Would you be comfortable having your online shop run on an unsafe platform? Are you curious to gain more knowledge of Shopify? Explore its Speed Optimization Guide, which details strategies for optimizing your storefront.
However, the question remains as to where your migration should occur. Since the Magento 1 End-of-Life announcement, Magento to Shopify Migration has become one of the top requests among business owners. This article aims to answer some of their frequently asked questions regarding such migration.
Why Choose Shopify When Switching from Magento?
There are ten platforms you could consider as possible alternatives to Magento 1. Of these platforms, Shopify, WooCommerce and Bigcommerce are popular choices; others should also be considered. Furthermore, Magento 2 provides more customization and scalability capabilities.
When migrating platforms, take care to select an alternative based on these criteria:
- Your online shop's current functionality and your plans to scale it further
- Analysis of the other E-commerce platforms on the Market
- Compare your desired functionality with the platform's capabilities
- It is essential to consider the complexity of the migration (effort-result ratio).
Magento 1 was an all-inclusive e-commerce platform that could accommodate stores of any size or complexity, allowing businesses to create successful, flexible online stores easily. Now that Magento 1 no longer supports hosting for sites hosted with them, all those businesses must migrate away from Magento 1, with each business considering individual platform requirements when making decisions to move away. There is no one answer when considering where best to migrate; each business must make thoughtful choices that consider their needs and business requirements before choosing which host to migrate with.
A real-business review
We've recently been collecting insights from businesses that used Magento 1 before its end-of-support date and decided to upgrade after. One such e-commerce manager is Jeff Moriarty from Moriarty's Gem Art.
The cost was our main issue when upgrading to Magento 2, so we ultimately decided to switch to Shopify admin instead. It is everything Magento 1 offered us but at 1/4th the price. Plus, it is much easier and has fewer issues to worry about. At the same time, managing costs have dramatically decreased, so it has paid dividends for us here at Moriarty's Gem Art, where Jeff Moriarty serves as E-Commerce Manager! Jeff has since moved on to another job.
Shopify has quickly become one of the go-to solutions for businesses of all types and sizes with straightforward business models, from startups like Nescafe to massive enterprises like Tesla Motors use this ecommerce solution.
Want More Information About Our Services? Talk to Our Consultants!
Why you should switch from Magento to Shopify?
This is a short list that will help you decide whether or not a Magento to Shopify conversion is suitable for your business.
You can quickly meet your requirements for the functionality of the online store .
Shopify offers numerous apps that allow users to customize their online stores. When switching from Magento, customization options become much less flexible as only the Shopify team has access to the source code of this platform. Before leaping to migrate, take into consideration:
Shopify offers apps that can provide additional services to your store.
Magento Ecommerce stores feature many customizations that slow and complicate migration processes, adding additional steps and expenses. Every Magento store typically features ten or more features which might no longer be utilized or may no longer exist - this makes switching over to Shopify a more accessible alternative, eliminating some functions; otherwise, it might make more sense to stay with Magento until an alternative platform provides equivalent capabilities; otherwise, you should reconsider moving away.
It is not necessary to host your website.
Shopify offers a SaaS-based platform. You can choose from a wide range of plans that include reliable hosting. You don't have to pay, manage, or choose to host.
There are less than 100k items listed.
No need to panic: this step is optional but should still take several weeks when migrating hundreds of thousands of products from Magento to Shopify, even with all being stored in one database. Bundled products or downloadables could present challenges later. However, migration should prove easier with only several hundred items in mind. You can manually recreate each on Shopify, making the task manageable for hiring e-commerce manager within hours.
Shopify may be your ideal platform if most of these statements ring true for you! Shopify will get you up and running in no time at all.
Changing from Magento to Shopify: The Challenges
Have you decided to start the migration? Make sure you fully comprehend the differences between both platforms before making your final choice.
Once familiar with Magento's logic and structure, certain aspects of Shopify might seem foreign and challenging to you. However, before engaging a professional for help converting to Shopify from Magento, be sure to research their differences - even if an experienced developer assists with your transition process.
To simplify life for you, we will outline some key differences between Magento 1 and Shopify to ease transition efforts. Studying these features thoroughly is worthwhile because their lack of analysis might create difficulties in setting up a Shopify Store after migrating over.
