Enterprise Ecommerce Replatforming Checklist

Are you considering replatforming your B2B eCommerce website? Certainly a hefty task—especially if you’ve accumulated years of customer data on your current platform. That said, if you want to take full advantage of advances in technology, replatforming is unavoidable. 

Many eCommerce businesses start on a platform that offers basic features and performance. With time, you may notice your eCommerce platform slowing down. It may also lack new essential features and have limited functionality, which ultimately translates to the loss of potential revenue for your business. 
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To keep up with technology and improve customer experience, it’s necessary to migrate to a platform with smoother performance, more functionality, and greater features. 

‍What Is eCommerce Replatforming?

eCommerce replatforming is when an online store migrates from one technical system to another. 

The process often requires shifting from one third-party eCommerce platform to another. For example, an enterprise may move from Magento to Shopify Plus. 

Occasionally, depending the industry, replatforming involves migrating from an in-house solution to a third-party platform or vice versa. 

Whichever replatforming direction you take, you have to ensure that the new platform integrates with your current tech stack and top-priority plugins as seamlessly as possible. 

When it’s done effectively, replatforming can improve customer experience, stability, and scalability of your eCommerce store. 

What Steps Should I Take to Replatform Like a Pro?

To replatform your eCommerce business like a pro, you need to take several steps. 

Replatforming is a bit like moving into a new house: You need to know exactly what you’re looking for before you begin house hunting. You also have to consider your budget, find a reliable moving company, and carefully pack and label your belongings before moving. 

Without careful planning, the replatforming process can be disastrous. The process might turn out to be more costly than you had anticipated, you may lose customer data, and your site may lose traffic due to decreased SEO ranking. 

However, when done properly, there’s more to gain than lose from replatforming your online business. 

At Pivofy, we believe that eCommerce replatforming doesn’t have to be a nightmare. As a Shopify expert, we’ve successfully helped replatform over 100 eCommerce websites.

We are happy to share the knowledge we’ve gained through the years on how to make your replatforming process as seamless and painless as possible. 

Here’s our simple and effective eCommerce replatforming checklist: 

Step 1: List Your Replatforming Requirements

The first move should be making a list of your requirements. A good place to start is by listing all the reasons you want to migrate. Ask yourself these questions:

• What are the deficiencies in the current system?
• Which features do you need most?
• Which features do you wish to have in the new platform?
• Where do you see your business in the future, and which features will it need?
• What are the skills and capabilities of your team?
• What are the costs involved in replatforming?
  

Your list of requirements may become quite long. Go through the list and rank the requirements by order of importance. 

Use the MoSCoW model to allocate your Must haves, Should haves, Could haves, and Will not haves in terms of requirements. This will help you know what you’re willing to compromise if necessary. 

It’s important to have a realistic evaluation of the process—from the features to expect, the cost implications, and the labor required to complete the task. 

Step 2: Shortlist Suitable eCommerce Platforms

With a keen understanding of why you need to replatform and your requirements for the new system, it's time to search for viable options. This should be fun!

For easy comparison, using a table or spreadsheet, sort the platforms by costs, features, pros, and cons. Compare and rank the platforms according to your needs. 

For B2B businesses, the best eCommerce platforms include Shopify Plus, BigCommerce, WooCommerce B2B, and Oracle SuiteCommerce—just to mention a few. 

Here’s an example of how to table and compare different eCommerce platforms: 

After eliminating some options from a long list, you should remain with a few top contenders. To reach a final decision, you can schedule demos with your top choices. This will give you a better idea of each system’s strengths and weaknesses and suitability for your business. 

With the information you’ve gathered, you can confidently make your final selection. Make sure that your final pick offers you the improvements and features you desire at the best price. 

Step 3: Get Your Team on Board

Get every stakeholder in your team involved in the replatforming process right from the beginning. This will help you avoid misunderstandings about the platform choice and its capabilities. 

Each department of your organization will have to learn how to operate with the new system. Clarify the customizations and integrations required. For this reason, you have to evaluate your entire tech stack to identify where customizations might either be a challenge or get resolved with a new software solution. 

To get each stakeholder on board, you must have a complete picture of how the system will work, the costs involved, and what each party should do. 

Communicate clearly on the timeline and scope of work. You should have the following information:

• Who will migrate your data?
• What costs you the most effort and time to execute?
• What can you automate to save time and resources?
• Which or how many customers, products, and orders need to be replatformed?

Step 4: Design the New Site and Migrate Your Data

Now it’s time to prepare your data for migration. 

The first thing you need to do is backup all your data. In case of errors, you don’t want to lose your precious data. 

At the same time, complete the design of your new site, and get it ready to receive the data. It may be a good idea to retain some of the structure of your old site—but you can also opt for a complete revamp. 

You can either customize downloadable templates and themes or build your site from scratch with a developer. 

Although you can manually migrate your eCommerce data, it makes more sense to hire a data migration service. Pick a service that has a proven track record to migrate your data securely, accurately, and completely. 

If you are migrating to either Shopify or Shopify Plus, Pivofy will be delighted to help. 

Step 5: Test Your New Platform 

With everything in place, it’s time to test your new platform. 

Firstly, connect your checkout platform and optimize the checkout experience for your customers. Your payment system should be secure, fast, and efficient. 

Next, conduct an SEO audit to ensure that you retain as much domain authority as possible after migration. Ensure that you’ve optimized both on and off-page SEO. Additionally, set up redirects to help you retain traffic from your old platform. 

Before launching, test the different key elements of your site over and over to ensure that there are no issues. Test every page, button, form, and feature. Your new site should work even better than the previous one.

When you feel confident that everything is working as it should, you’re ready to launch. You can press “Publish” and start selling from your new platform! 

Expert tip: After launching, run more tests to ensure that the live page is functioning properly. You should correct any errors as soon as possible to minimize the number of customers affected.

Choose Pivofy for Seamless eCommerce Replatforming

Replatforming can be a daunting task. With the risks of losing your data, SEO ranking, and organic traffic, it makes sense to hire experts to handle this delicate process for you. 

If you’re migrating from a legacy platform to Shopify or Shopify Plus, Pivofy is your ideal partner. We’ll take care of everything and make sure that your transition is as seamless as possible. 

Having built more than 100 Shopify websites, we have a keen understanding of how to give you a competitive edge. We’ll build you a B2B eCommerce website that is efficient, scalable, and mobile-friendly. 

We’ll handle all the necessary integrations, third-party apps, inventory and order management platforms, ERPs, and marketing software.

With our commitment to building results-driven websites, we have plenty of happy clients.

Contact our team to become one of Pivofy’s success stories. 

Frequently Asked Questions 

What Is eCommerce Replatforming?

eCommerce replatforming is the process of migrating from one eCommerce platform to another. 

Why Should I Consider eCommerce Replatforming?

You should consider eCommerce replatforming when your current platform is slow, poorly designed, or incapable of meeting your customers’ needs. You should also consider replatforming if the costs of your current system are too high or you’re paying for features you don’t use. 

Which eCommerce Platform Is Best for a B2B Business?

There are many eCommerce platforms for B2B businesses. The best include Shopify Plus, BigCommerce, Oracle SuiteCommerce, WooCommerce B2B, and Magento Commerce for B2B.

How Long Does It Take to Replatform an eCommerce Site?

Typically, it takes anything from eight weeks to over a year to fully replatform an eCommerce site. The complexity and scope determine how long each project will take. 

What Are the Potential Risks of eCommerce Replatforming?

The potential risks of eCommerce replatforming include loss of valuable data, website traffic, and SEO ranking. The process can also turn out to be more expensive than anticipated.