Magento to Shopify Migration Checklist: The Twelve Phases That Actually Matter

Reviewed by the shopexperts editorial team. Last updated June 24, 2026.

Magento to Shopify is the messiest migration job I do. Not because the destination is hard — Shopify takes the data fine. Because Magento was built on an EAV database with configurable products and customer groups and complex pricing rules, and untangling that structure into something Shopify understands is real work.

This is the actual checklist. Twelve phases, in order. The mistakes that wreck Magento migrations are almost always in three places: configurable products imported as separate Shopify items (wrong), 301 redirects skipped (catastrophic), and customer accounts unprepared for the forced password reset on first login (support-ticket disaster). Catch those three, and you've handled 80% of the risk.

For the strategic case (why merchants migrate, the Open Source vs Adobe Commerce decision), see the complete Magento to Shopify migration guide. If you're DIY'ing, work through this in order. If you're hiring, this is what your Shopify migration expert should be doing.

Don't move anything until you've documented everything. The audit is the migration. Execution is the easy part.

• Export your full product catalog from Magento with every attribute — not just title and price. Configurable products need their parent-child mapping captured. If you don't do this, the migration tool creates separate Shopify products for every variant and you're manually merging 3,000 SKUs at midnight.
• Inventory every Magento extension you have installed. Not just the active ones — the disabled ones too, because some inject data into the database. Document which extensions touch products, customers, orders, or content.
• Pull every URL Google has indexed. Use Search Console plus a Screaming Frog crawl. You'll need this list for the redirect map. Skip this step and you're finding broken URLs from customer complaints in week 4.
• Document every custom theme modification. Magento themes get hacked up over the years. The Shopify rebuild won't replicate everything — you need to know what was actually being used vs what was developer-experimentation.
• List every third-party integration: ERP, 3PL, accounting system, marketing tools, CRM. Each one needs a Shopify-side plan. "We'll figure it out after the migration" is the sentence that kills migrations.
• Identify which Magento features have no native Shopify equivalent. Customer groups (sort of replaced by Shopify B2B catalogs), tier pricing, configurable product attribute sets, certain promotion rules. These need workarounds documented before cutover.

Time budget: 3-7 days depending on store complexity. Worth every hour.

Spin up the Shopify destination store while the audit is in progress. Don't wait until everything else is done — you need this for testing.

• Choose your plan tier honestly. Most Magento merchants need Shopify or Advanced Shopify; Plus is the right call for stores doing $1M+/year, complex B2B, or international.
• Set the store currency and time zone. These are painful to change after orders exist — get them right now.
• Set up staff accounts before the work starts. Don't hand out the owner login to your migration agency. Use staff accounts with appropriate permissions; you can revoke after cutover.
• Verify your domain in Shopify but don't point DNS yet. The DNS switch is the last thing that happens, after everything is tested.
• Set up payment gateways and test mode. Most Magento merchants are on Stripe or Authorize.net — verify your processor works with Shopify Payments or set up the equivalent.

Time budget: half a day.

This is where Magento migrations actually get hard. Don't use the migration apps' default settings — they treat configurable products wrong.

• Map Magento configurable products to Shopify products with variants. A blue T-shirt in three sizes is ONE Shopify product with three variants, not three separate products. Most migration apps get this wrong by default.
• Map Magento simple products to standalone Shopify products. Verify the SKU continuity if your ERP uses SKU for inventory sync.
• Migrate product images and verify alt text comes across. Magento often has alt text per store view — pick which one carries to Shopify or you'll have blanks.
• Move product descriptions. If you have product descriptions per store view (multi-language), you're using Shopify Markets and the language files need separate handling.
• Migrate categories to Shopify collections. Manual categories stay manual; if you had Magento dynamic categories with rules, rebuild as Shopify automated collections.
• For catalogs above 5,000 SKUs, use Matrixify or a custom import script. The native Shopify CSV import will work but is slow and error-prone at scale.
• For Adobe Commerce stores with B2B catalogs, plan separately for Shopify Plus B2B catalog setup. See Migrating to Shopify Plus for the upgrade context.

Time budget: 1-3 weeks depending on catalog size. The migration tool runs in hours; the verification and cleanup is the real work.

Customer records and order history move. Passwords don't. This catches almost every first-time Magento migrator off guard.

