Shopify product migration

Why products are migrated first

Shopify's migration guidance imports products before customers and historical orders, because imported orders refer to products. Getting products right first means later imports link correctly.

Products also set the shape of the store. Their handles become URLs, their types and tags feed collections, and their options decide how variants appear. Decisions made at this stage echo through the whole migration.

Mapping product fields

Handles decide your new URLs

In Shopify, a product's URL handle forms its address. If handles match the old platform's slugs, product URLs change only in their path prefix, which simplifies redirects. If they differ, every product needs an individual redirect.

We decide handle rules before importing and export the final handles afterwards, so the redirect list is built from what actually exists in Shopify rather than from assumptions.

Verifying a product migration

Product migration pitfalls

• Images that cannot be reached

  Shopify's CSV import needs publicly accessible image URLs; images behind logins or removed from the old site fail.

• Re-imports that change options

  Shopify notes that changing option values deletes and recreates variant IDs, which can break app links.

• Blank cells overwriting data

  With overwrite on, blank non-required cells clear existing values.

How a product migration runs

1. 01

   Export and inspect

   Full product export reviewed for structure, gaps and duplicates.

   Output: Data issues list

2. 02

   Map

   Fields, options, handles and specifications mapped to Shopify.

   Output: Approved mapping

3. 03

   Test batch

   The most complex products imported first and checked.

   Output: Verified sample

4. 04

   Full import

   Remaining products imported and reconciled against the export.

   Output: Reconciled catalogue

Rebuilding categories as collections

Old platforms organise products into categories; Shopify uses collections. Category membership can be carried across in the import, or rebuilt as rule-based collections using product types and tags. Rule-based collections need less upkeep afterwards, so a migration is a good moment to set them up.

Either way, old category URLs need redirecting to their matching Shopify collections, and that mapping is recorded alongside the product mapping.

Descriptions and formatting

Product descriptions often contain formatting from the old platform: shortcodes, embedded widgets or styles that do not exist in Shopify. They can show as stray text or broken layouts after import. We scan descriptions for such markup during mapping and clean it, so descriptions display properly in the new theme.