Migrate Your Business to Shopify: Step by Step

What Moving to Shopify Involves

Moving a shop from Etsy, Amazon or Wix to Shopify comes down to six steps: pick a plan, set the store up, migrate the product data, configure payment and shipping, redo the SEO basics, then check that every product actually arrived. Plan the product migration first, because that is where most of the work and nearly all of the errors sit.

Each platform has its own strengths, and Shopify offers a wide range of features and tools that help you grow your business and increase sales. If you first want to know why Shopify fits your e-commerce business, start there. Otherwise this guide walks you through the move.

A step-by-step guide to transitioning your online business to Shopify

Here is a guide on how to transition from Etsy, Amazon and Wix to Shopify:

Step 1: Choose a Shopify Plan

First, choose a Shopify plan that fits your business needs. Shopify offers several different plans, and each plan has different features and capabilities, so it’s important to choose the one that’s right for your business

There are four main plans offered by Shopify:

Shopify Lite: This is the most basic plan and it is designed for businesses that want to add a “Buy” button to an existing website or blog. It costs $9 per month.
Basic Shopify: This plan is designed for small businesses and it includes features such as a shopping cart, website hosting, and a basic set of e-commerce tools. It costs $29 per month.
Shopify: This is the standard plan and it includes advanced features such as gift cards, professional reports, and abandoned cart recovery. It costs $79 per month
Advanced Shopify: This is the most advanced plan and it includes features such as advanced report building, real-time carrier shipping, and third-party calculated shipping rates. It costs $299 per month.

All plans include transaction fees and each plan includes a 14-day free trial.

Step 2: Set Up your Shopify Store

Next, set up your Shopify store by choosing a design template, customizing your store’s layout, and adding your products. Shopify offers a wide range of design templates to choose from, and you can easily customize them to match your brand and style.

Keep in mind that purchasing a theme is a one-time cost, and the theme will be yours to use as long as you continue to have an active Shopify store. Additionally, you can modify the theme as per your preference and functionality required. Some theme providers also offer support and updates for an additional cost. The cost of professional themes in Shopify can vary widely, but most fall within the range of $140 to $180. Some premium themes can cost up to $350. It’s also worth noting that Shopify also offers a free theme library that includes a number of professional-looking themes, however designs and features are limited.

Step 3: Migrate your product to Shopify

Migrate your products to Shopify using a CSV file to import your products. You can also use an app that automates the process. This app can also import your reviews and ratings, which can help to increase trust and sales on Shopify.

To import products into Shopify using a CSV file, you will need to follow a specific template and format. The required fields forthe CSV file template are:

Handle: A unique identifier for the product, typically a short and descriptive string of text.
Title: The name of the product as it will appear on your store.
Body (HTML): The detailed description of the product.
Vendor: The brand or manufacturer of the product.
Type: The category or product type.
Tags: Additional keywords that can be used to group or filter products
Option1 Name, Option1 Value, Option2 Name, Option2 Value, etc: Product variant options such as size, color, etc
Variant SKU: A unique identifier for each variant of the product.
Variant Grams: The weight of the product in grams.
Variant Inventory Tracker: A setting that determines if the variant is tracked for inventory.
Variant Inventory Qty: The number of units of the variant in stock.
Variant Inventory Policy: A setting that determines how the store should handle out-of-stock variants.
Variant Fulfillment Service: A setting that determines how the variant will be fulfilled.
Variant Price: The price of the variant.
Variant Compare at Price: The original price of the variant.
Variant Requires Shipping: A setting that determines if the variant requires shipping.
Variant Taxable: A setting that determines if the variant is taxable.
Variant Barcode: A barcode or unique identifier for the variant.
Image Src: The URL of an image associated with the product.
Image Alt Text: A short description of the image.

This is the basic template and required fields for importing products in shopify, you can also add other fields such as product weight, weight unit, product dimensions, etc. depending on your needs. It’s important to note that the CSV file should be formatted as a plain text file and should be UTF-8 encoded.

It’s highly recommended to test the import on a small data set before importing a large data set.

Step 4: Set Up your Payment and Shipping Options on Shopify

Shopify integrates with over 100 payment gateways, making it easy for you to accept payments from customers all over the world. You can also set up shipping options and rates, which can help to streamline your fulfillment process. Shopify offers a variety of payment and shipping options to help you manage your online store. Here are a few examples:

Payment options:

Shopify Payments: Shopify’s own payment gateway, which allows you to accept credit and debit cards directly on your store.
PayPal: A popular third-party payment gateway that allows customers to pay with their PayPal account or credit card.
Amazon Pay: Allows customers to use their Amazon account information to make payments on your store.
Apple Pay: Allows customers to make payments using their Apple devices.

