How to Migrate from Shopify to Medusa

Shopify Basic costs $39/month + 2.9% transaction fees. At scale, costs climb to $399/month+ with apps. Medusa is the open source headless commerce platform — no transaction fees, full control, and a modern developer experience.

What Transfers

Shopify Data	Medusa Status
✅ Products	Export CSV → import
✅ Variants	Mapped to Medusa variants
✅ Categories/Collections	Recreate as collections
✅ Customers	Export → import via API
✅ Orders (history)	Export → import via API
⚠️ Images	Download + re-upload
❌ Theme/storefront	Rebuild (headless)
❌ Apps/integrations	Rebuild or find alternatives
❌ Shopify Payments	Use Stripe directly

Step 1: Deploy Medusa

# Create new Medusa project
npx create-medusa-app@latest my-store
cd my-store

# Start the server
npx medusa develop

Admin dashboard at localhost:9000/app, API at localhost:9000.

Step 2: Export from Shopify

Products:

1. Shopify Admin → Products → Export
2. Choose CSV format, all products

Customers:

1. Shopify Admin → Customers → Export

Orders:

1. Shopify Admin → Orders → Export

Step 3: Import Products

// Script to import Shopify products into Medusa
const { Medusa } = require('@medusajs/js-sdk');
const csv = require('csv-parse/sync');
const fs = require('fs');

const medusa = new Medusa({ baseUrl: 'http://localhost:9000', apiKey: 'your-api-key' });

const products = csv.parse(fs.readFileSync('products.csv'), { columns: true });

for (const product of products) {
  await medusa.admin.products.create({
    title: product.Title,
    description: product['Body (HTML)'],
    handle: product.Handle,
    variants: [{
      title: product['Variant Title'] || 'Default',
      prices: [{ amount: Math.round(parseFloat(product['Variant Price']) * 100), currency_code: 'usd' }],
      sku: product['Variant SKU'],
      inventory_quantity: parseInt(product['Variant Inventory Qty']) || 0,
    }],
  });
}

Step 4: Build Your Storefront

Medusa is headless — you need a frontend. Options:

Next.js Starter (recommended):

npx create-medusa-app@latest --with-nextjs-starter

Custom frontend: Use Medusa's JS SDK or REST API with any framework (Next.js, Nuxt, SvelteKit, Remix).

Step 5: Set Up Payments

# Install Stripe plugin
npm install medusa-payment-stripe

Configure in medusa-config.js:

module.exports = {
  plugins: [{
    resolve: 'medusa-payment-stripe',
    options: {
      api_key: process.env.STRIPE_API_KEY,
    },
  }],
};

No per-transaction fees from Medusa — only Stripe's standard 2.9% + $0.30.

Step 6: Set Up Shipping, Tax, Email

Shopify Feature	Medusa Plugin/Module
Shipping rates	Fulfillment module
Tax calculation	Tax module (or TaxJar)
Order emails	Notification module (SendGrid, Resend)
Inventory	Inventory module
Gift cards	Gift card module
Discounts	Discount module

Cost Comparison (Annual)

Scenario	Shopify	Medusa Self-Hosted
Startup ($10K/month revenue)	$468/year + $3,480 fees	$240/year hosting
Growing ($50K/month)	$3,588/year + $17,400 fees	$600/year hosting
Scale ($200K/month)	$4,788/year + $69,600 fees	$1,200/year hosting

Shopify fees = 2.9% + $0.30. Medusa uses Stripe directly (same rate but no Shopify markup).

Migration Timeline

Week	Task
Week 1-2	Deploy Medusa, import products, build storefront
Week 3	Set up payments, shipping, tax
Week 4	Import customers, test checkout flow
Month 2	Soft launch, parallel run
Month 3	Full cutover

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