When does replatforming make sense?
Three signals: your theme blocks every design or feature wish (each change is a workaround), your mobile conversion structurally lags desktop, or your load times drop below Core Web Vitals norms despite optimisation. Below roughly €250,000 annual revenue a well-optimised standard shop is usually still fine; above it, headless pays back in conversion and freedom.
Replatforming is explicitly not rebuilding everything. Products, customers, orders and payments stay in your current platform. That is exactly why the risk is manageable.
The roadmap in six steps
1. Audit: map URL structure, rankings, integrations and data flows. 2. Architecture: pick the connection (Storefront API for Shopify, GraphQL for WooCommerce) and design the new front. 3. Build: the new storefront runs in parallel on a staging environment, next to the live shop.
4. Redirect plan: every old URL gets a 301 to its new equivalent, including filters and pagination. 5. Go-live: DNS switch outside peak hours, with the old environment on standby. 6. Aftercare: monitor rankings, 404s and conversion daily for the first two weeks and correct immediately.
How to prevent SEO and revenue loss
SEO loss during migrations almost always comes from missed redirects or changed content, not from the technology. So freeze content during the migration, keep URL structures identical where possible and validate the redirect plan with a crawl before go-live. The new static front usually improves Core Web Vitals sharply, which yields ranking gains after a few weeks.
Revenue loss is prevented with a parallel go-live: the old shop keeps running until the new one demonstrably converts. In doubt, DNS can switch back within minutes.
· Maricio Jongma, Jongma Development