With the rapid growth of online shopping, having a platform that can keep up with customer demands is more important than ever. But what do you do when your current platform just isn’t cutting it anymore? The answer is simple: E-commerce migration and re-platforming.
Moving your online store to a new platform may seem scary, but the benefits are worth it. A new robust platform can offer improved uptime, a better user experience, increased scalability, and the ability to make improvements with ease.
But we know you’re thinking, “Isn’t E-commerce migration just going to be a hassle?” Yes, it can be, but with the right E-commerce migration strategy in place, you can make the transition smoothly and effectively. That’s why we’re here to help.
In this guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know about E-commerce migration and re-platforming so you can set your business up for success. Let’s get started!
In simple terms, E-commerce migration is the process of moving your existing E-commerce store (both front-end and back-end) from one CMS to another. The goal of such a transition is to improve your online store performance by leveraging the advanced features of the new platform. The process can involve migrating product catalog, customer data, orders, and other critical information and redesigning website’s look and feel to align with brand identity.
E-commerce migration can also involve upgrading from older versions of a platform to a newer version or switching from an in-house solution to the cloud-based one. In general, there are three main types of E-commerce migration:
E-commerce re-platforming is a delicate process that requires thorough planning and execution to ensure success. While the benefits of re-platforming are significant, it also introduces various risks and challenges that, if left unaddressed, could result in a loss of sales and negatively impact your business operation.
That’s why working with an experienced E-commerce solutions provider is essential. For example, with our E-commerce platform Kartify, we have helped over 200+ D2C brands improve their digital footprints and grow sales.
Here are a few benefits of hosting your E-commerce store to Kartify:
To know more about Kartify and ANS Commerce, request a demo now.
In an ideal world, replatforming and website migration projects would happen with months and years of planning, clear-cut strategies, and defined goals. But in the real world, replatforming decisions are not proactively taken. Instead, most of the time, underlying issues force online stores to migrate.
Below we have listed the common problems driving E-commerce businesses to migrate to a better platform. So check out for yourself, and decide if it’s time to re-platform your online store.
The following technical signals indicate that it may be time to switch to a more advanced platform:
Here are the cost-related signals you should look out for while analyzing your existing E-commerce platform:
Here are the sales and marketing signals that indicate the need for replatforming an E-commerce site
We have already discussed operational issues like slow site load, difficulty with customizations, and poor customer experience, indicating time to look for re-platforming. In short, if your team is spending more time fixing platform issues, instead of focusing on business-impacting decisions; it is time to consider a better, advanced platform.
When it comes to setting up an E-commerce store, you have a few options to choose from. Each platform has its own advantages and disadvantages, and it’s important to select the one that best suits your business needs. Here are the three options to choose from:
An on-premise E-commerce platform is installed and runs on your organization’s own server. This means you get increased control over your infrastructure, which includes security, data management, and customizations. However, the advantage ends there. On-premise platforming has lost its popularity because of the higher costs involved in setting up and managing it. Complex hardware and specialized technical expertise to manage significantly add to the cost.
A cloud E-commerce platform is hosted and managed by a third-party provider. The platform provider is responsible for managing the end-to-end software, right from infrastructure to security. This is quite beneficial for store owners as they can focus on other areas of the business instead of being bogged down by the technicalities of the software. The best part about cloud E-commerce platforms is that it is very easy to manage and update the store, even for non-technical users. Our E-commerce platform, Kartify, is a classic example. It offers all the above benefits to its users. In return, you need to pay a small monthly subscription.
With a self-hosted E-commerce platform, you purchase and manage a cloud server from the solution provider and host your website there. The solution provider is responsible for maintaining the server and its security. Unlike on-premise platforms, you don’t have to purchase hardware or set it up on your premises, which means you don’t have to make large investments in technical expertise and resources. Examples of self-hosted E-commerce platforms include Magento, Opencart, and Woocommerce.
Here are a few questions you should ask yourself while evaluating an E-commerce platform
Once you have determined the need for replatforming and have chosen the type of platform, it is time to develop a plan for the migration process. Here are the steps you should follow:
The first step is to identify the current and future requirements of your E-commerce store. This includes understanding your business goals and how the tech platform will help you achieve those goals. A few important goals for an E-commerce store include the following-
The next step is to draft a comprehensive request for proposal (RFP). The RFP should clearly outline your business goals and the expected features. This will help you evaluate and compare different E-commerce platforms for your needs. Here are some essential components to include:
By including all the key components, you will make sure that you receive the right proposals from vendors to meet your specific needs.
When considering the cost of re-platforming an E-commerce site, it is vital to take into account not only the upfront purchase price of the new platform but also the additional investments required to get the site up and running. These investments can include: infrastructure, maintenance, an in-house development team, surcharges for traffic spikes, ongoing fixes and testing, hosting, security upgrades, performance testing, and custom checkout options, to name a few.
In addition to these initial costs, it is also important to consider the cost of migrating data, maintaining website design and structure, and ongoing site maintenance and security. The cost of re-platforming and ongoing maintenance will vary based on the type of E-commerce platform you choose.
The next crucial aspect to consider in your E-commerce replatforming strategy is evaluating the must-have features and compatibility with existing third-party softwares. This is critical to ensure that the new platform supports your business operations successfully. Must-have features could include any necessary functionality like product management, order management, shipping and tax calculation, customer management, etc. The easiest way to do this is by noting down all the features you use in your current platform plus the features you missed the most in it.
Similarly, you must also ensure that all the existing third-party tools work with the new platform. The last thing you want is to change these tools and increase the cost of replatforming.
The last step is all about clearly charting out the process for transferring data from the old platform to the new one. Here are the different sub-tasks involved in this –
After an E-commerce platform rebranding, it’s important to pay attention to your website’s search engine optimization (SEO) to improve its visibility and ranking on SERP. Here are some steps you can take to maintain the SEO after the migration:
Even though your E-commerce site has been successfully migrated to a new platform, it’s important to stay vigilant for a couple of weeks to ensure everything is working smoothly after re-platforming. During this time, closely monitor your Google Search Console and look for indexing issues like 404 errors, excessive redirects, and 500 errors, which can negatively impact your search ranking.
Despite thorough planning, there are chances that some minor issues may slip through, so it’s important to monitor crawl errors immediately after the migration and for about a week after that. For example, while you may see a spike in crawl activity immediately after the migration, if this activity continues at high levels, it may indicate the creation of infinite crawl spaces, which can occur when the on-site search function creates auto-generated URLs.
In addition to monitoring crawl activity, it’s also important to pay attention to load speed and response times. Online shoppers don’t want to wait for a slow-loading site, and if your pictures aren’t optimized for fast loading or your CDN isn’t handling the new site efficiently, you may lose potential customers.
You can use this, E-commerce replatforming checklist for a successful migration process:
SEO:
Data Migration:
User Experience:
Integrations:
As technology and customer expectations continue to evolve, it is critical for online store owners to regularly evaluate and upgrade their E-commerce platform and remain competitive.
To ensure your migration goes as planned, consider switching to a platform that matches your business needs and offers complete tech support throughout the process.
As an E-commerce marketing agency and technology provider, we can walk you through the process.
Interested?. Book a free consultation with E-commerce Experts today!
