eCommerce Tech Stack | Crafting Your Ideal Set of Tools

The demands of today’s apps and websites are complex, requiring a mix of tools and tech to work smoothly. Companies need to be flexible, quickly building and expanding secure, reliable apps. Unlike before, when one tech could do the job, now a blend of technologies, called a tech stack, is vital for most projects to thrive.

That’s why a project tech stack matters so much — it’s the base that lets the team build confidently. Customers might not see the tech choices, but they hugely affect their experience. With a plethora of options available, from website platforms to payment gateways and analytics tools, navigating the technological landscape can be daunting.

Today, Simtech Development will walk you through the essential steps to building a winning eCommerce tech stack. Together with our CTO Andrey we’ll explain what a tech stack is and its key components, offering tailored advice for different scenarios in developing your online store.

What is an eCommerce tech stack?

Like how a physical store needs shelves, cash registers, and inventory systems, an eCommerce business depends on its tech stack to run smoothly in the digital world. An eCommerce tech stack refers to the collection of software, tools, and technologies businesses utilize to power their digital storefronts, manage operations, and optimize customer experiences. In essence, it’s the groundwork for an eCommerce business, covering everything from the website platform and payment gateways to marketing automation and analytics tools.

Why is it important to have a robust eCommerce technology stack?

A strong eCommerce tech stack doesn’t just make things run smoother; it also boosts customer satisfaction, drives growth, and keeps you ahead of the competition. Let’s specify why having a solid tech setup matters:

Efficiency. Picking the right tech tools streamlines tasks, automates repetitive jobs, and makes your whole operation more efficient. That means less manual work and more time to focus on growing your business.
Scalability. As your business expands, your tech stack needs to grow with it. A solid setup lets you add new features, handle more traffic, and adapt to changes without causing major disruptions.
Better customer experience. Giving customers a seamless and enjoyable experience is key to keeping them coming back. With a robust tech stack, you can offer personalized recommendations, smooth checkouts, and responsive support, leading to happier customers who stick around.
Data-driven decisions. With the right analytics tools, you can learn a lot about your customers, sales trends, and how well your marketing is working. Armed with this data, you can make smart decisions, fine-tune your strategies, and get better results.
Competitive edge. In eCommerce, staying ahead is crucial. A solid tech stack lets you try out new marketing ideas, and deliver best experiences, giving you an edge over the competition.

Key components of an eCommerce tech stack

When you’re putting together your eCommerce tech setup, it’s vital to think about the main software components that will push your online business forward. Here are the key parts of an eCommerce tech setup:

Website platform. The base of your online store, where you build and manage your site. Common platforms are Shopify, CS-Cart, WooCommerce, and Magento.
Payment gateways. These are secure systems that handle payment processing, allowing customers to buy from your site. Examples include PayPal, Stripe, and Square.
Customer relationship management (CRM). These tools help you manage customer data and interactions. CRMs track customer behavior, personalize communication, and boost engagement. Some of the popular solutions are Salesforce, HubSpot CRM, Zoho CRM, and Pipedrive.
Inventory management software. Keep tabs on your product stock, orders, and fulfillment. They ensure you have enough inventory, avoid stockouts, and streamline order processing.
Marketing automation tools. Automate marketing tasks like email campaigns and social media management. They help you connect with customers across different channels, boosting brand awareness and sales. Examples include HubSpot, Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, and Drip.
Analytics and reporting tools. Help track website performance, customer behavior, and sales data. They give you insights to measure marketing effectiveness, spot trends, and make informed decisions.
Customer support and engagement software. Provide excellent customer support and real-time engagement. Features might include live chat, ticketing systems, and knowledge bases.

Factors to consider as you build your own eCommerce tech stack

Before selecting specific components for your eCommerce tech stack, it’s essential to gain a deep understanding of your business needs and objectives. Here’s how to do it:

1. Assess your business goals and requirements

Start by defining both short-term and long-term goals. Think about sales targets, plans for market expansion, customer acquisition, and operational efficiency. Identify key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success, like conversion rates, average order value, and customer retention.

2. Identify pain points and challenges

Evaluate your current tech setup and workflows to find any issues or inefficiencies. Look at website performance, order processing, inventory management, customer support, and marketing automation. Figure out what’s holding back growth or causing problems for your team and customers.

3. Defining specific functionalities and features

List the functionalities and features your eCommerce platform needs to meet your business requirements. This might include things like product catalog management, selling across multiple channels, smooth checkouts, personalized marketing, and detailed analytics. Prioritize these based on their impact on your goals and customer satisfaction.

