Etsy, GoDaddy, Ecwid, Big Cartel and more: moving to Shopify

The short answer

For most shops on Etsy, GoDaddy, Weebly, Ecwid, Big Cartel or Webflow, moving to Shopify is a job you can do yourself. Products come across by CSV, from an export or through a migration app; customers and orders follow where the platform allows; and redirects protect any search traffic you’ve built. The details differ by platform, and a few are more limited than you’d expect.

I’ve engineered more than 350 Shopify stores and migrated over 500,000 products in 20 years. For small shops on these platforms, I’ll usually tell you to do it yourself. This guide is written so you can.

The six platforms at a glance

Migration services such as Cart2Cart and LitExtension support several of these platforms, filling gaps where native exports fall short. My Shopify migration tools guide compares them.

Before you start

• Export everything the platform allows, even data you don’t plan to import, and keep it safe.
• Download your product images in full size, in case exported image links stop working later.
• List every URL from your sitemap, and check Search Console for the ones that earn clicks.
• Note where your domain and email are managed, so launch day doesn’t interrupt either.
• Count your products, variants, customers and orders, so you can check nothing went missing after import.
• Pick a quiet week for launch.

Which moves are easiest?

Based on what each platform exports and what Shopify and the migration services support, the moves fall roughly into three groups:

• Most straightforward: Ecwid and Square-based Weebly stores. Products, customers and orders can all be exported, and Square is a Store Migration source.
• Straightforward for products: Etsy, GoDaddy and Webflow. Products move cleanly; customers and orders need a third-party app or extra work, and reviews start fresh.
• Most manual: Big Cartel. Limited native exports mean products are moved with a tool or by hand, and stock needs checking after import.

None of these is difficult for a small shop. The effort grows with the number of products, the amount of history you want to keep, and how much search traffic you need to protect.

Etsy to Shopify

Etsy sellers often move to Shopify to have a shop of their own alongside, or instead of, the marketplace. Shopify’s Etsy guide says the Store Migration app, in early access and desktop only, imports products only, from an unedited Etsy CSV. You download that from Etsy’s Shop Manager, under Settings, Options, Download Data, as the “Currently for Sale Listings” file, which includes active listings only.

Customers, orders and reviews aren’t covered by the app; Shopify’s guide points to third-party apps for them. If you’re keeping your Etsy shop, Shopify’s Marketplace Connect can keep listings and orders in sync between the two, so you don’t have to choose.

There’s no redirect question for Etsy listings, because Etsy URLs sit on Etsy’s domain. Your Shopify store starts with its own domain and its own search presence, so link to it from your Etsy profile and packaging where Etsy’s rules allow.

GoDaddy to Shopify

Shopify’s GoDaddy guide covers products only: export a product CSV from GoDaddy and remap it to Shopify’s product template. GoDaddy isn’t a Store Migration source. Shopify says you can’t export or migrate reviews from GoDaddy.

GoDaddy’s Websites + Marketing can export orders as CSV, sent by email and filtered by date range. I couldn’t confirm a native customer export for that product from GoDaddy’s documentation. One small discrepancy worth knowing: Shopify’s guide says the GoDaddy product file is emailed to you, while GoDaddy’s own help says it downloads to your computer.

Many GoDaddy customers also have their domain and email with GoDaddy. Those can stay where they are: point the domain at Shopify by changing only the website records, and your email keeps working.

Weebly and Square Online

Square acquired Weebly in 2018, and Weebly stores are now closely tied to Square. Square’s item library can be exported as Excel or CSV, and Weebly’s help centre describes exporting order history to CSV. Shopify’s Store Migration app lists Square as a supported source for products and customers. Cart2Cart and LitExtension both list Weebly as a source too.

If you use Square for in-store payments as well as online, decide early whether to keep Square at the till or move to Shopify POS, because that choice decides where your products and stock live afterwards.

Ecwid to Shopify

Ecwid, owned by Lightspeed since 2021, adds a shop to an existing website. It has the most complete native exports of the six: customers export to CSV, and the product catalogue and orders export to CSV on its Venture, Business and Unlimited plans. Cart2Cart supports Ecwid to Shopify for products, categories, customers, orders, coupons and reviews, and LitExtension moves products, customers and orders.

Because Ecwid often sits inside another website, the bigger decision is what happens to that website. If the site exists mainly to sell, moving everything to Shopify is usually simplest. If it’s a content site with a shop attached, you may keep the site and link to Shopify, or embed Shopify’s buy buttons, much as you did with Ecwid.

