The Top 10 Myths of Ecommerce Site Migration

May 26, 2022

628d5ce09014eb45c5913f04 Myths of ecomm site migration ecommerce site migration

Ecommerce site migration can sometimes feel like switching car insurance.

As you scale, you may know that you need to do it, but the bewildering array of options and different factors to consider make your head spin, and you end up getting so overwhelmed that you keep putting it off, or worse yet, don’t do it at all.

But there are plenty of ways you can smooth over the migration process, from getting specialist outside help to following a few simple tricks and tips that will make the whole thing less difficult.

Below, we’ve put together the top myths of ecommerce site migration and the truth behind them to aid your journey to a new, faster, more engaging ecommerce site.

So let’s dive right in.

Myth 1: Migration and replatforming are the same things

This myth, or misunderstanding, is common because the two words are often used interchangeably. The confusion is understandable, when you’re moving your ecommerce site to a new platform, you’ll also have to migrate your data across too.

But it’s important to understand the difference:

  • Replatforming is the process of changing your backend ecommerce platform. Usually, brands approach replatforming because you’ve outgrown the capabilities of your current commerce platform or the platform itself is outdated, or your provider is due to stop providing support for the old version. Replatforming involves switching the backend commerce services that support your store to a new commerce platform.
  • Migration is the process of moving all your data—customer information, product and catalog details, etc to a new place. If you’re replatforming, you will also need to migrate all your data to your new platform, which is perhaps where the confusion arises, but there are other reasons for migrating. You could decide you want your data to live in cloud storage rather than on-premises, for example.

The confusion is compounded because replatforming involves site migration, not just data migration.

So, if you’re moving your site from one backend provider to another, you will be doing migration and replatforming. It might seem like splitting hairs, but understanding these differences is important: It will help you develop a workable plan with clear stages and a shared language when migrating your ecommerce site.

#cta-visual-fe#<cta-title>Replatforming soon? Could be a great time to take your store headless, too.<cta-title>Shogun Frontend can help you achieve headless flexibility the easy way. Learn more

Myth 2: Site migration takes too long and will cost you sales

Site migration

This is perhaps the most powerful myth that puts online brands off-site migration. And it’s an understandable concern.

When you move to a new platform, it’s not just a case of switching your URL over to a new provider. You need to move or re-organize all of your associated catalog, product, and customer data in a way that will be interpretable by your newly migrated site.

That said, this process doesn’t need to take forever. 

You can move your site over from an outdated platform that’s not up to the job, giving you access to tools that will greatly enhance your site speed, customer experience, and usability without the involvement of armies of coders if you do your research properly and follow a thoroughly worked-out plan.

For a detailed guide, check out our comprehensive post on ecommerce replatforming.

But in short, if you’re concerned about the length of time a site migration will take, minimizing disruption for customers, and avoiding lost revenue often, the best option is to:

  • Partner with a team of experts who understand your needs and are well versed in making migration happen without an adverse impact on your customers.
  • And test as much as possible at every stage of your site migration. While site migration doesn’t necessarily require a herculean effort on your part, it does take careful planning at every stage, both pre-and post-launch.

If you put a proper testing regime in place, you can identify and eliminate issues before they escalate. It’s far better for your testing teams to find things going wrong than for your customers to let you know about errors via social media!

Myth 3: Data migration is a massive undertaking and takes forever

Data migration

A related concern is that—aside from potential revenue and sales opportunity cost—you’ll lose access to your data, temporarily or permanently, during migration.

If you’re a sizable or scaling brand with large amounts of customer data, you’ll understandably be concerned that you won’t be able to access it during the migration process.

But with the advent of cloud storage and SaaS data solutions, there are several ways to keep your data at your fingertips while you migrate. For a more detailed look at the ins and outs of data migration, check out our ecommerce replatforming guide.

There are two ways to migrate your data:

  • Move it over in chunks, meaning that only the parts that are being moved will be affected, and even these parts will be accessible if you need them; it just might involve liaising with your data migration team first.
  • Enlist the help of data migration specialists who will be able to transfer your data out of the old platform and into the new in one ‘big bang’, meaning you don’t have to worry about where it is sitting during the migration process.