Different categories of products and their data structures
Migration apps may make data look disorganized; to make things more straightforward for yourself, you must learn all of Shopify's terms for catalogue descriptions, as you will require these primary technical skills:
At first, these differences may cause concern, but soon enough, you'll adjust. Shopify's product and collection structure makes your site more SEO tools-friendly and allows for long-tail keyword promotion of individual pages.
Shopify's native logic does not support Magento product types like bundle and group products; provided your store doesn't contain too many items, these types can easily be replicated within Shopify; otherwise, it could take too much time and may need additional support as each new item must also be maintained independently.
Search Engine Issues
Migration from other platforms will present specific issues that must be handled before switching to Shopify. Moving between platforms often causes organic traffic to drop significantly, typically 10-12% or more in most cases after switching platforms and opening an online store on that new one; it often does not return up after several months due to differences between platforms' URL structures; for a better understanding, please view this table.
At any store online with low or high traffic levels, 301 redirects should always be used immediately after launch to redirect from old pages to new ones - this can also prevent customer experience who visit from getting stuck on 404 error pages without knowing which pages belong to your store!
Passwords for user accounts cannot be moved.
When migrating customer data, remember that passwords cannot be transferred to the new platform. Your customers will need to reset their passwords and restore access somehow. You can use several approaches to make this process seamless and convenient for your customers. You can only do the following:
- 1. You can email that they must restore their access to their account to purchase from your store. Include a hyperlink to the account activation page. Use software that tracks the unread emails and then sends a follow-up email.
- 2. For those users who have not read your emails, add a link on the login page to the account activation page. A link and a brief comment can be added to the login page. If you don't do this, your clients cannot access their accounts with the old password. Making this as simple and easy as possible for customers is essential.
Better move quickly
Step one of converting from Magento to Shopify involves exporting valuable Magento data and its import into a test shop on Shopify plus, followed by its migration over several weeks or monthly basis on your store size and functionality.
Assume the existing store will still accept orders during migration while adding products and categories. Once launched, your new store may host hundreds of customers and thousands of orders that must all be transferred to its new website, taking additional code development time to achieve.
Even though delta migrations are becoming more and more frequent, you can load speed up this process significantly by performing full migrations before any delta can take place. That will speed up the launch of your store while decreasing the chances of encountering unexpected problems along the way.
Select developers carefully
Let's summarize the most significant challenge that merchants are likely to encounter. Finding the best developers is imperative. On the Market, you will find many specialists with the necessary skills to develop Magento or Shopify capital. In this situation, however, hiring freelancers isn't the best option. Here's why:
- 1. It is crucial to hire a developer with deep knowledge of Magento and Shopify custom who can cover all technologies aspects.
- 2. One developer is rarely enough, especially when you are looking to redesign your shop.
- 3. Hiring several freelancers who are specialists in various areas is not recommended. It is essential to understand that migration requires a coordinated experienced team effort. Remote freelancers will find it difficult.
Hire an expert On-shore team with extensive Magento/Shopify collabs migration, store design, and launch experience who can complete this project faster, within the timeframe, and with the required expertise. Consider these factors when hiring developers.
Migration may present more issues and difficulties. Unforeseen errors may arise that are difficult to foresee before they happen; everything depends on a shop's complexity, size and products.
Read More: Shopify vs Magento: The Ultimate Guide
What tools are available on the Market to transfer data from Magento to Shopify?
Currently, three data migration apps/tools can help import products from Magento into Shopify shipping. They are:
- 1. Matrixify
- 2. Litextension
- 3. Cart2Cart
Below, we give you a brief overview of the tools and, at the bottom, a table of comparisons to help make the information easier to digest.
Matrixify
Matrixify helps to move data from Magento and other social media platforms to Shopify. This app allows you to export and import data such as customers, products, orders, blogs, discount codes, etc.
Matrixify offers a variety of benefits. Some of the best are:
- Import time is reasonable
- Modification and deletion of data are accessible.
- Step-by-step instructions, detailed instructions and detailed guide are available.
- Magento Export Products and Processing of Loads of Other Data, etc.
Matrixify has some disadvantages, but we all know no perfect things exist.
- 1. Matrixify's Magento to Shopify SEO migration will involve manual labour. It's a lot. This is especially true if hundreds of thousands or even millions of customers need to be migrated. It means additional human (paid) hours.
- 2. The app can't handle data from multiple stores and will not correctly process data from multi-language shops.
