How Long Does a Shopify Migration Take? Timelines by Store Size (2026)

Reviewed by the shopexperts editorial team. Last updated June 24, 2026.

How long does a Shopify migration take? Six to twelve weeks for most stores. Four weeks if you're small and clean. Twelve to twenty-four if you're on Adobe Commerce or moving to Shopify Plus with B2B and multi-store requirements. Two weeks if someone's lying to you about what migration actually involves.

The honest answer changes by source platform, store size, destination tier, and the work scope. This guide breaks down realistic timelines for each variable, what actually drives the calendar up, what can legitimately make it shorter (without being the "two weeks" lie), and when in the year to schedule the work.

This is the timeline companion to Shopify migration cost and the cross-platform reference that applies whether you're moving from BigCommerce, Magento, WooCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, or a custom platform.

Before the detailed breakdowns, the heuristic I use on first calls with merchants:

The rule of thumb

• 4-6 weeks: small catalog (under 500 SKUs), clean data, default or paid theme with minor customization, lean app stack, no migration, single region.
• 6-10 weeks: mid-size catalog (500-5,000 SKUs), paid theme with significant customization, 15-25 integrations to rebuild, standard B2C.
• 10-16 weeks: larger catalog (5,000+ SKUs), custom theme work, complex app stack, light B2B or international, platform migration.
• 16-24 weeks: Adobe Commerce migration, complex B2B with customer companies and tier pricing, multi-store, Shopify Plus destination with custom Functions or Checkout Extensibility.
• 24-40 weeks: enterprise migrations with Hydrogen headless rebuild, multi-region setup, custom app development, deep ERP integration.

What this doesn't count

The timelines above are project execution time from kickoff to launch. They don't include: vendor selection (1-4 weeks of evaluating proposals), contract negotiation (1-3 weeks), or pre-engagement audit work if you do it before signing. Add 2-6 weeks to the front end for these stages.

They also don't include the 30-day post-launch monitoring period that should be part of every migration. Add 4 weeks to the back end. So a "6-week migration" in execution terms is a 10-12 week calendar commitment end to end.

Timelines vary meaningfully by source platform. Each one has its own complexity profile.

BigCommerce to Shopify: 4-8 weeks

BigCommerce is the cleanest migration to Shopify. Source data is structured, URL patterns are simpler than Magento, and the app rebuild is lighter. Small stores under 1,000 SKUs land at 4-6 weeks; mid-size with custom theme work at 6-8 weeks.

Faster than expected because BigCommerce and Shopify share enough structural similarity that the data transformation is straightforward. See the BigCommerce migration guide for the source-specific detail.

Wix to Shopify: 4-6 weeks

Wix stores are typically small and the migration is straightforward. Wix's URL structure (/shop/p/[product-id]) and theme model don't have direct Shopify equivalents but the data is simple enough that the rebuild is fast. Most Wix migrations land at 4-6 weeks.

Wix stores rarely have complex integrations, B2B requirements, or large catalogs, so the timeline floor stays low. See the Wix migration guide for detail.

Squarespace to Shopify: 4-6 weeks

Similar profile to Wix. Squarespace product URLs (/shop/[product-slug]) need explicit mapping but the source data is simple. Content pages migrate cleanly. Most Squarespace migrations land at 4-6 weeks. See the Squarespace migration guide for detail.

WooCommerce to Shopify: 6-12 weeks

WooCommerce migrations are slower than they look because the plugin audit drags. A typical WooCommerce store has 30-50 plugins; cataloging each, finding Shopify equivalents, and rebuilding the functionality takes real time. WordPress blog content adds 1-3 weeks if substantial.

Small WooCommerce stores at 6-8 weeks; mid-size with WooCommerce Subscriptions at 8-10 weeks; larger or content-heavy at 10-12 weeks. See the WooCommerce migration guide for the plugin audit detail. For WordPress sites not using WooCommerce, see the WordPress migration guide.

Volusion to Shopify: 5-10 weeks

Volusion migrations carry their own timeline considerations. Older Volusion stores often have substantial legacy ASP-era URLs (/ProductDetails.asp?productCode=X) in Google's index requiring extensive redirect mapping. B2B-heavy Volusion stores typically need Shopify Plus, adding 4-8 weeks. Most Volusion migrations land at 5-10 weeks. See the Volusion migration guide for platform-specific detail.

