Ecommerce Platform Migration Checklist: What Should You Prepare?
A practical ecommerce migration checklist: discovery, content, products, customers, orders, URLs and redirects, integrations, analytics, SEO, QA and launch.
Quick answer
Before an ecommerce platform migration, prepare in six areas: discovery (goals, scope, owners, baselines), data (products, variants, customers, orders, content, media), URLs (inventory, mapping, redirects), integrations and tracking (ERP, shipping, payments, analytics, pixels), quality (functional, SEO, performance, accessibility and mobile testing) and launch (freeze, final migration, cutover, monitoring, support readiness). Assign an owner to every item, rehearse data migration, and capture baselines so you can judge results after launch.
How to Use This Checklist
Treat this as a working document: copy it, assign owners and dates, and mark items done only when verified. It complements a migration strategy (ecommerce migration strategy) and a launch plan (migration launch plan). For moves to Shopify specifically, see Shopify migration.
1. Discovery and Planning
- Migration goals written (why migrate, what must improve)
- Scope agreed: platform only, or redesign and restructuring too
- Owners named for data, SEO, integrations, analytics, design, QA, operations, support
- Timeline with rehearsal dates and launch window away from peak trading
- Inventory of apps, plugins, custom features and integrations
- Decision for each feature: rebuild, replace with app, drop
- Risks and rollback approach documented
2. Baselines
- Organic traffic by landing page (last 12 months where available)
- Rankings and search queries for key pages from Search Console
- Conversion rate, AOV and revenue by device and channel
- Top landing pages and internal link structure (crawl)
- Page speed and Core Web Vitals for key templates
- Analytics event volumes and purchase reconciliation
- Customer service contact volumes by reason
3. Product Data
- Products, variants and options mapped to new structure
- Variant limits of the new platform checked
- Attributes and custom fields mapped (e.g. to metafields)
- Categories and collections mapped
- Images and media migrated with alt text
- Prices, compare-at prices and tax settings
- Inventory by location
- SEO fields: titles, descriptions, handles
4. Customers and Orders
Customer and order data raise privacy and technical questions: passwords usually can't be migrated because they're stored as one-way hashes, so plan account activation or passwordless sign-in; historical orders need statuses, refunds and taxes preserved for service and reporting. See ecommerce data migration.
- Customer records with addresses, consent and tags
- Marketing consent status preserved
- Account activation plan (invites or passwordless login)
- Order history with lines, statuses, refunds, taxes
- Gift cards, store credit and loyalty balances
- Subscriptions and saved payment methods (provider migration plan)
- Reviews and ratings
Planning a platform migration?
ZSpace runs ecommerce migrations with data rehearsals, redirect mapping and launch plans that protect revenue and search visibility.
5. Content
- Pages, policies, blog posts and landing pages
- Internal links in content updated to new URLs
- Navigation menus and footer
- Forms and their destinations
- Legal pages and cookie consent configuration
6. URLs and Redirects
Redirects protect search visibility and customer links. Build a complete inventory of old URLs, map each to the most relevant new URL, and implement permanent redirects. See ecommerce URL migration and ecommerce SEO migration.
- URL inventory from crawl, sitemap, analytics, Search Console and backlinks
- One-to-one mapping for products, categories, content and landing pages
- Discontinued products mapped to relevant alternatives or categories
- Redirects implemented as permanent (301 or 308)
- No redirect chains or loops
- Redirects tested before launch
7. SEO Elements
- Titles, meta descriptions and headings carried over
- Canonical tags correct on new templates
- Structured data for products, breadcrumbs and organization
- XML sitemaps generated for new URLs
- Robots rules checked (no staging blocks left)
- Hreflang for international stores
- Pagination and faceted navigation handling
8. Integrations
- ERP, OMS, WMS or 3PL connections
- Payment providers and methods
- Shipping carriers and rates
- Tax calculation
- Email, SMS, CRM and loyalty
- Reviews, search and personalization tools
- Marketplace and feed connections
9. Analytics and Tracking
- Analytics installed with the same event names and definitions
- Purchase tracking reconciled with platform orders
- Ad platform pixels and conversion events
- Consent handling for tags
- Search Console verified for the new setup
- Annotations marking the launch date
10. Quality Assurance
Test every revenue path and integration before launch. See migration testing for a full test plan.
- Checkout with every payment method, shipping option and market
- Discounts, gift cards and taxes
- Customer accounts and order history
- Integrations end to end
- Redirects and metadata
- Performance, accessibility and mobile
11. Launch and Aftercare
- Content and order freeze window agreed
- Final data migration and delta sync
- DNS and domain changes scheduled
- Smoke tests and go/no-go decision
- Rollback plan ready
- Customer service briefed with FAQs
- Post-launch monitoring for orders, errors, 404s, indexing and analytics
Timing the Migration
Work backwards from a launch window away from peak trading. Allow time for discovery, build, at least two data migration rehearsals, test cycles with fixes, and a stabilization period after launch before the next busy season. Compressing testing is the most common way migrations go wrong.
| Phase | Share of timeline (indicative) |
|---|---|
| Discovery and planning | Early, before build |
| Build and configuration | Largest share |
| Data rehearsals and testing | Substantial; don't compress |
| Launch | Short, planned window |
| Stabilization | Several weeks before peak |
Owners and Sign-Off
Each checklist area needs an owner who signs off when items are verified, not just done. Hold a go-live readiness review where owners confirm their areas against agreed criteria. See launch plan.
Common Mistakes
- No baselines, so problems can't be measured
- Redirect mapping left to the last week
- Customer account activation forgotten
- Analytics definitions changing with the platform
- Launching during peak trading
- No owner for post-launch monitoring
Want a second pair of eyes on your migration plan?
Talk to ZSpace about migration planning, Shopify migrations and post-launch conversion checks.
Conclusion
A migration checklist prevents omissions across discovery, baselines, data, content, URLs, SEO, integrations, analytics, QA and launch. Give each item an owner, rehearse the data, and keep monitoring after go-live. Related: choosing your next platform and parallel runs.
Common questions
Discovery and goals, baselines, data (products, customers, orders, content), URLs and redirects, SEO metadata, integrations, analytics and tracking, design and UX, testing, launch preparation, cutover and post-launch monitoring.