Complete Redirect Map
Every old product and category URL to its Shopify equivalent, one to one.
Shopify Migration
Shopify Migration That Handles the URL Structure It Imposes
Shopify puts products under /products/ and collections under /collections/, and it will not do otherwise. For a store moving in, that means every product and category URL changes. Shopify migration therefore lives or dies on the redirect map, alongside getting products, variants, customers and order history across intact.
We Map Every Product and Collection URL
A store migrating to Shopify changes every commercial URL it has. That has to be planned, not discovered.
Variants Preserved
Options, SKUs and inventory mapped correctly rather than flattened.
Customers and Orders
Account data and order history moved so support and returns still work.
Duplicate Paths Handled
Shopify serves products under collection paths too, which needs canonical attention.
Apps Assessed
What the old store did through custom code and what an app now has to do.
Shopify Migration, Explained
What Moves and What Changes?
Four categories with different levels of difficulty.
Discuss Your Migration →- 1
Products and Variants
Usually the largest dataset, and where variant structure causes problems.
- 2
URLs
They change, because the platform imposes its own structure. Redirects are mandatory.
- 3
Customers and Orders
Movable, with passwords the exception — customers will need to reset.
- 4
Custom Functionality
Anything custom on the old store becomes an app, a theme change, or is dropped.
What a Shopify Migration Covers
Data, URLs, storefront and the functionality gap.
Ongoing Shopify work is covered by Shopify development.
How We Migrate to Shopify
Data structure and URL map first, storefront second.
Audit the Current Store
Products, variants, custom functionality and URL structure.
Map Data and URLs
Product model mapped to Shopify's, and every URL to its equivalent.
Migrate to a Development Store
Data imported and verified before the theme is finished.
Build the Storefront
Theme, and apps only where genuinely needed.
Launch and Monitor
Redirects live from the first minute, then errors and orders watched.
Structure
Why Shopify URLs Always Change
The platform reserves its path prefixes, and no configuration changes that.
What does the imposed structure mean?
Products live at /products/handle, collections at /collections/handle, pages at /pages/handle. A store previously using /category/product-name has no way to keep those paths.
That makes a complete redirect map non-negotiable rather than a precaution. Every product and category URL that has ever been indexed needs a rule.
Shopify supports URL redirects natively, so implementation is straightforward. Building the map completely is the work — and it should come from search data and analytics rather than the current catalogue alone, because discontinued products still have indexed URLs.
What about the duplicate paths?
Shopify also serves a product under a collection path — /collections/collection-handle/products/product-handle — so the same product is reachable at more than one URL.
The platform sets canonical tags pointing at the main product URL, which handles it in most cases. It is worth verifying rather than assuming, particularly where a theme has been modified.
Internal links should point at the canonical product path, since consistent internal linking reinforces which version is intended — covered further in Shopify SEO.
Questions,answered.
Shopify migration moves a store onto Shopify — covering product and variant data, customers, order history, the storefront, and the complete redirect map the platform's URL structure makes necessary.
No. Shopify reserves /products/ and /collections/ and there is no setting that changes it. Every product and category URL changes, which is why the redirect map is the central piece of work.
Customer records and order history migrate. Passwords do not — they are hashed and cannot be transferred — so customers will need to reset on first login. Plan the communication around that.
It becomes a theme customisation, an app, or it is dropped. Auditing what the old store does that Shopify does not is worth doing before committing, because occasionally the answer changes the decision.
It depends on catalogue size, variant complexity and how much custom functionality exists. Data migration on a large catalogue with complex variants is usually the longest part, not the storefront.
Still deciding if shopify migration is right for you?
Talk to UsThe Discontinued Products Still Have URLs
Redirect maps for a store migration get built from the current product catalogue, which is the obvious source and misses an entire category of URLs.
Products discontinued last year are no longer in the catalogue and are frequently still indexed, still linked from elsewhere, and still receiving traffic. Retired category pages are in the same position.
Building the map from search data and analytics rather than from the catalogue catches them. It takes an extra afternoon and it is the difference between a clean migration and a slow bleed nobody can explain.
Free Migration Review
Find Out What Your Shopify Move Involves
Tell us what platform you are on and how large the catalogue is. We will assess the data mapping and the URL work before quoting.
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