Party Supplies • Canada
Party Expert was running on an end-of-life Magento 1 platform that was costly to maintain and difficult to scale. Stagebit migrated the entire store to Shopify, preserving critical data, improving performance, and delivering a faster, more conversion-focused shopping experience across devices.
In 30 minutes, we assess your Magento 1 setup, identify migration risks, review SEO and data requirements, and outline a realistic Shopify migration plan covering timelines, integrations, and budget ranges.
Downtime during migration
0 hours
Magento store stayed live until final cutover.
Data migration accuracy
100%
Products, customers, orders & URLs migrated.
Page load speed
< 3s
Improved storefront performance on mobile & desktop.
Shopify features
Shopify Checkout · App-based Inventory · PayPal & Google Pay · Delivery + SMS Apps
Simplified operations and higher conversion potential.
Client overview
Founded in 1999, Party Expert is one of Canada’s most recognised retailers for party costumes, decorations, themed props, and accessories. With a broad network of physical stores and a high-volume seasonal catalogue, ecommerce plays a central role in supporting both online revenue and in-store engagement.
As customer expectations around speed, usability, and mobile shopping continued to rise, the ecommerce experience became increasingly important during peak periods such as Halloween, holidays, and large-scale events.
Project brief
Party Expert decided to evolve their ecommerce platform by migrating from Magento 1 to Shopify. The objective was to support future growth with a faster, more flexible platform — while carefully preserving all product data, customer accounts, historical orders, and organic search visibility.
The challenge
Party Expert’s Magento 1 store had successfully supported the business for many years. However, as traffic volumes increased and seasonal demand became more intense, the team began to feel limitations around performance optimisation, storefront agility, and ongoing operational effort.
The goal was to transition to Shopify in a way that respected Party Expert’s existing success — improving speed, usability, and scalability while ensuring continuity for customers, staff, and search visibility.
Goals & success criteria
Before starting the Magento 1 to Shopify migration, we worked closely with Party Expert’s leadership and ecommerce teams to define clear, measurable success criteria. These goals guided every technical, UX, and operational decision throughout the project.
The move from Magento 1 to Shopify needed to be invisible to customers, ensuring uninterrupted shopping even during high-traffic seasonal periods.
All products, customer accounts, historical orders, and content needed to be migrated to Shopify with full accuracy and traceability.
The new Shopify storefront needed to feel noticeably faster and easier to use, with intuitive navigation and a mobile-first experience.
Shopify payments, shipping, and third-party integrations needed to operate reliably at scale, supporting smooth checkout and clear delivery communication.
The internal team needed a platform that was easy to manage and dependable, reducing manual effort and operational friction.
Shopify needed to provide a future-ready foundation — capable of supporting seasonal peaks, marketing initiatives, and ongoing ecommerce innovation.
Shopify features & enhancements
The move from Magento 1 to Shopify was not a like-for-like rebuild. We re-architected the storefront and operations using Shopify’s ecosystem, custom logic, and third-party integrations to simplify workflows, improve performance, and support Party Expert’s multi-location retail model.
Feature breakdown
Each feature was selected or custom-built to align with Shopify best practices while preserving the operational complexity of Party Expert’s retail business.
Inventory & locations
Shopify’s multi-location inventory was configured to reflect Party Expert’s physical stores, enabling accurate stock visibility, location-aware fulfillment, and smoother inventory control.
Search & discovery
We optimized Shopify’s search, collections, and navigation to help customers quickly find party supplies by category, theme, and occasion across devices.
Payments & delivery
Shopify Payments, PayPal, and Google Pay were configured to ensure a fast, secure checkout experience, while shipping integrations provide delivery estimates and customer notifications.
UX & storefront
The new Shopify theme was designed for speed, clarity, and seasonal merchandising, making it easy for customers to browse, plan events, and complete purchases.
Approach
With clear goals in place, we designed a phased migration strategy focused on data accuracy, operational continuity, and a carefully planned Shopify launch — ensuring a smooth transition without disrupting customers or internal teams.
Phase 1
We audited Magento 1 data structures, custom logic, and integrations, then mapped them to Shopify’s product model, collections, locations, and apps — identifying where configuration or custom solutions were required.
Phase 2
We built the Shopify storefront, configured multi-location inventory, payments, shipping rules, and apps in a staging environment, ensuring operational parity with Party Expert’s retail workflows.
Phase 3
Multiple Magento 1 → Shopify migration runs were executed to validate products, customers, order history, and inventory by location, resolving edge cases well before launch.
Phase 4
The Shopify store was launched during a low-traffic window, with final data sync, DNS cutover, and close monitoring of orders, inventory, and integrations — backed by a clear rollback plan.
All business-critical data was migrated into Shopify with precision and consistency.
Shopify’s location features were configured to support accurate stock visibility and fulfillment across Party Expert’s stores.
The storefront was redesigned to take advantage of Shopify’s fast theme architecture and streamlined checkout experience.
Key integrations were configured and tested end-to-end before launch to ensure a smooth buying and delivery experience.
Tech stack
Party Expert’s ecommerce platform was rebuilt on Shopify to support a large seasonal catalog, location-based inventory visibility, and a fast, mobile-first checkout. The stack focuses on reliability, ease of operation, and long-term scalability across both online and physical stores.
Storefront
A custom Shopify theme was implemented to support high-volume B2C traffic, seasonal merchandising, and clear product discovery across devices.
Commerce logic
Shopify’s native location and inventory features were configured to act as a single source of truth while supporting store-level availability and fulfillment.
Search & UX
Shopify’s search and navigation were optimized to help customers quickly find products during time-sensitive seasonal shopping periods.
Payments & shipping
Shopify’s streamlined checkout was combined with trusted payment methods and delivery-date visibility to reduce friction and improve conversion.
This Shopify-based architecture provides Party Expert with a flexible, high-performance commerce foundation — enabling smoother operations, faster customer experiences, and the ability to scale confidently across seasonal peaks and future growth initiatives.
Results
The migration to Shopify delivered measurable improvements across speed, usability, and operational efficiency. Party Expert transitioned to a modern SaaS commerce platform designed to support rapid growth, peak-season traffic, and a smoother customer experience.
Site performance
Page load speed
Variable load times
Dependent on custom infrastructure.
Consistently fast
Optimised Shopify storefront & CDN.
Total users
Traffic growth
Stable traffic
Limited by mobile experience.
+80% users
Improved mobile UX and SEO.
Sales growth
Conversion performance
Manual checkout flows
Higher drop-off rates.
+210% sales
Frictionless Shopify checkout.
Repeat visits
Customer loyalty
Lower engagement
Complex navigation.
+60% repeat visits
Clear UX and faster browsing.
Revenue uplift
Overall impact
Growth plateau
Operational overhead.
+95% uplift
Driven by speed & conversion gains.
The move to Shopify allowed Party Expert to streamline operations while delivering a faster, more reliable shopping experience across devices.
With infrastructure management handled by Shopify, the internal team can now focus on merchandising, promotions, and customer experience—especially during high-demand seasonal campaigns.
Next steps
Party Expert’s migration demonstrates how established Magento 1 stores can transition to Shopify while preserving business continuity, SEO equity, and customer trust. The right approach starts with a clear, realistic migration roadmap—before any technical work begins.
Best suited for growing B2C brands considering Shopify for improved speed, operational simplicity, and scalable commerce growth.
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