A Guide to E-Commerce Replatforming

Moving forward with replatforming an e-commerce site is one of the biggest decisions a retail brand will ever make. Not only is it a significant financial investment, but it's also a time-consuming process that's going to test the patience of your organization, from the executive team to IT to marketing and so on. To help retailers make the migration to a new e-commerce platform as seamless (and painless) as possible, a panel of retail technology experts — Jason Allerding, information systems manager for Parts-Express; Pinny Gniswich, executive vice president of business development at Delmar Jewelry; and Vivek Saxena, chief marketing officer and senior vice president of e-commerce, VISAX — offered their tips in a session this week at the eTail East conference in Philadelphia.

Why Replatform?
Jason Allerding: If there are extenuating factors that necessitate a change. These can include security issues, lack of performance, the platform has reached the end of its life (i.e., there's no longer support for it), issues with customer experience (e.g., it's not mobile optimized, category navigation needs to revamped, keyword search is broken).

Vivek Saxena: You might need functionality now that wasn't important when the original site was launched — e.g., a gift registry, blog. Another possibility is that there's been a change in leadership, and it wants to eliminate in-house IT and move to SaaS platform.

Pinny Gniswich: You need to examine sunken costs vs. opportunity costs. Sunken costs include the time, money and energy spent on your current platform; opportunity costs are the immediate costs of not replatforming. If your opportunity costs outweigh your sunken costs (and in most cases it will), then consider replatforming. Keep in mind, however, that the more capabilities and customization that you request in your new platform, the higher the price will go.

When to Look
PG: Don't get to the point where you "have to" replatform. Then you're picking through pain. I've always been told it's better to shop when you don't need it. And don't fall into the trap of GMOOT (get me one of those). This often happens when a C-level exec or marketer returns from an industry trade show and has their eyes set on that shiny new object. Your decision needs to be based on return on investment, not having all these new functionalities that won't necessarily move the needle.

VS: When there's a change in your business that your current site is incapable of handling — e.g., the introduction of thousands of new SKUs. Retailers need to keep in mind that a new platform won't solve all their problems. I'd say, on average, it will probably solve 70 percent of your current problems, but create 30 percent new problems.

JA: If there are issues with the core functionality of your site — e.g., a security issue. Consumers aren't going to continue coming to a site if they don't trust it.

The Vetting Process
JA: Get all your key stakeholders together and identify what are your current platform's pain points and where you want to be in a year. You can filter the conversation down to the features and functionalities you would like for the new platform to possess, prioritizing what's most important. It's important that your company stays on course with what it truly wants because you're going to be talking with multiple vendors. Furthermore, talk to other retailers who have worked with more than one platform.

PG: Identify what's your Rolls-Royce platform, matching up features with the value they offer to your business. This exercise will help you identify what's a "must have" in a new platform and what's a "nice to have." Plan on making enemies within your company — at least for a short period of time.
When done with your internal evaluation, you can begin to narrow down your list of potential vendors, schedule site visits with remaining candidates and begin to get quotes. You also want to get references from any potential partner. Call these references, but also call people not on their list to get the full truth.

VS: Spend a significant amount of time (can be up to six months) researching the various platforms — e.g., what plug-ins do they accept, what functionalities do they offer, etc.

Measuring Success
VS: It's analogous to having surgery: it's likely there will be short-term pain, but long-term gain. Look at what Marks & Spencer is going through right now. Consider keeping the same design at first to ease consumers into the transition. Changes can be made over time. You also don't want to shut off your old platform the minute you turn your new one live. Have a backup plan in place.

JA: Some of the things you want to be tracking after going live are traffic (you're likely to see a small dip), organic search traffic (i.e., how is the site handling SEO), redirects on product detail pages. Basically, is the site performing like you want it to. I advise load testing before switching the flip to live.

PG: You need to have patience; it's not going to transform your business overnight. It's going to take some time for customers to get used to the new site, especially your best customers.

Timing
PG: Plan for the entire project taking 20 percent to 40 percent longer than your initial forecast. And consider giving a pre-mortem — think of all the worst-case scenarios that could occur, and deal with them before they happen.

VS: Look at the seasonality of your business and find the slowest months. You also need to manage expectations, particularly of your C-level execs. There are going to be hiccups along the way and work that needs to be done after migration.

JA: Manage the process. Identify one person, usually your IT director, to spearhead the project and interface with the vendor. Keep the project scope in mind at all times.