Why Migrate from Adobe Commerce to Shopify
For technical decision-makers, the migration decision comes down to time-to-value and operational burden. Adobe Commerce's architecture—self-managed infrastructure, a mandatory multi-environment deployment pipeline, and an upgrade cycle that consumes significant engineering resources—creates structural overhead that compounds as the business scales.
Shopify Plus trades some low-level control for managed infrastructure, and the tradeoff typically favors teams that want to ship features rather than maintain environments. The result is faster release cycles, less time on operational maintenance, and engineering capacity redirected toward commerce differentiation.
Migration Timeline by Complexity
Even heavily customized Adobe Commerce estates can typically be migrated to Shopify in under nine months. The table below reflects typical ranges:
| Tier | Adobe Commerce Profile | Estimated Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 – Standard | Under 10K SKUs · 5 or fewer integrations · Theme-level customizations only | 12–20 weeks |
| Tier 2 – Advanced | 10K–50K SKUs · 6–15 integrations · Custom modules · Light B2B features | 20–30 weeks |
| Tier 3 – Enterprise | 50K+ SKUs · 15+ integrations · Heavy B2B and multi-store · Multiple custom modules | 30–36 weeks (~9 months) |
DevOps Workflow Shift
The shift to Shopify requires adopting new patterns for development, deployment, and QA. In Adobe Commerce Cloud, teams follow a mandatory Integration → Staging → Production pipeline that can become a bottleneck due to environment merges and patch overload.
- Adobe Commerce model: Push code to Git, trigger builds across multiple environments. Teams must manually configure environment relationships, variables, and service-scaling options.
- Shopify model: Eliminates server management entirely. Deployment involves pushing theme changes, custom apps, or headless storefronts via Shopify CLI and version control. No environment-level server capacity testing.
- CI/CD: Adobe Commerce has a built-in pipeline you're required to follow. Shopify pushes you to create your own staging setup via dev stores or unpublished theme branches—more flexibility, more setup required upfront.
B2B Feature Mapping
Shopify Plus includes a dedicated B2B feature set designed to handle the complex quoting and custom workflows that Adobe Commerce typically manages through custom modules or third-party extensions:
- Custom price lists: Assign distinct price tiers to specific companies or buyer groups
- Net payment terms: Net 30/60/90 directly through Shopify admin—no custom module required
- Company profiles: Multiple buyers per company with role-based permissions
- Shopify Functions: Custom discount logic, shipping rules, and checkout enhancements via serverless compute
- Custom apps: Advanced quoting, RFP processes, or multi-level approval workflows built as isolated apps outside the Shopify core
The Critical Data Challenge: Flattening EAV
The most technically demanding aspect of migrating from Adobe Commerce is its data model. Adobe Commerce uses an Entity-Attribute-Value (EAV) approach for products, where attributes are stored across separate tables based on data type. A simple product might have its name in catalog_product_entity_varchar, material details in catalog_product_entity_text, and price in catalog_product_entity_decimal. Retrieving basic product information requires multiple table joins.
Shopify uses a flat structure: a product has core fields (title, description, price), variants for different options (size, color), and metafields for custom data. The migration challenge is systematically mapping EAV attributes into this simpler schema.
Example data mapping
| Adobe Commerce EAV Attribute | Shopify Equivalent | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Name (attribute_id=45) | title | Main product title |
| Brand (attribute_id=47) | vendor | Product brand |
| Color (attribute_id=52) | option/variant (Color) | Generates variants automatically |
| Material details (attribute_id=58) | metafield (material_details) | Extended product info |
| Price (attribute_id=61) | variants[].price | Base price per variant |
Practical data mapping steps
- Inventory all attributes: Export your EAV attributes and categorize as critical, variant-worthy, or metafield candidates
- Consolidate overlapping attributes: Standardize multiple "Color" or "Material" attributes into unified fields before migration
- Create mapping documentation: Specify exactly where each Adobe Commerce attribute maps in Shopify (title, vendor, metafield, variant option, etc.)
- Transform and load: Use ETL processes or custom scripts with Shopify's GraphQL Admin API to migrate flattened data
- Prune redundant attributes: Migration is the best opportunity to remove unused legacy attributes—don't carry data debt into the new platform
4-Phase Migration Framework
Complete Platform Audit
- Map all custom features and business workflows
- Identify data structures requiring EAV flattening
- Audit integrations and full tech stack
- Distinguish must-have functionality from legacy workarounds
Migration Roadmap and Technical Blueprint
- Feature mapping to Shopify Plus equivalents (native vs. custom app vs. third-party)
- Data mapping and attribute matrix documentation
- Timeline with clear milestones and stakeholder checkpoints
- DevOps strategy: staging approach, CI/CD setup, deployment process
Data Transfer, Integration Builds, Launch Prep
- Migrate products, customers, and order history
- Rebuild integrations (ERP, CRM, WMS, PIM)
- Custom app development for features that don't map to native Shopify functionality
- Extensive QA across all critical commerce flows
- SEO redirects (301 mapping) and performance validation
Post-Launch Performance and Conversion Optimization
- Real-time analytics implementation and monitoring
- Post-launch audits of performance, SEO rankings, and order flow
- Ongoing CX optimization based on customer behavior data
- Performance metric tracking vs. Adobe Commerce baseline
What You Gain After Migration
- Superior scalability: Automatic scaling to handle traffic spikes without manual server tuning—critical during peak sales periods
- Reliable infrastructure: 99.9%+ historical uptime with a global CDN built in
- Faster feature deployment: Custom apps and storefronts are isolated from Shopify core updates—faster release cycles, fewer blocked deployments
- Reduced overhead: Substantially less dev time on patches, environment troubleshooting, and hotfixes—engineering capacity redirected to product
Migrating from Adobe Commerce to Shopify isn't just a platform change—it's an opportunity to remove years of accumulated workarounds, establish a cleaner architecture, and give your team a foundation that scales with the business rather than against it.