Magento Open Source to Shopify: 6-12 weeks

Magento Open Source migrations land in similar timelines to WooCommerce but for different reasons. The EAV database structure complicates data extraction. Configurable products need careful mapping. Extension replacement is its own workstream.

Small Magento Open Source stores at 6-8 weeks; mid-size with customer groups and complex catalog at 8-12 weeks. See the Magento migration guide.

Adobe Commerce to Shopify Plus: 12-24 weeks

Adobe Commerce migrations are the slowest because the source has B2B features that need Plus B2B catalog setup on the destination, customer segmentation, advanced rules, and usually multi-store. Standard Adobe Commerce to Plus at 12-16 weeks; with B2B and multi-store at 16-24 weeks; with Hydrogen rebuild at 24-40 weeks.

Salesforce Commerce Cloud to Shopify Plus: 16-30 weeks

SFCC migrations are uniquely complex. The source platform has deep customization patterns that don't translate to Shopify directly. Most SFCC migrations end up on Shopify Plus with significant custom Function development. 16-30 weeks is realistic; some run longer.

Custom platform to Shopify: variable

Custom platforms range from simple to extremely complex. The audit phase reveals the timeline. Some custom platforms are essentially WordPress-with-extras and migrate in 8-10 weeks. Others are bespoke builds that take 20+ weeks to map and rebuild on Shopify. Honest scoping requires the audit; quotes before audit are guesses.

Store size affects timeline almost as much as source platform. Realistic ranges across all source platforms:

Pre-revenue / under 500 SKUs: 4-6 weeks

Small catalog, simple operations, likely no integrations, single region. Migration is essentially a clean rebuild on Shopify with data transfer. Fast.

$500K-$3M revenue / 500-2,000 SKUs: 6-8 weeks

Mid-range catalog, modest integration count (5-15 integrations), paid theme with customization, some app rebuild work. Standard B2C migration territory.

$3M-$10M revenue / 2,000-10,000 SKUs: 8-12 weeks

Larger catalog, more integrations (15-30), custom theme work or significant paid theme customization, potentially light B2B or international. Most professional migrations land here.

$10M-$50M revenue / 10,000+ SKUs: 12-20 weeks

Enterprise-scale catalog, complex integrations (ERP, 3PL, advanced marketing stack), often B2B or multi-region, typically Plus destination. Multi-month engagement; significant project management.

$50M+ enterprise: 16-30+ weeks

Adobe Commerce or SFCC migrations to Shopify Plus with B2B catalogs, multi-store, custom Functions, potentially Hydrogen headless. Long engagements with phased contracts and dedicated migration teams.

Where catalog size matters most

The catalog size impact is biggest in the verification phase of data migration. Importing 500 SKUs is fast; importing 50,000 with variant complexity takes real time. The variance scales roughly linearly with SKU count, but also with variant configuration complexity. Configurable products are harder than simple products at any scale.

Destination Shopify plan also affects timeline.

Standard Shopify or Advanced Shopify: baseline

Most migrations go to standard or Advanced Shopify. These are the baseline timelines from the source platform sections above. No Plus-specific feature work; standard configuration applies.

Shopify Plus without B2B or expansion stores: baseline + 1-2 weeks

Plus destination adds light additional configuration (Plus account setup, support contact establishment) but doesn't fundamentally change the timeline. 1-2 weeks added to baseline.

Shopify Plus with B2B catalogs: baseline + 3-6 weeks

B2B catalog setup is its own workstream. Customer company mapping, location-based pricing configuration, payment terms setup, draft order workflow design. Typically 3-6 weeks of additional work on top of standard migration.

Shopify Plus with expansion stores: baseline + 2-4 weeks per expansion store

Each expansion store is essentially a separate Shopify store within the Plus subscription. Theme work, product setup, market configuration. 2-4 weeks per expansion store on top of the parent store work.

Shopify Plus with custom Functions: baseline + 2-8 weeks per Function

Function development depends on complexity. Simple discount Functions at 2-3 weeks; complex shipping or payment Functions at 4-8 weeks. Each Function is its own development effort with QA. Add per Function.

Shopify Plus with Hydrogen headless: baseline + 20-40 weeks

Hydrogen rebuilds are essentially full custom development projects on top of migration. Significant additional timeline. Plan separately as its own engagement, not as a migration extension. See the Shopify Plus migration guide for the upgrade detail.

The variables that push timelines longer. Some are predictable; some only reveal themselves during the audit phase.

