8 Questions Help You Know -Is it Right time to replace Ecommerce Platform?

8 Questions Help You Know -Is it Right time to replace Ecommerce Platform? - GoWebBaby.Com

Moving from one ecommerce platform to another is daunting task, but it’s a requirement if your running applications are too old to support the type of functionality and brand experience today’s consumers expect. So, how do you know when you need to replace your old ecommerce system? Here, we are raising 8 Questions Help You Know -Is it Right time to replace Ecommerce Platform?

1) How old is your software?

If you have a heavily tailored system or you are years behind the latest version, it may be too late to upgrade to a new version. In its place, you may find that your software vendor has sundown support for your ecommerce platform & no longer provides security functionality, or new patches. That can also be true if you've widely customized your ecommerce platform and the expense and trouble of upgrading have left you version locked. If this is the case, unluckily you can no longer provide clienteles with the functionality they request such as personalization, faceted search, intelligent search and mobile support. Your developers and other resources have to waste time supporting this ancient application rather than helping to grow business.

2) How many integrations do you have to support?

With integrations, more is not certainly cheerful. If you have a spaghetti chart of web services and connections between different applications – such as ecommerce, CRM, order management and ERP— a move to an all-in-one platform will be a significant development, eradicating the cost of upholding those ever-changing connectors and APIs.

3) Is your ecommerce system able to share information between other channels?

If you sell products and services to your customers through different channels—brick-and-mortar, call center, etc. – are you capable to combine all the information about your customers and make it all accessible by both customers and customer services reps irrespective of channel of origin? Can customers effortlessly buy online & pick up in store with accurate inventory support?

4) Are you able to deliver a B2C-like online shopping experience to B2B customers?

Are your B2B customers capable to purchase online as effortlessly as your B2C consumers, or do they have to use print or pdf catalogs and then email, fax and call the order in? B2B customers are gradually demanding same online shopping experience they get when shopping on consumer websites. Be sure you are capable to meet their prospects and can provide them with access to an online catalog with customer specific products and pricing and real time inventory.

5) Does your system enable you to provide overall brand experience you desire?

Is your current ecommerce platform flexible enough so that you are competent to customize to showcase your exceptional layout and branding, or are you limited in what you can do? Can you achieve a modern design? With old platforms, you may not have as much control over look-and-feel as it may be locked down.

6) What are your website’s analytics telling you?

Do you frequently monitor your website's data such as conversion rate, bounce rates, traffic patterns and other metrics that designate how your website is doing in converting buyers? Most companies nowadays identify the need for analytics, but not all check the data on a weekly, or even monthly, basis. Yet a growing bounce rate is a sure sign that your website isn't effective. You should be revising your analytics every week with the intention of building up a history and rapidly sudden changes or spot trends.

7) Do you offer mobile support?

Purchases on tablets and smartphones will account for 29% of U.S. consumer purchases in 2014, up 21% from 2013, as per Forrester Research. As more buyers make use of their cell phones to search and purchase online, it is becoming essential to have a responsive website. Websites built with responsive design utilize CSS image resizing, CSS media queries and flexible grids to display website functionality and content custom-made for a smaller screen. If you are still using a mobile site for users, your conversions fall and bounce rates may rise. That's because companies that create a distinct mobile site often band down the content and remove functions such as access to full product descriptions, customer service, gallery views and other content that mobile shoppers still want to access. Many mobile visitors will load your desktop version in its place, or go to a rival company’s site that is simpler to access. As per the Retail Systems Research, LLC 49 percentage of buyers on smartphones leave mobile websites for full desktop version.

8) What are your customers saying?

You should be closely listen to any feedback provided by your customers. In any case, their opinion is what matters the most. To obtain this valued feedback, you could conduct an anonymous and quick survey on your website. You can also make use of testing services like UserTesting.com, which will employee users to visit your website and provide comment to help you improve it or decide whether to switch to a new platform.

If you don’t like or don’t have the answers to many of the above questions, then it is the right time to take a look at what options are accessible for you to replace your current ecommerce system with the one that is scalable, flexible, and capable to provide you with a 360-degree view of your customers through all channels –in-store, web, mobile, call center. It is only then will you be competent to truly meet the requirements of the B2B and B2C customers of nowadays and be prepared for whatsoever the future brings.

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