Shopify for Germany and the EU: Legal Compliance Checklist for Migrations

Most guides explain how to launch a new Shopify store in Germany. Moving an existing store is different: you have legal texts, customer consent records, German URLs and years of order history to carry over without breaking the law or your rankings. This checklist covers what to move, what to rebuild and what to check before launch.

What changes when you migrate a German store to Shopify?

The products and customers move, but the legal layer has to be rebuilt for Shopify. Legal pages, checkout wording, consent banners and accessibility all sit in places that don't transfer cleanly from Shopware, Magento or WooCommerce. A migration is the cheapest time to fix them, because the theme and checkout are being rebuilt anyway.

Three things make migrations riskier than new launches:

• Existing customers whose consent and data must move lawfully.
• Existing rankings tied to German URLs that must be redirected.
• Existing obligations, such as keeping order and invoice records.

Which German laws must a migrated Shopify store meet?

Six rules matter most for a German B2C store: the Impressum, the order button, the online withdrawal button, accessibility under the BFSG, GDPR consent and, for subscriptions, the cancellation button. Each must be in place on launch day, not added afterward.

Sources: the Händlerbund on the order button; Orrick on the BFSG; the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce on § 5 DDG; 2026 German compliance guides on the withdrawal button. This is general information, not legal advice; confirm with a German lawyer.

How do you migrate customer data and consent under GDPR?

Move each customer's marketing consent record with their email address, so you can prove when and how they opted in. A list of emails without consent records can't lawfully be mailed. Customers who never gave marketing consent should be imported as non-subscribers.

• Export consent status and dates from the old platform.
• Import customers with the right marketing status in Shopify.
• Keep double opt-in records where you collected them.
• Update your privacy policy to name Shopify and every new app.
• Re-check your cookie banner on the new store before launch.

How do you keep German URLs and rankings during a migration?

Map every old URL to its new Shopify address, keep German URL handles, and import the redirects before launch. Shopify uses fixed paths such as /products/ and /collections/, so most German URLs change. Missing redirects are a common cause of lost traffic after a migration.

1. Export every URL from a crawl, Search Console and analytics.
2. Keep German handles, such as /products/wanderschuhe, rather than translating them.
3. Map each old URL to its closest new page.
4. Import redirects in bulk and test a sample.
5. Watch Search Console for 404 errors in the weeks after launch.

See our Magento SEO before you replatform guide for the full redirect process.

What about EU VAT when selling beyond Germany?

German sales carry 19% VAT, and cross-border sales to EU consumers above €10,000 a year in total are taxed at each customer's own rate. The EU's One-Stop Shop lets you report all of it in one return. Show prices including VAT, as EU shoppers expect.

• Set up Shopify Markets for each EU country.
• Show VAT-inclusive prices on product pages and in the cart.
• Register for the One-Stop Shop once you pass the €10,000 threshold.

For a Dutch view of EU VAT and payments, see our Amsterdam page.

What else do German stores often forget?

Packaging registration and record keeping are the two most overlooked. Sellers shipping packaged goods to German consumers generally need to register their packaging before selling. Invoices and order records also have to be kept for years, so plan where historic orders will live after the move.

• Packaging registration under Germany's Packaging Act, checked before launch.
• Historic orders and invoices exported and stored, or imported into Shopify.
• Payment methods German shoppers use, such as PayPal and invoice payment.
• Native-speaker review of all German checkout and legal wording.

What is the full migration compliance checklist?

Work through it in three stages: before the build, before launch and after launch. Most problems come from treating compliance as a launch-day task rather than part of the plan.

How we handle EU migrations

Solo Media Group migrates stores to Shopify with compliance built into the plan, not added at the end. We've delivered 75+ replatforms and builds, including accessibility-focused work for Wild Planet Foods and multi-region stores for Medik8. See our Berlin page and Shopify Plus migration service.

Shopify Germany and EU compliance FAQs

Summarize this article with AI

Ask ChatGPT · Ask Claude · Ask Perplexity