Garden and outdoor retailers face a distinctive set of ecommerce challenges: seasonal availability that changes monthly, heavy and oversized products that require freight shipping, and live plants that need care instructions and hardiness zone data. Migrating this product data correctly from WooCommerce to Shopify requires planning around all three.

Garden and outdoor product categories

Plants: Trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, bulbs, seeds, houseplants. Live products with unique seasonal and care constraints.
Pots and planters: Terracotta, glazed ceramic, fibreglass, galvanised steel, plastic. Sold in graduated sizes (diameter in cm).
Garden furniture: Tables, chairs, benches, swing seats, parasols. Material: teak, rattan, aluminium, powder-coated steel.
Outdoor lighting: Solar, mains, battery-powered. IP rating (weatherproofing) metafield critical.
Barbecues and outdoor cooking: Gas, charcoal, pellet, pizza ovens. BTU output, cooking area, burner count variants.
Lawnmowers and power tools: Petrol, electric, cordless. Cutting width, grass box capacity, engine power metafields.
Chemicals and fertilisers: Weed killers, pesticides, fertilisers. Hazmat / CLP regulation compliance.
Fencing and decking: Panels, posts, decking boards. Sold in packs covering linear or square metres.
Water features: Fountains, ponds, pumps. IP and water flow rate metafields.
Seeds and bulbs: Small, high-volume SKUs. Sowing month and depth metafields important.

Seasonal availability management

Garden retail is intensely seasonal. Bedding plants available only in spring. Christmas trees in November. Summer furniture discounted in September. Managing this in Shopify requires a strategy before migration:

Status-based: Seasonal products are set to draft in Shopify when out of season and active when available. WooCommerce stores sometimes have a "seasonal" custom field — migrate this to a metafield.
Publish scheduling: Shopify doesn't natively support scheduled publishing except via Shopify Flow (Plus) or a scheduling app. Note during migration which products need scheduled activation.
Pre-order: Spring bulbs sold in autumn for spring delivery. Shopify handles pre-orders via the "Continue selling when out of stock" inventory policy + expected dispatch date in a metafield.

Tag all seasonal products during migration with season:spring, season:summer etc. so they can be batch-activated or deactivated.

Plant product metafields

Plants are among the most data-rich product types in retail. The right metafields enable customers to self-serve with confidence:

Metafield	Example	Purpose
garden.hardiness_zone_uk	H4 / H5 / H6 / H7	UK RHS hardiness rating
garden.sunlight	Full sun / Partial shade / Deep shade	Placement guide
garden.watering	Drought tolerant / Moderate / High	Care guide
garden.soil_type	Clay / Sandy / Loam / Any well-drained	Suitability filter
garden.mature_height_cm	60 / 120 / 300	Planning and scale
garden.mature_spread_cm	40 / 80 / 200	Spacing guide
garden.flowering_months	Apr,May,Jun	Visual planning
garden.foliage_type	Evergreen / Deciduous / Semi-evergreen	Year-round interest
garden.pot_size_litres	2 / 5 / 10 / 20	Product description
garden.latin_name	Lavandula angustifolia	Expert / SEO value
garden.rhs_award	true / false	Quality badge
garden.toxic_to_pets	true / false	Safety filter
garden.sow_month_start	2	Seeds — Feb sowing start
garden.sow_month_end	5	Seeds — May sowing end
garden.sow_depth_cm	1 / 2 / 3	Seeds — planting depth

Heavy goods and freight shipping

Garden furniture, paving, and large planters often exceed standard parcel carrier limits (typically 30kg / 120cm longest side). This requires freight or pallet shipping with different pricing and lead times.

In WooCommerce, heavy goods are typically handled with a weight-based or class-based shipping plugin. In Shopify, manage this with:

Shipping profiles: Create a "Freight — Heavy Goods" shipping profile and assign all products over a set weight. Different rates apply.
Product weight accurate at migration: k-sync migrates product weight from WooCommerce. Verify all heavy products have accurate kg values — these drive automatic profile assignment.
Metafield flags: garden.freight_only = true for items that can only go by pallet. Use this in a checkout validation rule or prominent product page notice.
Lead time metafield: garden.dispatch_days = "5-7" for items manufactured or delivered on extended lead times.

Chemical product compliance

Weed killers, pesticides, and some fertilisers are regulated products. In the UK, herbicides like glyphosate-based products carry CLP hazard labels and are subject to GB CLP regulation.

During migration, ensure:

Regulatory information is in the product description or a dedicated metafield (garden.coshh_required = true).
Age-gated checkout is configured if selling professional-use chemicals (Shopify scripts or a third-party age verification app).
Shipping restrictions are noted: some carriers refuse hazardous materials. Tag products with hazmat:yes.
Safety data sheet (SDS) PDF URLs stored as metafields: garden.sds_url.

Click and collect for garden centres

Many garden centres have a physical retail presence. Click and collect (buy online, collect from store) is often their primary fulfilment model for heavy or bulky items — customers don't want to pay freight for a 50kg paving pack.

In Shopify, implement click and collect via:

Shopify Local Pickup: Native feature under Settings → Shipping → Pickup. Enables "Pick up at [Store Name]" at checkout for free.
Multi-location inventory: If you have multiple garden centre branches, each is a Shopify location. Inventory is split per location.

During migration, ensure all in-store-only SKUs are flagged. Products that are physically too large for parcel shipping should have click-and-collect as their only fulfilment option — achievable by adding them only to the Local Pickup shipping profile.

Pot size and product dimension variants

Pots and planters in garden retail are typically sold in multiple sizes. Each size has a different price. Options for Shopify:

Diameter as variant: "30cm / 40cm / 50cm / 60cm" as Option 1. Straightforward for standard ranges.
Volume as variant: "5 litre / 10 litre / 20 litre" — more useful for growing bags and fertiliser.

In WooCommerce, pot size is typically stored as pa_size or pa_diameter. k-sync maps this attribute to a Shopify variant option during migration.

Post-migration checklist for garden and outdoor stores

All plant products have hardiness zone, sunlight, watering, and mature height metafields
Seasonal products tagged with season and set to correct status for current time of year
Product weights accurate (kg) for all heavy goods items
Heavy goods shipping profile configured in Shopify before launch
Freight-only flag set on oversized products
Chemical/hazmat products tagged and age verification configured if required
Local pickup configured for garden centre fulfilment
RHS Award of Garden Merit badge rendered on qualifying products
Toxic-to-pets flag visible on relevant plant product pages
Pre-order products configured with expected dispatch date metafield

Migrating a garden and outdoor store from WooCommerce to Shopify (2026)