Describe the business scenarios
Write down the ways customers need to find products, understand an offer and complete a purchase. Include the conditions that change the journey: different customer groups, product configurations, availability rules or approval requirements.
Turn each important requirement into a scenario. For example: “A returning buyer needs to reorder a known product, see the correct price and receive the appropriate fulfillment information.” The platform discussion can then examine how that scenario would work.
Separate launch requirements from later opportunities. Otherwise, an interesting future feature can outweigh an essential current need.
Map the operating dependencies
List the systems that own product, stock, customer, order and fulfillment information. For each connection, record the available interface, update direction, required timing and exception owner.
Identify dependencies that cannot be changed easily. A platform may support the storefront well but require substantial work to fit an existing operational process.
The integration planning guide provides a more detailed worksheet for those connections.
Test the content and administration workflow
Ask the people who will manage the store to describe regular tasks: changing a promotion, updating product information, publishing content or correcting an order-related issue.
A demonstration should show those tasks with representative content and permissions. Record where the team can work independently and where a developer or additional service is required.
Compare ownership as well as implementation
For each option, document platform costs, required extensions or services, integration development, maintenance responsibilities and internal training. Identify who owns deployment, upgrades, monitoring and technical support.
If headless commerce is being considered, assess the additional storefront and interface responsibilities explicitly. Our headless readiness guide can support that discussion.
Use a decision record
Create a row for each important requirement with these fields:
- Requirement and business owner.
- Priority and acceptable compromise.
- How the option would meet it.
- Evidence: demonstrated, documented or still untested.
- Additional development and operating responsibility.
- Open risk and the action needed to resolve it.
A critical untested requirement deserves a focused technical investigation. A numerical score should not hide a requirement that can prevent the business from operating.
Make the migration consequences visible
If this is a platform move, add data transfer, URL changes, integration replacement, training and cutover to the comparison. Use the migration readiness guide to identify preparation work.
A useful decision explains its tradeoffs
The final recommendation should state why the selected option fits, what additional work it requires and which compromises the team accepts. Preserve that reasoning so future changes can be judged against the original objectives.
Webseek’s Platform Coverage and Selection service helps connect the requirements to an implementation path. Explore our platform coverage to review the named environments we work with.