Migrating from OpenCart to Shopify Plus

Migrating eCommerce platforms to support growth

Is your current eCommerce platform limiting your brand’s potential? Your store’s performance potential is directly linked to the platform it’s built on. So, if managing your online store is becoming overly complex or if your existing platform can no longer keep up with your business’s evolving needs, it could be time to consider migrating to a new platform that will support your brand’s future growth and competitiveness.

According to BuiltWith, nearly 275,000 live stores are built using OpenCart, and over 5 million are built with Shopify. Although OpenCart is a popular platform amongst small and medium-sized businesses and offers excellent customisability, an increasing number of brands are now choosing to migrate from OpenCart to Shopify Plus.

In this article, we provide a step-by-step guide to migrating from OpenCart to Shopify Plus and discuss why so many businesses are making this leap to support their future growth.

What are the primary benefits of migrating from OpenCart to Shopify Plus?

OpenCart is a free, open-source platform used by many small and medium-sized businesses to launch their online stores. Shopify Plus is the premium version of Shopify, one of the world’s leading eCommerce platforms, known for its intuitive, user-friendly interface and wide selection of apps.

Shopify offers access to over 8,000 apps, allowing brands to add new features and functionality to their stores to support their growing and complex needs. In comparison, OpenCart only offers around 1400 apps. While its open-source nature makes it highly customisable, it requires significant development time, making it difficult for brands to make changes quickly or autonomously.

Another of the key benefits of Shopify Plus is the platform’s 24/7 customer support service. Shopify Plus’s high level of support enables businesses to resolve issues swiftly and efficiently, a stark contrast to OpenCart’s heavy reliance on community support.

If you believe migrating from OpenCart to Shopify Plus could unlock new opportunities for your business, helping it grow, thrive, and distinguish itself from competitors – read on to learn how to effectively plan, prepare, and execute a seamless migration to Shopify Plus.

Preparing to migrate from OpenCart to Shopify Plus

Migrating a website from one platform to another is a complex process that requires careful planning and preparation to ensure that nothing goes horribly wrong!

Investing time into preparing and planning the migration step-by-step can help reduce the risk of mistakes occurring or the loss of important data, as well as minimise downtime.

In this section, we’ll explore some of the most important steps to take pre-migration to ensure a smooth transition from OpenCart to Shopify Plus.

Pre-migration planning

One of the biggest risks of migrating from one platform to another is the potential loss of critical data, user experience quality, or SEO value. To prevent this, it’s crucial to plan and take precautions pre-migration to avoid this happening.

Record your current OpenCart setup

Document how your OpenCart store is currently set up so that you can plan how to replicate or improve this setup in Shopify Plus. Important information to record includes:

• Product catalogue
• Customer data
• Order history
• Extensions and functionalities
• Core features

• Backup data

Log into your OpenCart admin panel, navigate to “System”> “Backup/Restore”, select “Backup”, and follow the prompts to ensure all your data is securely backed up. Next, you need to backup all your files using FTP or your hosting provider’s file manager to download all files from your OpenCart root directory.

Do an SEO audit

Taking precautions to protect your website’s position in SERPs (search engine results pages) will help prevent your store from experiencing a major drop in visibility overnight when you migrate your website. During the pre-migration stage, we recommend taking the following steps:

• Benchmark metrics – Use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to benchmark your current website’s traffic, rankings, and other key performance metrics.
• Identify top pages – Make a list of your top-performing pages, focusing on those with high traffic and backlinks to prioritise during migration.
• Crawl site – Use tools like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb to crawl your OpenCart site, capturing details about the URL structure, metadata, and on-page elements that will inform the setup of your Shopify Plus store.

A step-by-step guide to migrating from OpenCart to Shopify Plus

Performing a website migration is not simple; it requires a significant amount of technical knowledge to ensure that the process goes smoothly. Trying to perform a migration without adequate technical skill or knowledge puts you at risk of experiencing extended downtime, security vulnerabilities, a drop in visibility in SERPs, and data loss.

