How to Migrate from Wix to WooCommerce in 2024: Step-by-Step Guide

If you’ve outgrown Wix’s limited eCommerce capabilities or want more flexibility and control over your online store, migrating to WooCommerce on WordPress is a smart move. WooCommerce offers greater customization, scalability, and powerful SEO tools, making it one of the top choices for online businesses.
Migrating from Wix to WooCommerce may seem daunting, but with careful planning and the right approach, you can ensure a smooth and successful transition. At Dellos, we provide expert CMS migration services, including moving sites from Wix to WordPress, Shopify to WordPress, and even platforms like Webflow to WordPress and Squarespace to WordPress. This article will guide you through the entire process of migrating from Wix to WooCommerce in 2024.
1. Why Migrate from Wix to WooCommerce?
Before jumping into the migration process, it’s essential to understand why you might want to move from Wix to WooCommerce.
a. Flexibility and Customization
Wix is easy to use, but it comes with limited customization options. As your store grows, you may find these limitations holding you back. WooCommerce, a plugin for WordPress, offers nearly unlimited customization possibilities through thousands of themes, plugins, and extensions. You can fully control your store’s look, feel, and functionality.
b. Ownership and Control
Wix is a closed-source platform, meaning they own your data and host your website. With WordPress and WooCommerce, you have full control over your website’s data and hosting. This allows for better performance optimization, flexibility in choosing hosting providers, and the ability to customize the code to your exact needs.
c. SEO and Growth Potential
While Wix offers basic SEO tools, WooCommerce, combined with WordPress’s powerful SEO capabilities, allows you to fine-tune every aspect of your SEO strategy. With plugins like Yoast SEO, you can optimize your store’s content, metadata, images, and more, ensuring better search engine rankings.
d. Scalability
Wix is great for smaller businesses, but as your store grows, you may need a platform that can scale alongside it. WooCommerce allows you to expand your store’s functionality, performance, and product offerings with ease, making it ideal for medium to large-scale eCommerce businesses.
2. Pre-Migration Planning
Migrating from Wix to WooCommerce involves several steps. A well-thought-out plan will help you manage the migration efficiently, minimizing downtime and potential data loss.
a. Inventory and Backup Your Data
Before starting the migration, inventory your entire Wix store. This includes all product data (titles, descriptions, images, prices), customer data, order history, SEO settings, and content such as blog posts.
Unfortunately, Wix doesn’t allow direct data exports, which means you may need to rely on third-party tools or manual data collection to ensure you capture everything. Once the inventory is complete, back up all your data for safekeeping.
b. Choose the Right Hosting Provider
Unlike Wix, WooCommerce doesn’t provide built-in hosting. You’ll need to choose a reliable WordPress hosting provider to host your new WooCommerce store. Popular choices include Bluehost, SiteGround, and WP Engine. Look for providers that offer speed, security, and scalability, all essential for running a successful eCommerce store.
c. Install WordPress and WooCommerce
Once your hosting provider is set, install WordPress and WooCommerce. Many hosting providers offer one-click installations for WordPress, making the process simple. After WordPress is installed, navigate to the “Plugins” section, search for WooCommerce, install, and activate the plugin. You now have the foundation for your new WooCommerce store.
3. Migrating Products from Wix to WooCommerce
Migrating your products is a crucial step in the transition process. Since Wix doesn’t provide an easy export feature for products, you’ll need to get creative.
a. Manual Product Export and Import
For smaller stores with fewer products, manually transferring your product data may be the best approach. Start by copying product titles, descriptions, and pricing information from Wix and entering them manually into WooCommerce.
WooCommerce’s product management system is straightforward. Simply go to WooCommerce > Products > Add New, then input your product details, including product images, SKU, and variations.
b. Automated Migration Tools
If you have a large store with hundreds or thousands of products, manual migration may not be practical. In this case, you can use migration tools such as Cart2Cart or LitExtension, which automate the migration process. These tools can move your product data, categories, customer information, and more from Wix to WooCommerce.
c. CSV Product Import
If you can export your product data from Wix into a CSV file, WooCommerce allows you to upload it through its built-in CSV import tool. Navigate to WooCommerce > Products > Import and follow the prompts to upload your CSV file and map the product fields accordingly.
