Magento to Shopify, without losing revenue.
Schema audit to 301 map to DNS flip. A replatform with rehearsed cutover, preserved SEO equity, and an engineered 90-day calendar. No ghost orders, no drifting customers, no ranking collapse.
Magento stores everything. Shopify stores what matters.
Magento's data model is wider and deeper than Shopify's. Attribute sets, EAV tables, configurable product hierarchies, customer groups, website / store / store-view layers. Shopify is flatter: products with variants, collections, customers, orders, metafields. Every Magento concept maps to Shopify, but the map is not one-to-one. The audit below is how we read your Magento schema before we touch the migration.
| Magento concept | Shopify equivalent | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Simple product | Product (1 variant) | Direct map. |
| Configurable product | Product with variants | Parent-child flattens; options become Shopify variant axes. |
| Bundle product | Bundle app or Shopify Function | No native concept; Cart Transform Function on Plus. |
| Grouped product | Manual collection + linked products | Theme-level rendering. |
| Attribute sets | Metafields | Per-type attribute sets become metafield definitions. |
| Category tree (deep) | Collections (flat) + tags | Deep trees flatten; taxonomy survives via tags. |
| Customer groups | Customer segments + B2B catalogs | Plus required for catalog-gated groups. |
| Store views (locale) | Shopify Markets | Markets covers most cases; complex setups may need Hydrogen. |
| URL rewrite | Shopify URL redirect | Bulk import via CSV; Shopify handles 301 automatically. |
| CMS blocks | Theme sections + metaobjects | Reusable content lives in metaobjects; one-off blocks in sections. |
Every row in this table gets a named translation policy during the audit. Bundle products and configurable products are where most Magento migrations get stuck; our approach is documented per scenario before we write a line of migration code.
Six data primitives. Every one migrates.
Products
Catalog with variants, descriptions, images, prices, inventory. Configurable becomes variant. Up to 5K SKUs standard.
Customers
Email, name, addresses, order history reference. Passwords reset via one-time email on cutover week.
Orders
Historical orders as read-only. Status, line items, fulfillment records for customer service reference.
Categories
Tree becomes Collections (flat) plus tags. SEO and navigation preserved.
CMS pages
About, FAQ, Shipping. Handles and URLs in the 301 map.
URL redirects
Every indexed Magento URL maps 301 to Shopify. SEO equity preserved.
Magento fields, one by one, into Shopify.
What does not carry. Scoped honestly.
Every migration has things that need to be rebuilt, not carried. Below is the honest list. The audit names the rebuild path for each one.
Magento extensions
Every extension audited, replaced with Shopify native, App Store equivalent, or bespoke app.
Custom theme
Magento Luma or custom theme does not port. We rebuild on a Shopify Dawn-derived theme or go Hydrogen.
Shopping cart rules
Magento catalog + cart price rules rebuild as Shopify automatic discounts or Functions.
Customer passwords
Password hashes do not translate. Forced reset email to all customers on cutover.
Search + filter engine
Elasticsearch / Algolia on Magento rebuilds on Shopify native search or Searchanise/Boost for catalogs over 500 SKUs.
URL structure
301 redirect map preserves every indexed URL. This is the SEO safety net.
Twelve weeks, named phases.
| Weeks | Phase | Deliverable |
|---|---|---|
| 1-2 | Audit | Schema inventory, extension map, SEO map, integration landscape, migration plan signed. |
| 3-4 | Staging build | Shopify staging provisioned, theme selected, first-pass homepage, core template pages. |
| 5-6 | Catalog migration | Products, variants, collections, metafields imported. Merchandising review. |
| 7-8 | Customers + orders | Historical customer and order import. Staging-side search + account testing. |
| 9 | Integrations | ERP, Klaviyo, tax, shipping, payment gateways. Apps installed and configured. |
| 10 | 301 map + SEO | Every indexed URL mapped. Sitemap generated. Structured data verified. |
| 11 | Cutover rehearsal | Full dress-rehearsal on staging with test orders. Failure modes catalogued. |
| 12 | Go-live | DNS flip on low-traffic weekend hour. Password reset email. 48-hour hypercare. |
| 13+ | Parity monitoring | Daily crawl, rank tracking, 404 response, Search Console error reply. 30 to 60 days. |
The 301 map is the safety net.
Most failed Magento migrations fail on SEO. The 301 redirect map is the single most important deliverable after the catalog itself. Every indexed URL, every backlink target, every canonical URL, every hreflang alternate.
- Pre-migration crawl: Screaming Frog + Google Search Console export to inventory every indexed URL.
- Backlink audit: Ahrefs or SEMrush export for every URL with external backlinks, prioritised by domain rating.
- 301 map CSV: every old URL paired with its new Shopify URL. Loaded into Shopify Redirects bulk importer.
- Canonical + hreflang: preserved on every migrated page. Never auto-generate; copy from source.
- Structured data: Product JSON-LD, BreadcrumbList, Organization schema migrated to Shopify theme.
