Recharge offers a self-service migration tool that makes it easy to migrate your subscription customers from other Shopify subscription platforms to Recharge.

This guide explains migrating to Recharge from another Shopify subscription platform if you use one of Shopify’s eligible subscription payment processors.

Before you start

• Analytic information is not migrated during subscription migrations. Migrated customers will show as new customers on the date your migration is completed.
• Historical data is not migrated during subscription migrations. This applies to all migrations.
• Contact migrations@rechargeapps.com if you have any questions about your migration or the process outlined below.

Understanding the migration process

It’s important to understand where you're migrating from and how your previous platform stores your customers' payment information, so you can properly configure the Recharge migration tool to handle the transition.

If you’re migrating from another Shopify-hosted app, your customer payment methods are likely stored in Shopify. If that’s the case, you do not have to prepare any payment data when preparing for your migration. Access an existing subscriber’s record in Shopify and confirm if they have a stored card on file to verify that your customer payment methods are stored in Shopify.

If your customers do not have saved payments in Shopify, you must provide their payment IDs when creating the migration file. Shopify supports creating payment methods for subscribers from the following payment gateways:

• Stripe
• Braintree
• PayPal
• Authorize.net

Merchants must ensure that all payment methods in the payment gateway have a billing address linked prior to migration. Missing billing address data will cause customer rows to be skipped during migration or replaced with placeholder cards in Shopify, which cannot be used for transactions. Merchants must verify and update billing addresses within the gateway directly.

Step 1 - Prepare your store

Follow the instructions for getting started with Recharge to prepare for your migration. This ensures your store remains fully operational during the migration, seamlessly directing all new subscribers through the Recharge platform. It also eliminates the risk of losing customers during the data transfer from your previous platform.

Make sure your payment gateway is properly connected, either through Shopify if you're using their platform, or via Recharge if you're using a custom setup. For example, if you’re migrating subscribers with payments stored in Stripe, ensure that Stripe is connected in your Shopify payment settings as either the legacy or primary gateway.

If your customer payment methods already exist in Shopify, you can skip this step.

Step 2 - Export and prepare your customer and subscription data

Export your customer and subscription data from your previous platform. By doing this after launching on Recharge, you can ensure all existing data is captured for migration.

Once your data is exported, use the Migration Template to format it in a way that Recharge can process. The template provides a clear guide on the file structure required for the Recharge Migrations tool.

Step 3 - Import your data using the Recharge migration tool

While migrating legacy data may seem intimidating, Recharge’s migration tool ensures you can seamlessly migrate customer data. The migration tool thoroughly scans your data for potential issues before the migration begins, clearly identifying any problems and enabling you to easily resolve any issue.

After migrating your data, Recharge provides you with reporting exports so that you can audit your new data in Recharge and confirm it matches your expectations.

Step 1 - Access the Migrations Tool

Use the Migrations Tool in your Recharge merchant portal to start the migration process:

1. Confirm that you formatted your store data correctly as outlined in Step 2.
2. Click Tools & apps in the Recharge merchant portal and select Migrations to access the Migrations Tool.

Step 2 - Upload your formatted file

Upload your store data to send Recharge the necessary information to process the migration:

1. Select Start migration.
2. Drop your file in the import section, or click select a file to upload your store data.
3. Select where your subscribers’ payments are stored under the Where are payments stored for the subscribers in this file? Drop-down.
   • Refer to Understanding the migration process for more information.
4. Click Upload file.
   • Recharge will notify you if your data does not match the expected upload. If your data is formatted incorrectly, review the file make corrections, and then re-upload your file.

After uploading the file, Recharge pulls the store data into the migrations detail page for you to finish the migration.

Step 3 - Scan for errors

After uploading the file, ensure that the data provided is error-free:

1. Select Scan for errors in the top right corner of the Migrations details page.
2. Wait for the scan to finish.
3. This step may take some time to complete depending on the number of rows in your migration file. You can leave this view and come back later to check on the status of the scan.

Step 4 - Review and fix errors

After the scan is complete, Recharge displays the following information on the Migrations page:

• The number of valid rows
• Any rows with errors and warnings

You must resolve any errors before you can complete the next step in the migration process. Recharge recommends reviewing the warnings and making changes, however, you can successfully migrate rows with warnings.

If you have a few errors, Recharge recommends fixing them directly in the table:

1. Filter the view to only see the errored rows, and then click on the cells in red to enter a new value.
2. Press enter,tab, or click outside of the cell to save the value.

Recharge will automatically scan the new data for validity once you save the new value.

If you have many errors, Recharge recommends downloading the scan results and fixing the errors outside of Recharge:

1. Select the download icon in the upper right corner of the table to download your file.
2. Fix the errored rows.
3. Leave the initial migration in the errored state and re-upload your migrations file, as outlined in Step 2.

Step 5 - Migrate your data

After confirming that your migration data is error-free, you can begin migrating your data into Recharge.

1. Select Migrate data. This step creates your customer and subscription records in the Recharge database.
2. Wait for the migration to finish.
   • This step may take some time to complete depending on the number of rows in your migration file. You can leave this view and come back later to check on the status of the scan.

Step 6 - Review the post-processing detailed results

After Recharge migrates a row into the database, an Actions icon appears on the row. Select the View customer action from this menu to open the customer record in Recharge and verify it looks correct. See the Post Migration Checklist for instructions on confirming your data was successfully migrated.

When the migration is finished, you can select View detailed results in the upper right corner to review your post-processing report. Use this report to see the information from each step in the migration flow, and learn how many customers, subscriptions, and payment methods were created during the migration. Additionally, use the download icons to export this data for auditing purposes.