How to Migrate from Square Online to Shopify Smoothly
Moving from Square Online to Shopify means exporting your products and customers from Square, importing them into Shopify with Shopify’s free Store Migration app, CSV files or a migration service, then rebuilding your design, redirecting old URLs and pointing your domain to the new store. Neither platform moves your whole site for you, so the method you choose decides how much of the work is automated.
Shopify’s wider range of themes, apps and sales channels is a common reason for the switch. Planning the move around your data, your in-person sales and your search traffic keeps the transition smooth for both you and your customers.
How to Migrate From Square Online to Shopify
There are four main ways to move a Square Online store to Shopify. The right one depends on how much data you have and whether you need order history:
| Method | How it works | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify’s Store Migration app | A free Shopify app that imports products and customers, with Square as a supported source | Small and medium stores moving core data | Doesn’t move orders, so order history needs another method |
| CSV export and import | Export your item library and customers from Square, reformat the files and import them into Shopify | Small catalogs and merchants who want full control | Square’s columns don’t match Shopify’s templates, so files need reworking |
| Migration services | Tools such as LitExtension connect both stores and move products, customers, orders and more | Stores that want order history, blog posts or SEO URLs moved too | Check exactly which data types and options are included |
| Manual copy | Recreate products, pages and posts by hand in Shopify | Very small stores and content such as pages or blog posts | Slow and easy to get wrong at scale |
You can also combine methods. For example, you might use the Store Migration app for products and customers, a migration service for order history and copy a few key pages by hand.
What Data Moves From Square Online to Shopify
Most of your store data can move, but your design and a few account details stay behind. This overview shows what to expect:
| Data | Can it move? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Products and variants | Yes | Check names, SKUs, prices, descriptions and categories after import |
| Product images | Usually | Migration tools typically copy images, while a CSV import needs public image links |
| Customers | Yes | Names, emails and addresses move, but passwords don’t |
| Order history | With a migration service or app | Shopify’s admin can’t import orders from a CSV file |
| Blog posts, pages and coupons | With some tools | Otherwise recreate them manually |
| Reviews | Depends on your tools | Often moved through a Shopify review app’s import |
| Store design | No | Rebuild with a Shopify theme |
| Customer passwords | No | Customers sign in again on Shopify |
Square categories usually become Shopify collections, so plan how your categories will map before importing. Product tags or types can then power automated collections that fill themselves.
Square Online to Shopify Migration Step by Step
A clear order of work keeps products, customers and orders connected. Follow these steps:
- Audit your Square Online store. List your products, categories, pages, blog posts and URLs, and decide what to keep, update or retire.
- Back up your data. Export your item library and customer list from Square before changing anything.
- Set up your Shopify store. Choose a plan and configure payments, shipping, taxes and your theme before importing data.
- Import products. Use the Store Migration app, a migration service or a reformatted CSV, then check variants, prices and images.
- Import customers. Bring in customer records after products, so orders can link to the right profiles.
- Migrate order history if needed. Use a migration service or order import app, since Shopify recommends importing orders after products and customers.
- Rebuild collections, pages and navigation. Turn categories into collections and recreate menus and key pages.
- Set up redirects. Map each old Square Online URL to its new Shopify page with a 301 redirect.
- Test everything. Place test orders, check shipping and taxes and browse the store on mobile and desktop.
- Connect your domain and launch. Point your domain to Shopify, then tell customers about the new store and how to sign in.
Export your data from Square
To export products, go to Items > Item library in your Square Dashboard, then choose Actions > Export Library. Square lets you export all items or only filtered items as an Excel or CSV file, with columns such as item name, variation name, SKU, description, category and price.
Square recommends the Excel format, because opening a CSV directly in some spreadsheet programs can strip leading zeros from SKUs. Images aren’t among the listed export columns, so plan to move them with a migration tool or host them where Shopify can download them.
To export customers, open Customers in your Square Dashboard and choose Import / Export > Export Customers. You can pick which customer groups to include, and Square downloads them as a CSV file.
Reformat files for Shopify
Square’s export files don’t match Shopify’s product and customer CSV templates, so columns need mapping before a CSV import. For products, that usually means turning each Square variation into a Shopify variant row with option names and values, and adding image URLs if you’re importing images by CSV.
For larger 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 reformatting or correcting after the move.
Decide What to Do With Square POS
If you also sell in person with Square POS, decide how your in-store and online sales will work together before launch. There are two main options:
- Keep Square POS and sell online with Shopify. You keep familiar in-store hardware and workflows, but inventory lives in two systems and needs syncing to avoid overselling.
- Move to Shopify POS. You get one view of inventory, customers and sales across online and in-person channels, but you’ll need to set up compatible hardware and train staff.
Whichever route you choose, test how stock levels update when items sell in either channel. Catching inventory mismatches before launch is far easier than fixing oversold orders afterward.
Replace Square Online Features in Shopify
Square bundles some features, such as email marketing, loyalty and analytics, into its ecosystem. On Shopify, many of these come from Shopify’s own tools or from apps, so list what you use today and find the replacement before you switch.
Shopify includes features such as Shopify Email for campaigns, built-in analytics and Shopify Payments, while loyalty programs, advanced email automation and some reporting usually come from apps. Rebuilding these early prevents gaps in marketing or customer rewards right after launch.
Protect Your SEO and Domain
Square Online and Shopify use different URL structures, so most of your page addresses will change. Without redirects, links from search results and other sites will lead to error pages and can lose the rankings your store has built.
- Collect your old URLs. Export product, category and page URLs from your Square Online store and pull pages with traffic from Google Search Console.
- Create 301 redirects. Map each old URL to its closest new Shopify page and import the redirects in bulk with a CSV file.
- Carry over SEO content. Move page titles, meta descriptions, product descriptions and image alt text.
- Set redirects before switching domains. Have redirects ready before you point your domain to Shopify, so visitors land on the right pages from day one.
- Monitor after launch. Submit your Shopify sitemap and check Search Console for 404 errors and ranking changes.
Common Square Online to Shopify Migration Problems
A few issues come up often when moving from Square Online. Check for these while you test:
- Variants imported as separate products. Square variations weren’t grouped under one handle with option values in the Shopify file.
- Missing images. Image links weren’t included or weren’t publicly accessible during a CSV import.
- Changed SKUs. Leading zeros were removed when the export was opened as a CSV.
- Empty collections. Square categories weren’t mapped to collections, tags or product types.
- Login confusion. Customers expect their old passwords to work and need clear instructions for signing in.
- Inventory mismatches. Stock isn’t synced between Square POS and Shopify when both stay in use.
Conclusion
Moving from Square Online to Shopify is manageable when you choose the right migration method, export your data carefully and plan for your POS, features and SEO before launch. A tested store with working redirects gives you room to grow on Shopify without losing customers or search traffic. We hope this guide helps you move from Square Online to Shopify smoothly. If you need to update product data in bulk during the move, you can explore Bulkflow.
