Considerations when migrating from Shopify to WooCommerce

If you run an e-commerce business through Shopify and are not satisfied with the amount of control you have, the tools it has to offer, or if you are simply looking for a change, then you may have thought about migrating to WooCommerce. Migrating to WooCommerce is a great choice for your online store as it allows for more flexibility in the way of additional plugins and extensions, more control over your online store, and gives you more technical control which you can use to improve your SEO. Additionally, WooCommerce is open-source, meaning that there is more room for customisation for developers. This blog will discuss some of the aspects that you will need to consider when making the jump from Shopify to WooCommerce.

Hosting

As Shopify is a self hosting platform, there are unfortunately no options for moving or changing your hosting. However, WooCommerce allows you to choose a hosting provider that will help you meet your needs or to use a hosting environment that you are already using. If you are in need of help to improve your online store using WooCommerce, Website Design Ltd has years of experience managing eCommerce stores. Get in touch with us today to see how we can help!

Migrating

Before making the big move over to WooCommerce, it is definitely worth backing up your current Shopify store – this is standard practice if you’re making big changes to your website or your online store, and is a failsafe if things do not go as planned throughout migration. However, Shopify unfortunately does not offer any out of the box methods, so you will need to find an app that allows you to do so.

Thankfully, Shopify allows you to export the majority of your store data through the easy process of downloading CSV files. However, Shopify will not export your CSV files in the exact format that WooCommerce needs it – therefore you would have to manage and adjust the data to suit the WooCommerce upload beforehand. The likes of products, customers, orders, and discounts can be exported; however, it is worth mentioning that there are some limitations such as passwords not being exported, in addition to URLs changing. Customers will simply need to reset their passwords on WooCommerce, but third-party plugins like Cart2Cart or Yoast SEO will help create your 301 redirects in regards to the URLs on their paid for or premium subscription.

Plugins and Apps

As expected, the apps that you use on Shopify will unfortunately not transfer over to your WordPress website so you will have to find alternatives. WordPress thankfully offers a range of options to cover your SEO, security, caching, and backup needs.

Shopify users have built-in SEO features such as automatically generated canonical tags, sitemaps, and the robots.txt file, but WooCommerce users will have to take advantage of alternatives like Yoast SEO, a highly recommended plugin on WordPress.

To summarise, whilst migrating from Shopify to WooCommerce may seem complex on the surface, the process is simple and rewarding when all is done. New WooCommerce users will see the amount of control, flexibility, and customisation that it has to offer first-hand, provided that they take considerations such as hosting, migrating, and plugins in mind.

Website Design Ltd has many years of experience managing eCommerce businesses with the help of WooCommerce. If you are looking to improve your online store, please get in touch today to see how we can help further your business.