The DIY Platform Exposed
"The 20 hidden "app traps" that nobody ever wants to talk about."
Mike Day - Founder ProStore®
20 things every retailer should know before committing to an app-based platform.
Other platforms are all marketed as “complete” Ecommerce solutions, but is this true? Is what you get out-of-the-box actually a disappointment? The App-based business model is here to stay. Other platforms hype this as a positive benefit and claim it provides total flexibility, but is this right? Could more choice actually mean less action? We aim to find out…
1. The Power Of Hype
An App-Based Platform Will Not Run Your Business Out-Of-The-Box! Contrary to the hype, there are no true end-to-end Ecommerce Solutions available for serious online retailers, just flat-packed DIY starter kits that require significant, and expensive, custom design and construction before they are functionally complete. With the exception of ProStore®, no other currently available platform is designed to run a serious online retail business in standard form.
2. The "App Gap"
Reports suggest that up to 50 Apps will be needed before some major platforms will be able to run a serious online retail business properly (which is backed up by the results of the Hype Vs Reality exercise we conducted). It is down to you to decide which Apps you’re going to need, which ones are stable and well supported, and which ones work as expected.
3. "White Label" Apps
Only a very small number of Apps are built by the platform supplier. In the case of Shopify, the percentage of Apps built by 3rd party developers is 97%, versus 3% built by Shopify. Platform suppliers will not support Apps that were built by 3rd party developers.
4. Choosing The Right Apps
Some market leading platforms have over 10,000 3rd party Apps in their App stores. You must therefore conduct a thorough evaluation of each App to ensure that it will fully meet your business requirements, and your expectations. It is not safe to assume that, just because an App is available on a platform’s App store, that it will provide the stated features, will provide what you actually need, or will even work properly.
5. Hasty App Decisions
If you only spent 1 hour evaluating an App (which is nowhere near enough time by the way), it would take you circa 5 years to evaluate 10,000 Apps, and that is based on you working on it full time. This is totally impractical, and explains why so many retailers get forced into making hasty App decisions, with potentially dire consequences further down the line.
6. Supplier Bloat
If you do end up requiring 50+ Apps to run your business, this generally means you will also have 50+ different 3rd party suppliers, and therefore 50+ completely different support agreements. App developers are based all around the World, so time zones can make support challenging. In addition, the quality of support offered by 3rd party developers varies significantly and can only be truly measured when called upon, which could be during a technical crisis where your whole business has ground to a halt.
7. Hidden Costs
The true cost of ownership for most platforms is not easy to quantify at the outset. The platform itself often appears to be cheap, but this won’t be the only expense you will incur. The low advertised monthly subscription fee is often described as a fraction of the true total cost of ownership. Apps cost varying amounts of money, and you will probably not even be aware of the Apps you are going to need at the start. App subscription fees can add up very quickly, especially when using premium Apps (with some costing over £1500 p/m).
8. App Design Inconsistency
3rd party app developers all work in different ways, and to different standards. Some are better than others, and while platform suppliers try to set standards, many Apps still look and feel different to one another. Inconsistent user interfaces and independent design styles can lead to confusion and ambiguity for users, which can significantly increase your ongoing staff training overheads.
9. App Stability and Reliability
Apps need to be installed by you, and technical conflicts between Apps are not uncommon. These can be very time consuming to resolve, and in the worst cases can result in a destabilisation of your whole Ecommerce environment, and significant business interruption. If this situation occurs, it can be very difficult to resolve. Reports suggest that 3rd party developers often blame each others Apps for problems and leave you to figure everything out by yourself. This can be frustrating, and will more than likely leave you with NO long term resolution.
10. Poor Platform Performance
Many customers of market leading platforms complain of significant performance degradation after 10+ Apps have been installed. If this situation occurs, there may be very little you can do about it. Platform suppliers reportedly suggest that you just keep uninstalling Apps until the problem is resolved. This is not a long term solution, especially if you are relying on 50+ Apps to run your business. Slow sites are heavily penalised by Search Engines and Answer Engines.
