Are you having trouble deciding whether to proceed with your Magento-Shopify migration?
It turns out, you are not the only one. It’s a scary place, I’ve been there.
Even if you have a small online shop, migrating your online store to another platform can be a difficult task. It’s almost like performing a surgery. A single error or omission can potentially cause serious damage to your business.
This is the one process that you can’t afford to compromise, no matter how you view it.
Don’t worry. We have your back. This article will walk you through the Magento to Shopify migration basics and a detailed tutorial about how to migrate from Magento into Shopify.
But, before we get into the details, let’s first address a common concern business owners have.
Yes, you read that right. I am referring to the entire debate over Magento vs Shopify. Is it really advisable to move your online store from Magento into Shopify?
The truth is that there are both yes and no.
It all depends on your needs. The most important thing is to run your shop on the best ecommerce platform. You should select the platform that offers the best experience for both you and your customers.
Magento
Magento is not your average ecommerce platform. I have had extensive experience with Magento and can attest to the fact that it is one of the most powerful ecommerce platforms a business owner could use.
It comes with many ecommerce tools and is free. You only need to launch your platform, add products and modules, and integrate the appropriate apps.
Then you can sell your products, process orders and run promotions. You also manage the entire store, manage transactions, and generate important business reports. You can do all this from your Magento dashboard.
But that’s not all there is to it. Magento, an open-source ecommerce platform, allows you to access its source code.
This allows you to modify the entire system in any way you like. You can modify the code to make sure that the default features work well for your online store.
You can also add any additional functionality you need. Magento is open to all possibilities. Magento is capable of supporting any type of application.
Magento’s Drawbacks
Magento’s flexibility comes with a price. It is not easy to tweak such a platform.
Although it is possible to modify some attributes with minimal coding, most Magento customizations require a lot of technical knowledge. Magento’s PHP code can only be reworked by experienced developers who are proficient in coding.
You don’t have the skills to do this job yourself.
Not just one. Most Magento-based online businesses that are growing quickly will need to have a permanent team made up of developers who will manage the entire ecommerce platform for the long term.
Magento can be used as an free ecommerce platform but it will eventually eat into your revenue. To make things worse, you will still need to pay third-party Magento hosting services. This means that the cumulative cost of leveraging Magento can quickly add up.
However, your troubles do not end there. Magento’s customization is difficult because it requires programming knowledge. However, the back-end interface to Magento isn’t so easy.
Ok, admit it. When you first used the platform, there was a steep learning curve.
Magento has many technical terms and options that can be confusing to beginners. The corresponding navigation framework can also be a bit confusing.
If that doesn’t sound bad enough, here’s my ultimate deal-breaker. Magento won’t help you if you get stuck.
Why?
Okay, Magento is a self-hosted website.
This basically means that you should forgo direct customer support. This is the best way to get support from your web host’s technical specialists. This, no matter how complex, cannot match the support you get from the team who created the platform.
We can now conclude that Magento is an ecommerce platform suitable for large businesses based on these facts. They are the only ones who have the financial and technical resources to leverage Magento for the long-term.
If this doesn’t sound right, it’s high time to seriously consider other options like Shopify.
Shopify is a great tool, but why?
Enter Shopify
Shopify does not offer a free ecommerce platform. It’s not the most affordable on the market, and it’s definitely not an open-source platform.
Here’s the truth. Shopify continues to be more popular than Magento because it is much friendlier and easier to use.
The system is basically an all-in one platform that offers web hosting services, a website builder, and ecommerce capabilities.
Drag and drop website builders support visual-based editing. The site templates are included so you can create an ecommerce website that is fully functional without having to code a single line.
It is easy to design and customize all kinds of websites. Select the best site theme and drag and drop the elements to reorganize it. Shopify offers many options to help you define the finer details of your elements. ‘
But that’s not all. Shopify’s best feature is its large app store, which offers a wide range of pre-built integrations. You can customize the site by installing any of the plug-ins available.
These additional capabilities complement the many functionalities that are already available on Shopify’s default platform.
Shopify is significantly cheaper than Magento, despite the subscription fees.
How?
You can rest assured that you won’t be using third-party hosting or hiring developers. Shopify handles everything.
While Shopify does have its flaws, Shopify still outperforms Magento in terms of ease-of-use. There’s no question about it.
The answer is yes. Small to medium-sized businesses will be better off using Shopify than Magento. All its features can be confirmed by reading our Shopify review.
Let’s get to Magento to Shopify migration now.
Let’s start by asking you which tools or methods can be used to move Magento to Shopify.
You Magento To Shopify Migration Options
You might have seen a lot of tools and services on the internet if you tried to search for Magento to Shopify data migrating solutions.
These include agencies and developers that offer migration services to data transfer tools as well as apps that are reportedly Magento to Shopify importers.
When you combine all of these apps and services, they can be grouped into three possible Magento-Shopify data migration options.
- Manual migration
- Assisted migration
- Automated migration
Manual Magento to Shopify Migration
The manual approach, just like its name implies, involves literally copying data from Magento’s database and then pasting it into Shopify.
