Migrating to Orbit | From Shopify

Moving from Shopify is a same-afternoon job for most catalogues: exports out of Shopify, imports into Orbit, a checklist for the rest. Here is the order that avoids rework.

1. Prepare your Orbit store first

Create the store, pick the plan, and set currency, timezone and shipping zones before importing — imports go cleaner into a configured store. Do not point your domain anywhere yet.

2. Products

1. In Shopify: Products → Export → all products, CSV.

2. In Orbit: Products → Import, drop the CSV, and use the mapping editor to match Shopify's columns (Title, Handle, Vendor, Type, Tags, Price, Compare-at, SKU, Inventory) to Orbit's fields. Download the sample CSV first if you want the exact shape.

3. Product images migrate by URL — Shopify's CSV carries image URLs that the import fetches, so images come across without you downloading anything.

4. Variants come with their options, prices and SKUs. Spot-check a multi-option product before importing the rest.

3. Customers

Shopify: Customers → Export. Orbit: Customers → Import, same mapping approach. Note: passwords can never migrate (they are one-way hashed everywhere) — customers set a new password on first login. Plan a “welcome to our new store” email with that instruction.

4. Collections → Categories

Shopify collections become Orbit categories. Recreate them and attach products (the tag or type columns from your Shopify export make this a filter-and-bulk-attach job, not a hand-sort).

5. The rest of the checklist

• Redirects — recreate your important Shopify URLs under Storefront → URL Redirects so Google and old links keep working. Shopify product URLs (/products/...) differ from Orbit's — this step protects your SEO.

• Orders — export from Shopify for your records; historical orders generally stay in Shopify exports rather than importing as live orders.

• Discounts and gift cards — recreate active codes; reissue gift cards with their remaining balances (see the Gift Cards guides).

• Domain — last step: point DNS at Orbit once everything above checks out (Settings → Domains).

Tips

• Import 10 products first, review them on the storefront, then run the bulk file.

• Keep the Shopify store read-only for a month after switchover — your safety net for “what was that price?”.