Start Here: your current direct to consumer story

• Tell me briefly about your current direct to consumer setup and why you are exploring a platform change now
• Walk me through the last 12 months of revenue growth, the top acquisition channels driving that growth, and the moment the platform started to feel limiting
• How many active SKUs, subscription SKUs, and monthly orders do you process today, approximately Options: Under 500 SKUs / under 1k orders, 500–2,500 SKUs / 1k–10k orders, 2,500–10k SKUs / 10k–50k orders, 10k+ SKUs / 50k+ orders, Unsure
• Who on your team owns day to day platform operations, and who is the executive sponsor for growth initiatives Options: Head of e commerce, VP of Product/Tech, Head of Ops/Logistics, CMO / Head of Growth, Founder / CEO, Other
• When you imagine a successful migration, what will feel most different three months after launch
• Do you have any immovable blackout periods in the next 6 months that would prevent a migration Options: Yes, firm dates (provide below), No, Flexible but constrained around promotions

What a failed migration actually costs you

• If migration downtime cost one month of revenue, how would that affect your marketing spend, runway, or hiring plans
• Which revenue or margin levers do you consider most fragile during platform change, subscriptions, payments, fulfillment, or analytics Options: Subscription retention, Payment success rate, Checkout conversion, Fulfillment accuracy, Discount and margin tracking, Analytics fidelity
• Describe the last time a technical change reduced orders or subscriptions, what happened, and how long it took to recover
• How many days of downtime, degraded checkout rate, or revenue loss would you consider unacceptable during cutover Options: Any downtime is unacceptable, Up to 1 business day, 2–3 business days, Up to one week, Depends on timing
• What single condition would make you stop the project immediately Options: Unfixable data portability issues, Closed payment gateway contract, Wholesale channel veto, No committed migration owner, Other

Where the current system quietly leaves money on the table

• Which current limitation most masks losses in retention or lifetime value
• In your subscription flows, where do cancellations and failed payments cluster, and how do you currently detect and address them
• Tell me about any unexpected transaction or fulfillment fees you discovered only after running a campaign and how they impacted margins
• Estimate the weekly hours your team spends on manual reconciliation, fulfillment exceptions, and subscription support Options: Under 5 hours, 5–15 hours, 15–40 hours, 40+ hours, Unsure
• If a pilot showed no improvement on subscription retention, would you proceed to a full rollout Options: Yes, No, Only if other metrics improve, Unsure

Who needs to sign and who can block it

• Name the person or role in your organization that could veto the project and explain their primary concern
• List the stakeholders who must sign off on pricing, legal terms, and the launch window Options: Finance / CFO, Legal / GC, Head of Ops / Logistics, VP of E commerce, Founder / CEO, Procurement
• When procurement or finance pushes back, what specific financial proof points do they require to approve an external platform Options: TCO over 3 years, Break even unit economics, ROI model from pilot, SLAs and penalties, Other
• Describe how channel partners or wholesale accounts are notified about DTC changes and who manages those conversations
• Identify one stakeholder objection that would stop the project if it remained unresolved

What keeps you up at night about a migration

• Name the risk that would make you pause the project Options: Payment gateway interruption, Data loss or corruption, Fulfillment breakdown, Channel conflict with retail partners, Long vendor lock in, Other
• Describe past migrations or platform projects that encountered unexpected blockers and how those were resolved
• List the external systems that must remain live during cutover, for example subscription billing, payment gateway, ERP, or 3PL portals
• Who owns the data export and validation steps, and will that person be available during your desired migration windows Options: Yes, owner identified and available, Owner identified but limited bandwidth, No clear owner, Unsure
• What regulatory, privacy, or retail compliance reviews could delay the timeline

The other options you are weighing

• If you stayed with your current approach, what would need to change for it to be acceptable for the next 12 months
• Select which of these options you have evaluated so far Options: Your incumbent storefront platform, Build internally with engineering, Another hosted commerce platform, Commerce agency or systems integrator, Marketplace first strategy, Do nothing / maintain current
• Explain why one option currently looks most likely to win the budget
• Has anyone proposed solving this internally without an outside partner, and what would that internal team need to deliver to succeed Options: Yes, internal engineering route, Yes, ops-led migration, No outside in house proposals, Unsure
• If internal build appears cheaper in your TCO model, would you still choose an external partner Options: Yes, No, Only for specific modules, Unsure

