Author Archives: Ivan Latter

Choosing an Ecommerce Platform

Ecommerce Platform

What to look for when choosing an ecommerce Solution.

Ecommerce Platform choice is wide and varied. Choosing the right e-commerce platform for your business is a crucial decision that can impact your online success. Here are some key factors to consider when evaluating and selecting an e-commerce platform:

1. Type of Business and Products:

Consider the nature of your business and the types of products you’re selling. Some platforms might be better suited for physical goods, while others excel with digital products or services.

2.Ecommerce Platform Scalability:

When choosing the right ecommerce platform ensure that the platform can accommodate your business’s growth. It should handle increasing numbers of products, customers, and transactions without compromising performance.

3. Customization and Flexibility:

Evaluate how much customization the platform allows. Depending on your business needs, you might require extensive customization to match your brand and unique requirements.

choosing the right ecommerce platform

4. User Experience (UX):

A user-friendly and intuitive interface is essential for both customers and administrators. Look for platforms that offer responsive and mobile-friendly designs.

5. Features and Functionality:

Identify the essential features your business requires, such as product catalog management, inventory management, payment gateways, shipping options, and SEO tools.

6. Integration Capabilities:

Check if the platform can integrate with other tools you use, such as accounting software, email marketing platforms, analytics tools, and more.

7. Security:

Security is paramount for an e-commerce platform. So choosing the right ecommerce platform look for built-in security measures like SSL encryption, regular updates, and PCI compliance for handling payment data.

8. Performance and Speed:

Slow loading times can deter customers. Choose a platform known for fast page loading and smooth performance.

9. SEO-Friendly Features:

An e-commerce platform that supports search engine optimization (SEO) practices can help your products get discovered more easily on search engines.

10. Support and Documentation:

Evaluate the level of customer support offered by the platform. Are there resources like documentation, tutorials, and a customer support team to help you troubleshoot issues?

11. Costs and Pricing:

Consider the overall cost, including platform fees, transaction fees, payment gateway charges, and any additional costs associated with add-ons or extensions.

effective SEO. How to Increase Website Traffic - SEO Services Colchester

12. Mobile Commerce (M-Commerce):

With the rise of mobile shopping, make sure the platform offers mobile-responsive designs and a smooth mobile shopping experience.

13. Ecommerce Platform Multi-Channel Selling:

If you plan to sell across multiple channels (website, social media, marketplaces), ensure the platform supports these integrations.

14. Data Analytics and Reporting:

Access to data analytics and reporting tools is vital for monitoring your business’s performance and making informed decisions.

15. Future Upgrades and Maintenance:

Assess how often the platform releases updates and new features. Regular updates can keep your site secure and up-to-date.

16. User Reviews and Recommendations:

Research user reviews and recommendations to understand real-world experiences with the platform.

Furthermore, Remember that each business’s needs are unique. Prioritize the factors that align with your business goals and long-term strategy. It’s also a good idea to consult with other business owners, industry experts, or developers to gather insights before making a final decision.

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We only build on ecommerce platforms that offer the scalability and customisation you need to deliver a growth-enabled, brand-focused web stores that puts your customer first.

We offer options to suit all levels of investment, from start up businesses to enterprise level companies.

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Why should companies use email marketing

Email Marketing Why should companies be using direct marketing

Companies should use email marketing for a variety of reasons, as it remains one of the most effective and versatile digital marketing strategies.

Companies should use email marketing for a variety of reasons, as it remains one of the most effective and versatile digital marketing strategies. Here are some key reasons why companies should consider incorporating email marketing into their overall marketing efforts:

1. Direct Communication:

Email marketing offers companies a direct line of communication with their target audience. It provides a personalised and one-on-one communication channel, making it easier to connect with customers on an individual level.

 

Unlike traditional mass advertising methods, such as TV commercials or print ads, email marketing allows businesses to tailor their messages to specific segments of their audience based on factors like demographics, purchase history, or past interactions with the brand. This personalised approach enhances the relevance and effectiveness of email communications, increasing the likelihood of engagement and conversion. Moreover, email marketing enables businesses to deliver timely and targeted messages to their audience, such as promotional offers, product updates, or helpful resources.

 

By delivering content that is relevant and valuable to the recipient, businesses can strengthen their relationships with customers and foster loyalty over time. Additionally, email marketing offers opportunities for two-way communication, allowing recipients to engage with the brand by responding to emails, clicking on links, or making purchases directly from the email. This interactive nature of email marketing encourages engagement and provides valuable feedback that businesses can use to refine their marketing strategies and improve the customer experience.

 

Overall, email marketing serves as a powerful tool for businesses to communicate directly with their audience, deliver personalized and relevant messages, and build strong, lasting relationships with customers.

2. Cost-Effective:

Email campaigns offer a cost-effective solution compared to traditional advertising methods. Sending emails to a large audience can be achieved at a fraction of the cost of traditional print or TV ads. With email marketing, there are no expenses related to printing materials, postage, or media placement, significantly reducing overhead costs. Additionally, the ability to automate email campaigns further lowers labor costs, as businesses can reach thousands of subscribers with just a few clicks. Moreover, email marketing platforms often offer affordable pricing plans, making it accessible to businesses of all sizes, including startups and small enterprises. Despite its affordability, email marketing can yield impressive returns on investment (ROI) due to its ability to reach a targeted audience and generate measurable results. This makes it an attractive option for businesses looking to maximise their marketing budget and achieve significant results without breaking the bank. Overall, the cost-effectiveness of email campaigns makes them a valuable tool for businesses looking to reach and engage their audience while staying within budget.

3. High ROI

Direct marketing, including email marketing, frequently yields a high return on investment (ROI). With its relatively low costs compared to traditional advertising channels and the potential for driving significant revenue, email marketing campaigns can deliver substantial ROI for businesses.

 

One of the primary factors contributing to the high ROI of email marketing is its cost-effectiveness. Unlike traditional marketing channels such as print or television advertising, which can be expensive to produce and distribute, email marketing incurs minimal costs. Businesses can reach a large audience with a single email campaign, eliminating expenses associated with printing, postage, or media placement.

 

Furthermore, email marketing offers precise targeting and segmentation capabilities, allowing businesses to tailor their messages to specific audience segments. By sending personalised and relevant content to recipients based on their demographics, preferences, or past interactions with the brand, businesses can maximise engagement and conversion rates, further enhancing the ROI of their email campaigns.

 

Moreover, email marketing provides measurable results, enabling businesses to track key metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and revenue generated. This data-driven approach allows businesses to analyse the performance of their email campaigns, identify areas for improvement, and optimize strategies to maximise ROI.

 

Additionally, email marketing facilitates ongoing communication and relationship-building with customers, which can lead to repeat purchases, referrals, and long-term loyalty. By delivering valuable content, exclusive offers, and personalised recommendations through email, businesses can nurture customer relationships and drive continuous engagement, ultimately contributing to higher lifetime customer value and ROI.