Shipping options:

Shopify Shipping: Allows you to purchase and print shipping labels directly from your Shopify admin.
Third-party shipping apps: There are many apps available in the Shopify app store that integrate with various shipping carriers, such as FedEx, UPS, and DHL.
Manual shipping: Allows you to manually enter shipping rates for different regions or products.
Dropshipping: Allows you to sell products without holding any inventory, by having the supplier ship the products directly to your customers.

It’s important to keep in mind that the availability and pricing of these options can vary by location, so you’ll want to check with the providers directly to see what is available in your area.

Step 5: Optimize your Store for SEO

Shopify has built-in SEO options that allow store owners to optimize their store for search engines. These options include the ability to:

Create and edit meta tags, such as title tags and meta descriptions, which help search engines understand what your pages are about and how they should be indexed.
Create and edit alt tags for images, which help search engines understand the content of images on your site and how they relate to your pages.
Add structured data to improve the appearance of your store in search results, for example product details and pricing.
Create and edit 301 redirects, so old URLs point to new ones and visitors do not hit 404 errors.
Customise URLs for products, collections and pages.
Create and edit your site’s robots.txt file to control which pages or sections of your site are indexed.
Generate a sitemap.xml file automatically, which helps search engines crawl and index your content.
Create and edit your site’s header tags (H1, H2, H3), which help search engines understand the structure of your content.
Add your site to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
Create and edit meta tags for social media sharing.

Redirects deserve particular attention during a migration, because your old URLs carry the rankings you already earned. Our guides to Shopify SEO and Shopify sitemaps cover what to check once the store is live.

Step 6: Make Sure all your Products are Listed

Review all imported data and identify any missing pieces. Add any missing data manually using these links: How to add a product manually to Shopify, How to add customer data to Shopify manually.

If you’ve missed something in your previous import, you can import your store data again on top of your existing import. Click Start new import. Matching products will not be imported to avoid duplication.

If your data import contains incomplete items, remove the entries and try a fresh import again. On the Import complete page, choose Delete Import and start a new import.

Migration Applications to help you!

Amazon to Shopify

Dedicated Amazon import apps let Shopify store owners bring products across from Amazon. They import product details, images, pricing and reviews, and some also allow orders to be fulfilled through Amazon’s fulfillment services.
“Amazon Connectr & FBA Sync” is a Shopify app that connects stores with an Amazon Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) account. It syncs inventory and pricing in real time and allows store owners to list products on Amazon and fulfill orders through FBA. It can also import Amazon reviews into the Shopify store to build trust and credibility with customers. If you are considering that route, see our guide to using Amazon FBA with Shopify.

Etsy to Shopify

“Easy Import ‑ Etsy Migration” is an app that allows you to import your products, customer reviews and order data from Etsy to your Shopify store. It can also update your inventory and pricing automatically, which suits businesses that want to keep their Etsy and Shopify stores in sync.
“Etsy Integration, Import” is a Shopify app that allows store owners to import their products, customers and orders from Etsy to their Shopify store. With this app, store owners can migrate their e-commerce data from Etsy to Shopify without losing information. It is a useful tool for store owners looking to expand their sales channels and take advantage of the advanced features and scalability offered by Shopify.

Wix to Shopify

“Wix Migration App by Cart2Cart” is a tool that allows store owners to migrate their products, customers and orders from Wix to Shopify. The app automates the migration and provides a detailed migration report, which makes it easy to identify and fix any issues. It offers a free demo migration, so store owners can test the process before committing to a full migration.
“Cart2Cart Store Migration App” is another e-commerce migration app worth mentioning. It supports migrations from a wide range of platforms, including Magento, BigCommerce and WooCommerce.

Importing reviews

There are several apps available that import customer reviews from your old platform, so the social proof you built up moves across with the products.

Conclusion

In conclusion, transitioning your online business to Shopify is a smart move that can help you increase your sales and grow your business. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can easily export your store data from platforms like Etsy, Amazon, and Wix and import it into Shopify. Additionally, by familiarizing yourself with the features and tools available on Shopify, you can fully optimize your store and make it stand out from the competition.

Key takeaways

Export and clean your product data before you import it, not after.
Map every old URL to its new one with 301 redirects, or the rankings go with the old shop.
Move reviews as well as products, they are part of the value you built up.
Check payment, shipping and tax settings against a real test order before you switch the domain.

Read next: why Shopify suits most online businesses, Shopify SEO after a migration, or our migration and theme development services if you would rather not do the move yourself.

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