Ecommerce Replatforming: When and Why It Fails

Introduction: Replacing Your E-commerce Platform Can Be a Risky Decision

E-commerce replatforming is marketed as the “reset” button or fresh start for an online retailer. A new e-commerce solution generally offers:

• Increased performance
• Greater flexibility
• Faster time to market for new features and functionality
• Lower overall cost to operate in the future

However, the reality is that many e-commerce replatformings will fail to deliver the anticipated benefits. There are some obvious failures: when a site goes down, it places a work stoppage on earnings, and/or experiences a sudden loss of authority with search engines and online visitors. Other failures are less obvious, take longer to develop, and pose a longer-term threat to your bottom line. For example: lower velocity for changing products and prices, increased operating costs, and/or reduced productivity associated with maintaining a cumbersome platform that feels the same way as the previous one.

Often, the reason for a failed replatforming is not due to the technology itself, but rather because e-commerce organisations do not understand when to pursue replatforming, what the true purpose of the replatforming is, and what level of complexity they are taking on as a result of the change.

This blog will cover the following:

• When it makes sense to pursue an e-commerce replatforming
• Common pitfalls in an e-commerce replatforming process
• Technical, operational,l and organisational pitfalls
• Minimising the risk of failure if you have no option but to replatform

If you

The Replatforming of a Business is a Multi-Faceted Approach to a Total Digital Business Transformation.

There are many ways to think about replatforming, such as:

Changing from a traditional monolithic environment to a modern SaaS solution for your entire business.

Migrating your company from a traditional SaaS based environment to Headless system solutions or custom eCommerce platforms.

Upgrading to a full enterprise eCommerce solution.

Redesigning and developing the Frontend and Backend of your eCommerce platform, or both.

Replatforming is more than just a technical migration. The process will also impact marketing, operations, customer experience, and ultimately revenue for your company.

When Does Replatforming Make Sense?

Not all pain points warrant a need for replatforming.

Generally, the replatforming process is the right move when the current platform has:

Inability to support required business models.

Restriction on performance, scalability, or other attributes.

Inability to integrate with a company’s core systems.

Inability to produce product development velocity and speed.

Long-term costs that are a function of platform inefficiencies vs actual business need.

Using the above criteria, the following triggers are commonly valid reasons to consider moving to a new platform:

A rapidly growing business exposes the limits of the architecture.

B2B, Subscription, and Marketplace opportunities that your company is expanding into.

Increased demand for Internationalization and multiple regions of commerce.

Headless or Composable Architectural Systems.

When replatforming, the goals must be to eliminate Structural Problems and NOT Cosmetic Ones.

Doing the Wrong Replatforming

Unfortunately, most eCommerce teams will make the mistake of moving to a new eCommerce platform for the wrong reasons.

Common Examples of Wrong Reasons for Replatforming:

Being dissatisfied with the user experience because of front-end issues that can be fixed by changing the user experience.

Experiencing performance problems due to poor website optimization, and not because of platform limitations.

Experiencing feature gaps that can be resolved through better Architecture or Integrated via interfaces with third parties.

Replatforming is often used as a substitute method for:

Tackling your Technical Debt.

Improving your Processes.

Better ownership of Product Development.

This is how you know Replatforming is going to fail.

The Most Common Reasons for Replatforming Failures Include:

1. Replatforming without understanding business outcomes.

When a team switches platforms, it often lacks the following definitions of success:

Successful Replatforming includes:

The Definition of Success

The KPIs That Will Increase.

The Connection Between Business Goals and How The Criteria Support Their Business Goals.

With No Defined Outcomes, Teams Experience:

Longer Timelines

Scope Creep

Disappointment With Results.

An eCommerce platform by itself does not create value.

2. Data Migration Complexity is Underestimated

One of the most underestimated risks when replatforming is Data Migration.

E-commerce Data Includes:

Product Catalogs;

Customer Accounts;

Order Histories;

Pricing Rules; and

SEO Metadata.

The Impact Of Poor Data Migration Causes:

Disruption To The Customer Experience.

Historical Data Loss

Inconsistent Reporting

SEO Damages.

When Performing A Successful Platform Migration, It Is Important That Data Migration Is Treated As A Major Workstream, Rather Than A Task On A Checklist.

3. SEO And Traffic Loss During The Replatforming Process

SEO Loss Is The Most Visible Failure During A Replatforming Effort.

Some Of The Common Reasons For An Immediate Drop In SEO Are:

Changes In URL Structure

Missing redirects;

Missing SEO Metadata

Performance Regressions

Search Engines Will Not Care If You Changed Platforms Or Not.

Due To The Lack Of SEO Planning, Teams See A:

Abrupt Drop In Search Rankings.

A Few Months Of Declining Traffic

Revenue Losses During Recovery.

SEO Preservation Processes Should Be In Place Prior To Migration.

4. Platform Feature Parity Assumptions

Many Teams Make The Assumption That A New Platform Will “Do Everything An Old Platform Did But Better.”

This Is A Damaging Assumption.

Different Platforms Have:

Strengths; and

Limitations; and

Architectural Trade-Offs; and

Gaps/Weaknesses In A Completely Customized/optimized Solution (E.G., From A Legacy Custom System To A SaaS (e.g., Shopify Plus or BigCommerce)); often create gaps in:

Custom Pricing Logic

Checkout Flexibility

Back-End Workflow Processes.

Most Failures Occur WhenOver-Customizing the New Platform

The irony of replatforming failure is that new platforms will fail to deliver value when an organization attempts to recreate the full function and features of the previous system as closely as possible.