 

In summary, email marketing offers businesses a cost-effective and highly targeted marketing channel with the potential for delivering significant ROI. By leveraging its low costs, precise targeting capabilities, measurable results, and relationship-building opportunities, businesses can maximise the effectiveness of their email marketing campaigns and achieve impressive returns on their investment.

4. Segmentation and Personalization:

Advanced email marketing platforms offer robust segmentation capabilities, empowering companies to divide their email lists based on diverse criteria such as demographics, purchase history, behavior, and more. This segmentation enables businesses to send targeted and relevant content to different groups of recipients, significantly enhancing the effectiveness of their email campaigns.

 

By segmenting their email lists, companies can tailor their messages to specific audience segments, ensuring that each recipient receives content that resonates with their interests, preferences, and past interactions with the brand. For example, a clothing retailer can segment their email list based on gender or past purchase history, allowing them to send personalised product recommendations or exclusive offers tailored to each recipient’s unique preferences.

 

Moreover, segmentation enables companies to deliver more timely and contextually relevant messages to their audience. By considering factors such as geographic location, time zone, or recent website activity, businesses can send emails at optimal times and deliver content that is most likely to capture the recipient’s attention.

 

Additionally, segmentation allows companies to implement more targeted and effective marketing strategies. For instance, businesses can create segmented email campaigns for different stages of the customer journey, such as welcome emails for new subscribers, re-engagement emails for inactive subscribers, or upsell/cross-sell emails for existing customers.

 

Overall, segmentation is a powerful strategy that enables companies to deliver more personalised and engaging email experiences to their audience. By leveraging segmentation capabilities offered by modern email marketing platforms, businesses can maximize the impact of their email campaigns, drive higher engagement and conversions, and ultimately, achieve their marketing objectives with greater efficiency and effectiveness.

5. Email Marketing Automation:

Email marketing platforms provide automation features, enabling companies to set up automated email sequences based on triggers or specific actions. This functionality allows businesses to nurture leads, onboard new customers, and engage with subscribers without manual intervention. By defining triggers such as subscribing to a newsletter, making a purchase, or abandoning a cart, companies can automatically send relevant follow-up emails tailored to the recipient’s behavior or stage in the customer journey. For example, a welcome email series can be triggered when a new subscriber joins the mailing list, providing them with introductory information, exclusive offers, or helpful resources to encourage further engagement. Similarly, abandoned cart emails can be automatically triggered when a customer leaves items in their shopping cart without completing the purchase, reminding them of their items and incentivising them to complete the transaction. By leveraging email automation, businesses can deliver timely and personalized communications that nurture leads, drive conversions, and enhance the overall customer experience. Additionally, automation features enable companies to scale their email marketing efforts efficiently, freeing up time and resources that can be allocated to other areas of the business. With automated email sequences in place, businesses can maintain consistent communication with their audience, build stronger relationships, and drive results with minimal manual effort. In summary, email marketing automation empowers businesses to deliver targeted and timely messages, streamline processes, and maximize the effectiveness of their email marketing campaigns. By automating repetitive tasks and leveraging data-driven insights, companies can drive engagement, conversions, and ultimately, business growth.

6. Engagement and Conversion:

Emails are a potent tool for driving engagement and conversions. Crafting compelling content, offers, or calls-to-action in emails can motivate recipients to take desired actions, such as making a purchase, signing up for a webinar, or downloading a resource. Well-designed and strategically targeted emails have the power to capture attention, spark interest, and prompt immediate responses from recipients. By leveraging persuasive language, visually appealing layouts, and clear directives, businesses can guide subscribers through the customer journey and prompt them to complete specific actions that align with their marketing objectives. Whether it’s promoting new products, announcing special promotions, or inviting subscribers to participate in events, emails serve as an effective vehicle for delivering targeted messages and driving desired outcomes. Additionally, email marketing allows for precise targeting and segmentation, enabling businesses to tailor their messages to specific audience segments based on demographics, preferences, or past behavior. This personalized approach enhances relevance and resonance, increasing the likelihood of engagement and conversion. Furthermore, email automation tools enable businesses to streamline the process of delivering timely and relevant messages to subscribers at various stages of the customer lifecycle. By automating email sequences, businesses can nurture leads, re-engage inactive subscribers, and deliver personalised content at scale, ultimately driving higher engagement and conversion rates. In summary, emails play a pivotal role in driving engagement and conversions by delivering targeted messages, compelling offers, and clear calls-to-action that motivate recipients to take action. By leveraging the power of email marketing effectively, businesses can build stronger relationships with their audience, generate more leads, and ultimately drive business growth and success.

7. Brand Awareness and Loyalty:

Consistent email communication plays a crucial role in reinforcing brand awareness and ensuring that a company’s products or services remain top of mind for subscribers. By regularly appearing in subscribers’ inboxes with updates, promotions, and valuable content, businesses can strengthen their brand presence and maintain ongoing engagement with their audience. This frequent interaction helps to build familiarity and trust, making it more likely for subscribers to consider the company’s offerings when making purchasing decisions.

 

Furthermore, delivering valuable content and updates through email can contribute to fostering customer loyalty over time. By providing subscribers with relevant information, exclusive offers, or personalised recommendations, businesses demonstrate their commitment to delivering ongoing value beyond just promoting products or services. This can enhance the overall customer experience and deepen the relationship between the brand and its audience, leading to increased loyalty and repeat business.

 

In addition to reinforcing brand awareness and fostering loyalty, consistent email communication also enables businesses to stay connected with their audience and adapt to their evolving needs and preferences. By soliciting feedback, conducting surveys, or inviting subscribers to participate in special events or promotions, companies can gather valuable insights and strengthen their relationship with their audience.

 

Overall, consistent email communication serves as a powerful tool for building and nurturing relationships with subscribers, reinforcing brand awareness, fostering loyalty, and driving long-term success for businesses. By delivering relevant content, staying engaged with their audience, and providing ongoing value, companies can maximise the impact of their email marketing efforts and achieve their marketing objectives effectively.

8. Analytics and Tracking:

Email advertising platforms offer robust analytics and tracking capabilities, empowering companies to monitor various metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and more. These insights provide valuable data to assess the performance of email campaigns and make informed, data-driven decisions to enhance effectiveness. By analysing metrics over time, businesses can identify trends, pinpoint areas for improvement, and optimize their strategies to achieve better results. Moreover, detailed analytics enable companies to segment their audience effectively, target specific demographics, and personalize content based on recipient preferences and behaviors. This level of precision enhances the relevance and impact of email marketing efforts, driving higher engagement and conversion rates. Additionally, tracking capabilities allow companies to attribute conversions and track the customer journey, from email opens to website visits and ultimately, purchases. This end-to-end visibility enables marketers to understand the impact of their email campaigns on driving sales and revenue, facilitating more accurate ROI calculations. Overall, leveraging the analytical power of email advertising platforms empowers companies to optimise their campaigns, maximise performance, and achieve their marketing objectives with greater efficiency and effectiveness.

