Replatforming: when is it time for change?
Is your e-commerce platform starting to hit its limits? What was once a great choice can, after a few years, start to feel like a barrier to growth. Features no longer meet your needs, integrations become unstable, and innovation becomes slow and expensive. Yet many companies postpone replatforming, while the cost of staying put is often higher than investing in a new platform.
So how do you know it is truly time to make the move? Here are five situations in which businesses decide to replatform and what it is currently costing them if they do not.
1. Your platform can no longer keep up with growth
Many businesses start with a basic solution that works perfectly in the early phase. But as your product range, customer base or number of markets grows, the platform begins to reach its limits.
Signs your platform is blocking growth:
Processing orders or stock updates takes too long
Adding new sales channels (marketplaces, B2B) is complex
Integrations with ERP or PIM are unstable or cannot scale
What it is currently costing you:
Time: employees spend hours on manual work that could easily be automated
Energy: frustration within the team due to slow, inefficient processes
Money: missed revenue opportunities because you cannot quickly respond to new markets or customer needs
2. Technical limitations and high maintenance costs
A platform full of custom code or legacy software becomes increasingly expensive and difficult to maintain. Every small change has a big impact, and you rely on a handful of specialists who still understand the technical spaghetti.
Signs your platform has become too complex:
Minor updates cause bugs in other parts of the system
You depend on expensive external developers for every change
Upgrades or security patches are difficult or even impossible
What it is currently costing you:
Time: long development and testing cycles for simple updates
Energy: constant frustration due to limited flexibility
Money: high maintenance and licensing costs without structural improvements
3. Customer experience is falling behind the market
Customer expectations evolve rapidly. They want a seamless omnichannel experience, real-time stock information, personalized offers, and fast delivery. If your platform cannot support this, customers will turn to competitors who can.
Signs your customer experience is lagging behind:
Your webshop loads slowly or is not mobile-friendly
Online and offline stock are not connected, leading to disappointed customers
Loyalty programs or marketing automation are not integrated
What it is currently costing you:
Time: your customer service team is busy solving complaints
Energy: your team must get creative to work around platform limitations
Money: customers drop off and your conversion rates decline
4. You want to add new business models or channels
Perhaps you want to expand into new markets, launch a marketplace, build a B2B environment, or work with dropshipping and long-tail assortments. If your platform does not support this, you are stuck with your current way of working.
Signs your platform is blocking innovation:
Adding new sales channels is technically complex
You cannot test new propositions without expensive custom projects
You are limited in integrations with external tools or partners
What it is currently costing you:
Time: innovation processes take months instead of weeks
Energy: opportunities are missed because implementing them is too complicated
Money: lost revenue from new markets and channels
5. Your current vendor no longer matches your ambitions
Sometimes it is not just the platform itself but also your agency/partner that is the problem. You receive insufficient support, the roadmap no longer aligns with your vision, or you are too dependent on a partner who is not evolving with you.
Signs the partnership is no longer working:
Long turnaround times for support or new features
Lack of transparency on costs and capabilities
No strategic thinking about your future plans
What it is currently costing you:
Time: you wait too long for improvements or solutions
Energy: frustration about poor communication and collaboration
Money: you are paying for services that no longer add value
Stay or move?
Not replatforming may seem like the easy choice, but in the long run you pay the price. You lose flexibility, fall behind competitors, and miss out on revenue due to inefficient processes.
Replatforming, on the other hand, offers a fresh start with:
✅ A scalable foundation for growth
✅ Lower maintenance costs and less complexity
✅ Better customer experience and new revenue opportunities
Do you recognize one or more of these situations?
Then it might be time to take a closer look. How much is your current platform costing you in time, energy, and money? And what would a future-proof solution deliver in return?
We’re happy to support you with ideas
Want to find out what replatforming could mean for your business? NextChapter has over 12 years of experience supporting (omnichannel) companies with replatforming to the newest generation e-commerce platform, the Suite. Our experts are here to inform you.