E-commerce migration
Magento to Shopify Migration
Most stores leaving Magento are not leaving because of Magento. They are leaving because nobody wants to own the hosting, the patching and the upgrade cycle any more. That is a good reason to move, but it also means the migration has to protect everything the old platform was quietly doing right, and that is the part most quotes skip.
- 2018
- building since
- 70+
- designers, engineers and product people
- 5
- regionsAustralia, Europe, the Philippines, the Middle East and the USA
- 6,500+
- commits across six repositoriesthe three SES aviation platforms we build and still run
What the migration actually involves
Deciding whether to move
Adobe Commerce earns its complexity when you have deep catalogue rules, B2B or customer-specific pricing, multi-store setups, or ERP integration that has to be exact. If none of that is you, Shopify almost certainly is. If some of it is, the honest answer is more complicated, and we would rather work that out before the quote than during the build. Either way it is a decision our e-commerce practice makes with you, not for you.
Protecting the rankings you already have
Magento and Shopify generate different URL structures. Without a deliberate map, the old URLs 404 on launch and every ranking attached to them is discarded, the fastest way to make a successful migration look like a disaster. We inventory every URL, map each to a destination, and verify the redirects before launch and again after.
Products, customers and order history
Products, variants, collections, customers and historical orders all come across. How cleanly depends on how much of your catalogue lives in custom Magento attributes rather than standard fields, which is why the audit comes first. Password hashing differs between the platforms, so customers need one reset, planned and communicated, not discovered on launch day.
Extension parity
Magento extensions do not migrate. We audit which are genuinely in use, map each live function to a Shopify app or custom work, and name the small number with no clean equivalent. Those are the ones that decide whether the move is right, so we surface them early rather than at the end.
Integrations and the operational tail
ERP and inventory, POS, freight carriers and rate logic, payment gateways, subscriptions, marketing and CRM. On a mid-market store this is usually the real timeline driver, and the reason a migration quoted on catalogue size runs over.
Cutover and the month after
A launch plan with a rollback position, then active monitoring of rankings, redirects and conversion once traffic is on the new store. A replatform is judged on the month after go-live, not the day of it. That is when a missed redirect map shows up in the numbers.
Keeping the rankings you already have
Most of what a migration risks is not data. It is the search equity attached to URLs that have been indexed for years. That risk is entirely manageable, and it is lost when the redirect map is treated as a launch-week task rather than a deliverable.
Every indexed URL gets a mapped destination
Not the ones in the sitemap, the ones Google actually has. Old campaign landing pages, discontinued products with backlinks, category paths that changed three platforms ago. The inventory comes first, and it is almost always larger than anyone expects.
Platforms enforce their own URL shapes
Shopify will not accept most Magento product and collection paths. A one-to-one map is rare, so the exceptions need decisions, consolidate, redirect to the nearest parent, or accept the loss deliberately rather than by omission.
The map is enforced, not hoped for
We check it mechanically. On our own platform migration the build fails if any legacy URL would 404, every one has to resolve or carry a redirect before anything ships. A spreadsheet nobody re-runs is how redirects quietly rot.
Measured after launch, not assumed
Rankings dip during reindexing and recover; that is normal. What is not normal is finding out six weeks later that a redirect chain was pointing at a removed page. We check the live URLs after the deploy rather than trusting the plan.
The proof
Work we have shipped, not a capability deck.
- Aelia Duty FreeWe took over and still run an Adobe Commerce platform where the trading rules are genuinely hard, multi-currency, multi-location, duty and tax logic and real-time inventory. The same understanding of what Magento is doing under a store is what makes moving off it safe.Read the case study
- LOOPAn e-gift-card marketplace built end to end, from brand through to the storefront customers buy in.Read the case study
Commerce work we do
Magento & Adobe Commerce
Builds, replatforms, upgrades and performance rescue, including SAP integration.
Adobe Commerce support
Taking over platforms other agencies built: incident response, out-of-band security patching and upgrades.
Magento upgrades
Version upgrades and extension audits, and when the platform is not what needs the money.
Shopify & Shopify Plus
Storefronts, theme builds, app integration and headless front ends.
Shopify Plus
Checkout extensibility, B2B and D2C together, multi-storefront, and when the tier is not worth it.
E-commerce development
The whole practice: platform selection, build, integrate and run.
Headless commerce
Decoupled storefronts on Shopify and Adobe Commerce, and when a themed build is the better call.
Migration & replatforming
Moving between platforms without losing data, rankings or trading days.
WooCommerce
WordPress commerce where the catalogue and the content live together.
