Inventory the store you actually run
List products and variants, customer and order data, languages, sales channels, payment and shipping methods, extensions and external integrations. Identify custom fields and business rules that staff rely on but that may not appear in a basic feature list.
Assign an owner to each area and record how it will be checked in the target shop. This avoids discovering essential workflows only after the move.
Separate data migration from rebuilding
Shopware’s Migration Assistant supports defined data transfers, but not every part of a Shopware 5 installation transfers automatically. Existing themes and Shopping Worlds need separate attention because Shopware 6 uses a different structure. Review the official transfer scope for the versions and tooling involved.
Map each extension to a supported replacement, a custom implementation or a deliberate removal. Confirm the decision with the people who use that feature before estimating the rebuild.
Preserve useful URLs
Export the old indexable URLs and map them to relevant destinations. Keep URLs when practical; where they change, prepare permanent redirects to the matching content. Avoid sending every retired product or category to the homepage.
Check canonical links, internal links, sitemap entries and image references in the target store. After launch, inspect crawl errors and indexing in Search Console. Redirects help preserve continuity, but no migration can promise unchanged rankings.
Rehearse the cutover
Run a trial migration, reconcile representative records and check variant relationships, customer access and historical orders. Test search, cart, shipping, payments and notifications. Decide how to handle orders and catalogue edits that occur between the trial and final transfer.
Agree a cutover window, recovery plan and post-launch checks. See our Shopware migration and development services to discuss the work, then plan ongoing maintenance for the new store.