When it makes sense to migrate from Shopify to WooCommerce (and when it doesn't).

Table of Contents

Why are so many stores considering migrating Shopify to WordPress?

The reasons I hear in consulting are constantly repeated:

• Accumulated costs: Shopify starts out cheap, but paid apps, transaction fees and the limitations of the basic plan cause the monthly cost to escalate quickly.
• Customization limitations: Liquid, Shopify's templating language, has a ceiling. When you need complex business logic - product configurators, integrations with Spanish ERPs, B2B flows - you run into walls.
• Structural SEO: WordPress with WooCommerce offers control over URLs, schema markup and content structure that Shopify simply cannot match.
• Ecosystem dependence: With Shopify, your data is on their platform. If tomorrow they raise prices or change policies, you have little room to maneuver.

How much does Shopify keep per sale?

This is one of the most sought-after questions, and with good reason. The concrete numbers:

• Shopify Payments (card): 1.4% + 0.25 euros per transaction in Shopify Plan, or 1.7% + 0.25 euros in Basic Plan.
• External gateway (Redsys, Stripe): Shopify adds an additional surcharge of 0.5% to 2% on each sale, on top of whatever your gateway charges.
• In practice: a store with a turnover of 30,000 euros per month with Basic Plan and external gateway can be paying between 600 and 900 euros per month in commissions to Shopify alone.

With WooCommerce, you pay only the commission of your payment gateway (Stripe charges 1.4% + 0.25 euros, Redsys you negotiate directly with your bank) and zero euros to the platform. That difference, month to month, is what makes WooCommerce migration makes economic sense for stores with real turnover.

When migration DOES make sense

After more than a dozen migrations from Shopify to WooCommerce, these are the scenarios where the change clearly pays off:

1. Your store has a turnover of more than 10,000 euros per month.

At this volume, Shopify sales commissions become a significant expense. The initial investment of migrating Shopify to WordPress will pay for itself in 6-12 months in commission savings alone. It's pure math.

2. You need integrations with Spanish systems.

Electronic invoicing for the AEAT, integration with the SII, TicketBAI in the Basque Country, connection with Holded or A3, national carriers such as SEUR, MRW or Correos Express. All this is solved natively or with mature plugins in WooCommerce. In Shopify, you depend on third-party apps with uneven support for the Spanish market.

3. SEO is your main recruitment channel

If you rely on organic traffic to sell - and in Spain most medium-sized stores should - WordPress gives you a structural advantage that Shopify can't offer. Full control over URL architecture, no forced prefixes like /collections/ o /products/, native integration with professional SEO tools and optimizable loading speed at the server level.

4. Your catalog has complex logic

Configurable products, variants with dynamic pricing, custom quotes, B2B logic with per-customer pricing, geographical restrictions. On WooCommerce, as a PHP and Vue.js developer, I can build whatever functionality the business requires. On Shopify, you are limited to what the available apps allow.

When NOT to migrate

It would be dishonest not to tell you when migration is a bad idea. These are the cases where I recommend staying with Shopify:

You don't have the technical equipment or budget for one

WooCommerce requires maintenance: WordPress updates, WooCommerce plugin updates, additional plugins, security and performance monitoring. If you don't have a trusted developer or agency to take care of this, Shopify takes that hassle off your shoulders. The freedom of WooCommerce comes with technical responsibility.

Your store is running well and your turnover is low

If you bill less than 5,000 euros per month and Shopify Basic covers your needs without additional apps, the savings of migrating don't justify the investment or the risk. Stay where you are and focus your energy on selling more.

You have just launched and are validating product

Shopify is great for launching quickly and validating if your product has a market. Don't migrate until you have real traction and enough data to justify the investment.

How to migrate products from Shopify to WooCommerce

The technical process of migrating products from Shopify to WooCommerce has several routes. I'll explain the ones I use in real projects:

Option 1: Direct Migration Plugin (Shopify to WordPress plugin)

There are plugins such as Migrate & Import Shopify to WooCommerce that connect directly to the Shopify API and bring in products, orders, customers, coupons, blogs and pages. It is the fastest option for catalogs up to 5,000 products.