Practical readiness and hard constraints

• Point to the specific connector, data owner, or resource you cannot proceed without
• Select all third party systems that must integrate with the new platform Options: Primary storefront CMS, Subscription billing, Payment gateway, ERP / Accounting, 3PL / WMS, CRM, Analytics / BI, Marketing automation, Other
• Are APIs or data exports available for those systems and is there a named contact who can grant access Options: All APIs available and contacts assigned, Most available but some require work, APIs limited or locked down, Unknown, need discovery
• Does your team have a dedicated technical lead and migration owner who can commit at least 5 hours per week to coordination Options: Yes, dedicated owner available, Yes, but limited bandwidth, No dedicated owner, Not sure
• How clean and accessible is your order, customer, and subscription data for export and mapping Options: Ready with field documentation, Mostly ready with gaps, Messy and needs cleansing, Unknown
• If any of the listed systems require closed APIs or contract renegotiation, could you still meet a 12 week launch Options: Yes, we can extend workarounds, No, timeline would reset, Yes with scope reduction, Unsure

The single number you will judge us by

• Identify the one metric you will use to decide whether this project succeeded or failed
• Choose the primary success metrics you expect us to influence in the first 90 days Options: Monthly recurring revenue, Churn rate, Average order value, Checkout conversion rate, Subscription retention, Fulfillment error rate, Customer acquisition cost, LTV / CAC ratio, Analytics visibility, Other
• What target for the primary metric would make you sign a full program after a pilot
• If the pilot proves the numbers, what internal approvals would you still need before signing Options: Finance budget approval, Legal contract sign off, Executive sponsor sign off, Board or investor approval, None
• Identify the role that will own ongoing metric monitoring and the reporting cadence Options: Head of Analytics, VP E commerce, Head of Ops, External partner, Other

If we aligned today, what happens next

• If the pilot meets the agreed KPI in your testing window, can you commit to a migration start within 30 days Options: Yes, No, Maybe with approvals, Only with scope limits
• What is your target launch window Options: Within 30 days, 30 to 60 days, 60 to 90 days, 90+ days, Flexible
• Provide the names and decision authority of the people who must attend a technical kickoff
• On a scale from 1 to 5, how urgent is this change to your business priorities Options: 1 Not urgent, 2, 3, 4, 5 Critical
• If we could shorten your expected timeline by 25 percent, what internal changes would be required to make that possible

• Platform Experience Session

• Confirm the current state and its cost
• You confirm that the demonstrated subscription workflow preserves revenue during migration and eliminates the reconciliation work you described.
• Deliver a draft migration plan with sequencing, owners, rollback criteria, and proposed cutover windows.
• You confirm that the analytics view provides the cohort-level CAC and LTV signals required to decide on go-live and marketing spend.
• Prove subscription flows using your scenario
• Run the sample cohort analysis on the provided export and deliver a CAC-to-LTV comparison for the pilot product.
• Provide a representative export of orders, subscriptions, SKUs, and payment events for one product line.
• You agree on the remaining evidence required before contract approval and a concrete next deliverable to produce that evidence.
• Prove cohort analytics against your KPIs
• List all fulfillment partners, API endpoints, and access credentials or contact points needed for integrations and test cutovers.
• Prove fulfillment and 3PL routing for your constraints
• Prove the migration and cutover sequencing
• Confirm the decision timeline and identify the buying committee members whose approval is required for migration.
• Validate the fit

• Platform Experience Session
• Platform Experience Deck
• Platform Experience Solution Brief

• meeting
• slides
• document

• Port Product Catalog and Variants
• Migrate Customer and Order Records
• Port Theme and Storefront
• Configure Checkout and Payment Flows
• Migrate Payment Gateway and Billing
• Implement Subscription Billing and Dunning
• Integrate 3PL and Fulfillment Providers
• Set Order Routing and Inventory Sync
• Configure Shipping Rates and Label Printing
• Implement Returns and RMA Workflows
• Deploy Cohort Analytics and LTV Dashboards
• Set SEO Redirects and Preserve URLs
• Activate Email and SMS Commerce Integrations
• Optimize Storefront Performance and CDN

