Shopify and WooCommerce are both incredible platforms for ecommerce businesses. As a business owner, there comes a time when you want to change your ideal platform due to various reasons. For instance, one may need to shift from WooCommerce to Shopify to explore different features and to scale their business to the next level.

Shopify is a global subscription-based platform offering unmatched ecommerce solutions. As a result, an ecommerce owner who wants to upgrade their business will think of migrating to Shopify. WooCommerce, on the other hand, is an e-commerce platform available for free, hence the reason why it is ranked high on the market. It is simply a WordPress open-source plug in. Therefore, as a business owner who wants to reconsider their ideal platform for ecommerce business, keep reading this guide to find all the insights, including how you can migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify.

Shopify vs. WooCommerce

When you compare the two eCommerce platforms and then compare the results with the nature of your business operations, you will definitely know the ideal platform that will help you manage & grow your e-commerce business seamlessly. To help you make a sound decision when choosing between WooCommerce and Shopify, we explore the pros and cons of both platforms.

Advantages of Shopify: why migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify?

The following are some of the top reasons making Shopify stand out as your ideal ecommerce platform:

• Simple and fast

As an ecommerce business person, you need a platform you can set up and run smoothly. With Shopify, you can set up and manage your online store without worrying about other technical aspects. If you don’t have in-depth coding knowledge, you can easily create and run your Shopify store in a few steps.

What’s more, the Shopify control panels are quite straightforward, meaning any person can interact with the platform and perform various activities. The overall user experience of Shopify is top-notch.

• Safe and reliable

When setting up an online store, reliability and security are among the top elements you must remember. Many malicious activities often take place online, and this can affect your business operations to some extent. For instance, malware and hacking are examples of activities that can affect your business. It is, therefore, essential to select a reliable and secure platform that can safeguard confidential details such as credit/debit cards and bank details. Contact numbers, among many others.

Shopify is one platform that practices high security measures, including regular server maintenance and updates. Such practices also play a key role in establishing a reliable platform for your ecommerce store.

• Mobile phone friendly

Many customers perform business transactions through mobile phones. It is, therefore, essential to make online stores mobile-friendly to have a large user base and enhance the website traffic.

With Shopify, the themes and the design are developed to fit different devices, including mobile phones. Besides, the theme is highly responsive, making it easy to reach more users and serve as many customers as possible.

• Enhanced marketing tools

As a business owner, marketing your products & services is a key element in transforming your business. With Shopify, you can enjoy a wide range of tools that enhance the marketing processes.

• Fast loading time

Website loading time is one significant element, despite their objectives. An online store must have a faster loading time to enable customers to navigate through easily and to enhance customer retention. After all, no customer will wait for a web page that is taking forever to load.

With Shopify, you are guaranteed faster loading time, which enhances the overall user experience and smooth navigation through the platform.

• Reliable payment options

A payment solution is a key aspect of any online store as it carries sensitive and confidential details. Before a customer initiates a payment through online platforms, they want to know the safety measures put in place to safeguard their private data.

With Shopify, the online marketplace payment solutions are reliable and secure. All customers can initiate transactions without worrying about their private details.

• Incredible customer support

Online stores often require technical approaches and have a complex structure that requires maintenance and good support. Therefore, it is key to choose a platform that has a good customer support plan to help solve arising problems instantly and to enhance your business growth.

Shopify is one ecommerce platform that prioritizes the need for customer support throughout. At any given time, you can contact them, and they will respond promptly without keeping you waiting for hours.

• SEO friendly

With Shopify, your business will rank on Google because the themes and templates meet Google’s requirements.

When your website is SEO-friendly, your business will be on top, hence attracting more leads and more customers, thus enhancing faster business growth.

• Application Integration

Sometimes, you may want to add extra functionalities or features to your online store to improve your business operations. With Shopify, you can easily add new functions and tools to grow your business.

What’s more, you won’t be limited to the apps you can integrate into your online store. Depending on the app type, you can pay a fee, or some apps are available for free.

• Supports a wide range of businesses

Well, Shopify isn’t limited to specific businesses. Whether it is all about clothing, beauty, events, outdoor goods, or eBooks, among many others, Shopify supports them.

What are the disadvantages of Shopify?

While Shopify offers a lot of benefits to users, the same platforms also have some pitfalls that you should know about. The disadvantages of Shopify include the following:

• Pricing

When compared with WooCommerce, which is available for free, Shopify has a monthly subscription fee you must pay as you use the platform. The subscription plans are available in different packages (basic, Shopify, and advanced) with varied services. However, you will realize that to enjoy extra services, you will need to go for a higher plan, hence more subscription fees.

• Difficult to migrate

Even though Shopify offers incredible services that enhance the scaling of your business processes, it can be hard to leave the platform to another service provider. This happens because Shopify keeps its data on a proprietary platform, which will require extra effort to migrate.

What are the advantages of WooCommerce?

WooCommerce will offer you the following benefits for your ecommerce store:

• Available for free

Unlike other platforms, you don’t need to incur costs such as a monthly subscription to enjoy WooCommerce services. The platform is totally free, and this is the number one advantage of why you can opt to use the WooCommerce platform.

• Higher flexibility

With WooCommerce, you can sell varied products, such as Amazon affiliates, downloadable products, webinars, and other physical goodies. Ideally, you aren’t limited to specific options.

