Before you migrate a single product to Shopify, back up your WooCommerce store completely. The backup serves two purposes: a safety net if something goes wrong during migration, and an authoritative reference for data you might need months later (historical orders, customer purchase history, old product data). This guide covers everything you need to preserve and how to do it.

The golden rule: WooCommerce migration is non-destructive

First, an important clarification: migrating to Shopify never modifies, exports, or deletes your WooCommerce data. k-sync and other migration tools read from WooCommerce's API (read-only) and write to Shopify. Your WooCommerce database is untouched.

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't back up. Backups protect against:

Human error (accidentally deleting WooCommerce products during cleanup)
Hosting issues (server failures, expired hosting account)
Plugin conflicts causing data corruption
Having a full record when you eventually decommission WooCommerce

What to back up

1. Full WordPress database backup

The most important backup. The WordPress/WooCommerce database contains everything: products, orders, customers, settings, plugin data.

Using UpdraftPlus (recommended)

Install UpdraftPlus (free version in WordPress plugin directory)
Settings → UpdraftPlus Backups → Backup Now
Select: Database only (for targeted backup) or Database + Files
Download the .gz file to your computer
Also back up to remote storage: Google Drive, Dropbox, or AWS S3 (free to configure in UpdraftPlus)

Using phpMyAdmin (manual)

Log in to phpMyAdmin via your hosting control panel (cPanel, Plesk)
Select your WordPress database
Export → Quick → SQL format → Go
Downloads a .sql file — keep this safe

Using WP CLI (developer)

wp db export backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql --allow-root

2. WooCommerce product export CSV

Export your product catalog as a WooCommerce CSV for easy reference and potential re-import:

WooCommerce → Products → Export
Select: All products, all columns
Export → Downloads a CSV with all product data

This CSV is useful as:

A backup that doesn't require database restoration to read
A reference for product data while comparing WooCommerce vs Shopify listings
A source file for CSV-based migration (upload directly to k-sync)

3. Order export

Export your order history — even if you're not migrating orders to Shopify, having them in a portable format is important for accounting and customer service:

WooCommerce → Orders → Export (top right)
Select all columns, all statuses
Export → CSV file with all orders

Alternatively, use a plugin like "WooCommerce Order Export" for more detailed exports including line items per order.

4. Customer export

WooCommerce → Customers → Export (if available in your version)
Or: WordPress → Users → Export
Alternatively via WP All Export plugin for more control

5. Media files (product images)

Your WooCommerce product images live in WordPress's media library (wp-content/uploads/). When you migrate to Shopify, Shopify downloads your images from the source URLs and re-hosts them. But if you plan to decommission your old WordPress server, you need to download all media files first:

Via FTP/SFTP

Connect to your server with an FTP client (FileZilla, Cyberduck)
Download the entire /wp-content/uploads/ folder
This may be large (1–10+ GB for image-heavy stores)

Via hosting backup

Most hosts (WPEngine, SiteGround, Kinsta) have one-click full site backups including files — use these.

6. Plugin configuration exports

Document your WooCommerce configuration before migration:

WooCommerce → Settings → screenshot or export each settings tab
Tax rates: WooCommerce → Settings → Tax → export
Shipping zones and rates: WooCommerce → Settings → Shipping → screenshot
Payment gateway settings: screenshot (never export credentials, document configurations)

Backup storage: where to keep it

Keep backups in at least two locations:

Local: External hard drive or computer
Remote: Google Drive, Dropbox, or AWS S3

Do NOT keep backups only on the same server as the live site — if the server fails, you lose both.

How long to keep WooCommerce running after migration

The recommended timeline:

Phase	Timeline	WooCommerce status
Active migration	Days 1–X (during setup)	Fully live, accepting orders
Post-launch (parallel)	Week 1–4 after DNS switch	Live but in read-only/reference mode, no new orders (maintenance page)
Wind-down period	Month 1–6	Accessible to staff for order history lookup, not public
Archive	After month 6	Database backup kept, server decommissioned

Keep WooCommerce accessible (even just to you, not to customers) for at least 6 months after migration. You will need to reference it for:

Customer service queries about old orders
Tax returns and accounting for the fiscal year
Any data migration tasks you didn't complete (reviews, blog posts, etc.)

Decommissioning WooCommerce safely

When you're ready to shut down WooCommerce:

Take a final full backup (database + files)
Verify all critical data has either migrated to Shopify or been backed up elsewhere
Check accounting: are all financial records for tax purposes exported/saved?
Redirect remaining old URLs: check Google Search Console for any crawled pages that don't have redirects yet
Cancel hosting plan (verify no auto-renewal payments)
Store the final database backup offline for 3–7 years (varies by country for business record retention requirements)

Pre-migration backup checklist

Full WordPress database backup (UpdraftPlus or phpMyAdmin)
WooCommerce product CSV export
WooCommerce orders CSV export
WooCommerce customers CSV export
wp-content/uploads/ media files download (FTP or hosting backup)
WooCommerce settings screenshots (shipping, tax, payments)
Plugin configuration documentation
Backup stored in 2+ locations (local + remote)
Database backup tested: restore to a local WordPress and verify it works (optional but recommended)

This entire backup process takes 1–2 hours and can save days of recovery work if anything goes wrong. Do it before touching anything migration-related.

How to back up WooCommerce before migrating to Shopify (2026)