A migration proposal can look reassuring and still leave you with questions. Who will check the imported orders? Who fixes a redirect that was missed? Who picks up the phone if payments stop working on launch day?
Ask those questions before you sign. A portfolio shows what an agency has shipped; a conversation about the work tells you more about how your project will run.
Use the questions below with any agency, including us. If you’re comparing prices too, the Shopify migration cost guide explains what a quote should cover.
Questions about the people
Who will actually do the work?
Ask for names and roles, not a team page. Find out who maps the data, who builds the storefront, who owns redirects, and who is on call during cutover.
You should know who you’re working with before the sales call ends. If the delivery team hasn’t been assigned yet, ask when you’ll meet them and who is responsible in the meantime.
Who did the work on the examples you showed me?
Portfolios are often agency-wide. A migration delivered three years ago by people who have since left tells you little about the people quoting today. Ask which of the showcased projects the proposed team worked on directly.
What happens when the person running my project is unavailable?
Migrations have a fixed point in time that can’t slip easily. Ask how knowledge is shared inside the team, where decisions are written down, and who steps in during launch week if the lead is out.
Questions about the process
What do you need from us before you can give a firm price?
Expect requests for sample exports, access to the current platform, an app and integration list, and analytics. An early estimate can help you decide whether to keep talking, but a firm quote should explain its assumptions and what happens if those assumptions are wrong.
Will we see a test migration before launch?
There should be a test migration, with time allowed for corrections and another pass. Test imports are where mapping problems, missing fields, and broken variants surface while there is still time to fix them. Ask what gets reconciled after each test run: product counts, variant counts, customer totals, order totals, and prices should all be checked against the source.
How do you handle data that changes while we migrate?
Orders, customers, and inventory keep moving until the old store closes. Ask how the final delta is captured, how long the content freeze lasts, and what the plan is if the cutover window runs long.
What does a rehearsal look like?
A launch rehearsal runs the full cutover against a copy, timed, before the real one. Without a rehearsal, launch-day timing is a guess. The Shopify migration checklist shows what a rehearsal covers if you want a reference point.
Questions about data and search
Which records will move, and which won’t?
“All your data” is not a scope. Ask for the record types by name: products, variants, collections, customers, orders, discounts, gift cards, reviews, blog content, and any app-owned data. Then ask which of those will move as live records, which will be archived, and which won’t move at all.
Some things don’t transfer cleanly between platforms. Customer passwords are the common example: shoppers usually need to activate or reset their accounts on the new store. A good agency raises this before you ask, with a plan for the customer emails.
How will you build and verify the redirect map?
Redirects protect the search equity you have built. Ask how URLs are collected (crawl, analytics, Search Console, backlinks), how they’re matched to new destinations, and how the map is tested after launch.
Be cautious with any proposal that promises “no SEO loss.” Nobody can guarantee rankings. A dependable team promises a method: complete URL coverage, tested redirects, preserved metadata, and monitoring after launch.
What happens to our analytics and tracking?
Conversion tracking, consent, and ad platform pixels break quietly during migrations. Ask who owns them, how they will be validated before launch, and what will be compared after launch to confirm nothing went missing.
Questions about launch and after
What are the rollback criteria?
Ask what would cause the team to delay or reverse a launch, and who makes that call. If there are no written criteria, the decision will be made under pressure at the worst possible moment.
What support do we get after launch?
Redirect gaps and integration errors can surface only after real customers and orders reach the new store. Ask how long the team stays involved, what they monitor, and how quickly they respond.
What will we own when you are done?
Ask what your team can maintain without calling the agency:
- Will the theme be editable by our team, or will every change need a developer?
- Who owns the code, the redirect map, and the migration scripts?
- Is there documentation for the data mapping and integrations?
- Are we tied to a retainer to keep the store running?
A migration should leave you with a store your team can operate. If the answers point to ongoing dependence, factor that cost into the comparison.
Reading the answers
Look for answers you can check: names, examples, written responsibilities, and a clear explanation of how problems get resolved.
Strong signals:
- They ask for exports and access before quoting the full scope.
- They name the people and keep them on the project.
- They describe test migrations, reconciliation, and a rehearsal without being prompted.
- They are plain about what won’t transfer and what they can’t guarantee.
- They talk about what your team will be able to do after launch.
Weak signals:
- The price arrives before the questions do.
- Every answer is “yes, we handle that” with no detail on how.
- Redirects, analytics, or post-launch support are someone else’s job, and nobody is named.
- Rankings are guaranteed.
A practical way to compare agencies
Send each shortlisted agency the same short brief: your current platform, catalog size, key integrations, markets, and launch window. Ask each one the questions above in writing. Written answers are easier to compare and harder to blur.
If nobody can price the project confidently yet, consider paying for a small planning phase first. Ask for a data inventory, a redirect review, an integration map, and a launch sequence that you can take to any implementation team.
That is how our Shopify Migration Readiness Review works. The plan is yours to keep, even if another team performs the migration. If you’re earlier than that, the migration service page shows how we scope and run the work.