Top Challenges in eCommerce Platform Migration and How to Overcome Them

Replatforming your established, successfully running website isn’t just an everyday task. It’s complex and needs careful practice. When you migrate a website that’s already serving loads of visitors and customers, you need to make sure there are no hiccups or bad user experiences even for a minute.
However strong the eCommerce migration challenges might be, it doesn’t shun the need and benefits of migration:

• Improved customer experience and enhanced platform security
• Increased sales and revenue with a better-performing website
• Future-proofing your store as per changing customer needs and trends
• Decreased costs and increased savings with cost-effective hosting and plans
• Improved efficiency on a platform that properly integrates systems
• Increased scalability to handle increased traffic well, e.g. on cloud hosting

So, there will be eCommerce migration challenges, but you can tackle them with knowledge and caution.
In this guide, we’ll help you understand what practices can hamper your migration process and what you must do instead.

eCommerce Migration Challenges – Points That Can Hamper Your Experience

With its own set of challenges, eCommerce migration can feel exhausting. Here are some of the pain points:

Data Migration and Privacy

There’s always a chance for things to go wrong while transferring data from one platform to another. Any technical error that causes customer and platform data to corrupt can be an eCommerce migration challenge.

Website Downtime

Replatforming can cause website downtimes and disruptions. These hiccups can hamper your customer’s experience with your online store.

SEO Traffic and Rankings

Migration can improve your customer experience but can impact your SEO rankings. If you do not manage your SEO practices well, you might lose your website’s traffic and rankings.

Third-Party Integrations

Any third-party tool or API integrations can come up as eCommerce migration challenges. These integrations can be payment gateways, ERP systems, and marketing tools.

Design and Customer Experience

When you shift your content to a new platform, you might face the challenge of maintaining the old design and layout. If this design is popular among your customers, then tweaking it is not a great idea.

Expertise and Resource Allocation

If your team and resources are not trained to handle re-platforming, it can be one of the biggest eCommerce migration challenges.
You can check eCommerce Migration KPIs to experience a smooth re-platforming process.

Best Practices for eCommerce Migration - Checklist for a Smooth Experience

Just keep this checklist by your side throughout your migration process.

Select your Perfect New Platform

The first step to beat eCommerce migration challenges is investing time in your research. Find out which eCommerce platform and hosting can suit your goals the best. Learn about its costs, fees, scalability, offers, support, and update practices.

Utilize your Resources Well

Replatforming can be a tiring task. If you allocate your resources well, your teams will get better organization. The result is faster and better migration.

Plan Thoroughly, Plan Efficiently

Planning makes things easier. Create your project plan, strategize success metrics, and plan how you will tackle eCommerce migration challenges whenever they occur during the process.

Create Data Backups

Having backups of your website’s data and customer information is a smart practice. Besides, clean your data and get rid of unwanted files.

Careful and Phased Migration

Experts suggest performing migration in a phased manner – bits by bits, pages by pages. Avoid peak hours and re-platform your online store in a slow yet carefully planned manner.

Keep Your SEO Intact

To prevent losing your rankings and traffic, follow planned SEO practices. For instance, you can review your store, find duplicate pages and remove them. Similarly, go for 301 redirects for new URLs to maintain the old URL’s page authority.
Here’s everything you need to know about eCommerce SEO Migration Checklist: Essential Steps for a Successful Platform Switch.

Check Third-Party Compatibility

Research third-party tools that are compatible with your new platform. Contact the vendor of these tools if there’s any lag. We also suggest extensive API testing to make sure integrations will not create eCommerce migration challenges.

Keep Good Designs, Modify Bad Ones

If your old designs were working great, make sure your new platform follow the same layout. In case there’s any modification is needed, go for thorough research on what your target audience wants to see.
In the end, make sure you complete your migration process within your budget and without affecting the quality of your service.