Enterprise E-Commerce: What Growing Brands Need to Know Before Making the Jump

Does your e-commerce store know it’s ready for the big time?

Every growing brand reaches a plateau at some point. Sales are increasing. Traffic is pouring in. But then… something feels off.

Your site can’t handle all the additional product listings.

It slows down when traffic spikes.

The checkout half-heartedly suggests products you clearly already own.

Sound familiar?

The issue:

Most brands wait until the last minute to take the plunge into enterprise e-commerce. They struggle to customise. They work around platform limitations. Customers start abandoning their shopping carts because pages take too long to load, or checkout just doesn’t work.

That’s expensive.

In this article, you’ll learn:

1. Why growing brands need enterprise solutions
2. Signs your store needs to move to enterprise
3. Enterprise platforms give you
4. How to make the migration and not lose your sanity

Why growing brands need enterprise solutions

The e-commerce industry is booming.

By 2025, we’re expected to see $6.56 trillion in global e-commerce sales worldwide. That’s nearly 8% growth compared to last year. All that growth means big competition.

How do you compete with businesses selling similar products on the same platforms as you?

It’s all about scale.

Online stores built on entry-level platforms eventually reach a bottleneck. They aren’t equipped to handle large amounts of product, high traffic volumes, or sell across several channels.

Enterprise solutions like Shopify Plus are built specifically to cater to large-scale brands. That means when orders increase from 1000 per month to 10,000+, Shopify Plus stores stay put. When your brand needs professional Shopify Plus development services, look to enterprise platforms.

Basic platforms serve you well when selling hundreds of products. At $100 per day in sales, who cares if your orders take four days to process? But as sales scale into the thousands… that’s when enterprise functionality starts making the difference.

Signs your store has outgrown its current platform

Not sure if you need to upgrade to Enterprise just yet? Here are a few signs it may be time…

• Site speed is suffering. Likely, you know this already. For every second your site takes to load, you lose conversions. The difference between a 3-second page load time and a 5-second load time can increase your bounce rate by up to 90%. Enterprise platforms are built to handle high traffic volumes without compromising on load time.
• Your checkout could be smoother. Do you allow your customers to check out via ApplePay? Cable? Social Login? Basic solutions only offer a limited set of checkout options. With enterprise, brands can fully customize every step of the customer purchase journey. Upswing has even seen one client increase conversion by 259% just by changing the checkout experience.
• You’re stressed about integrating with 3rd party tools. Speaking of shopping journeys, everything has to connect somewhere. Growing brands need to integrate their e-commerce shop with suppliers, CRMs, email marketing software, fulfillment partners, and more. Making sure all these systems play nicely with your storefront is a headache. But it’s something enterprise platforms are built to do.
• Homepage banners aren’t updating. Your traffic is steadily increasing, but then… Boom. Your site crashes during a big sale. What happened? You hit your traffic limit. Sorry, folks, not anymore. Enterprise stores come with exponentially higher traffic capacities. Plus 99.99% uptime guarantees. And auto-scaling during heavy traffic periods.

If you’re experiencing any of the above issues, your current e-commerce platform is likely not equipped to handle your business’s growth.

Enterprise platforms give you options.

Enterprise e-commerce stores aren’t simply “large volume e-commerce stores.” They are a different playing field entirely.

Need some examples? Here are a few capabilities enterprise stores have access to…

Enhanced customisation.

Think about the last time you tried to customize your checkout flow on your current e-commerce platform. Frustrating?

Enterprise solutions prioritise customisation. Brands can change checkout flows to create unique shopping experiences, tailor product pages to match their exact branding, and build new features without needing a developer.

Automate everything.

One of the benefits of expanding your business is that you don’t have to do everything yourself anymore. Outsource the mundane. Hire more employees.

Enterprise platforms let you automate.

Sure. Your current e-commerce solution probably lets you schedule posts. Or create sales channels for different customer segments. But what about auto-create customer segments based on past purchases? Or auto-create product feeds based on SKU prefixes?

Consistency across sales channels.

Buyers today consume marketing across multiple platforms. They follow your Instagram. TikTok. Maybe they watch a TV commercial on Hulu. Or stop into a physical store location.

Enterprise tools tie all these channels together into a unified dashboard. All of your customer data stays integrated, no matter where your brand sells.

Tools for taking a global.

Thinking about selling overseas? Good luck.

There are currency conversions to think about. Local taxes and regulations differ from country-to-country. Some countries have unique shipping requirements. Not to mention dealing with multiple languages.

Enterprise solutions for international selling. Scale globally without rebuilding your store from scratch.

How to make the migration (without losing your mind).

Moving your online store to a new platform sounds intimidating. And truthfully? It can be.

Research from Digital Commerce 360 discovered that while 61% of brands had plans to migrate their e-commerce store in the near future, they expected to spend up to $500,000 doing so.

The kicker?

They also found that 48% of brands didn’t know how long their migration would take. Yikes.

Enterprise platforms have your back when it comes to migration. Want to learn more? Check out Shopify’s and BigCommerce’s migration tools.

The main thing to remember with platform migration? Plan, then go crazy.

Map everything out first.

Digging in too fast is a recipe for disaster. Take time in the beginning to plan out your entire migration. What integrations do you need to move? What data will need to transfer over? What customizations have you made that need to be duplicated?

Its ok to get crazy with notes during this step. Then, when you’re ready, lock those notes away and start migrating.

Don’t break SEO.

Cutting and pasting URLs from one platform to another is going to haunt you. Rankings will plummet.

Do yourself a favour and plan your SEO strategy before you begin the migration. URL structures will likely change. Figure out redirects ahead of time. Consider how you’ll handle metadata and descriptions.

One mistake can set you back weeks in organic traffic.

Test. Then test some more.

Never cut over to a new platform without extensive testing. Load up your new storefront and browse every page. Make a test purchase. Log in to your dashboard. Test every single integration.

After you’re done testing, test again.

Timing is everything.

Want to ensure you mess something up? Migrate right before your biggest sale of the year. While your store is migrating, watch helplessly as sales fall through the cracks. No more.

If possible, try to migrate during a slow period. That way, if anything goes wrong, you’ve got time to fix it before your next big sale.

Don’t leave success behind

So you’re telling me the platform I built my brand on is actually holding me back?

That’s basically what every brand that upgraded to enterprise tells me.

Companies that take the enterprise plunge reap the rewards. Shopify even shares that merchants with annual sales between $1 million and $500 million see an average growth rate of 126% year-over-year.

Thoughts?

Better performance. Expanded capabilities. Freedom to customise.

Pretty soon, your brand stops growing despite your e-commerce platform. Your store starts growing because of your e-commerce platform.

Wrapping up

Enterprise isn’t just for legacy companies selling millions of dollars’ worth of products. It’s for brands that are ready to scale.

Remember…

• Your current platform is limiting your brand’s growth.
• Enterprise solutions offer tools for customization, automating repetitive tasks, selling across channels, and expanding into new markets.
• Take your time when migrating. Plan out every detail. And never cut over to your new platform without extensive testing.
• Making the jump to enterprise brings your brand advantages that will only grow your business further down the line.

Are you ready to stop letting your e-commerce store limit you?