Migration from Magento to Shopify: The Ultimate Guide

How to Make Your Migration from Magento to Shopify a Success 

Looking to start your e-commerce platform’s migration from Magento to Shopify? You’re in good company. Over 1.75 million e-commerce merchants use Shopify to host their virtual storefront, taking advantage of the sleek, centralized interface and advanced tools for store growth and refinement. 

You’ll finally be able to ditch the manual upgrades and enjoy Shopify’s effortless and automated experience. Plus, you’ll also be able to give your clients the security and assurance they’ll expect from a rapidly expanding site and brand. 

However, time is money – and you’re likely looking for the fastest way to complete your Shopify Magento migration. 

If so, we’ve got you covered! Read on to learn more about our top tips for migrating from Magento to Shopify in 2023 and beyond. 

Best Practices: Data Migration from Magento to Shopify 

The quality of your data migration dictates your experience throughout the process, whether positively or negatively. Understanding the full scope of the data you can migrate will help you prepare and set expectations for a more streamlined migration experience. 

Currently, migration from Magento to Shopify is quite simple, largely due to the range of data that you can take with you as you move to Shopify. We’ve identified key areas of data that can be migrated to save you significant time and effort, such as: 

• Product information: Elements such as SKUs, descriptions, URLs, and variants can be easily brought with you between the two platforms, saving you time spent manually processing each item. 

• Order information: The range of data that can be taken from this category is quite diverse and includes elements such as customer data, order status, order comments, addresses, and prices.

• Images: Images from descriptions and your pages can come with you throughout the migration process, avoiding a time-consuming upload/download process. 

What are the benefits of migrating from Magento to Shopify? 

While migration from Magento to Shopify is a project that requires planning and careful scoping, the benefits you can gain can put you on a path to exponential growth. Below are just a few of the reasons you may consider before starting your own Magento-to-Shopify migration process: 

Enhanced customization for a truly unique brand experience 

Shopify is more advanced than Magento’s native platform and offers more opportunities for low-tech and no-tech customization of your e-commerce store. This can save you time and additional costs that would otherwise be spent on developers and skilled techs to help you reach your ultimate brand goals. 

High-rated security for transparency and consumer confidence

Shopify is known as one of the safest platforms in the e-commerce space, which is why migration from Magento to Shopify is so popular for brands, from startups to established companies in the e-commerce space. Shopify is extensively certified and in compliance with Level 1 PCI DSS standards at the time of writing this publication. This means your customers are protected by constant security reviews, data encryption strategies, server defenses, and ongoing risk analysis. 

Simpler hosting for more time saved 

When you self-host your e-commerce storefront, you open yourself up to additional work, effort, and costs. With Shopify, you can enjoy a self-hosted e-commerce solution that requires no added cost. You’ll simply pay the monthly fee and enjoy a professionally hosted site. 

What are the risks of migrating from Shopify to Magento? 

While there are many benefits to undergoing migration from Magento to Shopify, there are a few considerations to review before taking the leap. 

Setup is far more time-consuming, and can come at a higher cost

Due to hosting setup, configurations, and personalization processes, setting your shop up with Magento can be extremely time-consuming. Users have reported setup times between an hour to several hours, citing different reasons and difficulties encountered through the process (such as complicated hosting service setup). 

Plus, Magento is far less comprehensive than Shopify as far as setup and level of development go. This means you’ll have extra work to do, and you can expect to see extra costs around development, site security, and optimization. This can end up costing you several thousand dollars more than if you went with Shopify’s user-friendly interface.

You’ll have to manage your own hosting solution 

Shopify offers e-commerce businesses a sleek, contained, cloud-hosted shop system that’s effortless and user-friendly. You can opt not to hire any additional developmental experts, choosing instead to take advantage of Shopify’s support team and their intuitive dash to customize and optimize your shop. However, with Magento, you’ll be tasked with finding and setting up your hosting solution and managing the shop’s more technically challenging elements. 

This often requires business owners to outsource the work, incurring extra cost and time spent. This is why Shopify is the more common and easy-to-use choice, as it is far less technically challenging and more comprehensive and inclusive in site structure and execution. 

Digging Deeper: Everything You Need to Know About Shopify 2.0 

Shopify 2.0 has brought with it a slew of new perks and features. We’ve listed a few top updates below: 

• Shopify “Sections Everywhere” Capabilities: This update allows store owners to have dynamic content sections wherever they please, across templates – giving you new options for UX-based refinement and optimization. 

• Metafields: Get ready to enjoy more in-depth product descriptions. With metafields, you can expand on your descriptions and give your customers the most well-rounded experience yet. 

• App Modularity: Now, store owners can optimize for UI without digging into complex code – making Shopify an obvious choice for those on the hunt for a low-code e-commerce solution. 

• Loading Speed: Shopify 2.0 will result in greater overall loading speeds across sites, as templates such as the Over 1.75 million e-commerce merchants are built off of currently recommended e-practices. This results in a smoother UX and overall site experience. 

