Replatforming - the challenge of growing e-commerce businesses. How to go through a platform change with dry feet?

The transformation of online shopping is progressing on an unprecedented scale. Along with it, the needs and expectations of current and potential customers shopping online are growing at an astonishing rate. Yet something that many e-commerce sites see as a huge opportunity for growth is also quite a challenge. In the race to provide the best possible shopping experience, many e-tailers are losing out due to the limitations of outdated systems. The winners will be those who recognize the advantages of replatforming in time and thus stop the technological debt which is growing deeper every day.

The future is getting closer

Over the last 1.5 years, the pandemic has moved the e-commerce industry forward by a good 5-7 years. Today, elements such as high traffic, efficient logistics, fast purchase and return processes, bonus incentives and personalization are not the exception but essential must-haves. Unfortunately, implementation has not kept up with these needs. According to Forrester Research, as many as 78% of companies believe that their platforms are unable to efficiently manage orders from multiple channels, and for 74%, the current system cannot scale as needed.

Today's e-commerce platform should easily (and quickly) handle demanding customers and be able to expand and connect with a growing number of systems and implementation enhancements.

Otherwise, the technical debt - the distance separating a given company from its direct competitors in terms of necessary digital transformation solutions - grows and creates a very negative impact on a company's financial performance. In the end, the failure to adopt modern digital channels or technologies leads to a loss of profits or a reduction in business momentum.

Platform changes fuel business

Outdated systems are a daily reality for many companies, which consequently have to struggle with a lack of support, alongside an inability to implement new functionalities, integrate with other systems, or even handle large order volumes and rising costs due to a lack of scalability. In such a situation, replatforming should not be postponed, because every day is a waste of real money.

Therefore, the transition from old technology to new solutions is becoming a key factor in today's market.

"With the maturation of the e-commerce market across Europe, most of our clients are engaging in the process of replatforming their existing solutions. There are various factors that lead to this decision - some are related to new business initiatives, such as entering markets or redesigning the omnichannel customer experience, but most are due to technical issues and limitations that our business partners have encountered during development." - explains Piotr Wrzalik, Managing Partner at Unity Group.

Migration from one outdated system to a modern alternative is a vital process for any organization, yet it requires a well-developed action plan and strategy. The implementation of such a project is very simple, however, provided that we entrust it to an experienced technology partner. Otherwise, the losses can be very high.

"Choosing a new solution is just the beginning of the transformation journey. The migration process can be cumbersome and you need to take care of business continuity, SEO, customer data integrity, security, etc. The extensive experience of our development teams is crucial both in planning and implementing a new platform for our client." - adds Piotr Wrzalik, whose company has already completed several dozen similar projects, including for companies such as as Gemini Polska.

Replatforming - an e-commerce investment that will pay off

The replatforming process poses many challenges for e-commerce managers. First of all, it is necessary to clearly define the main goals to be achieved, as well as to make important decisions on the choice of the right solution, and to consciously and realistically plan the migration process. At the same time, it has a formula for the optimal functional set and architecture of a modern e-commerce platform appropriate for all companies. Each has its own specifics and different needs in this regard.

Those market leaders already aware of the potential benefits, however, have already undertaken the effort to engage in replatforming. This includse Gemini Poland, which has already completed this process and is now reaping the rewards. This giant of the pharmacy market suggests where to start the strategic change:

"Gemini Poland is one of the leaders on the e-pharmacy market in Europe. Three years ago, we made an in-depth assessment of our business and current trends in order to find the best solutions that could increase our growth potential. We focused on developing new functionalities and performance issues. Finding a new platform and smoothly migrating to it was a strategically important project for us, so we had to plan it carefully and execute it on time. The result is a modern, microservices-based platform that scales easily and provides high speed to market for new features and ideas from our business stakeholders" - explains Patryk Dolewa, IT Director at Gemini Poland.

The trend is unequivocal - customers want and will increasingly buy products online. On top of this, they are looking for newer and newer facilities and will choose those companies that meet their expectations. Therefore, for most companies, replatforming, at some stage of their business development, is inevitable. As the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020 has already shown, strategic decisions are not worth postponing and acting in advance, trying to anticipate possible consumer behavior. Only in this way will it be possible to make use of the opportunity that lies before all e-shops.

Mission education, or market players join forces

The Polish e-commerce market is strong with the strength of its individual players, and therefore more and more companies dealing with the digital transformation of business also focus their efforts on the promotion of activities and educational actions about replatforming. Unity Group is offering such an initiative in the near future.

On 2 September at 14:00 on the ClickMeeting platform, the company is organizing a webinar entitled "Replatforming Done Right: Focusing Your E-Commerce For the Future", addressed specifically to e-commerce managers who have a clearly defined business goal and understand the current market situation.

During the virtual meeting, industry experts: Patryk Dolewa (Gemini Polska), Jens Fauth (Experience One), Piotr Wrzalik (Unity Group) and Robin Müller (Tagesspiegel) will talk about the main factors of replatforming, increasing the efficiency of key purchase processes, meeting the growing demand for a better digital customer experience, adapting to the increasingly popular multiexperience and mobile-first approaches, and the most common challenges of the platform switching process. They will also touch on scalability, headless commerce, site performance, SEO, moving businesses to the cloud and operational flexibility.

The event is organized by , together with SIBB, ITCorner and Experience One.