11. Platform Lock-In
Vendor lock-in is the situation where you are so reliant on a single vendor’s platform that you face significant financial and technical barriers to switching. Migrating a successful store away from platforms such as Shopify is a notoriously difficult, expensive, and technically complex process that often results in lost data and SEO authority.
12. Paying For Redundant Features
App design is largely carried out in isolation by each individual 3rd party developer, which means that App functionality regularly overlaps. This can result in multiple different ways of achieving the same result, which can be confusing for users. It can also result in numerous redundant features, which, of course, you will be paying for but not using.
13. Technical Burden
Turning a platform into a fully comprehensive, high quality Ecommerce Solution using a base platform and Apps requires a considerable amount of time, money, and technical / design expertise. Very few Online Retail businesses have the right skills to achieve this. NOR SHOULD THEY NEED TO!
14. Finding a Workable Alternative
There are literally thousands of 3rd Party Agencies out there that will happily build a custom solution for you using a base platform and Apps, but this comes at a price. Reports suggest that a quality, comprehensive solution can easily cost upwards of £250k upfront, £8k per month in App subscriptions, and another £5k per month in transaction charges.
15. Reinventing The Wheel
In terms of Ecommerce business workflows, the majority of online retailers are all operating in exactly the same way, so they all need exactly the same back office functionality. What works for a snowboard retailer will also work for a retailer of footballs. This effectively means that people building their own platforms using 3rd party Apps are effectively just building the same solution, over and over again.
16. Business Risk
The reality of App-based custom built solutions is that you are betting the integrity of your whole business on Apps that are almost certainly built by 3rd party developers, NOT the platform supplier. You might think you’re safe because you’re “on the number 1 selling platform”, but you may actually be supporting your entire business on an App built by a lone developer, in their bedroom, on the other side of the World. This has major implications from a business continuity perspective.
17. App Maintenance Overheads
Apps need updating regularly, by you, just to stay in support. If you are relying on 50+ Apps then this can become very time consuming. It can also be frustrating and problematic if any of the App updates fail as this can break your entire software environment and bring your business to a halt. As well as updates, Developers sometimes depreciate (cancel) their Apps altogether. This can happen at very short notice if, for example, the developer stops trading. This would then be your problem, and it can have severe consequences if you are relying on that App for major business functionality. In this situation, you would have no choice but to go back to the App store, choose a replacement App, and then hope that your precious data can be salvaged and moved across to the new App successfully (by you).
18. Lack Of Future Proofing
A custom built solution will stand still the moment it goes live and will not keep up with new Ecommerce advancements without significantly more money being spent on further development work or platform / App upgrades. Platform suppliers provide a software subscription only, they do not supply technical services or business support as an integral part of the licensing deal. Unless you pay for additional support, you are effectively on your own from the moment you sign up. Unless, of course, your business can afford to hire the ongoing services of expensive IT and platform-specific experts for the foreseeable future at circa £300+ per day (each).
19. Decision Paralysis
The scale of 3rd party App dependency should not be underestimated, even for what many would consider to be the most basic of Ecommerce business functionality. At the time of writing, there were nearly 1000 different Apps on the Shopify App Store to handle Returns processing, nearly 2000 to handle Emails, and well over 4,000 to handle Order processing. Choosing the right Apps for your business at these volumes is completely overwhelming, and something of a lottery if you don’t perform a thorough evaluation of what each can (and more importantly can’t) do.
20. Not Being Found Via SEO / AEO
Most current platforms are inefficient when it comes to SEO, with even basic optimisation features requiring yet more 3rd party apps. This can add to your costs and potentially impact your site’s performance. Reports suggest that some platforms can often generate content issues that make it difficult for search engines to understand the relationship between site pages. These types of inherent problems can confuse search engines and dilute your site’s ranking potential. With the exception of ProStore®, no other currently available platform is ready for AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation – AI search)
Summary
Our advice is to be very wary of the hype and the clever marketing. Also remember that just because a path is popular, it doesn’t make it the right one. Check out the Trustpilot Reviews for the No.1 selling platform to see how other people are finding the app-based business model.