Products, variants and media

Product records are usually the most visible migration workstream. A complete scope can include titles, descriptions, handles, vendors, product types, status, tags, options, variants, SKUs, barcodes, prices, compare-at prices, costs, weights, tax settings, images, video references, SEO titles and descriptions, and custom attributes.

The main constraint is model compatibility. A source platform may support more option dimensions, unusual product bundles, customer-specific pricing or configurable products that do not correspond neatly to Shopify variants. Those products need a deliberate target model, not forced columns in a CSV. Custom data can often live in Shopify metafields, while structured content shared across products may be better represented by metaobjects.

Media deserves its own test. Confirm image order, alt text, variant association, source quality and ownership. Do not rely indefinitely on the old store to host image URLs: download or move assets into a controlled destination.

Inventory, warehouses and locations

Inventory is more than an on-hand number. It has to be mapped by SKU or another stable identifier, then allocated to the correct Shopify location. A business with retail stores, a 3PL, dropship suppliers and reserved stock may need location-specific rules and integration testing before launch.

For cutover, agree which system is the inventory authority and when updates stop in the old platform. Importing a week-old stock snapshot into Shopify while the source continues taking orders creates overselling before the new store even launches.

Customers, addresses and consent

Customer profiles can normally include names, email addresses, phone numbers, addresses, tags, notes, tax status and selected custom attributes. Customer segments should usually be rebuilt from Shopify data rather than copied as static lists.

Password hashes are platform-specific and generally cannot be imported as working Shopify passwords. Plan an account activation or password-reset journey, explain it clearly, and test the experience before launch. For customer accounts, confirm whether the store will use classic accounts or Shopify’s newer customer accounts because the login journey differs.

Marketing consent is not simply a yes/no column. Preserve the consent state, source and timestamp where available, and only map it into Shopify or a connected email platform where the evidence supports that action. A migration is not permission to subscribe every historic customer.

Historical orders, refunds and fulfilments

Historical orders are valuable for customer service, lifetime value analysis, segmentation and repeat-purchase context. They may include order numbers, dates, customer links, line items, prices, tax, discounts, shipping, billing and delivery addresses, fulfilment state, payment state, refunds, notes and tracking data.

They are also one of the hardest record types to reproduce faithfully. Shopify’s Admin API provides order-creation capabilities, but an imported order is not a perfect replay of every event that occurred on the source platform. Payment transactions, risk decisions, edits, fulfilment events, staff actions and gateway metadata may not have a clean equivalent.

Imported orders must be clearly marked and tested so they do not trigger customer emails, inventory deductions, fulfilment requests, accounting exports or automations unexpectedly. For some merchants, importing a defined window of recent orders and retaining the full history in an archive is safer than pushing ten years of legacy records into the live admin.

Collections, categories and navigation

Source categories can become manual collections, automated collections, product taxonomy, tags, metafields and navigation links. They should rarely be copied one-for-one. Deep trees often reflect the limitations of the old platform rather than how customers now shop.

Build the Shopify catalogue architecture first, then map source categories into it. Preserve commercially important landing pages and URLs, but use the migration to remove duplicate and empty categories rather than reproducing them.

Pages, blog posts and files

Pages and articles can move with titles, body content, publish dates, excerpts, featured images, authors and SEO metadata where the source exposes them. The HTML normally needs sanitation: old shortcodes, inline styles, scripts, widgets and absolute links can break inside a Shopify theme.

Files such as size guides, PDFs and downloadable manuals should be inventoried, transferred and relinked. Check legal pages carefully; migration is an opportunity for counsel and operations teams to review them, not an assumption that old text remains suitable.

SEO metadata and URL redirects

A sound SEO migration includes source URLs, proposed destination URLs, page types, indexability, canonical intent, title tags, meta descriptions and redirect rules. Shopify URL structures differ from many platforms, so some path changes are unavoidable.

Create one-to-one 301 redirects for valuable changed URLs. Avoid sending every retired page to the homepage, and remove redirect chains where possible. Crawl the source before cutover, then crawl Shopify in staging and again after DNS changes. Rankings are protected by relevance and technical consistency, not by importing metadata alone.

Discounts, gift cards and store credit

Simple discount codes may be recreated, but complex promotion engines seldom map exactly. Buy-one-get-one rules, tiered offers, customer-group pricing and stackability need to be redesigned using Shopify’s native discount capabilities, Shopify Functions or an app.

Outstanding gift card and store-credit balances are financial liabilities. Reconcile totals before migration, use a supported import route, and validate a sample of codes and balances. Never treat these records as ordinary coupons.

Reviews, loyalty, subscriptions and wishlists

These data sets usually belong to applications rather than Shopify core. The destination app defines what can be imported: review text, ratings, media, verified-purchase status, points balances, tiers, referral records, wishlist items or subscription contracts.

Subscriptions need particular care because recurring payment credentials are governed by payment providers and token portability. Confirm the migration route with the source subscription system, destination app and payment provider before promising uninterrupted renewals. A CSV of subscriber names is not a functioning subscription migration.

B2B, markets, taxes and operational data

For Shopify Plus B2B, scope companies, company locations, contacts, catalogues, price lists, payment terms and tax identifiers separately from ordinary customer records. International merchants should also map market assignments, currencies, languages, duties, tax treatments and regional domains.

Operational records such as supplier IDs, ERP keys, return merchandise authorisations, purchase orders and warehouse attributes may belong in metafields or, more often, remain authoritative in an ERP, PIM, OMS or WMS. The right question is not “Can Shopify store it?” but “Which system should own it after launch?”