CandyFavorites.com – Migration from Magento to Shopify
Candy Favorites migrated from Magento to a scalable Shopify 2.0 platform to modernize its online presence while preserving design, SEO value, and improving overall user experience.
Industry
E-commerce/Food & Beverage
Technology
Shopify 2.0
Services
Shopify Theme Implementation, Data Migration, Custom App Integrations
Project Overview
Candy Favorites, a historic American candy distributor since 1927, sought to modernize its online presence and streamline business operations. With over nine decades of experience in delighting customers with nostalgic and contemporary candy products, the brand needed a platform that supports long-term scalability, flexibility, and ease of management.
The project involved migrating the existing Magento store (candyfavorites.com) to a scalable Shopify 2.0 environment, retaining all design aesthetics and SEO value, while improving user experience and performance.
Project Objectives
- Seamlessly migrate all store data—including 10K+ products, 120K customers, 100K orders, 11K reviews, 7K FAQs, and 400+ CMS pages.
- Preserve the existing brand identity, including typography and visual feel.
- Implement an intuitive, modern, and mobile-responsive Shopify 2.0 theme.
- Retain and improve SEO juice, ensuring no loss in rankings or organic visibility.
- Recreate all essential features of the current Magento site using Shopify apps and custom logic.
- Improve backend management, scalability, and flexibility for future growth.
- Enable ShipRush shipping, Shopify Payments, Shop Pay, and PayPal for seamless checkout.
- Integrate Wholesale functionality, Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment, advanced search, custom stock statuses, and more.
- Conduct end-to-end testing & QA to ensure a flawless launch.
Project Execution
1. Design and Discovery Process
Research & UX Audit
- Analyzed the existing Magento site for design language, navigation flow, and functional dependencies.
- Identified areas of improvement, such as inconsistent product card layouts, complex nested categories, and outdated UI components.
Theme Selection
- Finalized the Focal – Carbon (Shopify 2.0 premium theme) for its flexibility, aesthetic appeal, mobile responsiveness, and alignment with brand guidelines.
Brand Consistency
- Preserved Font Style & Font Size from the old website to maintain identity and long-standing customer recognition.
- Mapped out the visual hierarchy, CTA placements, and color schemes.
2. Development and Customization
Front-End Implementation
- Customized the Focal theme to replicate the classic appeal of Candy Favorites.
- Implemented a sticky header, mega menu, advanced search, promotional banners, and custom footer with educational candy content.
- Built responsive layouts for:
- Home page
- Collection pages (including complex nested categories)
- Product detail pages
- Holiday collections
- Blogs, FAQs, Our Story, Catalogs, Service, Education, Sweet Links
Feature Implementation and Setup
- Integrated and configured:
- Advanced Search: Delivered a faster, more intuitive product discovery experience through enhanced filtering, keyword relevance, and predictive suggestions.
- Judge.me for 11K+ migrated reviews: Successfully migrated and integrated over 11K customer reviews to build trust and social proof without disrupting existing store operations.
- Custom Stock Status App: Developed tailored stock status logic featuring text labels, icons, product images, and dynamic ETA-based availability messages to improve conversion and reduce customer uncertainty.
- Wholesale Gorilla Integration for Dealer Portal: Enabled a dedicated B2B/Dealer interface with custom pricing, ordering workflows, and access control.
- Amazon MCF (Multi-Channel Fulfillment): Set up unidirectional order fulfillment via Amazon MCF to automate logistics and ensure reliable, scalable delivery.
- OTPless WhatsApp Login + Shopify Default Login: Implemented a frictionless login experience with WhatsApp-based authentication while retaining Shopify’s default method for flexibility and user convenience.
- Buy X, Get Y Promotional Campaigns: Configured dynamic promotional rules to drive upsells, bundle offers, and seasonal discounts.
- ShipRush Shipping Integration: Automated the shipping label and tracking workflow by connecting ShipRush for streamlined fulfilment operations.
Data Migration
Migrated from Magento to Shopify:
- 120K customers
- 100K orders
- 10K products
- 11K customer reviews
- 7K FAQs
- 400 CMS pages, blogs, testimonials
- All product videos, metadata, SEO tags
Each migrated data type underwent validation to ensure accuracy.
3. Key Design Enhancements
Home Page Improvements
- Clean hero banners with “Shop Now” CTAs.
- New Shop by Decades feature to align with the brand’s nostalgic appeal.
- Improved category banners for quick navigation.
- Sticky header for easy access to search, cart, and account.
- Enhanced footer with candy education & videos.
- Unified product card layout (fixing previous inconsistencies).
Collection Page Enhancements
- Hierarchical nested categories (e.g., Color → Orange Candy → Multiple SKUs).
- Breadcrumb navigation for better UX.
