Are you running an online store on Wix but feeling limited by its ecommerce capabilities? You're not alone. Many growing businesses eventually outgrow Wix's platform and need a more robust solution. This comprehensive Wix to Shopify migration guide will walk you through every step of transitioning your online store to Shopify, ensuring you maintain your hard-earned traffic, customer data, and sales momentum.
Migrating your ecommerce store might seem daunting, but with proper planning and the right approach, you can make the switch smoothly. Whether you're dealing with dozens or thousands of products, this guide covers everything from pre-migration preparation to post-launch optimization. By the end, you'll have a clear roadmap for successfully moving your business to one of the world's leading ecommerce platforms.
Before diving into the technical aspects of migration, let's understand why thousands of businesses make this transition every year. While Wix serves as an excellent starting point for new businesses, Shopify was built specifically for ecommerce from the ground up.
Shopify offers advanced inventory management, abandoned cart recovery, comprehensive analytics, and native multi-channel selling capabilities. These features come standard rather than requiring multiple third-party apps or workarounds. You'll find that managing your store becomes more intuitive and efficient with tools designed specifically for online retail.
As your business grows, Shopify grows with you. The platform handles high-traffic events, large product catalogs, and complex inventory systems without performance issues. Unlike Wix, which can slow down as you add more products and content, Shopify maintains speed and reliability even as you scale to thousands of SKUs.
Shopify's App Store contains over 8,000 apps covering everything from email marketing to advanced shipping solutions. This ecosystem allows you to customize your store's functionality precisely to your needs. Whether you need referral marketing tools like ReferralCandy, advanced SEO capabilities, or sophisticated customer loyalty programs, you'll find purpose-built solutions.
With Shopify Payments and integration with over 100 payment gateways, you have more flexibility and often lower transaction fees. Shopify's native payment processing eliminates additional transaction fees that Wix charges when using external payment providers.
Successful migrations don't happen by accident—they require careful planning and preparation. Before you begin moving data, take time to audit your current store and plan your new Shopify setup.
Start by documenting everything in your current store. Create a spreadsheet listing all your products, collections, pages, blog posts, and custom code. Note which elements are essential and which you might want to redesign or eliminate. This audit helps you understand the scope of your migration and identify potential challenges early.
Pay special attention to custom features you've built on Wix. Some functionality may need to be replicated using Shopify apps or custom development. Understanding these requirements upfront prevents surprises during migration.
Select the appropriate Shopify plan based on your business needs. Basic Shopify works well for newer stores, while Shopify and Advanced Shopify offer additional features for growing businesses. Consider your monthly sales volume, staff requirements, and desired features when making this decision. You can always upgrade later, but starting with the right plan ensures you have necessary features from day one.
Before making any changes, create complete backups of your Wix store. Export product data, customer information, order history, and download all images and media files. Save copies of your site pages, blog content, and any custom code. This backup serves as your safety net if anything goes wrong during migration.
Schedule your migration during your slowest sales period to minimize disruption. Most businesses find that mid-week during off-peak seasons works best. Allocate sufficient time for testing—rushing a migration often leads to problems that could have been avoided with proper testing.
This Wix to Shopify migration guide covers three primary approaches, each with distinct advantages depending on your store's complexity and your technical comfort level.
Manual migration works best for smaller stores with straightforward product catalogs. You'll export data from Wix, format it according to Shopify's requirements, and import it using CSV files. This method gives you complete control and costs nothing beyond your time.
The process involves exporting your Wix products to CSV, reformatting the data to match Shopify's template, and importing through Shopify's admin panel. While time-consuming, this approach lets you clean up product data and reorganize your catalog during migration.
Migration apps like Cart2Cart, LitExtension, and Transporter offer automated solutions that handle most of the technical work. These services typically cost between $29 and $299 depending on your store size and data volume. They can migrate products, customers, orders, and sometimes blog content automatically.
These tools work by connecting to both your Wix and Shopify stores through APIs, then transferring data according to your specifications. Most offer demo migrations so you can test the process before committing to a full migration.
For complex stores with custom functionality, extensive product catalogs, or limited technical resources, hiring Shopify experts makes sense. Professional services cost more—typically $500 to $5,000 or more—but ensure a smooth transition with minimal risk of data loss or downtime.
Shopify Experts can handle everything from data migration to theme customization and app integration. They'll also ensure your SEO elements transfer correctly and set up proper redirects to maintain search rankings.
Now let's walk through the actual migration process. This section of our Wix to Shopify migration guide provides detailed steps for successfully moving your store.
