PrestaShop to Shopify migration

Right off the bat, if you’re trying to figure out how to migrate PrestaShop to Shopify, it's important to mention that both eCommerce platforms make for outstanding choices. It all comes down to your business’ immediate and long-term needs as far as usability, scalability, and functionality go. That said, Shopify’s suite of features is hard to beat. It is likely why 4 million+ business owners worldwide trust it to power their online businesses. This migration guide takes a blow-by-blow look at how to migrate from PrestaShop to Shopify the right way.

Table of Contents:

  1. How Do I Migrate From PrestaShop to Shopify?
  2. PrestaShop vs. Shopify: Why Choose Shopify Over PrestaShop
  3. PrestaShop to Shopify Migration Checklist
    1. Manual migration
    2. Assisted migration
    3. Automated migration
    4. What Migration Method to Choose
  4. How to Prepare for PrestaShop to Shopify Migration
    1. Manage Your PrestaShop Store
    2. Prepare Your Shopify Store
  5. How to Migrate From PrestaShop to Shopify: 5 Steps
    1. Connect Your Shopping Carts
    2. Select Data for Migration
    3. Specify the Additional Migration Options
    4. Map Customer Groups and Order Statuses
    5. Run Free Demo / Launch Full Migration
  6. How to Migrate Products From PrestaShop to Shopify
  7. How to Export Orders From PrestaShop to Shopify
  8. PrestaShop to Shopify Migration Checklist: What Should You Do Once the Migration Is Complete
    1. Test Your New Shopify Store
    2. Identify the Apps and Plugins You Need Through Shopify Store
    3. Invite Customers to Reactivate Their Accounts
  9. PrestaShop to Shopify Migration: FAQs
    1. How to Migrate PrestaShop to Shopify
    2. How to Migrate Products From PrestaShop to Shopify
    3. Why Migrate From PrestaShop to Shopify
  10. Conclusion

How Do I Migrate From PrestaShop to Shopify

It’s one thing to migrate PrestaShop to Shopify since all you have to do is pick a transfer method out of the myriad options available to users. The real question you need to pose is: How do I switch platforms without losing data in the process, and can I do it independently?

The specific tool you use to do this will determine how hard or easy it will be to migrate your online shop from your existing PrestaShop-powered site to Shopify and whether or not you’ll lose valuable data in the process.

With those two considerations in mind, Cart2Cart is a no-brainer for eCommerce platform migration. Not only is it the most hands-off option—which is quite handy if you have no web development expertise—but also the most appropriate if data conservation is at the top of your migration criteria.

Watch our video tutorial to see how easy it is to automatically migrate from PrestaShop to Shopify with the help of the Cart2Cart migration tool:

Here’s how to transfer website from PrestaShop to Shopify in four easy steps using Cart2Cart:

  1. Once you download and install the app, launch it and then link your source cart—PrestaShop—to your target cart—Shopify.
  2. Select the data entities you wish to migrate from the options displayed and any other migration options that might be relevant to your online shop.
  3. Select Free Demo for a dry run to get a feel for how the entire process works.
  4. After that, select Full migration to move your entire PrestaShop website to your new Shopify platform.

See also: How to Upgrade from PrestaShop 1.6 to PrestaShop 1.7.

What is PrestaShop to Shopify Migration?

The eCommerce migration is the transfer of data like products, customers, orders and more from your current PrestaShop store to the new Shopify one. It consists of a few simple steps if done in automated manner, takes only a couple of hours and requires no tech skills.

PrestaShop vs. Shopify: Why Choose Shopify Over PrestaShop

Before you can even think about switching from PrestaShop to Shopify, your reason for migrating should be clear in your mind. It needs to make sense for your current business needs and your future expansion plans. Here are a few factors to consider when making your decision to switch.

