Posted by Steven Lippman, Senior Retail Solutions Consultant
There comes a time when every retail organization must take a close look at their ecommerce platform(opens in new tab) and decide if it’s worth keeping or if it’s actually holding them back from innovating and growing in today’s competitive environment.
Ripping out a legacy ecommerce platform can be a scary idea for established retailers but that platform could be costing you profits. Here are several reasons why you might want to consider saying goodbye to a legacy ecommerce(opens in new tab) platform.
COST - When we do total cost of ownership analysis with retailers, we talk about license costs, implementation and hardware, but what about the cost of remaining on your current legacy system in terms of your customer’s satisfaction? Are you providing your customers with the assurance that your system securely remembers their payment information? Do you give your customers the power to access customer service via self-service portals? Do your customers have the ability to shop anywhere via their smartphone or tablet? If they’re not getting it from your website, they may look elsewhere.
SECURITY - Is your legacy ecommerce platform compliant with the latest and greatest PCI and other certifications? Could your legacy system cause a potential security breach that we will be reading about in the papers? The payment industry is changing every day. Can your legacy ecommerce platform adapt to today’s reality or is its claim to fame its speedy check batching workflow?
TECHNOLOGY - Who built your ecommerce platform? Is the company releasing new and innovative features on a regular basis that are automatically added to the platform with little to no disruption to your business or are they sunsetting the platform? How much money does the company spend on R&D? Sure, the platform may have been cutting edge 10 years ago, but will a potentially expensive facelift or patch be enough for it to grow your business over the next 10 years?
If any of the above sounded familiar, it might be time to consider saying goodbye to your legacy ecommerce platform. While you may be faced with some resistance internally, encourage the naysayers to see that the biggest change will be experienced by your customers and that this is the whole reason why saying goodbye to your current ecommerce platform makes good business sense.
Your customers expect and deserve cutting edge in terms of performance, security and experience. It’s time to give it to them.