If you are considering migrating from WooCommerce to Shopify, you are making a wise decision. Shopify is a much more robust platform than WooCommerce for small and medium businesses, and it offers a lot of features that WooCommerce does not. The e-commerce platform has taken the business world by storm since it first debuted in 2006. Merchants love it for its simplicity, scalability, and overall features.
WooCommerce is a good platform, but it falls short in certain areas compared to Shopify.
In this guide, we will walk you through migrating your WooCommerce store to Shopify. We will cover everything from setting up your shop in Shopify to importing your products. Let’s get started!
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Reasons to Migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify.
But, first, let’s examine some reasons you may want to migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify.
WooCommerce is not as user-friendly as Shopify.
If you’re a small business or startup looking to start an online store, you’re better off with Shopify due to its user-friendliness and gentle learning curve. WooCommerce, on the other hand, can be pretty overwhelming for beginners. You first need to learn how to use WordPress and then WooCommerce. With Shopify, you don’t need any prior website setup experience. The documentation is straightforward, and you can have your store up and running within minutes.
Shopify offers a lot of features Out-of-the-Box.
When you set up a WooCommerce store, you need to install many plugins to get even basic features like product galleries and contact forms. With Shopify, you get all of these features out of the box. You don’t need to install any plugins! This saves you a lot of time and money in the long run.
East to Customize Themes.
Shopify themes are more straightforward to customize than WooCommerce themes. With WooCommerce, you need to have basic coding knowledge to be able to customize your theme. With Shopify, you can easily customize your theme without any coding knowledge. This is because Shopify uses a drag-and-drop interface for theme customization.
Built-in Security
Shopify has built-in security features that WooCommerce does not have. For example, with WooCommerce, you need to install plugins to add security features like two-factor authentication and SSL certificates. With Shopify, these features come standard with all plans.
In the past, thousands of WooCommerce stores have been hacked. Cybercriminals exploit vulnerabilities like unauthenticated stored cross-site scripting (XSS), authorization flaws, and SQL injection.
Multichannel Selling
Shopify makes it easy to sell on multiple channels like social media and mobile. With WooCommerce, you need to install plugins to be able to sell on these platforms. This can be time-consuming and expensive.
WooCommerce Has a Higher Overall Cost
Without hundreds of pricey “extensions,” WooCommerce-based software is practically useless. You discover this gradually after you’ve spent a lot of time on setup and configuration.
When you factor in the cost of plugins, WooCommerce can be pretty expensive. On the other hand, Shopify is a subscription-based platform with different tiers to choose from. This makes it more predictable and easier to budget for.
Shopify Has Better Customer Support
If you need help with your store, Shopify has better customer support than WooCommerce. With WooCommerce, you need to rely on the community or pay for premium support. With Shopify, you get 24/seven support from their team of experts.
Shopify Has Better Analytics
Shopify comes with built-in analytics with a clean and intuitive overview dashboard. WooCommerce, on the other hand, has cumbersome analytics that is difficult for new users.
Also read: 20 Best AI SEO Software Tools To Rank Higher in 2022
Methods to Migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify.
Let’s now examine free and paid methods to migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify.
Free Methods
There are two free ways to do migrate:
Manual
This is the most complex and time-consuming method. First, you need to recreate all the products on WooCommerce in Shopify. Then, copy and paste all product descriptions, download images, and upload them to Shopify.
Obviously, this method is only practical if your store has very few products.
Export From WooCommerce & Import to Shopify
This is the recommended method as it’s less time-consuming. You can export all your products from WooCommerce and import them into Shopify with just a few clicks following the steps below:
- Step 1: Export WooCommerce store data by going to Admin >Tools > Export. Select All content and then click Download Export File.
- Step 2: In Shopify Admin, go to Apps > Store Importer and follow the instructions to import your products.
- Step 3: Review your product entries for any errors and correct them.
Paid Methods
If your store has a large number of products, you may run into problems and encounter errors with the free methods above. Some issues you may encounter include:
- Successful but with erroneous changes
- Some products or customers fail to import
- Bundled products fail to import
- Products import successfully but fail to publish
- Product variants fail to import
- Imported products no longer have dimensions
- Wrong tags applied to imported records
WooCommerce Migration App
For large stores, we recommend using a Shopify WooCommerce Migration App. WooCommerce Store Migration by Webappslive is an app that will do all the heavy lifting for you. The app can migrate products, customers, orders, and more from Woocommerce to Shopify. It is also well-reviewed with an overall rating of 5 stars on the Shopify App Store. The app is free to install and comes with a free demo that allows you to take it for a test drive with 20 free records. After that, you pay $0.01 for each record you migrate plus a basic app charge of $15. There are also some payment gateway fees you incur.
Hire a Developer to Manage the Process
If you don’t want to deal with the hassle and potential problems of migrating your Woocommerce store to Shopify, you can always hire a developer to manage the process for you. This is by far the easiest method but also the most expensive.
The Take-Away
There are many reasons to migrate from Woocommerce to Shopify. Woocommerce is expensive, has a higher overall cost, and has poor customer support. On the other hand, Shopify is a subscription-based platform with different tiers to choose from, making it more predictable and easier to budget for. Additionally, Shopify has better customer support than Woocommerce.
When it comes to migrating from Woocommerce to Shopify, you can either do it manually, use a Woocommerce to Shopify Migration App, or hire a developer. If you have a large store, we recommend using an app or hiring a developer as it will save you time and prevent any errors.
We hope this guide has been helpful and has given you a better understanding of migrating from Woocommerce to Shopify. Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
Thank you for this. The steps are straight forward.