Ecommerce migration in 2025: Overcome platform limitations & achieve your goals

As a leader, you know technology directly impacts business growth. Your ecommerce platform must work as a strategic asset, not a limiting factor.

But perhaps you're starting to suspect it's no longer delivering on that promise. That small frustrations have been piling up over time and have now turned into bigger, business-limiting problems. 

We've consistently seen these issues in businesses ready to scale:

• Your integration capabilities have hit a wall. Whether it's connecting with your ERP, SAP, PIM systems, or implementing modern payment gateways, your current platform simply can't keep up. You're seeing data silos and a business that's not operating as efficiently as it should.
• Your platform has become a technical burden. Perhaps you're dealing with an end-of-life scenario (like Magento 1), or maybe finding developers for your current platform (like Umbraco) has become increasingly difficult and expensive. When maintenance costs and technical debt start outweighing the value you receive, it's time to consider alternatives.
• Growth has become constrained. You're ready to scale, but your platform can't keep up. You're bumping up against technical limits as you try to handle increased traffic, expand internationally, or adapt to changing customer demands.
• The user experience is suffering. Slow page loads, poor mobile optimization, a clunky checkout process - all the things that are frustrating your customers and hurting conversion rates.
• You experience high maintenance costs. Ongoing maintenance, updates, and security patches can become prohibitively expensive, especially with legacy systems.
• Lack of support & technical expertise. Finding reliable support and developers familiar with your platform can be challenging and costly, especially when facing critical issues. Internal teams often lack the specific technical expertise needed for complex tasks like updates, upgrades, and add-on installations.

If any of this sounds familiar, ignoring these issues is costing you money. 

Acknowledging the problem and exploring strategic solutions is crucial to long-term ROI, and we can work together on that first step.

Selecting the right platform is critical to migration success. Here's a breakdown of when each major platform makes the most sense:

Magento (Adobe Commerce)

Magento stands out for businesses requiring extensive customization and complex functionality. Its open-source nature gives you complete control over your store's backend, checkout process, and integrations.

What makes Magento powerful is its ability to handle advanced product catalogs, support B2B features, and scale for medium to large enterprises. If you're planning international expansion with multiple storefronts under one admin, Magento's multi-store and multi-language support makes it particularly valuable.

In our work with Arvid Nilsson, we developed custom modules and integrations with SAP Business ByDesign and PIM C4, creating a tailored checkout and order flow for their B2B ecommerce with over 100,000 products. The result was a significant improvement in site speed, data retrieval, and overall customer experience.

However, Magento does require technical expertise to manage effectively. Its power comes with complexity, making it better suited for businesses with dedicated technical resources or partner agencies.

Shopify

Shopify excels in simplicity and ease of use. Its intuitive interface, built-in hosting, and extensive app ecosystem make it an attractive option for businesses seeking a straightforward solution with minimal technical overhead.

This platform is ideal for small to medium businesses with straightforward product offerings who want to focus on marketing and sales rather than technical maintenance. Shopify handles security, updates, and hosting, allowing you to concentrate on growing your business.

However, be aware of Shopify's limitations. Customization is more restricted, especially for checkout flows. Transaction fees apply unless you use Shopify Payments, and complex integrations can sometimes require workarounds. Additionally, the URL structure in Shopify differs from most other platforms, which can create SEO challenges during migration without proper planning.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce leverages the WordPress ecosystem, making it a natural choice for content-driven ecommerce stores or businesses already using WordPress. With no transaction fees and extensive plugin options, it provides flexibility without the higher costs of enterprise solutions.

Small businesses with simple product catalogs often find WooCommerce suitable, especially when working with limited budgets. However, scalability can become challenging for larger stores, and performance may suffer when using multiple plugins. Security and maintenance responsibilities also fall more heavily on the store owner compared to hosted solutions.
 

Headless commerce separates the front-end customer experience from the back end of your ecommerce site. This architecture provides the agility to adapt as commerce evolves, letting you embrace new technologies and sales channels.

Headless might be a fit when:

• You need highly personalized and unique customer experiences.
• Your development team can support a headless implementation.
• You're selling across multiple channels beyond just a website.
• Your current platform's limitations are holding back your growth.

The key to long-term ecommerce success isn't just choosing a platform; it's choosing the right platform for your current business stage. This requires a clear-eyed assessment of your capabilities and strategic goals.

For early-stage businesses & market validation

When validating market fit, speed and efficiency matter most:

• A customized Shopify or WooCommerce site can get you selling in days, not months
• Pre-built themes handle responsive design, navigation, and checkout optimization
• Development resources can focus on product differentiation rather than building infrastructure
• Marketing and product-market fit indeed drive initial success more than technical architecture

As you noted, most consumers won't abandon a purchase because you're using a familiar shopping cart - they care about your products and value proposition. Shopify's impressive Black Friday numbers certainly validate its performance capabilities for most businesses.

