We've been involved in enough migrations to know what goes wrong. Some problems are obvious in hindsight; others are genuinely hard to predict. Here's what we've learned.

Before You Start

Document Everything

Your current site does more than you think. Catalog all integrations, automations, custom features, and workarounds. Talk to everyone who uses the system—customer service, warehouse, marketing. They know things the documentation doesn't cover.

Define Success

What does the new platform need to do on day one? What can wait? Being clear about priorities prevents scope creep and helps make tradeoffs when issues arise.

Set Realistic Timelines

Migrations take longer than expected. Add buffer for testing, training, and the inevitable surprises. Rushing the launch is how things break.

Migration Checklist:

checklistData: Products, customers, orders, content, reviews, SEO metadata
checklistIntegrations: ERP, WMS, email, analytics, payment gateways, shipping
checklistSEO: URL redirects, sitemap, structured data, meta information
checklistFeatures: Everything your current site does that users rely on
checklistTraining: Everyone who uses the system needs to know the new one

The SEO Trap

Poor redirect handling is the most common migration failure. Every URL that changes needs a 301 redirect to its new location. Miss some and you lose traffic. Get it wrong and you confuse search engines for months.

Crawl your existing site thoroughly. Map old URLs to new URLs. Test the redirects before launch. Monitor organic traffic closely after launch—drops are normal but should recover within weeks, not months.

Data Migration

Product data rarely maps cleanly between platforms. Variants, metafields, categories, images—each platform structures these differently. Plan for manual cleanup and validation. Test with a subset before migrating everything.

Customer data and order history are often more straightforward, but verify that loyalty points, subscriptions, and saved payment methods transfer correctly.

The Parallel Running Period

Don't flip the switch overnight. Run both systems in parallel for a period. Process test orders on the new site while the old one is still live. This catches issues before they affect real customers.

Post-Launch

Have extra support ready for the first few weeks. Monitor everything—conversion rates, checkout completion, error logs, customer complaints. Be ready to fix issues quickly.

A successful migration isn't just about launching without downtime. It's about maintaining (or improving) your metrics afterwards.