Storefront Migrations

Migrations Without the Horror Stories

Platform migrations have a bad reputation for good reason: they often take twice as long as planned, lose data in transit, and tank search rankings. We've executed enough migrations to know exactly where projects go wrong — and how to prevent it.

Our migration methodology treats every data object as precious, every URL as a search equity asset, and every cutover as a surgical procedure.

The Migration Framework

Phase 1: Discovery & Inventory (Weeks 1-2)

Before a single record is moved, we build a complete inventory of what needs migrating:

Data objects:

• Products (variants, metafields, images, videos)
• Customers (addresses, purchase history, account credentials)
• Orders (historical records for reporting and service)
• Content pages, blog posts, navigation structures
• Discount codes and gift card balances

SEO assets:

• Full crawl of indexed pages with title, meta description, canonical URL
• Backlink profile for high-authority pages
• Structured data markup to preserve
• Core Web Vitals baseline metrics

Integrations:

• All connected apps and services that need reconfiguration
• Authentication flows and OAuth apps
• Webhooks and event subscriptions

Phase 2: Destination Build & Data Pipeline (Weeks 3-8)

We build the destination platform in parallel with the source — customers continue transacting on the old platform while we build and test the new one.

Data migration runs continuously against production data (read-only) so we can:

• Validate transformation logic against real data edge cases
• Run the migration repeatedly to refine scripts before final cutover
• Produce record counts and checksums for validation

The 301 redirect map is built, validated against the destination platform's actual URL structure, and tested before cutover day.

Phase 3: Parallel Testing (Weeks 9-10)

Before cutover, we run parallel testing:

• Full functional test of the destination storefront
• Checkout flow with every payment method
• All discount and promotion codes
• Customer account functions
• All third-party integrations

We produce a signed-off test matrix. Nothing gets cut over with open issues.

Phase 4: Cutover (Day of Launch)

Cutover happens in a maintenance window (typically 2-4 hours). Steps:

1. Final delta sync (records created since last full migration)
2. DNS cutover with short TTL for fast rollback capability
3. Verification pass on destination platform
4. Monitoring dashboard active
5. Rollback plan on standby for 48 hours

Phase 5: Post-Migration Monitoring (30 Days)

We monitor for 30 days post-launch:

• Google Search Console for crawl errors and ranking changes
• Error rate and performance benchmarks
• Customer service issues related to migration
• Data integrity spot checks

Most SEO impacts from migrations are temporary. Proper redirect implementation and ongoing monitoring minimizes them.