• Export Magento customers with all attributes: addresses, tags, customer group membership, order history. The customer group field matters — that's how Shopify will know who gets B2B pricing post-migration.
• Import customers into Shopify with their tags preserved. Use customer tags to replicate Magento customer groups (Shopify doesn't have a direct customer-group equivalent on the standard plan).
• Migrate order history as records, not as active orders. Shopify imports historical orders as "archived" so your customer support team can still look them up, but they don't re-process.
• Plan the password reset email. Write it now, not the night before launch. The email should say: "We've moved to a new platform for a better experience. Set your new password here." Send it on launch day. Send the reminder version 48 hours later.
• For stores with active subscriptions in a Magento subscription extension, this is the riskiest data type. Payment tokens often don't transfer between platforms. Get an explicit answer from your Recharge or Skio onboarding team before you cut over.

Time budget: 2-4 days for the migration; the password reset email plan takes 30 minutes and saves you from a week of support hell.

This is the phase that decides whether your migration is a clean job or a six-month SEO recovery project. Take it seriously.

• Pull your full URL inventory from Phase 1 — every product URL, category URL, content page, blog post, and image URL that's indexed.
• Map every Magento URL to its Shopify equivalent. Magento "/category/subcategory/product.html" becomes Shopify "/products/product-slug". The slug structure changes; you need a one-to-one mapping.
• Decide on slug strategy. Most stores benefit from keeping product slugs simple and descriptive in Shopify, even if Magento had longer category-nested URLs. Cleaner Shopify slugs rank better.
• Set up 301 redirects in Shopify before DNS cutover. Use Shopify's URL Redirects feature, or Matrixify for bulk import of large redirect lists.
• Don't forget content pages. Magento CMS pages, blog posts, and content sections all need redirects too. People skip these and lose long-tail traffic for months.
• Run a final crawl post-cutover to verify the redirects fire correctly. Use Screaming Frog or a paid crawler. Every URL on your original Magento store should either return 301 to the right Shopify URL or 410 (gone) if you intentionally killed it.

Time budget: 2-5 days for the mapping work, depending on catalog size. The 301 setup itself is fast; building the map correctly is what takes time.

For the full SEO preservation framework, see Will Migrating to Shopify Hurt My SEO? and Shopify SEO Not Ranking for the diagnostic side.

Magento themes don't port to Shopify. Don't try. Build fresh.

• Pick a Shopify theme aligned to your brand. Free themes (Dawn, Sense, Crave) work for most stores; paid themes from Archetype, Pixel Union, or Out of the Sandbox add design polish. Custom themes are $20K+ and only worth it for serious brands.
• Test the theme on your migrated test product data before customization. Some themes don't handle complex variant structures well; better to find that out before you've invested in customization.
• Replicate the key brand elements: hero sections, product card layout, color and typography, navigation structure. Don't try to clone the Magento look pixel-for-pixel — Shopify themes have their own conventions and fighting them creates technical debt.
• Verify mobile experience separately from desktop. Most Magento stores are old enough that the mobile experience was an afterthought; Shopify themes default to mobile-first, which is usually an upgrade.
• Set up the cart drawer, mini-cart, or cart page based on your conversion model. Magento subscribers used to slide-out carts may need adjustment.

Time budget: 1-3 weeks for a paid-theme build, 4-8 weeks for custom theme work, 1-2 days if using a default theme.

Magento extensions don't have direct Shopify equivalents. You're rebuilding the stack, not porting it.

• For email: Klaviyo is the standard. If you were on Mailchimp or Magento native, plan for Klaviyo setup and flow rebuild. Don't expect your Magento email flows to translate — you're building them fresh.
• For reviews: Yotpo, Loox, Okendo, or Judge.me. Export your Magento reviews as CSV before migration; import them into the new tool after.
• For subscriptions: Recharge, Bold, Skio, or Smartrr. Subscriptions are the highest-risk migration data — payment tokens may not transfer; coordinate carefully with the subscription tool's onboarding team.
• For helpdesk: Gorgias is the Shopify-native standard. If you were on Zendesk or Magento native helpdesk, plan the migration of ticket history and contact records.
• For tax compliance: Avalara, TaxJar, or Quaderno. If Magento was using a tax extension, set up the Shopify equivalent before launch.
• For ERP and inventory sync: this is store-specific. Your existing ERP probably has a Shopify connector (NetSuite, SAP Business One, Brightpearl all do); verify the connector handles your specific data model.
• Keep the app stack lean. Stores end up with 30-40 apps after a year. Start with the 10-15 you actually need; add the rest when you have evidence you need them.

