What are the most common causes of a failed eCommerce platform migration?
Unowned decisions, migrating legacy workarounds forward, and having no rollback plan cause more failures than technical defects do.
Updated
Three patterns recur. Unowned decisions: when two people sit in the accountable seat for the same milestone, the milestone stalls, and no amount of engineering capacity fixes it. Migrating legacy workarounds forward instead of categorising each one as replicate, refactor or retire, which faithfully rebuilds the problem you paid to escape. And no rollback plan with no named authority to trigger one, which turns cutover night into a judgement call made under pressure by whoever is still awake.
On budget specifically, research across 5,392 IT projects found a mean cost overrun of 1.8 times estimate, distributed with a long tail rather than normally. A ten percent contingency does not reflect that shape, and the projects that fail financially are usually the ones that treated the reserve as a formality.
Related questions
There are several ways to increase B2B eCommerce sales:
1) Consistent SEO
Research shows that the majority of B2B marketers consider SEO as their primary source of lead generation, even more so than B2C. In this digital age, it is no surprise that over half of B2B buyers go online before they buy to research and compare.
2) Include self-service for B2B clients
Self-service will bring in a lot of B2B sales as it will mean your B2B company is online 24/7 and a checkout does not need to be supervised, thus never missing a customer.
3) Be mobile-user friendly
The world is utilizing mobile more than ever, even B2B target markets so it is crucial your eCommerce site is just as compatible and efficient on mobile as it is desktop, thus effecting sales.
4) Do not neglect social media!
According to the Content Marketing Institute, social media sites and blogs reach eight out of ten of all Internet users in the U.S. B2B companies are not missing out on the social media craze either. B2B companies use social media to market their company, sell their goods and services, and provide quality customer service.
5) Content, content, content
The more quality content you have, the more pull of clients you will receive, thanks to the further reach and consistency.
6) Customer reviews
You know how you always scroll down to check the customer reviews before buying? This is because customer reviews are the voice of the people. The supposedly unbiased ‘’truth’’ of the product/service. So, numerous, positive customer reviews go a long way.
7) DXP
Personalized experience: Who does not want to feel special? When a client, B2B or not, feels directly catered to or has felt the company has had efforts to give them a thorough, genuine DXP, they will recommend your B2B company, use it again and leave reviews, increasing sales, but also loyalty and customer satisfaction.
Yes. eCommerce in Core dna is a native capability, not a plugin. That includes customer-specific and contract pricing, product catalogue management, subscription billing, multi-currency, and order management. For B2B operations specifically, RFQ workflows, account hierarchies, net payment terms. Core dna is built to handle these natively rather than requiring third-party plugins to fill the gaps.
Core dna is framework agnostic.
An agnostic framework means you can create any design using the front-end technology and frameworks that you know and love.
We believe in being open-minded and non-discriminatory when it comes to technology choices, and we want our clients to feel empowered to use whatever works best for them and their projects, regardless of whether it's something we've already tried and failed with before!
Core dna never requires you to use specific templates or libraries. As a decoupled platform, Core dna also has server side templating that can be used to deliver projects quickly and efficiently using only HTML, CSS and Javascript. The server side frameworks supported are Twig and Smarty.
What is an agnostic framework?
An approach to software development that doesn't favor any one language or technology over another. Agnosticism is a philosophical position which states that it is not possible to know anything about God or other supernatural beings. A Software Agnostic approach would say that there is no right or wrong when it comes to the tools you use in your job as long as they get the job done.
What is Smarty?
Smarty is a template engine for PHP. More specifically, it facilitates a manageable way to separate application logic and content from its presentation. This is best described in a situation where the application programmer and the template designer play different roles, or in most cases are not the same person. It is extremely fast. It is efficient since the PHP parser does the dirty work. No template parsing overhead, only compiles once.
What is Twig?
Twig is a modern template engine for PHP. It's fast. Twig compiles templates down to plain optimized PHP code. The overhead compared to regular PHP code was reduced to the very minimum. It is secure. Twig has a sandbox mode to evaluate untrusted template code. This allows Twig to be used as a template language for applications where users may modify the template design. It is flexible. Twig is powered by a flexible lexer and parser. This allows the developer to define its own custom tags and filters, and create its own DSL.
What is a decoupled platform?