Catalog complexity (linear-ish scaling)

SKU count is the obvious variable. Less obvious: variant complexity (configurable products take 3-5x more time per SKU than simple products), custom attributes (each one needs explicit mapping), metafields (Shopify equivalent setup is a separate workstream).

Theme customization scope

The single biggest timeline variable that's under your control. Default Shopify theme: 1-2 weeks for setup and customization. Paid theme with significant customization: 3-6 weeks. Custom theme build: 6-12 weeks. The decision to go custom adds the most calendar of any single choice.

Integration count and complexity

Each ERP, 3PL, marketing tool, accounting system, or custom integration needs rebuilding on Shopify. Standard integrations with mature connectors (NetSuite, ShipStation, Klaviyo) at 0.5-1.5 weeks each. Custom integrations at 1-4 weeks each. Stores with 15-30 integrations spend significant timeline on integration work alone.

B2B complexity

B2B requirements add weeks. Customer companies setup: 1-2 weeks. Location-based pricing: 1-2 weeks. Payment terms setup: 1 week. Quote workflows: 1-2 weeks. Total B2B workstream typically 4-8 weeks on top of standard migration.

Subscriptions

WooCommerce Subscriptions or Magento subscription extensions need rebuilding on Recharge, Skio, Bold, or Smartrr. Migration of subscription state and payment tokens is complex. Always adds 2-4 weeks; sometimes more for complex subscription business models.

Multi-region / international

Shopify Markets setup, multi-currency configuration, multi-language with Langify or Weglot, hreflang setup, region-specific tax compliance. Add 2-4 weeks for international setup.

Custom development needs

Custom apps, Shopify Plus Functions, Checkout Extensibility customization. Each is its own dev workstream. Custom app development at 4-12 weeks per app. Functions at 2-8 weeks each.

Migration partner availability

Top migration specialists are typically booked 2-8 weeks out. Available partner with capacity tomorrow is often a warning sign; busy specialists with availability in 4-6 weeks is normal. Plan for the wait when hiring well.

Your decision-making speed

Approvals, brand reviews, feature decisions during the project. Slow stakeholder approvals can add 2-6 weeks to a project that should have been faster. Designate a decision-maker with authority; don't make every decision a committee review.

Data quality on source platform

Clean catalog data, consistent customer records, accurate inventory speed up migration. Messy source data adds verification time. If your Magento product attributes are inconsistent, expect 1-3 weeks of additional cleanup work.

Things that legitimately shorten migration timelines, without being the "two weeks" lie.

Use a default or near-default Shopify theme

Picking Dawn, Sense, Crave, or Refresh with light customization saves 3-6 weeks vs custom theme work. Most stores don't actually need a custom theme; the right paid theme heavily customized is usually the right balance.

Clean source data before migration

Do a catalog cleanup on the source platform before migration starts. Consistent attribute naming, accurate inventory, deduplicated customer records, clean product descriptions. Each hour spent here saves 2-3 hours in verification later.

Reduce the app stack

Fewer apps to rebuild = faster migration. Audit your existing apps; identify what you actually use vs what's installed and forgotten. Drop the unused ones. The Shopify app stack at launch should be 50-70% smaller than the equivalent stack on Magento or WooCommerce.

Engage the partner with capacity

The best specialists are booked. The second-best specialists are available sooner. Sometimes the trade-off is worth it; faster start with a strong-but-not-elite partner beats waiting 8 weeks for the absolute top operator.

Fast decision-making on your side

Designate one decision-maker with authority. Schedule weekly approval reviews, not ad-hoc committee meetings. Pre-approve common categories of decisions during kickoff so they don't need escalation mid-project.

Pre-migration audit before partner engagement

You can do the URL inventory, catalog audit, integration list, and brand asset prep before signing with a migration partner. The audit doesn't require migration expertise; it requires knowing your own business. Doing this first saves 1-2 weeks at the partner's hourly rates.

Phased approach for very large catalogs

If you have 50,000+ SKUs, migrating the top 10,000 first (the revenue-driving subset) and the rest in a follow-up phase often makes more sense than migrating everything at once. Phase 1 launches in normal timeline; Phase 2 handles the long-tail catalog over the following months.

What does NOT legitimately shorten timelines

• Skipping the pre-migration audit (saves a week now, costs months in post-launch cleanup).
• Skipping the 301 redirect map (saves a week, loses 30-70% of organic traffic for 6-12 months — see Will Migrating to Shopify Hurt My SEO?).
• Skipping pre-launch QA (saves a week, customers find your bugs).
• Skipping post-launch monitoring (saves a month, redirect gaps go uncaught).
• Using a CSV import as the entire migration (saves weeks of work, but it isn't a migration; it's data transfer).

