Changing shop platform: what to carry across and what breaks

Changing shop is not copying a folder. Platforms store products, customers and orders in different ways, and the old links that Google and customers know stop existing if nothing replaces them. This article is about moving from one platform to another (for example from a rented shop, or another platform, to WooCommerce); moving the same shop to a new host is a different matter. The rule is one: build and check the new one before you switch the old one off.

What comes across and what does not

What Does it carry over? How
Products and categories Yes, nearly always Export a CSV from the old one and import it into the new: importing and exporting with CSV. Check the columns one by one.
Images Yes, with care The image links must keep working during the import. It is often safer to upload them to the new shop first.
Variations and attributes With work This is the part that breaks most. Check a few products by hand.
Customers The data, yes Passwords usually do not, because each platform stores them its own way. Plan a message asking people to reset theirs.
Past orders Depends Import them, or keep an export for reference and accounting. Ask your accountant how long you must keep them.
Reviews Sometimes Some tools carry them; otherwise they are lost.
Page addresses No Each one has to be redirected to its new equivalent.
Payment methods No They are contracted and connected again. See connecting a payment method.

In this order

1 Make a full backup of the old shop and keep it: making and testing your own backup.
2 Build the new one at a test address, shown to nobody. See a test site before touching what is live.
3 Import products and images and check a sample: prices, variations, stock, images, categories.
4 List the old addresses (Search Console and the sitemap help) and write the new address next to each.
5 Create the 301 redirects from that list. See 301 redirects.
6 Test a whole purchase on the new one, with a real low-value payment, the e-mail, the invoice and the refund.
7 Pick a quiet hour and point the domain at the new shop, or swap the content. DNS takes time to propagate: how long it takes.
8 Keep watching Search Console and the errors for a while, and only then switch the old one off.
Do not cancel the old shop on the day of the move. If something failed, that is where you go back to. Cancel when orders, payments and redirects are confirmed, and after you have saved the export of the orders.
Do not change everything at once. Changing platform, domain and design in one day leaves a drop in visits with no explanation. Move with the same design and the same addresses where possible, and improve afterwards.

Bringing the shop here and want the right plan, or help checking the import? Tell us what platform it comes from and how many products it has.

Open a support ticket

SEE ALSO

301 redirects when you change a page or a domain

Importing and exporting products with a CSV file

Hosting migration

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