Replatforming your ecommerce site can be one of the most daunting, yet most necessary changes a growing online business can consider. Many merchants hold back on migration through fear of losing site traffic and customers, but also run the risk of being left behind by competitors who are putting in the work to create heightened user journeys. Is it worth the risk?

Why consider replatforming your ecommerce site?

The online retail landscape is ever-evolving. The ecommerce site you opted for initially might no longer be serving you or the needs of your customers. It could be holding you back from offering the best possible customer experience and it might be forcing users to use your competitors instead.

Other factors to consider when migrating or replatforming your site include:

• Site speed – the faster your page speed, the higher your site will rank in Google
• Cost – you could potentially cut web hosting costs dramatically
• Maintenance – easier site maintenance means quicker implementation and better performance
• Limited functionality – increase the ease of use of the site and its interactivity

You could be asking yourself if there’s an alternative platform out there that may help you to solve these problems. If you could get your hands on a site that’s easier to maintain and has incredible capability to help you scale and provide unrivalled user journeys, is cheaper and quicker – that would be the ecommerce Holy Grail.

Yes, there’s a lot involved in getting the process right and it’s a big business decision to make but migrating your ecommerce site can drastically improve what you offer as a business. It can dramatically broaden your reach, boost your rankings, transform your conversion rates and prove to be an incredibly valuable investment. For example, according to a 2019 study, migrating to Magento Commerce 2 saved 62% in costs – savings such as that could prove invaluable to any business, no matter the size.

Whether you’re in the early stages of considering migrating or replatforming your ecommerce site or are already searching for an agency partner to assist, you’ll need a thorough idea of what the process involves.

The experts at specialist ecommerce agency, Xigen, have pulled together a checklist of the most important things you will need to consider when planning a site migration.

What are the rewards of replatforming or migrating?

In an ever-changing online landscape, customers have increasing expectations and an incredible breadth of choice, meaning what you offer needs to hit the mark immediately.

To satisfy your customers, you must always consider their experience on your site. Are you providing the best possible user journey? According to data from Xigen, 73% of consumers say customer experience (CX) is very important in their purchasing decisions and a massive 60% of people would be unlikely to return to a website with a bad user experience.

Keeping up with the requirements of your online customers is a huge consideration when deciding whether it’s time for change. If you’re hoping for business growth, but your current platform is restricting the number of products you can display, you have slow loading pages, or the shopping cart isn’t meeting requirements, you’ll be unable to scale.

These are limitations for any business website, but especially for enterprise-level companies hoping to increase their reach into fresh markets across the globe. If you’re having trouble with basic elements such as product display – how can you expect to perform effective transcreation and tailor your site to the needs of all the international audiences you’re hoping to attract?

If executed properly, the impact of your migration could be hugely successful. Not only can migration have a significant impact on organic traffic and users, it can also increase organic ranking, site speed, revenue, and orders.

For example, Xigen replatformed the website of Jackson’s Art Supplies to a customised Magento platform and implemented several development changes. The statistics show the site experienced:

• +189% increase in website users
• + 178% increase in website revenue
• +167% increase in website orders
• +151% increase in organic traffic

Increases in website users and organic traffic are clearly an indication of a successful replatform project, but it’s the heightened orders and revenue that prove its value.

Regardless of the reasons for your site migration, you need have clear objectives from the outset that will help you set and manage expectations. Planning such a complex project can span several months so a project plan is imperative to the success of your migration or replatforming.

The success of your migration or replatform of your website first hinges on a thorough plan and is then coupled with the expert execution of the work.

Common pitfalls include poor strategy, poor planning, and late involvement, so it’s vital to have the process thought out all the way through from pre-launch to post-launch. The value of a successful ecommerce website migration or replatform is clear, however cutting corners could cost your business – so it pays to commit time, finances and quality resources.

Want to learn more about this topic?

You can view and download an infographic on the topic here -> Xigen – Migrating your Ecommerce Site Infographic (1) (1)