Has anyone moved from Magento to Shopify?

[SeanOF]

We're about to move from Magento to Shopify but I'm not sure I have the right guys doing this and so I was hoping to learn from anyone's experience of what pitfalls we might incur.

What I am thinking is that Magento was far more customisable than Shopify and so I'm going to have to get used to things not being as flexible as I'm used to.

Can anyone add to this thread with their experiences of moving from Magento to Shopify so that I might avoid some mistakes please?

 

[finleydesign]

Your heading for a major problem in my opinion! Shopify will restrict you in so many ways, there is no such comparison, Magento is a nightmare to run, but you are basically moving from an F1 car to a Ford Escort

Shopify is great if you have no idea what your doing and want to build your own, but if you already on Magento your taking a major step backwards

 

[SeanOF]

Your heading for a major problem in my opinion! Shopify will restrict you in so many ways, there is no such comparison, Magento is a nightmare to run, but you are basically moving from an F1 car to a Ford Escort

Shopify is great if you have no idea what your doing and want to build your own, but if you already on Magento your taking a major step backwards

Well, haven't you just gone and opened quite the can of worms?!

You may well be right and while I realise we're losing flexibility, my understanding is we're losing flexibility in the things we probably shouldn't be changing anyway (e.g. Shopify probably know the best way to create a checkout which is why they don't let you second guess them). What I hope we're gaining is a platform where everything is more likely to "just work" (e.g. trying to get Magento to talk properly to Stripe for the last 6 months has nearly killed me) and we have a greater market of third party apps to enhance what we do. Plus, we're a small business (£750k t/o pa and maybe 300 orders per month) so maybe an Escort is all we need. By the way, we were on Magento 1.9 so that's where we're coming from.

But man, I'd have loved to have had this conversation with you six months ago...

Anyway, we are where we are with it and I think the die is cast so back to my original question: has anyone done this before and what are the pitfalls I need to look out for?

 

[mihaidobre]

Hi

Moving from Magento isn't that easy as it sounds. From WordPress yes is easier. As mentioned in the previous answers will be a difficult task to move from Magento to Shopify as they are using different systems. If you check on Google there are several websites that offer information on how to transfer Magento to Shopify .. Just google it ... hope this helps

Kind Regards

 

[apricot]

We've moved our website 3 years ago from Magento to Shopify and it was the best decision we made. Magento is very heavy, expensive and things used to go wrong very often and very difficult to find a good Magento developer anytime we needed.

Shopify is very easy to set up, easy to change a template, customer support is great and easy to find solutions on the forum or online if we need any. I haven't used a single developer since we moved to Shopify and I have been able to get anything I that need with a little bit of search and Shopify support. Plus I never had any hosting issue with Shopify which I used to have very often with Magento.
If you want to spend your time running the business, not fixing the bugs and errors, move to Shopify.

 

[Larry Fong]

I have the same experience. Magento is very complex and need a person or a team with strong programming skills to manage it. Shopify is built for doing e-commerce though it is not as customizable as Magento.

 

[Guy Incognito]

We started on Shopify and have progressed up to Shopify Plus. It's not perfect but the support is great.

I would like them to add 3D secure to the checkout and different shipping rules for different UK zones but those are minor quibbles.

 

[Pish_Pash]

Not exactly the same migration but I have just moved from prestashop to bigcommerce. Prestashop was highly configurable and quite a nice product but a few things had started to break on it...and I baulked at the cost of getting a specialist help. I could never get the page load times down either....so it's a relief to now have launched bigcommerce which is lightning quick and has fantastic support (feels like I'm in safe hands now vs winging it). It also has a nice lightweight API which is important to me as I always code my own APIs.

 

[Zachvine]

I have moved from buggy Magento to Shopify, and it was the best decision so far. Besides tons of freebies, Shopify offers much stable work. The site now is not buggy during high client flow and opens faster. Magento is still solid, but Shopify is just better.

 

[SeanOF]

I have moved from buggy Magento to Shopify, and it was the best decision so far. Besides tons of freebies, Shopify offers much stable work. The site now is not buggy during high client flow and opens faster. Magento is still solid, but Shopify is just better.

Thank you. Could I ask if you can recommend a Shopify developer? The guys we engaged were the wrong firm and 9 months later we still haven't moved (admittedly the last 2 months were because it was too close to our busiest time of the year).

 

[antropy]

What I am thinking is that Magento was far more customisable than Shopify and so I'm going to have to get used to things not being as flexible as I'm used to.

You're right, in Shopify you can't really change much about how it works.

So why not look at moving to OpenCart instead? Much simpler and cheaper than Magento but still totally open source so can be fully customised.

Paul.

 

[lesliedocherty]

My experience (with a previous company) with Magento was horrendous, hated it to bits, for what we needed it was overkill, Shopify is simpler (yes it's less functional) but for our needs, at the time it was the right move.

 

[SEO Lady]

Have you considered the SEO implications of swapping platforms?
Before you begin the migration process it's essential to track your Google rankings, their positions in SERPs and exactly which Google page and the position in which your website ranks.

