Platform comparison through the lens of data gravity

Platform marketing loves to talk about “ease of migration.” Engineering knows the truth: migration cost tracks data shape—options, kits, shared customers, B2B hierarchies, and a decade of one-off fixes—not the logo on the login screen. When you compare Shopify, BigCommerce, Shopware, and Adobe Commerce, you are also comparing how each stack absorbs the mess you already own. Irish Titan’s migration architects on those conversations are employees at our headquarters—Titans only, not contractor analysts.

Catalog: the iceberg under the PDP

Variants, bundles, digital goods, and market-specific attributes look simple in a spreadsheet until you try to land them in a new product model. Map how merchandising uses each field today—not how it is labeled in the legacy admin. The platform that models your truth without twelve shadow databases is usually cheaper to migrate, even if the license line is higher.

Customers, companies, and “almost duplicates”

B2B introduces parent accounts, roles, shared carts, and negotiated price lists. B2C introduces loyalty IDs, stale emails, and guest history you still have to honor. Comparison isn’t “does it have B2B?”—it is “can we express our rules without custom code owning the critical path?”

Orders and money: the unforgiving layer

Open orders, partial refunds, gift cards, and tax line precision follow you into cutover weekend. When evaluating platforms, trace a messy order end-to-end in UAT. If finance does not sign off on the reconciliation story, you are not ready—regardless of how polished the theme is.

Feeds, channels, and SEO carry data outward

Product data does not stop at the storefront—it powers ads, marketplaces, and search. Weak feed discipline shows up as thin listings and wasted spend. Platform choice should include how you will govern feeds after launch, not only how you import CSVs once.

If you want migration planning that starts from data reality, share your source stack and destination shortlist—we will tell you where the gravity is.