“How do I know that this [software] is going to actually work for my business?”

This question plagues growing brands, whose founders and operators find themselves adopting technology at a rapid-fire pace, and often under tight budget constraints. Tighter-still is the ability to get their team to go through lengthy on-boarding and testing phases. 

Every part of running a business in 2020 is technology-enabled. Accounting, inventory, team operations, even scheduling - they all have best-in-class platforms that solve for individual pieces of the equation. High-growth eCommerce businesses eventually find themselves battling to unite all of their systems into total-business-overview dashboards, accounting overviews, global inventory, resource planning, and logistics. 

I’m exhausted just typing all of that out. 

Season 2 of Step by Step will answer the following questions:

  • "How Do I Build an eCommerce Tech Stack?"
  • "How do I acquire new customers?"
  • "What happens after the buy button?"
  • “What Role Does a Tech Stack Play in Customer Retention?”
  • "Where does data fit into my tech stack?"

The answers some of the brightest people in some of the fastest-growing consumer brands in B2C and B2B, even in DTC. Operators like Alida Sholl, Director of Operations at Rep Fitness, are using data to create a better way to talk to customers and help them make smarter purchasing decisions:

We want you to really take your time and think about everything you need because we don't want you building out your home gym across four months with four separate purchases... Get everything you need now and pay for shipping once because that's going to benefit you.

A la Carte? Bespoke? or Monolith?

Some brands have decided to piece together functionality rather than subscribe to the idea of a monolithic eCommerce platform. Monoliths make it difficult to stand out amongst the crowd. And standing out is the most important thing you can do to rise above your competition, as told by Andy Zuro, President at Zline Kitchen:

I think is critical and that is you don't compete against everybody in the same field. Just create it so that you're the only one who's competing. And so we kind of do that with everything that we do. We do that in marketing, but we do that within our operations. We do it within our systems. We try to really focus on well what is it that everyone else is doing and how can we do that better? 

Season 2 Available Now

Technology is at the heart of all operations in a retail business - from inventory to accounting. No matter what leadership role you play in a brand you’ll find something valuable to learn to right-size your tech investment. Step by Step is all about learning from our peers. Season 2 takes it to a new level with brands that have overcome recent operational and growth challenges.

Each day this week we're publishing our discussions with operators at high-growth retail brands to ask them how they're investing in technology, and how those investments are bringing operational efficiency, driving customer acquisition, and helping teams to work better, together. 

Listen to Episode 1 available now, and subscribe to listen to all of the episodes as they are landing daily this week on the main Future Commerce eCommerce podcast feed:

We'll take you from zero-to-hero every day, Step by Step.

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