February 6, 2024
Does the eCommerce platform you’ve been using for10-15 years start looking and feeling outdated? Is your eCommerce website taking more than 5 seconds to load? It’s time to consider replatforming. In today’s competitive market, investing in a strong eCommerce solution and migrating from legacy platforms to clouds is the best way to stay in the game.
This is not always the easiest job. You need to factor in risks like losing data on the way or the new platform not being able to accommodate some of the old functionalities. Generally, a good bespoke eCommerce software system will give you the peace of mind you need, and if you thoroughly plan and monitor the data migration, you won’t come across critical issues. Follow the steps on our list below, and you will soon enjoy your new platform.
Replatforming or platforming migration means shifting from one technical system to another. Among the most common reasons why eCommerce businesses migrate their data are the need for more performant technology, scalability as the business grows, or cost reduction. For most online stores, replatforming means moving to a third party or developing a new eCommerce solution by working with a customised software development company.
At CodePixi, we have a long experience in assisting our customers with platform migration, whether it involves migrating their data to a new eCommerce platform, a CRM orERP system we built for them, or simply transferring their on-premises activity to a cloud. Here are the steps to follow for a safe migration – we recommend this strategy to all our customers.
Before getting your data ready for dispatch, set a meeting with all the stakeholders of your organisation to discuss your strategy. You have two options:
- either choose an off-the-shelf software solution – take your time to check all the options out there and request a demo to see to what degree it matches your business needs.
- or go for a bespoke eCommerce platform fully tailored to your organisation’s needs. Get in touch with our custom software development team in London for more details on how we can help you with a personalised eCommerce system.
Keeping your old data safe is essential. No matter how confident you are in the success of the migration, this is your online business we are talking about, so you cannot afford to lose all the information you’ve collected in years. Back up your data and keep your old platform working until the data migration is complete.
If you have no experience with replatforming, you can use a data migration service. CodePixi can handle migration completely, with accuracy, and in full safety, making sure that all the data is transferred to the new platform. We can also assist you in determining which data is essential for your new system and which is no longer necessary.
Now that you have everything backed up, it’s time for the actual replatforming process. Data migration can be made in stages if you are running a complex business. It basically involves transferring all the info regarding your customers, products, and orders to your new website. If you have outsourced this task to a specialised team, you can sit back and relax until everything is ready.
It is important to check that the migration hasn’t affected your online presence and authority, so before launching your new platform, make sure to perform a detailed SEO audit. Optimise both on and off-page content on your website and redirect the traffic from your old platform to the new one. This way, older customers will find it easier to locate you when they search for you on Google or type in your old website’s address.
This is not always the most engaging job, but it is important not to skip it. Before launching your new platform, you must make sure everything works as expected on both sides. This means that you need to spend time testing every page, button, and form. Check that your site loads fast and is easy to use by customers.
Things should also work smoothly for your employees. Check if the system registers new orders, if the chat function works, and if there are no bugs when it comes to uploading new products. If you encounter any issues, now it’s time to address them.
If everything looks fine, you are ready to launch. Perform a few more tests at this stage, as well, to make sure that the live pages are working as expected. From this point forward, you will need to track analytics to see how you can improve your customers’ experience.
The final step, and one of the most important, is to let your loyal customers know where they can find you. You could send each of the man email letting them know that you switched to a new home or make an announcement on social media. Make sure to include a link to your new platform and encourage them to register or log in.
Investing in custom eCommerce software and handling the data migration is an important step in keeping your business performant. Therefore, you don’t want to do this operation in a haste. Take your time to research as many options as possible and reach out to a specialist if it seems like a task you don’t have the knowledge or experience to handle. When everything is ready, invite your customers to discover the new site and enjoy with them the advantages brought to your business by the new technology.
