In the fast-changing world of eCommerce, many entrepreneurs are considering a Wix to Shopify migration. This is not just about moving from one platform to another; it is a strategic move to keep up with the emerging trends in online selling.
Wix is a famous website builder that allows store owners to develop and manage online operations without delving into too many technicalities. Shopify is quickly becoming a favorite amongst store owners, and for a good reason. Many are migrating from Wix to Shopify to leverage its powerful eCommerce features.
Replatforming your store from Wix to Shopify opens up opportunities for your eCommerce venture with Shopify’s alluring features, robust ecosystem, and modern tools for upscaling your business. So, with little time, let’s dive into the exciting journey of migrating your store from Wix to Shopify. But before that, look at the meaning and reasons to migrate from Wix to Shopify.
What is Wix?
Wix is a famous website builder that aims to let people design and develop websites without coding skills. Founded in 2006 in Israel, Wix now has a vast user base, with 8.1 million websites powered by the platform, of which roughly 3.4 million are eCommerce sites.
According to one of the sources, Wix’s huge customer base is in the USA (57%), followed by the UK (6%) and Canada. It is believed that WIx is an excellent eCommerce platform for small and medium-scale businesses that is easy to use and customize.
What is Shopify?
Shopify is the most popular eCommerce platform. It allows anyone to launch an online store with exclusive features and immense customization capabilities. Shopify emerged as the biggest eCommerce platform in 2024, enabling digital and physical product sales and payment processing.
Shopify, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) sales platform, offers built-in capabilities to help you expand and thrive in the e-commerce sector. Since its 2006 launch, Shopify has been the most widely used website builder due to its intuitive design and dozens of features.
Reasons to Migrate From Wix to Shopify
The right platform matters most for growing your online business. While Wix is an excellent option for beginners, Shopify offers a much more prominent feature base for growth in eCommerce.
Here are a few reasons why this migration from Wix to Shopify will help unlock more potential for your store:
- Shopify was specially developed for eCommerce. It can easily handle a much larger volume of products, traffic, and transactions, providing faster load times and better performance as your business grows.
- Shopify gives you more advanced tools to help manage inventory, segment customers, and market, which means you can automate many aspects to scale your business more successfully.
- Shopify offers multiple payment options, including its payment processor, Shopify Payment, to lower transactional fees and make the process as smooth as possible for customers.
- Shopify also offers thousands of third-party apps and themes, which allows owners to create highly customized stores beyond what Wix offers in its eCommerce function.
- Shopify includes advanced reporting and analytics capabilities that help you understand your sales, customers, and even your inventory in greater depth to drive data-driven decisions for growth.
- Unlike Wix, Shopify makes it easy to sell across multiple platforms—including Amazon, Facebook, and Instagram—all from one centralized dashboard.
This makes Shopify the better choice for anyone who wants to eliminate Wix’s limitations and take their eCommerce store to the next level.
Key Considerations Before Migrating from Wix to Shopify
Before you migrate from Wix to Shopify, there are certain things to consider to ensure smooth and error-free migration, including:
- To avoid losing important data, make sure you have a clear plan for moving all your products, customer data, and previous order details from Wix to Shopify.
- Both platforms follow different design structures, so ensure you customize your store design to align with your branding and layout preferences.
- Compare the cost of your current WIx plan with Shopify’s pricing structure to decide your new budget and what additional apps and features you want to integrate into it.
- Consider which third-party apps you want to add to Shopify to maintain the same functionalities post-migration.
- Also, plan your SEO strategy carefully to avoid negative results, as transitioning to a new platform may affect your search engine rankings.
- Shopify may have a more technical learning curve than Wix, so ensure your team or you are ready to learn how to navigate its functionality and tools.
Above mentioned things will help you avoid common challenges and set your store up for success on Shopify.
Now, without further ado, let’s examine the migration process. Following these seven simple steps will be a game-changer for your store.
How to Migrate from Wix to Shopify?
Migrating your online store from Wix to Shopify can be daunting but rewarding since Shopify offers many modern features, customization capabilities, and scalability for your business. The section below will walk you through the process, ensuring your migration is smooth, efficient, and without critical data loss.
1. Backup All Your Data from Wix
Before you proceed with changes, ensure you have a complete backup of your information from the Wix store. This may include product information, client databases, order history, and all other types of files, such as images, videos, or text.
- Export Products: Wix allows you to export product data into a CSV file, which contains product names, descriptions, prices, and images.