Big Cartel to Shopify

Big Cartel is popular with makers and artists. It’s also the most limited of the six for exports: Big Cartel’s help centre describes an order CSV export, but I found no native product export, and LitExtension says Big Cartel doesn’t support native export of customer and order history, so its standard scope is products only. Cart2Cart supports Big Cartel to Shopify for products, categories, customers and orders, but notes that every product’s quantity is set to 1,000 and customer accounts can’t be moved, so stock must be corrected after import.

If you sell made-to-order or one-off pieces, think about how stock should work on Shopify before importing: one-off items can be set to a quantity of one, and made-to-order products can continue selling when out of stock, so customers can still order them.

For most Big Cartel shops, with modest catalogues, re-creating products in Shopify by hand or through a tool and checking stock carefully is quite manageable.

Webflow to Shopify

Webflow is a design-led website platform with ecommerce built in. It exports ecommerce products, variants and categories to CSV, including archived items, and exports orders to CSV. Webflow notes that images are exported as URLs that break if the Webflow site is deleted, so download or import them before closing the site. Cart2Cart handles Webflow through CSV only, and LitExtension offers a specialist-run migration covering products, categories, customers and orders, with blog posts outside its standard scope.

If your Webflow site also carries a CMS-driven blog or resource library, plan those pages separately from the shop, with each URL that earns traffic redirected.

Webflow sites are often bespoke designs, so the theme matters. Expect either a carefully chosen Shopify theme configured to match, or a custom Shopify theme built from the Webflow design.

Keeping a marketplace alongside Shopify

Moving to Shopify doesn’t have to mean leaving a marketplace. Many sellers keep Etsy, Amazon or eBay running alongside their own Shopify store, using Shopify’s sales channels and apps to manage listings, stock and orders from one admin. That way the marketplace keeps bringing in customers who search there, while your own store builds a customer list and repeat business you control.

If you go that route, decide which system is the master for product information and stock, so a change in one place doesn’t overwrite the other, and check each marketplace’s rules on linking to your own shop.

Checking the import

Whichever platform you’re leaving, check the data before you build on it. Compare the number of products, variants, customers and orders in Shopify with the counts you noted before export. Open your twenty best sellers and check options, prices, images, stock and descriptions against the old shop. Look at a sample of customers for addresses and email consent, and a sample of imported orders for totals and line items. Descriptions often carry formatting from the old platform that only shows up once the page is rendered in your new theme, so view products on the storefront, not just in the admin. Fix problems at the source and re-import where you can, rather than correcting records one by one.

URLs and redirects

Apart from Etsy, where your listings live on Etsy’s domain, every platform here gives your shop its own URLs, and those change when you move. Shopify’s folders are fixed: products under /products/, collections under /collections/, pages under /pages/ and posts under /blogs/. Every old URL that earns traffic needs a permanent redirect, added in Shopify one at a time or by CSV, up to 100,000 on standard plans.

To build the list, take your old sitemap or a crawl of the site, check Google Search Console for the pages that earn clicks, and map each to its new Shopify URL. Submit the new sitemap after launch and watch Search Console for errors over the following weeks. Google recommends keeping permanent redirects for at least a year. My Shopify migration SEO guide covers the detail.

What every move has in common

• Import order. Shopify recommends products first, then customers, then historical orders.
• Passwords. Shopify says customer passwords can’t be migrated from another store by CSV; customers sign in with a one-time code sent to their email.
• Reviews. Usually start again in a Shopify review app; invite recent customers to review.
• Options. Shopify products allow up to three options and 2,048 variants; restructure anything bigger.
• Payments. Set up Shopify Payments or your provider afresh; Shopify adds a fee if you use a third-party card provider.
• Domain and email. Point the domain at Shopify, changing only the website records.

My Shopify migration checklist lists every step from scoping to the month after launch.

The DIY route, step by step

1. Open a Shopify storeChoose a plan and theme; set up payments, shipping and tax.
2. Export everything you canProducts, customers and orders, plus a list of every URL. Keep the files.
3. Import productsThrough the Store Migration app where supported, or Shopify’s CSV import, then check a sample by hand.
4. Import customers and ordersWhere the platform allows, using Shopify’s import or a migration app.
5. Rebuild pages and set SEO fieldsTitles, descriptions and image alt text on everything that earns traffic.
6. Redirect and launchLoad redirects, connect the domain, place test orders and submit the sitemap.

