ECommerce operations are growing. The growth of high-speed Internet combined with the proliferation of smartphones have made online and mobile shopping more attractive, particularly to ever-busy Americans who don’t always have time to make it in-store.

This poses a critical challenge to merchants. Regardless of whether they operate exclusively online or if the Web is only one part of their business, they need to deal with the rising number of online shoppers.

According to a recent report from Exolevel, as many as 74 percent of people now prefer to shop online.

For merchants, the growth of online shoppers brings in new difficulties. They need their operations to be seamless, in spite of the bigger numbers of customers. They can’t afford to run out of stock, mess up orders or otherwise fail in their execution. At the same time, more shoppers and orders also increases the chance of an incident occurring.

Mistakes are quite possible if you’re technology isn’t up to the task. Many merchants purchase eCommerce software when they are relatively new and with only their current needs in mind. As they scale up, it isn’t uncommon for retailers to need additional functionality that their initial eCommerce platform doesn’t provide. Not doing so will hinder their effectiveness and prevent growth.

If this is the case, it may be time to replatform, Multichannel Merchant suggests. To be a successful online retailer, you need to integrate and automate as many functions as possible, and it takes a robust and flexible eCommerce platform to do so. By working with an eCommerce software solution provider such as SalesWarp, retailers can consolidate all their different tools and processes to make the best use of their time, resources and all product, order and customer information at their fingertips.