Leaving Magento or Adobe Commerce usually starts as a cost decision. Velocity finishes it. Adobe Commerce is technically capable, well-supported, and has a mature B2B feature set. The reason brands leave isn't capability. It's the renewal cycle, the implementation partner economics, and a developer market that's getting harder to hire from every year. Here's the playbook.
Why brands actually leave Adobe Commerce
Adobe Commerce sits in a difficult middle. It's more expensive than Magento Open Source (because of the licence and Adobe support) but doesn't have the developer ecosystem velocity of Shopify Plus or the enterprise integration depth of Salesforce Commerce Cloud or SAP Commerce Cloud. For brands in the $10M to $80M range, that middle is uncomfortable.
Three things usually drive the move.
Renewal pricing. Adobe Commerce contracts run 1 to 3 years. Renewal quotes have trended up over the last 4 years as Adobe has rationalised its commerce pricing. For brands that have grown over the contract term, the renewal number is often 30 to 80% higher than the previous spend. That's the trigger.
Implementation partner economics. Adobe Commerce builds usually involve a system integrator partner. Annual partner spend on a mid-market Adobe Commerce store typically runs $300K to $1.2M depending on velocity. Most of that gets compressed on Shopify Plus because the platform requires fewer custom hours per feature.
Developer talent. The Magento and Adobe Commerce developer market has been shrinking for several years. Senior Magento developers are commanding premium rates because the supply is limited and the brands hiring them are competing for the same pool. Replacing a senior Magento developer takes 3 to 9 months. Replacing a senior Shopify developer takes 4 to 12 weeks.
The capability conversation is usually a wash. Adobe Commerce has excellent B2B, multi-store, and merchandising features. Shopify Plus has caught up enough that the capability gap rarely justifies the cost gap for brands under $80M revenue.
What changes versus Magento Open Source
We have a separate Magento to Shopify Plus migration page and a complete Magento migration guide because the two audiences are different.
Magento Open Source brands are usually self-hosted, smaller, more cost-sensitive, and considering Shopify Plus to escape the operational overhead of self-hosting. The conversation is about hosting, security, and developer hours.
Adobe Commerce brands are usually larger, on Adobe's hosted infrastructure (Magento Cloud), and considering Shopify Plus because the renewal economics no longer make sense. The conversation is about TCO and platform investment pace.
The data migration mechanics are the same. The engine under both is the same Magento codebase, with the same EAV data model, the same module structure, and the same catalogue patterns. The translation work in catalog mapping is identical.
Where Adobe Commerce differs is in the surrounding stack. Adobe Sensei, Adobe Experience Manager integration, Adobe Analytics, and Adobe Target often appear in Adobe Commerce environments. Each one is a separate decision: keep, replace, or retire as part of the migration.
What changes at the data layer
Adobe Commerce uses the same EAV data model as Magento Open Source. Custom scripting is required because off-the-shelf importers can't reconstruct the relationships from a flat CSV export.
The migration script handles:
Configurable, simple, bundle, grouped, and virtual products. Configurable products become Shopify variants. Bundles get rebuilt as multi-line products or via apps depending on use. Grouped products usually become collections with shared metadata. Virtual products map to Shopify gift cards or digital products as appropriate.
Attribute sets. Adobe Commerce stores different products with different attribute sets. The migration translates attribute sets into Shopify metafield definitions, with consistent schemas per product type.
Customer groups. Adobe Commerce uses customer groups for pricing tiers, tax rules, and B2B access. These translate to Shopify customer tags for simpler cases or Shopify B2B company profiles for full B2B workflows.
Cart price rules and catalog price rules. Adobe Commerce's promotion engine is more complex than Shopify's discount system. The translation usually involves Shopify Discounts, Shopify Functions, or apps like Discounty depending on rule complexity.
Multi-store configurations. Adobe Commerce's website/store/store view hierarchy maps to Shopify Markets for international or separate Shopify Plus stores for genuinely different brands.
Adobe stack decisions
Adobe Commerce environments often include other Adobe products. Each one needs an explicit decision before migration starts.
Adobe Experience Manager (AEM). If AEM is the source-of-truth for marketing content, the migration usually keeps AEM in place and pipes content into Shopify via Storefront API or a headless front-end. For brands where AEM was hosting a small amount of content, the migration is the moment to consolidate into Shopify pages or Sanity.
Adobe Analytics. Replaceable with GA4, Shopify Analytics, or kept in place via tag deployment on the new Shopify store.
Adobe Target. Replaceable with Shopify's native A/B testing, or kept via custom integration if the testing team is committed to the tool.
Adobe Sensei. Most Sensei-powered features (recommendations, search) get replaced by Shopify-native equivalents or apps like Algolia, Searchspring, or Klevu.
The Adobe stack audit is part of the discovery phase. Decisions made here directly drive integration scope.
The SEO conversation
Adobe Commerce URL structures are configurable. Default product URLs follow /category-handle/product-handle.html or /product-handle.html. Category URLs follow /category-handle.html or /category-handle/. The .html suffix is common but optional.
Shopify uses /products/handle, /collections/handle, /blogs/blog-name/article-handle, and /pages/handle. The 301 redirect map is what bridges old to new.
For mid-market Adobe Commerce stores the redirect map is usually 10,000 to 80,000 URLs because Adobe Commerce's faceted navigation generates large URL surfaces (especially if URL rewrites are enabled per filter). We crawl the live site, pull Google Search Console data, and pull existing redirects from the Adobe Commerce admin into a source-of-truth spreadsheet before mapping destinations.