- Search Console change of address: filed immediately after DNS flip.
- Daily crawl monitoring: 60 days post-cutover. Any 404 triggers an immediate redirect entry.
Magento TCO vs Shopify TCO.
Most Magento merchants underestimate what Magento actually costs per year. Hosting, security patching, extension licensing, backup, disaster recovery. Against that, Shopify's line-item is simpler: the plan fee plus a small set of apps.
| Line item | Magento 2 / Adobe Commerce | Shopify Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fee | $22K-$125K+ per year (Adobe Commerce) | Published by Shopify; scales with revenue. |
| Hosting | $8K-$50K per year (cloud or dedicated) | Included. |
| Security patching + dev ops | $15K-$80K per year (dedicated engineer or retainer) | Included (Shopify platform). |
| Extension licensing | $5K-$25K per year (5 to 15 extensions) | $50 to $800 per month typical app stack. |
| PCI compliance | Merchant responsibility (SAQ-D scope) | Shopify handles (SAQ-A scope for merchant). |
| Feature velocity | Adobe releases quarterly | Shopify ships weekly. |
Most merchants who migrate from Magento 2 or Adobe Commerce to Shopify Plus net an annual saving within the first 12 months once hosting, dev ops, and extension licensing are taken out. Exact math in the migration audit.
Magento 2 out. Shopify Plus in. 13 weeks.
An archetype home-goods brand with $4.2M annual revenue, 2,200 SKUs on Magento 2, 14 extensions, and a six-figure Adobe Commerce renewal on the horizon. The ask: migrate to Shopify Plus with zero SEO regression and a path to B2B within 6 months.
What shipped: 2,247 products with full variant integrity, 14 Magento extensions replaced (9 native Shopify, 3 App Store, 2 bespoke apps), 68,000 customers with one-time password reset, 195,000 orders imported read-only, 2,800-URL 301 map, Klaviyo fully migrated with consent preserved, NetSuite ERP sync, Avalara tax. Post-cutover monitoring for 60 days; zero critical issues, ranking stable from day 8, organic traffic up 11% at day 60 from faster page speed.
Six questions Magento merchants ask.
How long does a Magento to Shopify migration take?
A standard Magento 2 to Shopify migration takes 12 to 14 weeks for a catalog under 5,000 SKUs with one storefront and one market. Migrations to Shopify Plus with B2B, multi-market, or checkout extensibility run 16 to 18 weeks. The timeline does not start on kickoff day; it starts when data access is granted and the audit is signed. Audits typically take 10 working days before the clock starts.
Will we lose SEO rankings during the cutover?
Only if we run the migration poorly. Ranking preservation depends on three things, all engineered into every migration we ship: every indexed Magento URL gets a 301 redirect to its Shopify equivalent before DNS flips; canonical tags, hreflang, and structured data are preserved or improved on Shopify; and a Google Search Console migration is filed with the new property. With those three in place, ranking recovery is typically full within 14 to 30 days of cutover and in some cases rankings improve because Shopify's page speed is better.
Can you migrate historical orders and customer accounts?
Yes. Customer records migrate with email, name, addresses, and historical order summary. Passwords do not (Magento and Shopify hash differently); we send a one-time password reset email to all customers during cutover week. Historical orders import as read-only records so customer service can look up past purchases; new orders from cutover onward flow through Shopify checkout normally. Large histories (over 500,000 orders) extend timeline by 2 to 3 weeks for the import alone.
What happens to our Magento extensions?
Magento extensions do not port. Every extension in use gets audited and a Shopify-equivalent path decided: a native Shopify feature if one covers the use case (preferred), a Shopify App Store replacement (second choice), or a bespoke Shopify app or theme code (last resort when nothing matches). In practice 60 to 80 percent of Magento extensions have clean Shopify-equivalent replacements. The remaining 20 to 40 percent need bespoke engineering and are scoped separately in the audit.
Do we need Shopify Plus or can we go on Basic?
Depends on revenue and feature requirements. Stores under $2M per year with single-market retail-only needs usually fit Shopify or Shopify Advanced. Stores above $2M, with B2B, multi-market, or checkout customizations that live in Magento today, need Shopify Plus. The audit names the right plan with dollar math on the plan fee plus saved hosting and extension costs. Most Magento merchants who migrate to Shopify Plus save money within 12 months once Magento hosting, security patching, and extension licensing are netted off.
Can you keep both stores running during cutover?
Yes, and we recommend it. The Shopify build runs on a staging domain in parallel with the live Magento store for the final 3 to 4 weeks. Both sides are tested end-to-end; then we run a cutover rehearsal 48 hours before the real DNS flip, with a small test-purchase cohort. DNS flip happens on a low-traffic weekend hour. Magento remains available (read-only) for 30 to 60 days post-cutover so customer service can reference historical orders that did not cleanly import.
Two-week migration audit. Scoped quote.
Schema inventory, extension map, SEO scope, integration landscape. Written plan plus fixed-scope quote.
Book my 30-minute Magento migration call