But, don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean that you should just copy and paste all of your content at once. Instead, you can move your online store from one platform to the other by carefully importing each website element from your Magento server and manually mapping them onto Shopify.
Although it may seem easy on paper, the actual process is very complex and frustratingly slow. It requires technical expertise and precision.
Despite this, I strongly recommend you to not go ahead with this option as it is very risky. It will take you a lot of effort to manually move each customer, product, order, webpage and content along with all their variables.
Shopify to Magento Migration Assistance
Also, assisted Magento and Shopify data migration is a human-controlled form of migration.
However, the site owner handles the manual process. Assistive migration involves hiring third-party professionals to manage the entire process.
This approach is typically reserved for Magento shop owners who need to manually move their data but don’t have the technical ability.
This service is offered by agencies that break down the process into manageable parts, which are then divided up and assigned to different members of the team. The team members are tracked according to their milestones and the Shopify site is live once they have met them.
Automatic Magento to Shopify Migration
The easiest and most efficient way to transfer all data from your Magento site to Shopify is automatic Magento to Migration.
This is where the trick lies: Install a Magento to Shopify importer and let it handle all of the migration tasks automatically without additional human intervention.
Cart2Cart is a popular app that you can use to do this. It is easy to install and use the wizard to create a connection between your Magento and Shopify databases.
This is all that’s required to allow the system to import the selected entities and map the Magento store elements onto the Shopify website. Automatic Magento to Shopify migration is therefore the best and most cost-effective option for an online store.
Before we get into the details, let me briefly explain why Cart2Cart was chosen for the job.
Cart2Cart is the best choice for Magento Data Migration
Cart2Cart is easy to use. It is one of those exceptional tools whose online reputation precedes them.
What does this mean?
Cart2Cart doesn’t just import Magento to Shopify data. It is an auto-migration tool with a wide range of specializations.
It has enabled full data migration between more that 850 shopping carts including Magento, WooCommerce and PrestaShop.
This article has lots of information that can help you compare solutions based on industry experience. This is not all.
Shopify App Store ratings and reviews are the best proof of Cart2Cart’s reliability and efficacy. Cart2Cart received more than 190 positive App Store reviews at the time this guide was written. This translated into a rating of 4.2 stars.
It’s quite reassuring, don’t you think.
It’s fair enough. It begs the question: Why do Shopify users like Cart2Cart so much? It offers what privileges?
Cart2Cart is free to download and install. This tool is free and allows you to set up your Magento to Shopify migration parameters without the need to pay.
Finality: You won’t be allowed to perform a full migration without making a payment.
This is the best part. This is not the only migration process. Cart2Cart is generous enough to perform a free Magento to Shopify migration for your online store. This basically shows its capabilities by only importing a small number of your ecommerce website entities.
We’ve tested Cart2Cart extensively and confirmed that it can be used for a complete migration. After you have paid the amount, cart2Cart will proceed to import your chosen online stores entities.
Images, tags, coupons and secondary stores are all examples. Cart2Cart can easily support any element that is transferable as long as it is.
Furthermore, all data entities will not be moved from your Magento online shop. Cart2Cartis designed to automate Magento to Shopify migrations in the background, to minimize downtime.
Therefore, your ecommerce website should be available at all times. Transactions can be processed without interruptions.
If you are curious about how long it takes to complete a data migration, it is a simple 8-step process.
The system doesn’t require you to code, install plugins, or enter data manually. Instead, the system launches an intuitive wizard that provides guidance while you build a connection bridge.
The number of entities involved in the final data transfer depends on how many you have. A typical ecommerce website can take several hours. However, a store that has about 5,000 entities should take less than 60 minutes.
The Cart2Cartcustomer service team will remain available in the interim to assist you with any issues. They are available 24/7 to assist you.
How to Migrate from Magento to Shopify with Cart2Cart
Step 1: Create Your Shopify Store
You will need a valid Shopify store to hold your transferred entities once you have migrated from Magento to Shopify.
Go to Shopify’s main website, register for a new account, if not already registered, and then you can launch your Shopify store.
While you’re there, remember that the default theme should be used without secondary configurations. Any extra configurations at this point can impede a smooth Magento to Shopify data transfer process.
However, this is not a rule that will be followed forever. Once all entities have been transferred and mapped, you can continue with theme customizations and module installation.
Step 2: Install Cart2Cart Magento for Shopify Migration App
Only one exception is made to the rule about customizations and themes. You can install the Cart2Cart Magento Shopify migration app from the Shopify Store.
Just search Cart2Cart and add the app to your browser.
Step 3: Create a new Cart2Cart account
You can create a new account by embedding your cart2Cartapp onto your Shopify system.
Simply go to the tool HTML2Cart tool and click on it to launch the app. You can either sign up with your contact information or your Googleaccount credentials to create an account.
Step 4: Get an estimate of how much the migration process will cost you
Cart2Cart is free to download, but it will ultimately cost you to migrate all your online stores from Magento to Shopify.
