Migrating to Shopify Plus means one of two very different jobs, and most of the confusion comes from mixing them up. Upgrading a store that already runs on Shopify is a plan change. Moving to Shopify Plus from Magento, Adobe Commerce, WooCommerce or another platform is a full replatforming project, with data, design, integrations and search rankings all on the line. This guide covers both: what changes, the steps, how long it takes, and how to protect your rankings on the way. We run Shopify Plus migrations as a Shopify Partner, so bear that in mind as you read. You will also find a section on when Plus is not the right move.
| The short answerIf you are already on Shopify, moving to Plus is an upgrade: Shopify switches your plan, and your products, customers, orders, theme and apps stay where they are. The real work is checking your checkout customisations and putting the Plus features to use. If you are on another platform, it is a migration project: map and move the data, rebuild the store, reconnect your systems and redirect every URL that matters. Most of the replatforming projects we run take 10 to 16 weeks from kick off to launch, and the redirect plan decides whether your rankings survive. |
The two kinds of Shopify Plus migration
| Upgrading from Shopify | Replatforming from another platform | |
|---|---|---|
| What it involves | A plan change on your existing store. Products, customers, orders, theme and apps stay where they are | A new store build: data, design, integrations and redirects |
| Who does it | Shopify switches the plan. Your team or agency then sets up the Plus features | Your agency and your team, working together |
| How long | Shopify says it upgrades the plan within 24 business hours of sign up. Setting up the features takes weeks | Most projects run 10 to 16 weeks from kick off to launch |
| Main risk | Paying for Plus and using none of it | Lost rankings, broken integrations and customers who cannot log in |
Upgrading from Shopify to Shopify Plus
If your store already runs on Shopify, there is nothing to export or import. Shopify says that after you sign up it will upgrade your store to the Plus plan within 24 business hours. What changes is what the store can do, and a few things you need to check once you are on the new plan.
What Plus adds
- Expansion stores. Your main store plus nine expansion stores are included, for new markets, a wholesale store, a second brand or an outlet. Further stores cost £250 a month each.
- Checkout customisation. Checkout extensions and Shopify Functions let you change checkout content and build your own discount, shipping and payment logic.
- B2B in the same admin. Company accounts, customer specific catalogues and payment terms, running alongside your retail store.
- A higher platform fee. Shopify lists Plus at £1,800 a month on a three year term or £1,950 on a one year term, with a variable platform fee for more complex business structures. Our Shopify fee calculator shows where that cost pays for itself.
What to check after you upgrade
- Old checkout customisations. The checkout.liquid file is no longer supported on the information, shipping and payment steps, and it was switched off for the thank you and order status pages on 28 August 2025. Anything built that way has to be rebuilt as a checkout extension.
- Shopify Scripts. Scripts stopped running on 30 June 2026. Any discount, shipping or payment logic that relied on them now belongs in Shopify Functions or a public app.
- Your app list. Some apps you pay for duplicate features that Plus now gives you. Review them before renewal.
- Purchase tracking. Every checkout change can affect your analytics and ad platform tracking. Place a test order and check it lands everywhere it should.
- A plan for expansion stores. Decide which markets or brands get their own store and which are better served by Shopify Markets on one store, before you start creating them.
If you are still deciding whether the upgrade is worth it, our guide to Shopify vs Shopify Plus covers the differences in detail.
Migrating to Shopify Plus from another platform
Moving from Magento, Adobe Commerce, WooCommerce, BigCommerce or a custom build is a project, not a plan change. These are the steps we run, in order.
1. Discovery and audit. List everything the current site does: catalogue structure, customer groups, pricing rules, integrations, extensions and custom features. Pull the pages that earn traffic, links and revenue from your analytics and Search Console. This is also the moment to decide what not to move. Old workarounds for problems Shopify does not have should stay behind.
2. Data mapping. Map products, variants, attributes, customers, orders, reviews and gift card balances to their Shopify equivalents, using product options and metafields for the detail. Shopify recommends importing products first, then customers, then historical orders, and that order matters because each one depends on the last.
3. Design and build. Build the theme on Plus and rebuild the critical functionality, using apps where a good one exists, Shopify Functions for checkout and pricing logic, and custom development only where nothing else will do.
4. Integrations. Connect your ERP, PIM, order management, warehouse or 3PL and email platform, and test them with real orders before launch. Integration work is usually what decides the timeline, more than the store itself.
5. SEO migration. Crawl the old site, then map every URL that has traffic or links to its new address and set up 301 redirects. Carry across page titles, meta descriptions and structured data. Shopify uses fixed paths such as /products/, /collections/, /pages/ and /blogs/, so almost every URL on a migrated site changes. Our free Shopify migration redirect generator turns your old and new URL lists into a Shopify ready redirect file.
6. Test and launch. Place test orders through every payment method, shipping option, tax setting and discount. Check customer accounts and integrations end to end. Launch in a quiet trading period, and freeze changes on the old site in the final days so nothing is lost in the switch.
