How do you do a great Re-platform? Our 6 Expert guests share their best tips (episode 463)
We’re in a fascinating time in the world of eCommerce websites. We’ve left the era of “just use Shopify”, and getting back into the world where which platform you choose to be the basis of your tech stack can have a fundamental impact on your success over the next 5-10 years.
A replatforming project isn’t one to be taken lightly. It can have a huge impact on your future success – screwing it up, or enabling it. It can have a huge impact on your team and their effectiveness. And during the project, it can have a huge impact on day-to-day workloads. A little (well, a lot) of thinking and planning can go a long way.
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Dive in:
[01:40] Thinking and planning saves time, money, and sanity.
[05:41] Clear destination crucial for efficient replatforming journey.
[08:35] Communicate platform change, integrate apps, and inform customers.
[10:22] Optimise website with planning and collaboration
[13:58] Change management: mapping operational impact and training needs.
[17:55] Content migration
[23:36] Ignoring buzzwords
Lee Frankland, DWS
Have a clear destination or end goal in mind. Know exactly where you want to be with the platform when it goes live. This guides the entire replatforming process, from resource allocation to anticipating challenges and ensuring outcomes align with your business objectives.
Gabe Macaluso, Omnisend
Start by evaluating your business goals and objectives. Then select an ecommerce platform that aligns with those needs. Also, create a detailed budget and timeline, prioritizing mobile optimization and third-party integrations. Finally, maintain clear communication with customers throughout the transition to ensure success.
Montserrat Cano, International SEO & Digital Marketing Consultant
Montserrat’s top tips for replatforming are:
- Have a clear understanding of why you need a new website, ensuring it aligns with your business needs.
- Plan with the help of a project manager, especially one with SEO knowledge, to avoid disastrous consequences for your brand.
- Emphasize collaboration among various departments and people involved in the replatforming project.
- Find out more about Montserrat
- Connect with Montserrat
- Listen to Montserrat’s episode on the Keep Optimising Podcast
James Gurd, Digital Juggler & Re:Platform Podcast
Focus on change management. This includes mapping out the operational impact on business processes, team training, creating checklists and documentation, planning early for content migration, and ensuring a single owner for managing the changes and maintaining project management discipline to stay on track and avoid falling behind.
Simon Wharton, PushON
Ensure that there is a senior stakeholder with the right authority on the project who can make critical decisions and provide necessary approvals. This is essential for minimizing delays and ensuring the project stays on time and on budget.
Sandra Markey, Loqate
Avoid a big-bang approach to development. Instead, take small, incremental steps to validate what benefits your customers need throughout the process, prioritize setting up a reliable development environment, and understand your existing systems to resolve pain points and prioritize work accordingly to avoid costly rework.
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