- Export Orders and Customer Information: You can export all the order and customer information from Wix. However, it is less comprehensive than Shopify’s system so manual tracking may be required.
- Download Site Assets: Download all images, videos, and files relating to your site to reupload them into Shopify.
2. Setup Your Shopify Account
Once you have securely moved all your data, it’s time to set up your Shopify store.
- Create an Account: Visit Shopify’s website and sign up for a plan that best fits your requirements.
- Choose a Theme: Shopify has plenty of customizable themes optimized for eCommerce. You can choose any of them or even opt for custom Shopify development that matches your brand image.
- Update Settings: Customize store settings such as tax rates, shipping options, and payment gateways so your store is ready for customers.
3. Migrate Your Products
One of the most essential steps in migrating your product catalog from Wix to Shopify. Shopify also allows you to upload products manually; apps are available to help with that.
- Import Products Using CSV Files: Shopify allows the importation of products using CSV files. When you export from Wix, be sure your file is formatted correctly for use with Shopify’s import tool.
- Re-upload Product Images: If product images were not included in your CSV export, upload them. Shopify’s bulk upload feature makes this much more accessible.
4. Migrate Customer and Order Data
This is the most tedious part of migrating since Wix does not directly provide the feature to export customer and order data. You will have to depend on third-party apps or services for this.
- Shopify Apps: Some common apps are Cart2Cart or LitExtensions. These make the process of customer and order data transfer very automatic.
- Manual Data Import: If an app is not possible in your case, you can manually input customer and order information. Shopify supports importing customer data through CSV files, which you can fill out and upload via the administration panel.
5. Reconfigure Your Domain and Email Settings
After transferring your store to Shopify, you must configure your domain and email settings so everything performs well.
- Domain Transfer: If you acquired your domain using Wix, transfer it to Shopify or point it to the Shopify servers. You can do this through your Wix dashboard and update your DNS settings appropriately.
- Email Configuration: Activate email forwarding (e.g., [email protected]) to continue taking customer orders and contacting suppliers.
6. Customize and Design Your Shopify Store
Now that your products and data have been migrated, it’s your turn to make your Shopify store look and feel even better than your Wix store.
- Use Shopify Themes: Shopify provides a wide variety of free and paid themes, which you can use with its built-in theme editor. You can customize your store’s layout, colors, fonts, and functionalities.
- Add External Apps: Shopify has an extensive app store that could make your store even more functional. It could be a customer review app, email marketing app, SEO Optimization, or advanced shipping options.
- Test Your Store Design: Before making your store live, you should preview and test your website design on different devices, such as desktop, tablet, and mobile, to ensure it is fully responsive and looks best across all screens.
7. Test Your New Shopify Store
Once everything is set up, it’s essential to thoroughly test your new Shopify store to ensure everything functions correctly.
- Check Product Pages and Collections: Ensure the checkout process works smoothly, with no bugs or errors in the back end. Payment gateways should also work well, and shipping options should appear appropriately.
- Setup SEO Settings: Shopify will auto-set some of these, but ensure each page, product, and collection is appropriately filled out with meta descriptions, titles, and alt tags for images to optimize search engine visibility.
Migrating from Wix to Shopify does not have to be painful. In fact, with the following steps, this process can be almost flawless. By using Shopify’s solid and scalable features, your store will be ready for success and meant to grow with your business needs.
Get Ready for a Smooth Shift with WebyKing
Migrating your Wix store to Shopify is a simple process. In most cases, entrepreneurs look for website migration experts, as they can ensure the safety of their data and help them integrate all the functionalities. Ultimately, whether you decide to migrate your Wix store to Shopify on your own or hire someone like WebyKing to do it for you, the most important thing is that you end up with a platform that works best for you and your business.
Shopify is a popular eCommerce platform that offers excellent scalability and flexibility. If you want to take your online business to the next level, Shopify would be the intelligent choice.
If you have any questions regarding Shopify migration, contact us. We will leave no stone untouched when it comes to thriving your online business.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a better alternative to Wix?
Wix is a famous website builder; Shopify emerges as a better alternative if you seek a customizable and scalable eCommerce platform.
Can I keep my domain name the same when moving to Shopify?
You can keep your domain name when migrating to Shopify. Shopify offers a how-to guide on connecting your Wix domain to the Shopify platform.
Will I lose my website design during the migration?
While your website’s overall design and appearance may change due to differences in themes and templates between both platforms, you can customize your Shopify theme per your preferences.
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