Creating Your Preferred Tech Stack for E-Commerce

In the ever-evolving world of e-commerce, building a strong tech stack is essential for scaling your operations. For medium-sized businesses, the right mix of tools can streamline everything from order management and customer experience to bookkeeping and inventory management. Below, we’ll walk through the key components of a preferred tech stack designed for medium-sized e-commerce businesses, focusing on essential systems like Shopify, ERP, bookkeeping software, and the necessary integrations to create a seamless workflow.

1. Shopify as Your E-Commerce Platform

For most medium-sized e-commerce businesses, Shopify is the go-to platform for managing your storefront. It offers a user-friendly interface, scalable pricing plans, and a robust app ecosystem that allows you to extend functionality as your business grows.

Key Shopify features for medium-sized businesses:

• Advanced Reporting: Shopify's higher-tier plans provide detailed reporting on customer behaviour, sales, and inventory, helping you make data-driven decisions.
• Multi-Channel Sales: Sell on multiple platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Amazon directly through Shopify.
• Apps and Integrations: Shopify has an app marketplace that offers solutions for everything from SEO to inventory management, making it easy to customize your store’s functionality.

2. Choosing the Right ERP for Order and Inventory Management

For a medium-sized business, integrating an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system is crucial to maintaining efficiency as order volume grows. ERPs like NetSuite, Brightpearl, or Finale offer centralized management of inventory, orders, and customer data across multiple sales channels.

ERP Benefits:

• Centralized Data: Track all of your inventory, sales, and customer information in one system, no matter how many platforms you’re selling on.
• Automated Workflows: Automatically reorder stock when inventory is low or generate sales reports to analyze performance.
• Multi-Location Management: Manage inventory across multiple warehouses or locations in real time.

3. Bookkeeping with QuickBooks Online (QBO)

Keeping your books accurate and up to date is essential for managing cash flow and understanding your business's financial health. QuickBooks Online (QBO) is a powerful solution that can grow with your business.

Key QBO features:

• Real-Time Tracking: Automatically sync with your bank accounts and credit cards to track expenses and revenue in real time.
• Integrations: QBO integrates with Shopify and various other e-commerce platforms, making it easy to track sales, taxes, and expenses in one place.
• Automation: Automate recurring expenses, payroll, and invoicing, so you spend less time on tedious bookkeeping tasks.

4. A2X for E-Commerce Bookkeeping Automation

For those using Amazon or Shopify, A2X is an indispensable tool for automating the accounting side of your sales. Our team is very involved with the Partner Program with A2X and we are proud of being able to help other bookkeeping companies streamline their own processes and tech stack as well as our merchants!

What A2X does:

• Automated Reconciliation: A2X automatically pulls in data from your sales channels, such as Amazon and Shopify, and creates journal entries in your accounting software (like QBO).
• Accurate Profit Tracking: It separates your income and expenses, including fees and taxes, giving you a clearer picture of profitability.
• Tax Compliance: Automate tax reporting for multiple jurisdictions, making sure you're always compliant with local tax laws.

5. Recommended Shopify Apps for Medium-Sized Businesses

Shopify’s app store offers a wide array of apps that can extend your store's functionality to meet your unique business needs. Here are some must-have apps for medium-sized businesses:

• Klaviyo: For email and SMS marketing automation, Klaviyo allows you to segment your audience, set up automated flows, and track engagement metrics.
• Rewind: Automatically backs up your store’s data so you can easily recover if something goes wrong.
• Growave: All in one marketing tool that we recommend for their robust loyalty, referrals, wishlists, reviews, and Instagram UGC.
• Redo Returns: Makes managing product returns easier and improves the customer experience by automating the return process.

6. Customer Support & Engagement Tools

Ensuring that your customers are supported is critical. Tools like Gorgias or Zendesk integrate directly with Shopify to streamline your customer support process.

• Gorgias: Connect all your customer service platforms (email, live chat, social media) to manage inquiries from one place.
• Zendesk: Known for robust ticketing systems, Zendesk helps manage customer support interactions, track issues, and measure performance.

7. Shipping Solutions

Shipping is often one of the trickiest aspects of e-commerce. Using tools like ShipStation or Easyship helps you manage shipping rates, print labels, and track packages.

• ShipStation: Centralizes your shipping needs by integrating with multiple carriers, automatically printing labels, and tracking shipments.
• Easyship: Helps you optimize shipping by comparing rates from various couriers, saving you money and time.

8. Connecting Everything Together

The key to building a successful e-commerce tech stack is ensuring that all your systems work together seamlessly. By leveraging integrations, APIs, and automation tools, you can streamline operations and reduce manual work. Here are some final tools to consider:

• Zapier: A powerful automation tool that connects your apps and moves data between them, automating repetitive tasks.
• Shopify Flow: Allows you to create custom workflows directly within Shopify, automating processes like inventory management, customer tagging, and email alerts. Our team knows about my love for Shopify Flow and tease me all the time "Sarah will say there's a Flow for that!"

Building a Scalable Tech Stack

Creating a preferred tech stack for your e-commerce business is about combining the right tools to streamline operations and improve customer experience. From managing inventory with an ERP to automating your bookkeeping with QuickBooks Online and A2X, each component plays a crucial role in scaling your business effectively.

By choosing platforms and apps that integrate well together—like Shopify, QBO, Klaviyo, and Gorgias—you can create a streamlined system that saves you time, reduces errors, and supports growth.