How to build a winning enterprise eCommerce tech stack

Now that we have figured out what a tech stack for eCommerce is and what components it consists of, it’s time to move on to the most important thing—creating a tech stack. First, it’s worth noting that there are different ways to implement your idea. Perhaps your specific case requires a completely unique approach to solving the problem. Here we’ll not recommend any integrations with third-party services but will mainly focus on building the platform’s architecture itself, which in the future can be customized and improved according to your business needs.

Scenario 1: MVP development

For Rapid MVP Development, the criteria for choosing a stack revolve around the need for speed, agility, and the ability to deliver a minimal viable product (MVP) quickly. Emphasis is placed on selecting technologies that facilitate rapid prototyping, iteration, and integration of essential features. The stack should enable quick development cycles and the flexibility to adapt based on user feedback and evolving requirements.

When creating an MVP, leveraging ready-made platforms can be ideal as they often come with pre-selected technical stacks, enabling a quick launch. One such platform is CS-Cart, which provides a wide range of features out of the box.

For example, let’s consider one of our cases – an MVP for a coffee distributor whose goal was to launch an online marketplace in Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. Instead of starting from scratch, the company decided to use the CS-Cart Multi-Vendor platform. With CS-Cart, the startup can set up the MVP relatively quickly. By leveraging the platform’s pre-built templates and configurations, along with a pre-selected technical stack that includes PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript, among others, and tools like vendor management, product catalog management, order processing, and payment integration, the development time is significantly reduced.

Scenario 2: Developing complex mechanics for an existing website

In this case, the criteria for choosing a stack revolve around compatibility with existing technologies and the ability to accommodate complex features seamlessly. Emphasis is placed on selecting technologies that can integrate smoothly with the current infrastructure while providing scalability, flexibility, and advanced functionality.

When developing complex mechanics for your online store, you’ll likely have to create part of the project from scratch, for example by adding complex mechanics using Laravel.

Laravel is a powerful PHP framework known for its elegant syntax and developer-friendly features. It provides a robust set of tools for building web applications, including authentication, routing, caching, and database management. One of the key advantages of Laravel is its ability to handle complex backend logic efficiently, making it ideal for implementing advanced features in online stores.

With Laravel, you can easily add complex mechanics such as:

Advanced product filtering and search functionality.
Customized pricing and discount rules based on user behavior or purchase history.
Dynamic content personalization to tailor the shopping experience for individual users.
Integration with third-party APIs for shipping, payment processing, and inventory management.
Automated order fulfillment and customer communication workflows.
Real-time analytics and reporting to track sales, inventory, and customer behavior.

Ready to build a powerful and scalable website with Laravel? Let’s bring your vision to life! Contact us now to discuss your project and start creating your dream website today

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Scenario 3: Creating a complex website from scratch

Creating a complex website from scratch becomes necessary when the requirements of the online store or marketplace exceed the capabilities of out-of-the-box solutions. This is best suited for stores with large scale operations, unique business logic, custom integrations, advanced features, and future scalability needs.

Such high-load online stores or marketplaces typically involve handling large volumes of traffic, transactions, and data. Several metrics can be considered when determining if an online store qualifies as high-load. These include the amount of SKU (Stock Keeping Unit, which is typically in the tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands for high-load stores. Additionally, high-load stores often experience hundreds to thousands of requests per second (RPS) during peak times, with concurrent users numbering in the hundreds or even thousands.

One of our clients was looking for a marketplace platform that could host 15 million unique products (SKU) with a peak load of 4000 RPS and an average response time of 20ms. Stores like this attract millions of visits per month and handle thousands of transactions daily. To aid our client in building a complex website from scratch, we suggested integrating our high-performance and reliable headless solution tailored for niche marketplaces. Built on the Laravel framework, it offers powerful tools for fast and flexible development.

Among other advantages we have distinct high performance to handle large traffic and transactions, leveraging modern technologies and best practices. An API-first approach for seamless integration with external systems and services ensures scalability under increasing loads. Extensive customization options and expansion possibilities, along with built-in features reduce development time and effort.

Out-of-the-box solutions may not work in these scenarios because they often have limitations in terms of scalability, customization, and performance. They are designed to cater to a broad range of businesses with standard requirements, which may not meet the specific needs of high-load online stores or marketplaces.

