Initially, when you are launching an E-commerce store using the Magento platform to avail of the extensive customization, scalability, high flexibility, and improved control, your decision seems right at that time. Later, you realized the need for mobile responsiveness that Magento offers only for selected themes. This drawback makes you start looking for a fully hosted platform with a focus on user-friendliness, high security, and quick setup. There you find Shopify as the alternative, an excellent option.
Shopify is known for its user-friendly interface, making it easy for businesses to set up and manage an online store without much technical knowledge. As it’s a fully hosted platform, it relieves merchants from technical aspects and assures for the safety and reliability of the store with regular backups, and continuous updates.
All of these benefits with more features and functionality are convincing for any online business owner to migrating their online store from Magento to Shopify. The migration process involves careful planning, data transfer, and possible redesign, so it’s crucial to consider the long-term implications before making the move. Additionally, if the existing Magento store has extensive customizations or complex requirements, the migration process may require additional development work. Therefore, businesses should evaluate their specific situation and consult with experienced Shopify developers to know how to strategize and take things further.
In this blog, we will explain extensively how Shopify development companies help businesses with successful migration from the Magento platform to the Shopify platform in 7 steps.
Migrate from Magento to Shopify in 7 steps
The E-commerce store when decided for Magento to Shopify migration, it involves several steps to ensure a smooth and successful transition. Here’s a detailed 7-step process for the migration:
Step 1: Prepare for Migration
Backup Data: Before proceeding with the migration, back up all your Magento store data, including product details, customer information, orders, categories, and any other relevant data. You can opt for one of these three types of data backup- system back (complete backup is taken including database and file), database backup, and database and media backup (customer-related data). This ensures that you have a safety net in case anything goes wrong during the migration process. Also, you get benefited from auto-backups taken by the hosting provider.
Notify Customers: Inform your customers about the upcoming migration to Shopify to avoid confusion or any disruption to their shopping experience.
Step 2: Create a Shopify Store
Sign up for Shopify: If you don’t already have a Shopify account, sign up for one at Shopify’s website.
Choose a Plan: Shopify provides a free trial period of 14 days that helps in familiarizing yourself with Shopify features and tools. Select the Shopify plan that best suits your business needs and budget. mainly, Shopify offers three paid plans- basic Shopify for Individuals & Small Businesses ($29 per month), Shopify for Small Businesses ($79 monthly), and advanced Shopify for Medium To Large Businesses ($299/ monthly).
Customize Your Store: Set up your Shopify store by selecting a theme that aligns with your brand. Customize the design, layout, and branding elements to match your existing Magento store. Plus, there is a wide range of visual clues to create an excellent design, which helps in the creation of a beautifully-designed store. You can select between 10 free and 64 premium readymade themes to create a responsive store with simple drag-and-drop functionality.
“You can choose to set up Shopify store by yourself or hire experienced Shopify developers that can help you create a unique one as per your specifications.”
Step 3: Export Data from Magento
It’s time to transfer all the data from Magento to Shopify which involves exporting product data, customer data, and order history.
Export Product Data: Export your product information, including product names, descriptions, prices, images, and variants, in CSV or XML format from your Magento store.
Export Customer Data: Export your customer details, including names, emails, addresses, and other relevant information.
Export Order History: Export your order history data, including order IDs, order dates, products ordered, customer information, and payment details.
Step 4: Import Data to Shopify
Now, it’s time to import the product data, customer data, and order history data into the Shopify platform that’s exported from Magento in the previous step.
Import Products: In your Shopify admin dashboard, go to “Products” and use the “Import” feature to upload the product CSV file exported from Magento. Ensure that the data mapping is accurate to match the fields correctly.
Import Customers: In the “Customers” section of your Shopify admin, use the “Import Customers” option to upload the customer data CSV file from Magento. Again, verify the data mapping for accuracy.
Import Orders: Shopify allows you to import orders using various apps available in the Shopify App Store. Choose an appropriate app and follow the instructions to import your historical order data.
After importing all the data, it’s essential to review it once to ensure there is no miss or errors. For instance, bundled products, product variants, or dimensions are failed to import, which creates issues at a later stage.
Step 5: Set Up Payment Gateways and Shipping Methods
Configure your payment gateways and set up the shipping methods that you want for your Shopify store. Also, remember when you use Shopify’s payment gateway, then transaction fees charged for every online purchase is avoided. Before selecting payment gateways and shipping methods, conduct research to ensure that your customers have a seamless payment and checkout experience.
Step 6: Test the Migration
After importing all the data and setting up payment and shipping options, thoroughly test your Shopify store. Ensure that all products, customer data, and order history are migrated in an error-free way. Also, test the checkout process and payment gateways to ensure they are working as expected. Don’t forget to check menu navigation, templates, and product selection process as it unveils hidden glitches in users’ browsing and shopping journey.
Step 7: Go Live and Redirect Domain
Go live: Once testing is done and it indicates everything is functioning correctly, it’s time to go live with your new Shopify store. Redirect the business store domain from the Magento store to the new Shopify store to ensure a smooth transition for your customers.
Post-migration tasks: After migration, don’t forget to review URL redirects, SEO settings, and more to make sure that website doesn’t lose its search engine ranking despite migration.
Ready for a successful migration?
Magento development companies recommend you to get built the store using the Magento platform to avail of its benefits. When you decide to migrate from Magneto to the Shopify platform and start an eCommerce business on Shopify, it’s also a good move to enhance user experience, increase conversion, and uplift ROI. However, the next step forward that’s migration, it’s not that easy.
Migrating an eCommerce store is a significant process, and it’s essential to plan and execute it carefully in a step-by-step manner. Consider taking assistance from Shopify development companies or migration specialists if you need help with the process to ensure a successful migration.
