The Hidden Cost of Re-Platforming 

Re-platforming is a crucial decision to make for your online business. It is the process by which an e-commerce site moves from one platform to another in hopes of gaining more sales and adding new features. Re-platforming can provide many benefits to your e-commerce site, but if not done properly, it can inadvertently affect your online sales.

Re-platforming projects are often prompted or pushed for as a response to dwindling sales. Many times, triggered by the marketing department or by the simple desire to have a more up-to-date on modern look.

When considering a re-platforming initiative there are many points to consider, such as the stability of the current platform versus new features and designs of the new platform. Often a re-platforming is not triggered by a return on investment (ROI) calculation where a study could be done on how much incremental sales can be gained by new features or a better user interface (UI). This is mostly because re-platforming projects are always thought out as projects that will be completed without any interruptions to business continuity, which is completely false.

But mostly, during the development and design of the new platform core, important business rules and logics do not get properly imported into the new system given that most of the focus is around redesign and new features. 

Here are some of the guidelines for not falling into the pitfall of re-platforming:

1. A shiny new website is never the answer. A re-platform project should only arise because there is a problem to solve, such as outgrowing the capabilities of the current platform.


2. Locate the root cause for falling or dwindling sales. It's not common but look at competition, product, and audience engagement.


3. If you know there are feature sets missing from your current platform that could drive sales and increase revenues do an ROI analysis.


4. Do your re-platforming into phases. Phase 1 should always be replicating exactly what you have. This is not popular as multiple want to do everything altogether, but you send the risk of missing a lot of things that are the results of years of operating your current platform.

Before deciding on a new platform, make sure to identify the needs of your e-commerce site and understand the capabilities of your current platform to help you make an informed and successful decision for your online business.