  PrestaShop Shopify Winner
Platform Overview PrestaShop is an open-source platform. You can download it at no cost. You will, however, need to install it, find a hosting provider, carry out maintenance and upgrades, and manage security yourself. Shopify is a fully hosted eCommerce solution available on a subscription basis. It takes care of hosting, maintenance, upgrades, and security. Shopify
Ease of Use As is the case with all open-source platforms, PrestaShop has a steep learning curve. It is suited to users with a background in web development. The built-in drag-and-drop website builder is easy to use, even for novice users. Shopify
Themes PrestaShop offers 2,000+ professionally designed free and premium templates. Shopify has over 70 free and paid templates. PrestaShop
Sales Toolkit PrestaShop’s sales capabilities mainly come from add-ons. Some of the supported features include:
  • Minimum purchase quantity specification
  • Customer order customization
  • Supports several payment methods
  • Support multiple shipping carriers and geographical delivery zones
  • Shipping method price determination
  • One-page checkout
Shopify comes with an extensive suite of built-in sales features, including:
  • Abandoned cart recovery
  • Automated email prompts for abandoned carts
  • Checkout customization
  • Supports multiple courier partnerships, including UPS, USPS, DHL Express, and Canada Post
  • Discount customization
  • Multichannel selling via Facebook, Instagram, eBay, Amazon, and Pinterest
  • Physical and digital merchandising sales
Shopify
Marketing Toolkit
  • Users can configure coupons, discount mode, price rules, special offers, and free shipping for specific products
  • Supports cross-selling, promotional content, and call-to-action buttons on product pages
  • Customer reinsurance
  • Emails to customers containing viewed products and back-in-stock items
  • Custom sliders for product promotions
  • Direct advertising on social media, including Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook
  • Supports 1,500+ marketing integrations for advertising, email marketing, analytics, content marketing, and direct marketing
  • Search engine optimization
  • Multilingual support for wider reach
  • Google Ads credits
  • Product review capability
  • Discounts and gift cards
Shopify
Apps and Add-Ons The PrestaShop Marketplace has 3,000+ integrations available to build customer loyalty, improve conversion rates, increase traffic, and customize your eCommerce site. The Shopify App Store has over 7,000 apps for merchandising, order fulfillment, store management, shipping & delivery, store design, marketing and conversion, and more. Shopify
Payment Processing PrestaShop supports more than 270 different payment modules, including payment by wallet, invoice, prepayments, point-of-sale, cash-on-delivery, subscription, and so forth. It supports over 100 payment gateways, including Shopify Payments, Stripe, Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, and PayPal. PrestaShop
SEO PrestaShop doesn’t come with built-in SEO capabilities. Instead, it relies on third-party integrations such as:
  • Advanced Search 5 PRO
  • SEO Expert
  • Pretty URLs
  • SEO Audit
  • SEO Optimizer
While Shopify relies mainly on third-party modules for its SEO capability, it does have a few built-in features, including:
  • URL customization for product pages
  • Image alt-tags
  • Description optimization for products
  • Meta title Meta description optimization
  • Supports widely popular SEO tools like Yoast and SEO Booster
Shopify
Customer Support Although PrestaShop does not offer 24/7 live support, you can submit your query by filling out the Contact Us form on the official website. You can also use the available resources on the FAQ page or post your question on the online forum. Shopify offers 24/7 technical support via live chat, email, phone, and social platforms. You can also use the resources and video tutorials on the Help Center section of the website or post your question on the community forum. Shopify

PrestaShop to Shopify Migration Checklist

If you’re trying to figure out how to migrate your PrestaShop store to Shopify, there are three different ways. While each of them will certainly get the job done, some of the things you need to factor in when making your decision include: Whether or not you have web development experience and the amount of importance you place on data preservation when moving to a new platform.

Below is a detailed overview of each migration method and the potential benefits and drawbacks of each method.

Manual Migration

As the name suggests, manual migration refers to the transfer of your online store using what would be considered a copy-paste process. You would need to copy each product and its corresponding details from your old PrestaShop store to the newly set up Shopify website. It is the most tedious of all three techniques and poses the highest risk of data loss.

While it might sound relatively straightforward, you can immediately see how it would become problematic when transferring the underlying backend data. It's not just about copying the product images and the respective descriptions; you’ll also need to transfer the order, stock, customer, and payment information, existing customer reviews, and all other relevant information involved in the effective operation of an online store.

If you are a small-scale business owner with a little over a dozen products listed on your website, you can attempt to switch to a new platform yourself. Manual migration is highly technical when you think about everything involved. You would need to hire a web development professional to do all the heavy lifting.

On the other hand, manual migration might not be ideal if you have 50+ plus products and a host of underlying data that you’ll need on the new eCommerce platform, especially if you have no web development knowledge.

Assisted Migration

Assisted migration is in many ways similar to manual techniques. The only difference, in this case, is that you get an expert to handle the elbow grease. In other words, you would be retaining the services of a web developer to “assist” with the migration.

That said, despite the fact that it would be more convenient for you to use this option if you don’t possess the technical expertise to do it yourself, it is still a tedious and resource-intensive process. If you have a massive volume of data to transfer, it can turn out to be quite expensive. Not to mention the fact that it does not eliminate the very real risk of losing critical data.

While the pros of assisted migration certainly outweigh the risks when compared to a manual process, it is still not 100% foolproof. When picking the best method for your business needs, keep that in mind.