Port Product Catalog and Variants

• How many active SKUs (including variant SKUs) must be imported from your current catalog? Options: Less than 500, 500-2,000, 2,000-10,000, More than 10,000
• Which product attributes must be preserved during porting (example: title, product handle, images, weight, dimensions, custom metafields)?
• Do you require migration of product images and image alt text to the new content delivery network (CDN)? Options: Yes, No
• Provide the source export format for product data (CSV with variant rows, JSON catalog export, XML feed, other). Options: CSV with variant rows, JSON catalog export, XML feed, Other
• What acceptance criteria will confirm the catalog migration is complete (example: SKU count match, variant attribute parity, images reachable at public URLs)?

Migrate Customer and Order Records

• How many customer records need to be migrated including active customers and archived accounts? Options: Less than 5,000, 5,000-25,000, 25,000-100,000, More than 100,000
• Which order history range must be migrated to the new platform (last 12 months, last 24 months, full history, custom range)? Options: Last 12 months, Last 24 months, Full history, Custom range
• Provide the required data fidelity for orders to be migrated (line items with variant SKUs, item-level discounts, tax breakdowns, shipping lines, fulfillment status).
• Do you need migration of stored payment tokens tied to customer profiles or only customer profiles without tokens? Options: Tokens and profiles, Profiles only, Profiles with tokens stored externally
• What evidence will validate customer and order migration accuracy (example: sample order reconciliation report with matching totals, line items, and customer identifiers)?

Port Theme and Storefront

• Which storefront templates must be replicated in the new theme (homepage, product page template, collection template, cart, account, checkout customization)? Options: Homepage, Product page, Collection page, Cart, Account, Checkout customization
• Preserve custom theme code, templating files, and client-side scripts used on your storefront (yes/no/partial)? Options: Yes, No, Partial (only core templates)
• List storefront integrations that must continue to work after porting (example: review widget, loyalty widget, chat SDK).
• How should SEO-critical theme assets be handled in the ported theme (canonical tag templates, meta description patterns, structured data markup)?
• Who on your team will own content freeze windows and approve final storefront quality assurance (QA)?

Configure Checkout and Payment Flows

• Which checkout options must be supported at launch (guest checkout, account checkout, express pay, subscription checkout)? Options: Guest checkout, Account checkout, Express pay, Subscription checkout
• Are 3D Secure (3DS) checks or specific fraud screening rules required in the payment flow for domestic or international transactions? Options: Yes, No, Only for international transactions
• Which billing descriptor should appear on customer statements for card transactions and subscription charges?
• How will you verify checkout readiness end-to-end (example: place a test order with correct billing descriptor, tax calculation, shipping calculation, and successful receipt generation)?
• Set the timeout and retry behavior for payment tokenization calls and webhook retries at cutover (example presets or custom). Options: Default platform settings, Timeout 5s / 3 retries, Timeout 10s / 5 retries, Custom

Migrate Payment Gateway and Billing

• Which categories of payment providers must be connected at go-live (card processors, wallet providers, bank debits, ACH/direct debit)? Options: Card processors, Wallet providers, Bank debits, ACH / Direct debit
• Are gateway merchant IDs and API credentials available and ready to supply for each payment provider? Options: Yes, No, Partially
• List required billing descriptors, VAT or tax registration settings, and invoice appearance details that must be preserved in billing.
• Which settlement schedule do you require for payouts (daily, weekly, net 7/14/30, custom)? Options: Daily, Weekly, Net 7/14/30, Custom
• Are there fee structures or transaction routing rules to preserve such as split-fee routing or interchange optimization? Options: Yes, No

Implement Subscription Billing and Dunning

• Which subscription models must be supported at launch (fixed renewal cadence, usage-based billing, prepaid packs, hybrid)? Options: Fixed cadence, Usage-based, Prepaid packs, Hybrid
• What dunning stages and retry intervals do you require before canceling a subscription (example presets or custom schedule)? Options: Retry 3 times over 10 days, Retry 5 times over 30 days, Custom
• Require proration rules for mid-cycle plan changes and refunds (yes/no/custom rules)? Options: Yes, No, Custom proration rules
• Which customer-facing billing documents must be generated by the platform (invoices, receipts, subscription schedule emails)? Options: Invoices, Receipts, Subscription schedule emails, All of the above
• Who on your finance or ops team will own subscription collection, failed payment handling, and disputes?

