Seamless eCommerce Replatforming: How to Move Your Store Without the Hassle
Whether your store has outgrown its current platform or you’re looking for improved functionality and performance, moving to a new platform often brings fears of downtime, data loss and SEO damage.
However, your eCommerce platform is the foundation of your business and when it begins to limit your growth, a strategic replatforming is the only way forward. We’ve seen first-hand how businesses struggle with outdated platforms and we know that the key to future-proofing your online store is a seamless migration to a more powerful, scalable solution. With the right approach and planning, you can ensure a smooth transition without the hassle.
What is eCommerce Replatforming?
eCommerce replatforming is the process of migrating your online store from one platform to another, transferring critical data such as product details, customer accounts, order histories and payment information.
This strategic move is essential when your current platform no longer meets your business needs due to performance limitations, lack of modern features or security concerns.
By upgrading to a more advanced, scalable platform, businesses can improve site performance and security, integrate new tools and deliver a better overall customer experience. Replatforming requires careful planning and execution to ensure a smooth transition without disrupting business operations or impacting sales.
Why Replatform?
eCommerce platforms evolve rapidly, and what was cutting-edge technology a few years ago can quickly become obsolete. Replatforming is not just about fixing immediate issues; it's about positioning your business for long-term growth and success. Here are the key reasons why you should consider replatforming your eCommerce store:
- Performance and Scalability: as your business grows, your platform needs to keep pace. If your current system is slowing down or can’t handle increasing traffic, it’s time for an upgrade. Modern platforms offer the scalability needed to support thousands of products, higher transaction volumes and more customers, without compromising speed or user experience.
- Advanced Features and Integrations: legacy platforms often struggle to integrate with the latest tools and applications that are essential for scaling. By migrating to a more advanced system, you can access features such as detailed analytics, automated marketing tools, personalised shopping experiences and third-party integrations, allowing your team to optimise customer experience.
- Security and Compliance: older platforms can be more vulnerable to cybersecurity threats, putting your business and customer data at risk. Upgrading to a new eCommerce platform ensures you have the latest security protocols in place, including PCI DSS compliance, fraud detection and secure payment gateways.
- Omnichannel Capabilities: consumers now expect seamless shopping experiences across devices and platforms. If your current system struggles with mobile optimisation or omnichannel selling, it’s time to replatform. Modern platforms come with responsive designs and omnichannel features that allow you to provide a consistent and high-quality customer experience, whether they're shopping on a desktop, mobile device or through social media.
- Reduced Maintenance Costs: older platforms may require ongoing developer support just to keep things running smoothly. Migrating to a newer, more reliable platform reduces the burden on your IT team and lowers operational costs, allowing you to allocate resources where they matter most – growing your eCommerce business.
Key Takeaway
Replatforming can improve performance, scalability, security, feature integration and customer experience, while reducing maintenance costs, optimising operational efficiency and supporting long-term business growth.
When Is the Right Time to Replatform?
Knowing when to replatform can be a challenge. Timing is crucial because you don’t want to wait until your platform completely breaks down, nor do you want to migrate prematurely and risk disrupting your operations. Here are a few key indicators that signal it’s time to make the move:
Growth Limitations
If your platform can’t scale with your business or is struggling to handle increased traffic, during busy holiday periods for example, it’s a red flag. Slow page load times, frequent crashes or checkout issues can hurt your conversion rates and damage your brand’s reputation.
Integration Challenges
If you’re constantly running into problems integrating new tools or systems, or if adding new features requires extensive custom development, it’s a sign that your platform is no longer meeting your needs. A modern platform will offer smooth integrations with essential business tools like CRM systems, inventory management and marketing automation software.
Declining Customer Satisfaction
If customers are complaining about site speed, mobile functionality or a complicated checkout process, it’s time to reconsider your platform. A poor user experience directly impacts sales and customer loyalty, and replatforming can provide the enhanced UX/UI features needed to keep customers satisfied.
Security Concerns
If your platform lacks critical security updates, your business is exposed to data breaches, fraud and compliance issues. Replatforming to a system with built-in security features is not just a smart move, it’s essential for protecting your business and customer data.
Key Takeaway
The right time to replatform is when your current system is running slowly, struggling with integrations, experiencing a decline in customer satisfaction or is lacking essential security updates, as these indicators signal that your platform can no longer support your business needs effectively.
How to Migrate Your eCommerce Store Without Losing a Single Sale
One of the biggest concerns for retailers replatforming their eCommerce store is the potential loss of sales during the migration process. A well-planned migration, however, can ensure your revenue remains steady and uninterrupted. Here are the key steps to migrate successfully to avoid losing any sales:
Pre-Migration Planning
Thorough planning is essential to avoid errors. This means mapping out every aspect of the migration process, from data transfer to design, ensuring that your store’s functionality remains intact throughout. It’s important to schedule the migration during a low-traffic period to minimise potential disruptions.
Staging and Testing
Before going live, set up a staging environment to test the new platform thoroughly. Ensure all customer-facing features, including product pages, shopping carts and payment gateways, are functioning properly. This stage should include thorough testing of your SEO setup, ensuring 301 redirects are in place to avoid a drop in rankings.
SEO Preservation
One of the biggest risks during migration is losing your SEO rankings. You can preserve these by creating a comprehensive redirect strategy to ensure old URLs lead to the correct pages on the new platform. Migrating meta data, alt text and page structures is also crucial to maintaining visibility in search engines.
Minimal Downtime
Use strategies such as a phased rollout or a parallel system to ensure minimal downtime. With a phased rollout, parts of your site can be migrated and tested while the rest remains operational. A parallel system allows both the old and new platforms to run simultaneously, further reducing disruption.
