Ecommerce Discovery and Planning

At the end of discovery, you should have a decision-ready blueprint that another vendor could execute without guessing. That includes a target solution architecture with an integration map, an agreed scope and phased roadmap, a prioritized backlog with estimation ranges and assumptions, and a risk register covering security, data, SEO, migration, and operational continuity with mitigation plans. Your current page already positions discovery as producing artifacts like scope, user journeys, timelines, staffing plans, and other technical documents; the FAQ should make those outputs explicit and enterprise-auditable rather than “advice.”

Discovery typically runs two to six weeks depending on integration complexity, data readiness, and stakeholder availability, but speed comes from structured workshops plus asynchronous validation rather than more meetings. Your side should plan for a business owner (P&L or ecommerce lead), operations/customer service representation, finance (especially for B2B terms), and an IT owner for ERP/integration decisions; without those voices, teams often “finish” discovery and then reopen decisions during build.

Platform selection must be criteria-driven and documented, not preference-driven. The credible output is a decision matrix that ties requirements to platform capabilities and operating cost, identifies non-negotiables and acceptable constraints, and states why alternatives were rejected. To make this procurement-friendly, you should also document licensing and vendor dependencies at a high level, plus the delivery implications (time-to-market, skills, governance) of the chosen option.

Integration risk is reduced by declaring a system of record per domain object (product, price, inventory, customer, order) and documenting contract behavior for each flow, including how failures are detected and resolved. Discovery should explicitly cover error handling expectations, reconciliation needs, monitoring/alerting requirements, and ownership during incidents so operations is not surprised after go-live.

Yes, B2B discovery should be treated as a first-class track, because “B2B features” only work when they reflect how sales ops, finance, and fulfillment actually run. The output should describe account hierarchies, roles and permissions, approvals, contract pricing, payment terms, and any procurement mechanics such as PunchOut or EDI, as well as how customer service and sales-assisted ordering will operate.

Discovery should include an early risk assessment that flags security, access control, audit logging, compliance expectations, and sensitive-data handling at the architecture level, because these issues cause the most expensive late-stage rework. It should also be explicit about what is not included unless you commission it, such as full penetration testing, full legal compliance reviews, or vendor contract negotiations; enterprise teams tend to assume these are included unless you state boundaries.

Discovery stays bounded when deliverables, decision points, and acceptance criteria are defined at the start, and when the engagement is structured around closing decisions rather than producing more documents. A strong pattern is to time-box discovery, maintain a decision log, and end with a signed-off scope baseline plus an explicit list of open risks and “future phase” items.

Paid discovery is often unnecessary when the scope is truly small and low-risk, with no migration and minimal integrations, and when stakeholders already agree on requirements and platform direction. In those cases, a short scoping sprint can produce a lean plan and confirm feasibility; the key is that you explicitly recommend the lightest viable approach rather than defaulting to a full package.