9. Easy to Share:

When recipients find email content interesting or valuable, they often share it with friends, family, or colleagues. This word-of-mouth sharing extends the reach of the company’s message beyond the initial subscriber list. It harnesses the power of personal recommendations, amplifying brand exposure and potentially attracting new subscribers or customers. Additionally, sharing email content through social media platforms or forwarding emails to contacts can spark conversations and interactions, fostering community engagement and brand advocacy. Therefore, creating compelling and shareable email content not only enhances subscriber engagement but also serves as a valuable tool for organic audience growth and brand awareness.

10. Mobile-Friendly:

A considerable number of email opens happen on mobile devices, highlighting the importance of optimising email marketing templates for mobile viewing. Ensuring that messages are easily accessible and readable on smartphones and tablets is crucial for engaging with a mobile-savvy audience. By adopting responsive design techniques and optimising email layouts for smaller screens, businesses can enhance the user experience and increase the effectiveness of their email campaigns. This mobile optimisation not only improves readability but also encourages higher click-through rates and conversions. Additionally, considering the on-the-go nature of mobile users, concise and visually appealing content is essential to capture attention and drive engagement. Therefore, integrating mobile-friendly design principles into your email marketing strategy is imperative for reaching and resonating with today’s mobile-centric consumers.

11. Data Collection:

Digital communication empowers businesses to collect crucial customer data, refine marketing strategies, customize offerings, and gain insights into preferences. Through various online channels like email, social media, and websites, companies gather information on demographics, browsing behavior, purchase history, and feedback. This data forms the basis for personalised marketing campaigns, targeted promotions, and tailored product development. By analysing customer interactions and preferences, businesses can stay ahead of trends, anticipate shifts in consumer behavior, and adapt their strategies accordingly, ensuring continued relevance and competitiveness in the market.

12. Complementary to Other Channels:

Email marketing serves as a valuable complement to other marketing channels like social media and content marketing. It offers a versatile platform to promote blog posts, share social media updates, and drive traffic to various online assets. By integrating email campaigns with other marketing efforts, businesses can create cohesive and engaging customer experiences across multiple touchpoints. This synergy amplifies the reach and impact of marketing initiatives, fostering stronger brand awareness, engagement, and conversions. Additionally, email marketing allows for targeted messaging and segmentation, enabling businesses to deliver relevant content to specific audience segments based on their preferences and behaviors. Overall, by leveraging email marketing alongside other channels, businesses can maximise their marketing effectiveness and achieve their objectives more efficiently.

Email Marketing Automation That Matches Your Ambitions

Overall, email marketing remains a powerful tool for companies to build relationships with their audience, drive engagement, and achieve their marketing goals. However, it’s essential to create high-quality, relevant content and maintain a respectful approach to avoid spamming and alienating subscribers.

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Bringing Trading Data to the Centre of Decision Making in IRP Version 8.8.0

Commerce Cloud

Bringing Trading Data to the Centre of Decision Making in IRP Version 8.8.0

IRP keeps making data investments to deliver precise  trading data for increased visibility and control..

Commerce Cloud Version 8.8.0 is a large software release and contains an upgrade to the latest PayPal version, enhancements to Marketing Cloud, Feed Manager and the release of the Daily Trading Profits email.

 

IRP Commerce Cloud continues to invest in data to bring accurate trading data to the centre of decision making.

 

The focus on efficiency, increasing visibility, controlling merchant costs and increasing sales is critical to current and future IRP platform thinking and development.

PayPal Gateway Rebuilt in Partnership

PayPal part funded this 3 month development project deepening our partnership with this key Technical Partner.

The latest version of PayPal brings new merchant opportunities as well as improved user experience, more payment options and increased conversion potential. Online shoppers still have the ability to checkout directly from the basket or in the checkout flows, but they now have additional payment options like Pay Later. This is PayPal’s own implementation of the popular ‘Klarna’ method of paying for purchases.

The latest PayPal version works seamlessly with your IRP (whether desktop, mobile or tablet) and should help with your customer conversion while reducing payment failure rates.

 

Highlights included:

  • Increased Conversion
  • Improved UX
  • Pay Later Options
  • PayPal Credit Cards
  • Wide Range of supported Countries
  • More Currencies Supported
  • Alternative Payment Methods
IRP Commerce

Commerce Cloud Contribution to Sales

IRP Commerce Cloud contributes an unrecognised 70% of Merchant’s revenues.

Marketing Cloud delivers huge value to merchants all contained within the transaction fee. First Party systems are critical for the future of ecommerce – and no other system has an email campaign product and a feed management tool built directly into the core platform.

IRP saves merchants from significant additional costs for plugins and 3rd party systems providing features directly in your IRP. An email system, such as Klaviyo, may cost merchants an additional £2,000-£3,000 PER MONTH on top of monthly transaction fees. Whereas Feed Manager is simply an unmatched product in scope – and a large number of plugins cannot cover the 40+ Shopping feeds that IRP provides out-of-the-box in Feed Manager.

Merchants can now see ‘contribution to sales’ when entering the Marketing Cloud for IRP Core products – Email Manager and Feed Manager. This is important to Merchants as they strive to maximise the sales from email campaigns (Email Manager) and expand their product visibility and international traffic (Feed Manager).

 

Highlights included:

  • Last 30 Days Sales
  • Last 30 Days % Sales
  • YTD Sales
  • Domestic v International
Paypal

Feed Manager

One of the most important powerful features of an IRP Commerce Cloud is Feed Manager. It currently generates over 50% of Merchant sales to all world regions. Feed Manager provides unmatched product distribution with instant access to 40+ Google Shopping and Facebook feeds ready to use and internationally configured.

We’ve invested in Feed Manager UX, making it much easier to use and understand. Expand your international reach by easily enabling inactive feeds and viewing the contributions to your active feeds.

Simply click the Marketing Cloud logo at the top of your IRP to get started.

Highlights included:

  • Improved UX
  • View your Active Feeds
  • Easily enable feeds
  • Sales contribution last 30 Days
  • Check your Partner ID’s
  • Check Feed Status
  • Copy your Feed URLs
  • Set Restrictions and Exclusions

Trading Profits Daily Email

The IRP platform has unique capabilities in tracking sales and attributing costs. This offers ‘tight control’ of ecommerce business. We continue to leverage first-party data in ‘Trading Profits’ for merchant benefit.

Merchants will receive a daily ‘Trading Profits’ email showing the previous day’s sales total and associated traffic costs.

‘Trading Profits’ shows how Traffic, Conversion and AOV mathematically make the sales number – and how the traffic costs impact profitability. ‘Trading Profits’ also shows your traffic service provider performance with direct access to the IRP Service Marketplace.

 

‘Trading Profits’ is another innovation on our journey to IRP Version 9 – where IRP will bring merchants more visibility and control to sales growth, traffic costs and profitability.

 

Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about any of the features in this release.

Commerce Cloud Fully Featured Platform with No Development

In one package, and for one fee, IRP brings together everything you need to drive sustainable and profitable growth.

 

There are many ecommerce platforms to choose from. But the IRP Commerce Cloud is the only platform built with a MERCHANT FIRST profit-based approach.It’s the future of ecommerce.

