How to Migrate from Shopify to WooCommerce: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide

Shopify's monthly fees climb fast — $39/mo for Basic, $399/mo for Advanced, or $2,300/mo for Plus. And you're still paying transaction fees unless you use Shopify Payments. That's why many merchants look at WooCommerce alternatives and land on WooCommerce. It's free, open-source, and you own everything. But the migration is hard. Here's exactly how to do it without losing your mind or your data.

Why WooCommerce?

WooCommerce itself is free. You pay for hosting, a domain, and maybe a few plugins. Shopify's $39/mo Basic plan covers hosting, but you can get comparable hosting for $5–$20/mo. The real saving? No transaction fees. WooCommerce handles payments through gateways like Stripe, which charge their standard 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction — no extra cut for the platform. You also don't pay for apps that should be core features. But you do need to manage your own updates, security, and backups. It's more work, but you're in control.

What to Back Up and Export First

Before you touch anything, export everything from Shopify. You'll need:

• Products: Shopify Admin > Products > Export. Choose "All products" as CSV. This gives you titles, descriptions, variants, prices, inventory, and images (via URLs).
• Customers: Customers > Export. Includes names, emails, and order history.
• Orders: Orders > Export. You'll get order numbers, items, totals, and shipping info. Note: Shopify limits exports to the last 10,000 orders. If you have more, you'll need multiple exports.
• Discount codes: Discounts > Export.
• Blog posts and pages: Online Store > Blog Posts / Pages > Export. These come as HTML, which WooCommerce can import.

Also manually copy over your theme customizations, custom code snippets, and any third-party app settings. Shopify doesn't give you a clean export for those.

Step-by-Step Migration

Step 1: Set Up WordPress and WooCommerce

Install WordPress on your chosen host (many offer one-click installs). Then install the WooCommerce plugin via Plugins > Add New. Run the setup wizard — it'll ask for your store location, currency, and payment methods. You can skip the product import for now.

Step 2: Import Products

WooCommerce has a built-in CSV importer (Products > Import). Shopify's product CSV needs some tweaking. You'll need to map Shopify's columns to WooCommerce's. The key fields:

• Handle → Slug
• Title → Name
• Body (HTML) → Description
• Variant SKU → SKU
• Variant Price → Regular Price
• Image Src → Images (WooCommerce will download the image from the URL, but only if the URLs are publicly accessible)

Common gotcha: Shopify exports images as URLs, but if your Shopify store is password-protected or down, those URLs won't work. Download all images to your computer first, then upload them via WooCommerce's media library or use a plugin like Import Export Suite for WooCommerce.

Step 3: Import Customers and Orders

WooCommerce doesn't import customers from CSV natively. Use a plugin like Customer / Order / Coupon CSV Import Suite (free) or WP All Import (paid). Map Shopify's customer fields to WooCommerce's. For orders, you'll need to include order items, totals, and statuses. This is the trickiest part — order data structure differs a lot between platforms.

Step 4: Set Up Payments and Shipping

WooCommerce offers Stripe, PayPal, and many other payment gateways. You'll need to create accounts and configure them. For shipping, you can set up flat rates, free shipping, or real-time rates via plugins like WooCommerce Shipping or ShipStation. Don't forget to recreate your shipping zones and methods.

Step 5: Redirect Your Old Shopify URLs

Use a 301 redirect plugin (like Redirection) to map your old Shopify product and page URLs to the new WooCommerce ones. This preserves SEO rankings. If you kept the same URL structure (e.g., /products/your-product), you might not need redirects, but Shopify's default structure often differs.

Common Gotchas

• Image URLs break if Shopify is down. Download everything first.
• Order data is messy. Shopify's export doesn't include line-item-level taxes or discounts in an easily importable format. You may lose some historical data.
• Customer passwords can't be exported. Users will need to reset their passwords. Send a bulk password reset email after migration.
• Third-party apps don't migrate. Any app-specific features (subscriptions, loyalty points, product reviews) need to be recreated with WooCommerce alternatives.
• SEO drops if you don't set up redirects properly. Use the same permalink structure if possible.

Post-Migration Checklist

1. Test a purchase — go through the entire checkout flow as a customer.
2. Check all product images and descriptions — spot-check a dozen products.
3. Verify customer accounts — try logging in with a test customer (you'll need to reset the password).
4. Review order history — ensure old orders appear correctly with proper totals and statuses.
5. Set up analytics — connect Google Analytics or use WooCommerce's built-in reports.
6. Install security and backup plugins — something like Wordfence and UpdraftPlus.
7. Update your DNS — point your domain to the new host. Expect propagation delays.
8. Cancel your Shopify subscription — but keep it active for a week or two in case you missed something.
9. Submit a new sitemap to Google Search Console.
10. Monitor 404 errors — use a tool like Ahrefs or your host's logs to catch broken links.

FAQ

Q: How long does the migration take? A: For a small store (under 100 products), a weekend. For larger stores with thousands of products and orders, plan on 1–2 weeks, especially if you're cleaning up data.

Q: Will I lose my SEO rankings? A: Not if you set up 301 redirects for every old URL. Expect a temporary dip during reindexing, but your rankings should recover within a few weeks.

Q: Can I automate the migration? A: Yes, paid services like Cart2Cart or LitExtension can do it for you. They handle products, customers, orders, and even reviews. Prices start around $100 depending on data volume.

Q: Is WooCommerce really free? A: The plugin is free, but you'll pay for hosting ($5–$30/mo), a domain ($10–$15/yr), and potentially premium plugins. Still, it's usually cheaper than Shopify's $39/mo plus app fees.

Q: What if I'm not technical? A: Consider hiring a developer or using a migration service. WooCommerce requires more hands-on management than Shopify. If that sounds daunting, check out Squarespace or BigCommerce as alternatives.

For more options, see our full list of Shopify alternatives, including a detailed Shopify vs WooCommerce comparison.