SEC-01
Least-privilege access
Each integration gets the narrowest scope that lets the work function. Nothing more.
Stage 02 · BuildEcommerce platforms
The store is the easy part
Storefronts are largely solved. What breaks is everything behind it — catalogue accuracy, stock, pricing rules, fulfilment, returns and the integrations joining them to the rest of the business.
- Access stays in your accounts
- Every change on record
- Written, auditable deliverables
- C01Follow one order end to endIn scope
- C02Fix product data at the sourceIn scope
- C03Make stock honestIn scope
- C04Model pricing in the systemIn scope
- C05Instrument the checkoutIn scope
- C06Design the return pathIn scope
In short
Most ecommerce problems are operational rather than front-end. A store that converts badly is sometimes a design problem, but more often it is stock that is wrong, delivery promises the warehouse cannot keep, pricing rules the platform cannot express, or a checkout failing for one payment method nobody monitors. The work that pays is usually behind the storefront, in the systems that decide what is available, at what price, and what happens after the order is placed.
- 5
- Warning signals
- that say this is the work
- 6
- Controlled steps
- each ships something you keep
- 4
- Written refusals
- lines we do not cross
Self-audit
Signals this is the work
Tick the ones that are true where you are. Nothing is sent anywhere — the answer is for you, not for us.
If more than one of these is true today, the problem is usually further along than it looks from the outside. That is not a sales line; it is what the cost of waiting does.
Readiness checklistEcommerce platforms
0 of 5 true
Nothing ticked yet.
How we do it
The sequence
Each step ships something you keep. You can stop after any of them and still be better off than when you started.
Start with step one- 01
Step 1 of 6
Follow one order end to end
From click to delivery to invoice to return. Every handoff is where the failures actually are.
- 02
Step 2 of 6
Fix product data at the source
One authoritative catalogue feeding the storefront, rather than the storefront being the place data is maintained.
- 03
Step 3 of 6
Make stock honest
Real availability including allocation, inbound and reservations. Most overselling is an integration timing problem, not a warehouse problem.
- 04
Step 4 of 6
Model pricing in the system
If the business has contract pricing and volume rules, the platform must express them or you will maintain them by hand forever.
- 05
Step 5 of 6
Instrument the checkout
Payment failures, timeouts and validation errors monitored per method. Most stores discover a broken payment path from a customer.
- 06
Step 6 of 6
Design the return path
Returns and exceptions are normal volume, not edge cases, and deserve the same engineering as the purchase.
Assurance
Secured and auditable by default
These controls apply to every engagement, including this one. They are engineering decisions, not a certificate on a wall — and you can check each of them.
SEC-02
Credentials in your name
Accounts and keys live in your tenancy. You can revoke any of them without asking us.
SEC-03
Every change logged
Changes, deployments and incidents leave a written trail you can audit.
SEC-04
Restores tested, not assumed
A backup only counts once it has been restored. We test, and we report the result.
SEC-05
Separate environments
Development never touches production credentials or unmasked customer data.
SEC-06
A documented exit
Runbooks written as we go. Leaving means revoking our access — nothing is held back.
What we will not do
The refusals
The things we turn down are a better description of how we work than the things we sell.
Standing commitmentsEcommerce platforms
- 01
We will not: Replatform to solve a problem that is about catalogue quality or stock accuracy.
- 02
We will not: Build a custom storefront where Shopify, Magento or a similar platform would serve.
- 03
We will not: Promise delivery dates the fulfilment operation cannot meet.
- 04
We will not: Treat returns as an afterthought.
Questions
Before you ask
Anything else, ask on the first call. There is no charge for working out whether this is the right fit.
Talk about a problemShould we replatform?
Only after establishing that the problem is genuinely the platform. Replatforming carries the catalogue, the stock integration and the pricing rules with it, so if those are the real issue you will rebuild the same problems on a new licence. It is justified when the platform cannot express your commercial model or is genuinely end-of-life.
Shopify, Magento, or custom?
Shopify for speed and low operational burden where the model is reasonably standard. Magento or a comparable platform where catalogue complexity, B2B pricing or multi-store operations demand it. Custom only for the specific part that is genuinely your advantage — almost never the whole store.
How do you handle B2B pricing?
Account-specific catalogues, negotiated rates, volume breaks and credit terms need to live in the system rather than in a spreadsheet someone maintains. Whether that means platform configuration, an extension or a pricing service in front of the store depends on how complex the rules genuinely are.
What about marketplaces?
Every additional channel multiplies the stock and catalogue problem, so it is worth getting one channel accurate before adding a second. The integration pattern is the same; the discipline required is higher because errors are now visible on somebody else's platform.
Tell us what isn’t working.
One process, one system, one decision you are stuck on. An engineer replies within one working day with how we would approach it, and whether it needs building at all.