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Moving Your Online Store to an Algerian Platform: What Really Moves

· 12 min read
DZBuild Team
DZBuild Team
We build the platform

Your products move. Almost nothing else does. That is the short answer if you are leaving Shopify or WooCommerce. Most guides leave it until the end.

This article is published by DZBuild, an Algerian store platform, so we sell one of the options here. Every fact about another company was read from that company's own page on 7 September 2026. The links are at the bottom.

What moves with you and what does not​

The full list, read from the live DZBuild import screens on 7 September 2026.

What you have todayDoes it come across?
Products, prices and SKUsYes
Variants such as colour and sizeYes
Product photosYes
Collections or categoriesYes, they arrive as categories
Past ordersNo
Your customer listNo
Product reviewsNo
Discount codesNo
Blog posts and static pagesNo
Apps and pluginsNo
Your old product web addressesNo

The import reads products. It does not read orders or customers, and no screen in the dashboard takes them. So plan the move as a catalogue move, plus a manual copy of whatever else you still need.

How to export your products from Shopify​

If you are moving to DZBuild you can skip this section. The Shopify import reads your store directly, with no file in the middle. Do it anyway if you want your own copy of the data.

  1. Open your Shopify admin and go to Products. Click Export. Shopify offers a CSV file for Excel or Numbers, or a plain CSV file.
  2. Download it. If one product has more than 100 variants, Shopify emails you the file instead.
  3. Open the file and look at the image columns. Shopify's own help page says the images are not inside the CSV. The file holds links to them, and those links work only while your old store is still publicly viewable.

That last point sets the order of the move. Import while the old store is still online, not after you close it.

How to export your products from WooCommerce​

WooCommerce has the same tool built in, and it is free.

  1. In WordPress, go to Products, then All Products. Click Export at the top.
  2. Choose the columns you want, or leave it on Export all columns. The exporter covers the standard product columns, including SKU, price, images, categories and attributes.
  3. Tick Yes, export all custom meta if a plugin stores extra product data you care about, such as a supplier code.
  4. You can also tick a few products in the list and export only those. Test the move with 5 products before you commit 500.

WooCommerce documents one quirk itself. When a product has three or more attributes, some attribute values can drop out of the variation names in the file. Open a multi-option product and check it before you trust the whole batch.

Moving the catalogue into a new store​

There are two routes into DZBuild, and the one you take depends on where you are leaving.

Coming from Shopify. Install the Shopify Import add-on and connect your Shopify store once. Products, variants, images and collections come across in that one step, and the photos are copied to DZBuild rather than borrowed from the old store. Run it a second time and it updates what it already imported instead of making a second catalogue. It needs the Pro plan.

Coming from anywhere else. Use bulk import at Products, then Bulk import. It accepts CSV, XLSX, XLS and ODS files, up to 10 MB and 5,000 rows, checked in the live tool on 7 September 2026.

The steps on screen:

  1. Upload the file. Ready presets for Shopify, WooCommerce and generic export files match the columns for you.
  2. Check the mapping table. If your file has odd column names, DZBuild AI suggests what each leftover column is. It only fills the dropdowns you left empty, it never overwrites a match, and it costs no AI points.
  3. Look at the preview. It shows what will be created before anything is saved.
  4. Pick what happens when a product with the same SKU already exists: create, skip it, or update it. This is why a second run does not duplicate your catalogue.
  5. Run it. Products appear first and photos land a little later, because the images are fetched in the background.

The list of columns the file can carry is in the products documentation. You do not need an account to read it.

Now the limits, here beside the feature and not in a footnote. Bulk import needs a paid plan. Pro is 1,000 DZD per month and allows up to 300 products, read from the pricing page on 7 September 2026. There is no slug column, so each product's web address is built from its name.

A new store gets 3 free days of Pro with no bank card. That is enough time to import a test file of 20 products and look at the result before you pay anything.

What happens to your old orders and customers​

They stay where they are. DZBuild does not import order history from another platform. Get your own copy out before you close anything.

On Shopify, Orders then Export gives you a CSV. Up to 50 orders download straight to your device, and 51 or more are emailed to you and the store owner. Customers then Export works the same way, with the file capped at 15 MB.

On WooCommerce it costs money. The built-in exporter handles products only. Orders, customers and coupons need the official Customer / Order / Coupon Export extension, listed at 69 euros for one year on 7 September 2026. That is around 10,700 DZD at 155 DZD to the euro, a reference rate read the same day from exchangerate-api.com.

