Moving from WooCommerce to CartOS means trading WordPress maintenance headaches for a purpose-built e-commerce platform. This guide covers exporting your data from WooCommerce and getting set up on CartOS.
Why merchants leave WooCommerce
WooCommerce is powerful and flexible, but that flexibility comes at a cost. Common reasons for moving include constant plugin updates and compatibility issues, security vulnerabilities requiring vigilant patching, performance problems as the site grows, hosting management overhead, and the endless tinkering required to keep everything working together.
With CartOS, hosting, security, updates, and performance are handled for you. You focus on selling, not sysadmin work.
Before you migrate
Export everything from WooCommerce
WooCommerce stores data in your WordPress database. Export it before starting your migration:
Products: Go to WooCommerce › Products and click Export. Select all columns and download the CSV. This includes titles, descriptions, prices, SKUs, inventory, categories, tags, and images (as URLs).
Orders: Go to WooCommerce › Orders and export your order history. You may need the WooCommerce Order Export plugin for a complete export if you don't have it already.
Customers: Export customers from WooCommerce › Customers or use a plugin like Customer Export for WooCommerce if you need more fields.
Images: WooCommerce's product export includes image URLs, but those URLs point to your WordPress site. Download your product images from your WordPress media library or wp-content/uploads folder. You'll need these files to upload to CartOS.
Pages and content: If you have important pages (About, FAQ, custom landing pages), copy that content. WordPress page content doesn't export cleanly to other platforms, so copy-paste or export as HTML.
Document your current setup
Make notes about your current configuration:
- Shipping zones and rates
- Tax settings
- Payment gateways and their settings
- Active plugins and what they do
- Discount codes you want to recreate
- Any custom functionality you've built
Keep your WooCommerce site running
Don't take down your WooCommerce site until CartOS is fully set up and tested. Run both in parallel during the transition, then switch your domain when ready.
Importing products
Using the WooCommerce import tool
CartOS has a built-in WooCommerce importer. Go to Products › Import › From WooCommerce and upload your WooCommerce product CSV.
The importer maps WooCommerce fields to CartOS fields:
- Name → Title
- Description / Short description → Description
- Regular price / Sale price → Price / Compare at price
- SKU → SKU
- Stock → Inventory quantity
- Categories → Collections (created automatically)
- Tags → Tags
- Attributes → Variant options
- Images → Image URLs (for reference)
Variable products
WooCommerce variable products with attributes map to CartOS products with variants. The importer handles this conversion, creating variant combinations from your attribute values.
Review variants after import—WooCommerce's flexible attribute system sometimes creates combinations that need cleanup in CartOS's more structured variant model.
Uploading images
The import includes image URLs from your WooCommerce site, but CartOS needs to host the actual files. You have two options:
Option 1: Keep your WordPress site running temporarily. CartOS can fetch images from the URLs during import if your old site is still accessible.
Option 2: Upload images manually. After import, go through each product and upload images from your downloaded media files. This is more work but doesn't depend on your old site staying up.
For large catalogs, Option 1 is usually faster. Just make sure your WordPress site stays live until all images are transferred.
Importing customers
Go to Customers › Import and upload your WooCommerce customer export. Map the fields—email, first name, last name, addresses, phone number.
Customer passwords don't transfer (they're hashed and can't be exported). Customers will need to reset their passwords when they first log in to your new site. Consider sending an email announcing the migration with a password reset link.
Order history
You can import historical orders for reference, but they'll be marked as archived—they're records, not active orders to fulfill. Go to Orders › Import to bring in your order history if you want it available in CartOS for customer lookup and reporting.
Alternatively, keep your WooCommerce site accessible (even if hidden) for looking up old orders during a transition period.
Recreating your configuration
Shipping
WooCommerce shipping zones and methods need to be recreated in CartOS. Go to Settings › Shipping and set up your zones and rates. The concepts are similar—zones define where you ship, and each zone has shipping methods with rates.
If you used a shipping plugin for real-time rates (like WooCommerce Shipping or Shippo), install the Fulfillment Bolt and connect your carrier accounts for similar functionality.
