How Do You Know When It's Time to Replatform?

Your ecommerce platform should accelerate growth, not prevent it. But how do you know when a major overhaul is required versus making incremental improvements? It’s not always obvious. Maybe your website is a little slow sometimes. Maybe integrations are getting clunky. Maybe your team is spending more time maintaining the platform than innovating on it. 

The truth is, not every challenge requires replatforming. Sometimes optimization, better processes, or targeted upgrades can solve the problem. But there are specific indicators that signal when your platform has become a constraint on your business and not just an operational inconvenience.

So how do you know when it’s actually time to replatform? In this article, we’ll walk through the key indicators that prove it’s time to act, so you can make the right call for your business. 

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When Performance Issues Impact Revenue 

You know something’s wrong when technical issues start appearing in your sales numbers. 

‍Industry research shows that slow-loading websites can increase cart abandonment rates by as much as 75%. When nearly one in five customers bail because checkout is too complicated, and another 14% leave because the site threw an error, the cost becomes tangible. 

Before considering replatforming, ask yourself: are these performance issues systemic to the platform, or are they the result of how it’s been implemented and maintained? Sometimes performance problems can be solved through optimization, caching strategies, or infrastructure. 

However, if you’re experiencing patterns like these consistently, the platform itself may be the limitation:  

• Page load times that get worse as your catalog grows, despite optimization efforts
• Downtime during your peak periods that can’t be resolved with additional resources
• Checkout failures your team can’t reproduce or fix 
• Mobile performance that requires extensive custom work to improve 

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Scalability Constraints That Limit Growth 

Performance problems often reveal themselves in the numbers, but scalability issues show up in your growth trajectory. Your platform should grow with your business. For many B2B companies, success reveals limitations they didn’t know existed. What worked at $10 million in revenue starts breaking at $50 million. A catalog that handled 5,000 SKUs struggles with 50,000. A customer base of hundreds becomes unmanageable at thousands. 

The challenge is determining whether these are truly platform limitations or implementation issues. Scalability problems aren’t always platform problems. Sometimes they’re architectural decisions, database optimization needs, or infrastructure constraints that can be addressed without a full replatform. 

You might be outgrowing your platform if: 

• Traffic spikes crash the site during promotions or seasonal peaks
• Product catalog restrictions force you to make compromises in what you can sell
• Geographic expansion limitations block you from entering new markets without months of custom development 
• Transaction volume restraints prevent you from serving enterprise customers the way they expect

If the answers point to platform limitations rather than implementation choices, replatforming becomes a more compelling option. 

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Integration Challenges and Growing Tech Debt 

Your ecommerce platform needs to work seamlessly with your ERP, CRM, PIM, marketing automation, and other critical systems. Integration challenges aren’t always reason enough to replatform—sometimes they stem from how things were originally built rather than fundamental platform limitations. 

Red flags include: 

• API limitations that prevent you from integrating essentials tools
• Manual data syncing between systems (but ask: is this happening because of platform limits or because integrations were never properly built?)
• Custom code that makes even simple updates risky 
• Vendor lock-in that limits your options and increases costs 

If your integration challenges stem from how things were built, you might be able to solve them without replatforming. If they’re fundamental to how the platform works, that’s a different story. 

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When Total Cost of Ownership Doesn’t Add Up

Sometimes the case for replatforming is purely financial—you’re spending more money maintaining what you have than you’d invest in something better. 

But be thorough in analysis. Consider: 

• Maintenance costs: Are they high because of the platform, or because of how it’s been implemented?
• Developer productivity: Are they firefighting because of platform limitations or implementation complexity? 
• Licensing fees: Are they rising without value, or is there opportunity to renegotiate or optimize usage? 
• Internal resource capacity: Do you have the bandwidth to train your team and maintain a new platform? 
• Upgrade complexity: Is it difficult because of the platform’s architecture or because of custom code debt? 

Companies that migrate to modern platforms often see their total cost of ownership drop over time. New platforms typically need less maintenance and include capabilities you’re currently paying to build yourself. 

However, if high costs stem from poor implementation or process issues, those problems might follow you to a new platform. Understanding the root cause is essential. 

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The Customer Experience Gap

B2B buyers are also B2C consumers. They know what seamless ecommerce feels like. They’ve been trained by Amazon, Shopify stores, and every other polished experience they use daily. 

The basics buyers expect: 

• Personalized pricing catalogs for different customer segments
• Self-service tools that let customers help themselves 
• Consistent experiences across web, mobile, and whatever comes next 
• Real-time inventory so customers know what they can actually buy 
• Buy online, pick up at warehouse options for flexible fulfillment
• Role-based purchasing restrictions that enforce approval workflows
• Quoting capabilities that let customers request and track custom pricing 

Before replatforming for customer experience, consider this distinction: can your platform deliver these features, or have they simply not been built yet? Many platforms have the capability but require strategic effort to unlock it. 

If your platform can’t deliver modern customer experiences without extensive customization, that’s a signal. If it can but hasn’t been configured to do so, the solution might not require replatforming. 

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Security and Compliance Requirements

Regulations evolve. Security threats multiply. If your platform isn’t keeping pace, you’re accumulating risk you might not even see yet. 

Ask these critical questions: 

• Does your platform get regular security updates and patches? 
• Can it handle compliance requirements like GDPR or industry-specific regulations? 
• Is it PCI DSS compliant for payment processing? 
• Does it have the data protection features enterprise customers expect? 

Security and compliance issues are rarely negotiable. If your platform provider isn’t maintaining security standards or can’t support compliance requirements, replatforming may be necessary regardless of other factors. 

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Making an Informed Decision

Replatforming is a significant decision that requires thorough planning and honest assessment. Not every challenge requires it, and it’s not a silver bullet that solves all problems. 

The organizations that benefit most from replatforming are those experiencing multiple indicators simultaneously—particularly when those issues affect revenue, limit growth opportunities, or consume disproportionate resources. 

Here’s what we believe: the decision to replatform should be strategic, not reactive. It should be based on where your business is going. And it requires a clear-eyed view of what your current platform can and can’t do. 

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Trying to figure out if replatforming is the right move for your business? We help companies work through this decision by assessing what’s limiting them and what their realistic options are. Let's talk about your specific situation and explore what makes sense for where you're headed →