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Thinking of switching your online store over to Shopify? You’re not alone.
Over the past year, we’ve spoken to dozens of UK-based merchants who’ve decided to take the plunge and move their business to Shopify. Whether it’s slow load times, clunky user interfaces, or expensive development cycles on legacy platforms like WooCommerce, Magento, or BigCommerce the pain is real.
But let’s be honest: Shopify migrations aren’t always as smooth as we’d like them to be. In fact, 8 out of 10 merchants we recently surveyed told us that they underestimated the complexity of replatforming. That’s why we’ve put together this straightforward guide to help you navigate common hiccups and make your Shopify setup stress-free.
Step-by-Step Shopify Migration Guide
At Fluency, we’ve handled Shopify migrations for dozens of UK brands often in as little as 2–3 weeks. Here’s how we do it:
1. Audit Your Current Store
We start by reviewing what you’ve got: product catalogue, customer data, integrations, and design. We think it’s critical to know what needs to move, what can be improved, and what can be left behind.
2. Define Key Objectives
Are you replatforming for speed? Better conversion? Lower costs? We make sure your goals are clear, so we can prioritise functionality and features that deliver.
3. Prepare Your Data
Data accuracy is critical. We map all fields, clean inconsistencies, and test imports before going live. It’s not glamorous, but trust us it saves headaches.
4. Rebuild Design and Functionality
This is where it gets exciting. We recreate or refine your theme using the latest Shopify setup features like Shopify 2.0 sections, flexible templates, and app integrations.
5. SEO & Redirects
We take great care to ensure your search rankings don’t drop during migration. That means proper 301 redirects, meta data checks, and performance optimisations.
6. Test, Launch, Support
Before launch, we double-check everything from mobile responsiveness to checkout flow. Then we support you through go-live and beyond.
Tips for Ensuring Data Accuracy During Shopify Migrations
Here are a few insider tips we’ve learned from doing this time and time again:
- Start with a data cleanse. Don’t migrate what you don’t need.
- Standardise SKUs and product tags. This will make filtering and merchandising easier later.
- Test in a sandbox. Migrate a sample set first, and do a trial run.
- Use trusted tools. We often recommend Matrixify or native Shopify import tools for CSV files.
- Document everything. It might sound tedious, but keeping track of what’s been migrated helps if anything goes wonky post-launch.
Final Thoughts
We get it replatforming ecommerce can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re running a lean team and juggling 100 other priorities. But we believe it doesn’t have to be hard.
At Fluency, we don’t just build sites we simplify them. We’re built for small teams who need to move fast, and we think our track record proves it.
So if you’re stuck in a platform that’s slowing you down or costing you more than it should let’s talk. A fresh Shopify setup could be the boost your brand needs.
