There are few things more important for your brand than the decision to migrate your e-commerce to another platform. The reasons may be many and very valid, but without a good plan, resources, clear objectives and the best professionals… the result can be terrifying!
How NOT to migrate your e-commerce? We'll tell you in 5 steps, keep reading.
1 – I can do it myself!
Unless it is your first project/startup, even without a relevant community or revenue… Seek professional help. It is important to understand that the CMS is the heart of your online brand . Without your website working perfectly, all the actions and investments you have made year after year will be left without their purpose: monetization.
It is easy to overlook key aspects that only architectural industry email list the experience of having migrated multiple e-commerce sites provides. At Roashunter we have seen everything from partial migrations, where all historical statistics are lost, to incompatibilities between apps-modules and plug-ins that damage the stability of the store or add unnecessary loading time.
Tip: Always ask for references and development examples . Not only to verify that you are dealing with professionals, but also to identify your comparables. Many competitors and references use specific templates, which are adaptable to your brand and optimized for conversion.
2 – SEO? What is that?
According to our internal e-commerce industry benchmark, analyzing more than 60 online stores, organic traffic represents on average up to 37% of the total (data for 2023). Imagine losing all those visits overnight because you didn't take this fundamental part into account.
Whenever performing a CMS migration, it is essential to take into account (among others):
Performing 301,302 redirects, so that old URLs correctly point to the new URLs deployed.
Analyzing and avoiding 404 errors (Broken links)
Removing duplicate content.
Achieve a fast CMS load to avoid exceeding 1 second of page load time.
Ensuring proper navigation (UX) that does not prevent the user from reaching their destination.
At Roashunter we have horror stories from established brands. In 2019, a well-known organic food brand lost 45% of its traffic overnight due to a poorly managed website change. And there was no turning back, today that brand no longer exists.
3 – We launch in 2 weeks!
If you are part of the retail industry, there are times of the year when you should start a migration process and times when you should NOT do it . Yes, there are brands that have migrated their CMS at the end of November… and yes, on the last Friday to be exact.
To avoid delays that could lead to a missed season, plan ahead. Nothing is more frustrating than receiving your stock and not being able to put it into rotation due to poor planning and delayed release.
As a general rule, every development has a deviation percentage , ask your team, freelancer or development agency. And assign margins.