When it comes to eCommerce projects and investments, choosing the platform where your online store will thrive is going to be one of the most important decisions your business will make. It’s also important to acknowledge that no single eCommerce platform is going to be an absolute perfect match – there will likely be some give and take and you’ll need to weigh what is most important to your business. At Brand Labs, we’ve developed a platform evaluation process that is agnostic and designed to put your business needs first by documenting your requirements in detail before we identify which platforms would best meet your requirements, not the other way around – which is a common approach at other agencies.
Our platform evaluation process is broken down into 3 steps to allow for flexibility on how our client’s would like us to prepare them for a platform migration – Requirements Ready, Platform Ready and Implementation Ready. Some clients engage with us to document their complex requirements and their in-house team will take it from there to find the appropriate platform then re-engage with us to move them to their chosen platform. Other clients have their agency of record complete the designs and we use those to build the requirements then help the client identify the platform and wrap up the platform evaluation process by adjusting the requirements to be specific to the chosen platform – with the end result being Implementation Ready.
Flexibility in our approach is a key takeaway as we know every business is different and their needs are different, however, our methodology on how we approach platform evaluations remains the same. Let’s take a closer look at the 3 steps of our platform evaluation process:
1. Requirements Ready
Platform agnostic requirements are gathered and documented in detail to lay the foundation to start searching for the optimal platform
Deliverables
- Platform Agnostic Wireframes
- Technical Roadmap
- Technical Requirements
Who is this best for?
- “I’m in the early stages of exploring options and I don’t know what I currently have to know what I need to maintain.”
- “I can do the platform interviewing myself based on what you help me identify as requirements. I may come back later to make them Implementation Ready, if I choose a platform on my own.”
2. Platform Ready
Platform agnostic requirements are documented and the platform recommendations are provided to select the optimal platform
Deliverables
- Phase 1: Platform Agnostic Wireframes, Technical Roadmap, Technical Requirements
- Phase 2: Platform Comparison Guide, Recommendation Summary
Who is this best for?
“I need to gather and or define my requirements in detail. I’m also in between 1-3 frameworks that I want to explore to see what is native vs custom and need an expert recommendation based on an understanding of the unique needs of my business.”
3. Implementation Ready
The platform evaluation process is completed – Agnostic requirements were documented, a platform was selected from the Recommendation Summary and the requirements are now fine-tuned to be platform specific
Deliverables
- Phase 1: Platform Agnostic Wireframes, Technical Roadmap, Technical Requirements
- Phase 2: Platform Comparison Guide, Recommendation Summary
- Phase 3: Platform Specific Wireframes, Technical Roadmap, Technical Requirements
Who is this best for?
- “I need to pick the right platform for scalability and I know it’s a highly valuable business decision that I don’t assume is cheap or quick investment.”
- “I’d like to look at it from an agnostic angle to compare frameworks and then narrow in for my search.”
- “Once my platform is chosen I want to adjust the technical roadmap and requirements to be platform specific so I can take my RFP to market or understand how the solution will work for my operations.”