Platform Migration Planning Guide HOW TO CHOOSE AN E-COMMERCE PLATFORM AND PLAN FOR MIGRATION

There are no one-size-fits-all solutions when it comes to e-commerce platforms, so when shopping for a new one, you must consider your unique business needs.

Where Do I Start?

Most merchants want to jump right into choosing a new e-commerce platform.

We often get asked "what is the best e-commerce platform?"

The answer to that is, the platform that best suits your business needs. There isn't a one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to e-commerce platforms. You have to take a solid inventory of your needs and compare that to what each platform has to offer.

Keeping that in mind, there are literally hundreds of e-commerce platforms to choose from. We have our list of favorites, which includes WooCommerce, Turbify, BigCommerce, and Shopify. Most merchants will be well suited for at least one of these platforms.

Take some time to fully answer these questions, so that you know what to look for when choose a new platform.

Platform Needs Assesment

What successful features of my current platform do I need to retain?

What capabilities do I need that my current platform can't offer me?

What payment gateway(s) will I be using?

What are my shipping needs? Which carriers will I use? How will I calculate my rates?

What are my tax needs? Do I need a 3rd party tax service?

What 3rd party tools do I need to be compatible with?

Don't Leave Your Team in the Dark

Migrating e-commerce platforms can have major impacts or trickle-down effects on every part of your business. Crowd source input from those who know your business early in the migration process.

Web Developer / SEO Manager

Ads Manager / Social Media Manager

Internal Sales Staff & Order Processors

Which Platfrom Works Best for You?

You will need to compare each platform against your needs to determine which one is best for you. Here is a brief overview of each platform to familiarize you with the pros and cons.

WooCommerce adds e-commerce functionality onto WordPress.

It is the most commonly used checkout with 3.9 million online stores built with Woo. It's popularity is mainly due to being free and a very low cost way to start an online store.

WooCommerce Highlights

Great for merchants who want a high level of design and layout control.

WooCommere and many of it's extensions are free

No transaction fees

Highly Extensible

WooCommerce Cons

Bad for merchants who don't want hosting responsibilities.

Requires web hosting and maintenance

More likely to require support from a Web Developer

Shopify is the most popular SaaS checkout platform.

It skyrocketed to the top of the pack by continually offering more and more tools to business owners to help them manage things in one place.

Shopify Highlights

Great for merchants who want lots of features out of the box and have straightforward needs.

ShopPay and POS

Large theme store

Very customizable navigation menus

Product category (collection) automation rules

Shopify Cons

Bad for merchants who need a lot of customization or advanced features on a budget.

Limited to 3 product options for a max of 100 product variants

Limited checkout tracking option without a high tier plan

Limited shipping options without a high tier plan

Can be expensive

BigCommerce is one of the top scalable e-commerce platforms.

BigCommerce stands out for their APIs, wholesale features, and focus on B2B.

BigCommerce Highlights

Great for merchants with more complex product catalogs and API integration needs.

Easy to use interface

Large theme store

No Transaction Fees

Advanced promotion manager

BigCommerce Cons

Bad for merchants is complex navigation needs.

Navigation menus are not natively customizable

Very limited category page functionality out of the box

Dependency on Stencil CLI for advanced customization over complicate development compared to other platforms

Turbify was formerly known as Yahoo Small Business.

After 25 years in the e-commerce platform business, Turbify remains a viable solution despite slow modernization.

Turbify Highlights

Great for merchants who want the most customization opportunities and scalability when it comes to design and development.

Custom fields available on any page type

Easy global variables management

Templates can retrieve almost any data

More shipping configurations out of the box than most platforms

Turbify Cons

Bad for merchants looking for easy plug-ins, apps, or modern themes.

Interface is not intuitive and is awaiting a makeover

No theme store, pre-built themes are limited

Currently undergoing platform wide updates that have lead to outages and feature un-availability

Let's Get You Migrated

Our team can help you from the planning stage all the way through post-migration audits. Whether you need a trial store, a brainstorming session, or you're ready to get started, we've got the help you need.

Let's Migrate