Planning a Successful Launch for Your BigCommerce Redesign
Welcome to the fourth installment of our content series, Innovate and Elevate: A Guide to Growing Your BigCommerce Store with a Site Redesign. Be sure to check out Installment 1 (Thinking About Redesigning Your BigCommerce Store? Start Here), Installment 2 (Content and Data Essentials), and Installment 3 (Designing a Modern User Experience) of our series in case you missed them.
Maintaining the status quo can be the fast track to falling behind when it comes to growing online sales. For BigCommerce merchants, this often means embracing a strategic website redesign that enhances user experience, modernizes functionality, and aligns your online presence with your evolving business goals.
In this four-part content series, our team of BigCommerce experts guides you through the essentials of a successful redesign—from planning to launch—ensuring your store is not only up-to-date but ahead of the curve. Whether you’ve already committed to a site redesign or just exploring the idea, this series will equip you with the knowledge, strategies, and best practices you need to make informed decisions and drive meaningful results.
Introduction
You’re almost there—just a few final touches left on your newly redesigned BigCommerce store! Now, it’s time to cross the finish line with a carefully planned testing and launch phase.
In this guide, we will walk you through the entire testing and launch process, from defining stakeholder roles and pre-launch preparations to the technical essentials for unveiling your redesigned site. We will also highlight the importance of ongoing improvements to keep your online store thriving beyond the initial launch.
Let’s dive in!
Identifying Stakeholder Roles for a Successful BigCommerce Redesign Launch
Defining the roles of stakeholders involved in your project is paramount to the success of your website redesign. A well-structured team with distinct responsibilities plays a crucial role in supporting the following steps during the launch process, including:
- Providing timely feedback: Engaging internal team members for diverse perspectives and communicating feedback to the design/development team in the timeframe required.
- Implementing feedback promptly: Translating essential feedback into tangible changes quickly to minimize delays in the launch process.
- Effectively marketing your launch: Giving your site redesign the attention it deserves with a strategic marketing and promotional plan.
- Testing site functionality: Reviewing site functionality and resolving any glitches before go-live.
Ask yourself the following questions when assigning roles for the launch process:
- Who will be our dedicated internal representative for communicating feedback to our design/development partner?
- Will we need an external agency to help market the launch?
- Do we want to invest in more advanced user testing prior to launch?
Next, we outline essential pre-launch steps to ensure your redesigned store makes a memorable entrance for new users and existing customers.
Pre-Launch Steps: Preparing the Public Debut of Your BigCommerce Redesign
The success of your revamped store’s digital debut relies heavily on meticulous pre-launch planning. Here, we outline essential steps to ensure your site makes a memorable entrance into the digital landscape.
Market your launch in advance: Create buzz around your upcoming launch to maximize the reach and impact of your redesign. Advance planning of your marketing strategy is key, encompassing the creation of marketing assets and a distribution plan that includes:
- Email campaigns
- Press releases
- Social media teasers
- Strategic partner engagement
Organize web analytics: Make sure you’ve saved analytics data for your current store before the redesign launch. Comparing this data with analytics after the redesign will provide insights into the impact of the changes and help you make informed decisions about future enhancements.
Prepare for design changes that affect customers: Changes can be disorienting for customers, so it’s important to anticipate how site alterations may affect them and provide necessary guidance to preserve a positive user experience. Prepare user-friendly tutorials, FAQs, or implement tooltips on the new site to help customers adapt to the new online experience.
Undergo a comprehensive testing and review process: Your design/development agency should be expected perform a multi-step testing process that includes the following:
- Testing compatibility across browsers and devices
- Checking that all site links, forms, CTAs, and conversion paths are working
- Reviewing code for quality assurance
- Providing the client with an initial site review, requesting feedback, and implementing necessary revisions
Clients of IntuitSolutions have exclusive access to Themebridge, a staging environment that enables you to preview alternative themes using your website’s real store data. This provides a firsthand look at your new design in action and helps expedite the testing and development process.
Get a Complimentary Site Consultation
Let our BigCommerce experts guide you on the design enhancements that will move the needle for your business goals.
Steps to Launch Your Newly-Designed BigCommerce Store
As you enter the final stretch of your redesign journey, the spotlight shifts to the technical essentials that will bring your website to life. This includes the following steps:
- Executing test orders, including live payment processing
- Submitting your website’s sitemap to major search engines
- Integrating third-party applications
If moving domains (e.g. bestpens.com becomes slickpens.com), the launch phase will also include the following steps:
- Redirect every URL on your old domain to the corresponding URL on the new website
- Pointing the domain to the store with the BigCommerce DNS settings and domain registrar
- Installing an SSL certificate using the dedicated SSL from BigCommerce
Final Review and Testing
Once the steps above are complete, the final testing and review phase can commence.
During the final testing phase, your design/development team will perform:
- Another round of browser/OS/device testing
- More UX testing to check site links, conversion paths, forms, landing pages, and CTAs
- Another full-site review for quality assurance
- A final stamp of approval from the Project Manager
During the final launch phase:
- Client reviews the site once more
- Design/development agency implements any final revisions
Keeping Your Revamped Online Store Thriving with Ongoing Optimization
Redesigning your BigCommerce store is a significant achievement, but it’s just one important milestone in your ecommerce journey. The most successful businesses use a redesign as a foundation for ongoing site improvements, ensuring their investment continues to yield long-term results.
With endless opportunities to continue improving your website, our team offers site optimization and support plans that prioritize the most impactful changes that help your business:
- Resolve and prevent technical errors that lead to drop-offs
- Enhance user experience and site engagement
- Improve conversion rates and average order value
Our team of BigCommerce experts carefully assess your needs and recommend optimization services tailored to your unique goals. Some of the most common services include:
- Technical Search Engine Optimization Support
- Routine Site Health Maintenance (e.g., backups, bug fixes, security updates)
- Core Web Vitals and Page Load Speed Optimization
- Web Accessibility Remediation and Improvements
- Design Modifications and Feature Enhancements
- Custom Development Requests
- Strategic Ecommerce Consulting
Key Takeaways: Ensuring a Successful Launch for Your Redesigned BigCommerce Store
In this guide, we’ve highlighted the indispensable role of careful planning and proactive engagement when launching your redesigned BigCommerce store. Outlining your marketing strategy, conducting pre-launch preparations, and executing technical essentials are all vital steps in ensuring a seamless transition.
We’ve also emphasized the importance of continuous performance improvement for your redesigned store. Our team of BigCommerce experts is poised to tackle technical issues, elevate the user experience, and drive improved conversion rates, all of which contribute to your store’s lasting success in the ever-evolving ecommerce landscape.
