Moving from WooCommerce to Shopify (and Back)

What Shopify can import and the redirect rules come from Shopify's own help pages: Migrate from WooCommerce, importing and exporting customers and URL redirects. The WooCommerce side comes from WooCommerce's Product CSV Importer and Exporter documentation. All were checked on 13 November 2026. The order of work and the checks are our view from building and launching stores. If you are still deciding which platform to use, start with Shopify vs WooCommerce.

The short answer

Export products and customers from WooCommerce as CSV files, adjust them to Shopify's templates and import them. Plan separately for order history, reviews, coupons, blog posts and pages, which the CSV route does not cover. Rebuild the design as a Shopify theme, set up shipping, taxes and payments, place test orders, then switch the domain and turn on redirects from every old URL that matters.

What moves, and how

Shopify's WooCommerce guide lists products, customers and tags as the data you can move with a CSV export and import. The steps run in this order:

• Products. Export them from WooCommerce under Products > All Products > Export. WooCommerce's exporter has a "Yes, export all custom meta" option; extra fields from plugins come out as columns with a meta: prefix. Then edit the file to match Shopify's product CSV template and import it.
• Check the import. Check variants, images, prices, stock and collections afterwards; in our experience this is where most of the time goes.
• Customers. Export, edit to Shopify's customer template and import. Shopify notes that customer CSV files must be 15 MB or smaller, so a large list goes in several files. For email consent it says: "Set each marketing consent column separately, based on that channel's history on your previous platform." Do not mark everyone as subscribed.

What does not move by CSV

Shopify is direct about the gaps. "Some WooCommerce data isn't included in the product or customer exports, or can't be imported to Shopify by using a CSV file":

• Passwords. "Customer passwords can't be migrated." Shopify explains why: "Because passwords are encrypted outside of Shopify, you can't migrate customer passwords from another online store using a CSV." With Shopify's current customer accounts, "imported customers sign in with their email address and a one-time verification code, so they don't need a password." On legacy customer accounts, Shopify says to "invite your imported customers to create new passwords."
• Orders. "Orders can't be imported to Shopify by using a CSV file." Shopify's guide points to third-party apps for order history.
• Reviews. "Product reviews aren't included in the WooCommerce product export." These also need an app on the Shopify side.
• Coupons. "WooCommerce coupons can't be imported to Shopify by using a CSV file." Recreate the ones that are still in use as Shopify discounts.
• Blog posts and pages. These are recreated by hand or with an app.
• Plugins and custom fields. WordPress plugins do not run on Shopify. List what each plugin does (forms, subscriptions, product add-ons, shipping rules) and find the Shopify feature or app that covers it before you commit. Custom fields from the meta: columns need somewhere to live in Shopify, usually metafields that the theme has to be set up to show. This part is our view; it is the step most often missed.

URLs and redirects

Your product and category addresses will change. Shopify uses fixed paths such as /products and /collections, so old WooCommerce URLs need redirects. Shopify says: "You can set up redirects for all your important pages to help preserve your SEO ranking." Its URL redirect page sets the rules:

• "You can redirect only from broken URLs." A redirect works only where the old address would otherwise show a 404.
• "You can't redirect URLs that use fixed Shopify paths: /products, /collections, /collections/all." You redirect old addresses to those paths, not away from them.
• Standard plans support up to 100,000 redirects, and redirects can be imported from a CSV file, which is how a large map goes in.
• "URL redirects don't automatically apply to all market subfolders." A store with country or language subfolders needs redirects for each one.

Build the redirect map from a crawl of the old site plus its sitemap: every product, category, page and post, each matched to its new address. How to choose targets and avoid chains is covered in 404 pages and redirects, and what to watch in Search Console after the move is in keeping SEO through a redesign. Store-specific SEO (product pages, filters, out-of-stock items) is in e-commerce SEO.

Payments, taxes and shipping

Shopify's migration guide puts shipping, taxes and payments after the products and the theme, and before test orders. These do not carry over from WooCommerce, so set them up again on Shopify:

• Shipping. Rebuild your zones and rates, and compare a few real baskets against what WooCommerce charged.
• Taxes. Set up where you collect tax. Ask your accountant to confirm the settings, especially if you sell across state or country borders.
• Payments. Connect a payment provider and check the checkout. If you use the same provider as before, it is usually a new connection, not a transfer. How online payments work in general is in accepting payments online.

Testing before launch

Shopify's guide says that once payments are set up, "you should try out a few transactions to make sure that everything is working." Our test list:

• Orders for a simple product, a product with variants and a discount code, with shipping to more than one region.
• A refund, the order confirmation email and the shipping email.
• An imported customer signing in.
• Product counts, prices and stock against the WooCommerce export.
• Analytics and ad conversion tags on the new checkout; see GA4 e-commerce tracking.

The full pre-launch list for any store is in our e-commerce launch checklist.

Launch day

• Pick a quiet day and pause product edits on the old shop, then import any customers or stock changes made since the last export.
• Connect the domain to Shopify.
• Import the redirect map and test it. Shopify's advice is to test by "entering the original URL in a web browser and confirming that it redirects to the target URL." Check a sample of products, categories and pages, not only the home page.
• Submit the new sitemap in Search Console. Shopify notes that "All Shopify stores automatically generate a sitemap.xml file".
• Keep the old WooCommerce site and its database backed up and offline (not deleted) until you are sure nothing is missing.

One more Shopify note: "301 redirects are cached by browsers and search engines." Get the map right before launch, because a wrong redirect can keep working in visitors' browsers after you fix it.

Moving from Shopify to WooCommerce

The reverse move follows the same pattern. Export products and customers from Shopify as CSV files. WooCommerce's built-in product importer takes a CSV under Products > All Products > Import, but it expects WooCommerce's own column schema, so the Shopify file has to be remapped first. WooCommerce's documentation also notes that images "need to be pre-uploaded or available online", that "The core CSV importer cannot add, edit, or update alt text for product images" and that large imports depend on server memory and limits. It advises: "Before importing a large catalog, create a backup and test a small import on a staging site." Passwords, orders, apps and the theme have the same gaps as in the other direction, and the redirects now go on your WordPress hosting instead of in Shopify.

Frequently asked questions

Can customers keep their passwords when I move to Shopify?

No. Shopify says customer passwords can't be migrated. With Shopify's customer accounts, imported customers sign in with their email address and a one-time code. On legacy accounts, you invite them to create new passwords.

Can I import my WooCommerce orders into Shopify?

Not with a CSV file. Shopify's guide points to third-party apps for order history. Many shops keep a full export of old orders for their records instead.

Will I lose Google rankings when I switch?

Some movement after a move is normal. Redirecting every important old URL to its new page, and testing those redirects at launch, is what Shopify recommends to help preserve rankings.

Our website development service builds online shops on WooCommerce. If you are weighing a move in either direction, that page explains how we work and how to get in touch.