2/3 of self-licensed online stores Shoper have moved to the cloud

Less than a year ago, Shoper, an e-commerce software provider, announced that it would no longer offer it as a standalone license, i.e. maintained on its own infrastructure, and would instead focus on its core product, the cloud computing (SaaS) store. Since then, the vast majority of online stores have migrated to the new environment. One in eight has chosen the Shoper Premium package.

Having a store under its own license was relatively popular among sellers on the platform Shoper, especially demanding e-business owners. Such a solution allowed for more modifications. Thus, sellers were making quite a lot of changes, which sometimes generated a lot of difficulties when updating and ultimately, however, required more work.

- As recently as a year ago, 88 percent of stores operating under a standalone license were not working on current software. They were using as many as 74 different versions of it, installed over the years and not updated on a regular basis. Because of this, many of them did not have the latest features and solutions for e-commerce that we were developing - as they required the latest version of the software. The problem did not apply to stores operating in the SaaS model. In their case, new features appeared automatically. The novelties we introduced recently, such as the addition of Google Pay or a better product search engine, motivated more owners to move to the cloud. - notes Artur Halik Sales Manager at Shoper.

Migration in an hour

The store migration process has been divided into three stages. The first is updating the license to the latest version. This is followed by cleaning the licenses of "add-ons," i.e. features previously added independently by sellers. Wanting to keep these features, 12 percent of customers have so far opted for the Shoper Premium subscription, which offers more features than the basic software. The final phase involves copying the store's data to the SaaS (Software as a Service) cloud and switching traffic to the new location. The process is supervised by Shoper specialists responsible for store migration. They provide customers with answers to questions that arise during the migration.

- A few years ago, IBM director Albert Barron aptly compared using software to making a pizza. You can make it yourself, but it requires skill, acquiring ingredients and having a well-equipped kitchen. Self-licensed store was akin to buying a frozen pizza and preparing it at home - it still requires a lot of work - shopping, baking, cleaning. SaaS is like going from home to a pizza shop. We avoid cooking and dishwashing, and the meal is fresh and fully in line with new culinary trends. It's also much faster, especially when dining for a larger group of people. A similar set of advantages has prompted retailers to switch to our preferred e-commerce operating model," says Artur Halik of Shoper.

Since Shoper announced in September 2018 the end of its support for standalone-licensed stores, among others, WorldToys (LEGO's umbrella store), Biogo (with healthy food and dietary supplements) and Deptana (engaged in wholesale distribution of food products) have decided to migrate to the SaaS model. In total, several hundred retailers have already taken advantage of this option. Thanks to the migration, all of them automatically gained a responsive layout, access to the latest features such as an advanced search engine and modern payment methods, and in the case of Premium stores, also improved speed of operation.

- A major challenge when moving stores from Standalone License to SaaS was finding alternative solutions to previous implementations. The use of our solutions in the form of RWD Premium graphic templates and applications made it possible to realize the client's assumptions. Thanks to the migration, the stores got rid of technical problems related to external hosting - they work more stable. And it is this stability and certainty of operation that, in our opinion, is the biggest advantage of moving the store from Standalone License to SaaS," assess the experts of the Web Coders team, which designs e-commerce solutions for merchants on Shoper software .