How an 8-12 week migration breaks down phase by phase. Useful for tracking progress and identifying where projects fall behind.

Pre-migration audit and planning: 1-2 weeks

Source platform audit, integration inventory, URL inventory, brand asset prep, scope document, timeline confirmation, contract finalization.

Shopify account setup and theme installation: 1-2 weeks

Shopify subscription activation, account configuration, theme selection and installation, brand customization, mobile and desktop responsive testing.

Catalog migration: 1-3 weeks

Product import with variant configuration, collection setup, image migration and optimization, SEO URL slug verification, product description content review.

Customer and order data migration: 1 week

Customer record migration with tags and segments, order history import as historical records, customer communication planning (password reset email).

App stack rebuild and integration setup: 2-4 weeks

Email tool (Klaviyo or similar), review tool, subscriptions if applicable, helpdesk, SEO apps, analytics, custom integrations with ERP/3PL/marketing tools.

URL mapping and 301 redirects: 1-2 weeks

Full URL inventory from source platform, mapping to Shopify URLs, redirect setup via Matrixify for bulk, verification with post-mapping crawl.

Payments, shipping, tax configuration: 0.5-1 week

Shopify Payments setup, PayPal and regional methods, shipping zones and rates, tax configuration with Avalara or TaxJar if needed.

Pre-launch QA: 1-2 weeks

End-to-end test orders on desktop and mobile, multiple payment methods tested, broken link audit, Core Web Vitals check, tracking pixel verification, schema validation.

Launch coordination: 0.5 week (intensive)

DNS cutover, sitemap submission to Search Console, real-time monitoring during launch window, customer password reset email send, fulfillment and 3PL notification.

Post-launch monitoring: 4 weeks concurrent with normal operations

Search Console daily review, GA4 traffic monitoring, customer support pattern review, defect fixes, redirect gap fills, schema verification.

Total: 8-12 weeks active + 4 weeks post-launch

The 4 weeks of post-launch monitoring are not down time; they overlap with normal operations. The active migration calendar is 8-12 weeks. Anyone claiming dramatic compression below these numbers without sacrificing scope is misrepresenting the work.

Compressed timelines are possible. They're also expensive and produce worse migrations. Here's what happens when you cut a 10-week migration to 6 weeks or less.

Cost premium of 25-50%

Migration partners charge premium for rush work. Standard project at $25K becomes $32K-$38K with 4-week compression. The premium reflects partner allocating dedicated capacity at the expense of other clients.

Compressed QA phase

The first phase to compress is usually pre-launch QA. Instead of 1-2 weeks of comprehensive QA, you get 2-3 days of focused testing. Bugs that QA would have caught hit customers first. Customer support burden in launch week is 3-5x normal.

Reduced post-launch support

Compressed projects often have shortened post-launch monitoring periods. Instead of 30 days of active monitoring, you get 7-14 days. Redirect gaps and tracking issues that emerge in weeks 2-4 catch you off guard.

Higher likelihood of post-launch cleanup

Rush jobs have 2-3x higher rate of needing post-launch cleanup work. The cleanup typically costs $5K-$15K and takes 2-4 weeks. So the "saved time" on the rush often gets eaten by cleanup after.

Mistake risk in concentrated work

Real migration work involves verification steps that take time. Catalog import, redirect verification, integration testing, schema validation — all of these need real verification time. Compress the time and verification gets skipped. Mistakes increase.

When rush is worth it anyway

• The source platform is failing (security issues, hosting outages, platform sunset deadlines).
• You're tied to a specific launch date (product drop, seasonal cycle, marketing campaign).
• The cost of delay exceeds the cost of compression premium plus mistake risk.

Outside these specific cases, accepting the standard timeline produces better outcomes than forcing compression. Migration is one of the worst places to optimize for speed at the expense of quality.

Timeline is also about timing in the year. Migration is high-risk work; running it in the wrong window concentrates risk on the worst possible weeks.

DTC: avoid Q4 (October through December)

Q4 is peak season for most DTC merchants. Black Friday and Cyber Monday account for 20-40% of annual revenue at many stores. Migrating during this window means any bug, any redirect gap, any conversion drop costs more than at any other time of year. Don't do it.

