How to Evaluate Your Technology Stack and Reduce IT Costs

The technology and IT costs to run an ecommerce business likely represent a significant portion of your company’s budget. From the costs to build and maintain your site, employing an IT team to help manage it, and marketing costs to grow your customer base and build brand visibility, keeping expenses under control can spell the difference between success and failure.

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Your technology stack represents the tools and platforms you use to create your ecommerce architecture, website, marketing tools and CRM system. Rarely does an all-in-one solution provide everything a business needs to run a successful ecommerce store. But these various platforms can sometimes create redundancies, driving up your overall costs in ways that can be hard to track. So how can you get it under control?

Evaluating your tech stack involves looking at all the components and determining how well they

• Integrate with each other
• Help you achieve your organizational goals
• Streamline workflows for greater efficiency
• Provide a positive user experience

Evaluating your technology stack through an audit shows you how well your platforms work for you. It may also help you find ways to reduce website and IT costs. An ecommerce consultant can help guide the process, providing an outsider’s view that can highlight

• Opportunities for improvement
• Innovative solutions
• Ways to reduce IT costs without sacrificing user experience

In this article, we explore how to use each of these components to gain a comprehensive understanding of how well your tech stack is working and where you can potentially trim the fat to reduce IT costs. Read on to learn how.

Check your software integrations

Consider how well the components of your technology stack integrate. Upgrading or adding the connectivity between your operational systems and your commerce platform will trickle down to improve your entire technical architecture. If you have a system or platform that lives in a silo or is unconnected to any other platform, look at ways to connect it and use the data in your commerce setup. Many departments have systems you could connect to and improve data flow.

The technology that forms a successful ecommerce business includes software and apps for:

• Marketing
• Sales
• Order fulfillment/service
• Analytics

The apps in your tech stack should integrate easily, providing streamlined workflows and minimizing the chance of errors. Apps that don’t work together can increase IT costs by requiring customization, modifications or intervention when the software fails to communicate.

Apps that don’t integrate properly can lead to:

• Lost conversions
• Abandoned carts
• Inventory shortages
• Customer service issues
• Supply-chain breakdowns

It’s important to consider not just the IT costs of your tech stack but the cost of lost revenue if your technology doesn’t perform properly.

Remove manual work through automation

Evaluate how well your tech stack streamlines workflows. Apps that integrate cleanly can also help your organization streamline workflows. Can you eliminate manual processes and automate elements of your sales funnel to reduce overall costs and minimize the possibility of human error?

Will an open-source platform help you customize workflows for greater efficiency while reducing website costs overall? During your tech stack audit, look at each app individually and consider how it fits in your overall workflow. Can you consolidate or eliminate certain apps to reduce ongoing IT costs while accomplishing the same objectives?

An open-source web platform may offer the customization and integration capabilities you need while enabling you to reduce your overall tech stack, lowering IT costs across your organization.

Improve goal and KPI tracking

Determine if your tech stack helps you measure and achieve organizational goals. Does your ecommerce platform provide the tools you need to achieve your goals for growth? Does the analytics functionality in your tech stack provide you with the actionable insights you need?

No matter how well the apps in your tech stack integrate, they may not be the best apps for your company if they don’t offer the capabilities to help you meet your marketing and sales goals.

As you look at your tech stack, compare the one-time website costs of a technology upgrade with the lost income opportunities if you stick with platforms that aren’t working for you.

Audit your online user experience

One of the most important aspects of evaluating your tech stack is ensuring it works for your customers. Ultimately, your ecommerce company’s success hinges on how well your website works to convert customers. Factors that drive your success include

• Page load speed
• On-site optimization
• Site design
• The shopping cart experience
• Customer service accessibility
• Inventory management

You may be surprised to discover you can reduce website costs by re-platforming to an open source solution while providing a superior user experience for your customers.

An ecommerce consultant can help you perform a tech stack audit and provide solutions to reduce IT costs to run a leaner, more profitable ecommerce business.

If you’re curious about a tech stack audit, reach out to the ecommerce professionals at Acro Commerce. We’d love to help you.

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Dawn Allcot is a full-time freelance writer and content marketing professional specializing in technology, ecommerce, web development, personal finance and real estate.

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Editor's note: This article was originally published on October 22, 2020. The content has been updated for freshness and accuracy.