Direct answer
A migration is ready when priority data has been reconciled, relevant URLs have destinations, test orders travel through the full operation and analytics can compare before and after.
Migration does not start with design
The storefront is only one part of the change. Before rebuilding pages, you need to know how many products, variants, customers, orders, URLs, files and content items exist.
The initial inventory exposes differences between what the business believes it has and what the platform actually uses.
Data that requires reconciliation
Importing a file without errors is not enough. Record counts, critical fields and relationships between entities must be compared between source and destination.
- Products and variants
- Metafields and attributes
- Customers and marketing consent
- Orders and information needed by support
- Content, images and documents
- Identifiers used by ERP, PIM or WMS
URLs, redirects and organic traffic
The redirect map should combine crawled URLs, Search Console, analytics and backlinks. URLs do not have equal value and they should not all end at the home page.
Routes with traffic, links or commercial intent need an equivalent destination and post-launch validation.
The go-live rehearsal
A complete rehearsal reduces improvised decisions during the release window. It should include ownership, order, timing, checks and rollback criteria.
- Test orders by market
- Payments and refunds
- Inventory updates
- Email and customer support
- Analytics events
- Redirects and 404 errors