Case Study: Switching from Sky Shop to a more flexible eCommerce engine
Ready-made online stores: a great start, but won't they become a roadblock to growth?
Why are ready-made stores a good choice to start with?
At the start of an e-commerce business, ready-made store platforms (e.g. Shopify, Shoper, WooCommerce) seem to be an ideal solution. They allow you to quickly launch online sales without investing in costly implementations or hiring developers. Their advantages are:
- Quick setup and ease of use
- Low initial costs
- Ready-made templates and integrations with popular payments and couriers
- No technical knowledge required
For companies with a small number of products and a limited budget, this is often the best way to test a business idea and start getting their first customers.
When does a ready-made store become a trap?
As the company grows and the number of orders increases, new needs arise. Off-the-shelf platforms, which were an asset at the beginning, can begin to limit growth. The most common problems are:
- Limited ability to personalize the store and the purchasing process
- Lack of support for non-standard integrations (e.g. with ERP, warehouse systems, loyalty programs)
- Difficulties with optimizing performance when traffic is heavy
- Limitations in expanding functionality (e.g. non-standard promotions, specific product variants)
- High commission or subscription costs when sales are high
As a result, the store that was supposed to facilitate growth begins to block it. The company loses flexibility, and implementing new ideas requires costly workarounds or migration to a more advanced solution.
Example: migration of magicznyrynek.pl store from Sky-Shop to Deenruv
A good example illustrating the need to migrate from Sky-Shop to Deenruv is the magicznyrynek.pl store. For its owners, the key challenge turned out to be Sky-Shop's limitations in terms of integration with an external warehouse, where some inventory was stored. The inability to seamlessly synchronize inventory and automatically update product availability prevented further development of the store and effective order management.
Migration to the Deenruv platform made it possible to implement full integration with the external warehouse, ensuring automatic inventory updates and eliminating the risk of errors in order processing. As a result, magicznyrynek.pl was able to efficiently scale the business, offering customers up-to-date information on product availability and significantly improving the quality of service. For more details on this migration, see our case study: magicznyrynek.pl - case study.
The importance of SEO and integration with Google Merchant Center
With the migration to a more flexible platform like Deenruv, new opportunities opened up for effective store SEO and integration with Google tools. One of the key elements turned out to be the correct integration with Google Merchant Center via the Merchant API. Thanks to this solution, it is possible to automatically and continuously update product offerings, which translates into higher quality of presented data and better visibility of products in Google Shopping and other Google services.
The application of SEO best practices - such as optimization of product descriptions, implementation of structured data and regular indexing analysis - allowed the store to increase its visibility in search results and reach new customers. Integration with Merchant Center and consistent SEO efforts contributed to an increase in website traffic and higher conversions, confirming the importance of a comprehensive approach to e-commerce development on a dedicated platform.
Summary
Off-the-shelf e-commerce stores are a great choice to start with - they allow you to get into the market quickly and test your business. However, as your business grows, it's worth regularly reviewing whether the platform is becoming a limitation. At some point, an investment in a more flexible, dedicated solution may be necessary to maintain your growth rate and competitive advantage.
Planning to open an online store or need support in upgrading your old store to finally start selling? Learn more about our solutions, effective integration with Google Merchant and SEO best practices - contact us.