Plan DTC migrations for Q1 (January-March) or Q3 (July-September). Both are quieter periods with lower revenue concentration. Mistakes recover faster; the financial impact is smaller.

B2B: avoid end-of-fiscal-year

Many B2B businesses have lumpy revenue tied to quarter-end or fiscal-year-end purchase orders. Avoid migrating during the last 4-6 weeks of major purchase windows. Plan for mid-quarter or fiscal year start, when revenue is more spread out.

Subscription businesses: avoid major billing cycles

Subscription billing tied to specific calendar dates (1st of month, 15th) creates concentration risk. Avoid migration cutover within 1-2 weeks of major billing cycle dates. Some payment token failures from migration can cause silent renewal failures; you want headroom to catch and fix.

Avoid during planned high-stakes events

• Product launches: don't migrate during or 4 weeks before a major product launch.
• Marketing campaigns: don't migrate during a major paid campaign — tracking pixel changes can wreck attribution.
• Fundraising periods: investors will ask hard questions if metrics dip during diligence.
• Major holidays: avoid Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, major regional holidays.

The ideal migration window

January-March or July-September, after major billing cycles, with no planned launches or campaigns in the next 8-12 weeks. Most experienced merchants plan migrations 6-12 months ahead for exactly this reason.

Common scenarios with specific timeline expectations.

Small DTC, $500K revenue, BigCommerce, 300 SKUs

4-6 weeks active migration. Standard BigCommerce profile. Default theme with brand customization. Standard apps. Launch by week 8 with post-launch monitoring through week 12.

Mid-size DTC, $2M revenue, WooCommerce, 1,500 SKUs, 40 plugins

8-10 weeks active migration. Plugin audit takes 2-3 weeks of the timeline. Modest blog content adds another week. Standard B2C launch.

$3M B2C subscription business, BigCommerce with custom subscriptions

10-12 weeks active migration. Subscription replatform to Recharge or Skio is the timeline driver. Coordinate with Recharge onboarding team early; their availability often dictates schedule.

$5M B2C on Magento Open Source, 8,000 SKUs, multiple integrations

10-12 weeks active migration. Catalog migration with configurable product mapping is the timeline driver. ERP integration rebuild adds 2-3 weeks. Standard B2C launch.

$8M B2B on Magento Open Source with customer groups

12-14 weeks active migration. Customer group migration to Shopify customer tags adds 2-3 weeks. Theme work for B2B-specific UI adds 2-3 weeks. Worth Plus evaluation; standard Shopify might still fit depending on B2B complexity.

$15M B2B on Adobe Commerce migrating to Shopify Plus

16-20 weeks active migration. B2B catalog setup with customer companies, location-based pricing, payment terms is 6-8 weeks of work. Multi-store if applicable adds another 4-6 weeks. Custom Functions for business rules add 2-6 weeks each.

$50M enterprise Adobe Commerce migrating to Plus with Hydrogen

26-40 weeks active migration. Hydrogen rebuild is essentially a parallel development project on top of migration. Phased contracts with dedicated teams. Significant project management overhead. Plan 12+ months ahead.

Failed previous migration needing cleanup

4-12 weeks of cleanup work depending on damage. SEO recovery is the longest timeline component; the cleanup work itself runs 4-8 weeks but ranking recovery extends 3-9 months after cleanup ships.

Migration timelines vary by source platform, store size, destination tier, and work scope. Most migrations land at 6-12 weeks; small clean migrations at 4-6 weeks; complex enterprise migrations at 16-40 weeks. The variance is real and audit-driven, not vendor pricing games.

To get a realistic timeline for your specific situation, scope an honest audit with a vetted migration expert, walk through your source platform and catalog details, and request a free quote:

Browse Shopify migration experts

Related guides on Shopify migration:

• Shopify Store Migration Experts — vetted directory across all source platforms
• Shopify Migration Cost — pricing across all source platforms (the cost companion to this timeline article)
• Will Migrating to Shopify Hurt My SEO? — SEO preservation framework
• BigCommerce to Shopify Migration — cleanest source platform
• Magento to Shopify Migration — the strategic guide
• Magento to Shopify Migration Checklist — the twelve-phase process
• Magento to Shopify Migration Cost — Magento-specific pricing
• WooCommerce to Shopify Migration — the WordPress story
• Migrating to Shopify Plus — Plus-specific migration guide
• Shopify Store Setup & Management Experts — broader lifecycle category
• How to Hire a Shopify Store Setup Expert — vetting framework