• Customization options

One unique feature of WooCommerce is that you can customize your store to showcase your brand identity. What’s more, the platform offers many plugins that can enhance your business for free. How cool is this?

• Secure and reliable

Online stores are prone to security threats and malfunctions. However, with WooCommerce, you don’t have to worry about the security of confidential information and the operation of your business.

Since WooCommerce runs on WordPress, you will enjoy the regular security updates and services offered by a team of experts who work to ensure the integrity of the platform is well maintained.

• Customer and community support

Sometimes, running an ecommerce business can be quite a hassle. You, therefore, need professionals who can act up when you feel stuck. WooCommerce has many professionals dedicated to answering your queries and concerns. Besides, these experts are available to share tips and hacks that can help you use the WooCommerce platform without experiencing technical difficulties along the process.

What are the disadvantages of WooCommerce?

Just like any other ecommerce platform, WooCommerce also has a set of pitfalls you should know before committing to it. The disadvantages include the following:

• No legal details

An online platform needs to have options to execute certain functions, and these functions need to have legal directories. For instance, shipping policy, privacy policy, cancellation policy, terms & conditions, among others.

• Lack scalability

While WooCommerce is an ideal platform for businesses that are just starting up, you may need to move to another platform once your business starts growing. The WooCommerce doesn’t have a solid plan to scale businesses to the next level.

• Only for WordPress

WooCommerce relies only on WordPress websites. This means as an ecommerce business owner, you cannot use another content management system, especially if you want to diversify your content strategy.

How to migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify

As your ecommerce business grows, you will need to scale it by adding more features and functionalities to your online store. If you were using the WooCommerce platform, migrating to Shopify is the ideal solution in this case.

Note: When migrating from WooCommerce to Shopify, you can use different approaches based on your preference. The approaches include:

• Using an import app (automated migration) – here you simply get a migration app such as Ablestar WooCommerce Importer, Store Importer App, LitExtension, and Cart2Cart. These apps will perform the migration tasks for you.
• Manual data migration – While this approach is quite time-consuming, it is actually seamless and free. However, this approach may limit some functionalities. For instance, you can’t import product images; digital products will remain unpublished, and you may skip some variables, customers, & some products. These are among other downfalls of manual migration, which adds more work to your side.
• Hire A Shopify Migration Expert – Apparently, hiring the shopify expert or top-rated eCommerce development company like Aalpha is the easiest and most favorable approach you can use to migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify. Once the task is in the hands of experts, you don’t need to worry about anything. Besides, you will get extra technical support and advice, ensuring your business runs smoothly as it scales to the next level.

Note: Regardless of the method you choose to migrate your ecommerce store with, always remember to back up data as the first task.

With this said, you can migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify through the following simplified steps:

WooCommerce store to Shopify Migration using an import app

When using the app, follow the steps below:

• Export data from the WooCommerce platform

After backing up your data, you can now export all the WooCommerce store’s data and then download an XML file to your computer. The XML file has all the data you will import to Shopify later.

Therefore, on the WooCommerce control panel, select tools – then export – then all content – and finally download the export file.

• Import the data to your Shopify

Now that you have all the data from the WooCommerce platform, you need to import it to the Shopify store.

Now, on Shopify’s control panel, click the ” import your data to Shopify option, then from the downward arrow, select WooCommerce, then scroll through the upload files section and click on add file. You can now choose the files you exported from the WooCommerce platform.

Still, you can select the XML file, then select the continue import option, then click on import.

• Review and update imported data

This is a significant step in the migration process. It is at this step that you review and ensure that the process is successful.

After importing data from WooCommerce, this data will now be available on Shopify; check if some data wasn’t migrated successfully and add it manually to complete the processes. Again, with the data in the Shopify store, you can now add customer and product details manually.

WooCommerce store to Shopify migration using the manual approach

Again, apart from the app, you can initiate the WooCommerce to Shopify migration process manually. You simply need to follow the steps below:

• Pre-migration

As you initiate the manual migration process, you must prepare first, and this happens at the pre-migration stage. Here, you need to sort the data you want to migrate to Shopify, which products, variants, product categories, customers, shipping addresses, billing addresses, orders, coupons, reviews, and blogs, among others.

• Build a new Shopify store

If you don’t have a Shopify store, you will need to create one through easy steps. Select the free trial option, then answer the prompts or skip them. Once you have a Shopify store, after changing the domain, go to step three below.

• Export data from the WooCommerce platform

You can now start moving data, which includes products, orders, and customers.

Here, you simply go to the WordPress admin panel, select products, and then choose the categories you want to export – they will show up in a window. Next, select the option Generate CSV to allow the file to be downloadable.

• Import products from WooCommerce to Shopify

Finally, on your WooCommerce store, click on the option for all products, then select the import option. Next, go to your Shopify admin panel and start to import the downloaded CVS file. The Shopify importer will then add the products to your online store, and once the process is over, you will see the product listing on your Shopify store.

Conclusion

Once you realize your business is scaling and you want to reach a wider audience, it is about time you considered shifting from the WooCommerce platform to the Shopify platform. The features, functionalities, and other elements of Shopify will enable your business to reach a new level as compared to when using a WooCommerce platform.

Want to Migrate WooCommerce to Shopify? Connect with our marketplace development company – Aalpha information systems!