What is eCommerce Platform Migration?

When your company transfers its e-commerce website from one e-commerce platform to another, the process is known as an e-commerce platform migration (also known as e-commerce re-platforming or eCommerce website migration). This entails switching to a different supplier for your website's data, content, infrastructure, and integration.

eCommerce Platform Migration: Why is it Important?

You may accommodate the ever-changing needs of your online business with the aid of eCommerce re-platforming. A platform migration might present new options to expand and scale your organization and stay competitive if you want to increase overall business efficiency, improve the performance of your website, and maintain the technology and services on its current level.

When you move your e-commerce website to a more capable e-commerce platform provider, you can profit from the following four main advantages:

1. Higher Volume and Conversion Rates

   There should be something "wow"-worthy when customers enter your store that makes them enthusiastic about your name and your goods. You may be able to design a more up-to-date and appealing website with a new platform that encourages customers to find what they're looking for.

    
2. An increase in average order value

   Through the eCommerce website migration process, you can use a new platform to give clients more capabilities for upselling and persuading them to spend more money on your website. You might provide pertinent packages, bigger order discounts, add-on products, and special deals.

    
3. Revenue Growth from Omnichannel Sales  

   B2B and B2C distinctions are becoming hazier thanks to modern online retailers. You can move your e-commerce website to a platform that enables you to serve all your clients on a single platform, with varied pricing, discounts, payment options, and shipping presented based on the user, rather than hosting separate sites for B2B and B2C consumers.

    
4. Efficiency in the back office increases profitability  

   For your company, back-office inefficiencies can be expensive. You may simplify daily operations and interface with a back-end ERP system with the aid of a new platform, which will also lessen the amount of effort required to process sales and maintain the website.

    

Signs That Your Ecommerce Website Platform Needs to Change

How do you decide when to launch an e-commerce platform for your company? Your present platform requires too much work, which encapsulates a lot of the reasons. You must put in too much work to run your store, communicate with customers, and expand and scale your company.

The following are the main indicators that switching to a new e-commerce platform may be necessary:

1. Your navigation has exceeded your product line:

   If you have hundreds (or thousands) of SKUs, you need to organize them so that customers can quickly locate what they're looking for. You shouldn't be constrained to a small selection of goods or categories.

    
2. It gets harder to implement upgrades and new features

   You have a website that sells complicated goods and catalogs with a lot of SKUs, but you realize that it is not powerful enough to handle everything. The SKUs in your product catalogue are becoming challenging to maintain, and implementing small updates takes far too long. This is an indication that your company needs a platform that is more user-friendly and effective. Thus, eCommerce website migration should be a priority in that case.

3. Do you want your B2B company to become a B2C one or the other way around

   Managing two websites for B2B and B2C operations used to be a need, which requires more time, effort, and resources. Nevertheless, today's websites allow you to manage both B2C and multi-tier company accounts simultaneously. This may be made simpler with eCommerce re-platforming.

4. The overall cost of ownership is going up

   Your present platform's total cost of ownership is higher than it should be if you discover that you must continually spend money on development to fill in gaps. Switching to a more capable and fully featured platform, that is- eCommerce website migration, will give your company greater out-of-the-box capabilities, which can assist in alleviating this issue.

5. Your company has a lot more potential

   Increased order values, increased repeat customers, and higher conversion rates can all result in significant revenue. You may have even begun to review your ROI calculations. Although your present website is trustworthy enough, it can be lacking elements that you desire and need to expand your business.

Factors to consider while migrating your eCommerce Website:

1. Result for your company

   Think about how re-platforming will affect your company. Does it need to enhance the functionality, add new features to your store, or perhaps something else? The platform transition procedure is not merely a wishful thought with "just because" as the justification. Keep in mind that the eCommerce transfer procedure must introduce something unique to your store.

    
2. Costs 

   You should be aware that the process of migrating to an online store is not free. Even if you use the open-source, free platform, you need to take a larger view of it. The total price is connected to:

   • Audits of SEO,
   • Sales losses as a result of the store's brief closure during the migration Upkeep expenses
   • Training expenses
   • Moving assistance
   You must be certain that the process is beneficial for you and that the losses caused by your current issues outweigh the cost of re-platforming. Replatforming is not a cost or a loss, to sum up. It qualifies as an investment because it will increase your profits in the long term.

3. The team's technical proficiency

   You must consider your technical abilities when conducting research. It will be challenging for a PHP developer to transition to the.NET environment. Additionally, if you are a.NET developer, you won't learn PHP just to migrate your platform.

4. Possibilities for training

   You are an expert in the XYZ platform if you have recently worked on it. Even though a platform seems intuitive, there may be differences in particular operations, so the ability to receive training is essential.

5. Features & Integration Possibilities

   Make sure, during your investigation, that the platform you want supports all required connectors with your existing services. Any technology you use in the present store, such as an ERP system, WMS, PIM, or marketing tool, may be included. Ensure that you will have the opportunity to develop it if it doesn't already exist.

6. Consumer assistance and support

   Additionally, you want to conduct a study on customer support on your new platform. Speak with the support team, request premium support, and demand a response guarantee. You should be able to speak with professionals if you run across issues during your daily activities. You ought to think about investing in premium support services to do that.

7. The migration's timing

   Think about when the eCommerce website migration will occur. Even with careful planning and analysis, the process will need to be stopped for a period. When there is least traffic is when you should do it. To reduce the revenue loss, this is done.

8. Crawl your website or get in touch with an SEO expert

   Examine your website from the perspective of Google bots. Outsource it to someone if you are a total newbie. It's worthwhile to perform a page crawl; observe what and how Google indexes. You will be able to create a sitemap that we'll use for the migration if you do this.

9. Tidy up the shop

   Cleaning up your store is ideal during eCommerce website migration. It is assured that every store has a tonne of obsolete stuff that may be changed or eliminated. Check your product list for any unavailable or unpublished items. Looking at your site from the beginning and going through the old entries to see if you can alter the content or add new internal or external links will help your SEO. Organize the client and subscriber list. The goal of doing all of this is to start fresh with the new platform.

Pick the right eCommerce platform for your business: Conclusion

Although moving your e-commerce website to the appropriate platform can be difficult, eCommerce website migration can, however, ensure the long-term success of your company. Selecting a platform that will fit your needs and goals is essential if you want to succeed in e-commerce. and give you all the features and built-in tools required to generate income.

Arrange a meeting with our professional team at FutureSoft and expand your knowledge about the same to take further effective action!