Migrationsanleitung

WooCommerce to Shopify: Complete Migration Guide

Everything you need to migrate your WooCommerce store to Shopify — products, images, SEO, customers, and redirects. Free guide with step-by-step instructions.

Schritte in dieser Anleitung

1Audit your WooCommerce store
2Set up your Shopify store
3Export and map your products
4Validate and push to Shopify
5Set up 301 redirects and go live

Migrating from WooCommerce to Shopify is a significant project, but a well-structured approach makes it manageable. This guide covers everything: pre-migration planning, product export, field mapping, validation, API push methods, redirect setup, and DNS cutover.

The goal: move your entire product catalog to Shopify with zero data loss, preserved SEO, and a smooth customer experience.

Why migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify?

WooCommerce runs on WordPress — you own everything, including the hosting, security, and update cycle. This flexibility is valuable for developers but burdensome for merchants who want to focus on sales.

Shopify is a fully hosted solution. They handle servers, SSL, PCI compliance, security patches, CDN, and uptime. You focus on products and marketing.

Common triggers for migration:

WooCommerce performance problems (slow page loads, hosting outages)
WordPress security incidents (hacks, malware)
Plugin conflicts making updates risky
Developer time consumed by maintenance instead of features
Desire for Shopify's app ecosystem (1,000+ apps vs WordPress plugins)

Before you start: audit your WooCommerce store

A migration audit saves time. Document:

Product count: How many products? Simple vs. variable? Any with more than 3 option types or more than 100 variants? (Shopify limits)
Image hosting: Are images on your server (wp-content/uploads)?
Custom fields: Any WooCommerce custom product fields or ACF data?
SEO plugin: Yoast, RankMath, or other? Meta titles/descriptions stored?
Customer count: Are you migrating customers too?
URL structure: Current product URLs (for redirect planning)

Product data: what migrates automatically vs. manually

Migrates automatically

Product title, description (HTML), and SEO-safe URL handle
Prices (regular + sale/compare at)
SKU, weight, stock quantity
Product type (from WooCommerce categories)
Tags
Product images (by URL)
Variants and their option values (Color, Size, etc.)
Product status (publish → active, draft → draft)

Requires extra work

Yoast/RankMath SEO titles → Shopify global.title_tag metafield
WooCommerce categories → Shopify collections (manual collection creation + product assignment)
Product reviews → Shopify reviews app with CSV import
Custom product attributes not mapped to variants → Shopify metafields
Digital product download files → Shopify Digital Downloads app
WooCommerce subscriptions → ReCharge or Bold Subscriptions app

Field mapping reference

WooCommerce field	Shopify field	Notes
name	title	Direct
description	body_html	HTML preserved
slug	handle	Preserve for SEO!
regular_price	variants[].price	String "10.00"
sale_price	variants[].compare_at_price	When sale is active
sku	variants[].sku	Direct
stock_quantity	variants[].inventory_quantity	Per variant
weight	variants[].weight + weight_unit	"kg" default
categories[0].name	product_type	Primary category only
tags[].name	tags (comma-separated)	Direct
images[].src	images[].src	URL — Shopify fetches
attributes	options (max 3 types)	Shopify limit!
variations	variants (max 100)	Shopify limit!
status: "publish"	status: "active"	Mapping required
yoast_wpseo_title	metafields.global.title_tag	SEO preservation
yoast_wpseo_metadesc	metafields.global.description_tag	SEO preservation

Pushing products to Shopify

For initial migrations, Shopify's GraphQL Bulk Operations API is the fastest method. You upload a JSONL file with all your products, trigger the bulk operation, and Shopify processes everything on their servers.

For ongoing updates (re-syncing products that already exist in Shopify), use the REST PUT /products/{id}.json endpoint per product.

After migration: redirects and SEO

WooCommerce typically uses /product/product-slug/. Shopify uses /products/product-slug. Set up 301 redirects in Shopify Admin → Online Store → Navigation → URL Redirects.

For bulk redirect import, use Shopify's CSV redirect format:

Redirect from,Redirect to
/product/blue-shoes/,/products/blue-shoes
/product/red-dress/,/products/red-dress

After going live, submit your updated sitemap to Google Search Console and monitor Search Console for crawl errors over the next 30 days.

Schritt für Schritt

Audit your WooCommerce store

Before migrating, inventory what you have: number of products (simple vs variable), product images and where they're hosted, categories and tags, customer count, and any WooCommerce plugins that add custom fields. This determines migration complexity and time.

Set up your Shopify store

Start a Shopify trial and configure the basics: store name, currency, timezone, payment gateway, and shipping rates. Choose a theme. Keep the store password-protected until migration is complete.

Export and map your products

Connect to your WooCommerce REST API (or export CSV) and map fields to Shopify's data structure. Key mappings: product name → title, description (HTML) → body_html, slug → handle, regular_price → variant price, attributes → options (max 3), variations → variants (max 100).

Validate and push to Shopify

Run a validation pass before pushing to catch issues: missing titles, products exceeding Shopify's 3-option or 100-variant limits, invalid prices, and missing images. Fix errors, then push to Shopify via the Admin API or GraphQL Bulk Operations.

Set up 301 redirects and go live

WooCommerce URLs (/product/slug/) differ from Shopify (/products/slug). Create 301 redirects in Shopify to preserve SEO rankings. Update your DNS to point to Shopify. Keep your WooCommerce store running for 30 days during DNS propagation.

Machen Sie es selbst mit k-sync — kostenloser Plan verfügbar

k-sync automatisiert diese gesamte Anleitung. Verbinden Sie Ihren WooCommerce-Shop, validieren Sie Produkte und veröffentlichen Sie sie auf Shopify in Minuten.

Kostenlos starten

Häufig gestellte Fragen

How long does a WooCommerce to Shopify migration take?

For a store with 500 products, plan for 2–4 hours of actual work spread over 2–3 days. The migration itself (API push) takes minutes to hours depending on catalog size and method. Setup, validation, and verification take the most time.

Will I lose my SEO rankings when switching to Shopify?

Not if you do it correctly. Preserve your URL slugs (Shopify handles), set up 301 redirects from old URLs, migrate your Yoast/RankMath SEO titles and descriptions to Shopify metafields, and submit an updated sitemap to Google Search Console.

Can I migrate WooCommerce customer data to Shopify?

Yes, but with limitations. You can import customer names, emails, and addresses via CSV. Passwords cannot be migrated (customers need to reset). Order history can be imported but appears as imported orders, not native Shopify orders.

What happens to my WooCommerce product reviews?

Product reviews are not part of the standard Shopify product data structure. They need to be migrated separately using a Shopify reviews app (like Judge.me or Loox) that supports CSV import. Export reviews from WooCommerce before migrating.

How much does it cost to migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify?

Shopify starts at $29/month. Migration tools like k-sync are free for up to 50 products. For larger catalogs, paid migration services range from $50 to $500+ depending on catalog size and complexity. The total cost of ownership on Shopify is often lower than self-hosted WooCommerce when you factor in hosting, security, and maintenance.

Can I keep both WooCommerce and Shopify running simultaneously?

Yes. This is actually recommended during migration. Keep WooCommerce accepting orders while you set up and verify Shopify. Once Shopify is live, disable WooCommerce. For ongoing dual-operation, tools like k-sync can sync inventory and products between both platforms.