Taxes
CartOS handles tax differently than WooCommerce. Instead of manually managing tax rates or using a plugin, CartOS uses Avalara data updated monthly with zip code level accuracy. Go to Settings › Taxes and enable collection for your nexus states. See Basic Tax Settings.
If you used a tax plugin like TaxJar or Avalara, CartOS's built-in tax may be sufficient, or you can install the equivalent bolt for advanced features.
Payments
Set up your payment gateways in Settings › Payments. If you used Stripe or PayPal with WooCommerce, you can connect the same accounts to CartOS. You may need to update webhook URLs in your payment provider's dashboard to point to CartOS.
Discount codes
Recreate your coupon codes in Discounts. CartOS supports percentage discounts, fixed amount discounts, free shipping, and buy-X-get-Y promotions. If you had complex coupon logic through plugins, check if CartOS's native discounts cover your needs or if a bolt provides additional functionality.
Replacing your plugins
WooCommerce functionality often comes from plugins. Here's how common plugin types map to CartOS:
| WooCommerce Plugin | CartOS Equivalent |
|---|---|
| Mailchimp / Klaviyo | Automation Bolt (built-in) or integration bolt |
| Yoast SEO | Built-in SEO fields on products and pages |
| WooCommerce Subscriptions | Subscriptions Bolt |
| Product Reviews | Reviews Bolt |
| WooCommerce Shipping | Fulfillment Bolt |
| TaxJar / Avalara | Built-in tax (Avalara data) or tax bolt |
| YITH Wishlist | Wishlists Bolt |
| Points and Rewards | Loyalty Bolt |
| Google Analytics | Built-in integration in Settings |
| Facebook Pixel | Built-in integration in Settings |
| Multi-channel (Amazon, eBay) | Stock Genius Bolt |
Browse the Bolt Store for your specific needs. If you had custom plugin functionality, it may exist as a bolt or you might need a custom solution.
Theme and design
Your WooCommerce theme doesn't transfer to CartOS—they're completely different systems. You'll choose a CartOS theme and customize it to match your brand.
If you have a heavily customized WooCommerce theme, you're essentially recreating the design rather than migrating it. Take screenshots of your current site for reference, note the colors and fonts, and work to match the look in CartOS's theme editor.
The upside: CartOS themes are built specifically for e-commerce and tend to perform better than WordPress themes with WooCommerce bolted on.
Domain migration
Once your CartOS store is ready and tested:
- Add your domain in Settings › Domains
- Update your DNS records to point to CartOS (we provide the specific records)
- Wait for DNS propagation (usually a few hours, can take up to 48)
- SSL certificate is provisioned automatically
Keep your old WooCommerce site up until you've verified everything works on CartOS. You can put WordPress in maintenance mode during the DNS switch to prevent orders on the old site.
URL redirects
WooCommerce and CartOS use different URL structures. Set up redirects so old links still work and you don't lose SEO value.
Common redirects needed:
/product/product-name→/products/product-name/product-category/category-name→/collections/category-name/shop→/collections/all/cart→/cart/my-account→/account
Go to Settings › Redirects to set these up. Use wildcard patterns to handle products and categories in bulk rather than creating individual redirects.
What you'll gain
- No more updates – No WordPress core, theme, or plugin updates to manage
- Better security – No vulnerabilities to patch, no plugins to vet
- Faster performance – Purpose-built e-commerce platform, not a CMS with shop features added
- Simpler stack – One platform instead of WordPress + WooCommerce + dozens of plugins
- Included hosting – No separate hosting to manage or pay for
- Reliable support – One company supports everything, not finger-pointing between plugin developers
What changes
- Less customization – CartOS is more opinionated than WooCommerce. You get fewer knobs to turn, but things work out of the box.
- No WordPress ecosystem – Can't use WordPress plugins, themes, or the block editor
- Different templating – If you did theme development, CartOS uses Liquid instead of PHP
For most merchants, the trade-off is worth it. You lose some flexibility but gain reliability and peace of mind.
Need help?
WooCommerce migrations can be complex, especially for large stores with lots of customization. If you want assistance, contact our support team. We can help with data migration, configuration, and ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.