Litextension
Shopify is the complete solution to migrate data from other shopping carts. This service is automatic and will continue to work even if your internet connection or computer is lost. Litextension can migrate the following data:
- Product Description
- Categories of products
- Purchase Orders
- Customer Service
- Review
- Discounts
- Search Engine URLs and More
We want to highlight the following advantages of this app:
- Multi-language and multistore data migration is possible
- Minimum manual labour is required in most cases
- The new store has the option of preserving order IDs
Here are some of the shortcomings that you should be aware of:
- Sometimes, data is duplicated or wrong
- It isn't easy to use the app interface
- Pricing depends on the size of the store
Cart2Cart
Cart2Cart, known for years as a Magento to Shopify Migration Tool specializes in data migration from over 80 e-commerce systems such as 3DCart, X-Cart and Yahoo Store. Cart2Cart also provides migrations from Magento 1 to Shopify as part of this migration service, including customers, product category customer reviews, and coupon CMS pages.
Extra paid and free options can provide more flexibility and advanced features during migration. Potential advantages could include:
Customer groups can be converted into tags
- Order IDs should be preserved
- After migration, the automatic creation of 301 redirects is created
- Descriptions of Products being Migrated
- Image files from blogs, categories and product descriptions can be used to create new product images
Below are some disadvantages you may encounter when using Cart2Cart Magento Migration to Shopify.
- For stores on a small budget, it's pretty expensive
- Manual work is still required
- Support is often the source of complaints from users
All of these tools have their advantages and disadvantages. One thing is sure - no tool can automate the entire data migration process. You will need to check manually for any errors. Most applications allow you to test the migration by transferring a small amount of data from your shop. This allows you to verify that it works for you.
Read More: Benefits of Magento 2 in Developing E-commerce Website
Checklist to Ensure a Smooth Magento-to-Shopify Migration
Now is the time for us to launch the gradual migration from Magento to Shopify.
We have observed that most migrations follow specific pathways. Step numbers and order can differ based on client needs or developer strategies - Here's our step-by-step Magento migration checklist:
- 1.Re-evaluate the functionality.
- 2. Determine what data needs to be migrated.
- 3. Data migration and configuration.
- 4. Install the required apps.
- 5. Custom functionality can be developed and implemented (optional).
- 6. The store's design is being worked on.
- 7. Delta migration.
- 8. Go live!
NOTE! Your current Magento site must remain operational until the last bit of data has been migrated and tested on the new platform and the launch of the new look. You can continue to manage it like you have been because migration will take some time.
Re-examine the functionality
Before migrating from Magento to Shopify, it is strongly suggested that you explore every feature within Magento - standard Key features, third-party extensions and any custom functionalities - including standard, third-party extensions or customized functionality. Once compiled, please product review this list again before prioritizing those essential to your store that cannot be missed and discard those that don't add value.
Before beginning to set up Shopify for business goals use, it is essential that you determine what functionality your store requires is already embedded or can be added with third-party apps. While you might not immediately find all your needed features and systems integrated, don't panic: Shopify's developers may provide solutions to almost every challenge imaginable.
Choose the data you must transfer from Magento to Shopify.
Step three can be tedious unless you start from scratch, as you must transfer data such as categories, products, orders, blog posts and customers between sites (you could also migrate static pages such as about us and contact pages as part of this step).
Once again, when considering whether or not to migrate all your data since the store launch onto the new platform. Doing this can simplify setting up content marketing campaigns; if your shop has operated for 10+ years, then outdated information likely exists and should be deleted now.
Configure and migrate the data
Now is the time to use one of the tools we discussed, with each data migration step guide differing according to which tool is chosen; this process often requires additional assistance and time investment.
Exporting product, order and customer information from Magento may seem straightforward to import into Shopify; most data migration tools provide free test migrations of smaller entities for your evaluation. You should perform your test migration to determine its success. If all goes as expected, data migration can begin immediately; otherwise, contact either your developer or migration tool immediately for help troubleshooting data migration-related issues.
Once your products have been successfully imported from Magento to Shopify, the next step should be creating your store with Shopify. Note! Each migration step MUST be tested thoroughly to avoid errors that might compromise subsequent steps and potentially interfere with store operations once launched. Any deviation or glitch could make future steps harder and disrupt the smooth running of your store once you are live!
