Best Practices for Migrating from Salesforce to Shopify Plus

Undertaking an ecommerce migration can feel like switching planes in the middle of a flight when you are migrating from Salesforce Commerce Cloud (SFCC) to Shopify Plus. Lots of moving parts, deep integrations, and a ton of business logic baked into the stack. 

This ecommerce migration guide breaks it down step by step, so it’s easier to plan, execute, and launch with confidence.

If running B2C, B2B, or a hybrid model, the flow below will help you avoid gotchas and keep your SEO, data, and custom logic intact.

Migrating From SFCC to Shopify Plus

1) Pre-Migration Audit (SFCC-specific)

Before touching a single line of code, map the lay of the land. SFCC stores tend to be highly customized, often in ways that don’t show on the surface.

You’re not just copying files, you’re moving business rules, pricing, and a lot of “invisible” logic.

What you’re running today

• Pipelines/controllers, ISML templates, custom scripts.

• Catalog structure: categories, attributes, variations.

• SiteGenesis vs SFRA (this affects how your templates map to a Shopify theme).

What to export from Business Manager

• Products, categories, customers, orders.
• Promotions and price books.
• SEO redirects and URL rules.
• Content assets (banners, HTML blocks, media).  

What’s connected

• ERP/OMS/CRM via OCAPI or server-side scripts.
• Payments, taxes, shipping carriers.
• Reviews, loyalty, subscriptions, search, analytics.  

Tip: Put all this in a simple spreadsheet, with tabs for data, promotions, integrations, and theme logic, acting as your ecommerce migration whitepaper and blueprint.

2) Data Model Mapping (SFCC → Shopify Plus)

This is where you transfer how SFCC thinks into how Shopify operates. Do this right and everything else gets easier.

Products and variants

• SFCC catalog (XML) becomes Shopify products/variants.
• Variant drivers (Size, Color) become options.
• Extra attributes go into metafields or tags.
• Keep handles clean and consistent; they become your URLs.

Price books and B2B

• SFCC price books are granular; Shopify Plus handles B2B with Price Lists.
• Set up companies/locations and assign the right price lists.
• For retail, use standard price + compare-at price.
• Promotions move to Shopify Discounts or Functions.

SEO

• Export SFCC seo-url-redirects and map to Shopify’s redirect CSV.
• Preserve titles, meta descriptions, and structured data (JSON-LD).
• Keep slugs if you can; if not, redirect 1:1 from old to new.

Customers

• Export customers (XML/CSV).
• Passwords won’t migrate (different hashing). Plan a friendly reactivation campaign:
• Clear email, “reset your password” link, maybe a small perk.  

Orders

• Decide how much history to bring (many do 12–24 months).
• Map SFCC order_no to a Shopify metafield so support can find legacy orders.
• Include payment status, fulfillment status, channel/source, taxes, shipping, and discounts.

Also remember to build a lightweight “data dictionary” so everyone knows what each field means and where it lives.

3) Build Your Migration Pipeline 

This is where you rely on the ETL pipeline the most.

Step 1: Extract (Get your data out of SFCC)

You’ve got two main escape hatches:

• Business Manager export jobs → great for products, categories, customers, and orders.

It’s the quickest way to pull clean chunks of data without custom code.

• SFCC OCAPI Data API → think of this as the “programmer’s door.” Perfect for bulk data pulls, more control over what you get, and automation.
• Don’t forget media (images, PDFs, videos). These usually live in SFCC’s content library, batch export them now so you’re not hunting for missing product shots later.

Step 2: Change (Make SFCC data talk to Shopify)

This is where you translate between two languages.

Choice of code: You can use either Python or Node.js because both have good XML/CSV parsing and can quickly format Shopify's CSV/JSON.

Get rid of the mess:

• Make SKUs normal by taking out spaces and strange symbols.
• The names of the choices, like "Size" or "Color," should be the same. 

Fix the HTML: Sometimes SFCC descriptions have unnecessary tags, inline styles, or scripts. Remove these so that your Shopify store stays thin.

Map pricing: You can change the SFCC price books into Shopify Plus B2B Price 

Lists without losing any rules.

Metafields: If you’ve got custom attributes for a product, plan them now so they slot into Shopify’s metafield system.

Step 3: Load (Bring it into Shopify safely)

Time to unpack without breaking any plates.

Shopify GraphQL Admin API → your best bet for bulk, high‑speed imports. It handles big catalogs faster than the REST API.

Use bulk operations to manage over 10,000 products without having to watch each individual call.

Batch smartly:

• Keep in mind Shopify’s rate limits.
• Keep logs so that if something fails, you know exactly where to retry.

Inventory sync:

If your ERP is the “source of truth” for stock, don’t bother importing static inventory from SFCC; connect ERP → Shopify directly and skip the double handling.

Pro Tips

• Make your pipeline idempotent. That just means if you run it twice, it will not create duplicates.
• Always test on a Shopify staging store before going live. Import a small set first and check that product details, images, and URLs are correct.
• Keep a “last 10%” list. This is where you note small issues like missing images, strange SKUs, or categories that do not match.