Scaling Your Shop: Exploring SEO Benefits of Migrating from Magento to Shopify 

While Magento has a robust library of tools to help you customize your pre-built site URLs, it may be worth it to consider a migration from Magento to Shopify… and here’s why. 

Shopify offers powerfully optimized and high-performing site themes, especially with the recent launch of  Shopify 2.0. Plus, Shopify sites can be incredibly mobile responsive, which is becoming a bigger focus of modern-day SEO. This can also help to drive sales, as 79% of the 230 million smart device users in the United States have made a purchase on their phone within a 6-month time frame. 

These features alone can be enough to set you on a solid track towards SEO success. However, Shopify doesn’t stop there. You’ll also enjoy the canonical tag feature to keep your content as competitive as possible, as well as automatically generated site sitemap.xml and robots.txt files for a stronger, more optimized SEO crawling experience. 

Preparing for a Migration from Magento to Shopify 

Preparation is key for success in your migration from Magento to Shopify. Here are a few top tips to help the process go smoothly: 

• Create your backup: Backing up your store mitigates your risk of data loss or compromise. If you’re a larger brand, this is especially important to protect yourself. 

• Launch your Shopify store: Shopify has a 14-day free trial, so don’t worry about paying the full cost yet. However, you will need to have a place to put your saved data and migration inputs, so this is an important step to consider in your process. 

• Find your import partner: There are several services and Magento to Shopify migration apps to consider. With a Magento migration partner like Gamma Waves, you’ll receive comprehensive assistance and personalized support throughout the entirety of your migration experience. 

• Complete your final export: Now, you’re ready to migrate! It’s time to complete your final export and migrate from Magento to Shopify. 

Best Way to Migrate? Let the Experts Do it for You! 

There are three primary methods of migration from Magento to Shopify – automated, manual, and assisted migration. While automated and manual migration have some pros, there are some disadvantages as well. That’s why assisted migration is clearly the best method that e-commerce brands should try out while migrating from Magento to Shopify. 

The assisted method requires minimal work on your part. It gives you the assistance of experienced development professionals to keep you on track. This choice is less technically demanding. It’s just that it can take longer than the methods and requires you to manage the project through its completion. The tradeoff for time spent managing the project may be worth it, though, as you’ll receive personalized support, expert assistance, and a far easier process overall than if you opted to do it yourself. 

Trusted partner service providers (like us!) help you to mitigate the risks of improper setup or costly mistakes, helping you to secure the migration process and offering a positive overall experience. 

Migrating Your Orders from Magento to Shopify Using 2 Methods

Let’s look at the two methods of migrating and exporting orders – assisted or manual. 

• Assisted migration generally requires you to prepare the data in advance, placing it on a table and handing it off to a team of tech pros. Common elements needed to do this process will include: 

• Product data (such as quantity, status, SKUs, etc). 

  • Customer data (such as names, numbers, and locations). 

  • Deals, discounts, and bonuses assigned per order 

  • Billing information (depending on the type of transfer and service you choose)

• Manual migration requires you to do it yourself. It is generally done through a CSV file type for the import and export processes.

Migrating from Magento to Shopify: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) 

Below are some commonly asked questions about migrating from Magento to Shopify: 

How much does Shopify 2.0 cost? 

With e-commerce plans starting from $29 per month, Shopify is one of the most affordable (and comprehensive) e-commerce platforms currently available. However, we recommend the Shopify package from $79 per month, as it features lower transaction rates, advanced reporting, and multiple staff accounts. You’ll also enjoy 24/7 support through the migration process and unlimited product add capabilities in your site’s storefront. 

How can I transfer items from one Shopify to another? 

You can do this quite easily, thanks to Shopify’s user-friendly processes. Simply export your total marketplace item list via CSV file format and import it to your secondary storefront. 

Is Shopify self-hosted? 

Yes, the site offers hosting services and is independently hosted through its own servers to promote consumer and store owner security. This also offers you an ease of access that you won’t find with other e-commerce services that require store owners to host, such as Magento.

Migrating from Magento to Shopify Can Elevate Your E-Commerce Brand 

Is migrating from Magento to Shopify worth it? Simply put, yes. Shopify comes equipped with many advanced tools and intuitive features that continue to set it apart from the competition – including enhanced security features, advanced reporting, and an effortlessly sleek interface with many options to add conversion-driving site features through apps or custom development with a partner. 

E-commerce brands are essential to helping you grow your business effectively. Gamma Waves is proud to recommend Shopify as a top option for new and seasoned brand owners alike. 

Looking for assistance growing and scaling your e-commerce business? Connect with the team at Gamma Waves today. We assist both established and up-and-coming brands with strategy, conversion rate optimization, UX, design, development and QA, implementing a holistic growth strategy tailored to your business’ success. For more information and to get started today, please connect with us at hello@gammawaves.io.