Being straight about our own side: DZBuild has no CSV export of orders in the dashboard either. Orders leave through the Google Sheets add-on, which writes each new order into a spreadsheet as it arrives, and it needs Pro. If you need a downloadable order file every month, test that before you move a catalogue.

Your domain does not live on the old platform. You bought it from a registrar, the company that sold you the name, and it stays yours. Moving a store changes one line in its settings.

On DZBuild you add one CNAME record at your registrar pointing your domain at link.dzbuild.app, then click Verify and link on the Domains page. The certificate that puts the padlock in the browser is issued and renewed for you, with nothing to buy or upload.

Some registrars refuse a CNAME on the bare domain. For those there is a guided path where you change your domain's nameservers instead and DZBuild manages the records. If your domain has DNSSEC switched on, turn it off before you change nameservers. The Domains page warns you about this on the same screen.

Your ad links are the part that actually breaks. A Shopify product sits at a web address like /products/name, and on DZBuild it sits at /product/name, built from the product name. The import moves products, not web addresses. A live Facebook or TikTok ad pointing at the old link stops working the moment the domain moves.

Do this in the right order. Import the catalogue first. Then open each running ad, copy the new product link from your storefront, and update the ad. Move the domain last. One thing to remember afterwards: renaming a product rebuilds its web address, so a rename during a campaign breaks that ad the same way.

What to check before you cancel the old plan​

Run both stores for a few days. That overlap costs one extra month at most, and it is the cheapest insurance in the move.

  • Download your product export, your orders and your customer list, and keep the files somewhere that is not the old platform.
  • Confirm your imported catalogue: count the products, open three of them, and check variant prices and stock rather than only the photos.
  • Check that a test order reaches you, with your delivery prices set for the wilayas you actually ship to.
  • Update every running ad link, then move the domain, then watch the storefront load on your own phone.
  • Save copies of what the export leaves behind: reviews, discount codes, page text, old invoices.

One more thing. On 7 September 2026 I could not verify how long Shopify keeps your data after a store is deactivated. Its deactivation help page did not state a period. Treat your own export as the only copy you are sure about.

Two DZBuild limits matter at this exact moment, so you meet them here and not later. Your store address on our subdomain is fixed when the store is created and cannot be changed. Pick it carefully on the first screen. And a store is either physical or digital, never both, so shipped goods and downloadable files mean two stores.

When not to move at all​

Sometimes the honest answer is stay.

Say your store is established, your payments work, and three or four Shopify apps run parts of your business. Moving costs you more than it saves. Those apps have no equivalent here, and rebuilding what they do by hand is real work.

If you sell outside Algeria, or need a checkout in more than one currency, keep Shopify. DZBuild is built for cash on delivery inside Algeria.

If you want to own your code and you have a developer, WooCommerce is the better answer. Our platform comparison sets both out with prices.

The case for moving is narrower than the internet suggests. It fits the merchant who pays a subscription in dollars, takes cash at the door, and retypes every parcel into a courier website by hand. If that is you, import a sample of your catalogue during the 3 free days and judge it with your own products on screen.

Questions about moving an online store​

Can I move my Shopify store to another platform? You can move the catalogue. Orders, customers, reviews, discount codes and apps do not move, on any platform.

Do my old orders move with me? No. Export them from the old dashboard and keep the file. You need them for accounting, not for the new store.

What is Matrixify and do I need it? Matrixify is a Shopify app. It exports and imports more record types than the built-in CSV. The free Demo plan handles 10 products per job. Basic is 20 dollars per 30 days, around 2,700 DZD at 133 DZD to the dollar, both read on 7 September 2026. You do not need it to move products into DZBuild.

Should I move from Shopify to WooCommerce instead? That is a fair route if you have a developer and want to own the code. You take on hosting, updates and the courier connections yourself.

Will my Google ranking drop after the move? Your product web addresses change. Old links stop working unless you set redirects on the old platform while it still runs. Our SEO guide covers that.

How long does the move take? The catalogue import takes minutes for a few hundred products. Updating ad links and checking prices is the slow part, and it is an evening of work.

What I checked, and when​

Everything above was verified on 7 September 2026.

One correction to our own documentation. The products page still warns that importing the same file twice duplicates your catalogue. That was true, and it is out of date: the live import now matches on SKU and lets you skip or update instead. We are fixing the page.