Order history migration is one of the most asked-about and misunderstood parts of moving from WooCommerce to Shopify. The short answer: Shopify does not officially support importing historical orders from external platforms. But there are workarounds — and for many stores, a hybrid approach is the most practical solution. Here's the full picture.

Why order history matters

Order history isn't just for reference — it affects multiple operational systems:

Customer lifetime value (LTV): Customer purchase history powers loyalty programs, segmentation, and re-engagement campaigns
Accounting and tax records: You may be legally required to retain sales records
Support tickets: Customer service needs to look up past orders quickly
Product return/warranty tracking: Knowing when and what was purchased
Reporting continuity: Revenue reports shouldn't suddenly start from zero

Shopify's position on order import

Shopify does not provide a native order import feature for historical data from other platforms. Shopify's Orders API is designed for creating new orders programmatically (e.g., from custom storefronts or POS systems), not for historical data migration.

You can create orders via the Shopify Orders API, but:

There's no guarantee of future support for this use case
Orders created via API are marked with a channel source
Financial summaries may be affected (imported orders count in revenue reports)
Shopify customer accounts don't automatically get order history attached unless using the customer field

What happens to order data if you don't migrate it

Your WooCommerce order history stays in your WooCommerce database. If you:

Keep WooCommerce running (read-only): Staff can look up historical orders in WooCommerce admin
Export to CSV/Google Sheets: Useful for accounting and support reference
Export to accounting software: If you use QuickBooks, Xero, or similar — export all historical orders before decommissioning WooCommerce
Decommission WooCommerce entirely: You lose easy access to historical order data unless it was exported first

Approaches for order history migration

Option 1: Keep WooCommerce read-only for 1–2 years

The simplest approach for most stores. After switching to Shopify:

Put WooCommerce in maintenance mode (disable new orders, payment gateways)
Keep the WooCommerce admin accessible to staff for order lookups
After 12–24 months, export everything to CSV and decommission

Cost: just the continued hosting fee for the old WordPress install. This avoids all migration complexity.

Option 2: Export orders to a spreadsheet/database

Export all WooCommerce orders to CSV using WooCommerce's built-in export (WooCommerce → Orders → Export) or a plugin like "Order Export & Order Import for WooCommerce."

Your export should include: order ID, date, customer email, billing/shipping address, line items, quantities, totals, payment method, status.

Store this in Google Sheets or a database. For customer service, staff can search by order number or email.

Option 3: Import historical orders into Shopify via API

This is possible but complex. If you use LitExtension or Cart2Cart (full-service migration tools), they offer order history migration as an add-on. They use Shopify's Orders API to create historical orders programmatically.

What they can import:

Order ID (mapped to Shopify's order note or tag for reference)
Order date
Customer details (linked to migrated customer records)
Line items (product title, quantity, price)
Fulfillment status
Financial totals

What they cannot import:

Payment method details (no card data)
WooCommerce-specific order meta fields
Exact WooCommerce order IDs (Shopify assigns its own)
Order notes visible to customers (can only be added as staff notes)

Cost: Full migration services charge $0.03–0.10 per order for historical migration. For a store with 10,000 orders, expect $300–1,000 for order migration alone.

Option 4: Custom Shopify API import script

For stores with specific requirements, a developer can write a script to:

Export WooCommerce orders via WooCommerce REST API
Transform order data to Shopify format
Create orders in Shopify via POST /admin/api/2024-01/orders.json

The Shopify Orders API endpoint for order creation requires:

line_items[]: product title, quantity, price, variant_id (if product exists in Shopify)
customer: customer email or ID (match to migrated customer records)
financial_status: paid, pending, refunded, etc.
fulfillment_status: fulfilled, null, partial
created_at: original order date (backdated)

Rate limits: Shopify REST API allows 2 requests/second (leaky bucket). For 50,000 historical orders, expect 6–7 hours of processing time.

Customer purchase history and loyalty programs

Even if you don't import full orders, you can preserve customer purchase counts and LTV data:

Migrate customer data with purchase history tags: When importing customers, add tags like orders:15 or ltv:1200 that encode their WooCommerce history
Klaviyo historical data: If you used Klaviyo with WooCommerce, it stores purchase history that carries over automatically when you connect Klaviyo to Shopify
Loyalty app migration: Smile.io and LoyaltyLion can import customer point balances from WooCommerce loyalty equivalents (WooCommerce Points & Rewards)

Accounting and tax records

Order history migration for accounting purposes is critical. Before migrating:

Export all orders by year to CSV: One file per fiscal year for clean accounting records
Export from your accounting integration: If WooCommerce was connected to QuickBooks/Xero via WooCommerce Connector, those records are already in your accounting software
Export tax reports: WooCommerce → Reports → Taxes — download before decommissioning
Keep records for 5–7 years: Depending on your jurisdiction, financial records must be retained

Decision guide: do you need to migrate orders?

Situation	Recommendation
Under 1,000 historical orders	Export to CSV + keep WooCommerce read-only for 12 months. Not worth API migration cost/complexity.
1,000–10,000 orders, customer service needs lookup	Keep WooCommerce read-only OR use migration service if customer-visible order history matters.
10,000+ orders, active loyalty program with purchase-based tiers	Use LitExtension/Cart2Cart order migration OR custom API script to maintain customer LTV.
B2B store where customers reorder frequently	Import orders to preserve "reorder from history" functionality and account manager visibility.
Subscription business	Active subscriptions must be handled via subscription app (Recharge/Bold), not order history migration.

What to do before migration day

Export complete order history from WooCommerce (all statuses, all time)
Export customer email + total order count + total spend (for LTV-based segmentation in Shopify)
Screenshot or export any active refunds/partial fulfillments that may need manual follow-up
Export any open/in-progress orders that need to be fulfilled after migration — these must be handled in WooCommerce through completion, then migrated to Shopify if needed
Identify customers with pending loyalty point balances

For most stores, the pragmatic answer is: keep WooCommerce running in read-only mode for one year, export orders to CSV as your permanent archive, and start fresh on Shopify. Your staff can look up historical orders in WooCommerce when needed, and after 12 months, those lookups become rare enough that you can safely decommission the old install.

Migrating WooCommerce order history to Shopify (2026)