It is not uncommon for an online retailer to outgrow their e-commerce platform. Transitioning from one e-commerce platform to another is an exciting endeavor that can greatly improve online sales and order processing efficiency. However, proper steps need to be taken to make sure sales don’t hit a speed bump during the transition phase. Following are some best practices merchants should consider:

1. Keep the Old Store Online. When transitioning, merchants should not take their old online stores offline immediately. It is likely that consumers have bookmarked pages or search engines have indexed pages from the old store. If merchants want all orders to funnel into the new store, they should change the "Add to Cart" buttons to "More Info" buttons or something similar that are linked to the product pages in the new store. This will help mitigate customers from receiving error pages, which may likely influence them to go elsewhere to shop. Another option worth considering is using an automated redirect to transition the customer to the relevant product page(s) in the new store. Merchants should keep their old store until it is not longer receiving measurable traffic.

2. Transfer the Customer Database. If possible, import customer information from the old system into the new system. By importing customer information from the old system, customers should not have to recreate accounts in the new e-commerce system. This saves existing customers time and avoids the annoyance of a new registration.

3. Launch the New Store in Beta. Merchants should consider launching the new store as a beta for a few days. This will allow a small segment of customers to try out the new store and provide the merchant an opportunity to solicit feedback for relevant improvements. There may be some simple kinks that can be ironed out before the new store is released to the masses to avoid potential customer confusion and frustration of a new store. This can be implemented by either sending an email out with a link to the new store to a small segment of the existing customer base or putting a link to the beta store on the existing homepage for customers to access. Also, web analytics software should be used to monitor shopper behavior.

4. Update Destination URLs for Online Marketing Campaigns. Change all relevant destination URLs for internet marketing campaigns accordingly. Many times merchants create direct product links from pay per click campaigns in Google Adwords or Yahoo Search Marketing. These links need to be directed to the new e-commerce platform to avoid error pages and wasted cost per click. Also, merchants need to inform affiliates about the change if they are linking to specific category or product pages.

5. Implement a Shopper Friendly 404 (File Not Found) Page. Make sure a good 404 file is being used. There may be files which may have inadvertently been removed and it is important that potential customers don’t feel like they have reached a dead end. See last month’s Nexus for tips on creating a good 404 page.

6. Test New Store Before Going Live. As with any new software implementation, be sure to test thoroughly. Merchants should run through their new e-commerce platform in detail making sure that policies have been created, shipping rates are accurately being calculated, etc.

Finally, once the new and improved e-commerce platform is live, merchants have a good excuse to send a marketing message to their existing customer base to let them know about the new store and engage them to buy again!

To subscribe to this ezine, please click the link below:
http://www.nexternal.com/nexus/subscribe

To read previous versions of this ezine, please click the link below:
http://www.nexternal.com/nexus

Copyright 2009 Nexternal Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be republished in whole, or in part, without the express written consent of the publisher.