Integrate 3PL and Fulfillment Providers

• Which fulfillment partner categories must be integrated at launch (domestic 3PL, international 3PL, dropship partners, in-house fulfillment)? Options: Domestic 3PL, International 3PL, Dropship partners, In-house fulfillment
• Provide API endpoint types or EDI formats available from each 3PL (example: REST inventory endpoint, ASN via EDI, SOAP order API).
• Require order advance ship notice (ASN) and tracking synchronization back to customers and the platform (yes/no)? Options: Yes, No
• What picking and ship confirmation service level agreements (SLAs) do you require from each 3PL (same day, 1-2 business days, 3-5 business days)? Options: Same day, 1-2 business days, 3-5 business days, Custom
• Who on your logistics or operations team will be the integration owner and first escalation contact for 3PL issues?

Set Order Routing and Inventory Sync

• How should orders be routed to fulfillment locations (by SKU, by delivery region, by inventory level, or hybrid rules)? Options: By SKU, By region, By inventory level, Hybrid rules
• What inventory sync cadence do you require between the platform and each 3PL or warehouse (real-time, 15 minutes, hourly, daily)? Options: Real-time, 15 minutes, Hourly, Daily
• Indicate the acceptance threshold for inventory accuracy at cutover (percentage match between source and target available stock). Options: 98-100%, 95-97%, 90-94%, Custom
• List the SKUs or inventory locations that require dedicated routing rules at go-live.
• Which SKU-level attributes must be migrated and respected by order routing (safety stock, lead time in days, warehouse bin, backorder flag)?

Configure Shipping Rates and Label Printing

• Which shipping rate models must be supported at launch (carrier-calculated rates, flat rate by zone, weight-based tiers, promotional free shipping rules)? Options: Carrier-calculated, Flat rate by zone, Weight-based tiers, Free shipping rules
• Require label printing integration with on-premise printers or thermal label templates at fulfillment sites (yes/no/3PL-only)? Options: Yes, No, 3PL-only
• Select the carrier account types available for label printing and negotiated rates (contracted accounts, marketplace-negotiated rates, 3PL-managed accounts, label vendor). Options: Contracted accounts, Marketplace negotiated rates, 3PL-managed accounts, Label vendor
• Should parcel insurance and signature-on-delivery options be surfaced at checkout and in order management (optional add-on, included for premium orders, not offered)? Options: Optional add-on, Included for premium orders, Per customer choice, Not offered
• Who on your operations team will manage carrier rate table exceptions, updates, and ongoing rate maintenance?

Implement Returns and RMA Workflows

• Which return workflows do you require at launch (self-serve returns portal, seller-authorized RMA, prepaid return labels, store credit only)? Options: Self-serve portal, Seller-authorized RMA, Prepaid return labels, Store credit only
• What inspection outcomes should map to which financial actions (examples: restock fee, full refund, partial refund)?
• Provide required return window lengths by product category (example: 30 days standard, 90 days for non-perishables, custom perishable exceptions). Options: 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, Custom per product
• Require automated return shipping label generation and automated tracking updates to the corresponding order record (yes/no)? Options: Yes, No
• Assign the owner responsible for returned inventory disposition and restock decisions post-inspection.

Deploy Cohort Analytics and LTV Dashboards

• Which acquisition channels must be attributed in cohort analysis for LTV calculations (paid social, search, affiliate, email, other)? Options: Paid social, Search, Affiliate, Email, Other
• Specify the lifetime value horizon and cohort window you want measured (30 days, 90 days, 365 days, custom). Options: 30 days, 90 days, 365 days, Custom
• Require cohort breakdowns that separate subscription customers from one-time purchasers in analytics (yes/no)? Options: Yes, No
• Which revenue and cost inputs should feed CAC and LTV calculations (gross revenue, returns, discounts, ad spend, fulfillment costs)?
• Who is the analytics owner on your team that will validate event-level tracking, conversion events, and dashboard metrics?

