Visualsoft to Shopify migration
Visualsoft are moving their 800+ customers to Shopify and offering to stay on as your partner. That's a sensible move for them. Whether it's right for you is a different question, because Shopify is open and you can get there with anyone you like.
You'll be talking to one of us, not a salesperson.
The technology is the easy part.
What keeps Visualsoft retailers up at night is whether the move will go smoothly, whether they'll lose their rankings, and what they'll still be paying once the dust settles.
You don't need Visualsoft's permission or involvement to leave. Using them is a commercial choice, not a technical requirement. You deal with Rob and Jase directly, and the people you talk to are the people doing the work.
There's no single right answer, so here's how we see it, including the bits that don't favour us.
A legitimate choice if you've had a long, good relationship and want one supplier. They know your store. Before you commit, get three things in writing: your total monthly cost afterwards, what you're paying them for on Shopify, and the exit terms.
Fine for a simple store with clean data and nothing unusual. The risk is in the Visualsoft detail: pricing rules, account-based access, old integrations and years of data. Ask whether they've moved a Visualsoft store before. If the answer is vague, the risk sits with you.
A clean break. Afterwards you pay for your Shopify plan and whatever development help you choose, with no fees to a platform you've left, and any developer can work on your store. It suits retailers with custom features or integrations who'd rather not stay tied to one supplier.
Maybe. It's been a strong platform for a lot of brands, and a single supplier for everything has real value if you don't want to run your own setup. If it's working and you're happy with what you pay, there's no prize for moving.
Moving makes sense when you want lower running costs, the freedom to change the site yourself without raising a ticket, or a contract renewal has made you look properly. That's exactly how UKDJ and Shirtsleeves came to it. Here's an honest checklist.
Visualsoft and Shopify store data differently, so this is mapping work rather than an export and import. More in what gets migrated, and what doesn't.
Every product, variant, price, SKU and image. Custom attributes become Shopify metafields rather than being flattened or thrown away.
Your categories become collections, so customers browse the way they always have. UKDJ's 250 were built automatically.
Customer records and full order history come across, so support, returns and reporting carry on. Shirtsleeves' customers kept their store credit.
These can't move between platforms, for security reasons. Customers set a new one on first login. It's normal, and worth planning the email for.
Pages, blog posts and images move across, and meta titles, descriptions and alt text come with them.
These don't transfer. They get rebuilt, usually more cleanly, because Shopify doesn't need the workarounds. Some things will work differently, and we'll flag those early.
The most important job in the whole move, and the one most often rushed. Shopify uses its own address structure, so every old page needs a 301 to its best new home. Rules of thumb miss discontinued products, old campaign pages and paginated categories, which is where rankings leak. Here's how we map them.
Merchants worry about losing their filters. With the right setup, the Shopify version is usually as good or better, and the SEO side of filtered pages gets dealt with during the move. The detail is here.
On Visualsoft you brief a change and wait. On Shopify, sections and layouts are yours to edit. It's one of the biggest day-to-day differences. What it means in practice.
Custom pricing rules, discount logic and account-based access built up over the years. Each is found, understood and replicated, not approximated.
ERP, warehouse, fulfilment and marketing tools all need reconnecting. Some have Shopify apps and others need custom work, like the TRIMS integration for Shirtsleeves.
Gateways get connected and tested with real scenarios, along with tax, shipping, emails and returns. Why this one catches people out.
You keep trading the whole time.
The new store is built on the side while your Visualsoft store carries on as normal. The switch happens at one planned point, at a quiet time, once everything has been tested and you've signed it off. The old store stays available as a fallback.
Visualsoft may tell you that moving is complicated and risky. That's partly true. It's a proper project and shouldn't be rushed. It also shouldn't keep you on a platform you've outgrown. Why these moves are harder than they look.
Products, data, custom features, integrations and the URLs that carry your SEO. This is where the real size of the job shows up.
Work out how everything lands on Shopify before anything moves.
The store and data work run side by side on staging, not on your live site. We can match your current design, as we did for UKDJ, so the same shop is there on day one, or build you something new if you'd rather.
Whatever your store does that isn't standard, built in Shopify with apps or custom code.
Every URL mapped, then data, functionality, payments and performance tested with your sign-off.
A controlled switch, then proper attention on redirects, indexing and integrations for the weeks after.
A simple store can move in weeks. UKDJ took under two months. A store with deep ERP integration, trade accounts and lots of custom features takes longer. Complexity sets the date, not size: ten thousand simple products can move faster than five hundred wrapped in custom pricing.
Cost works the same way. Your catalogue, custom features, integrations, data quality, design scope and redirect volume decide it, and custom functionality is usually the biggest factor. We look at your actual store and then give you an itemised quote. Anyone pricing it unseen is guessing.
Compare your total cost over two or three years rather than the migration alone. What you pay every month afterwards is where the routes really differ.
Shopify plan plus any ongoing fees, in writing.
A notice period and what it costs to leave.
Ask to see which ones.
Ask who writes the code. With us it's our in-house UK team.
We don't disappear. We watch the store after launch and fix what turns up. After that, you can use us as little or as much as you like, and we'll look after the custom parts if you want us to. See everything we do on Shopify.
Emily made this. It explains how a migration really runs, in four steps and under two minutes.
It goes straight to Rob and Jase. You'll hear back from one of us, usually the same day, and we'll tell you honestly whether we're the right people.