Brands using Adobe Commerce's content staging or scheduled product launches need an explicit plan for in-flight content during cutover. The migration window can't include unfrozen content changes.
What we won't do
A few principles that keep the project clean.
We don't migrate Adobe Commerce extensions you no longer use. Most Adobe Commerce installs accumulate extensions over years. Migration is the moment to retire what's no longer working.
We don't push Sensei replacements as default. Some brands actually use Sensei recommendations or merchandising effectively. We evaluate the existing usage data before recommending a swap.
We don't ship without B2B sign-off. B2B workflows are rehearsed end-to-end on the migration sandbox with the sales operations team before go-live.
We don't ship without 1:1 reconciliation. Product count matches. Customer count matches. Order count matches. Company count matches. If anything doesn't reconcile, we don't launch.
We don't sign off on a redirect map we haven't tested. Every URL gets crawled. Every redirect gets verified.
Where to start
If you're considering an Adobe Commerce to Shopify Plus migration, the first step is an audit. We document your catalogue, B2B configuration, integration list, Adobe stack dependencies, and redirect surface area, then return a build spec, a risk register, and a fixed-price Phase 1 quote.
The dedicated Adobe Commerce to Shopify Plus migration page has more detail on our process, what's included, and how the timeline maps to your specific setup.
For broader context on Shopify Plus migrations across all source platforms, see the complete migration guide. For the conversion impact specifically, what actually happens to your conversion rate when you migrate covers the gain mechanics in detail.
Frequently asked questions
Is Adobe Commerce the same as Magento for migration purposes?
Adobe Commerce is the renamed enterprise tier of Magento Commerce. The underlying engine is identical to Magento 2 Open Source plus enterprise features. Migration mechanics are the same: EAV data model translation, extension audit, custom theme rebuild. The difference is the licence cost driving the conversation. Adobe Commerce renewal pricing is what usually triggers the migration evaluation.
When is Adobe Commerce renewal the right time to migrate?
Most brands evaluate migration at the 6 to 9 month mark before renewal. This gives enough time to run an audit (3 weeks), make a build decision (2 weeks), and complete a Phase 1 build (12 to 20 weeks) before the existing licence expires. Starting later than 6 months out usually forces either a rushed migration or a one-year renewal extension while the migration runs in parallel.
How long does an Adobe Commerce to Shopify Plus migration take?
Most Adobe Commerce migrations run 12 to 20 weeks, identical to Magento Open Source. The complexity drivers are the same: EAV data model, integration depth, B2B workflows, and custom code. The Adobe Commerce-specific features (Page Builder content, Customer Segmentation, Reward Points) need explicit translation strategies but don't typically extend the timeline beyond a Magento migration.
Will my Adobe Commerce Page Builder content migrate?
Page Builder content stored in CMS pages and product descriptions migrates as HTML, but the Page Builder structure (sections, columns, blocks) doesn't translate to Shopify's section architecture. The HTML output gets imported, then content gets restructured into Shopify sections during the design build. Plan a 2 to 4 week content workstream parallel to the build.
How does Adobe Commerce Customer Segmentation translate?
Shopify uses customer segments natively in the admin and in marketing tools. Adobe Commerce segmentation rules translate to Shopify customer segments with most logic preserved. Complex segmentation that depends on Adobe-specific attributes (like reward points or store credit balances) needs custom translation through metafields and Shopify Functions.
What about Adobe Commerce Reward Points and Store Credit?
Native Shopify doesn't have built-in reward points or store credit. The standard approach is to migrate the data into customer metafields, then use a loyalty app (Smile, Yotpo, LoyaltyLion) for ongoing reward management. Existing point balances import into the loyalty app as starting balances. Plan a 2 to 3 week loyalty migration workstream including the historical data import.
How much does an Adobe Commerce to Shopify Plus migration cost?
Build costs typically range from $120K to $300K for mid-market brands, similar to Magento Open Source. Adobe Commerce migrations usually trend toward the upper end because the brands tend to be larger ($20M+ revenue) with deeper integration depth. Total year-one investment including post-launch retainer and apps usually lands at $300K to $700K.
Can I keep using Adobe Experience Manager with Shopify Plus?
Yes. AEM and Shopify Plus integrate through the Storefront API, with AEM serving as the headless CMS and Shopify handling commerce. This is similar to the Sanity + Hydrogen pattern. The integration adds 4 to 8 weeks of build time but is increasingly common for brands that have invested heavily in AEM and don't want to migrate the content layer at the same time.
A Shopify Plus Agency for Strategic Design & Advanced Engineering
Building something ambitious?
- Adobe Commerce migrations have the same data-layer mechanics as Magento Open Source migrations because the engine is the same. The commercial story is different.
- The trigger is usually the renewal. Adobe's enterprise pricing has pushed many mid-market brands to evaluate alternatives. Most discover the move pays for itself in 12 to 18 months.
- B2B is the part most worth scoping carefully. Adobe Commerce B2B is mature. Shopify Plus B2B has caught up but works differently. Workflow translation is non-trivial.
- Magento Cloud (Adobe Commerce hosted) brings infrastructure costs down to zero post-migration because Shopify Plus is fully hosted.
- Timeline runs 12 to 20 weeks. The variance is driven by catalogue size, B2B complexity, and the depth of ERP integration rather than the platform itself.
