Dawn → Hydrogen Migration Strategy: A Phased Approach

Introduction

Merchants want the speed of Liquid and the flexibility of Hydrogen — but a full rebuild feels risky and expensive.

The solution? A phased migration strategy that starts with Dawn, evolves into Hydrogen microsites, and eventually transitions the entire storefront.

Why Phase Migration?

• 💸 Budget control → spread costs over time.
• 📈 Lower risk → test Hydrogen on small surfaces first.
• 🛠️ Iterative learning → dev team gains experience gradually.
• 🧩 Hybrid coexistence → Dawn + Hydrogen can run side by side.

Phase 1: Stay on Dawn (Liquid)

• Launch quickly with Shopify’s Online Store Editor.
• Use Dawn for base PDP/PLP, checkout, content pages.
• Build revenue + collect baseline performance metrics.

Phase 2: Hydrogen Microsites

• Add Hydrogen for high-value sections:
  • Landing pages.
  • Holiday campaigns.
  • New product launches.
• Deploy to Oxygen alongside Dawn.
• Learn streaming SSR, SEO, caching on a small scale.

Phase 3: Full Hydrogen Rebuild

• Transition entire PDP/PLP flow into Hydrogen.
• Replace Dawn’s theme logic with composable integrations.
• Migrate apps to API-first alternatives.
• Outcome: fully composable, performant storefront.

Case Example: Lifestyle Brand

• Phase 1: Dawn launch, $20K cost, live in 4 weeks.
• Phase 2: Hydrogen microsite for holiday campaign, $50K cost, +22% conversion on campaign pages.
• Phase 3: Full rebuild 12 months later, $150K cost, app spend reduced 40%, +18% organic traffic.
• Benefit: costs spread across 18 months, smoother internal adoption.

Guardrails

• ✅ Pick high-value campaigns for Phase 2 (max ROI).
• ✅ Monitor app compatibility before Phase 3.
• ✅ Document performance gains at every step (client buy-in).
• ✅ Train devs during microsite phase → avoid steep Phase 3 learning curve.

Conclusion

Migrating from Dawn to Hydrogen doesn’t need to be a cliff jump. A phased strategy reduces risk, spreads cost, and lets teams learn as they go.

Don’t leap. Climb in stages.