Automated Migration

Unlike its predecessors, automated migration relies on automated software applications to transfer online stores from one platform to another. Cart2Cart is a widely popular automated store migration tool that seamlessly transfers all store data from one platform to another without risk of data loss.

The best thing about it is that it runs on the backend with virtually no disruptions or interruptions to your online store’s operations. Additionally, the fact that it is automated also means that you don’t need any web development experience to transfer your store from one platform to another. The entire process takes anywhere between a few minutes to a couple of hours to complete. The exact duration all comes down to how much data you need to transfer.

Cart2Cart allows you to migrate:

  • Customer reviews;
  • Customer information;
  • Coupons;
  • CMS pages;
  • Supplier and manufacturer details;
  • Multistore data;
  • Order data;
  • Product categories;
  • Product data.

Automated migration is also the most affordable option of all the three techniques outlined, making it ideal for small, medium, and large-scale enterprises alike.

Thinking of switching from PrestaShop to Shopify?

Turn to the Cart2Cart and get the job done in a totally automated way!

Migrate now

What Migration Method to Choose

When choosing the best migration method for your business, here are a few things you need to keep in mind.

  1. Customization: Do you need your new Shopify store to retain the customizations your old store had?
  2. Integrations: Will the plugins you had in your PrestaShop store be compatible with the new platform?
  3. Themes: Do you want to retain your old store's design and layout once you migrate to the new site?
  4. Data loss: Does the migration technique you pick guarantee the safe transfer of all your site data?
  5. Downtime: Will customers still be able to access your site’s services while the migration is taking place?
  6. Cost: How much will the method you pick cost your business, and is it feasible?

With that in mind, here’s why automated migration makes sense in every way imaginable.:

Data Downtime Cost
Cart2Cart safeguards against any potential loss of data when switching platforms. There’s zero downtime when migrating to the new store, meaning customers can continue shopping and browsing your site while you migrate. An automated migration tool is the most affordable and cost-effective data transfer option that exists.

How to Prepare for PrestaShop to Shopify Migration

We’ve now established that automated migration is by far the most effective site transfer option out there. To ensure your PrestaShop to Shopify migration goes off without a hitch, below are a few key tasks you need to do to prepare.

1. Manage Your PrestaShop Store

The first thing you need to do is back up the data in your old store. Then, you’ll need to perform a site audit to clean up the information you hold before migrating to the new store.

Backup Site Data

There are three principal ways of backing up your store data when migrating from PrestaShop to Shopify.

  • Do a full system backup: This involves backing up all the files in the database, media folder, and file system.
  • Do a database backup: This involves backing up the information contained in the database alone.
  • Do a database and media backup: This involves backing up the information contained in the database and the files in the media folder.

Perform PrestaShop Store Data Audit

The data audit process involves combing through the information you’ve backed up and determining what to keep and transfer to your new Shopify store versus what to delete. The process involves analyzing the data stored in various fields, including Product Name, Product Information, Customer Details, Customer Contacts, etc., and then figuring out what you want to keep and what to trash.

Find Your Store Access Details

A critical component of a successful data transfer process is establishing a strong connection between your old store and the new platform. To do this, you’ll need to validate the access details of your existing PrestaShop, including the FTP/SSH and URL, so that it can communicate with the Shopify website.

2. Prepare Your Shopify Store

Once you get your PrestaShop site ready for migration, you can now proceed to do the same for what is about to become your new Shopify store.

Get Your New Store Ready

First, you need to choose a Shopify subscription that’s well suited to the needs of your enterprise. There are generally three plans to choose from, each with different features and offering various functionalities.

Price

If you're not sure which bouquet is right for you, sign up for the 14-day free trial for a test run and upgrade or downgrade if the existing solution isn't ideal for your current business needs.

Select a Theme

While you could always choose to retain the existing design and layout of your store, there’s no harm in giving it a facelift once you switch from PrestaShop to Shopify. Shopify gives users dozens of free and premium professionally designed templates to choose from.

Find Necessary Apps

Cart2Cart automatically migrates the plugins you installed in your PrestaShop store to your new Shopify site, provided that they are compatible with the new platform. If they are not, you may need to find a similar app that works on Shopify.

How to Migrate From PrestaShop to Shopify: 5 Steps

So far, we’ve looked at how to prepare your PrestaShop and what is about to become your new Shopify store for migration. Once you do, you can now proceed with the site transfer. Here’s how to do it in 5 easy steps.

