10 Excuses to Justify Your Commerce Platform

I get it — change is hard. And unnecessary. And usually not worth it. And often rude. Especially when it comes to your commerce platform, sometimes the status quo is all you need. As a legacy platform myself, I’ve seen too many commerce experts feel pressured to change — but no more. I’m here to help.

C-suite in your ear about “headless commerce” or “omnichannel shopping?” You’re not the first. It’s becoming a real problem. Commerce platforms need someone to stand up for us, so I’m providing you with some excuses to get those big thinkers off your back. Good luck.

1. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

You’re still selling products, right? Let’s not over-complicate things. Sometimes, big swings are a homerun — but they’re usually strike three. Or a foul ball. Occasionally a dropped third strike. Anyway, you get it.

2. People like classics.

Paper travel maps, smoking in planes, a one-stop commerce suite. Sometimes the old way is just better.

3. APIs are for nerds.

Good for tinkering around and building an app in a dorm room? Sure, have at it. But APIs for commerce? Let’s not be crazy.

4. Social media is for fish pics and funny posts. Not shopping.

I scroll my feed to see old TV clips and my brother-in-law’s freshly caught large-mouth bass. That’s it. No one wants to buy stuff when they’re social networking.

5. With so many microservices, you might lose one.

Too many vendors, not enough time. Don’t worry about building the “best” or “most agile” commerce site. If one platform can cover it all, why would you want to keep track of that nonsense? Your phone, keys and wallet are hard enough to remember — don’t add microservices to the mix.

6. You can’t trust the cloud.

You’re supposed to build your own data centers. Would you use one that has no address? Who knows what happens when you move to the cloud? I certainly don’t. Why would you want to find out?

7. What’s next, robot CEOs?

I mean, come on. AI? Headless? One-click checkouts? Click. (That would make sense if people had common sense and still used landlines.) Someone has to put a stop to this insanity. Let’s put this “innovation” stuff on pause and order some drinks.

8. How would you know your capacity limits?

Without a legacy platform, you’ll have no idea when you go over your CPU limit or exceed your license count. Sounds like a dark world to me.

9. MACH is a scam.

Stop me when I get to a real word: Microservices. API-first. Cloud-native. Headless. See what I’m saying? If you rearrange the letters in MACH, you get CHAM, which sounds like scam. That’s no coincidence. You really believe in “unlimited scaling?” I don’t know how it works but I know that it definitely can’t be real. Open your eyes.

10. Don’t you like me?

Come on, we’ve been through a lot. Don’t you feel attached to your ol’ legacy tech at this point? We have our own special connection. Would you really ditch me for some new tech on the block?

This is just the start, but you get the idea. It’s up to you to send a message to your C-suite that legacy tech is the only way. Don’t let big possibilities rip away the best thing your business has.

Your commerce platform is great the way it is — don’t ever change.

For more legacy commerce wisdom, follow @naysayallday on Twitter.