Introduction
Both Shopify and WooCommerce are powerful web platforms. Shopify is a well-known all-in package. Using it, you can build and publish your own online store with just a few clicks. On the other hand, WooCommerce is a plugin that works with WordPress and helps turn your website into an online store.
You can’t say which platform is better, you can just use them for different purposes. In this detailed guide, we will give you a couple of advice on how to migrate from Shopify to WooCommerce.
Changing one platform with another can be a difficult transition, however, it is easier than you think. Move your products, customers and orders to WooCommerce with ease.
The differences between WooCommerce and Shopify
Do you know how big WooCommerce is? No? It is 3 times Shopify – 3 times as big as Shopify, this is an enormous capability for your eCommerce store. Also, WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce platform.
But you probably still ask yourself – why make the transition from Shopify to WooCommerce? Here are a few reasons why you might want to switch from Shopify to WooCommerce:
Control over the store
WooCommerce not only allows you to have full control over your website, but it is also open-source. This gives you the power to customize every online store however you want. Without limitations, your online store can be 100% customized.
With WooCommerce, you have full control over:
- Search Engine Optimization. The search engine rankings are based on the work and hustle you put while building your website and writing the content. The plus of WooCommerce is that it allows you to edit every aspect of the SEO. It doesn’t matter how technical it is, you can change it. WooCommerce is integrated with WordPress and high-quality content can be published easily.
- Payment Gateway Integration. If you have a Shopify online store, you probably know that it allows you to integrate payment solutions. Shopify also charges additional transaction fees for third-party gateways, something that WooCommerce doesn’t. These fees are a big downturn for all small businesses. Find the best payment gateway for your eCommerce store and integrate it without taxes on WooCommerce.
- Backups. WooCommerce has excellent free backup options. And if you need more advanced functionality, paid Jetpack plans to include automatic backups, stored separately from your website, that enable you to restore your site to a specific point in time. On the contrary, to backup your Shopify store you should pay a fee.
- Custom Integrations – As the business grows, the needs become unique. The plug-ins that had worked previously, just don’t seem to cut it anymore. This is where custom integrations come in. WooCommerce, because of the fact that it is open-source, provides you with greater control and flexibility with custom integrations than Shopify.
- Plugins – You can use these add-ons to add payment gateways, lead generation, SEO, performance optimization, and almost any feature you can think of. Due to the low barrier of entry, there are a lot more integrations and add-ons available for WooCommerce than Shopify. Almost all third-party tools and service providers have their own plugins to seamlessly integrate with your WooCommerce store.
Moreover, WooCommerce does a lot right out of the box. Don’t forget that the WordPress plugin repository has more than 54,000 free options that help with everything from design to functionality to marketing.
Flexibility
The flexibility is one of the main differences between WooCommerce and Shopify. Shopify has a closed source code which means that they had ownership over their source code and you can not change it. On the other hand, WooCommerce and WordPress are both with open code so you can copy, modify and change it.
We already knew that WordPress, as an open-source content management system, can be customized however you want. That helps developers solve issues and create plugins that can be used by everybody. The WordPress plugin repository has more than 54,000 free options that help with everything from design to functionality to marketing. And WooCommerce offers an extension library with over 300 add-ons built specifically for eCommerce.
Here’s what you’ll find inside WooCommerce:
- You can sell physical products, digital products (including software and apps), plus it’s also good for affiliate marketing
- Payments via PayPal and Stripe built-in (plus a range of other gateways available for an extra fee)
- Adjustable shipping rates and taxes
- Unlimited number of products and product categories
- Stock levels control
- Mobile-friendly structure
- You have complete control over your data
- Works with your current WordPress theme
- Literally hundreds of plugins (extensions) available
- A free Facebook ad and Facebook stores extension
Of course, you can also sell everything from products and services to downloads, subscriptions, memberships, and bookings.
Better Pricing
You don’t have an unlimited budget for your eCommerce store. You want the greatest possible return of the investment and growth of your eCommerce store. It doesn’t matter if you have a brand new online store or already working one, we are sure you are looking for a platform that will give you the best result based on your budget.