1. Connect Your Shopping Carts

Right off the bat, you’ll need to connect your PrestaShop and Shopify shopping carts. Using the Cart2Cart tool:

  • Navigate to Source Cart Setup and then click on the drop-down menu displayed next to the Source Cart field
  • In the list of eCommerce platforms provided, select PrestaShop
  • Download and install the Connection Bridge to allow the PrestaShop and Shopify to communicate
  • Once the download completes, unpack the compressed file named connection_bridge.zip
  • Extract the contents of the folder labeled bridge2cart
  • Use an FTP client to import the file to your PrestaShop store’s root catalog
  • Check to ensure that it has established a link to your Source cart
presta Shopify

Next, you’ll need to configure your Shopify cart. Proceed as follows:

  • Navigate to Target Cart Setup and then click on the drop-down menu displayed next to the Target Cart filed
  • In the list of eCommerce platforms provided, click on Shopify
  • Select Install Plugin to download the integration—Migration for Shopify
  • Install the plugin to establish the Shopify store connection
presta shopify

2. Select Data for Migration

The next step involves choosing the data entities you want to migrate from PrestaShop to Shopify. To migrate everything, click Select All. Alternatively, you can select specific data entities to migrate individual classes. Some of the available options include:

  • Product data
  • Product visuals
  • Price
  • Integrations
  • Purchased items list
  • SEO configurations
  • Page redirects
  • Static site pages
data

3. Specify the Additional Migration Options

This step involves choosing the specific migration options you would like to incorporate into your new Shopify store. These include:

  • The migration of PrestaShop categories to the Automated Collections in Shopify;
  • The creation of 301 page redirects in Shopify to retain the functionality of the old categories’ URLs;
  • The management of migration SEO URLs and their corresponding link structures to maintain your store’s Google ranking.
options

4. Map Customer Groups and Order Statuses

When you convert PrestaShop to Shopify, you will need to map the customer classes and the various statuses of customer orders from your old store to your new one. Keep in mind that the process is not automatic. You will need to specify it.

To do this, you need to match the old customer groups and order statuses with the new entities you create in Shopify. Here’s how:

  1. Go to the Mapping Window of Cart2Cart and select the specific data classes you want to be mapped on the Shopify store.
  2. Select the same corresponding classes in your newly set up Shopify website.
  3. If the required groups don’t exist in the target cart, you can create them by clicking on the relevant buttons.
mapping

It is worth mentioning that when you migrate your existing PrestaShop customers from your old site to the new one, Cart2Cart automatically creates default email addresses for them if no valid entries existed at the time of migration. This is usually the case for guest users who visited your online shop and placed orders without necessarily registering first. You can always update these details later once these customers return to your store to purchase more products.

5. Run Free Demo / Launch Full Migration

Last but not least, you need to launch the actual migration. To get a feel for the Cart2Cart tool, you can run the free demo first. This option will only migrate a few entries and not your entire PrestaShop online store. To transfer all your site data, you can upgrade to the paid plan and launch the Full Migration.

Ensure your browser window remains open throughout until the process completes. Once it does, check your new Shopify store’s front end to check if you can see all your newly migrated data. If, for some unknown reason, you can't, you can also check the backend to see if the transferred data is present. Here’s how to go about it:

  1. Access the Demo Results page
  2. Select the file labeled Product IDs, download it, and open it to view the data
  3. Compare those results with the newly migrated data entries on the backend of your new Shopify site

See also: OsCommerce to Shopify Migration—The Complete Checklist.

How to Migrate Products From PrestaShop to Shopify

Transferring products from PrestaShop to Shopify is a relatively straightforward process. Simply highlight the relevant products you wish to migrate and their respective details as displayed on the Cart2Cart wizard, and then launch the migration process thereafter. Below are some of the available options:

  1. Product Name, Product Description
  2. Primary Image, Secondary Images, Image Description
  3. Meta Title, Meta Description
  4. Base Price, Offer Price, Discounted Price
  5. Stock Quantity, Stock Status
  6. Manufacturer, Supplier, Stock Keeping Unit
  7. Variants
  8. URL

While using an automated tool like Cart2Cart is the easiest, safest, and most cost-effective shopping cart migration method, you may opt to go the manual route, or use assisted migration. To do this, you will need to export the products listed in your PrestaShop database into a CSV spreadsheet before uploading them to your new Shopify store.

Check out our infographic to get a better understanding of the migration process via Cart2Cart:

prestashop Shopify prestashop to Shopify

How to Export Orders From PrestaShop to Shopify

To export order data from your old store to your new one using Cart2Cart, all you have to do is check the Order box at the setup stage before going ahead to launch the migration. The process is fast and efficient, with zero risk of losing precious data once the migration completes.

