WHYeCommerce Strategy
When does a brand need a fractional eCommerce director?
The organizational signals that mean a growing brand needs senior eCommerce ownership — and how that differs from an agency, a consultant or a manager.
Read the articleInsights
Useful things we've learned along the way.
We publish in three modes: practical walkthroughs, the reasoning behind common decisions, and the occasional opinion we've earned the right to have.
- HOW
- Practitioner walkthroughs. The actual steps, in the actual order, from work we've done.
- WHY
- The reasoning behind decisions growing brands have to make — platforms, structure, sequence.
- THINK
- Opinions formed inside complicated eCommerce businesses. Occasionally inconvenient ones.
Start here
Your store may not need a redesign
Redesigns are visible, fundable and easy to agree on. They're also the wrong answer to most of the problems they get assigned to.
Everything published
THINKeCommerce Strategy
Five agencies can still leave nobody in charge
Every partner can be doing competent work while the eCommerce business as a whole still has no strategy. Here's how that happens, and what fixes it.
Read the articleWHYTechnology
The eCommerce tech stack audit
Seven questions to ask of every platform you pay for, before you add another one to the stack.
Read the articleWHYShopify
When is Shopify Plus worth it?
Ignore the revenue threshold. The upgrade is justified by specific operational, checkout, B2B and organizational requirements — or it isn't.
Read the articleTHINKShopify
Why eCommerce platform migrations go wrong
Migrations rarely fail on the storefront. They fail on data, integrations, redirects, operations and launch sequencing.
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CPG eCommerce strategy: what growing brands need to get right
Repeat purchase, subscriptions, bundles, wholesale, margin and fulfillment — the parts of CPG eCommerce the storefront doesn't show you.
Read the articleHOWSystems & Integrations
Shopify and NetSuite integration: a practical guide
System of record decisions, the six core data flows, sync design, error handling, testing and what it costs to run.
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Great CPG eCommerce websites — and what growing brands can learn from them
A framework for evaluating CPG eCommerce experiences: merchandising, education, PDP, subscriptions, bundles, retention and mobile.
Read the articleHOWShopify
How to duplicate a page template in your Shopify 2.0 theme
A practitioner walkthrough of adding an alternate page template in an Online Store 2.0 theme — plus the mistakes that cause rework.
Read the articleWHYSystems & Integrations
Shopify Plus vs NetSuite: you're probably comparing two different things
One is a commerce platform, the other is an ERP. The useful question is how they should work together, and which system owns what.
Read the articleHOWShopify
Shopify private apps are gone — here's what replaced them
The legacy private app workflow is deprecated. Here's how custom apps, Admin API access tokens and modern app approaches work instead.
Read the articleTHINKTechnology
What is headless eCommerce, and when is it worth it?
Headless decouples the storefront from the commerce backend. What that buys you, what it costs to run, and the conditions that justify it.
Read the articleWHYShopify
Shopify vs BigCommerce: how to actually decide
Where each platform is genuinely stronger, the costs pricing pages hide, and why ecosystem and talent usually decide it.
Read the articleWHYShopify
Shopify vs Salesforce Commerce Cloud
Two capable platforms with very different operating models. How to tell which one your organization can actually run.
Read the articleWHYShopify
Shopify Plus vs Oracle CX Commerce
Should commerce live inside the enterprise suite or outside it? Compare on operating model, integration depth and cost of change.
Read the articleWHYShopify
Shopify Plus vs Adobe Commerce: how to actually decide
A genuine either/or. Compare on operating model, total cost of ownership, customization and talent — not the feature matrix.
Read the articleBy mode
Read by how you want to think
HOW
WHY
- When does a brand need a fractional eCommerce director?
- The eCommerce tech stack audit
- When is Shopify Plus worth it?
- CPG eCommerce strategy: what growing brands need to get right
- Great CPG eCommerce websites — and what growing brands can learn from them
- Shopify Plus vs NetSuite: you're probably comparing two different things
- Shopify vs BigCommerce: how to actually decide
- Shopify vs Salesforce Commerce Cloud
- Shopify Plus vs Oracle CX Commerce
- Shopify Plus vs Adobe Commerce: how to actually decide
By topic
eCommerce strategy
Deciding what matters next, who owns it, and what to stop doing.
eCommerce StrategyShopify
Plus, migrations, integrations and optimization — from a decade of implementation work.
Shopify expertiseSystems & operations
ERP, inventory, fulfillment, reporting and the gaps that quietly cost money.
Systems & IntegrationsA few things we believe.
- 01
Not everything should be automated.
- 02
You probably don't need another Shopify app.
- 03
A redesign won't fix a strategy problem.
- 04
Your tech stack isn't your eCommerce strategy.
- 05
The cheapest developer isn't necessarily the cheapest solution.
- 06
A/B testing isn't appropriate for every store.
- 07
AI doesn't belong in every workflow.
- 08
Sometimes the best optimization is removing something.