50 Percent Online Retailers Plan to Replace E-commerce Platforms in Next 12 Month

Fifty percent of online retailer are planning to replace their e-commerce platforms in the next 12 months according to a recent poll conducted by FitForCommerce, an e-commerce consulting firm and Lyons Consulting Group, an e-commerce design and integration firm.

According to the poll: 

- 50% of the respondents are looking to replace their e-commerce platform within the next 12 months, 4% in next 12-24 months, 4% in greater than 24 months and 43% are not looking to replace their platform in the near future.

- Reasons for re-platforming included: lack of innovation/flexibility (48%), outgrown the technology (24%), dissatisfaction with support (14%), slow to upgrade (10%) and too expensive (5%).

- Of those who are re-platforming, 36% are considering an on-demand solution, 21% a licensed, 14% an open-source, 7% are going with in-house development, and 21% are uncertain as to what approach to take.

"The high percentage of retailers re-platforming set against one-in-five of them being uncertain of their approach means that there is both opportunity and confusion in the marketplace," said Bernardine Wu, FitForCommerce's Founder and CEO. "Our extensive work helping online and multi-channel retailers make informed decisions has shown us that a rigorous and structured process of requirements diligence is necessary before even beginning the vendor selection process."

Also discussed were comparative characteristics, myths and best practices for in-house developed e-commerce platforms vs. licensed vs. on-demand (SaaS/ASP) vs. open source.

"Of the retailers considering a new platform, a full 50% of them are looking at on-demand or open source options," said Rich Lyons, President of Lyons Consulting Group. "This speaks to the market's ongoing maturity and the growing demand for more flexible, innovative, and budget-friendly platform solutions."