Redirects from real data
The map is built from your live URL export and Search Console data, not from a sitemap that may not reflect what is indexed.
THE MIGRATION WE RUN MOST OFTEN
Magento to Shopify Plus migration
Magento to Shopify Plus is the migration we have run most often. Trunki, Big Shoes and Halcyon Nights all came off Magento with their catalogue, customers, order history and URL structure intact.
IN SHORT
- A Magento to Shopify Plus migration typically takes 10 to 16 weeks from discovery to launch.
- Search rankings survive the move when the redirect map is built from your live URL export and tested against staging before go-live.
- Products, variants, customers and order history all migrate; passwords cannot, so customers reset at launch.
- Every Magento extension is decided individually — replaced by a native Shopify feature, an app, or custom code.
- Lucent Commerce has run this migration for Trunki, Big Shoes and Halcyon Nights.
- Typical duration
- 3–6 months
- Came off Magento
- Trunki, Big Shoes, Halcyon Nights
- Extensions
- Audited before scoping
- URLs
- Inventoried from Search Console
- Old store
- Live until you switch DNS
Why brands leave Magento
Most Magento stores we migrate are not broken. They are expensive. The cost shows up as hosting and patching you own, a checkout that only one developer understands, release windows that make small changes feel risky, and a content team that has to raise a ticket to move a banner.
Adobe ended support for Magento 1 in June 2020, which forced the first wave of moves. The second wave is Adobe Commerce brands doing the arithmetic on licence, hosting and agency retainer against what the same money buys on Shopify Plus.
The decision is rarely about features on a comparison sheet. It is about what your team can change without a developer, and what you stop paying for.
Magento against Shopify Plus, in practice
| Magento / Adobe Commerce | Shopify Plus | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting and patching | Yours to run, budget and monitor | Included, with PCI compliance handled |
| Security updates | Scheduled patch projects | Applied by Shopify, no downtime |
| Checkout | Custom, and expensive to maintain | Maintained by Shopify, customisable on Plus |
| Release cadence | Release windows and regression risk | Theme deploys in minutes, previewable |
| Content changes | Usually a developer ticket | Sections your merchandisers control |
| Extensions vs apps | Version-locked, upgrade projects | Apps update themselves |
| Total cost shape | Licence plus hosting plus maintenance | Platform fee plus apps |
| Where budget goes | Keeping the platform running | Merchandising and conversion work |
How the migration runs
Seven stages, roughly 10 to 16 weeks depending on catalogue size, integrations and storefront count.
- 01
Audit and data map
We export your catalogue, customer and order data and map every field to its Shopify equivalent. Anything without a home — custom attributes, EAV oddities, abandoned product types — gets a decision now rather than a surprise at launch.
- 02
Extension decisions
Each Magento extension is assessed on what it actually does for the business. Some are replaced by native Shopify features, some by an app, some by custom code, and a good number turn out to be unused and are retired.
- 03
Design and build
The storefront is rebuilt as a Shopify theme in two-week increments with staging links throughout. Templates are designed against your real merchandising and real copy rather than placeholder content.
- 04
Integrations rebuilt
ERP, PIM, 3PL, tax and marketing integrations are rebuilt against Shopify APIs with documented, testable code, then run in parallel against the live Magento store where possible.
- 05
Redirect map
We build the redirect map from your live URL export — products, categories, CMS pages, paginated and filtered URLs — then crawl staging against it so every indexed URL resolves before anyone switches DNS.
- 06
Dry run
A full data migration rehearsal against the real dataset, timed, so launch day has a known duration and a known rollback point rather than an estimate.
- 07
Launch and watch
Launch is planned around your trading calendar with rollback criteria agreed in advance. We monitor rankings, 404s, checkout and integration queues for the two weeks that follow.