So, before you begin, read through these steps in migrating to Shopify Plus carefully. If you have any concerns or need help, contact our team of Shopify Plus setup experts here at Create8 for help performing the migration and ensuring a successful transition from OpenCart to Shopify Plus.

Export data

To begin, you need to export your current data from OpenCart securely.

• Products

To do this, go to “System”> “Backup/Restore” in the OpenCart admin panel, select “Export”, and choose the products you wish to export as a CSV file.

• Categories, customers, and orders

Follow a similar process for exporting categories, customers, and orders. Ensure all exported files are safely stored in the /system/storage folder.

Choose a migration tool

Now, you need to choose which tool to use to import your data into Shopify Plus and ensure data integrity in migration. Popular tools include Cart2Cart, LitExtension, or Shopify’s own Store Importer. If you’re dealing with complex data structures or are unsure which tool is right for your needs, speak to the Create8 team to receive expert advice from our developers.

Import data into Shopify Plus

Now that you’ve exported all of your data out of OpenCart, it’s time to import it into Shopify Plus.

• Prepare your data

Ensure your CSV files are clean and free of errors.

• Import products and customers

Products and customers can be directly imported through the Shopify admin panel.

Setup Collections and Tags

Shopify uses collections in place of OpenCart’s categories. Collections organise products into groups to make it easier for customers to find what they’re looking for. Shopify also uses Tags to improve product organisation and searchability. Depending on the complexity of your brand’s product range, you can either set up smart or manual collections. Collections can be created by navigating to the “Products” section in your Shopify admin and selecting “Collections.” Tags can be assigned when editing products in Shopify.

Preserve your SEO value

The following steps can be used to help preserve your website’s search engine rankings post-migration.

• Maintain a consistent URL structure

Keep URL structures consistent or plan a new SEO-friendly URL strategy.

• Setup 301 redirects

Implement redirects from old OpenCart URLs to new Shopify URLs using a tool like Easy Redirects.

• Migrate metadata

Transfer all meta titles, descriptions, and headers. Shopify allows you to easily customise these elements.

• Setup canonical tags

Ensure canonical tags are correctly set up to prevent duplicate content issues.

Optimise load times

Enhance site speed and minimise page load times by making performance improvements that leverage Shopify Plus’s faster and more robust platform. Fast load times will improve the overall user experience and positively impact your search engine rankings.

Customise your Shopify Plus store

This step focuses on setting up your new Shopify store to provide customers with an exceptional shopping experience and help your business meet its goals.

• Perform an analysis – Understand your business needs and goals.
• Create a wireframe – Map out the structure of your new Shopify store.
• Design your user experience – Ensure your new design is consistent with your brand and improves on your old OpenCart store.
• Create content – Prepare and optimise content, including text and images, for your new store. 
• Build your store – Develop your new Shopify Plus store based on the wireframe and design specifications.

Extend functionality with apps

Apps can enhance your store’s functionality and help to build an exceptional user experience and high-performance website. The Shopify App Store features over 8,000 apps. There’s an app for adding all kinds of custom functionalities in Shopify, from subscription services and AI customer support to customer reviews and upselling. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular apps to consider integrating at this stage.

• SEO and marketing – SEO Manager, Klaviyo, Privy, Omnisend, or HubSport.
• Inventory management – Stocky, TradeGecko, or Cin7.
• Customer Support –Zendesk, Gorgias, Yotpo, Freshdesk, or Reamaze.
• Upsell and Cross-Sell – UFE Upsell, Bold Upsell, or ReConvert Upsell and Cross-Sell
• Subscriptions – Recharge, Bold Subscriptions, or PayWhirl.
• Site Search – Klevi, Algolia, or Searchanise.
• ERP integration – Brightpearl, NetSuite, or Microsoft Dynamics.

Configure payment and shipping settings

The payment methods and shipping options you offer can significantly influence a customer’s purchasing decision. Therefore, it’s important to be flexible and ensure that you accommodate a wide range of customer needs and preferences.

