The Replatforming Guide: How, When & Why to Switch Ecommerce Platforms

Once you determine your ecommerce goals, the replatforming question goes further than just, “Should I stay or should I go?” Both options have risks, and both will incur costs. Based on your needs and goals, these questions will help you identify whether it’s time to revamp your commerce strategy or replatform:

Is it more cost-efficient to replatform or make updates? If your business needs can be met with upgrades to a few front-end features, it may be more cost-effective to work with a vendor on those specific areas of your ecommerce experience. However, replatforming will likely be less time-consuming and costly in the long run if you find that your teams lack back-end tooling (like payment gateway integrations, security features, or scalable infrastructure) to meet your objectives.

What is your implementation strategy? Every replatforming project needs an implementation strategy. For example, will you use a third-party systems integrator, implement it yourself, or employ a combination of the two? To determine the cost of each option, consider the current roles and experience of your IT team. Consider whether you will need new head count or new talent to replatform, or if your current staff can handle the tasks of the project.

Your ecommerce platform can either be a catalyst for growth and success, or it can severely limit your potential. Jono Herrington, Global Digital Technology Lead at Nike, puts it this way: “As brands mature, they may find that they hit a barrier with their ecommerce platform. When that happens, platform weaknesses that were once small pebbles become large boulders. These weaknesses can slow your engineers down, keep you from getting to market quickly, and create a lot of friction in your business.”

So how do you know when to replatform? Timing is everything, but it can be difficult to know when to hold and when to fold. Here are a few scenarios that call for making a switch:

When commerce, order, and customer data are spread across different platforms: Many companies use different ecommerce platforms for each new line of business, market, or geography they enter. Over time, this can lead to a disjointed experience and make it difficult to manage data. Even worse? It leads to inefficiencies and skyrocketing costs. Consolidating all your different platforms into one will remove data silos and give your teams better visibility into insights that will drive better business results.

When you don’t have the right data to make informed decisions: While some businesses have too much data spread over too many platforms, others simply don’t have access to enough. If you’re in the dark about the details of your customer journey or you don’t have access to in-the-moment insights, it will be difficult to create relevant ecommerce experiences that resonate. For example, an ecommerce platform that isn’t connected to your order management system can’t give you an accurate view of your inventory levels. Without this information, it can be difficult to match supply with demand and order the right amount of product. Ultimately, connected systems mean that you’ll have a better view of critical business operations and customer behavior.

Leading businesses use data to guide their ecommerce strategies. In fact, 53% of digital leaders report being very effective at using data to understand customer behavior, a rate 3.5 times greater than their less digitally mature counterparts. They are also four times more likely to be using their data to deliver personalized buying experiences.

The key to getting the right insights to drive success? Real-time, connected data. A holistic view of each customer and real-time insights about their habits on your storefront are critical to making informed decisions and creating successful ecommerce strategies.

When your platform keeps you from providing a stellar customer experience: Do you find that new innovations are often squashed because your ecommerce platform doesn’t offer enough agility? When you are able to innovate and build new features, is an inflexible platform causing delays in your time to market? These are all signs you should prioritize replatforming sooner rather than later. The sooner you make the switch, the faster you improve your bottom line. When GE Renewable Energy implemented a new B2B storefront based on customer feedback, the results were staggering: Volume increased 300% and its user base increased 35% in just six months.

When you can’t keep up with market trends: Flexibility is key to staying responsive to rapidly evolving customer needs and market demands. New payment methods and new channels pop up regularly, and the businesses that find success are those that can quickly adjust. Consider the fast-growing popularity and adoption of ecommerce trends like installment payments and social selling. The social commerce opportunity is expected to nearly triple by 2025 — to $1.2 trillion. To keep up and earn share of wallet, brands need an ecommerce platform that can easily integrate with new social channels as they arise.

If you don’t have the capability to keep up with market trends as they’re gaining momentum, customers will shop elsewhere. Your ecommerce platform should — at minimum — come equipped with must-have, business-critical features (like payments and order management). If your platform offers these out of the box, you can spend your valuable time building features that will truly differentiate your brand experience. When your ecommerce platform stands in the way of customer acquisition and loyalty, this is a good sign that it’s time to make a switch. Staying ahead of the ecommerce curve requires a platform that enables you to innovate quickly and get new experiences to market before the competition.

Once you assess your business goals and determine it’s the right time to replatform, it’s important to be prepared for the journey ahead. Here are a few key milestones to keep in mind throughout the process:

1. Get buy-in from stakeholders and agree on business goals. The first major milestone for commerce professionals, IT leaders, and CIOs who want to replatform: getting buy-in from across the company — which includes your finance team and board of directors. The goal is to show how a new ecommerce platform will increase top-line revenue and create operational efficiencies — both now and in the future. And that all starts with setting the right cost-benefit model.
2. Come up with a plan for organizational alignment. From customer service agents to marketers, merchandisers, and sales reps, replatforming will affect every role. It’s important to understand how each team will be impacted and anticipate any resistance. Develop a change management plan to help you minimize risk, boost productivity, and get valued employees on board. This will include creating a communication plan, collecting feedback, and building the right team to help you move the new implementation forward.
3. Determine how you will measure success. Key performance indicators (KPIs) will help you steer the ship during — and after — your new implementation. Consider your business goals and determine which KPIs to track. For example, if your goal is to lower your cost to serve, then you should routinely measure customer acquisition costs, customer lifetime value, and return on investment.
4. Choose your ecommerce platform. Once you’ve determined your goals, alignment plan, and KPIs, it’s time to come up with a short list of potential platform partners. Your decision will likely come down to cost, capabilities, support, and security. Choose a solution that has 99.99% historical uptime with proven global customer success.
5. Decide on a minimum viable product (MVP) for launch. One of the best (read: fastest) ways to get your new platform up and running is to take an MVP approach. This means focusing your early efforts on major features necessary for your business to operate ecommerce. For some brands, an ecommerce MVP might simply be a customer portal and the ability to track orders. For others, an MVP will include storefront, product search, payments, and order management.

When it comes to minimizing replatforming costs, a trusted partner ecosystem is a quick win. If your platform vendor can connect you to a reliable network of other commerce technology providers, you can significantly reduce your time to market and your total cost of ownership. The right partner ecosystem will include trusted vendors for critical needs like content and search. This ensures fast, streamlined integrations — and it also means you won’t need to spend time and resources wading through countless RFPs for each potential partner.

One thing that can increase costs and delay your launch? Vetting different vendors and implementing disparate products. Every separate product requires a contract (which takes time to negotiate). You’ll also need to manage multiple vendor relationships, each with different sales teams and pricing models. That’s a lot to juggle — and that’s all before the implementation process begins.

Many businesses will bring in different vendors for order management, payments, and platform. The problem? This requires your teams to spend valuable time completing lengthy (and costly) installations. It also often means duplicate work for each channel. Even worse: it can lead to disjointed experiences for your customers. It’s the software equivalent of too many cooks in the kitchen.

Instead, you can focus on vendor consolidation by taking an all-in-one approach to ecommerce. This approach combines your ecommerce platform, payments, and order management solutions into one. Rather than three different solutions, you only need a single implementation. By choosing one partner for these three business-critical solutions, you can significantly reduce your budget and time to market.

The best way to ensure replatforming success, minimize risk, and avoid runaway costs? Choose a scalable ecommerce platform with seamless integrations, flexible storefronts, built-in security, and always-on availability.