Set SEO Redirects and Preserve URLs

• Estimate the count of legacy URLs that require 301 redirects at cutover. Options: Less than 500, 500-2,000, 2,000-10,000, More than 10,000
• Which legacy URL patterns must preserve query parameters used for campaign tracking (example: utm parameters, campaign tags)?
• Require automated redirect generation from a CSV mapping file or provide redirects manually (CSV mapping, manual list, partial)? Options: Yes, CSV mapping, No, manual list, Partial
• How will you validate search engine indexing and crawling after redirects (sitemap submission, URL inspection sampling, rank tracking)? Options: Sitemap submission, URL inspection sampling, Rank tracking, Other
• Assign the owner who will approve final URL mappings and sign off on redirect readiness for go-live.

• Master Services Agreement (MSA)
• Statement of Work (SOW) — Migration & Implementation
• Subscription Order Form
• Service Level Agreement (SLA)
• Data Processing & Portability Agreement (DPA & Export Annex)
• Pricing & Fee Schedule
• Migration Schedule & Responsibility Annex
• Acceptance Certificate (Go‑Live Sign-off)
• Change Order Agreement

• Go-live Health Check (weeks 1-4)
• First Measurement Review (weeks 4-10)
• Acceptance Gate — Outcome Validation (around day 90)
• Quarterly Success Review (ongoing)

• Update monitoring thresholds and alerting for order routing accuracy and carrier integration uptime to reflect operational experience.
• Restate acceptance criteria and numeric targets
• Produce a documented acceptance decision by the buying owner that records pass/fail status for each numeric criterion in the Solution Scope.
• For any failed criteria, have an agreed remediation plan with dates that will result in re-evaluation or re-run of the specific test.
• Confirm the incumbent system has been decommissioned or formally retained-read-only and that data migration/archive tasks are scheduled or complete.
• Publish the acceptance decision document that lists each criterion, its pass/fail status, and the buying owner's recorded decision.
• If applicable, create the incumbent decommission checklist with archive confirmation and fallback lockout steps.
• Open remediation tickets for any failed criteria with clear acceptance criteria for the re-test.
• Performance vs targets and trend analysis
• Confirm continued realization against post-migration GMV recovery rate and order routing accuracy rate targets from the Solution Scope.
• Maintain a groomed backlog of enhancement requests and operational fixes with agreed priority and delivery windows.
• Agree the next quarter's experiments or optimizations to improve CAC and LTV, including measurement plans and success thresholds.
• Publish the quarterly KPI summary and updated backlog prioritization within three business days of the meeting.
• Create experiment briefs for agreed CAC/LTV tests with metrics, sample size, and success criteria.
• Present first dataset against targets
• Determine whether the measured order routing accuracy rate and post-migration GMV recovery rate are on an acceptable trajectory toward the Solution Scope targets.
• Agree a prioritized remediation plan with dates to address each root cause for gaps in the KPIs.
• Confirm the readiness timeline for the acceptance gate or identify showstoppers that will delay it.
• Deliver a remediation backlog with owner-assigned tasks and target completion dates for each KPI gap.
• Update the shared dashboard to surface order routing failure rates and recovery rate trends daily until stabilized.
• Schedule targeted operational checks with fulfillment partners for each identified root cause.
• Re-confirm success criteria and owners
• Confirm that the deployment environment and core flows are functioning for production traffic or list the critical failures preventing that.
• Produce a short remediation plan with concrete next steps and owners for all high-severity issues.
• Ensure data migration smoke checks passed or identify the failed checks and the corrective path.
• Publish a one-page go-live summary that lists pass/fail for each core flow and the high-priority remediation plan.
• Create the high-severity incident list with resolution deadlines for the next 72 hours.
• Confirm the monitoring dashboard access for buyer stakeholders and enable alerts for critical order and payment failures.
• Enhancement and issue backlog review
• Deployment and migration validation
• Present outcome data against each criterion
• Root-cause diagnosis for gaps
• Document pass/fail per criterion and record acceptance decision
• CAC and LTV optimization experiments
• Agree corrective actions and owners
• Early adoption signals and usage patterns
• Shorten or skip if no material changes
• Confirm timeline to the acceptance gate
• Agree remediation plan and timeline for any failed criteria
• Blockers and open issues triage
• Agree immediate remediation actions
• Incumbent system wind-down confirmation