• Migrates 6 types of data: products, customers, orders, pages, blogs and coupons.
• Filter by title, product type, supplier or date.
• Direct connection via API without intermediaries, which guarantees the security of your data.
• Compatible with HPOS (high performance order storage) of WooCommerce.

Option 2: CSV export + manual import

For larger catalogs or when you need to transform data during migration (change category structure, clean up descriptions, adjust prices), exporting from Shopify in CSV and using the native WooCommerce importer or WP All Import gives more control. It's more manual work, but the result is cleaner.

Option 3: Professional Assisted Migration

For stores with more than 10,000 products, extensive order history, active ERP integrations and complex business logic, manual migration with custom scripts is the only reliable option. This is where custom development comes in: PHP scripts that map fields, transform data and validate data integrity.

The critical steps you can't skip

Beyond moving products and orders, a professional migration includes:

• 301 redirects: every Shopify URL must redirect to its WooCommerce equivalent. Without this, you lose all your SEO rankings in one fell swoop.
• URL structure mapping: Shopify uses /products/product-name and /collections/category. In WooCommerce you can set up any structure you want, but you need a comprehensive redirection plan.
• Migration of clients and passwords: Shopify passwords cannot be exported. Your customers will have to reset their password in the new store. Prepare a clear communication for this.
• Exhaustive testing: every payment gateway, every shipping method, every tax rule, every transactional email. Nothing can go wrong on the day of change.
• Rollback plan: I always keep the Shopify store active for at least 30 days after the migration, in case we need to go back.

Specific considerations for the Spanish market

If your store sells in Spain, there are factors that make WooCommerce especially advantageous after migration:

• Redsys: integration with the dominant payment gateway in Spain is more mature and better supported in WooCommerce than in Shopify.
• Invoicing in accordance with Spanish regulations: plugins like WooCommerce PDF Invoices solve AEAT requirements natively. In Shopify you need specific apps with uneven support.
• VAT for the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla: IGIC and IPSI management is configured without complications in WooCommerce. In Shopify it is a recurring headache.
• RGPD and LSSI: WordPress has free and mature plugins to comply with European and Spanish regulations. On Shopify, this requires additional paid apps.

The real cost of a professional migration

So that you have realistic expectations:

• Small store (less than 500 products, no integrations): between 1,500 and 3,000 euros.
• Medium-sized store (500-5,000 products, with integrations): 4,000 to 8,000 euros.
• Large store (more than 5,000 products, ERP, complex logic): 8,000 to 15,000 euros or more.

These ranges include data migration, WooCommerce setup, theme development, payment gateway setup, SEO redirects and a post-migration support period. They do not include the complete store redesign, which is a separate project.

Common mistakes when migrating from Shopify to WooCommerce

• Do not make 301 redirects: the most serious mistake. You lose positioning, traffic and sales all at once.
• Migrate without cleaning data: is the perfect opportunity to purge discontinued products, inactive customers and obsolete content. Don't move junk to your new store.
• Choose cheap hosting: WooCommerce needs a competent server. A 3 euro a month shared hosting is going to give you more problems than you had with Shopify.
• Ignore the user experience: migrating data is only half the job. The new store needs a design and UX at least as good as the old one, or you will lose conversions.
• Failure to communicate to customers: inform your customers of the change, especially about password resets and any changes to the purchase process.

My recommendation as a professional

If your store already generates real revenue and Shopify's commissions and limitations are holding you back, migrating to WooCommerce is a strategic investment that pays for itself. But do it right: with a professional who understands both the technical side and the specific needs of the Spanish market.

If you are in the validation phase or your store is running smoothly on Shopify, don't migrate for the sake of migrating. Migrate when the cost of staying outweighs the cost of switching.