Self-Hosted E-Commerce Exit Checklist
Shopify charges transaction fees and monthly subscriptions. Here is a step-by-step checklist to migrate to a self-hosted WooCommerce store.
Leaving Shopify is not difficult. It is time-consuming if you do not plan it, and straightforward if you do. Here is the complete checklist to migrate your store from Shopify to a self-hosted WooCommerce installation without losing orders, customers, or SEO rankings.
Before You Start
- Export your Shopify data: Go to Settings, Data Export. Download all product data, customer data, and order history as CSV files. Keep these files. You will use them for the migration and as a backup.
- Note your current URLs: Export your sitemap or crawl your site to list every product URL, collection URL, and page URL. You will need to recreate this URL structure in WooCommerce to preserve SEO.
- Document your theme customisations: Screenshot every page of your current store. Note which elements are essential and which are decorative. You will rebuild the design in WordPress.
Step 1: Set Up WooCommerce
- Deploy WordPress: Use Docker with the official WordPress image. Run it behind your reverse proxy with SSL.
- Install WooCommerce: This is a free plugin. Activate it and run the setup wizard. Set your store currency to BND, your default country to Brunei, and configure your shipping zones.
- Choose a theme: GeneratePress or Astra are lightweight, fast, and free. They are not Shopify themes, but they are WordPress themes that perform well and are customisable without coding.
Step 2: Migrate Your Products
- Use the WooCommerce CSV import tool: WooCommerce, Products, Import. Upload your Shopify product CSV. Map the Shopify column names to WooCommerce field names. Review the import preview. Run the import.
- Upload product images: Shopify stores images on its CDN. Download them using a migration tool or by exporting the image URLs from your Shopify data export and downloading them in bulk. Upload to WordPress via the media library. Re-link images to products.
- Rebuild product categories: Create the same category structure in WooCommerce, Products, Categories. Assign products to categories.
Step 3: Migrate Your Customers and Orders
- Customer CSV import: WooCommerce does not have a built-in customer importer. Use a free plugin like Import Users from CSV. Map Shopify customer fields to WordPress user fields.
- Order history: Order history is important for customer service and analytics. Use the WP All Import plugin with the WooCommerce add-on to import order history from your Shopify CSV export.
- Customer passwords: Customers cannot keep their Shopify passwords. They will need to reset their passwords on the new store. Send a migration announcement email to all customers explaining the change and linking to the password reset page. This is also an opportunity to re-engage dormant customers.
Step 4: Rebuild Your Design
- Recreate essential pages: Home page, about page, contact page, FAQ page, and policy pages. WordPress block editor handles these without code.
- Set up your navigation: Create menus matching your Shopify navigation structure. WordPress, Appearance, Menus.
- Configure your header and footer: Use the theme customiser to match your branding. Add your logo, set your colours, and configure social links.
Step 5: Connect Your Payment Gateway
- Install Pocket Pay WooCommerce plugin: Pocket Pay provides a native WooCommerce plugin. Install it and enter your merchant credentials. Your customers can now pay with Pocket or credit card.
- Add BIBD QuickPay: If your customers use BIBD NEXGEN Wallet, contact BIBD's merchant team to integrate QuickPay as a payment option at checkout.
Step 6: Set Up Redirects and Go Live
- Create 301 redirects: Every Shopify URL must redirect to the corresponding WooCommerce URL. Use a WordPress redirect plugin like Redirection. Import your URL mapping CSV. Test every URL.
- Update DNS: Point your domain to your new server. Wait for DNS propagation, typically 15 minutes to a few hours.
- Cancel Shopify: Only after verifying that the new store is live, all redirects work, and orders are being processed correctly.
The Cost Difference
Shopify Basic at 29 US dollars per month plus 2 percent transaction fees. On 50,000 dollars in annual sales, that is 348 dollars in subscription plus 1,000 dollars in transaction fees, totalling 1,348 dollars per year. A self-hosted WooCommerce store on a 40-dollar VPS costs 480 dollars per year with zero transaction fees. The saving is 868 dollars in the first year and every year after.
VPS1 handles Shopify-to-WooCommerce migrations end to end. Products, customers, orders, design, and redirects. We take care of the technical details so you can keep selling.
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