The price is a confusing factor. The use of both Shopify and Woocommerce software is actually free, however, there are other things to be considered. Think about web hosting, a domain name, themes or web agency working for you, plugins and so on. You’ll also pay transaction fees from certain payment gateways, but only when a sale is made.
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Shopify pricing:
Shopify is all about delivering you a single solution with just a few pricing packages.You sign up, then you get to use your shiny new eCommerce store right away since everything you need is included from the get-go.
- WooCommerce pricing:
Both WordPress and WooCommerce are free. So, what do you need to pay for?
Usually, it comes down to the following things:
- Web hosting and set-up costs: WooCommerce is an open-source software package, so you’ll still need a server to keep your website up and running. Renting a server doesn’t have to be expensive, companies like Siteground have hosting plans for as little as $3.95 per month. Also, you’ll need a domain name too.
- Functional features: The base version of WooCommerce only gives you the basics for your eCommerce strategy. If you want additional functionality like SEO, payment processing, and marketing features – then you’ll need to pay for those extensions.
- Expanded functionality: Once your website is set up, you’ll need to add other features like push notifications, subscription tools, and more to boost the experience that you give your customers.
It’s difficult to place a definite one-size-fits-all price tag on a WooCommerce store.
Although the software itself is free to use, just like WordPress, you can see that there are a lot of other fees to think about to make sure that you’re getting the most out of your site.
Ultimately, however, the price you spend on your eCommerce site will be up to you.
With WooCommerce and WordPress, you’re getting a highly flexible and scalable piece of software. That means you can go out and compare the costs of the various tools you want to use and find the solutions that fit your budget.
WooCommerce has long been hailed as the more affordable platform compared to others.
How to migrate from Shopify to WooCommerce?
Shopify is easy to set up and can be great for newcomers to eCommerce. However, it can get expensive over the long term. In contrast, WooCommerce is flexible, versatile, and scalable, as well as a generally cheaper option out of the box (and potentially over the long term.) As a result, many choose to make the jump to WooCommerce on a self-hosted WordPress website.
Don’t rush in to migrate from Shopify to WooCommerce, no matter that WooCommerce is essentially more professional, it is important to know what you’re getting into.For instance, the increased customizability that comes with WooCommerce can be a bit of a learning curve for some. Consider well the following elements:
- Migrating all of your products, customers, and orders
- Recreating your website pages
- Replicating the design elements of your Shopify store
- Maintaining your store’s branding
While each of these elements are important in their own right, all of the tools you need are readily available – and in many cases, implementing them may be easier to achieve than you think. All that’s left is to get started!
Firstly, before migrating from Shopify, make sure that you have your basic WooCommerce store ready.
With this in place, it’s time to migrate!
Manual Import/Export
Although it may seem a little time-consuming, manually migrating your website information is free and relatively easy.
- Export your data from Shopify. You’ll need to download CSV files for customers, orders, and products.
- In your WordPress dashboard, navigate to WooCommerce → Products.
- Select Import at the top. There, you’ll find a built-in product CSV importer that will make the process easier.
- Click Choose File and select the CSV file that you want to import. Click Continue.
- You’ll see the Column Mapping screen, where WooCommerce automatically attempts to match the column name of your Shopify CSV file to WooCommerce product fields. You may need to map some of these on your own; do so using the dropdown menus to the right of each row.
- Select Run the Importer and wait until the import process is finished.
Follow this same process for the rest of your CSV files.
Hire an Expert
If you don’t feel confident enough to migrate your website by yourself, hire an expert. We can help you, contact us.
We’re experts with almost 10 years of experience in web design, development and eCommerce developing and know exactly how and why you need a professional partner. Don’t feel pressured and in stress to migrate your Spotify shop by yourself and just ask us for help. We know how and what to do!
Step 1: Choose a migration tool
There are plenty of store migration services out there, but not all perform the best. To make it easy for you I’ve outlined three of the best tools after testing each out.