You might be interested in knowing what the costs could be before you make the full migration.
Go to ‘s site and click the ” Get estimates” button. You will be directed to the Cart2CartMigration Estimator Tool, where you can get an idea of what you might end up paying.
You’ll also notice that each migration case is evaluated based on the number and order of customers, products, or orders you want to transfer.
Cart2Cart will charge about $149 if you plan to move 5000 products, 500 customer entities, and 500 orders.
Also, time-wise, the system estimates that the entire procedure will take approximately 10 hours.
Step 5: Create a connection bridge between your Magento source store and its connection bridge
Click on Shopify Cart2Cart to start setting up Magento to Shopify migration.
This will launch a wizard for migration. You’ll need to first specify your Magento-based store and then set up the corresponding Connection Bridge.
Next, choose Magento as the ” source cart type”, and then enter the domain details of your Magento-based website on the ” Source Cart URL”field.
Once you are done, create a Source Cart Connection Bridge that will serve as the primary data export point between these two platforms.
Click on the Connection Bridge link to download the zip file. The zip archive will contain a Bridge2Cartfolder. Copy it and then paste it into the root folder on your Magento site via an FTP panel.
You might also want to confirm that the Connection Bridge has been activated. Click on the ” Check Connection” button in the wizard to instantly be informed about the status.
Step 6: Specify your Target Shopify Store, and Create Its Connection Bridge
Once you have defined the parameters of your source store, you can now specify your target Shopify shop.
Shopify should therefore be set as the Target Carthere. Your Shopify store URL should then follow the Target Cart URLfield.
However, the process for setting up Shopify Connection Bridges is slightly different. Instead of downloading a zip file and extracting it to a root directory, the system will ask you for your Shopify store API key and password.
These details can be accessed easily from your Shopify account. Log in to your Shopify admin panel using a separate browser and then go to the Appsmenu.
Next, click on Manage Private Apps, and then choose ” Generate App Credentials”.
To set up the Connection Bridge required for your Shopify store, you can copy and paste these API details into your migration wizard.
Step 7: Choose the Online Store Entities That You Would Like To Migrate
Here you can select all data elements that you wish to import from Magento to Shopify.
Thank goodness HTML2Cart is able to accommodate all basic online stores entities and any supplementary variables.
You can migrate the following data types:
- Integrations
- SEO settings (including redirects to 301)
- Customer information (name, email address, phone number, location, etc.)
- Pages static (Contacts, About Us. Return Policy, Terms and Conditions).
- Information about payments
- A list of all the goods purchased
- Visuals of your products (color, shape and size)
- Goods (product name and images, description, number of goods in stock, price).
You can make your entity selections by clicking on the checkboxes for each one, or click on ” Check All”option and migrate all.
Step 8: Select Additional Migration Options
Car2Cart allows you to further customize your Magento to Shopify migration by configuring additional options.
For example, you can specify how your Magento store’s product category maps onto your Shopify site. This is important because Magento and Shopify have different rules for organizing stock variants.
You can also have cart2Cartskip to leave out product thumbnails during the migration, strip HTML form product categories, names and descriptions, or preserve your existing order IDs.
Make no mistake. All these extra configurations are not included in the price. You will be charged extra for some options.
Step 9: Run a Free Demo Magento to Shopify Migration
If you’re in a rush, Cart2Cart offers a free demo migration. You can ignore it or hit the ” Skipcheckbox to go straight to the full migration.
But, don’t get me wrong. But, I don’t recommend you skip the demo migration. You should always run one after migrating the Magento-based data.
To proceed with a free demo migraton, you must not click on the skip checkbox. Cart2Cart is configured to perform a quick demo migration. This should take approximately 30 minutes.
However, at the end you will notice that only a few entities are available for your Shopify demo store. This shouldn’t be a problem, as the entities will allow you to assess both the frontend and backend layouts of your target store.
Check everything to the letter. If you have any technical issues, get in touch with customer service.
If the demo migration is successful, you can proceed to the full migration.
Step 10: Perform a full Magento to Shopify migration
You can check all Magento to Shopify migration options again.
Is everything in order? Are all entities included in the migration plan?
If there are no issues up to this point you can proceed with the full migration.
You will only be permitted to proceed if you have paid the entire amount for the migration. Cart2Cart will bill you for all entities that you are migrating and any additional options that you have chosen to personalize the process.
Once payment has been made, the entire migration should take less than an hour. Cart2Cart will send you a notification once the whole process is completed.
After the Magento To Shopify Migration
HTML2Cart is a trusted Magento to Shopify importer. However, it’s still important to audit your new Shopify store once the data transfer has been completed.
Take the time to review both your frontend and backend frameworks. Examine how entities and their associated variables were mapped onto your Shopify site. This includes checking the catalogs, product details, and menus.
You could also try a few test orders to evaluate the functionality of your Shopify store.
Any anomalies that you find here should be reported to the support team. They are very quick in resolving these issues.
