A migration is won or lost in the details you can't see in the catalogue
Switching platforms isn't a technical export-and-import problem. It's a problem of what gets lost along the way: Google rankings, customer passwords, pricing rules refined over years, integrations someone set up a while ago that nobody quite remembers how they work.
Before moving anything we check whether your catalogue fits into Shopify as it is, or needs redesigning first. The limit most often overlooked: Shopify supports a maximum of three options per product. If your store has more (size, colour, material and something else), that combination has to be solved before migrating, not after.
What moves over, and how
Catalogue and variants
Products, images, categories and custom attributes are mapped to metafields. Deep category hierarchies are solved with automated collections and search filters, because Shopify collections remain flat. The three-option-per-product limit can be worked around with combined listings, but that feature is Plus-only: on other plans it's solved with data modelling before migrating.
Customers
Passwords never migrate, whichever platform you're coming from: Shopify uses a different hashing algorithm. We plan the communication so the first login isn't an unpleasant surprise or a reason for customers to churn. Order history has no native import into Shopify: if your customer service needs to see past purchases and warranties, we migrate it through the Admin API, with the development that involves, not as another automatic step.
Pricing rules and traffic spikes
We rebuild discount rules, per-customer purchase limits and segmented checkout pricing. The advantage over self-managed infrastructure is that Shopify absorbs massive traffic spikes (Hot Sale, Cyber Monday) without you having to over-provision servers months in advance.
B2B and POS
If you sell direct to consumers, run a wholesale (B2B) channel, and also have a physical store (POS), all three run on the same catalogue and inventory in Shopify, without cross-checking data by hand between separate systems. What Shopify doesn't unify is multi-brand: each unrelated brand needs its own Plus contract, and expansion stores under the same brand keep separate catalogue, customers and orders even though they share an organisation dashboard.
SEO and redirects
Shopify's URL structure is fixed (/products/, /collections/) and can't be changed. We prepare the full 301 redirect map before the switch, not after losing traffic.
Integrations
ERP, CRM, gateway and logistics are rebuilt against Shopify's Admin API. We size the sync to the request limit of whichever plan you'll be on.
Part of the job is knowing when to say a migration isn't the right move. Some stores' real problem is a poorly maintained platform, not the platform itself, and switching just relocates the problem, at a cost. We say so even when it costs us a project, because we'd rather keep a client who comes back than sell a migration that shouldn't have happened.
Migrating also means freeing your ecommerce team from depending on a developer for every minor change: we leave the admin set up so they can create promotions, update banners and manage the day-to-day catalogue on their own.
Does migrating to Shopify make sense for you?
Tell us what platform you're on today, how many SKUs you have, and which integrations you can't afford to lose. We'll tell you whether migrating makes sense before you get a quote.