Don't mess with the platform - enhance the e-commerce experience

Suddenly the five big initiatives you had planned for 2009 are going to get cut down to two or three, and you'll be forced to make some hard and lasting choices about where to invest.

Almost every Internet retailer we have talked to is contemplating a major e-commerce replatforming initiative, which will consume many millions and many more months. As shopping experience experts, we've been called in to help strategize about how to improve the online user experience during renovations, but the harsh reality is that for the majority of these replatforming projects, the user experience on the replatformed site will be virtually identical to the original. The effort will stretch resources so thin that only after the new infrastructure is implemented will many retailers be able to focus on improving the shopping experience itself.

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