A custom store can contain years of business knowledge in code, manual work and staff habits. Moving platforms requires identifying that knowledge before deciding what to recreate, simplify or retire.
Make the current operation visible
Interview the people running merchandising, orders, support and finance. Record the exceptions they handle: special prices, unusual product options, stock locations, delivery rules, refunds and customer access. Review actual workflows rather than inferring them from the homepage.
A revenue threshold does not determine whether a custom platform has been outgrown. The relevant evidence is its reliability, ability to change, operating cost and fit with the business.
Classify each requirement
- Native capability: confirm that the target Shopify plan handles the requirement.
- Supported app: review the vendor, dependencies, charges and failure behaviour.
- Custom work: agree the owner, supported API, testing and ongoing maintenance.
- Retired behaviour: get the business owner's explicit agreement before leaving it behind.
Shopify's migration guidance is a starting point for preparation and data import. It does not verify the compatibility of your custom rules. Review Shopify migration guidance.
Test representative data, not a perfect demo
Choose products with real variants, archived items, customer types and operational exceptions. Identify source-of-truth rules for inventory and orders. Rehearse data imports and reconciliation before approving the cutover plan.
Map important URLs and document the redirect requirements. Search performance needs observation after release; a redirect alone does not prove preserved rankings.
Compare the operating models
Use actual development, infrastructure and support records for the current system. Compare these with a written Shopify scope, app contracts, integration support, training and the team needed after launch. Record assumptions and exclude hypothetical lost revenue from the confirmed-cost total.
We do not assert an industry maintenance percentage, a universal migration budget or a guaranteed payback period. The cost register makes the unknowns explicit.
Our Shopify development work starts with requirements. Use the Purvis Beer migration story as delivery context, with its unmeasured commercial impact kept separate.
Sources and review
Guidance checked on 7 October 2026. Features and commercial terms can change; confirm availability for your own account and scope. These planning checks are recommendations and do not replace an assessment of the actual implementation.