For established businesses with proven models

Once your business model is validated and growing:

• Headless becomes more compelling as you expand to multiple channels
• Native app development shares the same backend without duplicating business logic
• Custom frontends enable unique experiences that differentiate your brand
• Control over the entire stack allows for targeted optimization of high-value journeys

The full control headless provides becomes increasingly valuable as your business scales and your customers' expectations become more sophisticated.

The strategic migration plan

Instead of a complete ecommerce platform migration, many businesses are adopting a pragmatic approach:

1. Start with traditional platforms (Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce) for quick market entry
2. Gradually implement headless capabilities for specific needs as you grow
3. Consider full headless architecture only when business requirements justify the investment

This balanced strategy lets you validate your market quickly while keeping the door open for advanced capabilities when you need them. The right solution depends on your current business stage, available resources, and how unique your customer experience needs to be.

Replatforming isn't just a technical exercise. It's a strategic business decision requiring careful planning. Here are nine critical challenges that can make or break your migration project:

1. Migrating without a purpose

Many businesses replatform without clearly defined business goals. This leads to delays, budget overruns, and a lack of measurable results. Define your objectives upfront: Are you seeking to improve customer acquisition, enhance user experience, reduce operational costs, or expand into new markets?

ZenDev approach: We start every migration with a discovery phase to understand your business goals, identify pain points, and define success metrics. We then create a migration plan that aligns with your strategic objectives.

2. Improper URL redirection

HTTPS is essential for security and SEO. Bad redirects cause broken links, lost traffic, and drops in search rankings. Your migration must include a proper transition to HTTPS.

ZenDev approach: Our technical SEO team audits your website to identify all HTTP URLs and implement 301 redirects to their HTTPS versions. We also verify that canonical tags and internal links are updated correctly.

3. Neglecting SEO strategy

A poorly planned migration can destroy your search engine rankings and organic traffic. SEO must be a priority throughout the migration process.

ZenDev approach: We develop an SEO strategy that preserves URL structures where possible, implements 301 redirects, maintains metadata, and includes monitoring search performance after migration.

4. Security problems and data loss

Data breaches can be catastrophic. During replatforming, business data and user data are vulnerable. Data security and compliance must be top priorities.

ZenDev approach: We implement data security measures including encryption, access controls, and compliance with industry standards such as ISO/IEC27001, PCI DSS, SOC, and GDPR.

5. Missing less obvious data

Overlooking data like store credits, inactive customer accounts, and old email links damages customer experience. A complete data migration plan is essential.

ZenDev approach: We audit all data to identify every relevant data point and develop a plan to migrate them while preserving data integrity and relationships.

6. Complete redesign dropping conversion rates

Redesigning while replatforming can disrupt customer experience and lower conversion rates. You need to balance your desire for a new look with maintaining a familiar user journey.

ZenDev approach: We implement design changes in stages, test thoroughly, and gather user feedback before major changes. Our redesign strategy builds on user research and industry best practices.

7. Integration problems

Third-party applications, CRM systems, and accounting tools rarely integrate smoothly with a new platform. All critical integrations need proper planning and testing.

ZenDev approach: We identify required integrations early, develop testing scenarios, and help select compatible applications or develop custom integrations when needed.

8. Underestimating user experience impact

Usability matters. Replatforming without adjusting for user experience hurts both internal and external stakeholders. User experience must be prioritized throughout migration.

ZenDev approach: We conduct user research, gather feedback from all user types, and create a staging environment for testing before launching the new platform.

9. Ignoring maintenance requirements

New platforms require ongoing attention. Many businesses underestimate the time, cost, and resources needed for maintenance. Plan for ongoing support from the beginning.

ZenDev approach: We provide post-launch support including training, documentation, monitoring and optimization.

To navigate these challenges, here are the core ecommerce platform migration services we provide:

• Strategic Planning: Defining goals and choosing the best platform (Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce, Headless).
• Secure Data & SEO Migration: Safely transferring all data while preserving search rankings.
• Seamless Systems Integration: Connecting your store with ERP, PIM, CRM, and payment gateways.
• Expert Platform Implementation: Setting up, customizing, and optimizing your new store.
• Rigorous Testing & QA: Ensuring flawless functionality before launch.
• Smooth Go-Live & Post-Migration Support: Managed deployment and ongoing assistance.
• Marketing activities: Implementing marketing strategies to drive growth on your new platform.

Now, let's talk about the investment involved. When you're considering moving your online store to a new platform, you need to know exactly what you're getting into financially. Let us walk you through the costs you should anticipate.