What migrates, and what cannot
Data that migrates
- Products, variants, images, metafields and collection structure
- Customers, addresses and account records
- Order history, including line items and fulfilment status
- CMS pages, blog content and navigation
- URLs, through a redirect map built from your live export
What does not carry across
Customer passwords. No platform migration carries password hashes. Customers reset at launch, which is standard for Shopify and worth communicating in your launch email.
Magento extensions. Code does not port. Each extension is replaced with a native feature, an app or custom code — the audit in stage two decides which.
Server-side customisations. Anything that relied on owning the server needs rethinking against Shopify’s APIs, Functions and webhooks.
Protecting your search rankings
Tested before launch
We crawl staging against the full redirect map so broken URLs are found before customers and crawlers meet them.
Structure preserved
Titles, meta descriptions, canonical tags and structured data are carried across rather than regenerated from theme defaults.
Watched afterwards
Rankings, crawl errors and 404 logs are monitored for two weeks post-launch, when problems actually surface.
What drives the cost
A Magento migration is priced by what is bolted onto the store, not by catalogue size. These move the number most.
Extensions in use●●●●●
A mature Magento store runs on extensions, and each one needs a decision: a Shopify app, a custom build, an API integration, or dropping it. This is where estimates go wrong most often.
Integrations●●●●
ERP, PIM, 3PL and subscription platforms each carry their own owner, test data and failure modes, so each is scoped as its own piece of work.
URLs that earn traffic●●●●
A large Magento store might have forty thousand indexable URLs and four hundred that earn revenue. Those four hundred get individual attention; the rest get pattern rules and a crawl.
Customisations with no equivalent●●●
Attribute sets, tiered customer-group pricing and multi-source inventory all migrate — but each is a modelling decision, and decisions made in a hurry become permanent.
Content and campaign history●●
Products move predictably. Years of editorial, landing pages and campaign history rarely do, and it is the line most often forgotten.
The extension audit in stage one exists to price these before you commit, not after.
Brands that made this move
Trunki
Trunki moved from Magento to Shopify Plus, with a configurator for the custom, one-off ride-on designs the brand is known for. We have managed the store since.
Trunki
Trunki moved from Magento to Shopify Plus, with a configurator for the custom, one-off ride-on designs the brand is known for. We have managed the store since.
Big Shoes
Halcyon Nights
Magento migration questions
Asked on every Magento call, usually in this order. The extension audit answers the ones specific to your build.
Will we lose SEO rankings migrating from Magento to Shopify?
Not if redirects are mapped before launch. We build the redirect map from your live URL export and crawl the staging site against it, so every indexed URL resolves on day one.
How long does a Magento to Shopify Plus migration take?
Typically 10 to 16 weeks, driven by catalogue size, how many integrations need rebuilding and the number of storefronts.
Can you keep our Magento customer passwords?
No platform migration carries password hashes across. We migrate customer records and trigger a password reset flow at launch, which is the standard Shopify approach.
Is Magento 1 still supported?
No. Adobe ended official support for Magento 1 in June 2020, so stores still on it receive no security patches from Adobe and depend on third-party patching.
What does a Magento to Shopify Plus migration cost?
It is quoted after a scoping call rather than from a price list, because cost is driven by catalogue size, the number of integrations to rebuild and how many storefronts you run. You get a fixed-scope quote in writing before any contract.
Related
WooCommerce to Shopify
Catalogue, customers and order history moved across, with redirects mapped before launch. Dekoni Audio ran this route.
Salesforce Commerce Cloud to Shopify
Enterprise replatforming without an enterprise timeline — the route Chicco took.
BigCommerce & legacy Shopify
Older Shopify themes and BigCommerce stores rebuilt on Plus with the data and search equity carried over.
Coming off a different platform? See WooCommerce to Shopify, Salesforce Commerce Cloud to Shopify or the full migration service. Selling in more than one country after the move? That is Shopify Markets.
NEXT STEP
Migration scoping call
Bring your catalogue size, integrations and storefront count. You leave with a phased plan, a timeline and a price in writing.