Use manual entry or CSV for small, standard datasets your team can verify. A migration app can speed up common platform transfers, but its field mapping and output still need review. Custom APIs or scripts suit large, complex, repeatable transformations. An agency is most useful when the move includes architecture, storefront work, integrations, SEO, operations, reconciliation, and launch risk beyond the import itself.
How Inficial approaches it
Choose the simplest method that can be validated safely
Methods can be combined. For example, products may use an API pipeline while selected content uses CSV and integrations are rebuilt separately. Shopify recommends importing products, then customers, then historical orders so relationships remain usable.
Decision factors
- Record volume and field complexity
- Need for repeatable rehearsal and final delta imports
- Source API, export, or database availability
- Internal engineering and reconciliation capacity
- SEO, integration, storefront, and launch responsibility
