If there is one area of digital commerce that businesses consistently underestimate, it is total cost of ownership.
Platform conversations around the hidden cost of eCommerce growth often begin with licence fees, implementation costs, and delivery timelines. Those factors matter, of course, but they rarely tell the full story. What looks cost effective in year one can start to look very different by years three or four, particularly as businesses grow, operations become more complex, and additional systems begin to stack up around the core platform.
In a recent episode of The FODcast, Marina Milojkovic, VP UK at Grebban, shared some valuable insight into the realities of ecommerce total cost of ownership, and why brands need to think far more carefully about long-term operational impact rather than simply upfront platform spend.
Why ecommerce total cost of ownership is often misunderstood
One of the most interesting points Marina raised was the way businesses tend to assess ecommerce platforms in isolation. In many cases, the focus remains heavily weighted towards the visible costs. Licence fees, implementation projects, migration work, and monthly platform spend are all relatively easy to measure.
What is harder to measure are the operational costs that develop over time.
As businesses grow, ecommerce ecosystems naturally become more complicated. Additional apps are introduced, integrations expand, workflows become more fragmented, and teams often find themselves managing increasingly disconnected processes. On paper, the platform itself may still appear relatively affordable, but the wider cost of operating the ecosystem around it can rise significantly.
That is where ecommerce total cost of ownership becomes far more complex than a simple platform comparison.
Growth changes the equation
A major theme throughout the discussion was the disconnect between current business needs and future growth expectations.
A platform that works perfectly well for a growing brand today may not necessarily support the same business three years from now. As product ranges expand, international markets open up, and customer expectations increase, operational demands inevitably become more sophisticated too.
This is often where businesses begin to feel the strain. What initially felt agile and flexible can become increasingly difficult to manage as additional functionality, integrations, and workarounds are layered into the environment.
Marina’s point was not that one platform is inherently better than another. Rather, it was that businesses need to evaluate ecommerce total cost of ownership through the lens of where they are trying to get to, not simply where they are today.
The hidden operational burden behind ecommerce platforms
One of the areas that often receives less attention is the impact on internal teams.
Operational inefficiency is still a cost, even if it does not appear directly on a balance sheet. If ecommerce managers are spending hours navigating multiple disconnected tools, manually managing processes, or troubleshooting platform limitations, that time carries commercial value.
The challenge is that these inefficiencies rarely appear overnight. Teams gradually adapt to complexity, adding new tools and processes as requirements evolve, until eventually the operational burden itself becomes difficult to manage.
This feels particularly relevant in the current market. Ecommerce expectations continue to rise around customer experience, personalisation, speed, and performance, but many businesses are still trying to deliver against those expectations with relatively lean teams.
As Marina highlighted during the conversation, ecommerce total cost of ownership should include not just platform spend, but also the wider operational and organisational cost required to run it effectively.
Why regular TCO audits matter
Another practical takeaway from the discussion was the importance of reviewing ecommerce ecosystems regularly rather than treating platform decisions as fixed for the long term.
Technology stacks evolve quickly. Businesses add new tools, processes change, integrations multiply, and before long there is often significant overlap between systems and functionality. Without periodic reviews, brands can easily find themselves paying for tools they no longer use or maintaining processes that no longer make commercial sense.
Regular TCO audits allow businesses to reassess not just the technology itself, but the wider operational efficiency surrounding it. In many cases, simplification can deliver just as much value as further investment.
This is becoming increasingly important as businesses balance the pressure to innovate with the need to remain commercially disciplined.
The capability challenge behind ecommerce growth
One of the wider themes that continues to emerge across digital commerce is the growing relationship between technology investment and internal capability.
As ecommerce ecosystems become more sophisticated, businesses increasingly need people who can bridge the gap between systems, operations, customer experience, and commercial performance. That is not always an easy skillset to find.
Implementing technology is one part of the challenge. Managing complexity over time is another entirely.
We know first hand that the businesses seeing the strongest outcomes are often those that combine platform investment with the right operational structures and commercial talent around it. As technology stacks become more interconnected, the ability to manage change, interpret data, and continuously optimise the customer experience becomes increasingly valuable.
In many ways, ecommerce total cost of ownership is now as much about organisational capability as it is about technology itself.
Final thoughts
What came through clearly in this conversation is that ecommerce total cost of ownership extends far beyond the initial platform decision. Upfront costs are only one part of a much broader operational picture.
As Marina highlighted, businesses need to think more carefully about scalability, operational efficiency, resource demands, and long-term growth when evaluating ecommerce platforms and wider digital commerce investments.
From our perspective, it also reinforces something we continue to see across the market: technology alone rarely solves complexity. The businesses that scale most effectively are usually those that combine the right platforms with the right operational thinking and the right people around them.
A big thank you to Marina for sharing her insight and experience on this topic. If ecommerce platform strategy or total cost of ownership is something you are currently exploring, the full episode is well worth a listen.