Customer Communication
Keep your customers informed of any changes. Transparency during the migration process will help manage expectations and maintain trust. Use newsletters, banners or email campaigns to update your audience about potential site maintenance or temporary downtime.
Post-Migration Monitoring
Once your new platform is live, monitor key performance metrics closely. Check for broken links, integration issues or drop-offs in conversion rates and address them immediately. Offering promotions or discounts immediately post-migration can help drive traffic back to the site and reassure customers of the improved experience.
Key Takeaway
Careful planning, thorough testing and clear communication are important for ensuring a seamless eCommerce migration without disrupting sales.
Does Replatforming an eCommerce Store Also Require a Redesign?
One of the most critical decisions during replatforming is whether to maintain your existing design or seize the opportunity for a redesign. This decision largely depends on your brand’s goals and the feedback you’ve received from customers.
Maintaining the Current Design
If your store’s design is performing well, maintaining consistency may be the best approach. Customers who are familiar with your layout may appreciate the continuity and you can focus the migration purely on performance and back-end improvements. This approach reduces the learning curve for your users, allowing them to continue shopping without disruption.
Redesign for Optimisation
However, if your design is outdated, not mobile-responsive, or creating friction in the user journey, replatforming presents the perfect opportunity for a redesign. A fresh, modern interface optimised for conversion can dramatically improve your site’s performance, engage customers more effectively and make the shopping experience more intuitive. A new design can also reflect a shift in your brand’s positioning or customer demographics.
In either case, our recommendation is to focus on user experience first. Any design updates should be driven by data and customer feedback, ensuring that every element, from navigation to checkout, is optimised to increase conversion rates and improve overall satisfaction.
Key Takeaway
Whether to redesign during eCommerce replatforming depends on your brand’s goals and customer feedback; if your design is effective, maintain consistency, but if it's outdated or hindering user experience, a redesign can optimise performance and engagement. Always prioritise user experience in your decision.
The Biggest eCommerce Migration Nightmares and How to Avoid Them
eCommerce replatforming can be a complex process and without careful planning, things can quickly go wrong. Here are the most common migration nightmares and strategies to avoid them:
Data Loss or Corruption
One of the most significant risks is the loss or corruption of critical data, including product information, customer details and order histories. To avoid this, back up your data multiple times before migration. Use data mapping tools to ensure that information is transferred correctly and always run thorough tests on the new platform to check for any missing or corrupted data.
Losing SEO Rankings
Improperly handling SEO during a migration can lead to a significant drop in search rankings, resulting in lost traffic and revenue. Failing to implement redirects or missing meta data can cause search engines to lose track of your content. To avoid this, create a robust redirect strategy, transfer all SEO data and conduct post-migration audits to ensure everything is functioning as it should.
Extended Downtime
Unplanned downtime is one of the biggest migration nightmares as it can lead to lost sales and damage your reputation. To prevent extended downtime, plan the migration during off-peak hours, use parallel systems and ensure your team is prepared to act quickly if any issues arise. A rollback plan is essential in case the migration does not go smoothly.
Poor User Experience
If the new platform is not properly optimised, customers may experience difficulties navigating the site, leading to frustration and a higher bounce rate. Test the new site extensively across all devices and browsers to ensure that it works smoothly. Prioritise speed, mobile responsiveness and ease of navigation to improve user experience post-migration.
Integration Failures
Many eCommerce stores rely on third-party systems, such as CRMs, ERPs and marketing automation tools. If these integrations fail during migration, it can disrupt business operations. To avoid this, list all critical integrations beforehand and test them thoroughly in the new environment before going live.
To avoid the complexities of managing these risks yourself, get in touch with us. We can ensure that every aspect of the migration is handled smoothly, from data migration and SEO preservation to testing and post-launch monitoring. Our expertise in replatforming allows you to focus on running your business while we manage the technical transition, reducing the risk of errors and downtime.
Key Takeaway
To avoid common eCommerce migration risks like data loss, downtime, poor user experience and integration failures, it's important to implement robust data backups, thorough testing and a well-timed migration plan.
Success Story: Fight Equipment UK
Fight Equipment (FEUK), a leading UK supplier of combat sports gear, faced significant challenges with its Magento platform. With no internal web development team, maintaining Magento and managing the platform was diverting valuable resources from revenue-generating activities. The team at FEUK needed a solution that would allow them to adapt quickly to eCommerce trends and use new services without ongoing involvement from a development team.
During our scoping phase, we identified:
- a staggering 91% drop-off rate on the basket page
- returning visitors converted 59% more than first-time visitors
The Solution
FEUK required a platform that would streamline their eCommerce operations and improve its mobile shopping experience.
By migrating to Shopify, we provided FEUK with a more intuitive user interface and a simplified checkout process, directly increasing conversion rates and customer satisfaction. This migration not only resolved technical limitations but also integrated Shopify’s native apps, which automated key processes and reduced ongoing maintenance needs.
The Results
We are thrilled that our success with this replatforming project has earned us a nomination for Best Replatform at the eCommerce Awards 2024, showcasing our commitment to delivering exceptional results and innovation in the industry.
At the heart of a successful eCommerce business is a platform that can scale, adapt and deliver a superior experience. Replatforming may seem daunting, but with a professional approach and meticulous planning, it is an investment that pays off in long-term growth and customer satisfaction.
As an experienced eCommerce agency, we take pride in guiding our clients through this process, ensuring that your business transitions smoothly to a more powerful, secure and scalable platform. We can suggest an eCommerce platform tailored to your specific needs, that will scale your business effectively. We partner with top eCommerce platforms including Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce and Adobe Commerce. Get in touch to find out more.
