Why stores move away from Magento
The most common reason is the cost of running the platform. Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce need a server or a cloud plan, security patches, version upgrades that often break extensions and a PHP development team on hand at all times. Many stores still on Magento 1, which has had no official support since 2020, or on older 2.x versions end up migrating because upgrading costs almost as much as switching platforms.
Shopify removes that layer: hosting, security, checkout and updates are Shopify's responsibility. Your team stops spending hours on infrastructure and puts them into the catalog, the design and selling. In return, you accept that certain things are done the Shopify way, and it pays to know which ones before you start.
Inventory: catalog, extensions and customizations
Before you move any data, list everything your Magento store does today. In a store that has been running for years it is normal to find installed extensions nobody uses, undocumented custom modules and forgotten price rules. The migration is your chance to clean up, and for that you need to see the whole picture.
- Product types: simple, configurable, grouped, bundle, virtual and downloadable
- Attribute sets and the attributes shown or filtered on the storefront
- Websites, stores and store views with their languages and currencies
- Customer groups, tier prices and catalog and cart price rules
- Installed extensions and custom-built modules
- URLs that get traffic, including those ending in .html
Configurable products and attributes
A Magento configurable product with its simple child products becomes a Shopify product with variants. The attributes that define the configuration, such as size or color, become options, and each child becomes a variant with its own SKU, price, stock and image. If you have products with many combinations, check Shopify's documentation for the current option and variant limits.
The remaining attributes, the ones that only describe the product, go into metafields. Magento attribute sets have no direct equivalent, but you can group metafields by product type and use metaobjects for repeated data such as material sheets or manufacturers. For collection filters, Search & Discovery lets you filter by variant options, tags, product type and metafields.
Grouped and bundle products have no automatic translation. Depending on the case, they are handled with Shopify Bundles, an app or logic in the theme. Decide product by product instead of forcing a single solution.
Multi-store, languages and currencies
In Magento it is common to have several store views for languages and several websites for markets or brands. In Shopify, the languages and currencies of a single brand are managed with Shopify Markets and the Translate & Adapt app inside one store, with subfolders or domains per market. That makes daily work much simpler: one catalog, one inventory and translations linked to each product.
If your Magento websites are separate brands or businesses with separate catalogs, the usual approach is to create independent Shopify stores. With Shopify Plus you can manage several stores from your organization and share users and settings. Decide this architecture at the start, because it shapes everything else.
Customers, B2B and price rules
Customers are imported with their details, addresses and tags, but passwords are not. With Shopify's current customer accounts that is not a problem: customers sign in with their email and a one-time code, no password needed. Even so, prepare an email explaining the change. Order history does not come in through the admin's standard CSV; you bring it over with migration apps or through the API.
Magento customer groups and tier prices are usually the most delicate part. B2B on Shopify lets you create companies with catalogs, price lists, payment terms and volume pricing. These features are also available on Basic, Grow and Advanced with up to 3 catalogs; Plus offers unlimited catalogs that can be assigned to each customer. For cases that do not fit, you use automatic discounts, Shopify Functions or apps. Cart price rules are rebuilt as discounts, and more complex logic is coded with Functions.
Extensions to apps, native features or code
Go through your list of extensions and sort them. Many cover things Shopify already handles out of the box: checkout, payments, shipping, sitemap, basic structured data or discount management. Others have an equivalent in the App Store, such as reviews, subscriptions or ERP connectors. Whatever is specific to your business is solved with code in the theme, with Checkout Extensibility on Plus or with a custom app.
Do not try to replicate every extension. In a Magento migration it is usually better to drop processes that no longer add value and end up with a lighter store with fewer pieces to maintain.
SEO and redirects
Magento allows very free-form URLs, often with an .html suffix and category paths included in the product URL. Shopify uses fixed prefixes: /products/, /collections/, /pages/ and /blogs/. Practically every URL changes, so you need a complete map of 301 redirects from each old URL with traffic or backlinks to its new equivalent.
Migrate meta titles, meta descriptions and alt text as well. After launch, submit the Shopify sitemap in Search Console and check the indexing and not-found reports over the following weeks. At Weblineo we build the URL map and the redirects as part of our migration service.
Frequently asked questions
Is Shopify enough for a store coming from Magento?
It depends on what you do. For most catalogs, including large ones, Shopify or Shopify Plus covers what you need. Cases with very particular logic are solved with Shopify Functions, Checkout Extensibility or custom apps.
Can I migrate my old Magento orders?
Yes, with migration apps or through the Shopify API. The admin CSV does not import orders. Consider whether you need the full history or whether a saved export is enough for lookups and accounting.
Do I need Shopify Plus to migrate from Adobe Commerce?
Not necessarily. Plus makes sense if you need native B2B, checkout customization, several stores in one organization or high volume. Otherwise, a standard plan can be enough.
What happens to my custom-built modules?
Each one is reviewed. Some are no longer needed because Shopify has that feature built in, others are replaced by an app, and the truly unique ones are rebuilt in the theme, in Functions or in a custom app.