Ecommerce migration checklist: how to move a store to a new platform

The short answer

To move an online store to a new platform, first list everything the old store holds: products, customers, orders, page addresses, apps and settings. Build and test the new store on a staging copy, map every old address to its new one with 301 redirects, switch over at a quiet time, then watch search traffic, orders and errors closely afterwards.

What an ecommerce migration must protect

An ecommerce migration moves a working business from one set of software to another. Three things need protecting while that happens: sales, search traffic and customer data. Write them down at the start, with the person responsible for each, because every later decision is a trade between them.

Be clear about why you are moving. A platform change is a good time to fix structure, but changing everything at once makes problems hard to trace. A sound rule is like-for-like first, improvements after. Keep titles, page addresses and content as close as you can on launch day, then improve in steps you can measure.

Keeping the same domain name is usually the simpler path, because moving platform and domain together creates two risks at once.

What can be lost in a migration

What survives depends on both platforms and on the tool or developer doing the move. Check each row against the documentation of the old and new platform, and ask your payment provider about anything connected to stored payment details.

Take inventory before you touch anything

1. Crawl the old store with a site crawler and save the full list of addresses.
2. Export products, customers and orders in the formats the platform allows.
3. Save your sitemap, your robots.txt file and a screenshot of key pages.
4. Record the settings that are easy to forget: shipping zones, tax rules, payment methods, email templates and notification rules.
5. List every app and script, with what it does and whether the new store needs a replacement.
6. Capture baseline numbers from analytics and Search Console: revenue, orders, conversion rate, average order value and the pages that bring in the most visits from search. The guide to ecommerce metrics explains how to read them.
7. Note which old addresses have links from other sites, since those are the ones you least want to break.

Without this inventory you cannot tell afterwards what went missing. Keep the old store accessible, even if it is locked, until you are certain everything has moved.

Map every address and protect search traffic

This step decides whether the move costs you search traffic. The aim is simple: every old address that used to show a page should lead to the closest equivalent page on the new store.

• Match product to product and category to category, one to one wherever possible.
• Use permanent 301 redirects, set up on the server or in the platform.
• Do not send every old address to the home page. That gives shoppers and search engines no clue about where the content went.
• Test for redirect chains, where one address jumps to a second and then a third. Each old address should reach its destination in one step.
• For products you have retired, redirect to the closest category or show a clear page that says the product is gone. Decide a rule and apply it consistently.
• Keep the redirects in place for a long time. Google publishes guidance on moving a site, so check the current advice on how long to leave them.

Search Console's change of address tool is meant for moves from one domain to another, so it does not apply when only the platform changes. Submit the new sitemap after launch and watch the page indexing report instead, and check the current documentation for how this works. The ecommerce SEO beginner's guide explains which pages matter most when you decide what to protect.

Rebuild content and page details

The new templates will not copy your old work automatically. Check page titles, meta descriptions, headings, canonical tags, structured data, image file names and alt text, internal links, and the text that sits on category pages. Move your best content across before you rewrite it.

Images are a common casualty. Moving small thumbnails instead of the original files leaves the new store with blurry photos, so re-export from your originals where you can. The advice in product photography for online stores covers file preparation.

List the selling features that depend on apps or custom code, such as recommendation blocks, bundles and cross-sell prompts, and decide how each will be rebuilt. The guide to upselling and cross-selling helps you decide which are worth keeping. Discount rules need the same treatment. Rebuild them, test how they combine, and check the margin on each, using the thinking in discounts and promotions without hurting margin.

Test on a staging copy

Build the new store somewhere private and test it fully before it replaces the live one. A staging copy is a private duplicate where mistakes cost nothing.

• Buy every kind of product, including variants, and check stock reduces correctly.
• Pay with every method you offer, and refund a test order.
• Check shipping rates and tax for each country you serve.
• Trigger every email: order, dispatch, refund, account, password reset and abandoned cart.
• Test forms, sign-in and the account area.
• Walk through a sample of the redirects, from old address to new page.
• View the store on a phone and on a slow connection.
• Confirm the tracking tags and conversion events record a test purchase.
• Look for the setting that asks search engines not to index the site. Staging sites usually have it on, and it is the classic mistake to carry it into the live store.

Ask a few people who did not build it to place an order and say what confused them.

Launch day and the weeks after

Choose a quiet time, away from your busiest trading weeks. Give the old store a short content freeze so no orders or product changes are lost between the last export and the switch. Do a final sync of orders and stock. Lower the DNS time-to-live ahead of the change if your domain host allows it, so the switch spreads quickly. Switch over, check the HTTPS certificate, remove the setting that blocks indexing, and run a real purchase with real payment, then refund it. Submit the new sitemap.

Keep the old platform account until you have confirmed that nothing else needs to come from it.

Afterwards, watch closely. Check for new error pages in Search Console and in server logs and fix any gaps in your redirects. Compare orders, conversion and search visits with your baseline each week. If you use Google Merchant Center, read the issues report for new problems with product links or prices. Update links you control, in social profiles, email signatures and marketplaces. Traffic can dip while search engines reprocess the site, and nobody can promise how long that takes. A sharp or lasting drop is a sign to go back through the redirect map.

If you want help planning or carrying out a store move, the ecommerce solutions page describes the ecommerce work Liftup Technologies does.

Related guides

• Ecommerce solutions
• Ecommerce seo for beginners where to start
• Product photography for online stores basics
• Upselling and cross selling for online stores
• Website migration checklist moving to a new host
• Ecommerce product page checklist

Questions and answers

How do I move a store to a new platform?

Record everything the old store holds, build and test the new store on a staging copy, map each old address to its new page with 301 redirects, then switch at a quiet time and monitor closely. Keep the old store accessible until you are sure nothing is missing.

What can be lost in a migration?

Page addresses, titles and descriptions, product options, customer passwords, order history, gift card balances, discount rules, subscriptions, reviews, structured data and email flows can all be affected. What survives depends on the platforms involved, so check each item before launch.

How do I protect search traffic during a migration?

Keep addresses and content as close to the old store as you can, map every old address to the closest new page with one-step 301 redirects, submit the new sitemap and watch errors and search visits weekly. Check Google's current guidance on site moves.

Can customers keep their passwords after a migration?

Often not. Many platforms store passwords in ways that cannot be moved, so customers may need to reset them. Check what both platforms allow and send a clear reset message at launch.

Should I change my domain at the same time as the platform?

Usually it is safer not to. A platform change and a domain change are each a risk to search traffic, and doing both together makes problems harder to trace. Move the platform first and the domain later if you still need to.

How long does an ecommerce migration take?

It depends on the size of the catalogue, how many apps and integrations must be rebuilt, how much custom work there is and how much testing you do. Scope it from your own inventory and checklist, and avoid launching during a peak trading period.