It seems that just about every e-commerce company I speak to lately is either in the process of re-platforming, or gearing up for a platform search. And it makes sense; after all, now that the channel is well over 10 years old, many e-commerce sites are running on aging technologies. They've served retailers well, but it's time to reap the benefits of functionality and administrative advances that have evolved over the last 5+ years.
The search for an e-commerce platform solution can be daunting. The landscape is crowded and confusing, and the list of requirements alone can make for an RFP that rivals War and Peace in length.
Given the importance of the platform decision, it would remiss of me to tell you to just "take these 5 easy steps and success will be yours...." The truth is, this is a big, important decision and making the decision will take significant research and effort. There are, however, some steps that you can take early on that will help considerably in preparing the organization and streamlining the process.
1) First, decide who will be involved in the decision process. This will likely (and rightly) be a cross functional effort across merchandising, marketing, IT, customer care, operations and more. Identify the team members, the decision maker and the approver. Who will need to weigh in throughout vs. just check in at key decision points?
2) Agree to an organized selection process. If you can afford the luxury of a project manager, by all means assign a good one to map out the milestones and keep the group on track.
3) Agree on the problems you are trying to solve with a new platform. There is no "perfect" platform solution, but you will be able to get closer to perfect if you clearly define the problems you have with your current platform and prioritize which are the most critical to solve. You may want to put more control in the hands of business people vs. developers, or you may want to decrease the time it takes to deploy new features. You may need a more robust functionality set, or better content management capabilities. It's common for companies to believe that a new platform will solve every current ill, and chances are it won't. Be clear about what you must solve vs. what you'd like to solve.
4) Look at your e-commerce business goals 5+ years out. You will need your new platform to take your business to the next level, whatever that may be. It will be important to understand not only your sales and order volume growth, but also important changes to the way you plan to operate and do business. Do you foresee bringing currently outsourced operations in-house (such as customer care, design, development, etc.)? Do you plan to launch new lines of business or brands? Are you planning deeper levels of integration with your other channels?
5) Get an overview of the platform landscape. Before you dive in to specific providers, get an understanding of the models and choices: full service providers, hosted solutions, custom build shops or build yourself on licensed software...and yes, there are providers that blur the lines between the models (just to make it even more confusing). Learn about the differences in payment models and service offerings. You will want to select a model first, then a provider within that model. The more work you can do to eliminate models that are not appropriate for your business up front, the smoother your search will go.
Note on point #5 above: Companies who do NOT take this step typically regret it. Getting RFPs from vendors in different sectors of the market with different models will make it impossible to do an apples to apples comparison, and will create internal confusion and delays. Hint: you might want to consider getting a market overview from an objective third party or someone who's been through the process before.
Taking the early stage steps above will make gathering of requirements, writing an RFP, scoring potential vendors and making a decision a more efficient effort. You'll be clearer on what you need, which means that eliminating inappropriate providers will be easier.
Stay tuned for a follow-up post, where I'll cover the selection process itself in more detail, and some best practices for choosing the right solution.
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