Custom platform to Shopify migration
Your store runs on something bespoke, an in-house build, a headless stack, a platform no exporter understands. We treat it as a discovery-led replatform: audit the real data model, protect order history and SEO, and move you to Shopify with zero trading days lost.
Why teams leave a bespoke platform
A custom build served you once. But the maintenance, the risk and the stalled roadmap add up, and the very thing that made it custom is what makes the migration delicate.
Every change needs a developer
Bespoke platforms tie merchandising, promotions and content to code. Simple edits become a backlog item and a deploy.
Feature velocity has stalled
Subscriptions, bundles, markets, faster checkout, the roadmap you want is months of custom work you'd get largely out of the box on Shopify.
You carry the security burden
PCI scope, patching and uptime sit with your team. On Shopify, checkout and compliance are Shopify's responsibility, not yours.
There is no export button
No clean WXR or CSV exists. Data lives in custom tables or an API only your team understands, which is precisely where the migration risk sits.
What moves across, and how
Every bespoke platform is different. This is the shape of a typical migration, scoped precisely once we inspect your data.
| Data / asset | How we get it out | Where it lands in Shopify |
|---|---|---|
| Products & variants | Custom DB query or API extract, normalised to CSV | Products, variants, options and metafields |
| Customers | Exported without passwords (hashes don't transfer) | Accounts with a one-time reset invite |
| Order history | Historical orders mapped to Shopify's schema | Imported orders for support and lifetime value |
| Content & media | Pages, blogs and assets pulled from CMS or files | Store pages, blogs, files and metaobjects |
| URLs & SEO | Full crawl of live URLs and current rankings | 301 redirects, preserved titles and metadata |
| Custom features | Documented, then rebuilt, never lifted blindly | Apps, Shopify Functions or a custom app |
What a bespoke migration covers
Three fronts: moving the data intact, protecting the SEO, and solving the challenges only a custom platform throws up.
What we migrate
- Products, variants, options and image galleries
- Customer records, tags and address books
- Order history and fulfilment status
- Blogs, pages and structured content
- Metafields for anything Shopify has no native field for
- Discount, price-list and B2B logic where it maps
SEO & redirects
- Full URL crawl and a 301 redirect map, old paths to new
- Title, meta and canonical parity on every template
- Structured data and XML sitemaps rebuilt for Shopify
- Rankings and redirect coverage monitored after launch
Bespoke-platform challenges
- Reverse-engineer an undocumented or proprietary data model
- Custom SQL, API or crawl-based exports when none exist
- Map in-house ERP, PIM, 3PL and payment integrations
- Rebuild custom features as apps, Shopify Functions or metafields
How we run a bespoke migration
No two custom migrations are alike, so we don't quote a timeline before we've seen your store. The sequence, though, is consistent.
Discovery & data audit
We map your real data model, integrations and traffic. This is where the true scope of a bespoke migration surfaces.
Architecture & mapping
Define the Shopify information architecture and a field-by-field mapping from your schema to products, customers, orders and metafields.
Build & theme
Build the Shopify theme, fast, accessible, WCAG 2.1 AA, with the templates and custom logic your catalogue needs.
Custom exports & integrations
Write the extracts, normalise the data, and reconnect ERP, PIM, 3PL, email and payments to Shopify.
Testing & validation
Reconcile record counts, spot-check orders and redirects, and QA checkout, integrations and content on staging.
Delta cutover
Freeze, migrate the final delta of orders and customers, flip DNS, and go live with zero trading days lost.
Post-launch monitoring
Watch rankings, redirects, errors and Core Web Vitals, and fix whatever the first week of real traffic surfaces.
Custom platform migration FAQs
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Get a custom platform to Shopify migration plan
Give us a look at your current platform. We'll audit the data, flag the risks, and map a cutover that protects your revenue and rankings, before we quote a timeline.
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