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Shopify Plus Replatforming Strategy for Lacoste: Technical Discovery & Migration Planning
Shopify Plus replatforming strategy, technical discovery, Akinon migration assessment, ERP integration planning, and MVP scoping for Lacoste's regional ecommerce operation
Project Summary
Elogic Commerce partnered with Lacoste to validate Shopify Plus as a viable target platform for its European regional ecommerce operation, while preserving an established design system, ERP-driven order and inventory workflows, and market-specific integrations. The engagement defined the migration, integration, MVP, and investment roadmap required to move from the existing Akinon platform into implementation.
Preserving order management, inventory, and fulfilment workflows tightly coupled to a 1C ERP system, Lacoste required a discovery process capable of resolving migration risk, integration architecture, and MVP scope before implementation investment was committed.
Key Outcomes
~150 → 77 P0
requirements analyzed and prioritized, with 77 classified as implementation-critical MVP requirements, creating a controlled scope for implementation estimation and delivery
6
integration domains assessed: ERP, payments, shipping, e-invoicing, marketing automation, marketplaces
8
execution-ready discovery deliverables produced
1
target platform validated: Shopify Plus confirmed as viable for Lacoste's regional commerce requirements
About the Client
Lacoste operates ecommerce for its brand in a European market with distinct local requirements: shipping and delivery infrastructure, payment methods, e-invoicing standards, and fashion marketplace integrations specific to the region, alongside a global design system that needed to carry over to any new platform.
Before the engagement, the existing site ran on Akinon, with order management, inventory, and fulfilment tightly coupled to a 1C ERP system, meaning any platform change carried real operational and data-continuity risk. Leadership needed a structured, risk-assessed path to evaluate Shopify Plus before committing implementation budget, rather than a platform decision made on assumption.
Key Migration Constraints
Lacoste’s existing design system needed to be assessed for compatibility and feasibility on Shopify Plus before any commitment to the platform, since a global brand identity is not something that can be redesigned casually during a replatform.
Order management was tightly coupled to 1C ERP, with subpackage creation, cancellation, refund, and inventory workflows that had to be preserved, not simplified away, during migration.
Multiple market-specific integrations, shipping and delivery, payments, e-invoicing, and marketing automation, needed individual technical investigation rather than assumption that Shopify’s standard app ecosystem would cover them.
Existing Akinon platform data (orders, customers, product data) needed a defined, risk-assessed migration approach rather than an ad hoc export/import.
Business Challenge
01
Platform decision risk
Lacoste needed to establish whether Shopify Plus could support its regional commerce requirements before committing implementation budget.
02
Operational continuity
Order, inventory, fulfilment, cancellation, refund, and subpackage workflows were tightly coupled to 1C ERP and needed to survive the platform transition.
03
Integration and migration complexity
Akinon data and six integration domains required individual technical validation rather than assumptions based on Shopify’s standard ecosystem.
04
Investment uncertainty
Lacoste needed a prioritized MVP, implementation architecture, risk assessment, timeline, and budget before moving into development.
Elogic Commerce's Solution
Business Requirements Gathering
Elogic Commerce ran stakeholder interviews across marketing, operations, technology, and store management, documented the current state of store operations, website performance, and inventory flow, and investigated existing return and refund flows to define the best approach for Shopify.
Benchmark and Competitive Analysis
Elogic Commerce conducted benchmark and competitor analysis to inform the target experience and platform approach, alongside identifying and documenting project constraints, risks, and assumptions.
MVP Scope Alignment
Elogic Commerce worked with stakeholders to approve and align on functionality and logic for MVP (must-have) scope versus nice-to-have features, establishing a clear implementation boundary before technical planning proceeded.
Technical Feasibility Assessment
Elogic Commerce investigated the current Akinon platform to determine the best data migration approach, assessed the 1C ERP and marketing automation systems to define a correct architectural connector aligned to existing data structures and flows, and reviewed current connectors between the ERP and marketplaces to identify the best-fitting approach for custom app development.
Integration & Platform Feasibility Assessment
Elogic Commerce defined the best-fit payment gateway against business requirements and investigated the regional shipping app on Shopify to confirm it covered delivery, pickup point, and returns/refunds requirements before relying on it in the target architecture.
Estimation and Roadmap Planning
Elogic Commerce conducted risk assessment and mitigation planning, reviewed and finalized the work breakdown structure, and developed an implementation plan with milestones and expected deadlines.
Discovery Outcomes & Implementation Readiness
Validated Shopify Plus as a viable target platform for Lacoste’s regional commerce requirements and established the technical conditions and integration dependencies required for migration.
Defined the migration approach for Akinon data, order management, inventory, and legacy-system workflows, establishing how these would transition to Shopify Plus without disrupting core operational processes.
Established the target integration architecture across six domains—1C ERP, payments, shipping, e-invoicing, marketing automation, and marketplaces—including the requirements for native Shopify capabilities, third-party apps, and custom development.
Determined which requirements could be addressed through Shopify Plus capabilities and apps versus custom development.
~150 → 77 P0
requirements analyzed and prioritized, with 77 classified as implementation-critical MVP requirements, creating a controlled scope for implementation estimation and delivery
Produced the solution architecture, work breakdown structure, risk mitigation plan, implementation timeline, and budget required to transition directly from discovery into implementation planning.
Capabilities Demonstrated
01
Ecommerce replatforming strategy and technical discovery
02
Shopify Plus feasibility assessment
for existing design systems
03
Legacy platform migration risk assessment
(Akinon to Shopify Plus)
04
ERP integration architecture planning
(1C ERP)
05
Market-specific integration investigation
(shipping, payments, e-invoicing, marketing automation)
06
MVP scope definition and prioritization
07
Implementation roadmap and risk mitigation planning
under engineer oversight
When This Solution Is a Good Fit
01
Facing a genuine replatforming decision, not just a redesign02
Carrying an existing design system, ERP integration, or market-specific technical requirements that make migration risk a real strategic concern03
Need a controlled MVP scope defined before implementation begins04
Want an investment-ready roadmap, not just a platform recommendationPlanning a Shopify Plus Replatforming Strategy?
If your brand is evaluating a move to Shopify Plus while carrying an existing design system, ERP integration, or market-specific technical requirements, it's worth scoping the migration risk and integration architecture before committing to implementation.