Time budget: 1-2 weeks of focused app setup work, plus integration time with your ERP/3PL/marketing tools.

Magento merchants often have complex payment, shipping, and tax setups. Don't assume Shopify can replicate them automatically.

• Set up Shopify Payments where available (US, CA, UK, EU, AU, NZ, others). Most Magento merchants are on Stripe or Authorize.net; Shopify Payments has lower fees and tighter integration.
• Add PayPal, Shop Pay, Apple Pay, and any regional methods (Klarna, iDEAL) relevant to your customer base.
• Configure shipping zones to match your Magento setup. Shopify's zone model is simpler than Magento's shipping rules — you may need to consolidate.
• For label printing, set up Shopify Shipping (US, CA, UK, AU) or connect a 3PL or fulfillment service. ShipStation, ShipBob, Easyship all integrate cleanly.
• Tax setup is the silent killer. Magento was probably using Avalara, TaxJar, or a custom tax extension. Set up the Shopify equivalent before launch. For multi-state US nexus or EU VAT, automated tax service is non-negotiable.
• Test every payment method with real test transactions. Pull money in, refund it, watch the ledger update. Don't skip this step.

Time budget: 3-5 days for standard setup, 1-2 weeks if you have complex multi-region tax compliance.

SEO is what you protect in a migration, not what you build during one. The big SEO work happens before and after the cutover, not in the middle of it.

• Connect Google Search Console for your domain. Verify ownership before cutover so you have access on launch day.
• Submit the new sitemap (yourstore.com/sitemap.xml) to Search Console immediately after cutover. Don't wait a week.
• Connect Bing Webmaster Tools too. Smaller traffic but it's free and a five-minute setup.
• Configure SEO titles and meta descriptions on top revenue-driving product pages, top collection pages, and the homepage. Don't do all 5,000 product pages; do the top 50.
• Verify schema markup is rendering: Product, BreadcrumbList, Organization. Use Google Rich Results Test on a sample product page after launch. Magento Adobe Commerce stores sometimes had richer schema than the default Shopify themes provide.
• Set up GA4 properly. Verify the e-commerce events (add_to_cart, begin_checkout, purchase) fire correctly. This is where Magento migrators frequently mess up — the tracking pixel migrates but the events don't fire the way they did before.
• Watch Search Console daily for the first month post-launch. The errors are where you find redirect gaps.

For deeper Shopify-specific SEO context, see Shopify SEO Experts.

Pre-launch QA is the difference between a clean cutover and a public debugging exercise. Skip it and your customers find the problems first.

• Place real test orders on desktop and mobile. End to end. Multiple payment methods. From multiple addresses. Refund each one.
• Verify the order confirmation email arrives in inbox (not spam) with correct branding and content.
• Test the password reset flow with a real customer email. Customers will hit this on launch day — it has to work.
• Spot-check 30 of your highest-traffic product URLs to verify redirects fire. If even one returns 404 instead of redirecting, your redirect map has gaps.
• Spot-check 10 collection URLs and 10 content/blog URLs the same way.
• Run a Screaming Frog crawl of the new Shopify store. Look for 404s in the internal link graph (broken theme links, broken navigation, broken cross-sells).
• Run Google PageSpeed Insights on homepage, top collection, top product. Document the scores. If LCP is above 2.5s on mobile, fix before launch.
• Verify all tracking pixels: GA4, Meta, TikTok, Klaviyo. Use browser dev tools or a pixel verification extension. If pixels don't fire, you're blind to performance for weeks.
• Test guest checkout, customer-account checkout, abandoned-cart recovery email, post-purchase upsell if you have one.

Time budget: 2-4 days of focused QA. Don't rush this phase. Every bug your QA catches is a bug your customer support team doesn't have to triage.

Launch day is mostly coordination. The work is done; this is the cutover.

