A large-brand Shopify Plus migration should put workflow, platform differences, and cross-border SEO into one cutover plan. Inventory products, customers, orders, media, collections, apps, stock, payments, and URLs first; retain field maps, error logs, and order replay during migration; monitor redirects, indexing, checkout, and fulfilment after launch. An imported dataset is not a finished project.
Build a difference and ownership matrix
Mark each object as direct migration, transformation, manual rebuild, or out of scope and assign an owner. Map old and new URLs and test canonical, sitemap, language paths, and media. Turn platform differences into tests for discounts, customer accounts, order states, duties, inventory, and app logic.
Validate cutover with order replay
Test normal purchase, payment failure, refunds, split shipments, stockouts, address changes, delivery exceptions, and support notices. Retain the old store, backups, domain, and payment switches and define rollback conditions. After launch, use Search Console, logs, and orders to monitor 404s, crawling, rankings, payment failure, and refunds rather than screenshots alone.
FAQ
When is a migration complete?
When data, URLs, payment, fulfilment, support, and SEO pass acceptance, exceptions recover, and the team can operate continuously.
Must every old URL be kept?
Map and redirect valuable intent; use search data and intent to decide on redundant or obsolete URLs instead of copying blindly.
How can lost orders be reduced?
Inventory fields, stage imports, replay orders, accept payment and ERP/3PL, and retain backup and rollback.
Will rankings be preserved automatically?
No. Check redirects, content, links, canonical, structured data, and indexing.
What should a case disclose?
Platform, scope, objects, period, URL strategy, exceptions, and authorised metrics.