5 Signs You Should ‘Re-Platform’ Your E-Commerce Business

5 Signs You Should ‘Re-Platform’ Your E-Commerce Business

 

If you’ve been running your store for a while and still aren’t seeing the results you want – you may be experiencing issues with your e-commerce platform. Not all platforms are the same, and the ones that work best for new businesses may not be the best for more established stores. Here are five signs that say it’s time to find a new platform:

 

Platform Doesn’t Allow You to Grow and Expand

In the beginning, all you may have needed was a simple e-commerce platform that you could set up quickly and start selling. You didn’t have many products and were not active in social media, but your online store has attracted many customers and you are ready to expand into other markets. You want to hire employees to assist you and perhaps create new websites. Your basic platform may not have the ability to handle this volume. Without growth, your business may become stagnant, so look for a platform willing to grow with you.

 

Your Website Looks Outdated

Website design rapidly changes as trends appear and disappear. Often, you can tell when a website was created just by looking at its design. Take a look at your own website: does it look outdated? When was the last time you changed it? Many platforms offer built-in designs and templates to make things easier for retailers, but they need to continuously update their themes to stay current. If your platform still uses the same old styles or doesn’t allow you to create your own, it is time to move on.

 

The Platform Doesn’t Have Mobile Capability

According to comStore Inc., mobile retails sales have increased between 2015-2016. This number is expected to continue to rise, and customers are beginning to spend more time online using tables and smartphones. In 2015, 51 percent of the time users spent online was through their mobile device, notes Smart Insights. You want to reach these customers, but not all platforms have kept up with the move to mobile technology. If your e-commerce platform doesn’t offer mobile app capability or a website design that works on mobile devices, you should begin your research afresh.

 

You Don’t Receive Accurate Reporting

As businesses grow, the number of transactions grow, creating more data to sift through. You don’t want to have to do this yourself, so you need to trust your e-commerce platform to take care of this for you. For your business to be trustworthy, you need to make sure the sales reports that you publish are accurate. If your platform is not fast or thorough enough to handle large quantities of data in a timely manner, you need to look elsewhere.

 

Examine your options for an enterprise e-commerce platform that offers features such as up-to-date web design, mobile app integration and 24-hour support. Finding the perfect enterprise e-commerce platform may be the key to unlocking your successful online business.

 

The Platform Doesn’t Support Everything You Need

Email marketing, blogs, social media links, and analytics: these are all things a robust online store uses to remain an active part of the industry. Online retailers also need to know they have access to customer support in case they have questions or something stops working. If your platform doesn’t have a network of in-house experts you can turn to when you need help, then you’re on your own. If your platform doesn’t support ways to connect to your customers, you will have to look for another program and try to integrate it. If this happens, the best thing to do is to find a platform with everything you need already integrated in one and with excellent support services.

 

The e-commerce platform you choose may have been the best one for you at the time, but things change. If your platform is not getting you the results you expect, start the research process over to find another one that works for you and your organization.

 

 

source http://www.business-opportunities.biz/2016/11/03/5-signs-re-platform-e-commerce-business/