For example, you sell blue widgets which are for left handed people, and you also sell blue widgets for children

Using Chrome Incognito, type in your search terms and log the results:
* "Blue Widgets Left Handed UK"
* "Blue Widgets for Children UK"

Let's say you're on Google page 2, position 6 for "Blue Widgets Left Handed UK" but not bad with "Blue Widgets for Children UK" on Google page 1, position 3.

Around 85% of traffic hits Google page 1 positions 1, 2 & 3 as a whole, so it's important to retain your rankings for this product page.

When you change platform, the URLs may change, with Shopify the URL structure is a Collection, in Magento, you name your own category so that's bespoke.

Potentially, all of your store URLs could break so:

bluewidgets co.uk/adults/left-handed/
bluewidgets co.uk/children/

To Shopify with their Collections URL structure would be:

bluewidgets co.uk/collections/adults/left-handed/
bluewidgets co.uk/collections/children/

If you don't rank in Google, then it's not as critical as my explanation, depending on the age of the domain (You mention 6 months, has the website been live for longer than this?) When did you buy the domain?

If your entire livelihood and food on the table, mortgage and bills replies on organic traffic from search engines you'll need to ensure you have mapped out every URL on your website and applied a 301 permanent redirect from the old URL to the new one.

Your sitemap URL may also change, so this needs to be updated in Google Search Console.
Taken from one of my SEO blogs

 

[SeanOF]

Have you considered the SEO implications of swapping platforms?
Before you begin the migration process it's essential to track your Google rankings, their positions in SERPs and exactly which Google page and the position in which your website ranks.

For example, you sell blue widgets which are for left handed people, and you also sell blue widgets for children

Using Chrome Incognito, type in your search terms and log the results:
* "Blue Widgets Left Handed UK"
* "Blue Widgets for Children UK"

Let's say you're on Google page 2, position 6 for "Blue Widgets Left Handed UK" but not bad with "Blue Widgets for Children UK" on Google page 1, position 3.

Around 85% of traffic hits Google page 1 positions 1, 2 & 3 as a whole, so it's important to retain your rankings for this product page.

When you change platform, the URLs may change, with Shopify the URL structure is a Collection, in Magento, you name your own category so that's bespoke.

Potentially, all of your store URLs could break so:

bluewidgets co.uk/adults/left-handed/
bluewidgets co.uk/children/

To Shopify with their Collections URL structure would be:

bluewidgets co.uk/collections/adults/left-handed/
bluewidgets co.uk/collections/children/

If you don't rank in Google, then it's not as critical as my explanation, depending on the age of the domain (You mention 6 months, has the website been live for longer than this?) When did you buy the domain?

If your entire livelihood and food on the table, mortgage and bills replies on organic traffic from search engines you'll need to ensure you have mapped out every URL on your website and applied a 301 permanent redirect from the old URL to the new one.

Your sitemap URL may also change, so this needs to be updated in Google Search Console.
Taken from one of my SEO blogs

Thank you and yes, we have considered the SEO issues. We currently rank pos 1 or 2 in the UK and 4-7 on Google.com for our chosen keyword and it drives a lot of business so it's very important. Our domain is circa 10 year sold. My understanding is that even with all redirects etc in place we will lose ranking for a period of time but Google should catch up. After that, Shopify is faster and that might help support our ranking so this was part of the decision to move to Shopify.

 

[SEO Lady]

My understanding is that even with all redirects etc in place we will lose ranking for a period of time but Google should catch up.

In my experience this isn't true, when the switchover date is agreed and you have the SEO fastest finger first on the button to implement Google Search Console tasks, no dip in ranking happens.

I guess you are going to pull the trigger after Christmas?

 

[fisicx]

In my experience this isn't true, when the switchover date is agreed and you have the SEO fastest finger first on the button to implement Google Search Console tasks, no dip in ranking happens.

Unless there was something about the existing site that google really liked and is now missing from Shopify. Ranking could plummet and never recover. Had this with a client a while back. They wanted a shiny new site but in the process changed the internal linking and site structure and it killed their ranking. Took us ages to get back up again.

 

[thetiger2015]

Thank you and yes, we have considered the SEO issues. We currently rank pos 1 or 2 in the UK and 4-7 on Google.com for our chosen keyword and it drives a lot of business so it's very important. Our domain is circa 10 year sold. My understanding is that even with all redirects etc in place we will lose ranking for a period of time but Google should catch up. After that, Shopify is faster and that might help support our ranking so this was part of the decision to move to Shopify.

This depends on the structural changes undertaken and the size of the website. I've seen a few people move from Magento to Shopify Plus and they take the opportunity to 'prune' their websites and remove/redirect pages that they no longer use etc. So, they do experience ranking changes, as they move to a smaller website and 301 redirect to pages that have different content, leading to a change when Google re-crawls those pages and finds the 301 redirects.