E-commerce & retail
The sector view, what retail platforms are actually asked to do, and where they break.
B2B & wholesale commerce
Company accounts, contract pricing, quotes, credit terms and ERP-held price logic for trade suppliers.
Adelaide commerce
Adobe Commerce for South Australian retailers, including the duty free store trading at Adelaide Airport.
New Zealand commerce
GST, rural freight and trans-Tasman selling, and the duty free stores running across airports in both countries.
More on commerce
What Does a Shopify Plus Build Cost in Australia?
What Shopify Plus actually costs Australian retailers, the platform fee, the transaction economics nobody models, and what drives a build quote up or down.
Two Thirds of Australian Retail's Page Weight Isn't Theirs
We measured 21 of Australia's largest online retailers. None scored above 44. The median site ships 7MB, and 62% of it is third-party code the retailer didn't write.
ERP Integration for E-commerce: What It Actually Costs
Why ERP integration is the line item that blows e-commerce budgets, the four questions that decide the price, and how to tell real-time requirements from imagined ones.
Adobe Commerce vs Shopify Plus for Australian Retailers
Where Adobe Commerce genuinely beats Shopify Plus, where it does not, and the three questions that actually decide it, from a team that builds on both.
Adobe Has Patched StyleSmuggler. Patching Is Not the Whole Job.
Adobe has released APSB26-146 for CVE-2026-75650. Apply it now, but a patch does not clean a store that was already compromised. What to preserve before you patch, what to check after, and the disclosure clock most coverage skips.
Selling Into Australia and New Zealand From One Store
Whether to run one store or two across the Tasman, what actually differs between AU and NZ commerce (GST, freight, currency) and the duplication that costs more than it solves.
Common questions
How long does a Magento to Shopify migration take?
For a straightforward catalogue on a standard theme, weeks. For a mid-market store with ERP integration, complex pricing rules and years of order history, plan in months. The storefront is rarely what sets the timeline, data quality, custom Magento functionality that has to be rebuilt rather than carried across, and integrations are. We would rather scope those three honestly than quote on catalogue size and revise later.
Will we lose our search rankings?
Only if URLs are treated as an afterthought, which is the single most common way a replatform destroys value. Magento and Shopify generate different URL structures, so without a mapping the old ones 404 and every ranking attached to them is discarded. Every URL should be inventoried, mapped and verified before launch and again after. We hold ourselves to it, this site was migrated off WordPress with an automated check that fails the build unless 100% of the old URLs still resolve or redirect.
Can we keep our order history and customer accounts?
Products, variants, collections, customers and historical orders all migrate. What varies is how cleanly, depending on how much lives in custom Magento attributes rather than standard fields. Passwords are the known exception: hashing differs between the platforms, so customers need one reset. Planning that communication is part of the migration rather than a launch-day surprise.
What about our Magento extensions?
They do not come across, and that is usually a feature rather than a loss. Most stores are carrying extensions installed years ago for reasons nobody remembers. We audit what is actually in use, map each live function to a Shopify app or custom work, and are explicit about the small number that have no equivalent, those are the ones that decide whether the move is right.
Should we move to Shopify at all?
Not always. Adobe Commerce earns its complexity when you have deep catalogue rules, customer-specific B2B pricing, multi-store or multi-brand setups, or ERP integration that has to be exact. Shopify removes hosting, patching and upgrade overhead, which is worth more than the flexibility you give up for most retailers, but not all. We audit before recommending, and we will tell you when staying put is the better spend.
What does it cost?
It depends far more on integrations, data quality and how much custom functionality has to be rebuilt than on how many products you have. Our guide to what a Magento to Shopify migration costs in Australia sets out the typical ranges and what moves them.
Do you work with retailers outside Sydney?
Our head office is in Sydney and we work with clients across Australia (Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and regional NSW included) as well as in New Zealand, where the duty free stores across the major airports have run on a platform we build and support since 2021. Delivery has been remote-first for years, so a project runs the same way whether you are ten minutes away or across the Tasman: scheduled calls, a shared board you can see at any time, and one named point of contact. We are happy to meet in person in Sydney.
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Engagement models
How we work
Four straightforward ways to engage us. Pick the one that fits, or mix them as your needs change.
Staff Augmentation
Add experienced Shakewell developers, designers or specialists directly to your own team. Engagements typically run three to twelve months, but can be as short or long as you need, you get the skills without the commitment and cost of hiring full-time.
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Already live? We keep websites, stores and apps secure, updated and performing through ongoing retainers, business-hours support as standard, with 24/7 coverage available for critical issues.
About support & maintenance