migration economics

Custom platforms were supposed to be a competitive advantage—build exactly what you need, control every detail, own your technology destiny—but for many brands the promise quietly calcified into a tax: security patches, infrastructure bills, brittle integrations, and a backlog that never seems...

Shopify’s 2026 enterprise playbook arrives with a simple, urgent thesis: the competitive value of custom e‑commerce stacks has largely migrated from "differentiator" to "maintenance tax," and moving to a platform-built commerce model can free engineering capacity, lower TCO, and accelerate new...