It’s time to talk to IRP about how we can grow your traffic, increase sales, control costs, maximise profits and help you outperform your competition.
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IRP Commerce Admin

What is Ecommerce Management

What is Ecommerce Management

What is ecommerce management? online commerce has revolutionised the way business is carried out, has become the order of the day if people wanted to expand their business on the internet and has created the need for ecommerce management

What is ecommerce management

Ecommerce stores exist in varying degrees such as brick and click and pure-play businesses. But all of these businesses have one thing in common. The need for Management of ecommerce. Any company should have the ability to identify, define, and manage the relevant eCommerce initiative, as well as have a professional execute this initiative.

So, what ecommerce management? It was previously the responsibility of IT engineers and programmers, and it was later passed on to web design professionals. But a business’s eCommerce needs in today’s online retail command a proper eCommerce management and a manager who is dedicated to care of the entire campaign.

Ecommerce management entails the creation and operation of an online business website, with the ecommerce manager in charge of managing all personnel involved in providing ecommerce functions. In short, it involves knowledge of the responsibilities and roles that the fields of IT, marketing, and website development teams must perform, as well as regular interaction with them to create and promote the ecommerce for the business.

Creation and management of a business’s e-commerce initiative is no easy task. It takes a special understanding that ecommerce is like any other integral department of a business, and thus eCommerce management involves online branding, promoting the website, maintaining the freshness as well as quality of the eCommerce website, and constantly creating new plans for the website’s online business initiative.

 

In order for the eCommerce website to deliver the relevant message on the online marketplace. The primary focus of eCommerce manageer is the identification and redefinition of the eCommerce initiatives and objectives of the company.

Once the digital strategy is defined, selling the concept becomes simple. So, identifying the prime reason of existence of the eCommerce website is really crucial. Whether the site is for commerce, community or for content…or for a combination of them, getting ecommerce revenue from all types of businesses on the internet is now very much possible with proper ecommerce management.

 

Why is ecommerce management important?

Ecommerce Effiency

Your ecommerce website isn’t a one-off creation it needs constant development to keep up to date with all the updates. You need to think of ecommerce management as a long term investment to make sure your online store continues to meet customer needs and pull in sales. Carefully monitoring user activity on your website can allow you to:

 

  1. Improve website efficiency By devoting time and resources to your ecommerce website, and seeing how users behave and make changes to aid conversion, complete regular maintenance and make sure content is up to date.
  2. Guide your marketing strategy Collect insights about how your customersare using the website and what they are purchasing. Who they are?, and what they want from your brand? Then you can create a personalised marketing approach.
  3. Improve productivity Owners of ecommerce businesses can use tools and software to simplify and automate administrative tasks. As a result, your team will be able to devote more time to the creative and strategic aspects of ecommerce.
  4. Focus your time on what matters You ecommerce manager can make data-backed decisions about where to spend time and money with clear analytics from your ecommerce platform and integrated apps

 

Ecommerce management is an integral part of all Business to Business transactions and hence has become the backbone of all commercial sites that exist on the internet.

 

As a Full Service Ecommerce Agency here at Focus Ecommerce, we specialise in connecting brands with consumers around the world. We sell & market consumer products, helping businesses reach global consumers. Offering a wide flexibile range of ecommerce services including both marketing and operational services.

 

 

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Full Service Ecommerce Agency, Your Flexible Solution​

Choose how and where you want us to be involved, whether as an extension of your in-house team or existing agencies, or allow us to fully manage your ecommerce and marketing activities.

 

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Ecommerce Consultants

What is a Full Service Ecommerce Agency?

Blog / Ecommerce / Outsourcing your ecommerce

Ecommerce guide

Outsourcing Your Ecommerce: Full-Service Agency vs Specialists vs In-House

What a full-service ecommerce agency actually does, how it compares with hiring several specialists or building your own team, and how to decide which is right for your shop.

Ivan Latter, Owner, Focus Ecommerce  ·  Updated 21/10/2026  ·  8 min read

Key takeaways

  • A full-service ecommerce agency builds, runs and grows your online shop under one roof.
  • It suits growing shops that don’t want to manage several suppliers or hire a full team.
  • Specialists can go deeper in one area. In-house gives control but costs more to set up.
  • Ask any agency to show who would actually do the work, and how they report results.

What is a full-service ecommerce agency?

A full-service ecommerce agency is one team that handles every part of running an online shop: building and maintaining the website, the day-to-day operations behind it, and the marketing that brings in customers. Instead of hiring a web developer, a marketing agency and an operations manager separately, you work with one partner.

Plenty of agencies call themselves full service but only cover one or two of these areas. Many specialise in development, or in paid ads, or in content. So it’s worth checking exactly what’s included before you sign.

What does a full-service ecommerce agency do?

The work usually falls into three areas.

Build

  • Website design and development
  • Platform choice and setup
  • UX and conversion
  • Speed and performance
  • Tracking and analytics

Run

  • Order management
  • Stock control
  • Customer service
  • Back office processes
  • Reporting

Grow

  • SEO
  • Google Ads
  • Email marketing
  • Social media
  • PR and partnerships

Looking for a full-service ecommerce agency?

See how Focus Ecommerce builds, runs and grows online shops.

See our service

Full-service agency vs specialists vs in-house

There are three main ways to get your ecommerce work done. Here’s how they compare.

Full-service agencySeveral specialistsIn-house team
Who you manageOne partnerSeveral suppliersYour own staff
Joined-up strategyBuilt inUp to you to coordinateGood, if the team is complete
Range of skillsBroadDeep in each areaLimited to who you hire
Speed to startWeeksWeeks per supplierMonths to recruit
Fixed costsOne monthly feeSeveral feesSalaries, tools, training
Best forGrowing shops without a full teamShops with one clear gapLarger brands with budget

Pros and cons of a full-service agency

Pros

  • One point of contact and one plan
  • No gaps or blame between suppliers
  • Easy to scale work up or down
  • Marketing and website changes happen together

Cons

  • You rely on one supplier
  • May not match a niche specialist in every area
  • Less day-to-day control than an in-house team

It’s usually a good fit if most of these sound familiar:

  • You're spending more time managing suppliers than running the business
  • Your website, marketing and operations feel disconnected
  • You want to grow but can't justify several full-time hires
  • You sell to consumers but don't have retail connections or a team behind you

If you already have a strong in-house team and only need help with one thing, such as Google Ads, a specialist may suit you better.

How much does a full-service ecommerce agency cost?

Most charge a monthly fee based on how much they handle. At Focus Ecommerce, full-service ecommerce management starts from £695 a month. What affects the price:

  • The size of your product range
  • Which services you need (build, run, grow, or all three)
  • Your ad spend and number of sales channels
  • Whether you need a new website first

5 questions to ask before you hire

  1. Which services do you do yourselves, and which do you outsource?
  2. Who will actually work on my account?
  3. Can you show results for a shop like mine?
  4. How do you report, and how often?
  5. What’s the notice period if it isn’t working?

FAQs

Many ecommerce agencies focus on one area, usually building websites. A full-service agency also runs the shop day to day and handles the marketing.

