{"id":13007,"date":"2021-11-01T06:44:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-01T13:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michaeljbrumm.com\/dcl-v3\/?p=13007"},"modified":"2024-02-02T08:51:38","modified_gmt":"2024-02-02T16:51:38","slug":"ecommerce-tech-stack-tools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaeljbrumm.com\/dcl-v3\/blog\/technology\/ecommerce-tech-stack-tools\/","title":{"rendered":"Essential Ecommerce Tools\u2014 How High Growth Brands Scale Their Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/b>It\u2019s easier than ever to start an online business\u2014there are so many off-the-shelf tools in the ecommerce landscape that it\u2019s easy for sellers to weave together a full plan without any coding experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While there are many tools available, choosing the right ones for your tech stack is really important for a high-growth business. Sellers need tools that will relieve them from the time and resources it takes to build an online operation from scratch. Using tools that are the right fit for your brand\u2019s needs will help keep your customer journey smooth (lower cart abandonment!), retention levels high (more sales!), and operations efficient (hello, scalability!).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Essential Ecommerce Tools<\/b><\/p>\n

A few examples of ecommerce tech tools include (but are not limited to): cart set up, payment processing, inventory management, ERP connection, fulfillment provider integration, automated customer notifications, customer behavior data capture, analytics, shipment tracking.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Each app, platform, and software has a specific role in the customer journey or the order management process. Often tools are lumped into two types: front-end (what the customer interacts with) and back-end (everything behind the scenes that helps get orders through the supply chain and to the customer). Some are known as end-to-end tools, which means they bridge the front- and back-end of the order and fulfillment process. Building a tech stack is not easy, but it\u2019s necessary to ensure your systems are efficient.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Different companies have different needs. It\u2019s imperative that every seller figure out what tools they need in order to maximize sales and operational efficiency. Here are the baseline essentials for building a successful ecommerce tech stack. As always, be true to the needs of your brand, vet your partnerships, and seek expert advice from people who have what you want.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ecommerce Storefront<\/b><\/p>\n

The first tool that comes to mind when setting up an ecommerce business is the storefront\u2014every company needs a great front-end platform where customers can go to select products, add them to their cart, and have a seamless payment process (also known as checkout).<\/span><\/p>\n

Shopify is the <\/span>most widely used ecommerce platform<\/span><\/a> to-date for this purpose. It’s no-code setup makes it easy for anyone, plus it\u2019s very customizable.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While it\u2019s primary function is a point-of-sale platform, Shopify is more than just an ecommerce store-front builder. The platform allows a seller to showcase products, engage with customers, get paid, ship a product, and manage their day-to-day finances and operations. As a Shopify business grows there are many integrations and applications that can be layered on top of the simple point-of-sale function.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a specific development team who customizes our Shopify page to make it exactly the way we want it. For beauty brands, for instance, you want to be transparent about your ingredients and claims. It\u2019s important for us to add that product detail prominently on the page. Shopify makes it relatively simple for our team to customize it like that.\u201d \u2014Quinn Roukema, Co-founder of Gloss Ventures\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are thousands of third-party applications hosted on Shopify that sellers can use to customize their operations. Shopify isn\u2019t the only front-end platform for ecommerce businesses. In 2021 it has 23% market share and almost two million merchants using the platform. Other reliable ecommerce storefront platforms include: WooCommerce, Squarespace, Wix, Magento, Weebly, and BigCommerce.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more about how <\/span>marketplace apps are one of the top trending<\/span><\/a> startups for venture funding and investors this year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Inventory and Order Management\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Once a seller sets up their storefront, the natural next step is to figure out how to manage inventory and fulfillment. Whether you plan to fulfill your products in-house, or you outsource to a 3PL, it\u2019s important to rely on tools to help automate your inventory management so that there is a seamless flow of products from suppliers, to storage, to distribution, and to customers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more about ecommerce fulfillment in our <\/span>Complete Guide to Ecommerce Fulfillment<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A brand may ship their products to many different channels: to retailers, through a Shopify store, an Amazon store, or direct-to-consumers. In order to connect multiple channels to their fulfillment operation and inventory management, many sellers rely on a back-end platform.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Skubana<\/span><\/a> is an example of this part of the ecommerce tech stack. The Skubana platform offers a single place for sellers to manage their inventory (even if it\u2019s distributed across multiple locations) and order fulfillment. Plus it provides analytics for business intelligence for brands looking to achieve multi-channel profitability.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not a traditional Amazon commodity, because we sell a class one medical device, regulated by the FDA. Our Amazon business is small, only a single digit percent of our business. But luckily we can fulfill that directly through DCL because of their integrations; DCL has helped it go seamlessly.\u201d Christian Gormsen, CEO at Eargo<\/span><\/p>\n

The benefits of using an inventory management platform are many:<\/span><\/p>\n