Payment gateways can be configured in the “Payments” section of your Shopify admin panel. Supporting a wide range of different payment methods can help to boost conversion rates and customer satisfaction. You will also need to set up shipping zones and rates and configure your store’s tax settings to ensure that taxes are calculated correctly based on the customer’s location.

Set up Google Analytics

Ensure that all analytics and tracking tools are properly set up and functioning correctly. This includes Google Analytics and other third-party tools used to track customer behaviour, conversions, and other key metrics.

Check Robots.txt file

The robots.txt file is extremely important to your website’s SEO. Configuring it correctly will improve your new store’s visibility in SERPs.

To configure the robots.txt file, locate it in your store’s code by going to the Shopify admin panel and clicking “Online Store”> “Themes”> “Actions”> “Edit Code”. In the “Layout” section of the code, look for a file named “robots.txt.liquid”. If it doesn’t exist, you need to create it by clicking “Add a new template”> “robots.txt” and then saving it as “robots.txt.liquid”. If the file already exists, check that it is set to allow search engines to crawl your website and configured correctly to exclude any directories or files necessary.

You can then use the Google Search Console to test your robots.txt file and check for errors.

How to test and launch your new Shopify Plus store

You’re nearly there! But there’s still a rigorous testing process and pre-launch preparations standing between you and the moment you push that launch button!

The testing stage

Testing a new website is a tedious but very important step in the process. First, you need to test your new Shopify store’s functionality by going through every feature and ensuring that it works as expected. This includes testing everything from the checkout process and payment gateways to product searches and user account functionality. It’s also important to test your store’s mobile responsiveness during this stage by performing the tests across all device types and browsers. Finally, you should test all of the 301 redirects that you set up earlier on in the process to ensure that they are working correctly.

Pre-launch tasks

Once you’re confident that everything is working properly, it’s time to prepare for the launch!

Submit sitemap – Submit your new sitemap to major search engines like Google to help them discover and index your new website faster and more efficiently. 

Prepare a marketing strategy – Develop a strategy for marketing your new Shopify Plus store. Plan and schedule email campaigns, social media announcements, and promotional activities to let your customer base know about your new store.

Update existing promotional materials – Don’t forget to update all promotional materials to reflect your new platform – especially if it has a new URL or visual design.

Advertising budget – Allocate additional budget to digital advertising, such as Google Ads and Facebook Ads, to help maintain visibility and traffic levels during the transition period.

Perform a soft launch – Consider launching to a limited audience before going fully public. This approach helps you identify any problems and gather valuable user feedback within a controlled environment. You can then make any necessary adjustments before rolling it out to the masses!

Going live

Are you ready? It’s time to go live with your new Shopify Plus store! Remember to use tools like Google Analytics to monitor traffic patterns very closely during those first days, weeks, and months after the launch. Compare pre and post-migration traffic and look for any significant changes that could indicate a problem with the website or user experience.

Don’t be fooled into thinking all the hard work is done now! Managing an eCommerce store involves ongoing improvement and optimisation. Regularly refining and optimising your Shopify Plus store based on analytics data and customer feedback will help boost its performance and drive business growth.

Partner with Create8 to seamlessly migrate from OpenCart to Shopify Plus

If that sounds like a lot, it’s because it is! Performing a site migration from OpenCart to Shopify Plus is not a job for the faint-hearted.

If your technical knowledge or skills aren’t up to the job, or you don’t have the time to handle such a complex and time-consuming project, then leave it to the experts!

For help or advice with an OpenCart to Shopify Plus migration, get in touch with our team of specialist Shopify web designers and developers here at Create8. As a Shopify partner, we have the specialist knowledge and experience required to carry out the process efficiently and ensure a seamless transition from one platform to the other. Our team can also recommend suitable Shopify Plus features and apps to help your business improve its performance and meet its goals.

For more information about our migration services for Shopify Plus or to request a quote on a project, give our team a call on 0161 820 9686.