Yes. Many businesses keep some work in-house and hand the rest to an agency.

Often, for smaller and growing shops, because you share a team’s skills rather than paying several full-time salaries.

Ivan Latter
Owner at Focus Ecommerce. A lifetime in retail and running ecommerce store

In this guide

Not sure which option suits you?

Book a free 30-minute call and we’ll give you an honest view, even if the answer isn’t us.

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Want one team to run your online shop?

See how our full-service ecommerce agency builds, runs and grows shops like yours.

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0333 772 9241

Related reading

Guide

What is ecommerce management?

Case study

Digital growth using IRP Commerce

Guide

Choosing the right ecommerce platform

ECOMMERCE SOLVED

Solving ECOMMERCE with Real Time Calculation of Sales, Margins and Net Profit

The IRP platform effectively solves eCommerce by demonstrating novel technology that calculates merchant net profit in real time.

Download our WHITEPAPER

IRP Commerce

IRP COMMERCE

IRP Commerce is on of the fastest growing ecommerce platforms, seamlessly combining sales channels and digital marketing channels into one central system.

The IRP approach to ecommerce includes the following critical elements: an award-winning, enterprise-grade ecommerce platform and a network of performance-rated digital specialists.

IRP Commerce Cloud

The IRP Commerce Cloud has all of the tools and features you’ll need to revolutionise your business. There are no pricey third-party plugins or software development required.

  • IRP Shopper – Secure, cloud-based and preloaded with the latest conversion and revenue-focused ecommerce features. Providing Multi-lingual, multi-currency, international sales ready to create an unbeatable experience. Featuring a simple administration console and is comprehensive and intuitive, enabling you to control every aspect of ecommerce using one central system.

  • IRP Trading Terminal – Fully connected with the IRP and employs statistics and machine learning to transform your data into revenue-generating, profit-boosting actions in real time. Allowing you to recruit, convert, and retain more consumers with the help of powerful prediction capabilities.

  • IRP Marketing Cloud – No need for expensive third-party email systems. A-fully integrated suite of email remarketing tools helping you stay connected and personal with your customers and grow your sales. Plus, Instant access to over 40 Google shopping feeds that are ready to use and internationally configured.

  • IRP Marketplaces – Instant access to Amazon and eBay, domestic and international. Simple management of stock to control all selling touchpoints.
IRP Commerce admin

Enterprise Solution

Which ecommerce platforms you use is usually a matter of personal preference, often down to the fact you’ve used it previously or its been recommended.

However, ecommerce software is one area of computing where the outcomes of different platforms can result in significant variances in sales and profitability. In fact, the ecommerce platform is frequently the deciding element in online success, therefore it’s crucial that a company selects the right one.

IRP Commerce is the correct solution for thos ambitious retailers looking to expand globally.  IRP is an enterprise level ecommerce platform designed to help develop and implement a proven commerce strategy for sustained growth for small to mid-market upwards retailers. A fully-integrated multichannel solution which combine multiple sales channels, award-winning international reach and a comprehensive set of features and tools.

IRP Commerce cloud

Stable & Scalable Architecture

IRP connects your consumers’ digital and physical touch points, allowing your multiple sales channels to integrate in real time, such as web, stock control, EPOS, phone, and mobile.

It’s a rock-solid infrastructure that’s designed to scale and handle large transaction volumes.

Secure Cloud Technology

IRP software is hosted in the cloud. The IRP itself is based on Microsoft technologies on an SQL Server Database. The IRP platform application is programmed on the .Net framework.

All you need is a broadband connection and a browser. There is no requirement for any software to be installed on your devices to run the IRP.  The IRP is also PCI Level 1 compliant – this means a maximum level of security for your data and credit cards.

Centralised Administration

Featuring one centralised administration area operating all the functions of IRP commerce. Completely secure and Admin rights are governed by role-based permissions.

Comprehensive Features

The IRP is packed full of features that help you to build a world class website.

Multichannel Coverage

Combines sales channels and digital marketing channels with a centralised system. IRP makes life simple for ecommerce managers and more opportunities maximises sales.

The IRP commerce solution encompasses web, mobile, telesales, till, stock control, B2B and digital marketing.

Web

Incorporating a world-class ecommerce website equipped with all the functions, features, and integrations required for creating a successful online business. Including everything from inventory management, order processing, customer relationship management (CRM) and advanced reporting, to a full range of sales & marketing tools.

The IRP supports multiple languages, currencies and tax calculations for true international expansion. The IRP has connections to many of the key players in the ecommerce industry. Integration with Google, AWIN, Trustpilot, Royal Mail, Parcelforce, Realex, PayPal and Worldpay means you join a connected commerce world right from the start. Ecommerce is continually evolving, the IRP platform ensures you’re kept up-do-date with key developments.

Mobile

Incorporating a world-class ecommerce website equipped with all the functions, features, and integrations required for creating a successful online business. Including everything from inventory management, order processing, customer relationship management (CRM) and advanced reporting, to a full range of sales & marketing tools.

The IRP supports multiple languages, currencies and tax calculations for true international expansion. The IRP has connections to many of the key players in the ecommerce industry. Integration with Google, AWIN, Trustpilot, Royal Mail, Parcelforce, Realex, PayPal and Worldpay means you join a connected commerce world right from the start. Ecommerce is continually evolving, the IRP platform ensures you’re kept up-do-date with key developments.

Telesales

IRP’s easy to use Telesales feature enables your call centre or customer services team to process phone orders seamlessly or take over a customer’s basket at the touch of a button. Your IRP fulfilment system receives all order information and customer information immediately. No more unnecessary uploading order and stock information.

Till

The IRP comes with a fully integrated EPOS system that lets you use numerous tills in different locations. Save time and costs with the ability to manage stock and customers, thus impacting on your bottom line. Vary prices by location and your vouchers and loyalty schemes can be unified across all stores and online channels. The software is powerful, but it’s also user-friendly and simple for staff to learn.

Stock Control

A feature-rich stock control system delivers benefits to your business. Including: ensuring you stock the items your customers need, increasing your stock accuracy and helping you deliver goods on time. Bring all your sales channels together into one efficient, cost-effective central stock database.

B2B

The IRP comes fully equipped with a B2B platform that facilitates trade relationships, suitable for all wholesaler, distributor, reseller and manufacturer requirements. This includes multiple customer accounts and pricing on the same platform as well as volume purchasing and pricing options. The IRP offers business software for business intelligence across all levels of the supply chain.

Digital Marketing

As well as all the web, mobile, telesales, EPOS and B2B channels, the IRP comes with a full set of Sales & Marketing features and tools allowing for advanced email marketing and PPC management as well as exposure on search engines, affiliate networks, shopping comparison sites, marketplaces and social networks. – For more details on marketing Click here

IRP Commerce | Focus Ecommerce And Marketing

A System You Can Trust

Making money is the goal of any business, and the IRP will assist you in maximising your sales potential. The IRP has transacted over £1,000,000,000 of revenue for companies online.