• Pick a low-traffic time window for the DNS switch. Tuesday morning is standard; weekends are tempting but harder to staff for incident response.
• Send the customer password-reset email at cutover time. The email should be queued and ready, not drafted in the moment.
• Update DNS to point at Shopify. There's a propagation window (15 minutes to 4 hours) where some users may hit the old store; this is unavoidable but limited.
• Remove password protection on the new Shopify store the moment DNS points to it.
• Submit the new sitemap to Google Search Console. Run a URL inspection on the homepage and a few products to force initial recrawl.
• Activate paid ad campaigns pointing to the new URLs (or pause and reactivate if landing pages changed).
• Have someone watching live: Shopify admin for failed orders, Search Console for crawl errors, the support inbox for confused customers.
• Notify your fulfillment, 3PL, accounting, and customer support teams that cutover happened. Confirm their integrations are pointed at Shopify, not the old Magento.

Time budget: 4-8 hours of active work on the day itself, plus active monitoring for the next 48 hours.

The first 30 days post-launch is when you find what QA missed. Treat it as part of the migration, not separate.

• Week 1: monitor Search Console daily for crawl errors. Fix redirect gaps as they appear. Watch the support inbox for customer issues (password resets, missing orders, broken links).
• Week 1: monitor GA4 against your pre-launch baseline. Some traffic and conversion volatility is normal; large drops mean something is broken (usually tracking, sometimes redirects).
• Week 2: review which apps you actually use vs which got installed and forgotten. Uninstall the dead weight.
• Week 2: fix any visual or functional bugs reported by real customers. Schedule a list; don't panic-fix one at a time.
• Week 3-4: review search rankings. Some drop is expected as Google re-evaluates the migrated site. If positions stabilize within range of pre-migration, you're fine. If they keep dropping, audit the redirect map again.
• Week 4: review email deliverability. Order confirmations and password reset emails landing in spam will quietly cost you customers. Test from a fresh address.
• Week 4: do a final handoff review with the migration team. Confirm credentials transferred to your team. Confirm documentation is in your hands. Pay the final milestone if you held one back.

Time budget: 1-2 hours per day of active monitoring for the first week, dropping to a few hours per week after.

Six things almost every DIY Magento migration skips, and every one of them costs more to fix later than to do right the first time.

• The redirect map for content pages. Everyone remembers product and category URLs. People forget blog posts, CMS pages, image URLs. Long-tail organic traffic disappears for months.
• The password-reset email. Customers wake up to a store they can't log into and assume they got hacked. Support tickets pile up. Trust takes weeks to recover.
• Tax setup audit. Magento had Avalara or TaxJar; the Shopify setup gets misconfigured and you're collecting wrong tax for three months before someone notices at quarter-end.
• Subscription continuity. Payment tokens don't transfer between platforms in many subscription tools. Subscriptions silently fail to renew. Revenue drops without obvious cause.
• Customer group migration. Magento customer groups (B2B, wholesale, VIP) become Shopify customer tags. Skipping this step means everyone gets retail pricing post-launch.
• Email deliverability verification. The sender email gets misconfigured; order confirmations land in spam. Customers think they didn't get charged. They charge back. You lose money and reputation.

If you're hiring a migration expert, ask explicitly how they handle each of these six. The honest ones will have a clear answer per item. The pretenders will wave them off as "we cover that."

Magento to Shopify is the hardest migration on the platform, and the one where hiring the right specialist matters most. The cost of doing it wrong runs five to six figures in lost SEO equity, lost subscriptions, and rework. The cost of doing it right is usually less than what the wrong version costs to clean up.

Compare vetted Shopify migration experts who specialize in Magento and Adobe Commerce migrations. Verify their redirect maps. Verify their B2B catalog experience if you have customer groups. Request a free quote and get matched with someone who's shipped this exact migration before.

Related guides on Magento and Shopify migration:

• Shopify Store Migration Experts — vetted directory including Magento and Adobe Commerce specialists
• BigCommerce to Shopify Migration — the cleaner cousin of a Magento migration
• Shopify Migration Cost — pricing breakdown across source platforms
• Shopify Store Setup & Management Experts — broader lifecycle category
• Shopify SEO Not Ranking — SEO recovery diagnostic (often needed post-migration)
• Shopify SEO Experts — SEO specialists for post-migration recovery
• Shopify Plus SEO — relevant if your Magento migration goes to Shopify Plus
• Common Shopify Store Setup Mistakes — the post-migration mistakes to avoid
• Shopify Store Audit Experts — post-migration audit specialists