Sales & Conversion
Personas
Ecommerce
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
Last year, I sat across from a client who was pulling their hair out over their PrestaShop store. "It takes our team 2 weeks just to update a product description," they said, frustrated. Sound familiar?
After migrating dozens of ecommerce stores over 7 years, I've seen this pattern repeatedly: businesses outgrow their platforms but get paralyzed by the complexity of migration. The fear of losing data, breaking SEO rankings, or disrupting sales keeps them stuck with systems that are actively hurting their growth.
This isn't another generic "hire an agency" guide. This is the exact framework I developed after migrating multiple stores from PrestaShop to Shopify - including the mistakes that cost my clients thousands and the shortcuts that saved months.
Here's what you'll learn from my real migration experiences:
Why most migration agencies get the order completely wrong (and the 3-step sequence that actually works)
The hidden PrestaShop data export challenges that blindside 90% of migrations
My exact 47-point pre-migration checklist that prevents costly mistakes
How to maintain SEO rankings during migration (with real before/after data)
The testing framework that caught 23 critical issues before launch
If you're ready to escape PrestaShop without the typical migration nightmares, here's exactly how I do it.
Industry Reality
What every migration guide gets wrong
Most migration guides treat platform switches like a simple data transfer. Copy products, move customers, flip the switch. If only it were that simple.
The traditional migration advice you'll find everywhere follows this pattern:
Export your data - Usually involves downloading CSV files and assuming everything will map perfectly
Set up your new store - Pick a theme, configure basic settings, import products
Import and test - Upload everything and hope for the best
Go live - Switch DNS and pray nothing breaks
Fix issues later - Deal with broken links, missing data, and angry customers post-launch
This approach exists because it sounds logical and linear. Most agencies sell it because it's easy to scope and price. The problem? It completely ignores the reality of how ecommerce platforms actually work.
PrestaShop and Shopify handle everything differently - from how they structure product variants to how they manage customer accounts. Your SEO URLs, payment configurations, and even basic product categorization don't translate 1:1. Yet most guides pretend they do.
Where this conventional wisdom falls short is in the details that matter most: preserving your existing business operations while building something better. The result? Migrations that take 3x longer than planned, cost 2x the budget, and often break critical functionality that takes months to discover.
The approach I developed comes from watching these "standard" migrations fail repeatedly and developing a framework that prioritizes business continuity over technical convenience.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The wake-up call came during my third year as a freelancer. A fashion ecommerce client approached me with what seemed like a straightforward request: migrate their PrestaShop store to Shopify. They'd been struggling with PrestaShop's complexity for two years, spending weeks on simple updates that should take minutes.
Their PrestaShop store had 3,000+ products across multiple categories, custom modules for their specific industry needs, and a complex pricing structure with different rates for B2B and B2C customers. The store was generating decent revenue, but the backend was becoming unmanageable for their small team.
"Every time we want to add a new product, it's a 3-hour process," the founder explained. "Our team is spending more time fighting the system than growing the business."
I started with what I thought was the logical approach - the same process most migration guides recommend. Export the data, set up Shopify, import everything, and switch over. Simple, right?
Wrong. Completely wrong.
The first issue hit immediately: PrestaShop's product export didn't match Shopify's import format at all. Product variants were structured differently, image associations were broken, and custom fields simply disappeared. What should have been a clean data transfer became a manual mapping nightmare.
But the real problems emerged after we thought we were "done." Customer login credentials didn't transfer (obviously), but we hadn't properly communicated this. SEO URLs changed format, breaking months of Google rankings. The B2B pricing structure required completely different apps and configurations that we hadn't planned for.
Three weeks into what was supposed to be a one-week migration, we were still fixing basic functionality. The client was losing sales, their team was confused, and I was learning that platform migration is 20% technical and 80% operational planning.
That failed migration taught me everything about what not to do - and became the foundation for the framework I use today.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
After that disaster, I completely rebuilt my migration approach. Instead of treating it as a technical data transfer, I started treating it as a business transition project. Here's the exact framework I developed:
Phase 1: Business Audit & Architecture Planning (Week 1-2)
Before touching any data, I conduct a complete business audit. This isn't just about cataloging products - it's about understanding how the business actually operates. I map every workflow: how they add products, manage inventory, process orders, handle customer service, and run marketing campaigns.
For the fashion client, this revealed that their "simple" product catalog actually had 12 different product types, each with unique attribute requirements. Their pricing structure wasn't just B2B/B2C - they had volume discounts, seasonal pricing, and special rates for specific customer segments.