The IRP is a reliable platform you can trust, so whether you need a single or multichannel solution, the IRP always keeps you in complete control of your business.

Armed Forces Covenant

Armed Forces Covenant

Here at Focus Ecommerce and Marketing we are proudly supporting The Armed Forces Covenant. This is a promise by the nation ensuring that those who serve or who have served in the armed forces, and their families, are treated fairly.

Armed Forces Covenant

What is the Armed Forces Covenant?

The Armed Forces Covenant is the nation’s pledge to those who courageously protect our country with honour, courage, and devotion.

It is a vow that we, as a community, recognise and understand that people who serve or have served in the military services, as well as their families, should be treated fairly and respectfully in the communities, economies, and societies in which they put their lives on the line.

 

Armed Forces Covenant

What is being done?

The covenant focusses on helping members of the armed forces community have the same access to government and commercial services and products as any other citizen.

 

This support is provided in a number of areas including:

 

  • education and family well-being
  • having a home
  • starting a new career
  • access to healthcare
  • financial assistance
  • discounted services

 

Further information about support services available to both serving personnel and their families , and veterans and their families  are provided on GOV.UK.

Find information about working, jobs and pensions for members of the armed forces and their families .

For more information about the background of of the Armed Forces Covenant go to the covenant policy .

You can also read the Armed Forces Covenant promise in full here .

Our Pledge

Focus Ecommerce and Marketing commit to honour the Armed Forces Covenant and support the Armed Forces Community. 

 

We recognise the value serving personnel, reservists, veterans and military families bring to our business and to our country. We will seek to uphold the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant, by:

  • Promoting the Armed Forces: promoting the fact that we are an Armed Forces-friendly organisation, to our staff, customers, suppliers, contractors and wider public.

  • Veterans: supporting the employment of veterans, recognising military skills and qualifications in our recruitment and selection process; working with the Career Transition Partnership (CTP) to support the employment of Service leavers;

  • Service Spouses & Partners: supporting the employment of Service spouses and partners; partnering with the Forces Families Jobs Forum; and providing flexibility in granting leave for Service spouses and partners before, during and after a partner’s deployment.

  • Reserves: supporting our employees who are members of the Reserve Forces; granting additional paid/unpaid leave for annual Reserve Forces training; supporting any mobilisations and deployment; actively encouraging members of staff to become Reservists;

  • Cadet Organisations: supporting our employees who are volunteer leaders in military cadet organisations, granting additional leave to attend annual training camps and courses; actively encouraging members of staff to become volunteer leaders in cadet organisations; supporting local military cadet units; recognising the benefits of employing cadets/ex-cadets within the workforce.

  • National Events: supporting Armed Forces Day, Reserves Day, the Poppy Appeal Day and Remembrance activities;

  • Armed Forces Charities: supporting Armed Forces charities with fundraising and supporting staff who volunteer to assist;

  • Commercial Support: offering a discount to members of the Armed Forces community;

  • Any additional commitments the company wishes to make.

VIEW OUR ARMED FORCES COVENANT HERE

Get involved

Anyone can get involved in the Armed Forces Covenant - find out how you can support the armed forces community.

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Outsourcing Ecommerce The Benefits To Your Business

Ecommerce Outsourcing - What are the benefits.

Ecommerce outsourcing and associated tasks is a business practice that has many different definitions and comes in many different forms. However, the one thing that is certain is that it’s the most effective ways for ecommerce businesses to reduce their costs and become more efficient, both of which are essential if they want to stay competitive. This article describes the benefits of outsourcing ecommerce and what it can do for your business finances, revenue, and workflow. We will also dispel a few of those disadvantages people believe outsourcing brings with it.

Ecommerce Outsourcing - What is?

Ecommerce Outsourcing

is the practice of using a third-party company, products and services to create goods and provide services, rather than doing the work in-house. The practice started in the 1970s and grew popular in the 1990s as a way for companies to reduce their internal cost structure and is still a popular option today.

 

The term “outsourcing” typically refers to tasks usually performed by in-house staff. With an ecommerce business, these tasks can include things like marketing, order management, stock control, writing product descriptions, handling support tickets, website development, technical support, and more – sometimes even handing the complete responsibility of eCommerce to a third party.

Ecommerce Outsourcing

Reduce Overheads

Many businesses outsource ecommerce services to cut current costs or save on new resources they want to add to their workflows when they can’t afford or don’t wish to hire dedicated employees.

 

Smaller stores may have the business owner and one other employee handling multiple tasks, but eventually, all businesses need to hire an individual or an entire department to handle each task. This is the point when the owner of the eCommerce business must decide whether they want to outsource or insource the task. They can insource a task has become too overwhelming for the business owner to handle themselves.

 

This can become a major task in itself. On average every job offer attracts approx. 250 applicants, so are you willing to sift through them yourself or do you spend money on recruitment agency?

An in-house employee can be more expensive as you will be paying benefits on top of a basic salary. Although its likely believed to be much easier to keep track of an employee, providing you insist on an office-based employee. However, with the introduction of more home working being a major factor in peoples decision making when taking a job, you may have to consider a more flexible approach. Then there will also be a time where their services are not available save for illness and holidays.

 

Its also said a full-time employee, contracted to work 5 days a week on average is physically only working for 3 of those days. So, it may make more sense to outsource roles and tasks in cases where the business output does not justify hiring a full-time employee or you are looking to be more cost effective.

Why Would a Company Choose to Outsource Work?

There are two basic reasons why organisations prefer to outsource ecommerce services.

 

  • Outsourcing saves businesses money.
    As an eCommerce business, you can save money by outsourcing tasks such as marketing, social media, web   development, technical support, administration, and even shipping tasks to a third party.
  • The other reason is time.
    Outsourcing gives you, the business owner, more time to focus on tasks that will help you grow and expand the business as a whole. It can also lead to a better quality of life for you and current employees as it’ll remove a few tasks from everyone’s daily list of responsibilities.
Ecommerce Outsourcing - The Benefits

Ecommerce Outsourcing - The Benefits

Now that you know what outsourcing is, let us talk about what it can do for your ecommerce business. Let’s expand on the two key benefits that all Ecommerce businesses want to improve and has been mentioned a few times already—saving time and money—plus also a few additional advantages you’ll experience.

commerce Outsourcing

The Advantages of Outsourcing eCommerce Tasks

1. Save Money

Simply, this has to be one of the the biggest motivators for allocating tasks to companies and contractors outside of an in-house team. Employees require a full salary, benefits, taxes, time to train and equipment. You may also need to set up a new department or even a new office depending on the task that needs to be outsourced.


Without outsourcing, your options are either to continue handling the task yourself, pass off the task to an employee, which will only add to their workload and negatively impact their efficiency, or hire a new employee.
Take for example you decide you should be more active on Social Media, you look around your team, often business owners will settle on the youngest person believing that because they are active on Social media they can manage the company accounts, but are they fully up to date with all the changes the social media platforms are constantly making, are you putting this on top of their current workload. If an additional duty, they might become disillusioned that their workload increased without compensation. It is actually a time-consuming task creating compelling engaging content, engaging in consumers in conversations and tracking competitors. So should you trust this to an inexperienced employee.