Install the Apps
Remember the list you crafted during Step 1? Now is the time to put that plan into action! Once all data have been moved over successfully, begin improving store functionality and services by installing third-party applications from the Shopify App Store - paying particular attention when adding new features; ensure these apps work as intended without conflicts with each other; test each new app function thoroughly before using.
Install your application and test it thoroughly before moving forward with installation and use.
Create and use customized functionality .
Now is the time to identify gaps within your app, including features you still lack. In most cases, ready-made solutions exist; however, some features still require custom development work.
Shopify's developer can assist in developing any customized functionality you may require, usually at less cost and in fewer steps than Magento app development.
Design the store
You have two choices in Shopify and Magento.
- 1. Purchase and install one of hundreds of theme templates.
- 2. Create your theme based on your preferences, needs and usability.
Numerous development companies and independent developers advise designing the new store before you migrate your data, as this method works efficiently and is viable. But testing and creating your design after uploading products onto the live site is the best practice.
This approach can reduce future issues. When adding functionality to a collection page or configuring products on Ecommerce platforms with preinstalled themes, configuring each individually typically adds time and work for you. By following this strategy, you may reduce future headaches.
Your choice of a Shopify template or custom theme implementation depends on your budget and needs. While Shopify provides hundreds of pre-designed templates suitable for general and niche uses, custom current theme implementation allows your brand and voice to shine while giving customers an engaging interface aligned with its online business model.
Delta Movement
Your e-commerce store was not halted while you worked on migrating your data from Magento to Shopify and setting up services. Your store should have been:
- Making sales and running a Ecommerce business
- Subscribers to your Newsletters: Enjoy a new customer base
- Catalogues are constantly being updated with new items.
At launch time for your store on a platform, no customer information or recent order data must be lost.
Delta Migration from Magento to Shopify typically takes much less time than initial data migration, and therefore, we won't devote too much of our attention to it here. Remembering the algorithm for delta data migration remains unchanged from initial migration; use Magento-to-Shopify Importer to import/export the most up-to-date data before reviewing results and, if needed, manually configuring the system.
Live
After all the data has been placed, apps and services installed and all custom functionality implemented and tested, it is time to launch! After the launch, you'll need to take a few steps.
SEO is an excellent place to start.
Optimize the table of content of your online store to prevent losing organic traffic and sustain organic search rankings. While initial fluctuations might happen after switching platforms, this shouldn't be an issue as Shopify offers search engine optimization friendly hosting - Here are the significant steps:
- Set up 301 redirects
- Meta titles and descriptions of pages should be revised (optimized, if necessary).
- Sitemaps in XML format can be submitted
- Create quality, keyword-rich content to improve your site's visibility on search engines
- Shopify Store Performance Optimization
Alert your clients
It's time to inform your potential customers about migrating from Magento to Shopify. You can invite them to your new shop and tell them they must reset their passwords to restore account access.
Inform your clients
You must show your clients how to use the new features and functions correctly. You can use visuals, animations or step-by-step detailed instructions to help you. Select the one you prefer.
Your staff should be trained.
Your employees may require some time to become comfortable using Shopify Ecommerce , no matter how intuitive its user interface may appear.
Don't stop here; continue adding valuable content and keeping abreast of SEO trends to reduce Shopify bounce rates, optimize conversion rates, and secure more potential customer loyalty programs.
Migration price from Magento to Shopify
We can't accurately estimate the costs of migrating Magento to Shopify, and we certainly can't do so without first seeing the Magento store. The affordable price of the migration will vary depending on the people involved. You have several choices:
You can do it yourself .
You can migrate your store yourself if you're edge of technology -savvy. Aside from the fee charged by your migration tool, this will not cost much money. It will, however, cost you both time and money.
Address the migration tool support group .
Migration tool support teams offer services to migrate data. If you feel confident about finishing and setting up your new store independently, this may be worth exploring; however, not all merchants have been satisfied with these companies' Magento-to-Shopify conversion services.
Want More Information About Our Services? Talk to Our Consultants!
Conclusion
At first glance, switching from Magento to Shopify might appear straightforward, but it can quickly turn disastrous if your needs are overestimated or underestimated. Professional help should always be sought to avoid adverse outcomes. However, DIY migration should still be considered possible, provided you're well prepared and have enough time for each migration step to go smoothly - check our checklist out and simplify the transition!
Shopify will become one of the for users after the migration.
