Switching platforms without losing data: a migration checklist

Switching platforms takes effort and carries risk. A slow page, a checkout step that sticks or wrongly counted sales can also be fixed on your current platform. Before you decide to move, write down whether the problem comes from the platform or from the setup.

Once you have decided, the aim is simple: your products, customers, orders and the URLs Google knows all arrive complete in the new store. The flow and the three lists below are for that. For a comparison of platforms, see the platforms page.

A warning: when you import past orders into Shopify, every staff member who receives new‑order notifications gets an e‑mail for each imported order. If you do not want that, turn notifications off before the import and back on afterwards.⁠⁴

Most of the work happens before switch‑over day. Set up and fill the new store before you connect your domain; customers keep buying from the old store meanwhile, and you test the new one step by step.

For a move where URLs change, Google recommends a mapping list that shows the new URL for every old one, and permanent redirects (301); avoid chains of redirects.⁠¹ Keep the redirects for as long as possible, generally at least a year.⁠¹

Platforms have their own rules. In Shopify a redirect can only be set up from a URL that no longer opens (returns 404); some paths such as /products and /collections cannot be redirected.⁠² ikas recommends finishing the redirects before you connect the domain and allows bulk upload with an Excel or CSV file.⁠⁵

Customer passwords do not always move. Shopify states plainly that passwords cannot be moved with a file because they are encrypted in the other system; customers have to be invited to create a new password.⁠³ Prepare the invitation e‑mail and its text before the switch.

A few days before the switch, tell your customers in a short e‑mail what will change in their account and how to create a new password.

Past orders are a separate job. In Shopify, past orders are moved not with a file but with migration apps or the API (programming interface).⁠⁴ In ikas’s import tool for Shopify you can select products and customers.⁠⁶ Keep a copy of the past orders, even if they do not move to the new store.

If customer data goes with the new platform to a server outside Türkiye, under the KVKK rules in force since 1 June 2024 the transfer rests on an adequacy decision, on one of the appropriate safeguards (for example the standard contract of Türkiye’s Personal Data Protection Board, with notification to the Board) or on one of the narrow exceptions.⁠⁷ Your lawyer will tell you which one fits.

Choose a day with few orders for the switch; avoid the days before a campaign or a public holiday. Work through the list in order and note the time and the result next to each item.

Switch‑over night ends; the checking does not. In the first weeks, dead URLs, missing product data and wrongly counted sales turn up; work through them with a weekly list.