With outsourcing, you can allocate certain tasks you and your employees do not have the time or skill for now without needing to cut costs in other parts of your business. You’re hiring a company that has experience in that field.

2. Enjoy a More Flexible Hiring Process

You will find yourself mainly outsourcing tasks you need performed year-round but not often enough to justify hiring new employees. However, there will be times where you will need short-term help as well. This is the case for projects that have expiration dates, seasonal work or perhaps even maternity leave.

 

For example, if you want to add 500 new products to your store, you will need someone to write optimized product descriptions for each. If this is something you don’t normally do, then adding that many new products to the store at once, you’ll need to ask a few employees to take care of it on top of their daily tasks or take care of them yourself. Plus, you need to consider the SEO benefit of the descriptions. Outsourcing this task, on the other hand, would allow you to hire a freelance copywriter or copywriting agency to handle the task as a one-off project.

 

As for seasonal work, you may have seasonal product launches or busy times for retailers can be events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas. You will hopefully see increased sales, significantly higher than normal, but this revenue boost brings with it other challenges, more orders to process and more customer queries.

 

Outsourcing eCommerce tasks may allow you to hire seasonal workers to cover the holiday rush with the money saved. For example, customer service could be managed quite easily on a few hours a week, but outsourcing would allow you to quickly increase the manpower to cover the extra enquiries, with the without the hassle of finding extra people yourself.

3. Save Time

As previously said, outsourcing eCommerce tasks saves you and your staff time. When you can outsource duties, you can devote more of your time to consumer research, development, outreach, and other activities that will help you expand your brand’s influence.

You’ll see a boost in productivity and morale when your employees are able to save on time and be much more efficient with the tasks they were originally hired to do.
Which will eventually turn into more sales and satisfied customers. Employees won’t be looking to cut corners when up against deadlines.

4. Stay Competitive

The internet breeds competition, you and your team can work yourself around the clock all you want, but if you only accomplish the bare minimum you will struggle to expand. Outsourcing allows you to complete tasks more efficiently and take on new projects while spending less. This will allow you to keep up with competition without needing to hire new employees.

A Flexible Ecommerce Solution

A complete e-commerce management agency. We can fully manage your ecommerce business, maximising your businesses potential.

Or choose how and where you want us to be involved, whether as an extension of your in-house team or existing agencies.

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5. Increase Your Profits

The basic aspect of business is you have to spend money to make money.
This rule never changes no matter how successful your business gets. You will always need to spend money on products, hosting, employees, marketing, and advertising to keep the business running. Take a look at some of the most successful brands such a Coca Cola or McDonalds how often do you see ad advertisement? They have reached a level, but to stay there they know they must keep promoting themselves.


However, referring to that basic principle one more time, spend more to earn more, which essentially means expanding the number of products you sell, the types of products, expanding into new countries and launching new marketing strategies, all of which require, more money.
Outsourcing, as explained above, allows you to expand the business and take on more projects without needing to spend money on recruiting new employees. This will allow you to earn more revenue and a higher return on investment

6. Start Projects Quicker

It takes a considerable time to recruit and onboard new personnel. You will need to post job ads, conduct interviews, assess which people are the best fit for the job and your organisation, and then train them. If all you want to do is start a new project for your marketing strategy or reshoot all your product photographs, this can be a long and difficult process.


Outsourcing simply cuts right through this process and gives you immediate access to qualified candidates and agencies. You can get to work on your new project at a much more efficient rate, all while spending less.
By outsourcing you can reduce the risk and test the idea without worrying, lets be honest not every idea works, another rule of business is test, test, and test again. An outsourced agency provides and cost-effective solution to launching and testing a new plan and the ultimate goal if successful is then to look at an internal employee.

Outsourcing Ecommerce Tasks

7. Staff Members’ Individual Skills

You might be able to outsource indefinitely without having to convert contract work into full-time work. If you have employees who work directly with outsourced labour, you may be able to train them in the skills you need to outsource.


As said in the previous point, the long-term, goal might be to move the task to an internal team and once at this point you can use the agency to train and develop that employee to take over the tasks without any loss in performance.

8. Less Red Tape

Hiring staff can be fraught with red tape and regulations. This is particularly challenging if your business fluctuates throughout the year and you need to up staff and down staff depending on the demand. There can be a lot of rules and process you need to follow in order to downsize your headcount.

 

However, one of the advantages of ecommerce outsourcing is that you can up size and downsize your staff without any associated red tape, allowing you much more flexibility in how you manage your business and costs.

Dispelling the Disadvantages of Outsourcing

Dispelling the Disadvantages of Outsourcing

Dispelling the Disadvantages of Outsourcing

1. Believed Lack of Control

It is often believed a big drawback you can experience while outsourcing eCommerce jobs is a lack of control over the tasks you allocate to third parties.


They are not your employees. Instead, you will be operating in a business-to-business manner, so while you can certainly provide descriptions and leave feedback on how you want things done, you’re not able to manage these types of projects in the same way you could if they were performed by in-house employees.


However, here are Focus Ecommerce and Marketing we always operate the manner the customer requests and any other respectable agency of freelancer should be doing the same. Make sure you define the role and tasks to be actioned, set sensible timescales and KPIs.


Communication should not be something that gets in the way, your outsourced ecommerce agency should be willing to take your call at any time. Although just like an employee if you are constantly phoning or email to ask for an update, essentially that task ends up taking long. Agree regular times for updates, schedule calls and zoom meetings in advance.


Build a rapport with your agency, essentially the relationship is a two-way thing, if your setting unrealistic timelines or constantly hassling the relationship will breakdown, treat them like an employee, to which I hope everyone is treating their employees with the utmost respect. Have an open dialogue with your agency, use their experience to help guide your business.

2. Working in Different Time Zones

If you outsource work to individuals and companies from around the world this can be one of the greatest challenges you will face with your eCommerce store. An urgent messages and project updates may not receive the instant response you were looking for and you may have to wait for several hours, depending on the time difference.

Its important to plan and have clear communication of expectations and time scales. Agree time in advancer to communicate in real-time wherever possible.

Fortunately, on the plus side outsourcing to a different countries and time zones does have its upsides This including being able to operate around the clock. When your in-house employees clock out, outsourced workers are clocking in overseas. So perhaps your looking to expand into a new territory, having a localised outsourced agency allows you to respond to consumers in a timely manner and manage Social Media and Marketing that is relevant to that market.

3. Privacy Issues

Privacy should be a major concern for businesses and consumers especially in the light of GDPR and increasing government regulation. When you outsource areas, such as payments, data storage and customer service, you’re inviting third parties to view your customers’ personal information. You must ensure that the company you engage to outsource are trustworthy, GDPR compliant and take security seriously.

Often the issue can be reversed, At Focus Ecommerce and Marketing we often see gaps in a business’s GDPR practices and as an engaged agency would always make recommendations to help make improvements so that a business if compliant. Again, choosing the correct e-commerce outsource partner is key to getting the best service.

