For a modern digital business, ecommerce replatforming is often not just a consideration, it can be a necessity if you want to stay competitive and meet the ever-increasing demands of consumers. However, embarking on a replatforming journey can feel daunting, especially if you’re unsure where to start. How do you decide what approach to take? How much will it cost and is that worth the investment? Is replatforming even the right solution to your problems?
Whether you’re a CMO looking to enhance customer experience or a CDO tasked with driving digital transformation, you want to take the first steps of your ecommerce replatforming journey with confidence.
Before diving into the replatforming process, it’s crucial to understand why replatforming is necessary. Here are a few key indicators that it might be time to consider replatforming:
Outdated Technology: If your current platform is built on outdated technology that is hard to update or integrate with new tools, it’s likely holding your business back. Replatforming could be a way to shake off those restrictions.
Scalability Issues: As your business grows, your platform must scale with you. If you’re facing limitations in handling increased traffic or transaction volumes, it’s a sign that replatforming is needed.
Poor Customer Experience: A platform that doesn’t support modern customer expectations — such as mobile-first experiences, personalised content, and fast load times — can drive customers away. Ask yourself, can a new platform help you reach customers that your existing solution cannot?
Operational Inefficiencies: High costs of maintaining your current platform or the inability to efficiently manage products, orders, and customer data are clear signs that replatforming could improve your bottom line. Moving to a new platform could free up people and resources to focus on more valuable activities for your business and customers.
Consider your current platform. Do any of these challenges resonate with your business? If so, it’s time to explore replatforming.
Once you’ve recognised the need for replatforming, the next step is to set clear, strategic objectives. What do you want to achieve with this replatforming initiative? Common goals include:
Enhancing Customer Experience: Improving site performance, user interface, and personalisation features.
Increasing Conversion Rates: Implementing features that streamline the purchase process and reduce cart abandonment.
Integrating New Technologies: Enabling seamless integration with CRM, ERP, and other third-party systems.
Supporting Business Growth: Building a scalable platform that can grow with your business.
More Efficient Operations: Changing ways of working to better suit the needs of your business, teams and customers.
Practical Tip: Collaborate with key stakeholders across departments to align on these objectives, ensuring that everyone is on the same page and that the replatforming process is guided by clear goals. By building consensus first, you can avoid costly realignment and delays later in the process.
Before you can effectively plan for replatforming, you need to conduct a comprehensive audit of your current ecommerce platform. This will help you understand what’s working, what’s not, and what features or capabilities are missing. Key areas to assess include:
Technology Stack: What is your current platform built on? How well does it integrate with other tools and systems? Does your choice of technology help you attract and retain the right team?
User Experience: Evaluate your website’s design, navigation, and load times. How do these impact user satisfaction and conversion rates? How easy is it to keep up with changing customer expectations and new channels?
Operational Efficiency: How easy is it for your team to manage content, products, and customer interactions? Where are you spending your time, and what are the pain points for your team?
Security and Compliance: Is your platform secure and compliant with industry regulations (e.g., GDPR, PCI-DSS)? Are your vendors responsive to the privacy and security needs of your business and customers?
Unsure of how to audit your existing ecommerce platform? Specialist ecommerce agencies can be a good fit to assess your current platform’s strengths and weaknesses to build the case for replatforming. An outside view can often help internal stakeholders with a new perspective.
With your objectives clear and a platform audit completed, it’s time to choose the right replatforming strategy. Here are three common approaches:
Lift-and-Shift: Moving your existing platform to a new environment with minimal changes. This is a quick solution but might not address all underlying issues. Be wary of simply recreating your old problems on a new platform!
Incremental Replatforming: Gradually transitioning to a new platform in stages. This reduces risk but requires careful planning and coordination. This approach is particularly effective for businesses with a single store who need to guarantee performance levels.
Complete Overhaul: Building a new platform from scratch. This allows for full customisation and modernisation but requires significant time and resources. This approach can work well for businesses with many stores who can pilot changes with smaller markets first.
Practical Tip: Evaluate these strategies against your objectives, resources, and timeline. The right approach depends on your specific business needs and the complexity of your existing systems.
Replatforming is a cross-functional effort that requires input from multiple departments to be successful. Here’s how to build an effective replatforming team:
Project Sponsor: A senior executive (e.g., CMO or CDO) who provides oversight and ensures alignment with business goals.
Project Manager: Responsible for day-to-day project management, timelines, and coordination between teams as well as vendors.
Technical Lead: Oversees the technical aspects, including architecture, integrations, and security.
User Experience Lead: Focuses on designing a customer-centric interface and improving the overall user experience.
Marketing / Ecommerce Lead: Ensures that the new platform supports marketing goals, including personalisation, content management, and customer engagement.
Change management is a critical component of successful replatforming. Your team needs to be prepared for new workflows, tools, and processes. Whilst the implement steps of replatform may initially seem like the largest investment, change management is frequently the most underestimated cost. Key steps include:
Communication Plan: Regular updates to keep all stakeholders informed and engaged throughout the process. The earlier change is communicated, the more time teams have to adjust.
Training Program: Comprehensive training for your team to ensure they are comfortable with the new platform and its features. Build an internal centre of excellence to carry this training into an operational programme supporting your business with the new platform.
Rollout Plan: How you deploy your new platform will depend on the replatforming approach you’re taking, as well as the capacity of your teams. Ensure that there’s a clear transition plan if you will operate multiple systems side-by-side.
Risk Management: Identify potential risks and develop contingency plans to address them. Meet frequently to re-examine issues and get ahead of potential risks as they arise.
Practical Tip: Start change management planning early to minimise disruption and ensure a smooth transition to the new platform. Head-off internal resistance to change by demonstrating new features and capabilities that will bring positive benefits to your teams.
Once your new platform is live, it’s essential to measure its success against your initial objectives. Key performance indicators (KPIs) to track include:
Site Performance: Load times, uptime, and scalability.
Conversion Rates: Changes in cart abandonment, average order value, and overall sales.
Customer Satisfaction: Feedback through surveys, reviews, and NPS scores.
Operational Efficiency: Time saved in managing content, products, and customer service.
Implement a post-launch evaluation plan to continuously monitor performance and make necessary adjustments. Replatforming is a big undertaking, and it’s important to be clear about the costs and benefits to your business so that you can make the right decisions to make the most of your investment.
Starting your ecommerce replatforming journey can be challenging, but with the right approach, it’s an opportunity to significantly enhance your digital presence, improve customer experience, and support your business’s long-term growth. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you’ll be well on your way to a successful replatforming project.
Ready to take the first step? Contact us for a free no-strings chat to discuss your replatforming needs and how we can help you achieve your goals.