SEO beyond redirects

Redirects send visitors and Google to the right page; the page still has to earn its ranking. Carry over each important page’s title, meta description, main text and headings, and add descriptive alt text to product images. Choose a Shopify theme that outputs product structured data, verify your domain in Google Search Console before launch, and submit the new sitemap on the day. Expect some movement in rankings for a few weeks while Google recrawls; anything that doesn’t settle usually points to a missing redirect or missing content.

Launch day

• Pause changes on the old platform so nothing is missed.
• Bring across late orders and customers created since your first import, where the platform allows.
• Connect the domain to Shopify, touching only the website records.
• Remove Shopify’s store password so customers and Google can see the store.
• Test redirects by opening old URLs.
• Place a real order and refund it, checking emails, payment and tracking.
• Check stock levels on your best sellers.

The first month

Check Search Console every few days for pages Google can’t find and add any missing redirects. Compare organic clicks with the same period before the move. Follow your first orders through to delivery, and ask a few regular customers to try the new store. When everything has settled, close the old shop, keeping your exports.

Theme, payments and apps

Your old design doesn’t move, so the new store needs a Shopify theme. For most shops coming from these platforms, a Theme Store theme built for a catalogue like yours, configured with your logo, colours and fonts, is the right start. Check every page on a phone before launch, because that’s where most shoppers will see it. A custom theme makes sense for large or specialist catalogues, or a bespoke design such as many Webflow sites.

Payments are set up afresh. Shopify Payments is available in the UK and many other countries, and other providers such as PayPal can be added; Shopify charges an extra fee if you use a third-party card provider instead of Shopify Payments.

List the apps and add-ons your current shop relies on, such as email marketing, reviews, shipping labels or bookings, and find the Shopify equivalent for each before launch, so nothing customers use disappears on the day you switch.

Choosing a Shopify plan

Shopify’s US pricing lists Basic at $39, Grow at $105 and Advanced at $399 a month billed monthly, with lower rates billed yearly and local prices on its UK site. Most shops moving from these platforms start on Basic. All plans include unlimited products, and you can change plan as you grow.

When getting help pays for itself

• Large catalogues with complex options or inconsistent data.
• Real search traffic across hundreds of pages.
• Order history that matters on a platform with limited exports.
• Integrations with stock, accounting, marketplaces or a shop till.
• A custom design, particularly from Webflow.

If only one applies, do the rest yourself and get help with that part. If most apply, a managed migration earns its fee. My Shopify migration package starts from $19,997 USD, or £14,997 + VAT for UK clients, with flexible plans depending on the deposit paid, and runs over four weeks from signed brief to a live store. I’m UK-based and work remotely with retailers all over the world. Outside the UK, the package starts from $19,997 with no VAT, quoted in US dollars after the free store audit. For the full service, see my Shopify migration service.

Common mistakes

When to stay put

• Your platform does what you need and you’re not hitting its limits.
• Etsy brings most of your sales and you don’t want to build your own traffic yet. Shopify can sit alongside Etsy rather than replace it.
• Your shop is a small part of a site that works well on its current platform.

A move costs time even when the tools are cheap. If the shop has become the business, though, Shopify is usually the better long-term home, and my guides to moving from Wix to Shopify and Squarespace to Shopify cover two more common starting points.

Moving to Shopify from other platforms: FAQ

Sources

Shopify Help Center migration guides for Etsy and GoDaddy, and the Shopify Store Migration app listing, accessed 24 October 2026. GoDaddy Help: exporting online store products and downloading orders, accessed 24 October 2026. Square: 2018 annual report (10-K) on the Weebly acquisition; Square Help Center, exporting the item library; Weebly Help Center, exporting order history, accessed 24 October 2026. Ecwid Help Center: exporting catalogue, orders and customers; Lightspeed’s announcement of closing the Ecwid acquisition, 1 October 2021. Big Cartel Help: downloading order data and importing products, accessed 24 October 2026. Webflow Help Center: importing and exporting ecommerce products and variants, and the orders tab, accessed 24 October 2026. Migration services: shopping-cart-migration.com and litextension.com platform pages, accessed 24 October 2026. Shopify plans, variants, redirects, import order and passwords: shopify.com/pricing and Shopify Help Center, accessed 24 October 2026. Site moves: Google Search Central, updated 20 August 2026. KA Consultancy prices and proof points as published on the Shopify migration services page.