e-Commerce Ascension Series: Upgrade & Uphold (VIII)
The e-Commerce industry is a constantly turning tide of trends and fads. As soon as a competitor discovers a new way to increase sales, everybody else tries to copy it. Software developers have picked up on this and come up with a witty strategy to increase their prices. Software developers bait potential customers with low fees for building a website because they know the customer is unaware of the hidden cost of maintenance. They know the customer will need constant changes to the website and new features implementations, and they adopted what in marketing is called the razor and blades model. You sell the main product for a low price but charge more for complementary goods. In this case, additional features. In this article, I will go over the main aspects of how to upgrade & uphold your e-commerce website.
The first part you should allocate resources to is framework updates. This involves updating the core features of your website from both a security and functionality point of view. Ideally, this process should be done at least quarterly to ensure the proper functioning of all working systems.
Server Maintenance
Another vital aspect you should cover is server maintenance. A specialist should go through backups, disk usage, operating system, management tools, hardware errors, user accounts, passwords, and overall system security to confirm they are in good condition. Mismanaging your server’s health can be devastating for a scaling business and is the primary source of downtime for your website. At the same time, you should perform a malware scan for all systems. Due to the increased volume of communication between devices worldwide, the risk of malicious software crawling through your system is very high. Besides investing in standard protection, you should be wary and perform this extra check to ensure the defense wasn’t bypassed by clever malware.
Modules & Plug-ins
A key component of e-Commerce websites is the modules and plug-ins. They are what allowed websites to become what they are right now compared to what websites used to be back in the early days of the internet. Since the digital landscape is constantly evolving, they also need updating and reconfiguring from time to time to ensure they are still working as intended. In an ideal world, once a website is launched, it shouldn’t require constant check-ups, but since preferences and technologies evolve, some elements might lag. To make the process of upgrading & uphold easier to be dealt with, you should create a maintenance schedule that should ensure that everything runs smoothly.
Objective Readjustment
After checking already existing components, you should focus on objective readjustment. This is the part where you consider new technologies or avenues. What worked until now is possibly obsolete, or maybe prices for different services have unjustifiably been raised. You should always consider new ways to improve your digital product, no matter the reason.
If you enjoyed this article about how to Upgrade & Uphold a website, all the other steps of the e-Commerce Ascension™ become way more accessible. The template is not just a powerful tool to increase your e-Commerce performance. It’s a mindset that allows people like you and me to gaze through the lens of consumer behavior and successfully apply the insight gathered.
