Bridging Innovation and Regulation: Developing Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) in E-Commerce Under Regulatory Constraints

The Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach has become a cornerstone of modern agile development and lean startup practices, enabling faster market entry and iterative design through customer feedback. However, the application of MVPs in regulated industries such as e-commerce, which must comply with data protection, cybersecurity, and consumer protection laws, presents unique and underexplored challenges. This review introduces the Compliance-Integrated MVP (CI-MVP) Framework, a novel model developed to reconcile the rapid prototyping strengths of MVPs with the rigorous demands of regulatory compliance. Drawing from a detailed case study of a European e-commerce firm and synthesizing findings from over 20 key academic and industry sources, the paper highlights the limitations of traditional MVP models and regulatory sandbox approaches in regulated environments. The CI-MVP model incorporates five iterative stages—Regulatory Scoping, Compliance-by-Design, Iterative Risk Assessment, Stakeholder Alignment, and Audit Readiness—to embed compliance into the MVP lifecycle from inception. Comparative analysis reveals that this framework offers significant improvements in compliance efficiency, team alignment, and post-launch stability. The paper concludes by discussing implications for practitioners, policymakers, and academic researchers, and offers actionable insights to guide future work in compliance-aware innovation systems. Ultimately, the CI-MVP model redefines viability to include regulatory sustainability, offering a more robust foundation for product innovation in increasingly regulated digital ecosystems.