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Shopify is the quickest way to start selling online. As a store grows, though, transaction fees, app subscriptions and theme limits can start to cost more than they’re worth. I’ve moved Australian stores from Shopify to WooCommerce for exactly that reason. Here’s how to tell if it’s time, and how to move without losing sales or rankings.
Is it worth moving?
The main financial reason is fees. If you use a payment gateway other than Shopify Payments, Shopify adds its own fee on every sale:
| Shopify plan | Extra fee per sale (external gateway) |
|---|---|
| Basic | 2.0% |
| Shopify | 1.0% |
| Advanced | 0.5% |
Check Shopify’s current pricing page for your country before deciding; plans and fees change.
On the Basic plan, a store doing AUD $300,000 a year through an external gateway pays about AUD $6,000 a year in these fees, before its plan and app subscriptions. WooCommerce doesn’t charge per sale. The full cost comparison is in WooCommerce vs Shopify for Australian businesses.
Moving usually makes sense when:
- Your sales are above roughly AUD $150,000 a year and growing
- You pay for several Shopify apps to do things WooCommerce does with free or one-off plugins
- You need a payment gateway Shopify doesn’t support well, or a custom checkout
- You want full control of your data, hosting and design
It usually isn’t worth it if your store is small, uses Shopify Payments and you’re happy managing it yourself.
What a migration costs
A Shopify to WooCommerce migration is a WooCommerce build plus data and SEO work. As a guide, WooCommerce stores in New Zealand typically cost NZD $3,500–$9,000+, and a migration sits within or slightly above that range depending on:
Ongoing, you’ll pay for hosting (about AUD $30–$80 a month) and some plugin licences instead of a Shopify plan and apps.
What moves across, and what doesn’t
| Data | Moves across? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Products and variants | ✓ | Including prices, SKUs, stock and images |
| Categories (collections) | ✓ | Rebuilt as WooCommerce product categories |
| Customers | ✓ | Names, emails and addresses |
| Customer passwords | ✗ | Stored encrypted by Shopify; customers reset them |
| Orders | ✓ | Usually via a migration tool |
| Blog posts and pages | ✓ | Content, images and meta |
| Reviews | Sometimes | Depends on the review app you use |
| Shopify apps | ✗ | Replaced with plugins or custom code |
| Theme | ✗ | Rebuilt for WordPress |
How the migration works, step by step
01Audit the store
List every product type, app, payment gateway, shipping rule and integration, and export your current URLs and rankings from Google Search Console.
02Build WooCommerce on a staging site
The new store is built on a private staging copy, so your Shopify store keeps selling throughout.
03Move the data
Products, categories, customers and orders are moved with a migration tool or Shopify’s CSV exports, then checked: prices, variants, stock, images and descriptions.
04Map and redirect every URL
Shopify and WooCommerce use different URL patterns, so every old URL needs a 301 redirect to its new address:
| Shopify URL | Default WooCommerce URL |
|---|---|
| /products/blue-lamp | /product/blue-lamp |
| /collections/lighting | /product-category/lighting |
| /pages/about-us | /about-us |
| /blogs/news/post-name | /post-name or /blog/post-name |
05Set up payments, tax and shipping
Gateways like Stripe, PayPal, Afterpay and Zip, GST-ready invoices and your shipping rules, all tested with real orders through each gateway.
06Speed check and launch
The store is measured for speed, a final data sync catches any orders placed during the build, and the domain is switched. Launch in a quiet sales period, not before a big promotion.
07Monitor after launch
Search Console is checked for crawl errors and missed redirects, and customers get an email explaining that they’ll need to reset their password.
Keeping your SEO
Rankings usually dip slightly for a few weeks after any platform move while Google recrawls the site, then recover. What makes the difference:
- A 301 redirect for every product, collection, page and blog URL
- Product titles, descriptions and meta carried across unchanged at launch
- Images moved with their alt text
- A new sitemap submitted in Search Console on launch day
- Crawl errors checked and fixed in the first two weeks
The bottom line
- Moving pays off when Shopify’s fees and apps outgrow WooCommerce hosting and setup costs
- Plan for 4–8 weeks, built on staging so you keep selling
- Products, customers and orders move; passwords and apps don’t
- Redirects are what protect your Google rankings
- Test every gateway with real orders before switching