Begin by creating your Shopify account and completing basic store setup. Add your business information, set your currency and timezone, and configure tax settings. Don't worry about perfecting everything—you can refine settings as you go.
Choose and install your Shopify theme. While you can customize extensively later, selecting a theme that matches your brand aesthetic helps you visualize the final result during migration. Many successful stores start with popular themes like Dawn, Debut, or premium options from the Theme Store.
Product migration forms the core of your transition. If using the manual method, export your Wix products and reformat the CSV file to match Shopify's product import template. Shopify requires specific column headers and formatting, so review their documentation carefully.
Key product data to migrate includes titles, descriptions, prices, SKUs, inventory quantities, product images, variants (size, color, etc.), and product categories or collections. Ensure all product images are high quality and properly named for SEO purposes.
For stores using migration apps, configure your product mapping settings. These tools let you specify how Wix product fields correspond to Shopify fields. Run a test migration with a small product subset to verify everything transfers correctly before migrating your entire catalog.
Customer data requires careful handling to maintain relationships and comply with privacy regulations. Export customer information from Wix, including names, email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses. Note that for security reasons, customer passwords cannot be transferred—customers will need to reset passwords when accessing your new store.
Import customer data using Shopify's CSV import feature or your chosen migration app. After importing, consider sending a welcome email explaining the migration and providing instructions for accessing their accounts on the new platform.
Historical order data helps you maintain customer service continuity and analyze sales trends. Export order information from Wix, including order numbers, dates, customer details, products purchased, and order totals.
Import this data into Shopify using CSV files or migration apps. While imported orders won't process through Shopify's payment system (they're historical records), having this information accessible helps your team handle returns, exchanges, and customer inquiries.
Customize your Shopify theme to match your brand identity. Upload your logo, set brand colors, configure typography, and arrange page layouts. Shopify's theme editor makes customization straightforward, even without coding knowledge.
Recreate essential pages from your Wix site, including About Us, Contact, Shipping Policy, and Return Policy pages. Ensure all legal pages (Privacy Policy, Terms of Service) are updated and properly linked in your footer.
If you maintain a blog, transferring content preserves your SEO value and keeps readers engaged. Export blog posts from Wix, including post titles, content, images, and publication dates. Import them into Shopify's blog feature using CSV files or manually recreate posts.
Maintain the same URL structure when possible to preserve search rankings. If URLs must change, document all changes for setting up redirects later.
Set up critical store functions before launch. Configure your payment gateways—Shopify Payments offers the simplest setup, but you can integrate other processors as needed. Establish shipping zones and rates, ensuring they match or improve upon your Wix store's shipping options.
Configure tax settings based on your business location and where you ship. Shopify can automatically calculate taxes for most regions, simplifying compliance. Set up notification emails for order confirmations, shipping updates, and abandoned carts.
Migration doesn't end when data transfers complete. These critical post-migration tasks ensure your store functions properly and maintains its search engine rankings.
Setting up proper redirects is crucial for maintaining SEO value. Create 301 redirects from your old Wix URLs to corresponding Shopify URLs. This tells search engines that pages have permanently moved, transferring most of their ranking power to the new locations.
Shopify's URL structure differs from Wix's, so most URLs will change. Use Shopify's built-in redirect feature (found under Online Store > Navigation > URL Redirects) to map old URLs to new ones. For stores with many pages, consider using a redirect app or CSV bulk upload feature.
Review all SEO elements to ensure they transferred correctly. Check page titles, meta descriptions, header tags, and image alt text. Shopify provides fields for these elements in each product, collection, and page editor.
Submit your new Shopify sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. This helps search engines discover and index your new URLs quickly. Monitor your search console for crawl errors and fix any issues promptly.
Install Google Analytics 4 and connect it to your Shopify store. Add your tracking code through Shopify's admin panel under Online Store > Preferences. Set up conversion tracking to monitor sales, add-to-cart actions, and other key metrics.
If you use Facebook Pixel, Google Ads, or other marketing platforms, install their tracking codes as well. Many platforms offer Shopify apps that simplify integration and ensure accurate tracking.
Before announcing your migration, conduct comprehensive testing. Place test orders using different payment methods to verify checkout works correctly. Test on multiple devices and browsers to ensure responsive design functions properly.
Check all internal links, verify images load correctly, and test contact forms and other interactive elements. Have team members or trusted customers navigate the site and provide feedback on any issues they encounter.
Install critical Shopify apps to enhance functionality. Consider apps for email marketing, customer reviews, SEO optimization, and referral marketing. If you're looking to grow through word-of-mouth, ReferralCandy integrates seamlessly with Shopify to automate your referral program and drive customer acquisition.
