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Moving an Arabic and English store to a new platform: URLs, redirects and order history

An Arabic and English store has twice the addresses to move and Arabic letters that turn into long codes. Here is a plan for the address structure, the redirect map, order numbers and the launch and rollback checks.

ESTASOFT
12 min read
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      Moving a store is hard in one language. With Arabic and English it has extra traps. Every product has two addresses. Arabic letters in an address turn into long codes. One slip in the redirect file can leave the Arabic pages without a working address while the English pages look fine.

      This article covers the parts that are specific to a two-language store: address structure, Arabic letters in addresses, the redirect map, data order, order numbers, and a launch and rollback checklist. I cite Shopify's Help Center for platform rules. On another platform, ask the same questions. For the general launch list, read the migration checklist; for hreflang, our hreflang guide. I read the pages cited below on 4 November 2026. Rules and limits change, so confirm them first.

      Decide the new address structure first

      Google's page on multilingual sites (last updated 18 December 2025) lists four options: a country domain, a subdomain, a folder such as /ar/, and URL parameters. It calls parameters not recommended. It also advises a separate URL for each language, rather than cookies or browser settings that swap the language on one URL.

      Shopify's Help Center recommends folders for most stores, and adds rules that matter for Arabic. A language-only folder, such as /fr or /en in its examples, can exist only on your primary market. On a secondary market the folder must join a language code and a country code, such as /fr-ca. So an Arabic folder on a secondary market would need a country code too. Shopify also says that if you change your primary domain, your folder addresses change too. Settle the domain before you build the redirect map.

      Write down three decisions before anyone touches data:

      • Which language sits at the root. The other gets a folder. This decides where every old address goes.
      • Whether old addresses can stay the same. If the old store already used /ar/ and /en/ folders and the new one can serve them, you need far fewer redirects.
      • What happens to parameters. If the old store switched language with something like ?lang=ar, test that your platform can redirect such addresses.

      Arabic letters in addresses

      Google's page on URL structure (last updated 21 October 2026) says non-ASCII characters in links should be percent-encoded. Its Arabic example lists the coded form as recommended and raw Arabic letters as not recommended. The first Arabic word in that example is written as %D9%86%D8%B9%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B9. By my own decoding, which Google does not state, that is a five-letter word, and its coded form is 30 characters, six for each letter. Check how the Arabic addresses are written in your sitemap, analytics and ads. Pick one form for the mapping file, then test the redirects with both.

      Next, choose Arabic words or English words in the new addresses. Google's page advises readable words in your audience's language rather than long ID numbers, with German and Japanese examples. It does not say that one choice ranks higher for Arabic, so treat this as a brand and practicality decision. Apply one rule to every product, collection and page.

      In Shopify, Translate & Adapt lets you enter a translated URL handle for each language. Shopify's page says automatic translation does not include URL handles, so someone must type each one. It also says Shopify creates a redirect from the default-language address to the translated one. The page does not say what happens if you edit a translated handle later, so test it. Shopify's product CSV page says a handle can contain letters, dashes and numbers but no spaces, and it does not mention Arabic. Ask your developer to import one Arabic product first and show you the address it produces.

      Build the redirect map

      Google's page on moving a site (last updated 20 August 2026) tells you to map each old address to its new counterpart and to use server-side permanent redirects, such as 301 or 308. It warns against sending many old addresses to one unrelated page, such as the new home page, and says to keep redirects for as long as possible, generally at least a year. It also says most pages of a small or medium site can take a few weeks to move, and rankings may rise and fall meanwhile.

      Build the map as one file with one row for each old address and language:

      1. Collect. Use the old sitemap, analytics landing pages, links from other sites, ads, emails and printed codes.
      2. Match like for like. An Arabic product page goes to its Arabic twin, not to the English page. A retired product goes to the closest collection, chosen on purpose.
      3. Add columns for language, page type and status, to sort by when you test.
      4. Count. Shopify's redirect page allows up to 100,000 redirects per store, or 20,000,000 on Plus. A store with 30,000 products in two languages needs 60,000 product redirects before collections, pages and blog posts.

