Products, variants, customers, selected historical orders, pages, posts, files, reviews, and other records can often move, depending on source quality and the chosen method. Product relationships, order history, consent, custom fields, plugin-owned data, and media need explicit mapping and reconciliation.
Map relationships as well as rows
A product can depend on variations, attributes, categories, media, and plugin-specific fields. Decide which of these remain products or variants in Shopify and which become structured custom data or a different workflow. Customers and historical orders need consistent identifiers so a successful import does not leave disconnected records.
Treat plugin-owned information separately. Reviews, subscriptions, memberships, loyalty balances, and custom checkout fields may not be included in an ordinary product export. Sample the complex records early, and agree whether each historical field must be visible in Shopify, retained in an accessible archive, or excluded for a documented reason.
What to check before deciding
- Create a source-to-destination field and identifier map.
- Test variable products and plugin-owned data before bulk import.
- Compare totals and representative individual records.
- Keep fulfilled history separate from orders that still need operational action.