Just keep in mind that these three tools allow you to export your products, your customers, orders and other related eCommerce entities from Shopify with ease. So you can choose any of these tools and you’re in good hands!
- Cart2Cart ($29)
- Next Cart ($49)
- Lit Extension ($59)
You can always visit their respective pages for more details, so let’s move on to the more important matter here, which is how to migrate your online store from Shopify to WooCommerce.
However, of these three, only Cart2Cart is specifically designed for our needs, which is why we’ll be using it today.
Cart2Cart is an effective solution because it enables you to easily migrate your products, customers, orders, and other related Shopify information to WooCommerce. Plus, you can transfer a small eCommerce site for free.
To get started, you’ll need to sign up for an account on the Cart2Cart website. Input your email, password, and name into the required fields and click Sign Up. Now is the time to go to the migration page. Lets the transfer process begin.
Step 2: Migrate your products from Shopify to WooCommerce
Next, you need to add some information for your source and target carts. Your source will be your Shopify information, so first select Shopify from the drop-down menu. Then, copy and paste your old shop’s URL:
Next, you need an API Password. To get this, navigate to your Shopify admin screen and select Apps from the left-hand menu:
From there, you’ll see a Manage private apps link near the bottom of the page. Click on this link, then click the Create a new private app button:
Next, you’ll need to type in a name for the app, which can be anything you choose. For example, “Cart2Cart.”
Under the Admin API section, type in a password and click Save. Your new app will be generated and you now have an API password, which you can copy and paste into your Cart2Cart setup. As far as the Target Cart Setup is concerned, select WooCommerce from Target Cart the drop-down menu and input the URL for your new store.
Next, you need to connect your sites using the Connection Bridge. Click the Download Bridge button, which will download the required files to your computer (the folder should be called connection_bridge.) Within, there is another folder entitled bridge2cart, which must be copied into your site’s root directory.
To do this, you’ll need a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) client. We recommend FileZilla, as it is a simple and effective open-source tool. If your FTP skills need a tune-up, check out the piece we wrote explaining all about it. From there on, you’ll want to click the button on the Target Cart Setup screen to test your connection, then click Choose Entities. For the migration, you want to focus on importing key data, including your products, all their details and image files, customer orders, and blog posts. Anything beyond that, you can recreate and improve using WordPress. For convenience’s sake, go ahead and tick the Select All option.
When you’re done, scroll down and click the green button. After a pause, this will complete the migration process.
Step 3: Create the pages you need for your WooCommerce store
The next step is to create your Shopify pages on your new WooCommerce store. First though, examine how your store has migrated. Most of your pages (including your products and shopping cart) should be present and may not need to be created again.
For those pages that Cart2Cart couldn’t migrate, you’ll have some work to do. Fortunately, WordPress gives you a lot more control over your store’s design. As such, think about this as an opportunity to fine-tune your store and provide a better overall experience.
Since you’re using WooCommerce, the most direct route to build the pages you need is through the Block Editor. It includes several WooCommerce-specific blocks that let you add over 15 different eCommerce elements to your pages.
Once you settle on an approach, take some time to re-create and improve upon your former Shopify pages. Depending on how complex your store was, this may take a while. The good news is you don’t need to rebuild your main shop page because this is set up by default when installing WooCommerce.
The Shop page displays the latest products from your catalog, although you will likely want to tweak the style and product selection through either the Block Editor or Elementor. At this point, you’re almost done! All that’s left is to tweak your new site’s design to match your old one or re-design it completely.
How Much Does it Cost?
Like we said above, small shops are free. However, for middle to large eCommerce shops which want to migrate the starting price is $69.00, which includes migrating up to 1000 products, 500 customers, and 500 orders.
There are also upgrades available that provide any additional functionality you want, like 301 redirects and blog post migration.
Get a custom estimate from Cart2Cart.
Conclusion
That is all and now your Shopify has successfully migrated to WooCommerce. We hope you can easily understand every step. Soon we will tell you how to migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify with ease, wait for it.