      The same Shopify page adds limits to check against your list. You can redirect only from broken addresses: if an old address still loads a valid page on the new store, the redirect will not work. Several prefixes cannot be redirected, such as /cart, /orders and /apps, and neither can the fixed paths /products, /collections and /collections/all. The page lists more. On market folders the page makes two statements that are hard to reconcile: redirects apply to all language or market folders, and redirects do not automatically apply to all market folders. So test an old address inside the Arabic folder on its own, and ask your provider whether each folder needs its own redirect.

      Move data in the right order

      Whether a store migration provider, your developer or your own team does the move, follow Shopify's order: products, then customers, then historical orders, so each order links to the right product and customer. The page describes historical orders as orders that have already been fulfilled. Staff who receive new-order notifications, including the owner, get an email for each imported order, so turn those off during the import.

      Four checks matter for a bilingual store:

      • Encoding. Shopify's customer import page says the file must be UTF-8 and 15 MB or smaller, and the Email column must be present. Save every file as UTF-8 and open it in a plain text editor to confirm the Arabic letters survived.
      • Images. Shopify's product CSV page says it downloads images from the web addresses in the file during import. Keep the old store online until the import finishes.
      • Customer accounts. The customer import page says you must invite imported customers to create new passwords, so plan that email in both languages. Shopify says notifications follow the language a customer ordered in, and you can edit a profile to change it, so ask how each imported customer's language will be set.
      • Marketing consent. Ask whether permission to email travels with each customer record, and how it is proven. That is a question for a qualified adviser.

      Order numbers and dates. Customers quote old order numbers to support for years. Shopify's settings page says new orders start at #1001 and you cannot change that starting number, though you can change the prefix or suffix. Shopify's developer page for the order-creation input says the order name can be set to any string, and that when you import orders from another platform you can set the processed date to a past date. That date is shown on orders and used in analytics reports. The behaviour depends on the API version, so check which version your provider uses. Then ask three questions. Will the old order number appear as the order name, or in a note or tag? Which date will reports use? How will an order placed in another currency be carried over? Keep a lookup sheet from old number to new order name, and give new orders a prefix so old and new numbers cannot collide.

      Translations and right-to-left templates

      Translations rarely arrive with the product file. Shopify's page says that when a translation does not exist the store shows content in the default language, so a gap shows up as English text on an Arabic page. Its language requirements page listed Arabic among 49 languages with checkout translations when I read it, and tells you to confirm that your theme supports right-to-left languages. Our article on right-to-left layout, fonts and search covers the template side. Ask who will write or check the Arabic text.

      A launch and rollback checklist

      Give every line an owner and a result.

      1. Two weeks before. Freeze the address structure and handles. Save a full export of the old addresses. Record your current DNS settings.
      2. One week before. Lower the DNS TTL to a few hours. Google's page on moving hosting recommends doing this at least a week ahead.
      3. Before the switch. Load the redirects. Shopify's redirect page says they start working immediately, and its migration page advises setting them up before you transfer the domain. That page also says you might need to disconnect the domain from the old platform first, to avoid SSL certificate errors, so decide how the old store stays reachable on a temporary address.
      4. Launch day. Remove the store password, because Shopify says search engines cannot access the store while it is in private mode. Test a sample of old addresses in each language and page type. Google suggests its URL Inspection tool for single addresses, and scripts for many. Check hreflang: Shopify says it adds the tags automatically for markets with their own domain, subdomain or folder, and Google says tags are ignored unless each version links to the others. Submit the new sitemap and remove the old one afterwards. Use the Change of Address tool only if the domain itself changes; Google says it is not needed for HTTPS, www or path moves.
      5. First weeks. Watch Search Console, server logs and analytics. Google says old-site traffic should fall as new-site traffic rises. Shopify's migration page says Google can take a few days to a few weeks to index a site.
      6. Rollback. Agree the trigger and the decision owner before launch, for example checkout failing or the top pages not redirecting. Keep the old store untouched; Google advises keeping old hosting until its logs show no traffic. Export your redirects before you change them; Shopify offers CSV export. Ask how orders placed on the new store would reach the old one if you roll back.

      Run the language, form and checkout tests in our guide to testing a bilingual website before launch before you switch.

      This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Check the current rules or ask a qualified adviser before you decide.

      ESTASOFT has offices in Dubai, Erbil and London, and offers store migration. To discuss a move, send a short brief on the contact page.

      Sources

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      ESTASOFT

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