#cta-paragraph-fe#Note: With Shogun Frontend, the implementation team works with you at every step to ensure your migrated headless site experience meets your expectations and that you’re working with accurate migrated data from launch day and beyond.

Myth 4: Site migration means you’ll lose your layouts, design, and hierarchies

When you migrate your site, you don’t have to redesign it.

Of course, if you are moving to a new platform to get access to more advanced ecommerce capabilities, you will likely want to redesign your site so you can take full advantage of them.

But a site redesign and site migration are two different things. They can be kept separate.

If you want to keep the layout and design elements of your existing site that your customers know and love, then this is completely possible.

The problem sometimes arises when you move to a backend platform that requires you to use their site design tools to host your site. This can be a real headache for brands who need more ecommerce functionality but don’t want to redesign their store at the same time as a replatform and migration.

If you opt to take your store headless at the same time as a replatform, you can avoid this problem. That is—the frontend or presentation layer of your site can stay the same because, thanks to decoupling, it will be an entirely separate layer to your backend platform. By going headless, you’re not tied into the logic of any particular commerce platform as far as design and frontend customer experiences are concerned.

That said, if you’re keen to replatform, take your site headless, and do a redesign of the site all at once, this is entirely possible too!

#cta-paragraph-fe#Many brands may choose to replatform and go headless for flexibility at the same time. Then, after gaining the flexibility headless affords, they’ll implement a redesign or visual identity they’ve worked on. Daring Foods accomplished implementing a site redesign in just 11 days after they’d gone headless, for example.

Going headless also allows you to be more flexible with your migration options. The separation of functionality inherent in headless technology means you have more choices about when, where, and how to migrate.

#cta-visual-fe#<cta-title>Replatforming soon? Could be a great time to take your store headless, too.<cta-title>Shogun Frontend can help you achieve headless flexibility the easy way. Learn more

Myth 5: You can make an exact copy of our existing site

While you’re able to migrate without completely redesigning your site, there are some changes you’ll have to make. A new backend platform means new ways of processing payments, storing and organizing catalogs, and may involve some URL changes. 

But these are changes you should embrace. The new platform you’re migrating to will offer improved functionality in all these areas, so your customer experience will improve and (likely) your conversion rate too.

Once again, the key to minimizing disruption to your hard-won site ascetics is careful planning.

You should:

  • Map out your content, the pages it appears on, and how it is linked. Know the full site map and plan for migration accordingly.
  • Speak to your new platform provider about how their services work and what their technical requirements are.
  • Note the areas that need to be adjusted to accommodate these requirements.
  • Make a plan of how the new parts of your site will integrate with the parts you want to stay the same.
  • Keep an open dialogue between your platform provider, your marketing teams, and your technical staff.
  • Consider an agency migration partner. These specialist companies will be able to advise and guide you on the best way to maintain the parts of your site that are working great and improve on the parts that need updating.

Myth 6: You’ll lose your organic traffic, and your SEO will suffer

Organic traffic

One objection to site migration is that your hard-won traffic will all be lost, and you’ll need to start again from scratch.

But, done carefully and methodically, you can redirect URLs and traffic with little to no loss of ranking and authority. 

In fact, in the long run, migrating to a faster backend platform with greater customer experience capabilities will provide a substantial boost to your search engine rankings. Your site content and customer experience will ultimately determine how well you rank.

But the details of how you redirect traffic after migration are important to get right. And they can often be a source of confusion for marketers and business teams who are not well versed in the technicalities of site migration.

The main thing that negatively impacts ranking authority is URL changes.

A URL redirect, where you send site visitors from the address your page was previously on to a new one, can mean you lose the backlinks coming into that page from authority sites.

But site migration doesn’t mean that you have to redirect all your URLs. In fact, the fewer redirects you have to do, the better your rankings will hold up.

#cta-paragraph-fe#If you find that you do need to redirect some pages, make sure you set them up as 301 redirects. This type of redirect moves your web page—along with all its associated backlinks and ranking authority—to a new address. If a customer tries to visit the old address, they will be redirected immediately to the new one.

A 301 is the best way to redirect traffic as you keep the original page’s ability to rank, and the redirection process is so fast and smooth that your customers won’t notice the difference.

If you are redirecting some of your page URLs, you should carry out some A/B testing before launching your new site. This is to better understand any impact before and after migration.

