The UAE part of a WooCommerce to Shopify migration
Moving products is the easy half. What generic guides skip is everything a UAE WooCommerce store runs through plugins: local gateways, BNPL, couriers, VAT and Arabic. Each needs a Shopify replacement, set up and tested before launch.
| On WooCommerce | On Shopify |
|---|---|
| Telr, PayTabs or Network International (N-Genius) plugin | Shopify Payments on Advanced or Plus, or the same provider as a Shopify gateway with new credentials. Apple Pay and 3-D Secure retested. See UAE payment gateways for Shopify |
| Tabby Checkout, Tamara Checkout plugins | Tabby and Tamara Shopify apps. Shopify's third-party transaction fee applies to these orders: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced |
| Aramex, Quiqup or Jeebly plugin | Courier-published Shopify apps: Aramex, Quiqup, Jeebly. Aramex's own WordPress.org plugin was closed in July 2024, so many stores already run on third-party code |
| Cash on delivery | A manual payment method, with no Shopify transaction fee |
| WooCommerce tax: standard rate 5%, prices entered with tax | Manual tax: UAE at 5%, emirates at 0%, VAT-inclusive prices, tax on shipping. Your TRN and the words "Tax Invoice" added to the invoice template |
| WPML or Polylang Arabic | Translate & Adapt, Arabic under /ar/, translated handles and meta |
| Yoast or Rank Math titles and descriptions | Shopify's SEO fields on every product, collection, page and article |
Last checked: October 2026. Sources: Shopify UAE pricing, WordPress.org (Aramex plugin), manual tax settings, FTA tax invoice guide, Translate & Adapt listing.
What moves, and with which tool
| Data | Tool | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Products, variations, images | Shopify Store Migration app or Matrixify | Variable products become variants: up to three options and 2,048 variants per product. ACF and other custom fields become metafields |
| Customers | Store Migration app, Matrixify or CSV | Passwords can't move. Total spent and order count come from imported orders, not the customer file |
| Order history | Matrixify, another migration app or a script on the WooCommerce REST API | Imported after products and customers. Staff order notifications switched off first |
| Reviews | Your Shopify review app's CSV import | Matched to the new product handles |
| Blog posts and pages | Matrixify's WordPress process or a script | Categories become tags; featured images re-hosted |
| Subscriptions, gift cards, coupons | Case by case | Active subscriptions follow the new subscription app's own migration path |
Shopify's free Store Migration app supports WooCommerce, along with Wix, Square, Etsy, Amazon, eBay, Clover and Lightspeed, and moves product and customer data. Its listing doesn't include orders. Matrixify has a dedicated WooCommerce and WordPress migration process and imports orders, redirects and blog posts too. We use whichever is enough and script the rest.
Last checked: October 2026. Sources: Shopify Store Migration listing, Matrixify migration guide, Shopify migration guide, variant limits, customer import.
Redirects: /product/ to /products/
WooCommerce lets you shape URLs; Shopify fixes them. Every URL that earns traffic or links gets a 301 to its new equivalent.
| WooCommerce | Shopify |
|---|---|
/product/black-abaya/ | /products/black-abaya |
/product-category/abayas/ | /collections/abayas |
/ar/product/…/ (WPML) | /ar/products/… |
/ramadan-gift-guide/ (post) | /blogs/news/ramadan-gift-guide |
/shop/ | /collections/all |
Shopify imports redirects from a CSV and only applies them when the old path returns a 404, so we test the full list on the new store before DNS moves. URLs with query strings, such as WPML's ?lang=ar, may not redirect as expected; we handle those separately. Rankings work after launch sits with Shopify SEO.
Last checked: October 2026. Source: URL redirects.
Customer accounts and passwords
Passwords are encrypted on WooCommerce and can't be migrated to Shopify. With Shopify's customer accounts, customers sign in with a one-time six-digit code sent by email, so there is nothing to reset. If you stay on legacy accounts, customers get an invitation to activate; we write it as a branded email in Arabic and English and time it with launch.
Last checked: October 2026. Sources: customer import, customer accounts.
How we work
- Scoping call and audit. Plugin list, a crawl of every URL, Search Console and GA4 data, and the gateway and courier contracts you hold. Every project is scoped and quoted individually from this, in writing.
- Mapping. Products, variations, custom fields, customers, orders, reviews, posts and the redirect map.
- Build. Theme in English and Arabic, payments, couriers, tax and apps. A redesign can run alongside, see Shopify web design.
- Test import into the new store, checked against WooCommerce.
- Cutover. Final import of new orders and customers, redirects live, DNS switched, a real order on each payment method.
- Support. Thirty days of 404, Search Console and order checks, then ongoing support if you want it.
Expect 3–5 weeks for a standard catalogue and 5–8 weeks with a redesign or bilingual content.
What we need from you
- WordPress admin access, plus hosting or database access for order and plugin data.
- Your merchant accounts with Telr, PayTabs, Network, Tabby or Tamara, and your courier accounts.
- Search Console, GA4 and DNS access.
- A decision on what not to bring: old products, dormant customers, plugins nobody uses.
If your business depends on custom WordPress functionality with no Shopify equivalent, or WordPress is mainly a content site with an in-house developer, staying may be right. We only build on Shopify and will tell you so on the call. Coming from Salla, Zid or Magento? See Salla or Zid to Shopify, Magento to Shopify and the Shopify migration overview.