When to Consider Custom E-commerce Development

For most companies that have expanded their brand, using a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution is the way to go if you want to get started with a retail solution quickly and easily. Shopify & BigCommerce are excellent “training wheels” for sellers who want to begin selling digitally and do not want to worry about setting up a store.

The next stage of growth for many brands moving away from a launch pad like Shopify or BigCommerce is to experience a “glass ceiling” effect.

These “glass ceilings” are created by template-based templates, thus businesses have to find ways to break through them. As you grow faster than your platform can deliver the features required, there will come a time when you will need to own your infrastructure because your vision exceeds your e-commerce platform’s capabilities.

This e-commerce guide details the most important triggers (technical, financial and strategic) you need to know that indicate that your company is in the right place to build a custom e-commerce platform that will allow you to unlock this next phase of revenue generation.

Stop the “Plugin Bloat”: When Your Tech Stack Becomes Unstable

If you are too dependent upon third-party software to fulfill important capabilities (i.e. loyalty program, special search filters), this could be an indication that you have outgrown your current platform.

Many SaaS customers must use many different plugins for the same functionality. Too many plugins form the “Plugin Tower of Pisa”. While functional, they are constructionally unstable!

• Technical Debt – Each app includes linking via various third-party JS/CSS files that slow down your site. According to Google Core Web Vitals, each 100m/s increase in load time results in a 7% loss in conversion;
• Stability Risk – One app update can conflict with another app within a closed-source environment, causing multiple checkout errors that are difficult to diagnose.

Your company is ripe for a custom-built (like the tower) if you manage a delicate balance between 20 or more applications on a daily basis just to keep things running smoothly.

Also Read : Why Social Share WooCommerce Plugins Are a Must-Have for E-commerce

Managing Complex Business Logic and B2B Needs

Typically, e-commerce platforms have been created for basic “Product A + Amount B” transaction types, but if the way your business makes money is more complicated than that, SaaS would limit your growth.

Advanced B2B Requirements

B2B e-commerce is complex. If your organization has different pricing tiers for different types of customers, different credit limits by customer, multiple users for one business, or the need for quote-to-order workflows, traditional “add to cart” functionality won’t work.

Through custom development, you can create an online portal that aligns with the professional buyer’s purchasing process.

Limitless Product Customization

If you’re selling items that can be made with millions of combinations (like bespoke furniture or industrial equipment), static product variations have their own problems. Using custom development for a custom-built Product Information Management (PIM) environment allows for unlimited SKU variations while also maintaining the speed of your website through PIM.

Seamless Systems Integration

A store that is capable of scaling cannot work in isolation; it must be integrated with the ERP, CRM, and WMS systems in real time and so on. In addition to the ability to scale as needed, custom builds will create the API flexibility necessary to keep inventory levels and customer records in perfect sync across all areas of the business.

The Financial Turning Point: Calculating Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

Stakeholders often have second thoughts about the initial expense of developing something to suit their needs, but when viewing this through the “Total Cost of Ownership” (TCO) lens, large-scale projects will typically produce significantly different results when compared against the cost associated with software-as-a-service (SaaS).

SaaS platforms typically charge what we refer to as a “Success Tax”, i.e., a revenue-sharing percentage of your sales or an increasing tiered subscription cost based on your overall revenue.

• The Cost Factor – If you are generating $10 million in revenue annually and your platform charges you 1%-2% for transaction fees, you are essentially paying between $100,000 – $200,000 a year just to use their software!
• The Cumulative Costs of Apps – Monthly costs associated with premium app usage for various purposes such as: searching, loyalty programs, SEO app, can quickly run into several thousand dollars monthly.

Rather than functional app upgrades, when you build a custom solution you trade away increasing liabilities (rent and the success tax) for an asset (your own software). When you factor in your total investments in the first 3 – 5 years, the potential ROI associated with building custom developed software usually exceeds that of using SaaS by negating your rental fees and success tax!

Also Read : E-commerce SEO: Web Development Tips for Online Stores

The “Headless” Advantage: Speed, SEO, and Conversion

Speed is one of the most important ranking factors in the current digital environment, so having an e-commerce site built with headless commerce will give your company a huge advantage as it relates to organic search rankings (SEO).

When we talk about headless commerce, we are talking about decoupling the front-end (user interface) from the back-end (database), which allows for:

• Sub-Second Load Times: Using modern frameworks like React or Vue.js can deliver content faster than any pre-built themes.
• Complete UX Control: You have the ability to build a user experience (UX) that suits your business’s goals, rather than being limited by the three-step checkout methodology of most off-the-shelf e-commerce platforms. According to research conducted by the Baymard Institute, a custom optimized checkout can result in an increase of up to 35% in conversion rates.
• Superior SEO Flexibility:  You will have complete control over schema markup, metadata, and server-side rendering, which mean that your site’s SEO will not be limited, in any way, by “legacy junk” left behind by your e-commerce platform.

Security, Scalability, and Data Sovereignty

Two significant dangers threaten the growth of scaling businesses; heavy spikes in traffic and security breaches of data.

Infrastructure That Scales With You

SaaS-based platforms may occasionally experience downtime due to very high levels of traffic, such as during a product launch or on Black Friday. A custom solution created from cloud infrastructure (like with AWS or Google Cloud) can be designed so that it automatically scales up or down based on demand in real-time anywhere in the world.

Data Privacy and Compliance

When it comes to industries like healthcare and finance, maintaining the privacy of the customer is of utmost importance. Developing a custom solution allows for “Security by Design” which gives you full control over customer data regarding how it is stored and how it is protected, ensuring your company meets strict GDPR or HIPAA regulations that may not be covered under a generic cloud based platform.

Conclusion

Custom eCommerce development empowers you by enhancing your brand’s flexibility & independence (self-sufficiency). If you’re experiencing difficulty with site load times, overpaying, or frequently receiving “NO” from your current eCommerce platform/vendor, then you are at your “glass ceiling” or highest potential.