodes and embedded galleries need rebuilding, and comments do not come across. If your blog is doing heavy lifting for search, see below.
- Plugin data. Reviews, wishlists, loyalty points and subscriptions each need exporting from a plugin and importing into a Shopify app. We list every plugin in the audit and tell you what its replacement is before you commit.
- Passwords. They stay behind, on every platform, for good security reasons. We plan the customer sign-in route so it reads as an upgrade.
URL structure and redirects
This is where WooCommerce migrations go wrong when they go wrong. WooCommerce addresses look like /product/oak-garden-bench/ and /product-category/benches/. Shopify uses /products/oak-garden-bench and /collections/benches. Every single URL changes, so every single URL needs a redirect, and the ones you forget are the ones that rank.
Our approach is mechanical on purpose. We crawl the old site, pull every URL with traffic from Search Console and analytics, and build a map to the new Shopify handles, keeping the handles identical to the old slugs wherever Shopify allows. The redirects are imported and tested before the switch, the new sitemap is submitted on launch day, and we watch the crawl errors for weeks afterwards.
Keeping WordPress for content
If your blog brings you customers, you do not have to give up WordPress to get Shopify's checkout. The cleanest arrangement is Shopify on your main domain and WordPress on a subdomain for the blog, with the two linked in the navigation so visitors never notice the seam. You keep the editor you know and the plugins that matter for content, and you lose the ones that were trying to run a shop.
Our honest view: if the blog is a dozen posts that nobody reads, move it into Shopify and run one platform. If it is the reason people find you, keep it. We will look at the traffic with you and recommend one or the other, then set up whichever you choose.
What the project looks like
1. Audit
Products, customers, orders, plugins, custom fields, URLs and integrations, all inventoried. You get a written plan, a date and a fixed quote.
2. Build
The new storefront is designed and built on Shopify while WooCommerce keeps trading. It is a chance to fix the product page you never liked, not to copy it.
3. Rehearsal import
A full test import, checked product by product for broken variants, missing images and misplaced fields. Then a clean run.
4. Switch
Redirects live, payments and shipping tested with real orders, domain pointed at Shopify at a quiet time, and a final import of anything that changed since the rehearsal.
Who this is for
UK retailers on WooCommerce who have reached the point where the maintenance costs more than the platform ever saved, and who want the move done once, properly, without losing the rankings and the customer base that took years to build. If you are on WordPress and not sure whether Shopify fits, ask. We will tell you if it does not.
Questions we get asked
Will I lose my Google rankings moving from WooCommerce to Shopify?
Every WooCommerce URL changes when you move, so the redirects are the whole game. We build a complete map from your old product, category, page and blog URLs to the new Shopify ones, import it before launch and test it. Page titles and descriptions from your SEO plugin come across too. Expect a little movement while Google recrawls, not a cliff.
Can I keep my WordPress blog?
Yes. If the blog is a real source of traffic and you are used to writing in WordPress, we keep it running on a subdomain such as blog.yourshop.co.uk and point the shop at Shopify. If it is a handful of posts, we move them into the Shopify blog and you run one platform. We will give you a clear recommendation based on your traffic.
Do my customers have to reset their passwords?
Passwords cannot be moved between platforms, and that is true of every migration, not just this one. Customer details, addresses and order history come across. Then either customers sign in with a code sent to their email, which Shopify supports without any password, or we send a short, friendly account invite that we write with you.
What happens to subscriptions, reviews and loyalty points?
Each one lives in a plugin on WooCommerce and needs a Shopify app on the other side. Reviews export and import cleanly. Loyalty balances usually can too. Active subscriptions with stored cards are the delicate part: whether they move depends on your payment provider, and we check that in the audit before we promise anything.
How long does a WooCommerce to Shopify migration take?
A typical store with a few hundred products, a customised theme and the usual plugins is a matter of weeks rather than months, with your WooCommerce store trading normally throughout. The audit gives you a date alongside the fixed quote.