Self-Hosted E-Commerce Exit Checklist

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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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

1. Deploy WordPress: Use Docker with the official WordPress image. Run it behind your reverse proxy with SSL.
2. 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.
3. 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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Rebuild product categories: Create the same category structure in WooCommerce, Products, Categories. Assign products to categories.

Step 3: Migrate Your Customers and Orders

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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

1. Recreate essential pages: Home page, about page, contact page, FAQ page, and policy pages. WordPress block editor handles these without code.
2. Set up your navigation: Create menus matching your Shopify navigation structure. WordPress, Appearance, Menus.
3. 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

1. 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.
2. 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

1. 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.
2. Update DNS: Point your domain to your new server. Wait for DNS propagation, typically 15 minutes to a few hours.
3. 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.