Your platform is the foundation everything else sits on. Most brands never stop to ask if it's still the right one.
So platform intelligence means understanding, auditing and sometimes rebuilding the technology underneath the brand. Shopify or not. Headless or not. Properly integrated or put together with duct tape.
It's the least discussed part of ecommerce and one of the most important. Your platform decides what's possible across brand, conversion, operations, customer experience and AI. When we leave it to chance, everything else just seems to get a lot harder than it needs to be.
It’s all about you
The platform's the most expensive decision in the business that nobody wants to reopen. Migrating hurts. And it always costs more than the number you’re quoted. It always does. So most brands stay where they are, bolt on another app whenever a need comes up and end up with a stack that's grown the way a shed grows. And look, there's nothing wrong with bolting things on. Everyone does it. I've done it plenty of times. It's just that nobody ever goes back and looks at what's back there. When did you last do it?
It’s easy to see it from the outside. Pages loading slowly because a dozen third-party scripts are fighting each other. Reporting that doesn't add up between two tools that should agree. An experience that changes depending on the device or the country. A project that should take three weeks taking nine, because somebody has to make it talk to five other systems first.
What I see a lot of the time is that the platform conversation gets put off, the decision kicked down the road. And then it's not a conversation any more, it turns into a mad scramble, usually about three weeks out from your biggest month of the year.
So have the conversation early, while there's still time to consider all the options. With a clear view of what's working, what isn't, and what it's really costing you to leave it alone.
How I think about the platform
Your platform's more than the storefront. It's the whole stack. An ecosystem. The commerce platform, the apps, the integrations, the data, the marketing tools, the back office, and the way all of it talks to itself. How much of that could you draw from memory right now?
A few principles I work to:
- I'd audit before I migrated. Most brands who think they need a new platform just need a clean version of the one they've got. Not always. But often enough to consider before anybody signs anything.
- I'd get rid of what you can. Every extra app's a subscription, an integration point and a little more drag on your page speed. Fewer good tools beat more average ones.
- I'd design for the next stage. What works at $2M won't hold at $10M. And if you build for $10M now, you're paying every month for stuff you won't touch for three years. So where are you heading, and how quickly? That's the question that decides what we do now.
- A simple well functioning store. So, so important. It'll beat a clever one every time.
I've worked across the major platforms and most of my clients right now sit on Shopify or Shopify Plus. So, to be honest, I'd better declare the bias up front. I like Shopify for this kind of brand scalability. But look, I'm always open to alternatives.
What working with me looks like
So most of this starts with an audit. I'd go right through the stack. Every tool, what it costs you, what it's actually doing, and where two of them are doing the same job. I'd have a look at your page speed and your core web vitals. I'd check whether your reporting agrees with itself between systems. And then I'd get on the store on a real phone, not a simulator. That's where you see it.
What you get back is where you're at, a list of changes with what each one's worth against it, and an actual dollar figure on the big question. Clean up what you've got, or move?
And if the answer's move, the work carries on into vendor selection, project oversight and implementation. That's the part where migrations go wrong, and it's usually not the technology's fault.
AI runs through this too. Where an AI tool can retire three apps, I'd want to look at it properly. Where it can take the back-office work nobody enjoys, that's the same conversation. Always with the same question attached: what's this worth per year?
Who it's for
Premium retail brands who've grown out of the setup they started with, or are about to. Usually somewhere between $3M and $15M. And brands sitting on a migration decision who just want someone on the call who isn't trying to sell them anything.
Who it isn't for
Anyone looking for someone to sell them a platform. I don't take commission from any platform or app, and I never will. So if the right answer's to stay where you are and tidy it up, that's what you'll hear, and it'll be the cheapest advice you get all year.
Let's have a look at your stack
If the platform side of the business isn't clear in your head, or there's a migration decision sitting on your desk, get in touch. The first conversation's free.
It usually starts with walking through what you're running now and pulling out the questions that need answering before anybody decides anything.
But before that, do one thing. Have a look at your own store on your own phone, on mobile data, not the office wifi. Time it. How long before you could actually do something?
Key points
- I'd audit the whole stack before anybody decides anything about migrating
- Independent. No commissions from any platform or app
- Judged on cost, speed, whether it falls over, and where you're heading next
- Help picking the vendor and running the migration where moving's the right call
- AI looked at where it retires tools or takes the back-office work