SHOULD YOU RE-PLATFORM YOUR ECOMMERCE?

By: Bret Williams

For various valid reasons, we have been getting a lot of inquiries from merchants considering changes to their eCommerce system. I say “system,” because today’s eCommerce is more than just an online storefront. Most merchants are selling on Amazon, eBay or other channels in addition to their website. B2B businesses are exploring ways of integrating with their resellers, as well.

In addition, many small and medium sized merchants — both B2C and B2B — who are currently using Magento as a platform are facing tough decisions relating to upgrading to Magento 2: is Magento 2 worth the expense given that it’s not a “one-click” upgrade, but, rather, a completely new installation?

YOU’RE NOT ALONE

According to a survey by Internet Retailer in October, 2016, 89% of merchants asked were either currently or planning to re-platform within the next two years. That’s a lot of changing!

The primary reason for considering a re-platforming is to add more features and functionality, increase user interaction (particularly mobile), and improve integrations with selling channels, back-office operations and reporting. As the online field has become even more competitive, it’s important for merchants to continue innovating — both products and technology.

Undoubtedly, you’ve read in news media of the many, many brick-and-mortar stores that are closing. Traditional retailers have not been able to innovate well enough to keep those channels profitable. The same fortune could hit online merchants if they adhere to the “build-it-once” mentality. Today’s retail and wholesale industries are evolving at a dizzying pace, and only those merchants willing to constantly review and revise their merchandising operations will survive.

A PHILOSOPHY FOR CHANGE

First, let me say that not all merchants need complete overhaul changes. Often times, we find that new clients who are perplexed by a decline in sales or other under-performance simply need some tweaks to their eCommerce system. It might be an additional integration, the creation and management of a targeted marketing campaign, or a design “facelift” to improve conversions.

But, the determination as to whether change at any scale is necessary is based on a 4-step philosophy we’ve honed from over 20 years of experience.

1. COMMERCE UNIFICATION

Today’s merchants are using multiple selling channels, integrated fulfillment operations, inventory tracking, accounting, social media and PPC marketing, and on and on. Too many are relying solely on their storefront platform (e.g. Magento, Shopify, BigCommerce, etc.) to act as the central “hub” for all this activity. Yet, none of these platforms truly perform this function well. If you add more complexity to Magento, for instance, the system slows down and becomes more and more expensive to maintain. Shopify and BigCommerce are SaaS platforms; any additional functionality comes by way of third-party add-ons which may or may not play nicely with other add-ons or deliver the level of sophistication required to run a growing online business.

We prefer to unify all commerce into a singular backend platform — one that can consolidate orders from all channels, maintain the inventory “master,” and coordinate shipments, returns and stock ingests. We call this Commerce Unification, a term I coined several years ago. Using a central system to tie everything together, your online store becomes just one more selling channel like Amazon or Walmart. You’re now bringing into one tool all the key data and transactions across your entire operation.

Read More >> https://www.novusweb.com/should-you-re-platform-your-ecommerce/