Conclusion

Most businesses will at some point engage in some form of outsourcing, without even realising it and certainly, for most small to medium businesses, the benefits of outsourcing eCommerce tasks, outweigh the negatives.

Still, you need to examine your business closely and decide whether it is the right move for you. You should also consider all the various tasks you may already be or looking to outsource to gain a sense of its value. Often by combining a number of tasks with one agency can lead to a further reduction in costs. You should also consider your Outsourcing partner carefully and focus on using trusted outsource partners.

Start by breaking down the tasks you and your team are already responsible for to see if there are things you could be outsourcing to a third parties. Tasks you and your employees spend too much time doing should be prime candidates. Tasks you and your employees are either overqualified or underqualified for should be prioritized as well. Do you currently have a vacancy, consider this as an opportunity to re-evaluate the need for an internal employee, now could be the perfect time to explore using a 3rd party agency.

Next, determine which tasks and projects you’d like to implement in your business but don’t have the workforce to tackle.

Now that you understand the tasks you want to outsource, do your research to determine how much outsourcing is going to cost. You may need to actually reach out to contractors and companies to find out this information.
Alternatively, now may be the right time to bring an agency that can assess how your business tasks are being run, giving you a non-biased objective review is often the best thing for a business, it could be that a new piece of software could streamline your process. However, staff don’t like change so that detail is unlikely to come from within your team.

Outsourcing Ecommerce Services with Focus Ecommerce & Marketing

An ecommerce store owner cannot afford to have their time and money stripped away by technical issues, as this post has clearly demonstrated. You can save yourself a few headaches when it comes to the technical aspects of running a store by outsourcing those tasks to us.

We are a trusted outsource partner to eCommerce stores in the UK, EMEA, US and Canada. We can offer dedicated staff for your ongoing eCommerce  administration needs, Social Media and Marketing. Our team have over 30 years of experience in areas such as Retail, E-Commerce, Marketing, Government, and the Charity sector.

Check out our full list of Ecommerce services , or Contact Us today with your Outsource Requirements and see how we can save you money and drive your business.
Full Ecommerce Management | Focus Ecommerce

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Replatforming – What is it and why is it important

Replatforming – What is it and why is it important

Replatforming is a method that can make any web developer or e-commerce manager nervous, but if approached correctly, it can be extremely beneficial to your business

Digital technology advances at an alarming rate, this poses a significant challenge for companies that operate online and need to stay on top of the latest emerging trend or technique.

As a result, a website’s or mobile app’s shelf life seems to be getting shorter and shorter. This isn’t really a major problem for a brochure-ware site because redesigns can be implemented with minimal effort, although at a cost.

However, handling updates and redesigns for more complex sites and web applications becomes more complicated. E-commerce sites are a great example of this.

This is where the concept of replatforming emerges. This is the procedure for transferring an ecommerce site from one platform to another.

Replatforming – What is it and why is it important?

Why replatforming might be necessary:

Failing legacy systems

Many businesses launched bespoke services in the early days of e-commerce, when “off-the-shelf” solutions just didn’t cut it. However, updating these customised systems has become difficult and costly over time.

New features needed

A desire to incorporate new functionality in a more productive manner will be linked to this last point. Older platforms also fail to keep up with the demands of expanding companies, while modern platforms are more “futureproof.”

A fresh start

It can sometimes be best to start over from the beginning. Starting with a blank sheet of paper is advantageous in other ways as well, since company goals and priorities are often different than they were when the original site was built. Even if you’ve decided to stay with you some platform provider can it be beneficial to start again to clear out some of that legacy coding.

Outsourcing website development

Moving from an in-house development environment to a hosted or fully managed platform might be enough of a justification to make the switch, as it reduces long-term costs and complexities.

Integration

E-commerce sites are increasingly being asked to integrate with a variety of complicated and sophisticated partners and third-party systems.

Many platforms now have these features built-in as plugins, eliminating the need for time-consuming development work.

Although replatforming will entail a financial investment, the long-term return on investment would be significant when compared to what was previously in place, not to mention the additional features and functionality that will be available.

Outsourcing website development

Moving from an in-house development environment to a hosted or fully managed platform might be enough of a justification to make the switch, as it reduces long-term costs and complexities.

Outsourcing website development​

Replatforming - A better approach?

However, there are a few items to consider before embarking on a replatforming strategy:

Website build cost

Don’t plan to pay the same amount for your new platform today as you did five years ago for making your website. Having said that, you’ll want to make sure your project is completely costed from the start to avoid any unpleasant surprises later on.

Likewise, you may have had your site built very cheaply, using a basic ecommerce platform, now is the time to ask yourself was that actually cost effective? Be wary of anyone offering to build you a site in a week or two and/or for a miniscule price. If it seems to good to be true it probably is.

If you want a hosted solution, keep in mind that there will be recurring costs. If possible, choose a fixed-price option, but do not forget to factor in a contingency!

Website specification

The value of developing a comprehensive specification before speaking with suppliers is linked to the previous point. Make sure you know exactly what you want from your new site and what you need right now (and in the future).

Website functionality

Be very clear about what functionality comes as part of the platform and what has to be added on (at an additional cost). Platforms like Shopify, Magento and WordPress websites with Woocommerce require many 3rd party systems, each with additional cost. Whereas IRP Commerce Cloud has all of the features you’ll need to run a successful online company. There are no hidden fees or costly plugins only a website dedicated to your sales and profits.

IRP Commerce Cloud | Focus Ecommerce and Marketing

Review internal processes

Do just look at finding a platform that matches your internal processes exactly, often it is easier to modify your processes to fit the new platform. Whilst no one likes change, sometimes its beneficial.

This is an opportunity to take a step back and consider how the company operates and whether it could be changed. Better to do this now rather than in the future when the site has already been built!

Service

While many platforms will be ‘off-the-shelf’, it’s very rare that you won’t need support or assistance, even if you plan to do the development work yourself or with another agency.

Check what support you will receive in the early days and on an ongoing basis too. Why not talk to other clients and get references?

Investigate all the options

From low-cost SaaS options such as Shopify, EKM, Bigcommerce to bespoke build and open source, there is an array of different options for ecommerce platforms. Make sure you consider them all and choose the best one for your business.

Strive to find the right ‘partner’

Are you a problem client? Are you being too demanding? Treat your suppliers well and you’ll get a better deal in the long-term with a website development service supplier.

Be wary of anyone that will offer to build you a site in a week or two and/or for a miniscule price. There are good deals to be done, but tread with care.

This is a significant, strategic investment for your business, so it’s worthwhile to investigating fully at this stage in your ecommerce development. It will finally pay off in the long run.

So that’s replatforming!

It’s definitely a strategy that more and more online businesses will have to tackle sooner rather than later, but approaching it in the right way at this stage will ensure you are better prepared for anything that might materialise in the future.

This is a significant, strategic investment for your business, so it’s worthwhile to investigating fully at this stage. It will finally pay off in the long run.

Need more advice contact us today

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Email: info@focusecommerce.co.uk
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