4. Migrating Customer Data and Orders
Maintaining your customer relationships and order history is crucial for continuity after migration.
a. Export Customer Data from Wix
Unfortunately, Wix doesn’t offer a built-in feature to export customer data or order history directly. However, you can access customer data from your dashboard manually or use third-party tools to extract this information.
b. Importing Customer Data to WooCommerce
Once you’ve gathered your customer data, you can import it into WooCommerce using a plugin like Customer/Order CSV Import Suite. This tool helps you map your existing customer fields to WooCommerce’s database, ensuring a smooth import process.
c. Migrating Order History
Migrating your order history is essential if you want to retain a record of past transactions. Similar to customer data, you’ll need a tool like Cart2Cart or WooCommerce’s Order Import plugin to migrate past orders from Wix to WooCommerce.
5. Migrating Blog and Content Pages
If your Wix store includes a blog or content pages, such as an About Us or Contact page, you’ll need to migrate this content to your new WordPress site.
a. Manual Content Transfer
One option is to manually copy and paste your blog posts and content pages from Wix into WordPress. This method works best for small blogs or websites with limited content.
b. Using RSS Feed to Import Blog Posts
For larger blogs, you can use your Wix RSS feed to import your blog posts into WordPress. First, find your Wix blog’s RSS feed URL. Then, use the “WordPress Importer” tool in your WordPress dashboard to import the feed.
Once the blog posts are imported, you may need to manually adjust formatting, images, and internal links.
6. Migrating SEO Settings and URLs
Preserving your SEO settings and URL structure is vital to maintain your store’s search engine ranking after migration.
a. Migrating Meta Titles and Descriptions
Wix doesn’t have a direct export option for SEO metadata, so you’ll need to manually transfer this information. Go through each product and page on your Wix store, copying meta titles, descriptions, and other SEO settings, and manually input them into the corresponding sections in WooCommerce. Use an SEO plugin like Yoast SEO to help manage these fields.
b. Setting Up 301 Redirects
The URL structure on Wix and WordPress will differ, which could lead to broken links if not addressed. Setting up 301 redirects ensures that visitors and search engines are directed to the correct pages on your new site.
Use a plugin like Redirection to easily create 301 redirects from your old Wix URLs to their new WordPress equivalents. This will help you retain your search engine rankings and ensure a seamless user experience.
7. Designing Your WooCommerce Store
One of the most exciting aspects of migrating to WooCommerce is the ability to fully customize your store’s design. Wix offers limited design options, while WooCommerce allows you to create a store tailored to your brand.
a. Choose a WooCommerce-Compatible Theme
WooCommerce works best with WordPress themes specifically designed for eCommerce. Choose a responsive theme from the WordPress repository or premium marketplaces like ThemeForest or StudioPress.
b. Use Page Builders for Custom Design
For even more design flexibility, you can use page builders like Elementor or Beaver Builder. These tools allow you to build fully custom pages using a drag-and-drop interface, with no coding required.
c. Customize Product Pages
WooCommerce allows you to modify product pages to meet your specific needs. Using shortcodes and custom fields (with tools like Advanced Custom Fields), you can create dynamic, engaging product pages that offer a better user experience than Wix.
8. Optimizing Website Performance
WordPress offers more control over your website’s performance than Wix. Here are some essential tips for optimizing your WooCommerce store’s speed and performance:
a. Choose a Fast Hosting Provider
Make sure you choose a hosting provider that offers good performance, as this will significantly impact your store’s speed. Managed WordPress hosting from companies like Kinsta or WP Engine provides optimized environments for WooCommerce.
b. Use a Caching Plugin
Implement caching with plugins like WP Rocket or W3 Total Cache to improve your website’s loading speed by storing static files that reduce server load.
c. Optimize Images
Use tools like Smush or ShortPixel to compress images without losing quality, which helps improve page load times.
Conclusion
Migrating from Wix to WooCommerce offers many advantages, from increased customization options to better control over SEO and performance. While the migration process may seem complex, following a step-by-step approach ensures a smooth transition.
If you need professional help, Dellos specializes in CMS migration services, including seamless migrations from Wix to WordPress, Shopify to WooCommerce, and other platforms like Webflow to WordPress and Squarespace to WordPress. We handle every aspect of your migration, ensuring that your new WooCommerce store is set up for success from day one.
Let us know how we can assist you in your eCommerce journey!