4) SEO and Redirect Strategy

This is where many migrations lose momentum. Not you.

• Rebuild redirects in Shopify before launch

• One‑to‑one mapping wherever possible.

• Avoid chained redirects (old → new, not old → temp → new).

• Prioritize high‑traffic pages; for this, use analytics and Search Console.

Check with a crawler

• Look at the status codes (200, 301, and 404).

• Check the canonical, hreflang (if there is more than one region), and schema. Shopify's sitemap refreshes after launch, but ensure that important pages are included.

Monitor post‑launch

• Keep an eye on GSC for 2–3 weeks.

• Patch any 404s fast.

• Submit updated URLs for reindexing if needed.

Remember: Keep page templates lean, clean HTML, fast images, and minimal render‑blocking scripts.

5) Checkout and Custom Logic

SFCC checkouts are often deeply customized. On Shopify Plus, you’ll use modern extension points.

Checkout UI Extensions + Functions

• Functions take care of logic, like discounts, validation, bundles, "buy X get Y," and minimums.
• Check out UI Extensions to take care of extra fields and UI touches.
• Legacy Scripts may still run, but Functions are the future; move there if you can.

Payments, taxes, shipping

• Map gateways and fraud tools.
• Set up tax logic (Shopify Tax or your provider).
• Recreate shipping rules, carrier rates, zones, or Functions/app logic.  

B2B on shopify specifics

• Net terms, PO fields, company‑specific methods, and minimum order amounts.
• Price visibility rules and location‑level differences.  

Aim for the same outcomes, not the same code. Shopify has different building blocks; lean into them.

6) Integrations

Most SFCC stores rely on ERP and Salesforce CRM. Keep the flows, change the pipes.

Common flows

• Shopify Orders → Salesforce CRM Opportunities (or Cases).
• Customer profiles sync both ways.
• ERP inventory/price → Shopify.
• Shopify → ERP for fulfillment, invoicing, and financials.
• OMS returns and tracking → Shopify.

Middleware that works

• Celigo, MuleSoft, Boomi, pick what your team knows.
• Build clear maps, handle failures, and set retry rules.

Data ownership

• Decide the system of record for each object: inventory, price, customer, order status.
• Avoid circular updates. Set direction, frequency, and conflict rules.

Keep a simple “integration matrix” with source, destination, fields, cadence, and error handling. It’ll save the day.

7) Theme, Content, and UX

Your store will feel fresher on Shopify. Make it count.

Theme

• Use a modern theme or build custom on Online Store 2.0.
• Keep Core Web Vitals healthy, compress images, avoid app bloat, and lazy‑load wisely.

Content

• Move blogs, pages, and media.
• Turn reusable blocks into sections/snippets.
• Add JSON‑LD for products, breadcrumbs, and articles.

Navigation and filters

• SFCC categories become Shopify collections.
• Use automated collections where possible to keep merch rules scalable.
• If you need to, add strong filters with a theme or app.

Accessibility and mobile

• Check contrast, focus states, keyboard nav.
• Test PDP and checkout on low‑end Android devices.

8) Testing and go‑live (treat it like a product launch)

No surprises on launch day, that’s the goal.

Test matrix

• B2B/B2C price lists by customer group.
• Promotions: stacking, exclusions, scheduled windows.
• Checkout: guest vs logged‑in, domestic vs international.
• Taxes and shipping across key markets.
• ERP inventory up, orders down; CRM sync both ways.
• Payments: auth, capture, refund, partial refund.
• Performance, accessibility, structured data.

Dry runs and freezes

• Do a full rehearsal on a staging store with a fresh data snapshot.
• Freeze content a few hours before cutover.
• Plan a delta sync for orders/inventory placed during the window.

List of things to do before launch

• Redirects imported and tested.

• The payment gateway is live and has been tested with a real transaction.

• Change the DNS during a time of low traffic.

• Keep SFCC in maintenance mode briefly as a fallback.

• Monitor GSC, analytics, errors, and uptime for 72 hours.

After the launch 

Send emails to re-enable accounts by resetting passwords.

Watch out for 404s, problems with the cart and Shopify checkout, and support tickets.

A simple 9‑week plan (adjust as needed)

• Weeks 1–2: Audit, architecture, data mapping, integration plan.
• Weeks 3–5: ETL scripts, theme build, initial imports.
• Weeks 6–7: Connect ERP/CRM systems, set up promotions with Functions, and create B2B price lists.
• Week 8: Do QA, set up redirects, check performance, and run user acceptance testing.
• Week 9: Freeze changes, run a final sync, launch, and monitor closely.

If you have more regions, a very large catalog, or complex B2B needs, give yourself extra testing time.

Similar to a bigcommerce to shopify migration or a magento to shopify plus migration, moving from Salesforce to Shopify Plus is a big step toward scalability and growth. Whether it's a wordpress to shopify migration, a magento 1 to shopify migration, or even a volusion to shopify migration from another platform, partnering with an experienced shopify plus development company ensures a smooth transition, minimizing risks and unlocking the full potential of your new ecommerce platform.

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