Is Aero the right ecommerce platform for your business?

After many years of operation, ecommerce platforms can become slow, hard to scale and expensive to maintain. Sound familiar?

If you’re trying to grow, working with legacy tech can hold you back. Replatforming to something built for performance, like the Aero ecommerce platform, can help you scale efficiently and boost conversions along the way.

Let’s look at where the Aero platform fits into the market and whether it’s the right choice for your business.

The ecommerce platform landscape: common pain points with the big names.

With so many web platforms to choose from, it can be overwhelming deciding which will be the best one for your business. Do you want to customise your storefront? Do you have the technical knowledge and time to put into development? Are you willing to pay more for additional plug-ins?

These are key considerations when choosing a platform for your website. Here are the pros and cons of some of the most popular ecommerce platforms.

Platform	Pros	Cons
Shopify	Great to get your website up and running	Additional plug-ins can be costly when scaling up from the basic package
Magento	Extensive core features	Requires technical knowledge so it’s difficult for a beginner to get a store up and running
WooCommerce	WordPress plugin so ideal for those starting an online store	Additional plugins are expensive when you want to improve functionality
BigCommerce	Cloud-based and user-friendly with good core functionality	Not customisable, and it can be expensive to add plug-ins

Ultimately, plugins are expensive, and when scaling your ecommerce business, these costs can mount up quickly. So, what is the alternative?

Aero: built for performance-led retailers looking for speed and lean infrastructure

Aero is different from other platforms thanks to its lean core and ready-to-go functionality as standard. This is a huge benefit for retailers who want to individualise their store, while agencies benefit from Aero’s support to provide high-quality integrations.

For retailers who want to grow their business and improve performance without the need for extensive plug-ins, Aero is a great option. Some of the benefits of Aero include:

• The most cost-effective platform of its kind on the market
• Helps retailers generate more sales with a lower lifetime cost
• Supports agencies with drivers to port existing data and replatform to Aero
• Flexibility for retailers to grow and extend stores
• No need to buy extensive plug-ins
• No excessive development and infrastructure costs

Unlike other platforms, Aero is made with retailers in mind. With fast page-load speeds and a lean infrastructure, it is easy to manage, reduces bounce rates and makes it easier for customers to check out.

Where Aero excels

The Aero ecommerce platform is built with ambitious retailers in mind. With performance at its heart, Aero understands the ecommerce landscape is always changing, so it’s built to adapt to these changes. Its key features are centred around performance and scalability, which is where it stands out. 

Fast load times

Slow page loading plays a huge part in bounce rate and customers abandoning their baskets. The optimal page load speed is 2 seconds, but Aero takes this one step further. Guaranteeing load speeds of under 1.5 seconds, it’s lightning-fast regardless of your catalogue size or traffic volume.

This isn’t just theory. When we replatformed Tools & Parts Direct, a retailer with over 95,000 products and more than 400,000 product associations, to Aero, we saw a 23% reduction in page load speed and a 40% drop in redirect time. These performance improvements contributed to a 4% increase in conversions, even in a tough economic climate.

Whether you’re trading through peak sales periods or handling large, complex product catalogues, Aero’s performance-first infrastructure is designed to keep your site running fast and your customers converting.

Low running costs

The lean architecture and efficient infrastructure of the Aero ecommerce platform mean running costs can be lower over time, especially when compared to platforms that rely heavily on expensive plug-ins or third-party apps. However, it’s important to note that Aero doesn’t offer the same breadth of out-of-the-box payment gateways as platforms like WooCommerce, Shopify or Magento. That said, because Aero is built on Laravel, one of the most widely used PHP frameworks, custom integrations are often straightforward and cost-effective to develop.

So, while there may be some initial investment, the long-term maintenance and infrastructure costs of Aero are often significantly reduced, particularly for retailers looking to scale without being tied into costly plugin ecosystems.

Flexible platform

Aero is built on Laravel, a well-established backend framework known for being flexible and easy to work with. It gives developers the tools to create fast, secure and scalable ecommerce sites without the usual headaches that come with more bloated platforms.

With a lean core and essential features ready from day one, Aero supports growth without the bloat or technical debt that often builds up on other platforms. It’s designed to handle high traffic, busy trading periods and changing retail demands while giving developers the tools to build secure, scalable solutions from a robust foundation.

Who Aero is (and isn’t) right for

Aero is a great fit for ambitious, performance-led retailers who need a scalable ecommerce platform without the complexity and mounting costs of traditional options. For retailers focused on long-term growth, the Aero ecommerce platform provides a streamlined alternative to bloated or overly complex setups. With a lean, efficient setup and core functionality included as standard, it’s ideal for conversion-driven SMEs looking to scale without being tied into endless third-party plugins or bloated infrastructure.

It’s especially well suited to businesses who want to work with an agency partner to build a fast, flexible and future-ready store that’s tailored to their long-term growth plans.

When Aero ecommerce platform isn’t the right fit

While Aero is a powerful platform, it’s not the right choice for every business. For example, if you’re looking to manage multiple websites from a single control panel, Aero may not be the best option. It takes a slightly different approach, where each site has its own setup, but you can still sync products and orders between them. This works well for businesses that run separate stores in different countries or under different brands, but may not suit those wanting one central dashboard for everything.

It’s also worth knowing that Aero isn’t a self-serve platform; you can’t download and use it without going through a partner agency. That’s a strength for businesses seeking quality and consistency, but it does mean Aero isn’t aimed at low-budget projects or side hustles. If your ecommerce operation is still early-stage or you’re looking for a DIY setup, Aero probably isn’t the right fit just yet.

How do I know which platform is best?

The good news is, you are not expected to know which platform is best for your business. You don’t even need to know the ins and outs of how it works. But you do need to make sure it’s the right fit.

That’s where Reckless comes in. By working with us as an experienced full-service agency, we can take you through a discovery process to determine which platform suits your business needs the best. In addition, we can take care of replatforming, migration and ongoing maintenance, as well as UX improvements and delivering your digital marketing strategy. This is the best way to get the most out of your website and the platform it is built on.

Aero may not be the loudest name in ecommerce, but it is certainly one of the smartest choices for most ecommerce retailers. If you value speed, simplicity, performance and low maintenance costs, Aero may be the best choice for you. However, if you know you need to replatform and update your website but don’t know where to begin, that’s where Reckless can help.

Get in touch now to discuss replatforming and how to make the most of your ecommerce website.