Software Development Blog

What gets migrated from Visualsoft to Shopify (and what doesn't)

At a glance

When merchants ask us about moving from Visualsoft to Shopify, the first question is almost always the same. "What happens to all our data?" The honest answer is that the vast majority of it comes across cleanly. A small amount needs rebuilding in a different shape, and a handful of things stay behind by design. This guide walks through all three, so you know exactly what to expect before discovery even starts.

The good news first: most of your store moves across

The bulk of what makes your store run, the data your team actually uses every day, migrates without drama. Here is what comes over cleanly.

Products

Names, descriptions, prices, SKUs, barcodes, weights, and images. The core product record maps neatly between Visualsoft and Shopify, and a properly scoped migration carries it across with full integrity.

Customers

Customer accounts, names, email addresses, billing and shipping addresses, phone numbers, account creation dates, and marketing consent flags all transfer. Your customer database arrives intact on the other side.

Orders

Order numbers, line items, totals, tax breakdown, fulfilment status, and dates. Years of order history come across as searchable, reportable records in Shopify, so your team can still look up old orders the way they always have.

Categories and collections

The category structure migrates and gets remapped to Shopify collections. In most cases this is also a chance to tidy up nested categories that grew organically over the years.

Content pages

About, contact, terms, delivery info, privacy policy. Plain content pages move across cleanly, and the migration is a good moment to refresh anything that has aged.

Blog posts

Titles, body content, authors, publish dates, and featured images all transfer. Blog content is one of the most underrated SEO assets in a migration, and we treat it accordingly.

Bottom line: if you write down the data your team interacts with daily (products, customers, orders, categories, pages, blog), almost all of it migrates as native Shopify records.

Things that move across in a different shape

This is where most of the technical work happens, and where the difference between a specialist and a generic agency really shows. None of this is lost, but it does need thought.

Product variants

Single-axis variants (size only, or colour only) migrate directly. Multi-axis variants need a careful look during discovery, because Visualsoft's variant model and Shopify's three-option limit work differently. In most cases the variants come across cleanly with a sensible mapping. In a few cases we restructure them into something that actually works better than the original.

Product specifications and custom fields

Visualsoft stores product specs in dedicated tables. Shopify uses metafields, which are arguably more flexible. The data moves across, gets remapped to a clean metafield structure, and then displays on the new theme through templating. The end result is usually tidier than the old setup.

URLs and SEO

URLs do not migrate verbatim, they get redirected. Visualsoft's URL patterns and Shopify's /products/handle format are different by design. Every URL that has SEO value gets a 301 redirect set up so search engines and existing customer bookmarks keep working. Done properly, the SEO impact of a migration is minimal. Done as an afterthought, it can be costly. We treat redirect mapping as a first-class part of the project, not a tickbox at the end.

Customer passwords

Passwords cannot transfer directly, because Visualsoft and Shopify use different encryption methods. This is not unique to Shopify, it is true of every platform migration. The fix is straightforward. Customer accounts come across with all their order history attached, and on first login each customer gets a one-click account activation email from Shopify. With a clear pre-launch comms plan, this is a non-event for customers.

Reviews

If your reviews live in a third-party tool like Trustpilot, Yotpo, or Reviews.io, they stay with that tool and reconnect to Shopify with no loss. If your reviews live inside Visualsoft's built-in system, we export them and import them into a Shopify reviews app, preserving the rating, body, customer name, and product link.

Trade pricing and B2B accounts

Trade pricing, customer groups, and tiered pricing rebuild rather than migrate, because the two platforms approach B2B differently. Shopify B2B (on Plus) handles a lot of this natively, and price lists, customer tagging, or a B2B app cover the rest. The end result is usually more flexible than the original Visualsoft setup, with cleaner reporting and easier admin.

Discount codes

Active codes get recreated in Shopify, often with smarter rules than were possible before. Historical usage data stays as a read-only archive in the old system, which is what most merchants want anyway.

Gift cards

Outstanding balances migrate, and customers receive new codes with a clear explanation. We always recommend a comms plan around this so nobody is surprised at checkout.

Loyalty and store credit

Point balances migrate as a number. The rules engine (how points are earned and spent) gets rebuilt in a Shopify loyalty app like Smile or LoyaltyLion, which gives you more control than most Visualsoft setups offered.

Subscriptions

Subscription records come across, but the billing relationship is re-established through a Shopify subscription app such as Recharge or Shopify's native subscription tools. Customers reauthorise payment, which is usually a smoother experience than the old Visualsoft flow.

Email marketing automations

Subscriber lists migrate cleanly. The automations themselves (welcome series, win-back, browse abandonment) get rebuilt in your new email tool, typically Klaviyo or Shopify Email. This is almost always a step up. Klaviyo's segmentation and reporting alone tends to pay back the rebuild quickly.

Custom-coded features

Bespoke product configurators, made-to-order forms, finance calculators, custom checkout logic. These get rebuilt in Shopify, usually as either a Shopify app, a theme extension, or a custom Shopify integration. Discovery identifies every one of them upfront so nothing gets missed and the rebuild slots into the project plan from day one.

A few things that stay behind by design

A small number of things genuinely don't move, and there are good reasons for each.

• Saved payment methods. Stored card details are tied to the original payment gateway integration and cannot transfer between platforms. This is a payment compliance rule, not a Shopify limit. Customers re-enter card details on their next purchase, and many appreciate the prompt to update saved cards anyway.
• Abandoned cart history. Old abandoned carts stay behind. New abandoned cart flows get set up in Shopify or Klaviyo on day one, and they typically perform better than the originals.
• Customer support tickets. If support history lives inside Visualsoft, it stays there as a read-only archive. Shopify pairs with dedicated helpdesk tools (Gorgias, Zendesk, Re:amaze) which give your support team a much better experience going forward.
• Server logs and analytics history. The operational history of the old store stays in the old system. Your Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, and other tracking tools keep their historical data, they just start tracking the new domain alongside it.

None of this affects how the new store runs, and in every case the replacement on Shopify is genuinely an improvement.

The reassuring summary

Here is what a Visualsoft to Shopify migration actually looks like in practice. Almost all of your data moves across as native Shopify records. Some things move across in a slightly different shape, usually a tidier one. A small handful of things stay behind, and every one of them has a better replacement waiting on Shopify.

The merchants who have the smoothest migrations are the ones who go in with clear expectations, a thorough discovery, and a partner who has done it before. Nothing on this list is a surprise to us, and none of it should be a surprise to you.

Key takeaways

• Products, customers, orders, categories, content pages, and blog posts migrate as native Shopify records
• Variants, specs, and B2B pricing migrate in a refined shape that often improves on the original
• Customer passwords, reviews, gift cards, loyalty points, and subscriptions all carry over with a sensible plan around them
• The few things that stay behind (saved cards, support tickets, server logs) all have stronger replacements on Shopify
• A specialist Visualsoft migration partner identifies every one of these items in discovery, so nothing is left to chance

Thinking about a move from Visualsoft to Shopify? We have walked merchants through this exact list more times than we can count, and we are happy to do it again. Get in touch for a no-pressure conversation about your store, or read more about our Visualsoft to Shopify migration service.