Migration

What Data Can You Migrate to Shopify (and What Cannot Be Moved)?

Most store data can move to Shopify, but not all of it moves the same way, and a few things cannot be transferred directly. Knowing which is which before you start prevents surprises at launch.

By FlowCart Agency · · 6 min read

What usually moves cleanly

  • Products, variants, prices, SKUs, inventory levels and images.
  • Collections and product-to-collection relationships.
  • Customer records, including names, emails and addresses.
  • Historical orders, for reference and reporting.
  • Blog posts, pages and their SEO fields.
  • URL redirects for old addresses.

What needs special handling

  • Customer passwords: these cannot be imported, so customers reset or activate their accounts.
  • Subscriptions and saved payment methods: these depend on your payment processor and subscription app, and usually need a planned processor-to-processor migration.
  • Gift cards and store credit: balances need to be recreated or transferred with a plan.
  • Product reviews: exportable from most platforms, but they need a review app that can import them.
  • Custom fields and attributes: map these to Shopify metafields or variants deliberately.
  • Discount codes: recreate them in Shopify.

What generally cannot be moved as-is

  • Theme and design: the front end is rebuilt for Shopify.
  • Plugins and custom code: their functions have to be replaced with apps, native features or custom development.
  • Server-level settings and rewrite rules.

How to move it safely

  1. Export and clean the data at the source first.
  2. Import into Shopify using CSV or a migration tool, starting with a small test batch.
  3. Reconcile counts: products, customers and orders should match the source.
  4. Spot-check variants, prices and images.
  5. Keep a backup of the original export until the new store has been stable for a while.

The complete sequence is in our WooCommerce to Shopify checklist, and our migration service handles the transfer end to end.

Frequently asked questions

Can I transfer orders to Shopify?
Yes, historical orders can be imported for reference and reporting. They are records rather than live orders, so they do not trigger fulfilment or emails.
Can I migrate customer passwords to Shopify?
No. Passwords are hashed and cannot be imported, so customers activate or reset their accounts after the move.
What happens to my subscriptions when I migrate to Shopify?
It depends on your payment processor and subscription app. Saved payment details usually have to be migrated between processors, so plan this early.

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