Complete Guide to Ecommerce Platform Migration

Thinking about moving to a new ecommerce platform? You're not alone. Recent survey data indicates that 27% of retailers are looking to switch platforms within the next year, and most are expecting to spend between $25,001 and $500,000 for an ecommerce platform migration.  

Manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors are also focusing on ecommerce platform technology–in another survey, 76% ecommerce professionals who responded said they plan to increase ecommerce technology spending in the next year.   

Not sure where to start with your ecommerce migration? This guide to changing ecommerce platforms offers a straightforward overview of the platform migration process so you can familiarize yourself with the steps and key decisions involved. Written specifically for enterprise ecommerce professionals, this is a comprehensive guide to everything you need to know about kicking off an ecommerce migration project, including an ecommerce migration checklist.  

Click here to download the guide (it’s free!).  

Here’s a taste of what the guide covers:  

What is an Ecommerce Platform Migration?

An ecommerce platform migration (also called ecommerce replatforming or ecommerce migration) is when your business goes through the process of migrating your ecommerce website from one ecommerce platform to another. This involves transferring your website data, content, systems, and integration to another provider.  

Why is an Ecommerce Platform Migration Important?

An ecommerce site migration can help you meet the ever-changing needs of your online business. If you’re looking to improve your website performance, keep the technology and features on your site up-to-date, and increase overall business efficiency, a platform migration can bring new opportunities to grow and scale your business and stay competitive.  

Here are four key benefits you can enjoy when you migrate your ecommerce website to a more capable ecommerce platform provider:  

 Higher Conversion Rates and Volume   

When shoppers arrive at your store, there should be some “wow” factor that gets them excited about your brand and your products. With a new platform, you have the potential to create a more modern and appealing site that gets shoppers to find what they’re looking for, fill up their cart, and proceed to purchase.  

Higher Average Order Value   

A new platform can also provide you with new tools for upselling to customers and convincing them to spend more on your site. You could offer relevant add-on products, bundles, higher-order discounts, and special offers.  

Higher Revenue with Omnichannel Sales   

Today’s online sellers are blurring the lines between B2B and B2C. Instead of hosting separate sites for B2B and B2C customers, you can migrate your ecommerce website to a platform that allows you to serve all of your customers on a single platform, with differentiated pricing, discounts, payment, and shipping displayed depending on the user.   

Better Profitability with Back-Office Efficiency  

Inefficiencies in the back office can be costly for your business. A new platform can help you streamline operations and integrate with a back-end ERP system, simplifying day-to-day operations and reducing the work needed to process sales and maintain the site.  

Signs You Need to Change Your Ecommerce Website Platform

How do you know when your business needs to start an ecommerce migration? Many of the reasons can be summarized into one phrase: your current platform takes too much effort. It takes too much effort for you to maintain your store, to reach out to customers, and to grow and scale your business.  

Here are the key signs that it might be time to get a new ecommerce platform:  

Your product line has outgrown your navigation.  

User experience is everything. If you’ve got hundreds (or thousands) of SKUs, they need to be organized so shoppers can easily find what they want. You shouldn’t be limited to a specific number of products or categories.    

Your store can’t handle traffic spikes.  

Your site may have the features you need but if it can’t handle high amounts of traffic (especially during the holiday season), you’re losing out on revenue. You need to migrate your ecommerce site to a solution that provides more stability and scalability.    

Your website isn’t fully mobile ready or mobile responsive.  

 No matter what you sell, customers want to be able to look up and buy from their mobile devices. If your site isn’t ready for mobile commerce (and that includes the checkout process!), you’re losing sales and online visibility.  

Your website security is lacking.  

If your ecommerce store has security gaps, it not only requires more resources from your IT team but also compromises your customers’ information and their trust in your business.  

Your customers are not satisfied with your website.  

Another sign that you’re ready for an ecommerce replatform is when your support team is overwhelmed with questions, and your cart abandonment rates are high. This means your website is falling short of attracting, informing, and selling to your customers.  

Your admin panel is too hard to use.  

If it takes hours to edit and publish content on your website or locate order numbers and shipping information, your current admin panel is slowing down your business.  

New features and updates become more difficult to implement.  

You sell complex products and high SKU-count catalogs but find that your site is too lightweight to manage everything. Tiny updates take too much time to implement, and the SKUs in your product catalog are getting difficult to manage. This is a sign that you need a more seamless and capable platform for your business. 

Your platform has limited no-code or low-code capabilities.  

