shopify-migration-deep-dive

Shopify Migration Deep Dive

Overview

Migrate product catalogs, customers, and orders to Shopify using the GraphQL Admin API bulk mutations, CSV imports, and incremental migration patterns.

Prerequisites

• Source platform data exported (CSV, JSON, or API access)
• Shopify store with appropriate access scopes
• Scopes needed: write_products, write_customers, write_orders, write_inventory

Instructions

Step 1: Assess Migration Scope

Data Type	Shopify Import Method	Complexity
Products + variants	productSet mutation (upsert)	Low
Product images	productCreateMedia mutation	Low
Customers	Customer CSV import or customerCreate	Medium
Historical orders	draftOrderCreate + draftOrderComplete	High
Inventory levels	inventorySetQuantities mutation	Medium
Collections	collectionCreate mutation	Low
Redirects (URLs)	urlRedirectCreate mutation	Low
Metafields	Included in product/customer mutations	Medium

Step 2: Bulk Product Import with productSet

productSet is idempotent — it creates or updates based on handle. Perfect for migrations.

const PRODUCT_SET = `
  mutation productSet($input: ProductSetInput!) {
    productSet(input: $input) {
      product {
        id
        title
        handle
        variants(first: 50) {
          edges {
            node { id sku price inventoryQuantity }
          }
        }
      }
      userErrors { field message code }
    }
  }
`;

// Migrate products in batches
async function migrateProducts(sourceProducts: SourceProduct[]): Promise<MigrationResult> {
  const results: MigrationResult = { success: 0, errors: [] };

  for (const product of sourceProducts) {
    try {
      const response = await client.request(PRODUCT_SET, {
        variables: {
          input: {
            title: product.name,
            handle: product.slug, // unique identifier for upsert
            descriptionHtml: product.description,
            vendor: product.brand,
            productType: product.category,
            tags: product.tags,
            status: "DRAFT", // Keep as draft until verified
            variants: product.variants.map((v) => ({
              price: String(v.price),
              sku: v.sku,
              barcode: v.barcode,
              optionValues: v.options.map((opt) => ({
                optionName: opt.name,
                name: opt.value,
              })),
            })),
            metafields: product.metadata?.map((m) => ({
              namespace: "migration",
              key: m.key,
              value: m.value,
              type: "single_line_text_field",
            })),
          },
        },
      });

      if (response.data.productSet.userErrors.length > 0) {
        results.errors.push({
          product: product.name,
          errors: response.data.productSet.userErrors,
        });
      } else {
        results.success++;
      }
    } catch (error) {
      results.errors.push({ product: product.name, errors: [{ message: (error as Error).message }] });
    }

    // Respect rate limits — pause between batches
    await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, 200));
  }

  return results;
}

Step 3: Bulk Operations for Large Imports

For importing thousands of products, use Shopify's staged uploads + bulk mutation:

// Step 1: Create a staged upload target
const STAGED_UPLOAD = `
  mutation stagedUploadsCreate($input: [StagedUploadInput!]!) {
    stagedUploadsCreate(input: $input) {
      stagedTargets {
        url
        resourceUrl
        parameters { name value }
      }
      userErrors { field message }
    }
  }
`;

const uploadTarget = await client.request(STAGED_UPLOAD, {
  variables: {
    input: [{
      resource: "BULK_MUTATION_VARIABLES",
      filename: "products.jsonl",
      mimeType: "text/jsonl",
      httpMethod: "POST",
    }],
  },
});

// Step 2: Upload JSONL file to the staged target
// Each line is the variables for one mutation call
const jsonlContent = products.map((p) =>
  JSON.stringify({ input: { title: p.name, handle: p.slug } })
).join("\n");

// Upload to the staged target URL...

// Step 3: Run bulk mutation
const BULK_MUTATION = `
  mutation bulkOperationRunMutation($mutation: String!, $stagedUploadPath: String!) {
    bulkOperationRunMutation(mutation: $mutation, stagedUploadPath: $stagedUploadPath) {
      bulkOperation { id status }
      userErrors { field message }
    }
  }
`;

Step 4: Set Inventory Levels

// After products are created, set inventory quantities
const SET_INVENTORY = `
  mutation inventorySetQuantities($input: InventorySetQuantitiesInput!) {
    inventorySetQuantities(input: $input) {
      inventoryAdjustmentGroup {
        reason
        changes {
          name
          delta
          quantityAfterChange
        }
      }
      userErrors { field message }
    }
  }
`;

await client.request(SET_INVENTORY, {
  variables: {
    input: {
      reason: "correction",
      name: "available",
      quantities: [
        {
          inventoryItemId: "gid://shopify/InventoryItem/12345",
          locationId: "gid://shopify/Location/67890",
          quantity: 100,
        },
      ],
    },
  },
});

Step 5: URL Redirects (SEO Preservation)

// Preserve old URLs by creating redirects
const CREATE_REDIRECT = `
  mutation urlRedirectCreate($urlRedirect: UrlRedirectInput!) {
    urlRedirectCreate(urlRedirect: $urlRedirect) {
      urlRedirect { id path target }
      userErrors { field message }
    }
  }
`;

// Map old URLs to new Shopify URLs
for (const redirect of urlMappings) {
  await client.request(CREATE_REDIRECT, {
    variables: {
      urlRedirect: {
        path: redirect.oldPath,     // "/old-product-page"
        target: redirect.newPath,   // "/products/new-handle"
      },
    },
  });
}

Step 6: Post-Migration Validation

async function validateMigration(expectedCounts: Record<string, number>): Promise<void> {
  const checks = [
    {
      name: "Products",
      query: "{ productsCount { count } }",
      path: "productsCount.count",
      expected: expectedCounts.products,
    },
    {
      name: "Customers",
      query: "{ customersCount { count } }",
      path: "customersCount.count",
      expected: expectedCounts.customers,
    },
  ];

  for (const check of checks) {
    const response = await client.request(check.query);
    const actual = check.path.split(".").reduce((obj: any, k) => obj[k], response.data);
    const status = actual >= check.expected ? "PASS" : "FAIL";
    console.log(`${status}: ${check.name} — expected ${check.expected}, got ${actual}`);
  }
}

Output

• Products migrated with variants, images, and metafields
• Inventory levels set at correct locations
• URL redirects preserving SEO
• Migration validated against source counts

Error Handling

Issue	Cause	Solution
TAKEN on product handle	Duplicate handle	Append suffix or use productSet for upsert
Rate limited during import	Too many sequential calls	Use bulk operations or add delays
Image upload fails	URL not publicly accessible	Use staged uploads for private images
Inventory not updating	Wrong inventoryItemId	Query variant's inventoryItem.id first

Examples

Quick Migration Status

# Count products in source vs Shopify
echo "Shopify product count:"
curl -sf -H "X-Shopify-Access-Token: $TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "{ productsCount { count } }"}' \
  "https://$STORE/admin/api/2024-10/graphql.json" \
  | jq '.data.productsCount.count'

Resources

• productSet Mutation (Upsert)
• Bulk Operations Mutations
• Inventory Management
• URL Redirects

Next Steps

For advanced troubleshooting, see shopify-advanced-troubleshooting.