Myth 7: You can update your site without migrating

There are many ways to improve the speed, functionality, and customer experience of your website with ad-hock extensions, manual fixes, and careful audits.

But if your site is hosted on a platform that doesn’t give you what you need to keep up with competitors, at some point, your performance will begin to suffer.

And if you try to keep up by piecing together different performance boosters and extensions, you will quickly end up with an unwieldy tech stack that requires substantial oversight from specialist teams.

While site migration is no walk in the park, attempting to make an outdated system work in the modern ecommerce era is a poor alternative.

Think of site migration as an opportunity to take stock and re-evaluate what you want from your online store. If you’re considering site migration, then it’s because something isn’t working with your current setup and there’s likely an opportunity cost in terms of your ability to scale if you stay on your existing platform.

Myth 8: Migrating will mean you lose your third-party integrations

If you’ve put in a lot of effort integrating third-party services into your store, you might be worried that a system that may have taken years to build up will have to be built again from scratch.

But most commerce platform providers have ready-made integrations for major third-party services.

If you’re migrating and implementing a headless solution at the same time, the process of integrating your services should be a lot more straightforward. There will, as always, be some careful planning needed to make sure everything runs smoothly, but at the end of the process, you’ll have a tech stack that is likely much easier to manage.

Myth 9: We don’t have the expertise internal—so there’s no way we can migrate

While site migration is definitely a process that requires specialist knowledge to make it happen, there’s no need to let a lack of in-house expertise hold you back.

The most popular commerce platforms provide specialist support and guidance to help you through the process. Site migration is what these companies do every day, it’s their job to hold your hand while you migrate.

On the other hand, if you’re all set up with an amazing team of developers, you can opt for a more hands-off approach, deciding for yourselves on the timing and staging posts of your migration.

Ecommerce platforms are used to working with brands of all shapes and sizes and will be able to accommodate whatever degree of support you need.

Myth 10: The costs involved are too high

Aside from the technical hurdles involved in migration, perhaps the main factor putting brands off is the perceived cost.

And, like most of the myths we’ve explored here, there can be a grain of truth to it.

Ecommerce platforms, migration specialists, and data teams can be costly. And if you’re using a combination of these services to make your migration happen, you’ll need to carefully consider how these costs stack up and weigh them against the possibility of doing some of the tasks in-house.

The main costs are:

  • Data migration – If you’re hiring outside help, you need to know what’s included. Do they also offer catalog migration or will this cost extra?
  • SEO maintenance – There are numerous technical SEO agencies that can help you keep your store rankings high, but is this an area where you can leverage the expertise of your own teams, gaining a more comprehensive picture of what’s helping your site rank in the process?
  • Maintenance costs – These costs will be ongoing post-migration, so make sure you understand them. Calculate the maintenance cost of the site itself, and also take into account any third-party integrations you might need.

But not migrating your backend when you need to can be very expensive too.

If you’re working with an older platform or your data is stored in inaccessible servers, the ongoing maintenance costs are likely already high and will only increase as time goes on.

Calculate what the cost of maintaining your current site is and whether these expenses are set to increase over the next few years.

Ecommerce site migration doesn’t have to be a massive strain on your business

As we’ve covered, there are many myths associated with site migration. Here, we’ve looked at the main ones, but there are several other misconceptions and concerns, most of which will be specific to the situation you find yourself in as a brand facing a migration.

But, done the right way, ecommerce site migration can be a fantastic opportunity to level up your business. If you’re planning on migrating to a headless solution at the same time as replatforming, Shogun Frontend provides a headless frontend platform that provides incredibly fast sites with sub-second load times—with all the rich merchandising you can handle.

It gives you the ability to intuitively create the customer experiences you want without having to worry about constructing a headless tech stack on your own, an extra headache you’ll be keen to avoid if you’re in the midst of planning a site migration.

#cta-visual-fe#<cta-title>Replatforming soon? Could be a great time to take your store headless, too.<cta-title>Shogun Frontend can help you achieve headless flexibility the easy way. Learn more

Rhys Williams

Rhys is a writer specializing in enterprise software, ecommerce, and SaaS. He describes himself as a geek and a wordsmith and relishes making complex, technical topics come to life in easy-to-understand web copy.

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