For the last 20 years, many businesses have grappled with the decision of whether to buy software off-the-shelf or build custom solutions. The pros and cons of both approaches are well documented and the ultimate decision question is: are you struggling to fit your unique business rules or processes into a generic ecommerce solution? A bespoke ecommerce platform may be the answer. Unlike one-size-fits-all options, bespoke solutions provide tailored customisation and flexibility to meet your specific business needs.

The benefits of bespoke ecommerce solutions don’t end there. In addition to full flexibility, bespoke solutions offer superior performance and security compared to off-the-shelf options. 

Drawing from our 25 year experience  in the ecommerce industry, Remarkable Commerce understands the challenges and obstacles you might face while trying to make your business stand out. In this article, we delve into the common pains experienced by business owners like you and offer valuable insights, using our expertise to guide you in creating a custom-made ecommerce store tailored to your unique needs. 

The common disadvantages of Shopify

Lack of flexibility

Loss of flexibility costs money and, importantly, it is a significant barrier to growth. There is nothing more depressing to find that your SaaS platform was fine for sales up to £20m but will not cope with sales up to £50m! Shopify's out-of-the-box features lack the adaptability required for unique or custom workflows, limiting your ability to fully tailor your store. This lack of flexibility means your business needs to change its processes, which risks impacting your services and turnover. Additionally, Shopify relies heavily on pre-made templates for their storefronts, so unless you create a fully headless frontend (which has its own headaches), it is difficult to create a truly distinct and brand-aligned shopping experience. 

Quality of functionality

While Shopify offers thousands of plugins and add-ons, the quality of these third-party apps can vary, leading to potential performance issues or limited functionality. Additionally, and most crucially, this approach leads to a frankenstein tech stack - as none of your third-parties easily connect to each other, meaning siloed data and manual processes being required. 

Agency implementation

When working with agencies on Shopify projects, businesses may face additional layers of complexity, especially with custom integrations or unique implementations. Unfortunately, many agencies will blame the platform for mistakes or issues, and likewise, Shopify will blame the implementation by the agency. This ‘blame game’ usually means retailers get mixed messages and are unable to truly innovate. 

The costs

Most mid-market retailers (e.g. £10m to £100m) will review the Shopify Plus packages and consider the costs as being attractive up to a point. But a simple Shopify Plus cost analysis will prove that commercials are only attractive for smaller retailers - their monthly licence fee (between £2,400 and £8,000 per month) is reasonable, however, their transaction charges are some of the highest on the market when compared with common PSP’s, and, if a retailer wishes to use a specific PSP instead of Shopify Pay, they are charged an additional fee for this. Shopify’s fees are always in addition to your agency fees, meaning your development agency will invoice separately for their management of your site. 

Four reasons to choose bespoke

1. You have complex business requirements

A bespoke ecommerce platform allows you to tailor every aspect of the site to meet your specific, complex needs, ensuring no compromises. This also includes your platform admin portal, where you manage all of your data - products, orders, customers, promotions etc - and going bespoke, means that your admin can be configured to work in the exact way you want it to - such as custom workflows.

2. You need custom deeper integrations 

Bespoke solutions give you full control over integrations with other critical systems, such as ERPs or CRMs, allowing for seamless data flow and automation. When systems connect in a particular way, without full flexibility, your business is forced to make sacrifices. For example, slow sync schedules or needing to merge data so it can be transferred between systems, to be later split out into different fields.

3. You need unrestricted scalability 

As your business grows, a bespoke platform can scale without the limitations imposed by Shopify, supporting your expansion effortlessly. Having enough head room to grow without worrying you will hit a ceiling or threshold where costs start spiralling, or even worse, it becomes impossible to scale further than where you are, because of tech challenges. 

4. You value data visibility and data agility

With greater control over how your data is collected, stored, and reported, gaining full visibility over all business data is absolutely vital.. Unlike SaaS platforms, with a bespoke approach you can tailor a database architecture to fit your business needs, ensuring better integration with other systems like inventory management, CRMs, or analytics tools. This results in better data flows and deeper analysis of customer data.

In summary, every platform has its place in the market and when a retailer is considering what alternative options they have to Shopify, choosing a highly flexible ecommerce platform gives clear advantages. Investing in a bespoke ecommerce platform built by a reputable agency with a proven record of success is a strategic, long-term choice. 

Learn More

At Remarkable Commerce, the team prides iteself on offering such services and becoming digital growth partners for the 70+ brands who trust them. If you'd like to learn more, feel free to contact Brad at brad@remarkable.net.

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