Shopify Migration Deep Dive
Overview
Migrate product catalogs, customers, and orders to Shopify using the GraphQL Admin API bulk mutations, CSV imports, and incremental migration patterns.
Prerequisites
- Source platform data exported (CSV, JSON, or API access)
- Shopify store with appropriate access scopes
- Scopes needed:
write_products,write_customers,write_orders,write_inventory
Instructions
Step 1: Assess Migration Scope
| Data Type | Shopify Import Method | Complexity |
|---|---|---|
| Products + variants | productSet mutation (upsert) | Low |
| Product images | productCreateMedia mutation | Low |
| Customers | Customer CSV import or customerCreate | Medium |
| Historical orders | draftOrderCreate + draftOrderComplete | High |
| Inventory levels | inventorySetQuantities mutation | Medium |
| Collections | collectionCreate mutation | Low |
| Redirects (URLs) | urlRedirectCreate mutation | Low |
| Metafields | Included in product/customer mutations | Medium |
Step 2: Bulk Product Import with productSet
productSet is idempotent — it creates or updates based on handle, making it perfect for migrations. Handles variants, metafields, and all product attributes in a single mutation.
See Product Set Migration for the complete migration function.
Step 3: Bulk Operations for Large Imports
For importing thousands of products, use Shopify's staged uploads combined with bulk mutation to avoid rate limit issues.
See Bulk Operations Import for the staged upload and bulk mutation workflow.
Step 4: Set Inventory Levels & URL Redirects
After products are created, set inventory quantities at each location and create URL redirects to preserve SEO from the old platform.
See Inventory and Redirects for both mutation implementations.
Step 5: Post-Migration Validation
Automated validation that compares expected source counts against actual Shopify counts for products, customers, and other data types.
See Post-Migration Validation for the validation script.
Output
- Products migrated with variants, images, and metafields
- Inventory levels set at correct locations
- URL redirects preserving SEO
- Migration validated against source counts
Error Handling
| Issue | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
TAKEN on product handle | Duplicate handle | Append suffix or use productSet for upsert |
| Rate limited during import | Too many sequential calls | Use bulk operations or add delays |
| Image upload fails | URL not publicly accessible | Use staged uploads for private images |
| Inventory not updating | Wrong inventoryItemId | Query variant's inventoryItem.id first |
Examples
Quick Migration Status
# Count products in source vs Shopify
echo "Shopify product count:"
curl -sf -H "X-Shopify-Access-Token: $TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"query": "{ productsCount { count } }"}' \
"https://$STORE/admin/api/${SHOPIFY_API_VERSION:-2025-04}/graphql.json" \
| jq '.data.productsCount.count'