Magento to Shopify: How to Migrate Data, Extensions and SEO
Moving from Magento to Shopify means backing up your Magento store, exporting products, customers and other data, importing them into Shopify with CSV files, a bulk import app or a migration service, then rebuilding your design, replacing extensions with Shopify apps and redirecting old URLs. Products and customers can go through Shopify’s own CSV import, while orders, blog posts, pages and discounts need an app, a migration service or the Shopify API.
Many merchants leave Magento, now known as Adobe Commerce, to stop managing hosting, security patches and developer-heavy maintenance. Shopify takes care of hosting, security and platform updates, so the main challenge is mapping Magento’s more complex data structure carefully.
How to Migrate From Magento to Shopify
There are four main ways to move a Magento store to Shopify. The right choice depends on your catalog size, customizations and how much data beyond products you need:
| Method | How it works | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manual CSV import | Export products and customers from Magento, reshape them to Shopify’s templates and import them in the admin | Smaller, simpler catalogs | Orders, blogs, pages and discounts can’t be imported this way |
| Bulk import apps | Apps such as Matrixify import Magento exports, including orders, discounts, blog posts, pages and redirects | Merchants comfortable working with spreadsheets | You still need to export and map each data type |
| Automated migration services | Services such as Cart2Cart and LitExtension connect both stores and move products, customers, orders, reviews, coupons and pages | Most mid-sized stores, especially those needing order history | Custom extension data often needs separate handling |
| Migration agency | A Shopify Partner handles data mapping, custom features, redirects and testing | Large catalogs, heavy customization, B2B or multi-store setups | Quoted per project, so compare scope carefully |
Large stores with thousands of products, collections or customers are often better served by an app, service or agency than by manual files. Whichever route you choose, run a test import on a sample before moving everything.
How Magento Data Maps to Shopify
Magento offers more product types and store structures than Shopify, so some data needs translating rather than copying. This table shows common equivalents:
| Magento | Shopify | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Simple products | Products | Map title, description, SKU, price, weight, stock and images |
| Configurable products | Products with variants | Child products become variants, with up to three options per product |
| Product attributes | Options, tags or metafields | Decide which attributes drive variants, filters or specifications |
| Categories | Collections | Rebuild as automated collections from tags or as manual collections, with hierarchy in menus |
| Manufacturers | Vendor | Usually mapped by migration tools |
| Customers and customer groups | Customers with tags or segments | Passwords can’t be transferred |
| Orders | Orders | Need an app or service, and past payments can’t be refunded through Shopify Payments |
| Coupons and price rules | Discounts | Need an app or service, or recreate them manually |
| CMS pages and blog posts | Pages and blog posts | Shopify pages have a title and one rich text field, so complex layouts need theme sections |
| Store views and multiple websites | Languages, markets or separate stores | Plan this early, since Shopify structures multi-store setups differently |
| Extensions and theme | Not transferable | Replace with apps, native features or custom development, and build a new theme |
Magento to Shopify Migration Step by Step
Following a set order keeps your data connected and your Magento store selling until launch. Work through these steps:
- Audit your store. List your products, attributes, extensions, integrations, pages and URLs, and decide what to keep, replace or retire.
- Back up Magento. Take a full backup of your database and media files before exporting anything.
- Clean your data. Remove duplicates, outdated products and inactive customers so errors don’t carry over.
- Set up Shopify. Choose a plan and theme, and configure payments, shipping zones and taxes.
- Export from Magento. Export each entity type, such as products and customers, as CSV files.
- Import products, then customers. Reshape files to Shopify’s templates or use your import app, and make sure image URLs are publicly accessible.
- Move orders, discounts and content. Use a bulk import app, migration service or the API for orders, coupons, blog posts and pages.
- Build collections. Create automated collections from tags or manual collections that match your old categories.
- Replace extensions. Find a Shopify app or native feature for each Magento extension you still need.
- Set up redirects. Map each old Magento URL to its new Shopify page.
- Test and launch. Place test orders, check payments, shipping, emails and mobile layouts, then remove password protection and connect your domain.
Export your data from Magento 2
In the Magento 2 admin, go to System > Data Transfer > Export, choose an entity type such as Products, Customers Main File or Customer Addresses, apply any filters and export as CSV. Exported files are saved in Magento’s var/export folder, or in import_export/export if remote storage is enabled.
Check each export for completeness before you start reshaping it. Magento’s product export can be large and wide, so remove columns Shopify doesn’t need and keep an untouched copy of the original.
Prepare files for Shopify
Shopify’s CSV import brings in text data, so product images need to be hosted at public URLs that Shopify can download. Configurable products need restructuring so each child product becomes a variant row under the same handle, with option names and values in Shopify’s option columns.
For large catalogs, a bulk tool with field mapping saves rebuilding files by hand. Bulkflow supports bulk import, export and updates to existing product records with field mapping for Shopify, WooCommerce and Wix, which can help when product data needs reshaping or correcting after the move.
Replace Magento Extensions and Custom Features
Magento extensions and custom code don’t install on Shopify, so each one needs a decision. Sort them into Shopify’s built-in features, apps from the Shopify App Store, custom development and features you can retire.
Integrations with ERP, PIM, accounting or fulfillment systems deserve special attention, since orders need to keep flowing after launch. Check whether each system has a Shopify connector or API option, and test the full order flow before switching.
If you use multiple Magento store views or websites, decide how they’ll work on Shopify before migrating. Depending on your setup, that could mean one store with several languages and markets, or separate stores, which Shopify Plus supports through expansion stores.
Protect Your SEO When Moving From Magento
Magento URLs, such as product pages ending in .html, won’t match Shopify’s fixed paths like /products/ and /collections/. Without 301 redirects, old links lead to errors and you risk losing the rankings your store has built.
- Crawl your Magento site. Use a crawler to list every product, category, page and blog URL, and add pages with traffic or backlinks from Google Search Console.
- Map to canonical URLs. Redirect each old URL to the main version of its new Shopify page, such as
/products/product-name, rather than a collection-based variation. - Import redirects in bulk. Upload your redirect map to Shopify as a CSV file or use your import app.
- Carry over metadata. Move meta titles, meta descriptions, headings and image alt text.
- Monitor after launch. Submit your sitemap, watch for 404 errors and expect some ranking movement while Google recrawls.
Common Magento to Shopify Migration Problems
Many problems trace back to Magento’s complex data or skipped testing. Watch for these:
- Broken variants. Configurable products weren’t restructured into Shopify variant rows.
- Missing images. Image URLs weren’t public or pointed to a Magento server that has since gone offline.
- Lost custom data. Extension data and custom attributes weren’t mapped to metafields or apps.
- Refund confusion. Staff tried to refund migrated orders through Shopify instead of the original payment provider.
- Login issues. Customers weren’t told their passwords need resetting.
- Shipping errors. Multi-country or multi-state shipping rules weren’t rebuilt and tested.
- Integration gaps. Orders didn’t reach ERP or fulfillment systems after launch.
Conclusion
Moving from Magento to Shopify swaps server management and extension upkeep for a hosted platform that handles maintenance for you. With careful data mapping, replaced extensions and complete redirects, your catalog, customers and search traffic can make the switch intact. We hope this guide helps you migrate from Magento to Shopify with confidence. If you need to update product data in bulk during the move, you can explore Bulkflow.
