{"id":74408,"date":"2023-03-01T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-01T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crazyeggblog.wpengine.com\/?p=74408"},"modified":"2025-04-10T10:17:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T14:17:11","slug":"transfer-website-to-shopify","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crazyegg.com\/blog\/transfer-website-to-shopify\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Transfer a Website to Shopify"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Transferring a website to Shopify<\/a> might sound intimidating. But it\u2019s actually pretty simple thanks to Shopify’s importer app. While it’s not perfect, it works well enough in most situations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Investment Needed to Transfer a Website to Shopify<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

First and foremost, you’ll need to keep paying for your existing website. It should remain operational until the transfer is done. This includes any plugins, software, or other tools you’re hoping to replace with Shopify. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, you’ll need to sign up for a Shopify<\/a> plan. You can start with a free three-day trial followed by your first month for $1. After that, you’re looking at $29 to $299 per month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enterprise customers will have to reach out for custom pricing. This plan also includes professional migrations so you don’t have to do it yourself. These can take up to three months to complete, depending on the complexity if your existing store. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you’re not an enterprise user, you can migrate everything on your own for free–minus your time–or hire a Shopify expert to do it for you. Hiring someone can cost anywhere from $500 to $5,000. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

9 Steps to Transfer a Website to Shopify<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The process for transferring a website to Shopify on your own can take anywhere from a few hours to a week. It depends on the number of products, your website design, the current platform you’re using, and a range of other factors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For most folks, it takes less than a few days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 – Backup and Export Your Existing Website Data<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Before you start migrating data or making changes to your website, you need to make sure you have a recent backup of everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes, things can go awry when you\u2019re transferring data and pointing URLs to new destinations. You want to make sure your existing site stays up during the process. Otherwise, you could lose out on sales or have disappointed customers that can\u2019t reach you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So having a backup of everything from the beginning will help put your mind at ease. Even if something goes wrong and data gets deleted, you\u2019ll have the backup ready.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once everything is backed up, either locally or to the cloud, you need to export all of your product data, customer information, orders, reviews, blogs, store credits, gift cards, and landing pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exact export steps will look a little bit different for everyone, depending on your current CMS platform. But whether you\u2019re using WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, or another ecommerce site, there should be pretty clear instructions for going through this process. It usually only takes one or two clicks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Start with your products and customers. This will usually be the easiest, and you can usually export that data as CSV files. Choosing this format will also make things easier when you\u2019re importing that data to Shopify. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 – Set Up Your New Shopify Account<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Next, you need to sign up for Shopify and create an account. I\u2019d recommend jumping straight into a paid subscription if you\u2019re going through the full process. But you could always sign up for a three-day free trial<\/a> if you just want to get your feet wet without doing a full transfer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of you will be fine with the Basic package, starting at $29. If you\u2019re already running a larger store with more than five inventory locations and over six staff accounts, you\u2019ll need to sign up for a more expensive plan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are several prompts during the sign-up process that will guide you in the right direction during the setup. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For example, if you answer the first question saying that you\u2019re already selling online or in person, the second question will ask what platform you’re currently using. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Once you’ve selected your platform, it’ll ask you where you want to sell. You can choose on your online store, from an existing website, online marketplaces, in person, social media, or I’m not sure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From there, you’ll let them know what types of products you plan to sell first. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This could be products you make, digital products, dropshipped products, print-on-demand, or services. Alternatively, you can decide later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last question is where your store is located. Once you’ve answered all the questions, you’ll enter your email and a password to complete the sign up process. Once you’re in, you should set up all of your administrative settings, staff accounts, billing information, and basic details so they’re out of the way and you don’t forget about them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

3 – Import Your Data to Shopify<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Once your account has been set up and verified, you can import the data you\u2019ve previously exported back in step one. You\u2019ll have to import each type of content separately, and there are several options for each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some cases, you might decide to just copy and paste landing page content from your old site to Shopify. Or you can transfer data manually using CSV files\u2014although this option only works for customer information and products. CSV file migrations do not support customer passwords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Head to your admin dashboard and select Products<\/strong> from the left sidebar. Then click the Import<\/strong> button within the All Products<\/strong> menu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Shopify<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If you have developer resources in-house, you can also import data using an API connection. But for most DIY users, that\u2019s probably not worth attempting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of importance hierarchy, you\u2019ll want to start with product data, customer information, and historical orders. Completing the imports in this order ensures you have full access to customer transaction history, with previous orders linked to the appropriate items and customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4 – Organize Your Product Catalog<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t assume that everything has been migrated perfectly after the data import. You still need to go through everything to confirm the accuracy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes the CSV export doesn\u2019t align exactly with Shopify\u2019s import guidelines. You should double-check things like product descriptions, product variants, meta descriptions, and images. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From here, you can create collections within your product catalog to group similar products into categories. There are two types of collections you can create\u2014manual or automated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Shopify<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A manual collection requires you to add each product one by one. But automated collections let you group existing and future products into a group based on specific conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Examples of conditions include price, tag, color, sale items, and more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once you\u2019ve added a collection, you have the option to add them to your store\u2019s navigation menu. This makes it easier for customers to quickly find different product categories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

5 – Configure Your Domain on Shopify<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Now you need to set up your Shopify domain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two options to consider here. You can either purchase a new domain or transfer your existing domain to Shopify. Most of you will likely choose the latter, but there are some one-off instances where you may just want a new domain altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, let\u2019s say you were previously using a website builder that had a subdomain in your URL. You\u2019d obviously want to eliminate that once you transfer your site to Shopify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can purchase new domains directly through Shopify. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Shopify<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Alternatively, you can purchase a domain from a registrar service of your choice. Although getting a domain directly from Shopify is typically the easiest choice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you already own a domain from another provider, you just need to connect it to Shopify from that third party. All of your domain settings and renewal options will still be managed and maintained outside of Shopify. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

6 – Enable Payments<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Making sure you can receive payments from customers is obviously a top priority for every ecommerce business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You have two options. One, you can just use Shopify Payments for built-in processing. Two, you can use a third-party payment provider that\u2019s supported by Shopify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Shopify<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Online processing rates for Shopify Payments vary based on your plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n