How to Migrate from Magento to Shopify with 3 methods

Moving your online store from Magento to Shopify is a big deal, a big step for your business. However, you don’t have to get too worked up about the challenges you will face when switching platforms because I will present you with the most strong and complete knowledge system in this article. 

There are three ways to migrate from Magento to Shopify that you should be aware of:

• Use a Data Migration Tool
• Manually migrate the store data
• Hire website development experts or freelancers

Each method has its own set of benefits and drawbacks. Let’s dive into them to understand them more deeply and choose the best way that suits your needs. 

Magento vs. Shopify: Why Choose Shopify Over Magento?

Magento (Now is Adobe Commerce Cloud) is a powerful open-source platform, but without learning how to code, you will struggle to fulfill your eCommerce goals. 

In contrast, Shopify is an easy-to-use solution for creating online stores. It comes with a colorful array of beneficial features that allow us to build unique web businesses that retain the required sizes and shapes. Let’s explore some of the benefits of Shopify that make Shopify better than Magento.

• Ease of Use – Ideal for Merchandisers and Administrators

Shopify is significantly more user-friendly than Magento. It’s a proven fact. Shopify is a website builder that allows you to effortlessly customize your store by dragging and dropping things across the page. Shopify’s backend is easy and uncomplicated. Even for admin users, it is the most adaptable platform. 

On the other hand, Magento is difficult to use for non-technical users. Magento requires a solid foundation to function as anything other than a basic shopping cart. It’s a real challenge for beginners to start with Magento, making Shopify win this round. 

• Dazzling Themes –  Easy to customize without any need for code

Shopify offers a larger (and cheaper) choice of themes than Magento, including 13 free and 73 paid themes.

With Shopify themes, you may go nuts with modification by adding new pages, changing the color palette, moving and resizing items, integrating social media feeds, and more once you have picked your Shopify theme. You can accomplish all of this without writing a single line of code!

• Powerful Marketing Tools – Built-in promotional tools that can be used without any technical knowledge

Shopify’s multiple built-in marketing tools aid you in scaling your store, including the ability to advertise and sell directly on social media and run your email campaigns with a built-in email tool with plenty of stunning email templates for you to choose from.

On the contrary, Magento is reliant on its marketplace for its myriad marketing options. Furthermore, you will only be able to combine such marketing techniques if you have technological skills.

We have run you through the key factors that make Shopify win Magento. For more comparison between Magento and Shopify, visit our detailed Magento vs Shopify with the most recent research of 2022.

How to migrate from Magento to Shopify? – 3 Methods

There are three ways to migrate from BigCommerce to Shopify, each with its own set of benefits and drawbacks. In this article, I will walk you through the process of all three approaches and help you choose the best one.

What Should You Do Before Migrating from Magento to Shopify?

• Take Backup of Your Magento Store

Some hazards may appear during the transition from your Magento store to your Shopify store. To avoid this and ensure the security of your data, you must first backup your data. You can simply backup the Magento database by following these easy steps:

• Log in to your Magento admin panel.
• Go to System-> Tools-> Backups.
• Three options will appear System Backup, Database and Media backup, and Database backup. 

System Backup: The most extreme option compresses the whole source code and the database into a single tar bundle.

Database and media backup: creates a backup of the database and the media folder. 

Database Backup: only backup the database.

It will take some time for the backup to complete; then, click OK to proceed.

To alert your website visitors that the backup is in progress, you need to place the store into Magento maintenance mode. The maintenance mode is automatically turned off after the backup is produced.

• Prepare Your Shopify Store

You must create a Shopify store before you can convert Magento to Shopify. You can either sign up for the 14-day free trial or purchase one of the paid plans right away. You can move your store to a temporary domain with the free version. 
Click Start Free Trial on the Shopify website. Fill in your selected email address, password, and store name after that.

Then, after clicking Create your store, answer a few questions about your new Shopify store.

When you finish this step, click Next and then enter your personal information.

After clicking the Enter My Store option, you may begin configuring your store as desired and preparing to migrate your Magento store to the new Shopify store.

3 Methods to Migrate Your Store from Magento to Shopify

Online retailers currently have three ways of moving their stores from Magento to Shopify:

• Use a Data Migration Tool: LitExtension – the automated shopping cart migration service
• Manually migrate store data
  • Manually export data from Magento 
  • Manually import data to Shopify
• Hire website development experts or freelancers

Among the three options outlined above, using a data migration tool is the most advanced approach for moving data from one eCommerce platform to another. You do not need any technical knowledge, only enter your cart information and get started. So, first and foremost, let’s get this technique started.

Use a Data Migration Tool: LitExtension – the automated shopping cart migration service

Using a data migration tool is the most advanced method for migrating data from one eCommerce platform to another. You can consider using LitExtension – the world’s leading migration expert in shopping cart migration. LitExtension can assist you with migrating any type of data, including your items, customer information, orders, tax, and so on, easily, safely, and in a matter of hours.

