Migrating from Magento to Shopify can seem like a daunting task, but with the right approach, it can be a seamless transition that brings significant benefits to a range of businesses and their online operations.
One of the most effective migration strategies is adopting a headless approach, where we use Sanity as our CMS for content management and Shopify Storefront for products and transactions. This setup decouples the frontend from the backend, allowing for greater flexibility, better performance, and an improved user experience. Find out more about the difference between headless CMS and traditional CMS through our guide here.
You can also find out more about the process and meaning behind Magento to Shopify migrations through our January webinar, hosted by our managing director Seb Dean.
The benefits of headless CMS
- Improved performance: Shopify’s Storefront API ensures faster load times, while Sanity enables efficient content delivery through its real-time architecture
- Greater flexibility: We can design the frontend without being restricted by Shopify’s theme limitations
- Seamless content management: Sanity allows for structured content that can be reused across different pages and marketing channels
- Scalability: This architecture is future-proof, making it easier to integrate with third-party services and expand as needed
- Now, let’s break down the process of migrating from Magento to Shopify in detail
Discover the main differences between Magento and Shopify
Migrating products from Magento to Shopify
In this section, we’ll walk you through a step-by-step guide to ensure that your migration from Magento to Shopify is seamless, minimises downtime, and preserves your valuable data. From preparing your store for the move to launching your new Shopify site, we’ll cover everything you need to know to make the switch successful and have limited impact on your customer’s experience and new site launch.
- Exporting products from Magento
Magento provides built-in tools to export product data as a CSV file. This file will include a vast amount of information, some of which might not be directly compatible with Shopify, meaning it needs to be amended and restructured.
- Cleaning up the data
Once we have the exported product data, we need to clean it up and structure it in a way that Shopify can accept. This means refining the CSV to include only the following necessary fields:
Product Title
Price
Images (ensure URLs are correctly formatted)
Description
This first import ensures that Shopify gets the most essential product data without unnecessary complexity.
- Enhancing the product data with Espresso
To add additional details such as metafields, SEO meta descriptions, custom attributes, and more, we leverage the Espresso App. This app allows us to bulk-import all the extra information that Shopify’s basic import might not support.
- Migrating frontend content
Since Magento is often used for both eCommerce and content-driven pages (blogs, case studies, etc.), we need a structured approach for migrating content effectively. If possible, we export all content from Magento using built-in tools. If an export isn’t possible, we resort to manual scraping, extracting HTML for each page and storing it in an Excel sheet for further processing.
- Converting Content for Sanity
Once we have the raw data, we use a custom script to convert HTML pages into structured JSON, which is then imported into Sanity. This process ensures that: pages, blogs, and case studies are created as structured documents in Sanity, all images are imported and stored within Sanity’s media library, and the content remains easily editable and scalable for future updates.
Other important considerations: - URL redirects & SEO preservation
One of the most critical aspects of any migration is preserving SEO rankings and redirecting URLs properly
Magento URLs may not always match Shopify’s structure, so we need to: - Create 301 redirects for any changed URLs
Ensure meta tags and structured data are correctly set up post-migration
Payment & checkout configuration
Shopify handles checkout differently than Magento so we must ensure that: - Payment gateways are properly configured.
Any custom checkout flows are tested and optimised.
Testing and QA
Before launching the new site, it’s crucial to test every aspect, including: - Product data accuracy
Page layouts and responsiveness
Checkout flow and payment processing
SEO and metadata consistency
Migrating from Magento to Shopify using a headless approach with Sanity as a CMS allows for a powerful, flexible, and scalable eCommerce solution. By carefully handling product imports, content migration, and SEO preservation, we ensure a smooth transition while maintaining and even improving the customer experience. This setup is not only modern but also future-proof, making it easier to manage content, integrate new tools, and scale as your business grows. If you’re considering a migration, planning and executing the process methodically will save time and prevent disruptions to your online store.
Website migrations by Imaginaire
Struggling to decide whether Shopify or Magento offers the best option for your business?
There is a lot more to the Shopify vs Magento debate since there are so many aspects to consider. So let’s talk more!
Imaginaire is a leading UK ecommerce agency that specialises in Shopify plus and shopify web design. We can offer you a free website review where we can also help you choose the best ecommerce platform for your needs. Find out more about our key service here or discover more about our Magento to Shopify migration service.
Just starting out? If you are looking to establish your ecommerce store from scratch, then we can also help design, build and market your store.
Whatever stage your business is at, contact our experts today so that we can put your ecommerce store on the path to success.
By
Dylan Brain