A decoupled platform is a software architecture where components are independent of each other. This allows for easier development, testing, and maintenance of the individual pieces that make up the whole product or system.
Decoupled platform advantages:
A decoupled platform will allow your software to be more easily scalable and upgradable as new technologies become available. It also means your developers won't have to worry about updating multiple parts of your application every time there's an update released; they'll just need to update one piece at a time!
Schedule a one-to-one consultation with your product specialist
Here’s what you can expect:
- Walkthrough: An introduction of the Core dna platform
- Analysis: Personalized recommendations based on your business needs.
- Case studies: How other businesses have used Core dna to scale more efficiently
Yes, Core dna creates a staged approach to building an effective website. Our technology allows you to create a website that serves your current needs while providing the flexibility to quickly and easily add products as your business grows.
Core dna is what creates an aesthetically appealing website that is also backed by strategy. While to the average user, the full capabilities of the DXP are not visible, its robust backend infrastructure provides your business with an unparalleled advantage. We offer the backend user the ability to effectively manage content, layout, and statistics, whilst increasing ROI, attending to customer requests and ensuring the online strategy is fluid and traceable.
Cloud based infrastructure refers to how it is it delivered. In this case, Core dna is delivered as a service (SaaS) as opposed to an actual product. What cloud infrastructure allows is shared resources, software, and information to be provided as a utility over the internet.
By the four-phase exit criteria, not by the model's benchmark scores. The readiness signal is operational: scoped identity in place, audit captures intent, discovery-mode plans match human-operator plans, governed execution has run a representative volume of writes with zero unrecoverable actions, and a governance cadence is established and attended. If any of those is missing, the agent is not ready to scale, regardless of how the model performs in isolation.
Yes. Buyers can raise an RFQ from the catalogue, and sales reps can build or adjust a quote against the account's negotiated price list. The quote carries the same pricing rules, customer-group logic, and contract terms the account already sits on, so the quoted price matches what the buyer sees when they log in. Approved quotes convert to an order without rekeying. Every override on a quote is logged against the account.
Yes. Not every order has to collect payment. Core dna can run a checkout that behaves like an order, moves stock, and triggers fulfilment and approval, but takes no payment. Internal transfers, branch requisitions, sample orders, and account-billed orders run on the same engine as paid orders, with the same audit trail. You decide per customer group or per channel whether payment is collected, deferred to invoice, or skipped entirely.
Yes, through Core dna MCP. Describe the change in plain language and the platform makes it against the same rules your team uses in the admin, with approval, audit, and rollback built in. Draft a promo, model a margin scenario before it goes live, audit recent overrides, or update contract pricing at renewal, all from a prompt. It runs on a live MCP server with 80+ tools and 400+ APIs. No price or promo goes live until the assigned approver signs off.
This could be your biggest challenge yet. The B2B buying process is going digital. The right platform can help improve efficiency while enabling you to run your business online. The best B2B platforms will cover everything from enforcing best practices, consolidating data, bridging the divide between buyer and seller, invoicing, ordering, and information collection.
Not sure what makes a good B2B eCommerce platform? When selecting the technology you need for your online B2B business, consider the following:
- Go with a headless or hybrid CMS/eCommerce platform. How does the software help with the order process, fulfill orders, and update the order management system?
- The platform you use should also be future-proof with multi-lingual and multiple storefront capabilities.
- Choose a system that can get you out of the hardware management business and go SaaS on the cloud.
- Can team members quickly access and operate the software?
- Find a vendor that can be as flexible as your business requires. Can you customize the software to meet your business’s needs?
- The accuracy of inventory, numbers and statistics.
- The customer’s shopping experience.
One platform, three relationships. Multi-site is the umbrella term: many websites or storefronts running on one shared core. Multi-store usually means one company running several branded storefronts from a single admin, often sharing a catalog and customer records. Multi-tenant means independent operators: franchisees, dealers, or separate businesses, each with isolated data and their own logins on shared infrastructure. Core dna supports all three on one instance: you decide what's shared at the core and what each property controls locally.
With Core dna you can launch your website and/or application in weeks, not months. We help you build complex, highly dynamic, and personalized websites rapidly.
With the API-first architecture, Core dna can integrate with all your existing tools: ERP, Marketing Stack, eCommerce solutions and more.
