Since Turbify and Shopify are vastly different e-commerce platforms, there are a number of core aspects in which the two diverge. The following is not an exhaustive list, but it highlights several areas where features and behaviors we take for granted in Turbify work very differently in Shopify.
Hierarchy
As Turbify users, we are accustomed to how Turbify arranges store pages into a hierarchy with sections (category pages), child or sub-sections, and so on. This structure is defined through the contents field, where a page can be made a child of one or more parent pages. A page without a parent becomes what we usually call a "floater" or "orphan" page.Because this setup forms a true page hierarchy, we can use breadcrumbs that accurately reflect the visitor's position within the site. This traces back to Turbify's predecessor, Yahoo Store, which was created in an era when content and presentation were tightly integrated. There was no separate concept of a "catalog" - every product, category, or sub-category was simply a page, and what made a page a product was the presence of a price field.
Shopify takes a different approach. In Shopify, you have a product catalog, and the website (the "Online Store") is just one of several possible sales channels. As a result, hierarchy exists only within the Online Store, not in the underlying data. You build page hierarchies through menus, collections, and collection list pages, all of which depend on the theme you are using.
Think of it like working in Turbify's Catalog Manager versus the Store Editor: product data is managed in one place, while presentation happens in another. The key difference is that in Shopify's Theme Editor, you cannot modify the underlying data as you can in Turbify's Store Editor.
Options and Variants
In Turbify, we can freely add user-selectable options to products. In Shopify, this is handled differently, typically through metafields, custom apps, or custom coding.While Shopify does include a concept called "options," these are used to create variants, meaning versions of the same product that differ by certain attributes such as color, size, or material. Variants can also have their own price, inventory, weight, or image.
When planning your migration from Turbify, it is important to identify which of your product options define true variants and which are for customization. The two will need to be migrated and managed differently.
Incremental Pricing
Turbify allows complete flexibility with product options, including the ability to add price markups that adjust the product price. For example, entering:Size Small "Medium (+$5.00)" Large (+$10.00)"creates a "Size" drop-down with three choices (Small, Medium, and Large) where selecting Medium adds $5.00 and Large adds $10.00 to the base price. In Shopify, incremental pricing like this is only possible through custom coding or an app.
Minimum Quantity
Unlike Turbify, Shopify does not include built-in support for setting a minimum order quantity. This can be added through an app from the Shopify App Store if needed.Orderable / Not Orderable
Shopify has no direct equivalent to Turbify's Orderable field. To make a product unavailable for purchase, you can either change its status from Active to Draft (which also removes it from the storefront) or set its inventory to zero.Quantity Price
Turbify supports quantity discount pricing by simply entering the price tiers in this format:10 3 7 10 6This means the base price is $10.00, quantities of 3-9 are priced at $7.00 each, and 10 or more cost $6.00 each. In Shopify, tiered pricing requires custom coding or an app.