Despite being a relatively young industry, e-commerce follows a development path similar to that of most corporate IT solutions.
Since the emergence of e-commerce, large companies have had limited options for choosing complex enterprise solutions: either develop their solutions or implement products from global enterprise vendors.
Replatforming e-commerce may be the solution to your problem. This is more than just a technical transition; it is a strategic evolution that will breathe new life into online businesses. With platforming, enterprises can adapt to modern standards, ensuring they meet and exceed customer expectations. One beautiful example of conversion is the free OneConvert service.
Five Reasons To Change Platforms
E-commerce has a genuinely high conversion rate of change. Businesses need to be able to implement new solutions quickly. The initial potential of the platform is of decisive importance: most of the functionality is undoubtedly developed for a specific business, but the cost of improvements “from scratch” and the time that will have to be spent on such development will certainly negatively affect such critical indicators as TCO (Total Cost Ownership) and TTV (Time to Value). Here are six clear signs that it’s time to re-platform measurement conversion:
Updates Are Challenging To Implement
The Ponemon Institute (an independent organization specializing in cybersecurity research and data protection) estimates that website downtime can cost between $427 and $9,000 per minute. During periods of peak sales, this figure increases many times. The business loses money conversion if the eComm platform cannot cope with traffic. Additionally, businesses lose money if simple updates and new features take a long time to implement. “Crutch” upgrades may offer a short-term solution but are not a long-term solution and will result in higher costs currency conversion in the future.
Safety Problems
Customers are confident that their personal information is protected when purchasing on the company’s website. However, if a platform is nearing the end of its lifecycle, the business may face security gaps that must be addressed. And since problems with updates already exist, additional investment in improvements will be required, which will temporarily resolve the issue and will not improve the overall security of the entire eComm project.
Bad UX
If your website isn’t responding or you’re getting calls about other problems on the site—like being unable to place an order—it’s time to change platforms. Customers are looking for a positive user experience, and the company must be able to provide it to increase sales and attract new users. Otherwise, customers will quickly begin looking for other, more convenient shopping conditions.
Administering Changes Is Time-Consuming
The company has big plans and a lot of great ideas to improve the site, but for the reasons stated above, it cannot implement them. Publishing content, adding new products, and managing returns takes considerable time. The solution could be CRM, ERP, or PIM, but it cannot be integrated with the current platform.
The e-commerce platform you are using has reached the end of its life cycle.
The life cycle of an e-commerce platform is five to seven years. It becomes useless if a vendor doesn’t keep up with new trends, stops releasing updates, or no longer supports your platform. Ultimately, the above signs lead to cost overruns and lost sales.
Options For Platform Change Strategies
Relocation (or so-called “replatforming”) replaces the functionality of some solutions with the functions of others. When determining a company’s strategy, several essential questions should be answered:
- Is the new solution a complete replacement for the old one, or will the functionality of the replaced platform be distributed among several systems?
- Will the functions in new solutions be recreated “as is” or implemented, considering new approaches?
- Will the transition be carried out simultaneously or in stages?
- Is the company ready to sacrifice some functionality during replatforming?
Depending on the answers to these questions, a company may choose different conversion factor strategies. They all come down to two main options:
- Gradual change of platform.
- One-time platform change.
Gradual Platform Change
The gradual platform change strategy involves selecting one or more services that will be extracted from the current solution and implemented in new services. With this strategy, the old platform continues to function in parallel with the new one.
Ensuring Reliability Of Critical Operations
The transfer is carried out in stages, starting with the most critical functions, for example, payment services. After eliminating the main risks, you can move on to another strategy.
This scenario is relevant if there is a risk of a sudden business stop due to problems in the field of information technology. For example, an increased load is expected before the New Year holidays, which the current platform will not be able to withstand. Another typical case is when a supplier stops providing a service.
Phased Frontend Transfer
A complete front-end migration is a complex task that requires significant time and financial investment. Often, it goes beyond the permissible period for eliminating risks or freezing development.
Transferring the front end of a website or mobile application can be divided into stages and carried out in parts. For example, move the checkout process first, then the catalog, and then the home page.
Complete Frontend Migration
In e-commerce, the website and mobile app are the most change-prone components of the platform. They also typically have the highest user load. Therefore, online conversion a website and mobile application is a common task. This strategy creates a new one next to the existing front end.