- High-resolution product cards with:
- Title + weight
- Star ratings
- Dynamic stock status
- Wishlist & Add-to-Cart
- Filters:
- Color, Flavor, Kosher, Price
- Sorting options:
- Alphabetical, Position, Price
Product Detail Page Enhancements
- Gift note & gift wrap options
- “Ask a Question” functionality
- Upsell sections:
- Staff Favorites
- Why Not Consider
- Protect Your Candy (ice packs, protection kit)
- Improved review slider
- Share section
Wholesale Dealer Portal
- Dealer approval workflow
- Tier-based pricing
- Dealer login
- Order visibility for admins
- Automatic reports and printable order summaries
- Managed from the same Shopify backend
4. Testing and Deployment
Testing Process
- Functional Testing (Cart, Checkout, Filters, Search, PDP, Collections)
- Data Accuracy Validation (Customers, Orders, Products, Reviews)
- Mobile & Cross-Browser Testing
- SEO Testing (301 redirects, meta tags, schema, URL validation)
- Performance testing (load time, theme optimization)
Deployment
- Migrated final data set
- Configured DNS and SSL
- Ensured Amazon MCF and ShipRush connectivity
- Completed merchant verification
- Enabled payment gateways
5. Launch
- Successfully launched the new Shopify store with all functionalities replicated and enhanced.
- SEO rankings preserved with no loss of organic traffic.
- Store now supports:
- Faster navigation
- Aesthetic browsing experience
- Efficient management with Shopify’s intuitive backend
- Scalable infrastructure for future product lines and seasonal traffic
- Wholesale dealers onboarded with easier access and pricing visibility.
- Review system improved with Judge.me migration.
- Stock statuses now clearer for customers, reducing confusion and support tickets.
Results & Feedback
- Successful Migration: All products, customers, orders, reviews, and pages were migrated from Magento to Shopify with zero data loss.
- Improved User Experience: Faster load times, cleaner UI, consistent product cards, advanced search, and enhanced navigation led to better customer engagement.
- SEO Retention: Rankings and organic traffic were fully preserved through proper redirects and metadata migration.
- Operational Efficiency: Shopify’s intuitive backend reduced management time by 30–40%, making updates and order processing significantly easier.
- Stronger Wholesale Operations: The new dealer portal simplified approvals, tiered pricing, and dealer order visibility.
- Integrated Fulfillment: Amazon MCF and ShipRush streamlined shipping and tracking, reducing customer support queries.
Client’s Feedback
“I cannot speak highly enough about the EbizON team. They successfully migrated our legacy Magento website to Shopify, and the improvement in usability has been remarkable. Their expertise, attention to detail, and commitment to delivering exactly what we needed have been integral to our ongoing success. Communication throughout the project was excellent—clear, timely, and professional over email and virtual meetings. Even with the complexity of our requirements, EbizON delivered within budget and exceeded our expectations. We truly appreciate their partnership and outstanding work.“
Jon Prince
President, CandyFavorites.com
What Our Customers Says
reviewed by JOE WILLIAMS
Senior manager, Remedy Liqour
Head of Business Engagement, WRI
“Ebizon is one of the best in the business and they back this up with their quick and friendly support. The team is relentless to listen to our issues and come up with a solution. Have seen the team stretch beyond their knowledge to help us.”
reviewed by JOSEPH CURLEY
Vice President, Sokolin
Content Officer, Society for Science & Public
“My experience with this partnership has been positive. The support Ebizon extended towards us was commendable. It perfectly fulfils our requirements with their support we had no hassle.”
reviewed by Beat Walder
Manager, Forester Beauty
Chief of Staff, Strategic Dentistry
“I’m the owner of Forester Beauty in Switzerland. I’ve contacted Dee and he led me through the whole process of migrating our online shop to Shopify, including custom elements to enhance user experience. The whole Project Team at Ebizon has a very professional attitude and provide their support and insights promptly.”
reviewed by Wilma Pretorius
Managing Director, Cranimals
For fully managed WordPress installs, WPEngine is my Go-To
“The Team worked well with my company to migrate our Magento store to a new Shopify store. Ebizon was able to implement required applications to enable a near seamless transition. Thanks Team!
reviewed by Raul
Senior Manager, Emporium Embroidery
Head of Business Engagement, WRI
“Emporium Embroidery – customization module / Magento upgrade Thank you Ebizon and a great thank you to the team who was always very helpful on this journey.”
reviewed by Alexandre Salem
eCommerce Manager, Ada Cosmetic
Chief of Staff, Strategic Dentistry
“Thanks to EbizON solution, the platform enabled the company to sell products efficiently. The team worked in sprints and held weekly meetings, ensuring accurate outcomes.”
reviewed by Po Ming Lam
Manager, Avec Plaisirs Chefs Traiteurs
For fully managed WordPress installs, WPEngine is my Go-To
“Ebizon is helping our Magento development needs. Their customer oriented approach has made our experience very pleasant and efficient. We are definitely sending more work to them and recommend others to try them out!”