Google does provide some advice here: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/crawling/what-is-site-move

I presume you're moving to Shopify Plus? I see a lot of people commenting on Magento/Shopify moves without realising that Shopify Plus affords you more flexibility and almost enterprise level functionality.

 

[SEO Lady]

Unless there was something about the existing site that google really liked and is now missing from Shopify. Ranking could plummet and never recover. Had this with a client a while back. They wanted a shiny new site but in the process changed the internal linking and site structure and it killed their ranking. Took us ages to get back up again.

I would sack the SEO ??

 

[fisicx]

I would sack the SEO ??

They didn't need any help with the site move. They did it all themselves to save money....

 

[SEO Lady]

They didn't need any help with the site move. They did it all themselves to save money....

Then they had to pay an expensive colsultant to resolve, sounds about right haha

 

[MrHarryPotter]

We're about to move from Magento to Shopify but I'm not sure I have the right guys doing this and so I was hoping to learn from anyone's experience of what pitfalls we might incur.

What I am thinking is that Magento was far more customisable than Shopify and so I'm going to have to get used to things not being as flexible as I'm used to.

Can anyone add to this thread with their experiences of moving from Magento to Shopify so that I might avoid some mistakes please?

As great as Shopify is, believe me, it doesn't automate everything. If you're moving to Shopify because you've outgrown Magento, maybe it's time to look at expanding further?

 

[Sco]

Hi all. I'm also planning to move from Magento to Shopify. For those who have moved successfully, do you have a developer you'd recommend please?

Sorry to revive an old thread, this one just seems useful so no point in making a new one!

 

[Beautinow]

Hi all. I'm also planning to move from Magento to Shopify. For those who have moved successfully, do you have a developer you'd recommend please?

Sorry to revive an old thread, this one just seems useful so no point in making a new one!

I recently moved from Magento 2 to Shopify.

Based on my personal experience, I can recommend one of the 2 options:

• Do it yourself with Matrixify app.
• Or hire Litextension.

Both are good options. If you hire litextension they can do it fairly quickly by migrating your products, categories, customers etc, and they will setup redirects once your shopify store is up and running.

But Matrixify is still very good to have if you later want to finetune the migrated content, as app allows you to export data to excel, modify, and upload again. Shopify's structure is quite different from magento so you still will need to do some finetuning.

Before you migrate, first determine which extensions you find useful in magento, and check first if similar apps exists in the shopify app store.

 

[Sco]

I recently moved from Magento 2 to Shopify.

Based on my personal experience, I can recommend one of the 2 options:

• Do it yourself with Matrixify app.
• Or hire Litextension.

Thank you. I'm having a look at both. And actually when the Litextension quote asked me for how many customer accounts I want to move over, I took a look and realised that I had a lot of spam bots signing up, and that prompted me to do a big tidy up. So if nothing else it helped me that way!

Before you migrate, first determine which extensions you find useful in magento, and check first if similar apps exists in the shopify app store.

Turns out one of the Magento extension developers I use a lot also offers a Magento to Shopify service, so I've shot them a message.

Thanks for your advice.

 

[Ecommerce&MailOrderGuy]

Our website is 13 years old. Bespoke design. Created in 2009 built on ASP language with Microsoft Access database. We've added extra features over the years and it continues to perform well. Around 300k visitors per month generating 60,000 orders annually. Website integrates into our ERP system.

But there is smoke coming out the back of it now it's so old
- set up on an out of date platform
- site slowing down,
- can't connect to payment providers in the most up to date ways
- potential PCI compliance issues

Going to stick with same design agency who we have used since day one. After all why change too much if it ain't broke? They have advised us it needs to be on newer technologies- probably based on something like HTML, .net or PHP. (I know, I need to iron this out).

Having worked in ecommerce for over 20yrs I'm always amazed how something like Magento can gain such traction. I understand everyone is looking for something 'industry standard' but some of these 'building systems' seem to act as a straight-jacket on design, cost a fortune and look slow and heavy-coded. It sounded downright nasty when Magento 1.0 users had to move to 2.0.

Any of you web experts know of any 'killer' changes happening in the industry that I need to be aware of? ie, we did a site update in 2017 moving to a responsive design. Is there anything else as significant as this occurring that may make it worth delaying the site update for a little while yet???

Thanks.

 

[danthewebguy]

Any of you web experts know of any 'killer' changes happening in the industry that I need to be aware of?

The big change coming to e-commerce (actually already here) is known as "Headless Commerce" which basically de-couples your store backend/inventory/orders from the public frontend or "website", meaning that you can have one backend but multiple frontends e.g. website, app, Facebook/Instagram shop, games etc etc - all talking to the one backend via an API.

This kind of architecture allows you to build very fast, reliable, and custom shopping experiences for your customers, without being tied to one system e.g. Magento, Shopify etc.

There are not many developers/agencies working like this yet, but it will become more common in the next few years. A few big players are already "Headless" (cue the jokes) e.g. Debenhams in the UK, and all of Nike's global stores.