Ecommerce replatforming: What Are the Risks, Steps & Best Platforms

Why ecommerce website replatforming 

You've devoted countless hours to your online store, but now its homepage feels foreign? In ecommerce, platform choice is pivotal, shaping your business's success, opportunities, and environment. Replatforming - transferring your store to a new platform - is tough, but often essential.

DefinitionReplatforming ecommerce is a process of moving your online store – with all its assets – from one platform to another. 

And when building a new online online store from scratch is not an option, ecommerce platform migration becomes the game-changer.

When to consider a platform migration 

Consider this example: a new car or mobile device brought you joy years ago, but after a while, issues piled up, and control slipped away. A year or two later, frustration set in. Is this how you feel about your ecommerce platform?

Let’s rationalize these bitter feelings a bit. 

Top reasons and push factors to move off your legacy environment

• Your current platform simply can’t handle your growing stock (You have more products, more categories – you need more options, more customization, more flexibility).
• Traffic issues (Congrats, your products are in high demand, but your platform just can’t afford you to have this much attention).
• “Mobile-second” by design (Bad luck, your shoppers have problems buying things on mobile).
• Cybersecurity problems (Allegedly, hackers puzzle your shoppers with some weird pictures, while shoppers think you do this on purpose).
• Your shoppers just don’t feel like buying when browsing your online store (“My shop - my rules” –  not the best approach). 
• Every time you go to your admin panel, you can’t stop your eye twitching (common, but not inevitable).
• It’s getting harder to implement innovations, new features and updates.
• It’s getting harder to integrate multiple 3rd party services.
• It’s getting harder to fix bugs (constant ‘400 bad request’ errors don’t inspire people to pay, to say the least), and it takes more developers to maintain the store. 

In three words – it’s getting harder. If you are convinced your business can do way better than this – keep cool, you’re not alone – start outlining the process of ecommerce replatforming today.

Let’s take a glance at pull factors and risks to consider before migrating your ecommerce website to a new platform.

Risks and factors to consider before migration

• Transferring existing problems to a new platform: a nightmare scenario (to avoid this, articulate all issues clearly).
• Unconsciously replicating your legacy thinking, it's like stepping in the same river twice - difficult to avoid.
• Migrating unused/ unneeded legacy feature toolsets (Again, requires a proper audit of all your goods and chattels).
• Ignoring major business requirements. 
• Ignoring potential technical integrations.
• Underestimating timeframes: ecommerce migration can take several months.
• Skipping testing (functional testing is your devoted replatforming mate).
• Ignoring security issues (have to be taken into account prior to migration process).

Ecommerce Replatform Strategy. Best practices

• Understand the business drivers, objectives, and customer needs.
• Show business value early.
• Take a mobile-first strategy.
• Identify your system integrations.
• Plan for performance, scalability, resiliency.
• Prepare your data conversion in sufficient time in advance. 
• Select your partner on skills, experience, culture.

Top ecommerce platforms to migrate to

Merchants sometimes approach their online shops like landscapers do their gardens, wanting to manage every aspect and ensuring everything in its right place. Platforms that align well with this mindset and, according to Gartner, the platforms considered the pillars of digital commerce leadership ("execute well against their current vision and are well positioned for tomorrow") are Adobe Commerce (Magento), Shopify, and Salesforce Commerce Cloud.

Migration to Adobe Commerce (Magento)

Adobe Commerce (Magento) perks:

• Higher performance, speed, scalability.
• Mobile-friendly, responsive interfaces.
• Easy to use intuitive admin panel.
• Modernized enriched UX/UI.

Basic ecommerce migration checklist: Adobe Commerce (Magento)

• Sum up all the legacy extensions, plugins, templates you think served you well.
• Back up your legacy webstore: databases, files, CSVs, etc.
• Clone your online store and launch a dry run in test environment.
• Decide on store theme: it needs to be redesigned and adopted for Magento or designed from scratch.
• Transfer all the ecommerce data (product names, description, attributes, product page components; customer-related data like passwords, contact numbers, addresses; all the links like category and product URLs).
• Transfer the API-related data (keys, signatures).

Ecommerce Migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2: expert tips

“Though M1 and M2 are similar from a business pov, they differ from app design perspective. In most cases you can't just reuse existing M1 codebase in M2. Sometimes you can't even reuse data schema. Also, the coding best practices and tools changed a lot. Depending on the amount and complexity of M1 custom modules, it's probably easier to redesign and rewrite M2 app from scratch.”

Vlad KudukhovSenior Magento Backend Developer at Grinteq

Replatforming to Shopify (Plus)

Shopify ecommerce platform is famous for its scalability, they want your business to grow so to say synchronously with their software. Shopify even markets themselves as a “partner for life”. There is always a more advanced Shopify Plus so that you won’t have to look for a more advanced tool to please your growing appetites. 

Migrate your online store to Shopify Plus:

• Cloud-based
• Highly scalable 
• Top-notch UX
• More customization
• Advanced customer journey with Shopify Flow

Replatforming to Salesforce Commerce Cloud

For those merchants who already inhabit the Salesforce ecosystem, there is a chance to have all their clouds and services seamlessly connected.

Migrate your online store to Salesforce Commerce Cloud:

• Reduce time to market
• Variety of Salesforce services integrated
• Multi-tenant
• Omni-channel 

Salesforce Commerce Cloud & Why Leading Brands Choose It

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Replatforming to Webflow (bonus platform)

Merchants often envy developers, considering them as technical middlemen who control too much. A somewhat professional jealousy. Webflow ecommerce platform busts this resentment. Their motto: the site you want - without dev time. 

Webflow is about simplicity, it is easy by design. Most merchants, being tech-savvy, can manage such platforms with their hands behind their backs. Webflow is ideal for small ecommerce businesses.

‍Migrate to Webflow:

• Easy to use 
• No-code attitude
• No limits when it comes to creativity and design
• Reliable hosting by AWS
• Wide SEO settings

Bottom line

Platforms significantly influence modern life. When you consider your digital footprints, you'll notice how much of your activities occur within platform territories, such as using Uber or Airbnb. We are evolving into somewhat "Homo Platformicus," constantly migrating between platforms for various needs. This latent migration is part of our daily routine.

In the context of ecommerce, keep in mind that Homo Platformicus is always seeking novel, engaging, and satisfying experiences. Ensure your ecommerce platform is attractive and ready for this constant migration of users.