Shopware to Shopify: migrate in 4 weeks without losing a single ranking.

Shopware to Shopify is the most common migration we deliver in 2026. The reason is simple: Shopware 5 has had no security updates since 31 July 2024, and the path to Shopware 6 is not an update but a rebuild. If you rebuild, you are free to choose the platform. This text explains what happens technically during the switch, what happens to data, URLs and integrations, and when the move is not worth it.

Why Shopware shops are moving to Shopify right now

Shopware 5 was the standard in German-speaking e-commerce for over ten years. With the end of support, shop owners are in an awkward position: the shop runs, but every plugin update and every PHP version can break it, and security fixes only come as paid patches from third parties. Shopware 6 solves that, but requires a new theme, new plugins and a licence that grows with revenue. The shop also stays self-hosted, with everything that comes with it.

Shopify turns this around. Hosting, security, checkout and updates are part of the platform. You pay a fixed plan and focus on products and marketing. For brands that want to grow, this is the decisive difference: time that used to go into technology goes into selling.

Shopware to Shopify: what happens to the data model

Shopware knows articles with variants, properties, free text fields, manufacturers, customer groups and tier prices. Shopify has products with up to three options, metafields, collections, customer tags and, on Shopify Plus, company accounts with price lists. The translation is clear in nine out of ten cases, but it has to be done. A CSV that a tool imports “somehow” creates duplicate variants, empty fields and images in the wrong order. For every project we write a mapping that assigns each Shopware field to its Shopify target, import into a staging shop and compare samples against the old shop before anything goes live.

Customers move with accounts, addresses, groups and newsletter status. Passwords cannot be exported from Shopware, so customers set a new one at first login. We carry over orders with status, invoice numbers and payments so customer service and accounting keep seeing the history.

Redirects in a Shopware to Shopify migration

Shopware URLs look like /category/subcategory/product, Shopify uses /products/handle and /collections/handle. Without redirects every Google click lands on a 404 page, and Google removes the rankings within a few weeks. We export every indexed URL from Shopware and Search Console, assign its new target and create the 301 redirects before go-live. That includes category URLs with filters, manufacturer pages, blog posts, directly linked images and old URLs that were already redirected in Shopware. How the redirect mapping works in detail is explained on the Shopify migration page.

Plugins and integrations: Pickware, ERP, payments

Most Shopware shops are connected to an ERP or to Pickware for stock and shipping. Shopify has connectors to all common systems, from JTL-Wawi and Xentral to SAP. Before the project we review every integration, define which system leads, and test the data flow in the staging shop with real orders. Payment methods such as TWINT, PostFinance, credit card, PayPal, Klarna and invoice are set up in Shopify Payments or via partners, without a plugin that breaks on the next update.

For Shopware plugins we apply a simple rule: first we check whether Shopify has the function built in, then we look for a reviewed app, and only then do we build custom code. In practice, half of the old plugins often disappear this way.

Checkout and conversion after the move to Shopify

The biggest difference in daily life is the checkout. Shopware checkouts are multi-step and get longer with every plugin. The Shopify checkout is a single page, knows Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay and TWINT and is tested continuously by Shopify itself. Shopify reports up to 50 percent higher conversion for Shop Pay compared with guest checkout, measured in a study commissioned by Shopify. We do not take that number blindly, but in our own projects we regularly see more visitors complete their order after the migration. What it takes is described on the Shopify SEO agency page and in the Shopware vs Shopify comparison.

Shopware B2B to Shopify B2B

Customer groups, tier prices, net prices and payment terms were the argument for Shopware for a long time. Shopify Plus now covers this with company accounts, price lists per customer, quantity rules and payment terms, in one shop together with the consumer business. What Shopify B2B can do and where the limits are is described on the Shopify B2B page. For very deep configurators or large numbers of per-customer price rules we tell you in the intro call whether Shopify fits.

When Shopware to Shopify is not the right decision

If your business relies on a configurator with hundreds of dependent options, if prices per customer have to come from an ERP in real time, or if you must run servers and code yourself for compliance reasons, Shopware 6 or another system may be the better choice. We have built both and tell you before the project, not after.

Shopware to Shopify with Rankist

We have been in e-commerce since 2015, have supported 293 shops and are one of three Shopify Plus Partners in Switzerland. Migrations from Shopware are our most frequent project, AIDA Whirlpools is one of them and is listed in the Shopify Partner Directory. After the move we stay on board for SEO, ads and email if you want, as a Shopify Plus agency from one team. The first step is a free 30-minute call in which we look at your Shopware shop and tell you what the move needs.