If your current platform requires extensive coding knowledge to make even simple updates or changes, it may be time to consider a move. Modern ecommerce platforms with no-code or low-code capabilities allow you to adjust your site—like updating product pages, adding new features, or modifying layouts—without needing a developer.  

This flexibility saves time and costs associated with hiring technical resources and empowers your team to respond quickly to market demands, test new ideas, and improve the customer experience with ease.    

You’re a B2B ecommerce business that wants to go B2C—or vice versa.   

Operating B2B and B2C businesses used to require managing two websites, which takes more time, effort, and resources. However, today, you can handle multi-tier business accounts and B2C accounts on the same website. An ecommerce platform migration can make it easier to accomplish this.  

You’re tired of fixing third-party apps.  

Although they can add helpful features and functionality, plug-ins can become a nightmare to manage. Robust ecommerce platforms include native functionality for the most important site features and don’t require you to fix and update bolted-on solutions constantly.  

Your total cost of ownership is increasing.  

If you find that you have to invest in development to make up for missing capabilities constantly, this means your total cost of ownership for your current platform is higher than it should be. An ecommerce migration can help resolve this problem—switching to a more robust and full-featured platform can provide more out-of-the-box functionality for your business.  

Your platform is outdated.  

When your current platform provider stops supporting the software, an ecommerce replatform is necessary to keep your website up-to-date, secure, and competitive.  

You’re confident your business can do better.  

Higher conversions, more return customers, and increased order values—these small improvements can add up to major revenue. Perhaps you’ve even started looking at your ROI calculations. While your current site is reliable enough, it may be missing features you want and need to grow your business.  

How to Choose a Platform for Your Ecommerce Platform Migration

The platform you choose is vital to the ecommerce replatforming process. You need to pick the right platform to maximize the value of your migration and to ensure that your business goals are met. To choose the right platform, you’ll want to:

1. Get input from company stakeholders. Speak with various stakeholders, leaders, and departments to find out what your business needs in a new ecommerce platform. Ask these stakeholders to consider the agility and flexibility they'll need out of an ecommerce platform to support their departments' day-to-day and long-term activities.
2. Assess platform capabilities. Look at the capabilities of each platform in the context of your business needs and goals to determine the best fit. Ask the representatives of each platform to thoroughly investigate your long-term business plan and show you how they can meet your specific needs.
3. Consider your team. Try to pick a platform that matches your team’s knowledge in terms of the platform’s setup, ease of use, and overall capabilities. Select a solution that has a proven record of stability and reliability and is easy to update and maintain.
4. Look at long-term scalability. When choosing a new ecommerce platform, be sure to think ahead and select one that can evolve with your business well into the future. Look for solutions that are designed to grow and scale with your business rather than ones that require massive upgrades and overhauls to manage growth.
5. Prioritize customer support. Consider the quality, speed, and accessibility of each platform’s provider customer support. You want your provider to be a reliable partner with live support available 24/7/365.

Migrate Your Ecommerce Website: Key Steps

Migrating your ecommerce website to the right ecommerce platform can significantly improve your business. However, before you conduct an ecommerce site migration, you should decide the scope and extent of your migration. 

Do you want to change your site structure, your look and feel, or your content?  

There are three options to consider when you migrate your ecommerce website: the minimum viable template, the customized template, or the fully customized site.  

Minimum Viable Template: This is the fastest, most straightforward, and least expensive option. With a minimum viable template, you select an existing template and add your products, business rules, and data. This approach is ideal for businesses that want a quick setup without investing in custom development.  

Customized Template: With a customized template, you start with a standard template but make specific modifications to better fit your brand or improve functionality. This option offers some customization without the cost or time of a full redesign, suitable for businesses wanting a unique appearance. 

Fully Customized Site: This involves building a site from the ground up with a completely unique design, tailored development, full data migration, quality assurance testing, and launch scheduling. This approach is ideal for brands with unique requirements or a need for a highly customized online experience.  

After deciding on the right path, you’ll also need to take the following steps:   

Planning and Preparation  

Define clear goals for the migration, establish timelines, and assign roles. Conduct an audit of your current site’s content and data to determine what will be migrated. Planning is critical to ensure alignment with business objectives and efficient resource use.  

Selecting a Migration Approach  

Decide on a migration approach—whether you’ll use a minimum viable template, a customized template, or a fully customized site. This choice will affect the project’s timeline, budget, and customization level.  

This is also where most migrations succeed or fail. Focus on:  

• Data architecture: How will your product data be structured?  

• User roles: Who gets access to what?  

• Integration points: Which systems need to talk to each other?  

