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Is It Time For an E-Commerce Migration?

There are many reasons why you might be considering whether to migrate your e-commerce store to a new platform. Maybe your existing platform is old and outdated, not keeping up with the latest e-commerce features and functionality. Site speed and performance issues could be keeping your website from ranking in search engines. Or a cumbersome back-end control panel makes updating your website too time-consuming.

Though migrating your online store to a new platform won’t come without challenges, there are many potential benefits. Let’s look at the reasons it may be time for an e-commerce migration and why it may be worth it in the end.

Signs It’s Time to Migrate

Your Current Platform is Limiting Your Growth

Is it difficult to add new products or update prices on existing products? Does your platform make it near impossible to change out content like seasonal banners without a developer? In order to grow your business, you need to be able to easily keep your website updated. If your platform makes everyday tasks time-consuming or hard to accomplish, it may be time to migrate your e-commerce store to a new platform.

Poor Performance or Speed Issues

If your website isn’t fast to load, you’re losing sales – it’s that simple. People expect online shopping to be convenient, and a big part of that is being able to quickly find and purchase the item they want. Your e-commerce website pages need to load fast, especially on mobile where most online shopping happens these days.

But beyond the user experience, a slow website can negatively impact your organic search rankings. Google and other search engines take site speed into account when determining which websites to rank highly. If your website is sluggish due to server issues that your current solution isn’t fixing, an e-commerce migration may be necessary.

Lack of Integrations or Outdated Features

To keep up with the big players in ecommerce, your website needs to have the functionality that today’s online shoppers demand. A good e-commerce platform should have a full suite of features and give you plenty of choices for 3rd party apps and integrations. Category filters, subscriptions, rewards programs and financing options are just a few things you might be struggling to implement if your platform has fallen behind.

The Benefits of Migrating Your Online Store

Access to New Features

Migrating your e-commerce website to a new platform can unlock features that you didn’t have access to before. Just by implementing advanced features, you can almost immediately improve your conversion rate and sales. For example, adding filters to your category and search pages can make it faster and easier for shoppers to find the product they want. Offering “buy now pay later” financing might reduce buyer hesitation for products with a higher price tag. An improved search app can benefit customers who prefer searching to browsing. Improved features can directly benefit sales, making your e-commerce migration worth the cost.

Better SEO Capabilities

The ability to generate ongoing organic traffic is essential for every e-commerce website. Search engines are still where many shoppers start, so ranking high is critical for long term success. A new platform may offer better SEO capabilities, such as the ability to optimize your URL structure, add meta tags for your pages or utilize integrated AI tools for optimizing your product descriptions.

Improved User Experience

A new platform may also improve your user experience, which can lead to higher sales and customer satisfaction. Beyond things like site speed or functionality, the new platform may give you better control over website content. Being able to update your homepage with seasonal banners, quickly feature new or trending products, and tweak page layouts based on customer feedback are all benefits you might gain from a better e-commerce platform.

Scalability for Growth

As your business grows, it may require different functionality. For example, you may realize there’s an untapped market in B2B sales. Or you might determine there’s a niche market you could spin off into a separate storefront. Expanding into international markets might be how you find new customers. A new e-commerce platform might have tools and features that you give you the opportunity to scale as your business grows.

Key Considerations Before You Migrate Your E-Commerce Website

Cost, Time, and Potential Downtime

The two biggest considerations when migrating your online store to a new platform are time and cost. A well-executed ecommerce migration is rarely going to be cheap or quick. But that doesn’t mean it should take forever or have an exorbitant price tag. Creating a detailed plan before starting the migration process will help you avoid lengthy delays or going over budget. You’ll also want to minimize downtime so that the migration doesn’t negatively impact sales.

Ensuring Data Integrity and SEO Preservation

When planning an e-commerce migration, it’s critical to ensure that your data comes over properly and you don’t lose organic rankings. You can reduce the chance of data loss and rankings with a few key steps. Start by doing a full audit of your products and content so that nothing is missed in the transition. Make sure that you have set aside enough time for testing and review before launching on your new platform. Implement 301 redirects to avoid dead links after the switch, and don’t forget to submit a new sitemap to search engines once you’ve launched.

Conclusion & Next Steps

Now that we’ve reviewed the reasons and benefits of an e-commerce migration, ask yourself – is it time to migrate your online store to a new platform? Think about where your business is now, and where you’d like it to be next year. Is your current platform up to the task? If not, make a list of your current issues and start evaluating new platforms and their ability to solve your challenges.

Not sure which is the best e-commerce platform for your business? Schedule a free platform consultation today.

If you’ve already selected a new platform, download my E-Commerce Migration Checklist below for a step-by-step guide to a successful transition.

Need help with your migration to BigCommerce? Contact me for a free quote.


Get Your FREE E-Commerce Migration Checklist

This essential step-by-step migration guide will help you minimize disruptions and set yourself up for long-term success. Complete the form below to receive the PDF by email.
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