Insights

Shopify Migration Agency Checklist

Posted on by Punch Buggy eCommerce

Migrating to Shopify or any eCommerce system for that matter is a critical operation that can be underestimated and quite challenging. A solid process to manage the migration and transition to Shopify is key to ensuring there’s minimal impact on the business operations, the website’s search engine rankings and the e-commerce conversion rate of the website.

Whether you’re migrating to Shopify from Magento, WooCommerce, Bigcommerce, Neto or even from a custom system where the complexity in migrating the data itself will vary, the underlying approach to planning and checklist to follow still remain the same.

We’ve been providing Shopify migration services and replatforming ecommerce stores for well over a decade and in all honesty, it’s a daunting task that requires a methodical process to remove the risks and become comfortable with the steps involved to get it right.

We share below a summarised version of our internal Shopify migration checklist to help you think about the right things to start planning your migration to the leading ecommerce platform.

Shopify Migration Planning Process

Key Factors to Consider

✔ Features Audit & Comparison

✔ Features Audit & Comparison

Identify all website and e-commerce features on the existing website and identify what’s being lost or gained in the migration process of moving to Shopify.
✔ Evaluate Integrations

✔ Evaluate Integrations

Identify and evaluate available Shopify Apps to handle integration requirements to ensure they will achieve what’s required and highlight any limitations.
✔ Shopify Staging Site

✔ Shopify Staging Site

Setup a Shopify staging site and integrate Git version control system with Shopify's Theme Kit for local development.
✔ Shopify General Config

✔ Shopify General Config

Configure Shopify general settings, payment settings, customise email templates, required apps and integrations.
✔ Marketing Audit

✔ Marketing Audit

Audit existing website tracking and marketing platforms to document a tracking implementation plan for Google Analytics and other pixels such as the Facebook pixel. Identify existing product feeds, along with a list of marketing campaigns that will require manual changes upon go live to ensure they’re targeting the new URL convention.
✔ Shopify Theme Development

✔ Shopify Theme Development

Develop the new design or re-develop the existing website code and integrate it into the Liquid templating language used by Shopify along with any multisite requirements such as hreflang tags and geo country detection.
✔ Content/Product Audit & URL Mapping

✔ Content/Product Audit & URL Mapping

Export existing website URLs and map 301 redirects to the new Shopify URL convention. This will mitigate traffic loss due to the SEO implications of changing store URLs.
✔ E-commerce Product Migration

✔ E-commerce Product Migration

Migrate and import all existing products. Typically most product data and information can be extracted from existing ecommerce systems. Reformatting into the new Shopify design template layout may still be required.
✔ Customer data Migration

✔ Customer data Migration

Migrate and import the existing website customers and their previous order information. This process will be repeated post launch to capture any recent customers and orders.
✔ Manual Content Migration

✔ Manual Content Migration

Bring across any content not included in the product import. This can include general pages such as shipping information and blog articles.
✔ Product and Migration Testing

✔ Product and Migration Testing

Test products are displaying and functioning as expected with validated product meta data. Check that products are correctly syncing with integrated 3rd party inventory systems.
✔ SEO Audit & Testing

✔ SEO Audit & Testing

Test the new product and category page URLs and SEO product meta data is displaying correctly as per technical SEO guidelines.
✔ Internal Development QA

✔ Internal Development QA

The ecommerce website development team conducts pagespeed testing and internal website quality assurance and cross-device browser testing using our website quality assurance checklist.
✔ User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

✔ User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

This is where the key project stakeholders complete their own independent testing and approve the website for launch.
✔ Import 301 Redirects

✔ Import 301 Redirects

Import the previously mapped URLs to implement the 301 redirects. Then run a website audit using Screaming Frog to speed up checking the implemented 301 redirects.
✔ Target Go Live

✔ Target Go Live

Set a go-live date where both parties have sufficient resourcing available to manage the transition.
✔ Live Testing

✔ Live Testing

All parties thoroughly test and monitor the website. We recommend putting through a real eCommerce transaction to validate payments are processing correctly.
✔ Update Marketing Campaign URL’s

✔ Update Marketing Campaign URL’s

Update the target destination URLs in your active ad platforms such as Google and Facebook Ads.
✔ Previous Order Import

✔ Previous Order Import

Migrate and import the most recent previous order and customer information.
FREE 11 Step Shopify Migration Checklist

FREE 11 Step Shopify Migration Checklist

DOWNLOAD THE CHECKLIST

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We provided Gear Supply with a Shopify e-commerce strategy, custom store UX design and theme development.

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