[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/09\/07\/ecommerce-platform-consolidation\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/09\/07\/ecommerce-platform-consolidation\/","headline":"Platform consolidation: Time to consolidate your e-commerce platforms?","name":"Platform consolidation: Time to consolidate your e-commerce platforms?","description":"Running multiple e-commerce platforms is common. Does platform consolidation make sense? How do you decide which platform to select?","datePublished":"2018-09-07","dateModified":"2025-03-26","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/dave-greene\/#Person","name":"Dave Greene","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/dave-greene\/","identifier":291,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/270cd37337dbfdec6fed6f7aa06f26a6d80fd8a5de95556e95cf34d26236fb4c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/270cd37337dbfdec6fed6f7aa06f26a6d80fd8a5de95556e95cf34d26236fb4c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Future of Commerce","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","width":172,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/thumbnail-75b37afd7e9e4f9a2fdc07d2068e34bc.jpeg","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/thumbnail-75b37afd7e9e4f9a2fdc07d2068e34bc.jpeg","height":375,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/09\/07\/ecommerce-platform-consolidation\/","about":[{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/commerce\/","name":"Commerce","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Commerce","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q26643"]},"Commerce Platforms + Software",{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/commerce\/e-commerce\/","name":"E-Commerce","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/E-commerce","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q484847"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/e-commerce-solution\/e-commerce-general\/","name":"E-Commerce","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/E-commerce","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q484847"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/commerce\/omnichannel-commerce\/","name":"Omnichannel Commerce","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Omnichannel"]}],"wordCount":725,"keywords":["E-commerce","E-commerce Platforms","Omnichannel"],"articleBody":"More and more I\u2019m hearing from clients who find themselves in a position where they\u2019re running multiple e-commerce platforms.It\u2019s a situation that both large enterprise companies and mid-market shops find themselves in due to corporate acquisitions or independent internal initiatives.From a cost and resource perspective, consolidating to a single, common platform seems to make sense.But what single platform should you consolidate on? And will the time, effort, and resources required for such a large undertaking produce the desired results?In this blog post I\u2019d like to outline a simple 5-Step framework for evaluating which platform consolidation makes the most sense for your organization.I wouldn\u2019t categorize this as the be-all, end-all analysis for presenting to the board, but it will get the ball rolling on internal decisions and decision making, and can be extended as needed to fit your organization\u2019s needs.The key is to have a framework and process for facilitating this important decision.Platform consolidation in five stepsThere are five steps to e-commerce platform consolidation:Identify key stakeholdersDetermining the decision criteriaScoring determinationAnalysisReporting the resultsStep #1- Identify key stakeholdersThese are the folks you\u2019ll gather input from while performing your analysis. This is a great opportunity to revisit who your key stakeholders are and how they\u2019re leveraging your current e-commerce infrastructure. Typically, this will include a cross section of business users, technical users, and senior management. If you have the time and means to gather input directly from customers, even better.Step #2- Determine the key decision criteria for evaluating your platformsYour stakeholders should identify the major and minor criteria you\u2019ll use to evaluate your options. Agreeing on and possibly weighting your various criteria can be a time-consuming process. The trick here is to not try to boil the ocean with every single requirement, but rather come up with a manageable list that best represents the solution that will meet your business objectives. Priorities across organizations will vary, but the table below describes a typical list.Major Decision CriteriaMinor CriteriaNative FunctionalityUXStorefrontConfigurator (Y\/N?)B2B & B2C featuresScalability & StabilityReliabilityPerformanceSecurityAgilityFuture functionalityBusiness user toolingFlexibilitySupport & resourcesBusiness DisruptionStaffingTrainingOpportunity costRisk minimizedExecute consolidationSupport platformTotal Cost of OwnershipCost to implement & operateReturn on InvestmentIncreased revenueStep #3- Determine \u201cscoring\u201d methodologyTypically, this will be a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis. Project Cost, TCO and ROI lend themselves to quantitative measurements summarized in terms of dollars over time. Criteria such as functionality, agility, and risk should be rated from better to worse via designations of high, moderate, or low. Finer scales or weighting can be used, although in my experience, they just make the analysis more unnecessarily complex.Step #4- Execute the AnalysisThis is the most time-consuming step of the process. Leverage stakeholder interviews and product demos to get the most accurate feedback on desired features, business impact, and risk tolerance. When building your cost model, make sure you get buy-in on assumptions from your relevant stakeholders and CFO. Remember the garbage-in\/garbage-out principal; if stakeholders haven\u2019t bought into your data inputs, they won\u2019t be onboard with your final analysis.Step #5- Report the ResultsWith the analysis complete you\u2019re ready to build out and report your results. The sample below will give you a sense of the summary deliverable. The report along with supporting detail starts to give executive management a sense of the best path forward and points towards areas where additional analysis may be necessary.Evaluation CriteriaSub-criteriaPlatform APlatform BPlatform CFunctionality\u2022 UX\u2022 Storefront\u2022 Configurator (Y\/N?)\u2022 B2B & B2C featuresHighRatingMediumRatingMediumRatingScalability & Stability\u2022 Reliability\u2022 Performance\u2022 SecurityHighRatingHighRatingLowRatingAgility\u2022 Future functionality\u2022 Business user tooling\u2022 Flexibility\u2022 Support & resourcesMediumRatingMediumRatingMediumRatingBusiness Disruption Minimized\u2022 Staffing\u2022 Training\u2022 Opportunity costHighRatingMediumRatingMediumRatingRisk MinimizedHighRatingLowRatingMediumRatingProject Cost$0.8M$1.0M$0.6MTotal Cost of Ownership (TCO)$8.5M$10.1M$9.0MHopefully, this simple model provides you with a general framework to do your own analysis.  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