Here are some of the advantages of LitExtension’s automated migration:

• Large project migration
• Testing entities (test plan, test suite, test run, test results)
• One-to-many user mapping

Now, let’s take a look at how to use LitExtension to perform your migration. In general, there are only three steps you must take to transfer Magento to Shopify:

Step 1: Set up Shopify & Magento 2

In the Source Cart Setup section, insert your Magento URL first and then download the le connector to your PC. This “connector” has one function: it creates a link between your Magento database and the LitExtension App. 

Extract the zip file and move the Connector folder to your server’s Magento root folder.

Next, choose Shopify as your target cart type from the drop-down option, then input your store’s URL, API key, and password. LitExtension includes detailed instructions for obtaining each piece of information.

Then, click Next: Configure your Migration button to move to the next step.

Step 2: Select Entities to Migrate Magento to Shopify

In this stage, you can migrate any data from Magento to Shopify, including products, reviews, taxes, customers, orders, pages, blog entries, and other relevant entities.

Also, keep in mind that you can select additional migration options based on your company’s needs and requirements. Besides, you can easily map Languages, Order Status, and Customer Group so that they will be matched and shown in the new store in the appropriate order.

Step 3: Run full Magento to Shopify migration and check the result

LitExtension recommends that you execute a demo migration first to see the results on your new shop. 

If you choose to proceed with a full migration right away, you will be directed to a checkout page. Once you have finished your payment, your migration will be ready to begin. The working dashboard looks like this: 

The entire migration procedure is cloud-based, which means our solution runs in the background without requiring an internet or browser connection. Therefore, feel free to take a break, have a seat and drink a cup of tea, and return when you receive the email completed-process notification. 

When the migration has completed, click Check results to see how it performs and test your new Shopify store. 

That concludes the easy steps to migrate Magento to Shopify with LitExtension’s data migration tool. If you have strong technical skills, the second option may be appropriate for you.

Manually migrate store data

The process of manually exporting data from Magento and inserting it into your Shopify shopping cart is known as manual migration.

This strategy will create a high-security barrier around your data, as there is no way for it to be leaked. Furthermore, because you are performing the move manually, you will be able to save money.

However, it’s crucial to keep in mind that if you’re new to this field, the migration procedure may take a long time to finish. There’s also a good chance you’ll make some unintentional errors along the way. Let me now walk you through the manual migration procedure in detail to give you a better idea.

• Manually export data from Magento 

• Go to the Admin menu, select System > Import/Export > Export
• In the Export Settings section, specify the following:

• Set Entity Type to Products
• Accept the default Export File Format to “CSV”

• Now scroll down and select Continue button.
• By default, all the data will be located in the <Magento-root-directly>/var/export folder.

If the remote storage module is turned on, all exported files are saved in the <remote-storage-root-directory>/import_export/export folder.

• Manually import data to Shopify

Before importing data into the Shopify platform, ensure that the databases of the two platforms are compatible. Download the CSV sample files from Shopify, compare them to the CSV files you have downloaded from Magento, and make the necessary changes to ensure consistency.

Then, your data is all set to be imported into Shopify. 

• Go to Shopify Admin Page, click Apps > Import Store.
• Select your platform option: Click Other
• Click Add file under Upload files and pick your exported files.
• Choose the CSV file that you have downloaded from Magento.
• Click Continue import and then finalize by clicking the Import button.

You must import three data files: customers, products, and history orders. This solution has a significant disadvantage in that your Magento customer password cannot be imported because the passwords are encrypted. As a result, you will be able to move only customer records rather than customer accounts. 

Hire website development experts or freelancers

If you find that moving your data manually is too complicated or time-consuming, you can engage a web agency or a developer to help you. They will handle the entire process for you.

However, this operation will cost you a large amount of money. Hiring a web agency typically ranges from $50 to $80 per hour. It is uncommon for a web agency or freelancer to know both platforms’ data structures thoroughly. 

Therefore, when selecting a partner, you must exercise caution. They must be dependable and well-versed in Magento to Shopify transfer. The more time they must spend, the more money you must pay. The total cost of the operation ranges between $500 and $2500.

Moreover,  you might face unwanted data leakage when using this method.

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Conclusion

Running a Magento site is one thing, but maintaining it will compel you to have superior technical skills. Therefore, the majority of store owners shift to a more reputable platform such as Shopify. 

In this article, we have run through three options to switch platforms with their full instructions to perform the migration process. 

• Manually migrate: high-security, cost-savings, but technical skill is required and time-consuming.
• Hire an expert/freelancer: time-saving but high-priced, and your data is under threat.
• Use automated migration tools like LitExtension: affordable price ($29 for basic migration and $149 for all-in-one migration), professional support, and no technical requirement. 

Which one did you decide on?

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Written by our guest writer Enola Nguyen

Enola is enthusiastic about sharing her expertise and experience in the world of eCommerce and technology. On LitExtension’s blog, you may find more of her articles.

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