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Scenario 4: Moving an outdated website to new technologies

Moving an outdated website to new technologies can significantly benefit businesses and online stores by improving performance, stability, and scalability. This helps in eliminating lags, site crashes, and the need for expensive self-written development.

For example, one of our latest clients, a popular Dominican all-in-one marketplace, faced frequent crashes even under a load of just 350 requests per second (RPS). Their outdated self-written website struggled to handle the increasing traffic, leading to a poor user experience and loss of revenue opportunities. To address this, we decided to migrate the client’s store to the CS-Cart platform and the recommended CS-Cart high-performance hosting.

By migrating to the modern tech stack, the client’s store experienced significant improvements in performance and stability. The new platform could efficiently handle the load of up to 8000 RPS without any crashes or slowdowns. Additionally, using ready-made technologies like Vue.js, PostgreSQL, and AWS helped reduce development time and costs compared to self-written solutions, making it a cost-effective and efficient solution for the client.

Scenario 5: Developing mobile application

Creating a mobile app is necessary when businesses aim to target a mobile-first audience or provide a more personalized and convenient experience to their customers. For example, eСommerce stores can greatly benefit from a mobile app as it allows customers to browse products, make purchases, and track orders on the go. Similarly, food delivery apps provide users with the convenience of ordering food from their favorite restaurants with just a few taps on their mobile devices.

However, nowadays mobile apps are getting replaced by more advanced Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), and not without a reason. PWAs offer significant advantages for online entrepreneurs. PWAs are accessible via web browsers, making them compatible across different devices and operating systems. They don’t require installation from an app store, increasing user accessibility. This broader reach helps online entrepreneurs tap into a larger audience without the need for multiple app versions. In contrast, mobile apps are limited to specific platforms (iOS, Android), requiring separate development and maintenance for each.

Developing a PWA is often more cost-effective than building and maintaining separate native apps for different platforms. PWAs use web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, allowing for faster development and easier updates. On the other hand, developing native mobile apps can be expensive, requiring separate teams for iOS and Android development. Maintenance costs also increase with each platform update.

Finally, PWAs can improve user engagement and conversion rates due to their fast loading times and immersive user experience. Push notifications can re-engage users and drive conversions, even when the app is not open. Many well-known brands have already integrated PWAs to boost their businesses. Among them are big names like Alibaba, Forbes, Uber, and AliExpress.

Expert advice

Building an eCommerce technology stack requires careful consideration of various factors to ensure it aligns with your business’s specific needs and goals. Here are key points to keep in mind:

Compatibility. Ensure your tools work well with your existing infrastructure and technologies. Seamless integration between different parts of your tech stack is vital for smooth operation and data flow.
Scalability. Pick tools that can grow with your business. Your tech stack should handle increased traffic, transactions, and data volume without losing performance or stability.
Customization. Look for tools that can be customized to fit your business requirements. Tailoring the tools to your workflows and processes boosts efficiency and productivity.
Ease of use. Choose easy tools for your team to use. A user-friendly interface and intuitive workflows reduce training time and increase productivity among your team members.
Security. Opt for tools with solid security features to protect your platform, data, and customer information. Encryption, authentication mechanisms, access controls, and regular security updates are essential.
Developer skill set. When choosing technologies, consider your development team’s skills and expertise. Pick tools that align with their proficiency in programming languages, frameworks, and tools.
Support and documentation. Select tools with comprehensive documentation and reliable customer support. Access to resources and knowledgeable support staff can help troubleshoot issues and guide you in using the tools effectively.
Cost. Evaluate each tool’s total cost, including upfront costs, subscriptions, maintenance, and integration expenses. Consider the value provided in terms of features, scalability, and support to determine cost-effectiveness.
Community. Look at the size and activity of the tool’s community and ecosystem. A vibrant community offers resources, insights, and third-party integrations that enhance functionality and extend capabilities.
Performance and reliability. Prioritize high-performing and reliable technologies for a seamless user experience. Test each component’s performance under real-world conditions to identify any potential issues.

Conclusion

By taking a strategic approach and considering factors like scalability, flexibility, security, and performance, you can craft a tech stack that propels your eCommerce venture to success. Begin by understanding your business needs, evaluating your current setup, and clearly defining your goals. Then, conduct thorough research, compare different solutions, and prioritize integration, customization, and support.

Building a thriving eCommerce tech stack demands dedication in terms of time, resources, and expertise. But by selecting the right tools and an experienced team of professionals, you can create a powerful and efficient platform that not only drives growth but also cultivates customer loyalty. Contact Simtech Development and let us propel your business to new heights.

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