Don't install too many apps initially—add them gradually as you identify specific needs. Each app can affect site speed, so prioritize quality over quantity.
With testing complete and everything configured, you're ready to launch. This phase of your Wix to Shopify migration guide focuses on going live smoothly.
Update your domain's DNS settings to point to Shopify's servers. If you purchased your domain through Wix, you'll need to update nameservers or A records to point to Shopify. Shopify provides detailed instructions for various domain registrars.
DNS changes can take 24-48 hours to propagate fully, though most complete within a few hours. During this transition period, some visitors might see your old Wix site while others see your new Shopify store.
Once your domain points to Shopify and you've verified everything works, remove password protection from your Shopify store. Go to Online Store > Preferences and disable the password page to make your store publicly accessible.
Communicate the migration to your customers through email, social media, and your website. Explain any changes they'll notice, provide instructions for account access if needed, and highlight improvements they'll enjoy.
Consider offering a special promotion to celebrate your relaunch and encourage customers to explore your new store. This generates excitement and drives initial traffic to test your new platform under real-world conditions.
After launching, focus on optimization to maximize your Shopify store's potential. These strategies help you leverage Shopify's capabilities fully.
Page speed affects both user experience and SEO rankings. Use Shopify's built-in speed report to identify optimization opportunities. Compress images, minimize app usage, and consider upgrading to a faster theme if necessary.
Enable Shopify's content delivery network (CDN) features and optimize your theme code to reduce load times. Faster sites convert better and rank higher in search results.
Take advantage of Shopify's product page features to improve conversions. Add multiple high-quality images, include detailed descriptions with proper formatting, and use customer reviews to build trust.
Implement product recommendations to increase average order value. Shopify's native recommendation features or apps like Bold Upsell can suggest related products based on customer behavior.
Shopify's abandoned cart recovery feature helps recapture lost sales automatically. Configure abandoned cart emails to send to customers who leave items in their cart without completing checkout. Customize email timing and content to maximize recovery rates.
Leverage Shopify's marketing tools to grow your business. Set up automated email campaigns for welcome sequences, post-purchase follow-ups, and re-engagement. Use Shopify's discount code system to create targeted promotions.
Consider implementing a referral program to turn customers into brand advocates. Tools like ReferralCandy automate the process of rewarding customers for referring friends, creating a sustainable customer acquisition channel.
Even with careful planning, you might encounter challenges during migration. Here's how to address common issues.
Sometimes images appear pixelated or poorly cropped after migration. This often occurs when images were optimized for Wix's specific dimensions. Solution: Re-upload high-resolution versions of important images and use Shopify's image editor to crop appropriately.
Shopify's URL structure differs from Wix's, potentially affecting SEO. Solution: Implement comprehensive 301 redirects and monitor Google Search Console for any crawl errors. Most ranking power transfers through proper redirects.
Product variants might not transfer correctly, especially if you used complex variant structures on Wix. Solution: Review all products with variants manually and recreate variant options as needed. Use Shopify's bulk editor to speed up this process.
Customers can't log in with their old passwords after migration. Solution: Communicate this clearly during launch and provide easy password reset instructions. Consider sending password reset links proactively to active customers.
Payment processing might require new setup and verification. Solution: Apply for payment gateway accounts early in the migration process, as approval can take several days. Test all payment methods thoroughly before launch.
Track key metrics to evaluate your migration's success and identify areas needing attention.
Monitor organic search traffic in Google Analytics. Some fluctuation is normal during migration, but traffic should stabilize within 2-4 weeks. Track keyword rankings for your most important terms to ensure SEO value transferred successfully.
Compare conversion rates before and after migration. Shopify's optimized checkout typically improves conversion rates, but if you see decreases, investigate potential causes like confusing navigation or slow page loads.
Use Google PageSpeed Insights and Shopify's speed report to measure performance. Aim for load times under three seconds on desktop and mobile devices.
Collect customer feedback about their experience with the new store. Address common complaints quickly and use positive feedback to guide further improvements.
Migration timelines vary based on store size and complexity. Small stores with fewer than 100 products can typically complete migration in 1-2 weeks, including testing. Medium-sized stores (100-1,000 products) usually require 2-3 weeks, while large stores with thousands of products and custom functionality may need 4-6 weeks or more. The actual data transfer might only take hours or days, but proper planning, testing, and optimization require additional time. For best results, don't rush the process—thorough testing prevents costly issues after launch.