We are here to help you bring your vision to life. There’s no need to wait, you can schedule a demo today!
With Core dna, you get a platform that balances marketing and IT needs. It has been developed to meet the demands of both developers and marketers. We work to provide developers the most flexible platform, while ensuring marketers have an intuitive interface for content editing and distributing and uses technology that enables the full control over digital assets.
Core dna native solutions without plugins or external apps help you build solutions with confidence. We make sure that you will never have to replatform. You will always stay ahead of your competition and get access to our advanced cloud platform that includes auto-scaling, caching, and global content delivery network (CDN). 26+ updates a year for patching, security updates, and new features - all driven by our customers.
Core dna provides top notch customer support with ongoing training programs to give your teams all the tools to succeed online. Core dna clients get a dedicated account and technical teams to support them.
Schedule a one-to-one consultation with your product specialist
Here’s what you can expect:
- Walkthrough: An introduction of the Core dna platform
- Analysis: Personalized recommendations based on your business needs.
- Case studies: How other businesses have used Core dna to scale more efficiently
Core dna fosters a connected and motivated workforce with interactive feeds that deliver real-time updates and centralized tools that streamline collaboration. Features like personalized dashboards, social engagement options, and recognition tools empower employees to stay engaged, share ideas, and feel valued—all within a single, intuitive platform.
Core dna provides users with flexibility by allowing the online solutions to be customized and be relevant to each business' unique requirements.
Enhancements and new features are launched quickly to drive business growth and meet new opportunities.
Yes. Core dna is a native hybrid headless CMS, giving you the best of both worlds: the API-first flexibility of headless and the visual, "what-you-see-is-what-you-get" editing of a traditional system.
Our multi-tenant architecture is built to handle an unlimited number of sites, sub-brands, and regional stores from a single dashboard. You can spin up new sites in minutes using shared components while maintaining unique branding and localized logic for every instance.
Relying on a "patched" stack of disparate platforms creates significant technical debt, security vulnerabilities, and "plugin anxiety." Core dna solves this by providing a single, unified Digital Orchestration Platform where content and commerce exist on the same native engine.
By moving away from a fragmented WordPress/Shopify architecture to core dna, enterprise brands gain:
- Upgrade-Preserved Stability: Because our commerce and CMS features are native (Zero-Plugin), platform updates never break your site logic or custom integrations.
- Single Source of Truth: Manage global product data, complex B2B catalogs, and brand content from one dashboard without the need for fragile third-party "sync" connectors.
- Agentic Orchestration: Our native AI agents can autonomously manage SEO, translations, and multi-site workflows across your entire ecosystem—a feat impossible when your data is trapped in separate silos.
- Enterprise-Grade Security: A unified SaaS infrastructure eliminates the risk of outdated third-party plugins, providing a secure, SOC 2-compliant environment for global scale.
Yes. Core dna is built on a multi-tenant architecture designed for complex business orchestration. We enable "House of Brands" and franchise models to run hundreds of distinct sites from one dashboard. Our Master-to-Sub inheritance logic allows the corporate office to enforce global brand standards and legal compliance while giving local dealers or franchisees the autonomy to manage their own regional pricing, promotions, and staff permissions.
Yes. On Core dna, commerce, membership, learning and content share one engine and one customer record, so the same person is recognised across the store, the member portal and the courses they take removing the middleware most operators use to sync a separate store, CRM, LMS and membership tool, and the data drift that comes with it.
Yes. Core dna is a native Hybrid Headless commerce platform specifically engineered to handle the scale and complexity of B2B. Unlike "pure-play" headless APIs that require you to build your own business logic, we provide a pre-integrated B2B engine. This allows you to manage 100k+ SKUs, contract-based pricing, and complex organizational hierarchies through a single API layer, while giving your marketing team a visual interface to manage content without developer help.
At Core dna, we build the orchestration for global trade directly into the platform. We support multi-currency, multi-payment-gateway, and multi-tax-rule configurations natively across every regional storefront.
- Tax: Our engine manages complex tax jurisdictions (VAT, GST, Sales Tax) and integrates seamlessly with services like Avalara.
- Shipping: We support native split-shipping and multi-source fulfillment logic, allowing you to route B2B orders from different warehouses or depots based on regional proximity and custom shipping rules.