The data you can export using Cart2Cart includes:

  • Product data, e.g., Name, ID, Stock Quantity, Price, Status, etc.
  • Customer data, e.g., Full Name, Phone Number, Email Address, etc.
  • Shipping data, e.g., Full Name, Billing Address, Payment Details, etc.

While you could go the manual route by exporting the order data to a CSV file and then uploading this spreadsheet to Shopify, there’s always the risk of data loss. Moreover, depending on the volume of data you need to migrate, it might not be possible to fit all of it into a CSV file and upload it to your new store. This is especially the case for larger stores. Cart2Cart would be your best bet to eliminate these potential risks.

PrestaShop to Shopify Migration Checklist: What Should You Do Once the Migration Is Complete

After you’ve migrated your PrestaShop store to your new Shopify website, you’ll need to confirm that your new store is working as it should. Below are a few things to keep an eye out for:

1. Test Your New Shopify Store

Conducting a post-migration audit is just as important as a pre-migration audit. The idea behind it is to identify any potential issues that could get in the way of your newly formed store’s functionality as well as your customers’ buying experience.

Below is a migration checklist you can use to make sure everything is at par.

  • Is the domain name active?
  • Is each one of the navigation links within your site working properly?
  • Is each product in every category within your store catalogs visible?
  • Is the onsite search function working as it should?
  • Is every link in the site menus, headers, footers, and site pages correct?

If your answer to each one of the questions above is—yes, it’s always a good idea to run a couple of test purchases to ensure that everything is in proper functioning order.

2. Identify the Apps and Plugins You Need Through Shopify Store

The functionality of an online store is only as good as its apps and plugins. This concept is at the heart of any operational eCommerce website.

If you used Cart2Cart for your shopping cart migration, then all the existing integrations in your PrestaShop site will automatically be installed in your newly formed Shopify site. Keep in mind that whether or not it happens depends on whether the said integrations are compatible with the new platform.

Shopify’s App Marketplace is chock-full of free and premium apps and integrations in various categories, all designed to enhance your store’s functionality. Some of these categories include integrations for:

  • Conversion
  • Customer service
  • Fulfillment
  • Marketing
  • Merchandising
  • Shipping and delivery
  • Sourcing and sales
  • Store design
  • Store management

Any plugin you may have previously had in PrestaShop that is not compatible with Shopify will certainly have a similar alternative in Shopify’s App Marketplace.

3. Invite Customers to Reactivate Their Accounts

Once your new Shopify store is fully functional and you've confirmed that everything is working as it should, the last thing you need to do is let your customers know that you've migrated your store to a new platform. We recommend sending out a bulk invite to everyone on your customer email list, inviting them to reactivate their accounts.

While you’re at it, encourage them to provide feedback on any issues they may run into while using the site. This ensures a seamless transition which, in turn, ensures that their experience isn’t affected.

PrestaShop to Shopify Migration: FAQs

How to Migrate PrestaShop to Shopify

To transfer PrestaShop to Shopify, follow the steps outlined below:

  1. Input your PrestaShop URL in the Cart2Cart wizard, and then proceed to download the Connection Bridge plugin and install it to connect your Source Cart to your Target Cart.
  2. Select data entities you wish to migrate.
  3. Select any additional migration options you might want to incorporate.
  4. Map the customer groups and their respective order statuses in your old PrestaShop store to your newly created Shopify website.
  5. Run the free demo to test out the Cart2Cart tool, and then launch the Full Migration to migrate all your store data

How to Migrate Products From PrestaShop to Shopify

The easiest and most efficient way to migrate your existing online store to a new eCommerce platform would be to use Cart2Cart. This is an automated migration tool that transfers all your product data, customer data, order data, payment data, supplier data, etc., from your previous online store to a new one. It is fast, easy, and eliminates any risk of data loss.

Why Migrate From PrestaShop to Shopify

The main difference between the two eCommerce platforms lies in their hosting. PrestaShop is an open-source platform. You can download it at no cost. You will, however, need to install it, find a hosting provider, carry out maintenance and upgrades, and manage security yourself.

On the other hand, Shopify is a fully hosted eCommerce solution and is available on a subscription basis. It takes care of hosting, maintenance, upgrades, and security.

If you're looking for a beginner-friendly solution that you can manage yourself with little to no web development experience, Shopify would be your best bet.

Conclusion

There you have it—how to migrate PrestaShop to Shopify. While both eCommerce platforms make for excellent online stores, choosing one over the other comes down to how hands-on you intend to be. PrestaShop is a self-hosted solution that requires you to manage every aspect of its operation yourself. Shopify does all this on the backend, so you don't have to.

Sign up today for a free demo and discover why Cart2Cart is a top choice for many online store owners.