You shouldn't lose significant rankings if you implement proper 301 redirects from all old Wix URLs to corresponding Shopify URLs. These redirects transfer most of your SEO value to the new pages. Some temporary ranking fluctuations are normal as search engines recrawl your site, but rankings typically stabilize within 2-4 weeks. To minimize impact, maintain the same page content, titles, and meta descriptions where possible, submit your new sitemap to Google Search Console, and monitor for any crawl errors that need fixing.
No, customer passwords cannot be transferred from Wix to Shopify for security reasons. Passwords are encrypted and stored in a way that prevents export. After migration, customers will need to reset their passwords to access their accounts on your Shopify store. To make this transition smooth, send a clear communication to your customer base before or immediately after migration, explaining the change and providing simple password reset instructions. Consider this an opportunity to re-engage customers with a welcome-back email and special offer.
Migration costs vary widely depending on your approach. Manual migration using CSV files is free but requires significant time investment. Automated migration apps typically cost $29-$299 depending on store size and features. Professional migration services from Shopify Experts range from $500 to $5,000 or more for complex stores. Beyond migration costs, factor in your Shopify subscription ($39-$399/month depending on plan), theme costs ($0-$350 for premium themes), and any apps you need ($0-$100+/month total). Most businesses find the investment worthwhile given Shopify's superior ecommerce capabilities.
You can transfer most essential ecommerce data including products (titles, descriptions, prices, SKUs, images, variants), customer information (names, emails, addresses, but not passwords), order history (for record-keeping purposes), blog posts and content pages, and product images and media files. Some elements may require manual recreation, such as custom page designs, specific Wix apps or integrations, custom code or scripts, and certain design elements. Using migration apps typically transfers more data automatically than manual methods, though you'll still need to verify everything transferred correctly.
No, avoid migrating during peak sales periods, major promotions, or busy seasons for your business. Choose your slowest sales period to minimize potential revenue impact if issues arise. Mid-week migrations often work better than weekend launches, as you'll have full access to support resources if needed. Plan for at least a few days of testing before announcing your migration publicly. If you must migrate during a busier period, consider a phased approach where you build and test your Shopify store while keeping your Wix store running, then switch over during your slowest hours (often late night or early morning).
Basic migrations don't require advanced technical skills, especially if you use automated migration apps. You should be comfortable working with spreadsheets (CSV files), following step-by-step instructions, and navigating admin panels. However, complex stores with custom functionality, extensive product catalogs, or specific design requirements may benefit from professional help. If you're not comfortable with technology or have limited time, hiring a Shopify Expert ensures a smooth migration. Many businesses successfully handle their own migrations by following comprehensive guides like this one and using available migration tools.
Yes, Shopify allows you to build and test your store before making it public. When you first create your Shopify store, it's automatically password-protected, meaning only people with the password can access it. This lets you migrate data, customize your design, install apps, and test functionality without affecting your live Wix store. You can share the password with team members or trusted testers for feedback. Only when you're completely satisfied with the setup should you remove password protection and point your domain to Shopify, making the store publicly accessible.
Migrating from Wix to Shopify represents a significant step forward for your ecommerce business. While this Wix to Shopify migration guide covers many technical details, remember that the process is manageable with proper planning and patience. The benefits—improved functionality, better scalability, and enhanced growth potential—far outweigh the temporary challenges of migration.
Start by choosing the migration method that best fits your store's size and complexity. Whether you opt for manual migration, automated tools, or professional services, follow the steps outlined in this guide carefully. Don't skip the testing phase, and ensure you implement proper redirects to maintain your SEO value. Remember that migration isn't just about moving data—it's an opportunity to optimize your store, improve customer experience, and set your business up for long-term success.
Once your Shopify store is live, focus on leveraging the platform's powerful features to grow your business. Implement abandoned cart recovery, optimize for conversions, and explore apps that extend functionality. Consider tools like ReferralCandy to build a referral program that turns happy customers into brand advocates, creating a sustainable growth engine for your business.
Ready to make the move? Start by creating your Shopify account and following the steps in this guide. With careful execution and the right support, you'll soon enjoy the benefits of running your store on one of the world's most powerful ecommerce platforms. Your future customers—and your bottom line—will thank you for making the switch.
Raúl Galera is the Growth Lead at ReferralCandy, where they’ve helped 30,000+ eCommerce brands drive sales through referrals and word-of-mouth marketing. Over the past 8+ years, Raúl has worked hands-on with DTC merchants of all sizes (from scrappy Shopify startups to household names) helping them turn happy customers into revenue-driving advocates. Raúl’s been featured on dozens of top eCommerce podcasts, contributed to leading industry publications, and regularly speaks about customer acquisition, retention, and brand growth at industry events.
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