• Security protocols: How will you protect customer data?  

Setting Up the New Platform  

Begin setting up your new platform by configuring essential settings, user roles, and permissions. Ensure all core features align with your operational needs. This stage includes preparing for data migration, setting up site structure, and mapping out key integrations.  

Testing and Quality Assurance  

Conduct thorough testing on all pages and functionalities. Test site speed, mobile responsiveness, and security settings. This step helps to catch any issues early, ensuring that your site delivers a smooth and secure experience when it goes live.  

Launching the New Site  

After completing testing and quality checks, deploy your site according to a detailed launch plan. This plan should cover launch timing, team coordination, and contingency measures. Make sure to inform stakeholders and prepare a strategy for addressing potential post-launch issues.  

 Post-Migration Optimization  

Monitor site performance, user behavior, and key metrics in the weeks following launch. Conduct additional testing to ensure the site meets performance and customer experience standards. Use feedback and analytics to implement improvements that further optimize the new site.  

Ecommerce Migration Services and How Can They Help

Who’s going to be on your dream team to migrate your ecommerce website? This decision will impact what you build, how long it will take, how much it will cost, and how enjoyable the experience will be. Here are your options for migration:    

Keep it in-house   

If you’ve got design and development resources in-house, you’ll likely consider them first. The advantage is control: even if you don’t completely set the team’s schedule, you’ll at least have daily visibility into what they are working on. However, the migration project may not be their only priority, and migration will impact their workload. 

• Pros: Full control over the process, potential cost savings, flexibility.  
• Cons: Requires skilled internal resources, high time commitment, and higher risk of errors if the team lacks experience.  

Contract with an agency partner   

Many professional web development agencies specialize in ecommerce migration and have been trained on one or more ecommerce platforms to help you the most out of your migration. Miva, for example, partners with a number of agencies and system integrators.  

• Pros: Access to specialized expertise, tailored solutions, less strain on internal teams.  

• Cons: Higher cost, longer onboarding and integration times, potential communication challenges.  

Engage with the provider’s in-house professional services   

When you partner with an ecommerce provider’s professional services team, you can get much more than talented design and IT professionals. Not all providers offer this service, but it’s worth looking into as you assess providers. Because they are in-house, professional services teams will have advanced knowledge of their platform, as well as speedy access to product experts for solving problems, coming up with creative solutions and integrating with third-party partners.  

• Pros: Platform-specific expertise, seamless integration, efficient migration.  

• Cons: Potential dependency on provider’s timeline, possibly less flexibility in approach.  

Questions to ask your potential ecommerce migration partners  

When evaluating potential ecommerce solutions, ask these key questions to assess their experience, approach, and compatibility with your migration needs:  

1. What is your experience with migrations for ecommerce businesses like ours?  
2. Can you provide examples of past projects and client testimonials?  
3. What is your approach to data migration, especially with complex data sets?  
4. How do you handle unexpected challenges during migration?  
5. What steps do you take to ensure minimal downtime and data accuracy?  
6. How will you work with our internal team to keep us informed and involved?  

How to ensure data security during a platform migration

Data security is critical during an ecommerce platform migration to protect sensitive customer information and maintain compliance. Here are some steps to secure your data throughout the process:    

1. Use encryption to protect data during transfer, ensuring it cannot be accessed by unauthorized parties.  
2. Limit access to the data and migration tools to authorized personnel only.  
3. Create backups of all data before starting the migration, allowing for recovery in case of errors.  
4. Verify that the migration process meets industry regulations (e.g., GDPR, CCPA) to avoid compliance issues.  
5. Conduct regular checks to monitor the security of the migration process and detect any anomalies.   

By selecting the right website migration service, evaluating pros and cons, asking the right questions, and ensuring data security, you can manage a successful, secure migration that enhances your ecommerce platform’s capabilities.  

Picking the Right Platform for Your Business

The process of ecommerce replatforming can be daunting, but migrating your ecommerce website to the right platform can help secure the long-term success of your business. To thrive in ecommerce, you’ll want to choose a platform that will meet your goals and needs. and offer you all the built-in tools and functionality needed to drive revenue.

The Complete Guide to Changing Ecommerce Platforms includes the 10 Steps to Migration Success. To receive your free copy of the Complete Guide to Changing Ecommerce Platforms, click here.

To learn more about different ecommerce platform options and providers, check out our Comparison of Ecommerce Software & Features. 

Ready to talk to a Solutions Architect about a move to the Miva platform?

Book a time today.

This blog was updated on December 9, 2021.