In this guide 6 sections
A store migration moves order history, customer accounts, reviews, coupons, product URLs and tracking tags to the platform, and it should be rehearsed twice on a staging copy. After the switch, check redirects, search indexing, payment webhooks and analytics, and keep the old store readable for refunds and support questions.
List everything the old store holds
Export before you decide anything. Pull orders, customers, products with variants, reviews, gift card balances, coupon codes, tax rules and shipping zones into CSV files, then open each file and read the rows.
Migrations lose data in dull places. Order notes, partial refunds, saved addresses and loyalty point balances often sit in tables that the import tool never mentions, so ask the new platform which fields it accepts.
Decide what stays behind. Five years of abandoned carts rarely deserve a place in the new store, while every paid order, every refund and every invoice number does.
- Orders with line items, discounts, taxes and refund records
- Customer accounts, addresses and marketing consent flags
- Product images, variant SKUs and barcodes
- Reviews with dates and reviewer names
- Active coupons, gift cards and store credit balances
Map every old URL to a new one
Search engines, old emails and printed catalogues still point at your current addresses, so crawl the live site and export every product, collection, page and blog URL. Put the new address beside each.
Each old address needs a permanent redirect to its closest match, so a discontinued product goes to its category and never to the home page. Keep the redirect file in version control. Later edits cannot erase it.
Check for chains. Two hops is one too many. A redirect that hops twice wastes crawl time for search bots and adds a visible delay for every shopper who clicks an old link from an email.
Move customers without surprising them
Password hashes rarely transfer between platforms. Plan a first-login reset email and write it in plain words, so buyers do not mistake it for phishing, and announce the change to them a week ahead.
Subscribers, saved carts and wishlists need separate handling, and each address should carry its opt-in date, because a bare email list is not proof of consent.
Start with a test group. Ten real accounts logging in, resetting passwords and opening an old order will teach you more than a thousand-row import report ever does.
Rehearse the cutover twice
Build the new store on a staging copy, run the import, then place test orders with every payment method, a discount code, a split shipment and a refund. Compare totals line by line.
Lower the DNS time to live a day earlier, then freeze the old store at a quiet hour and import the orders placed since the rehearsal. Switch the domain records last. Write the sequence as numbered steps, each step carrying the owner’s name and a clock time, so nobody improvises at midnight.
Agree a rollback point. Name who decides. If payments fail or checkout errors pass a set count within the first hour, the named person flips the domain records back to the old store.
- Payment webhooks pointing at the new endpoint
- Tax and shipping rates matching the old totals
- Order confirmation and dispatch emails rendering correctly
- Tracking tags firing once, not twice
Verify after the switch
Submit the new sitemap to the search console, watch the coverage report for crawl errors, and spot check fifty old links from your redirect sheet. Then compare the purchase events in analytics with the real orders for the first day, because a tag that fires twice inflates revenue.
Confirm that the payment gateway sends webhooks to the new store and that failed deliveries are retried, then place one live low-value order and refund it.
Keep the old platform on a read-only plan for several months, because customers will still ask about orders from last year and your accountant may need the originals.
Store cutover worksheet
Each row of this worksheet carries four columns, which are the item, its owner, the rehearsal result and the live result, so a gap is visible. The rows cover order history, customer accounts, reviews, coupons, gift card balances, the redirect file, payment webhooks and tracking tags. A final row names the rollback trigger, such as failed payments or checkout errors past a set count, and the person who has the authority to call it.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
How long does an ecommerce migration take?
It depends on catalogue size, custom features and how many systems connect to the store, such as accounting, shipping and email tools. Rehearsals tell you more than any estimate. Book the live cutover only after a clean second run, with every order total, tax line and shipping charge matching the old store to the last unit.
Will I lose search rankings when I change platform?
Some movement is normal. Rankings hold best when old URLs redirect to close matches, titles and descriptions carry over and the sitemap is resubmitted on day one.
Can customers keep their passwords?
Usually not. Hashing methods differ between platforms, so the new store cannot read the stored passwords, and buyers need a reset email that you announce before the switch.
What should I keep from the old store?
Keep a full export of orders, refunds and invoices, stored somewhere that outlives the platform subscription, because tax and warranty questions can arrive years later. Years later is common.