7. Watch it closely after launch. For the first few weeks, check 404 errors, Search Console coverage, rankings and conversion rate daily, and fix problems while they are small.
Moving from Magento or Adobe Commerce
This is one of the most common routes to Shopify Plus, and it has its own translation work:
- Store views and websites become expansion stores, or a single store using Shopify Markets for each country.
- Configurable products become Shopify products with variants, with extra attributes held in metafields.
- Customer group pricing moves to B2B catalogues or a pricing app, depending on how complex it is.
- Extensions are replaced by apps, Shopify Functions or a small amount of custom code. Expect to need fewer of them.
- Customer passwords cannot move. As Shopify puts it, passwords are encrypted outside Shopify, so they cannot be migrated. Customers are invited to set a new password, or, on Shopify’s newer customer accounts, simply sign in with a one-time code sent by email.
Our Magento vs Shopify guide covers the platform decision itself in more depth, and our Adobe Commerce vs Shopify Plus comparison covers Adobe’s support dates and its newer SaaS option.
Moving from WooCommerce
WooCommerce moves are usually lighter on data but heavier on plugins. Each plugin needs a Shopify equivalent or a reason to retire it. Product URLs change from /product/ to /products/, so redirects matter just as much. If you sell subscriptions, plan them as a project of their own, because the stored payment details sit with your payment provider rather than in WooCommerce.
How long does a Shopify Plus migration take?
An upgrade from Shopify is quick: Shopify says it changes the plan within 24 business hours, and putting the Plus features to work then takes a few weeks of setup. A full migration from another platform takes longer. Most of the replatforming projects we run take 10 to 16 weeks from kick off to launch.
What pushes a project towards the long end is almost always the same list: ERP or warehouse integration, a large catalogue with complex attributes, B2B pricing rules, several countries or currencies, and custom features that have to be rebuilt rather than moved. A clean catalogue with few integrations sits at the short end.
Common Shopify Plus migration mistakes
- Copying the old site exactly. Rebuilding every old workaround on a platform that does not need them adds cost and keeps the old problems.
- Leaving redirects until the end. The redirect map should start in week one. A rushed map is a common reason a migrated site loses rankings.
- Underestimating integrations. Stock, orders and pricing flowing correctly between Shopify and your other systems is what keeps the business running after launch day.
- Launching at the wrong time. Avoid your peak season, and avoid launching right before a weekend when the team is not around to fix things.
- Paying for Plus and not using it. If nobody sets up the checkout, B2B, expansion store or automation features, the higher fee buys very little.
- Forgetting tracking. Test purchase tracking in analytics and every ad platform before launch, not after the first week of spend.
Is now the right time to move to Shopify Plus?
Plus earns its fee when you have a real reason for it: several storefronts or countries, wholesale running alongside retail, checkout or pricing logic the standard plans cannot handle, or enough volume that the lower card rates start to cover the difference. If none of those apply yet, a well built store on standard Shopify, with the migration done properly, is often the better buy. Our guide to the best eCommerce platform in the UK compares Plus with the other enterprise options.
If you are weighing it up, our Shopify consultants can model the decision on your own numbers before you commit. When you are ready to move, see how our Shopify migration agency runs replatforming projects, or what our Shopify Plus agency work covers from build to growth.
Frequently asked questions
Upgrading an existing Shopify store is quick: Shopify says it changes the plan within 24 business hours, and setting up the Plus features then takes a few weeks. Migrating from another platform such as Magento or WooCommerce is a full project. Most of the replatforming projects we run take 10 to 16 weeks from kick off to launch, longer where there is ERP integration, a large catalogue or B2B pricing.
Not if the migration is planned properly. Almost every URL changes when you move to Shopify, so every page with traffic or links needs a 301 redirect to its new address, along with its page title, meta description and structured data. Start the redirect map at the beginning of the project, not the end, and monitor Search Console closely for the first few weeks after launch.
Yes, if they used passwords on your old platform. Passwords are encrypted, so they cannot be migrated. Customers are invited to set a new password, or on Shopify’s newer customer accounts they sign in with a one-time code sent by email instead of a password.
Shopify Scripts stopped running on 30 June 2026. Discount, shipping and payment customisations now need to be built with Shopify Functions or handled by a public app. If you are upgrading to Plus with older customisations in place, check them first.
There are two costs: the platform and the project. Shopify lists Plus at £1,800 a month on a three year term or £1,950 on a one year term in the UK, plus a variable platform fee for more complex business structures. Our Shopify Plus migration projects start from £20,000, depending on catalogue size, integrations and how much has to be rebuilt rather than moved.
No. If you are already on Shopify, moving to Plus is a plan upgrade on the same store, with no data to move. Migrating to Shopify Plus from another platform means building a new store, moving your data, reconnecting your systems and redirecting your URLs.
Related reading: Shopify vs Shopify Plus, What is Shopify Plus? and Magento vs Shopify.
| Planning a move to Shopify Plus?A 30 minute call with the co-founders who run our Shopify Plus migrations. We will look at your current platform and tell you what the move involves, how long it would take and whether Plus is the right plan for you. Book a growth call. |