Leads to:

• Excessive Customization
• Plug-ins, Sprawl
• Poor Performance
• Update Difficulty

As opposed to simplifying their business through the use of newer technology, businesses that try to overcome these barriers often find themselves creating a new layer of complexity upon the foundation of a new platform.

By attempting to solve a business issue rather than following the process of simplifying their business operations, the entire process of re-platforming has no real value.

6. Ignoring Integrations and Downstream Systems

Ecommerce Systems don’t generally exist in isolation and are designed to be integrated with other systems:

ERP Systems, CRM Platforms, Inventory Management and Fulfillment Systems, Marketing and Analytic Systems.

Many times, companies lead to failed re-platforming efforts because:

• They ignore integrations and treat them as an afterthought
• Incorrect assumptions about the data sync
• Ignoring the potential for latency and failure scenarios
• Operational chaos resulting from an incomplete or broken integration creates chaos, even if the storefront looks good.

7. Cheerleading

Many, if not all, of the reasons for the failure of a replatforming project are due to being overly optimistic. Generally speaking, replatforming efforts always take longer to complete than anticipated.

The most common reasons companies experience a longer-than-planned replatforming project are:

• Scope Creep
• Unexpected Data Issues
• Customization Needs
• Stakeholder Alignments

When Timelines Compress:

• QA Suffers
• Launch Quality Suffers
• The Team Experiences New Technical Debt
• Additionally, the number one reason for the failure of re-platforming is rush projects.

8. Inadequate Testing and QA.

When companies rush to meet their launch dates, they often sacrifice testing the product. Re-platforms touch many areas, and not all these areas should be covered during testing.

Therefore, the potential of insufficient QA leads to:

• Bugs Impacting Revenue
• Building Customer Trust Issues
• Creating Emergency Rollbacks

Inadequate QA prior to launching guarantees the company will have a very unstable product after launch.

Organizational Issues Leading to Failures of a Replatforming Effort.

Lack of Ownership

Replatforming efforts require the involvement of multiple companies:

Engineering, Operations, Marketing, Finance.

Without a clear assignment of ownership, decision-making is stalled, and no one is accountable for their actions.
Misalignment between engineering and business creates friction between the two groups, since business units expect quick results, and engineering departments understand the complexity of getting there.

As a result of this disconnect, you may see:

An uncontrollable increase in scope

Inadequately communicated trade-offs between elements

Uncertainty around what the launch criteria are

To be successful, businesses must align their goals and objectives.

Change Management and Adoption Issues

A replatformed application can technically be “successful,” but may actually fail to be adopted by clients and/or merchants if:

New workflows are not embraced by your internal teams.

New tools are not embraced by your merchant clients.

Change management training is inadequate.

Adoption is just as critical as the architecture of the replatform.

Replatforming Risks – SaaS v. Custom Replatforming

Replatforming with SaaS eliminates most of the infrastructure responsibilities, but creates:

A SaaS platform will put constraints on your infrastructure

Vendor lock-in

Limited ability to customize

Many teams fail with SaaS because they assume that just because it is a SaaS platform, it will be flexible.

Replatforming with Custom Solutions

Custom-built platforms allow for total control but require that you:

Define your architectural boundaries

Have a robust engineering discipline

Maintain the solution over time

Many teams fail with custom replatforming because they do not understand the long-term cost of ownership.

When Replatforming Headless Ecommerce Fails

Many make the assumption that headless eCommerce is the safest replatforming strategy, but it can fail due to:

A team lacking frontend skills in building apps and user interfaces.

API performance that has not been optimized.

The increase in operational complexity of the solution comes at a faster rate than your growth.

Both good and bad decisions get exaggerated by the headless architecture.

How to Minimize the Risk of eCommerce Replatforming Failure

Successful teams follow similar principles that can help in reducing the risk of eCommerce replatforming failure:

Clearly defined business outcomes.

Honest assessment of the limitations of the current eCommerce platform.

Prioritize search engine optimization (SEO) and data migration.

Limit customization to the minimum required to achieve your desired outcome.

Make sure to spend a considerable amount of time on testing and quality assurance.

When possible, roll out the replatform in incremental steps.

Remember: Replatforming is not a “magic” button to push to reset the business; it is an evolutionary process.

When to Put Replatforming on Hold

Consider waiting on replatforming if:

Most of the issues you are having are operational and not technical in nature.

Some of the performance issues can be optimized.

The feature gaps are not currently blocking your growth.

Independent teams are aligned on the same goals.

Often, the best option is to solve what is in front of you first.

Final Takeaway: Replatforming Is a Strategic Decision, Not a Reset Button

Replatforming an e-commerce platform can be one of the most expensive and risky investments a business can make.

The cost of failure results when teams view replatforming as:

A cosmetic upgrade.

A shortcut to accelerate growth.

A purely technical project.

Success occurs when teams view replatforming as a strategic transformation that has a clearly defined outcome, carefully defined scope, and strong execution.

The amount of time and effort spent on project planning is one of the differences between success and failure when it comes to eCommerce replatforming.

At Logiciel Solutions, we assist eCommerce leaders with determining if a replatform is really needed, and when necessary, designing migration strategies that minimize risk. Our AI-first engineering team focuses on robust architecture, data integrity, performance, and long-term scalability versus simply launch dates. If you believe that your eCommerce platform is the “problem,” stop and think about it for a moment before replacing it. There may be an underlying issue, and it may not be the platform itself.

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