Initial development costs

You'll face platform licensing fees that vary widely between options. Shopify Plus starts around $2,000 per month, while Magento requires a significant upfront development investment instead. The largest expense is typically custom development to recreate your existing functionality, especially for unique features your business relies on. Don't forget to account for data migration, theme development, and connecting your third-party systems.

The costs most businesses don't see coming

Projects often take longer than initially estimated, pushing budgets beyond forecasts. When we begin connecting systems, we sometimes discover they don't communicate as seamlessly as vendors promised. At ZenDev, we address this by thoroughly analyzing all integration points before we start and maintaining a contingency budget specifically for unexpected compatibility issues.

Your team will need to dedicate significant time to the project - reviewing designs, testing functionality, and making decisions. This pulls them away from their regular duties, creating an indirect cost many businesses overlook.

After launch, you'll likely identify improvements once real customers start using the system. We build this optimization phase into our project plans from the beginning so you're not surprised by these necessary refinements.

Ongoing Platform Expenses

• Monthly subscription fees: These can vary widely. Choose a platform with a model that fits your anticipated growth.
• Transaction fees: Some platforms (like Shopify, depending on your plan) charge transaction fees, which can impact your bottom line.
• Maintenance & support: Regular security updates, technical support, and ongoing optimization are essential for long-term success.

While understanding costs is critical, the return on your investment ultimately determines success. Most of our clients see increased conversion rates from improved user experiences, higher average order values, reduced operational costs through automation, and expanded market capabilities that quickly outweigh migration expenses.

We'll help you map out both the costs and expected returns upfront, so you can make your decision based on long-term business impact rather than just implementation expenses.

Arvid Nilsson faced a situation that may sound familiar: their Magento 1 platform was approaching end-of-life, critical processes like catalog indexing took days to complete, and integration with their SAP system was severely limited. These technical limitations were directly impacting their business performance.

Here's how we turned their challenges into success story:

1. We conducted a detailed analysis of their technical infrastructure and business requirements
2. Our team implemented a new design optimized for both performance and user experience
3. We developed over 20 custom APIs to connect their systems seamlessly
4. A robust Azure integration provided the foundation for their modernized platform
5. We completely rebuilt their indexing process with dramatic results

The most significant impact? A staggering reduction in processing time - from days to just 2 minutes. This improvement delivered concrete business benefits: significantly faster site speed, seamless integration with backend systems, real-time inventory updates, and streamlined operations through automation.

As Mattias Nordström, Project Sales Manager at Arvid Nilsson, noted: 

"The 110% commitment we received from ZenDev was truly remarkable. Processes that once took days now take just 2 minutes."

Successful migrations need more than technical skills—they require a partner with experience, methods, and business perspective. Here's why companies trust ZenDev with their platform transitions:

1. Business-first migration approach

Unlike many technical agencies, we start with your business objectives, not platform features. This ensures your migration solves real business problems and delivers measurable ROI.

When you work with ZenDev, we first analyze what's limiting your growth, where you're losing revenue, and what customer experience improvements will drive the most business value. Only then do we develop technical solutions.

2. Multi-platform expertise

Our team has certified expertise across all major ecommerce platforms - Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce, and custom solutions. This knowledge allows us to provide objective recommendations based on your specific needs rather than pushing a single platform.

We've successfully implemented migrations both to and from each major platform, giving us insight into the strengths, limitations, and best use cases for each solution.

3. Enterprise integration specialization

Integration failures are among the most common migration problems. Our team connects ecommerce platforms with complex enterprise systems including:

• ERP solutions like SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, and Oracle
• CRM platforms including Salesforce, HubSpot, and Microsoft Dynamics
• PIM systems such as Akeneo, inRiver, and Pimcore
• Custom and legacy systems unique to your business

This integration expertise ensures data flows across your entire business ecosystem.

4. Risk mitigation methodology

Our migration methodology has been refined through dozens of successful projects to identify and address risks before they impact your business. This includes:

• Pre-migration assessment and planning
• Data mapping and validation procedures
• Testing protocols for all business-critical functions
• Contingency planning and rollback procedures
• Post-migration monitoring and optimization

This approach reduces the risks that cause many migrations to fail.

Plan your ecommerce migration

Ecommerce platform migration is both a significant challenge and an opportunity. With the right approach and partner, you can solve current platform limitations and position your business for growth and improved customer experience.

The first step is understanding your specific migration needs. ZenDev offers a Migration Assessment that provides:

• Analysis of your current platform limitations and business impact
• Evaluation of platform options based on your requirements
• Preliminary migration approach and timeline recommendations
• Budget considerations and ROI projections

This assessment gives you the clarity to make informed decisions about your ecommerce platform future without obligation.

Ready to explore your options? Contact our team today to schedule your migration assessment and take the first step toward ecommerce platform optimization.

[Schedule a free consultation→]