E-commerce landscapes and consumer preferences are in a perpetual state of evolution. It is imperative for online retailers to remain aligned with the most effective strategies to cater to their clientele. As your digital storefront matures, you may find that your current e-commerce platform no longer aligns with your evolving priorities and requirements.
An e-commerce infrastructure that fails to meet your business needs can impede growth, drain resources, and diminish the customer experience. A platform migration could be the catalyst for elevating your online business to the next level. This transition can enhance cost-effectiveness and introduce new functionalities, fostering business prosperity.
A platform migration involves transferring your online store and its associated data from one e-commerce platform to another, aiming for enhanced performance or increased cost-efficiency.
As your business scales and diversifies, you may opt for a Magento migration to gain greater control over your website, or opt for a Shopify or BigCommerce migration to minimize maintenance and development costs. The process of transferring data such as product descriptions, pricing, order history, transactions, and customer records to another e-commerce platform is complex, costly, and fraught with challenges and risks. While many businesses may prefer to avoid a platform migration, many are compelled to replatform to foster business growth.
As your business solidifies, it requires new infrastructure to realize its full potential. An e-commerce platform that provides subpar solutions to your current challenges can stifle growth and lead to lost revenue. The emergence of new features, sales channels, and shifts in the e-commerce market can also necessitate a change.
Several factors can prompt businesses to migrate to another e-commerce platform, including cost reduction, increased functionality, and improved business performance. We will delve deeper into the reasons behind platform migration below:
An expanding business may face inefficiencies due to an excessive number of product offerings, increased order volumes, customer accounts, transactions, and sales, placing a strain on the platform. Your current platform might lack the scalability to manage this overload, leading to slow site performance, poor customer experience, and decreased conversion rates, sales, and revenue.
To manage the influx of new data, growing businesses must migrate to more scalable e-commerce infrastructure. A platform migration is essential for handling large-scale transactions, preventing site crashes during peak traffic, and avoiding slow load times to enhance website performance and user experience.
Cost reduction is a significant driver of platform migrations. Many businesses replatform to lower their overall infrastructure and operational costs, particularly those on open-source platforms. While open-source platforms have minimal licensing or subscription fees, businesses must bear the costs of hosting, maintaining, upgrading, and securing their websites, leading many to opt for hosted or software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms for efficiency.
Deciding on a Magento to Shopify or BigCommerce migration involves higher subscription fees, but the business can save money due to the SaaS model’s comprehensive handling of hosting and maintenance.
As your business expands and becomes more intricate, you will require new or different features and functionalities to sustain growth. Different e-commerce platforms offer varying degrees of built-in features and functionalities to streamline business operations.
Some systems provide extensive built-in features, like native integrations to Amazon Sales Channels, while others offer a more streamlined approach, allowing for seamless integration of multiple third-party apps to customize the experience.
Businesses may choose to migrate to platforms with more built-in functionalities to simplify their e-commerce infrastructure or opt for a migration that supports numerous third-party integrations, creating a tailored website to meet specific needs.
Today’s e-commerce platforms offer a range of solutions to cater to diverse business needs. Some platforms excel in reliability and ease of use, while others shine in extensibility and customizability, or provide the most cost-effective subscription plans.
To make the right e-commerce platform migration decision for your business, consider factors such as the platform’s native feature set, extensibility, ease of use, and total cost of ownership. Analyzing these factors will help identify the ideal platform for your business needs.
Magento, Shopify, and BigCommerce are three of the most prominent e-commerce platforms. We will help you determine which of these popular service providers can address your business challenges.
Magento is an open-source e-commerce platform with minimal subscription fees, but businesses must manage the technical aspects, including hosting and maintenance. For businesses generating over $5 million in annual revenue, a Magento migration offers unlimited flexibility and customization, providing complete control over the e-commerce business. However, replatforming to Magento is not advisable for businesses with less than $5 million in annual revenue due to the potential resource drain.
Shopify, a SaaS e-commerce platform, charges a monthly fee for hosting, maintenance, updates, and security. Shopify is user-friendly and affordable, making it suitable for a wide range of businesses. While it may lack certain native functionalities, it compensates with a vast array of third-party apps. Shopify is ideal for businesses with simple product catalogs and customer groups.
BigCommerce, also a SaaS platform, straddles the line between SaaS and open-source, offering a balance between ease of use and extensibility. Suitable for businesses earning more than $500,000 annually, BigCommerce provides cost advantages over Shopify and Magento, offering substantial monthly savings.
Coalition Technologies, a core Shopify and BigCommerce partner and a top Magento partner, has assisted numerous brands in selecting the ideal e-commerce platform for their needs. Contact us at (310) 905-8646 to discover how we can help you identify the perfect platform and safely migrate your data to another e-commerce infrastructure.
