6 Signs you’ve outgrown your ecommerce platform
April 11, 2024
As an ecommerce business, your needs are ever evolving. What may have worked in the past probably won’t work for you now, and your ecommerce platform is no exception.
No one wants to deal with a website migration – they’re time consuming, complicated and often stressful. But sometimes they’re unavoidable, and having an experienced ecommerce agency on hand to guide you through the process can make your life a lot easier.
But how do you know it’s time to make the switch? In this blog post, we’ll run you through the most common signs that a business has outgrown its current platform, and the issues we’ve seen first-hand from building ecommerce websites over the years.
1. Slow loading speeds
Consumer expectations have never been higher, and they expect websites to load quickly and perform exactly how they’re supposed to. If your website is slow, and pages are taking more than two seconds to load, it may be time to move to a more powerful platform. The slower your website, the harder it’s going to be to keep up with rising customer demand, which means you’re going to miss out on sales and, ultimately, struggle to scale your business.
2. Over reliance on third party plug-ins
As a business grows, so do its requirements, but not every ecommerce platform is designed to support custom or complex functionality. This leaves many brands leaning heavily on third-party plugins and integrations, which over time will only hinder performance. We’re all for utilising apps when an app is the most appropriate solution, but we see a lot of instances where the same functionality can be achieved either out of the box with a more sophisticated platform.
3. Low conversion rates
Noticed a dip in website conversions recently? If you’re still driving a healthy amount of traffic to your site, but you just aren’t seeing conversions, your platform could be costing you sales. Yes, a new website doesn’t come cheap, but you’ll lose a lot more in the long term if you keep pushing forward with an outdated site. Plus, any spend you put into marketing will essentially be a waste if you aren’t seeing any return on investment.
Low conversion indicates a poor user experience, so you’ll need to conduct a thorough investigation into your website’s user journey (from product pages to the checkout process) to pinpoint what exactly is stopping visitors from completing a purchase. Sometimes, the most effective way to achieve the functionality you need to improve user experience is by designing and building a new site from the ground up. This way you can ensure the longevity of your site by selecting a platform that supports all of the features you need, from custom product page templates to sophisticated product filtering systems.
4. Updates are a pain
After years on an older platform, you may have racked up a lot of technical debt, which will eventually make updates to the front and backend of your website time-consuming and laborious, and difficult to achieve without affecting several other areas in tandem. This is a common issue with open-source platforms like Magento, which are notorious for being complicated for those without a high level of coding experience. Switching to a platform with a simpler, beginner-friendly interface can save you a lot of time and energy in making updates to your website, which in turn fuels growth and makes your business inherently more scalable.
5. Your site isn’t mobile responsive
Mobile commerce is here to stay, with the majority of online transactions now taking place on a mobile or tablet device. And yet we still see ecommerce websites that aren’t mobile responsive. Failing to optimise for all devices will cost you sales, and likely deter a good percentage of your website visitors from coming back. The best ecommerce platforms come with fully mobile-responsive themes as standard.
6. Your website isn’t secure
Cyber threats are becoming more frequent and much more sophisticated. Security is paramount for any ecommerce business. If your current platform is outdated or lacks robust security features, you could be putting your customers’ sensitive data at risk. Migrating to a platform with built-in security measures, such as SSL encryption, regular security updates and PCI compliance will help to protect your business from cyber attacks and build trust with your customers.
Which platform is best for ecommerce websites?
The ecommerce platform that ticks all of the boxes, in our experience, is Shopify. It can handle thousands of transactions per minute and is renowned for its user-friendly interface. Its intuitive dashboard allows you to set up and manage your online store without the need for extensive technical knowledge. From launching new products and collections to processing orders and customising themes, Shopify simplifies every aspect of running an ecommerce business, making updates to your online store a lot easier and quicker than other platforms.
Identify with any of the signs above? Sounds like it might be time to consider a new website. Our ecommerce developers can help you decide – send us a message and we’d be happy to take a look.
