-
Composable commerce leader reveals trends and motivations surrounding eCommerce platform migrations amid intensified market forces, with data showing the ability to compete as the number one metric for assessing platform value
-
Only 14% of businesses are happy with their current eCommerce platform
-
77% of businesses feel a sense of urgency to migrate within the next year citing limited scalability and poor user experiences
commercetools, a global commerce company and the market leader in composable commerce, published its first “State of eCommerce: Replatforming and Migration Trends for 2024” report, analyzing insights on the replatforming and migration strategies of business and technology leaders across retail, B2B manufacturing, and consumer packaged goods sectors. The report surveyed businesses with over $500 million in annual revenue, where eCommerce accounts for at least 10% of sales.
In 2024’s challenging market conditions, shifting consumer demands are driving enterprises to make strategic IT investments, particularly in eCommerce platforms that deliver a quantifiable return on investment, quickly. Priority is given to technologies that not only strengthen the ability to compete but ones that also support in capturing market share in increasingly complex environments. According to the report, the top metric for evaluating the success of a new eCommerce platform is its ability to create and maintain a competitive edge.
“The number one buying trigger for eCommerce migrations is the need to create better user experiences, as this allows for differentiation and helps businesses compete. Failure to innovate can, and likely will, result in significant business repercussions,” said Kelly Goetsch, Chief Strategy Officer at commercetools. “Companies relying on monolithic eCommerce platforms face increased challenges due to their inflexibility, lack of agility, limited scalability, and higher operating costs compared to composable solutions. These technological limitations directly impact an organization’s ability to enhance customer experiences and maintain competitiveness in a demanding market.”
Read More: SalesTechStar Interview with Alex Saric, CMO at Ivalua
As businesses work to stay ahead of innovation and meet increasing demands for hyper-personalized experiences, 41% of those who recently switched platforms cited improving customer experience as their primary reason for the change. Closely behind were the needs for greater customization and flexibility (38%), and advanced features like AI-driven recommendations and analytics (38%).
For those planning to migrate to a new platform, urgency is high—77% are aiming to make the transition within the next year. This comes as only 14% of respondents expressed satisfaction with their current eCommerce platform. Key frustrations driving the need for change include limited scalability (35%), delayed previous implementations (31%), subpar customer support (31%), poor user experience (31%), and a lack of advanced functionality (31%).
Read More: Direct-From-Consumers: Recent Data and Trends on Retail Media Consumer Engagement
Additional findings include:
- 90% of recent migrators experienced sales and revenue improvements, with 30% of respondents reporting that their sales increased by 30% or more, and 42% of respondents reporting revenue growth of 10% or more.
- 94% of respondents reported that their migration significantly improved their site performance, and the majority (86%) also said their new platform offered more customization, while 62% said it was easier for the organization to use.
- When measuring the success of an eCommerce platform, businesses are paying the closest attention to the platform’s ability to enable an organization to compete (67%), followed by total cost of ownership (56%) and customer satisfaction scores (56%).
- 92% of recent migrators said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their migration to a new eCommerce platform.
- 83% of respondents had a favorable perception of composable commerce.
- Data security and integrity remains at the top of businesses’ priorities, with just over a third (36%) of potential migrators reporting this factor as the leading hurdle to their migration. Yet, among respondents who had recently switched platforms, only 3% felt their data was not secure through the migration, indicating that most did not experience increased vulnerabilities.