The verdict in three sentences
An e-commerce replatforming costs 15,000 to 70,000 EUR excl. tax in 2026 and spans 3 to 6 months, depending on catalogue size and number of integrations. The number-one risk is not technical but SEO: without a rigorous 301 redirect plan and change freeze, a botched migration drops organic traffic by 20 to 40 %, sometimes for several months. The golden rule: migrate like-for-like first (functional and URL parity), optimise later.
Why and when to migrate
You rarely migrate for fun: a platform that no longer keeps up with growth, exploding maintenance costs, slowness hurting conversion, or the inability to add features (B2B, multi-currency, marketplace). The right time is when the cost of the status quo (lost sales, wasted time, technical debt) exceeds the project cost.
| Cost item | 2026 range excl. tax | What drives it |
|---|---|---|
| Redesign & UX | 4,000 - 15,000 EUR | Full redesign or parity |
| Platform development | 8,000 - 35,000 EUR | Customisation, theme |
| Data migration | 3,000 - 12,000 EUR | SKU, customer, order volume |
| Redirects & SEO work | 2,000 - 8,000 EUR | Number of URLs, complexity |
| Re-integrations (ERP, payment) | 3,000 - 15,000 EUR | Number of connectors |
| QA & go-live | 3,000 - 8,000 EUR | Test cases, volume |
| Indicative total excl. tax | 15,000 - 70,000+ EUR | — |
These ranges are a 2026 order of magnitude; a 50,000-SKU store with ERP and marketplace easily exceeds the top of the range.
The SEO checklist that protects your sales
Organic traffic is often a store's leading revenue source. Protecting it is the absolute priority of any replatforming.
| Stage | Action | Stake |
|---|---|---|
| Before | Map all URLs and their traffic | Miss nothing |
| Before | Freeze non-essential URL structure changes | Limit damage |
| Migration | URL-to-URL 301 redirect plan | Transfer SEO equity |
| Migration | Keep titles, metadata, structured data | Hold rankings |
| QA | Check 404s, redirect loops, canonicals | Avoid losses |
| After | Submit sitemap, monitor indexing | Speed recovery |
| After | Track traffic and rankings 8-12 weeks | Detect drops |
A "like-for-like" SEO migration with visual redesign suffers a temporary 5 to 10 % dip that recovers in 4 to 8 weeks. A migration without clean redirects can lose 30 % of traffic lastingly.
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Mini case study
Karim is e-commerce manager of a sports-equipment online store: 8,500 SKUs, 220,000 EUR monthly revenue with 55 % from SEO. His current platform no longer handles peaks and average order value stalls for lack of features.
He budgets 42,000 EUR excl. tax of replatforming over 4 months, with an exhaustive 301 redirect plan. Controlled scenario: 8 % traffic dip in month one, back to normal after 6 weeks, estimated temporary loss ~9,000 EUR. Feared scenario (without SEO rigour): -30 % organic traffic, i.e. a revenue loss of about 36,000 EUR per month for 3 months. The gap — over 90,000 EUR — alone justifies paying a team that masters redirects and QA. The new foundation then lets him gain 6 % conversion, paying back the project in one quarter.
FAQ
How long does a migration take? 3 to 6 months on average in 2026. A small store (under 2,000 SKUs, few integrations) can migrate in 6 to 10 weeks; a heavy catalogue with ERP demands 5 to 6 months.
Will we lose our rankings? Not if 301 redirects are done URL-to-URL and metadata preserved. A temporary 5 to 10 % dip is normal and recovers in weeks; a 20 to 40 % drop signals a sloppy migration.
Should we redesign everything at once? No, it is even risky. Best practice is to migrate at functional and SEO parity first, then optimise design and conversion in a second phase once stability is confirmed.
What about old orders and customer accounts? They get migrated: order history, accounts, addresses, credit notes. It is a line item in its own right (3,000 to 12,000 EUR) because data models differ between platforms.
How to limit the commercial risk? By migrating outside peak season, with serious QA, a staging environment and a rollback plan. Never migrate the day before Black Friday.
Let's scope your project. Give us your current platform, SKU volume and integrations: we will scope an SEO-safe migration, indicative budget 15,000 to 70,000 EUR excl. tax. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