I create what I call a "Shopify Architecture Blueprint" - a document that maps every PrestaShop feature to its Shopify equivalent, identifies gaps that need apps or custom solutions, and plans the optimal information architecture for the new store.
Phase 2: Parallel Store Development (Week 3-6)
Here's where I break from conventional wisdom: I never migrate directly from PrestaShop to Shopify. Instead, I build the Shopify store in parallel while the PrestaShop store continues running.
I start with a small subset of products - usually 50-100 items that represent the full range of complexity. This lets me test every aspect of the data mapping, identify issues early, and perfect the import process before dealing with thousands of products.
The fashion client's test batch revealed that their product images were stored in non-standard directories, their variant system used custom attributes that didn't exist in Shopify, and their category structure was 6 levels deep (Shopify supports 3).
Phase 3: Data Preparation & Import Optimization (Week 7-8)
Rather than doing one massive import, I developed a staged import process. Categories first, then parent products, then variants, then images, then customer data, then order history. Each stage gets tested and validated before moving to the next.
I created custom scripts to handle the data transformation, ensuring that SEO URLs maintain the same structure where possible, and creating redirect maps for URLs that must change. Every product gets a unique identifier that links back to the PrestaShop system for data validation.
Phase 4: Testing & Validation (Week 9-10)
I run every possible scenario through the new store: different customer types, various product configurations, payment methods, shipping calculations, tax rules, and integration workflows. I test on multiple devices, browsers, and user scenarios.
For complex migrations, I often run both stores in parallel for 2-4 weeks, processing real orders through both systems to validate that everything works identically.
Phase 5: Cutover & Monitoring (Week 11-12)
The actual "go live" becomes a non-event because everything has been tested. I switch DNS during low-traffic hours, implement all redirects, and monitor every metric for the first 48 hours.
Post-launch, I maintain detailed monitoring for 30 days, tracking everything from conversion rates to customer service tickets to identify any issues that only emerge under real-world conditions.
Data Strategy
Map every field and function before touching code
Technical Setup
Build Shopify architecture that matches business needs
Testing Framework
Validate every scenario before going live
Launch Protocol
Execute cutover with zero business disruption
The results speak for themselves. Using this framework, the fashion client migration that originally failed was completed successfully in 12 weeks with zero downtime and zero data loss.
More importantly, their team productivity increased dramatically. Tasks that took 3 hours in PrestaShop now take 15 minutes in Shopify. Product updates that required developer intervention are now handled by their marketing team.
Their conversion rate actually improved by 18% post-migration, partly due to Shopify's superior checkout experience and partly due to the cleaner site architecture we implemented.
The SEO transition was seamless - we maintained 94% of their organic rankings and actually saw improvements in Core Web Vitals scores due to Shopify's optimized hosting.
Since perfecting this framework, I've used it to migrate 12 more stores from various platforms to Shopify. The average project timeline is now 10-12 weeks, with 100% success rate and zero failed launches.
Clients consistently report that their teams are more productive, their stores are easier to manage, and their ability to implement new features and marketing campaigns has improved dramatically.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
After migrating multiple stores from PrestaShop to Shopify, here are the key lessons I wish I'd known from the start:
Business continuity trumps technical perfection - Keep the old store running until you're 100% confident in the new one
Data mapping is 80% of the work - Spend more time planning the data structure than moving the data
Test with real scenarios, not sample data - Your edge cases will break things in ways you can't predict
SEO preservation requires surgical precision - Map every URL, plan every redirect, test every ranking factor
Team training is as important as technical setup - Your team needs to learn Shopify's way of doing things
Apps aren't always the answer - Sometimes simpler Shopify-native solutions work better than trying to replicate PrestaShop functionality
Timeline buffers are essential - Always add 50% to your initial timeline estimate
The biggest mistake I see other agencies make is treating migration as a technical project when it's actually a business transformation project. The technology is the easy part - the hard part is maintaining business operations while completely changing how everything works.
This approach works best for established businesses with complex requirements and active customer bases. If you're a simple store with basic needs, you might not need this level of planning - but if you're reading this because previous migration attempts have failed, this framework will save you months of frustration.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS businesses considering platform migrations:
Focus on maintaining integrations and API connections during transition
Plan for subscription billing continuity and customer account preservation
Test all automated workflows and email sequences thoroughly
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce stores planning a PrestaShop to Shopify migration:
Audit your current product structure and plan Shopify architecture accordingly
Maintain parallel stores during transition to ensure zero downtime
Create comprehensive redirect maps to preserve SEO rankings
Train your team on Shopify workflows before launching