Shopify Glossary Terms

The cutover is the live launch window of a migration. Everything before cutover is staging and rehearsal. After cutover, the new store is the source of truth.

A typical cutover runs 4 to 12 hours. The sequence: freeze new orders on the old store, run the final data delta (orders, customers, inventory placed since the last sync), point DNS at the new store, verify redirects fire correctly, reconnect payment gateways, smoke-test checkout, then open the gates. ERP and 3PL endpoints repoint at the new store either during or just after cutover.

Most cutovers happen overnight in the merchant's timezone or on a Sunday morning when traffic is lowest. High-traffic stores run them in maintenance mode (a holding page) for 1 to 2 hours so customers don't hit a half-migrated state.

Common cutover failures: DNS propagation taking longer than expected (mitigated by lowering TTL 48 hours before), payment gateway tokens not transferring (rebuild required), the redirect map having gaps (Googlebot finds them within a week and rankings drop), and integration endpoints still pointing at the old store after cutover.

The cutover plan is rehearsed at least twice on staging before go-live. If it hasn't been rehearsed end-to-end, it's not ready.