Is the platform your eCommerce store is hosted on keeping up with the current dynamics? Technology is developing fast and as an eCommerce retailer, you need to constantly evolve to stay ahead. Over time, your commerce platform can begin to slow down, may start to lack essential features, and can even present insufficient functionality. To enhance your customer experience and your team’s operations, you need to re-platform to a new eCommerce store with better features and improved performance.
All online eCommerce websites require a reliable, secure, and scalable platform to help grow the business. But over time, important features and functionality may become outdated and websites may lose speed and, ultimately, start losing customers. When this happens, it is time to look for a new solution.
Essentially, eCommerce re-platforming is when an online retailer develops a new technology or chooses a third-party service that offers an updated eCommerce platform.
The use of a new eCommerce platform can help a business achieve its goals, grow smarter and reach a bigger customer base. While the idea of re-platforming is simple, the choice can be tricky. With re-platforming, you have to consider whether you will move from one third-party service to another, like moving from Magento to Shopify, or developing an entirely new custom solution.
Would you turn down the chance to sell more and earn more by making a choice that would benefit your company’s prospective growth? Let’s explore why eCommerce re-platforming might be your business’ key to unlocking more potential.
Web development is fluid; as new technologies arise, eCommerce changes. Upgrading to a new platform will offer you more integrated features, the option to customize more elements of your site and fewer workarounds.
Your business’ ideal goal is to continuously grow and maximize revenue. Newer and updated eCommerce platforms ensure your security, but also allow your solution to scale for peak demand times on your site.
Integration can be complex, and many traditional platforms don’t support more modern integrations. By re-platforming to a more agile solution that follows a best-of-breed approach when it comes to integration, you could avoid any limitations and integrate freely. Some platforms also come with pre-built integrations and are more easily configurable with plugins, add-ons, and marketplace applications.
Outdated platforms may have security loopholes that leave data vulnerable to malicious activity. No one wants to visit a website that is shaky and not fully compliant with the latest security standards. Re-platforming means your site is in lieu of the latest security standards to protect sensitive data.
Some eCommerce platforms have more talent available who are skilled and knowledgeable than others. Some also offer better rates. This allows you access to more experienced developers who can bring enhanced innovation to your online store.
Cost is always a major priority when it comes to any changes in your business. But considering that certain eCommerce platforms offer less headache and require less handholding, less staff, lower hosting and maintenance costs, it may be worth making a change.
Migration to a different eCommerce platform can clearly be a major advantage to online stores. However, it may also require some hard work and sacrifice. Switching eCommerce platforms is not a simple task, and it cannot always solve every problem. To give you a better understanding of re-platforming, here are some of its potential challenges.
One of the biggest cons of re-platforming is the time and money involved. Re-platforming can require more resources than you initially expected. The migration process can also put your already existing store’s operations on hold, leading to lost sales.
When re-platforming, the chances are that you and your team will need to learn how to operate eCommerce software all over again. It may also mean that you need new problem-solving skills, so you’ll possibly have to hire new employees or involve third-party vendors.
Re-platforming requires your internal team to be aligned on a common vision. Therefore, strong coordination, communication skills and transparency of information are needed to get the most out of your in-house team and the eCommerce development agency you’re working with.
SEO takes a lot of time and, unfortunately, any work you’ve put into your first platform may be lost in the migration process. The potential downtime may also hurt your SEO value. Therefore, it is incredibly important to make SEO an integral part of any re-platforming plan. Time must be taken to consider exactly how to keep SEO scores high and how to keep search engine rankings consistent.
No one knows your business better than you do, and you cannot expect the eCommerce agency you’re working with during the re-platforming process to be mind-readers. So, be prepared to break a sweat when it comes to activities like requirements gathering, data migration, and user acceptance testing. The whole process will take extra effort (and elbow grease!) from everyone involved.
There are multiple scenarios in which it may be more beneficial and necessary to invest in a new eCommerce platform. Some of these include:
Your current platform is slow to develop, and the time to market for updates and new features is lagging, creating a competitive disadvantage for your business.
Your current platform costs too much to support and develop.
Your team spends hours on repetitive manual data entry and importing orders due to a lack of or poor automation.
Your eCommerce website routinely takes more than 3 seconds to load.
You are experiencing too many order errors and the costs of return management are impacting your bottom line.
You can no longer integrate with new plugins, extensions, and third-party services.
Customers are starting to complain about the website’s user experience.
Your platform has fundamental limitations that no longer allow you to hit your business goals.
It can be a complex and costly task to migrate between eCommerce platforms. So, you have to be absolutely certain the current platform is the issue, and not the implementation or how your business manages it. Sometimes, the current platform simply needs better implementation and configuration. Here are a few reasons why re-platforming is not the right solution for you:
Most businesses consider re-platforming when they have several issues that need to be corrected all at once. But, if you simply have one area or service that needs to be improved, it’s best to look at a solution for your current platform.
Apart from upping the custom experience, eCommerce re-platforming can help to free up time, so you can focus more on revenue-building rather than spending time on data updating or fixing technical issues.
The platform you choose for your eCommerce site is incredibly important. But there are no shortcuts. It is essential to analyze every aspect and carefully consider your business and its customers’ needs. Choosing the right platform is the first step towards gaining full control over your eCommerce store and, ultimately, business success. So do not hesitate to change your platform if the present one no longer matches your goals.