New online business owners often underestimate the costs their company will incur once everything is up and running. Initial setup and implementation fees are the obvious part, but once your business starts to grow, new expenses emerge, which can be difficult to predict. Even for more experienced ecommerce leaders, increased profitability often brings increased fees. And maintenance costs are among the most challenging.
Reducing maintenance costs is a key hurdle toward profitability and efficiency. But going about this the wrong way can be disastrous. Remember, these are the expenses that keep your features and apps up to date, the part of your budget that makes sure your site isn’t crashing during high-volume sales days and driving away customers.
In this article, we’ll offer our best practices on how to reduce operation and maintenance costs for your ecommerce needs. As you read on, you’ll see just how much of this hinges on choosing the right platform in the first place.
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It’s no secret that ecommerce has boomed in recent years. It’s an increasingly important part of running your enterprise, to the point that it’s hard to imagine continued success without an innovative webstore, comprehensive customer outreach, etc. But all this can get perilously expensive. This is where managing your enterprise’s total cost of ownership (TCO) comes in. TCO refers to the total of all your budgeting and ecommerce needs over a certain amount of time. Maintenance costs are a key aspect.
It takes a lot to keep an established online business in top form, so it’s easy to accumulate outdated or unnecessary maintenance costs as months pass: upkeep fees, tech support, and so on.
On top of that, you could be spending far too much for the services you do rely on.
Cost reduction can positively
To fully realize your enterprise’s potential, the ultimate solution may be migrating to a new platform. But before we get there, consider the following checklist of more traditional methods to reduce maintenance costs. You may have some attainable wins sitting in plain sight.
This includes audits, scheduled maintenance, and supplier contract renegotiation. All this ongoing quality control will help keep costs down and operations running smoothly. While these methods are unlikely to offer the total solution you’re looking for, they can be effective for streamlining your ecommerce business to an extent.
In this section, we’ve outlined the most effective methods of cutting down these costly fees. You may have already started to implement some of our suggestions. But keep in mind these bullet points are worth keeping a frequent eye on as the ecommerce marketplace evolves.
The optimal approach is choosing an ecommerce platform that will reduce maintenance costs in the first place. Before you get deep into the details of cutting costs, get ahead of the game by choosing the right platform—one with the flexibility to tailor itself to your unique needs. A recent survey from a leading independent consulting firm shows Shopify outperforms the competition when it comes to total cost of ownership both in terms of lower maintenance and licensing costs, as well as higher conversion rates and average order value (AOV). Shopify’s average conversion rate outperforms the competition by up to 36%, and by 15% on average. Consider what your business could be doing with that extra revenue. For some inspiration, take a look at how these 10 multi-million dollar ecommerce companies replatformed to Shopify, and what they’ve been able to accomplish with their added growth.
Over time, your company can significantly cut maintenance costs by taking everything we’ve discussed into account. We understand all this might feel daunting. But rest assured that plenty of larger enterprises struggle with this kind of big-picture optimization, let alone a new one that’s just starting to scale. This is where Shopify can help. Shopify Plus removes entire cost structures from your budget by ensuring most of the critical features you need are built right into the platform.
Choosing the right ecommerce platform—one with the flexibility to scale to your specific needs—is paramount. If it feels like you’re outgrowing your current platform, or you’re spending more money on maintaining your existing website than you can afford, we’re here to help. Shopify is proven to increase conversion rates while streamlining the processes that reduce cost of maintenance. As your business grows, we’re prepared to keep it all running as efficiently as possible.
For more, consult Shopify’s step-by-step guide to ecommerce replatforming.
Preventative maintenance is routine, scheduled maintenance with the intention of catching problems early—before they become complex, expensive issues. Preventative maintenance may include automated updates and optimizations to ensure aspects of your ecommerce business, like sales and security, are running smoothly.
Choosing the right ecommerce platform for your needs is the most effective way to reduce maintenance costs. Shopify routinely outpaces other platforms in offering lower maintenance and licensing costs, thanks to the flexibility it gives merchants in adapting to their unique maintenance needs.
Operational audits provide an in-depth look into your company’s systems and processes, which may reveal opportunities to reduce maintenance costs. For instance, operational audits may expose outdated security subscriptions that are wasting money and/or slowing down internal processes.
If your enterprise has identified subscriptions and features in its tech stack that can be reduced or eliminated, renegotiating your supplier contract can help cut down maintenance costs. It is important to set realistic expectations for the negotiation, reflective of what the vendor can offer, in relation to the market and your specific needs.
Regular training programs are a wise investment for your team. As your IT needs evolve, keeping your staff up to speed on the enterprise’s maintenance goals can help identify new solutions and keep things cost-effective and running smoothly. Think of it as an extension of your regular audits.
Technology can monitor maintenance costs in numerous ways, including the tracking of inventory to eliminate overflow and optimizing maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) to ensure all aspects of your workflow are running smoothly.
