![\"The](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/DSC02226-Edit_2.jpg?v=1682373878\")
For any important business decision, you need to weigh the pros and cons, risks, and potential return on investment. A business requirements document is the place to thoroughly describe a project in an organized format.
\nBelow are some guidelines for writing a comprehensive business requirements document (known as BRDs) that you can use to articulate the rationale, goals, and shared vision for your next business endeavor.
\nA business requirements document (BRD) is a formalized description of a new project’s goals. It outlines why the company is embarking on the project, the scope of the effort, important risks or constraints to consider, and what successful implementation looks like.
\nYou can use a BRD to define the “why” and “what” of a project—all that it entails and how it will benefit your company’s bottom line. A separate document, the functional requirements document (FRD), provides details about the project’s execution—the “how.”
\nGrow your business with a winning strategy
\nSimplify your workload and operate with confidence with our free lightweight business plan
\nWriting a BRD for a new project allows you to:
\nA BRD should contain all information stakeholders may need to understand project goals and parameters. This includes:
\nThe best way to write a BRD is to have an existing template that you can quickly populate to meet the needs of each specific project. When constructing your first business requirement document, it helps to adhere to these best practices:
\nGenerally speaking, it’s best to assign a single project manager to oversee a BRD. The project manager can provide the broad outlines, which a business analyst then uses to draft the document. The project manager reviews the contents and presents a final draft to the project director and other key stakeholders for approval.
\nA BRD describes a high-level business need, whereas a functional requirements document (FRD) describes the business processes needed to fulfill that need. An FRD can function as a more in-depth accounting of the functional project requirements section of a BRD. Think of a BRD as exploring the “what” and “why” of a business solution, while an FRD outlines the “how.”
\nThe main risk of not having a BRD is disorganization. Without a single, coherent document guiding the implementation of a business solution, stakeholders may not understand deliverables, deadlines, and budgets—potentially leading to unexpected costs, frayed relationships with business partners, and lower employee morale.
\nA BRD can and should be modified or updated during a project lifecycle. Business is fluid, and needs and expectations may change as the project progresses. A flexible BRD will help your team to be more dynamic, responsive, and nimble.
\nhttps://www.shopify.com/blog/business-requirements-document
\nA business strategy is a blueprint for building your company. And a clear strategy helps businesses achieve their goals, collaborate efficiently, and stay on message.
\nIn this article, we’ll walk you through the ideal outline for a business strategy, as well as examples to guide you as you craft your own.
\nTable of Contents
\nA business strategy is a high-level outline of how a company plans to achieve its goals. Developing a business strategy is a multi-part process that requires research, analysis, and decision-making. It requires an upfront time investment, with the possibility of improving communication and efficiency down the line.
\nAn effective business strategy helps companies operate smoothly by providing a framework for organizational initiatives, such as branding, marketing campaigns, product development, and expansion and acquisitions. Communicating information about the strategic direction of your company can empower team leaders to develop tactics that support the overarching business goals.
\nThese terms describe different levels of organizational planning. Successful businesses use all three of these elements to create a clear structure.
\nEmployees at almost every level of the organization will rely on your business strategy to guide their work. Management, in particular, will refer to the strategy and use it to inform important decisions, including:
\nDifferent business strategies include varying levels of detail, but a good business strategy will provide employees with enough information to guide their work. A business strategy should answer these questions:
\nTo address these questions, it’s necessary to include the following key components in your business strategy:
\nDeveloping and communicating multiple levels of business strategy creates a clear and transparent workplace. Business strategy is classified into the following three levels.
\nCorporate strategy determines the overall mission, direction, and key objectives of the organization. Examples of corporate level strategy include diversification, horizontal integration, and market penetration.
\nThe focus here is on individual subsidiaries and divisions of a larger business, or with specific product lines within a single company. Business-unit level strategies are more specific and are tied directly to the company’s product. For example, a packaged-baked goods company with multiple products may develop different business-unit level strategies for the cake division and the cookie division.
\nFunctional level business strategy refers to the daily operations of a company. At this level, strategy is set by the leaders of different departments. Managers create key performance indicators (KPIs) that support the broader corporate strategies.
\nBusinesses can employ different strategies to support the goal of creating value. The best strategy for your business depends on the industry and your individual business goals. These are examples of common business strategies:
\nAssessing the competition is essential for developing a good business strategy. The market position of your competitors may influence how you price your product and the customer segment you choose to target. Understanding the competition will also help you develop a differentiation strategy—in competitive industries, it’s important to set your business apart.
\nBusinesses should review and update strategies regularly to compete effectively. Updating your strategy helps your business stay nimble and keep up with changes in the market. Consider reviewing your business strategy if a competitor releases a new product or if you change how your product is manufactured. Even absent significant changes in the market, it’s a good idea to update your strategy at least once a year—changing cultural attitudes and new technology may create new marketing opportunities.
\nTo determine the right strategy for your business, set organizational goals, conduct a SWOT analysis, and review market research. Goals establish what you’re trying to achieve, while market research and SWOT analysis help you understand the obstacles you need to overcome. Choose strategies that align with your goals and play to your strengths.
\nhttps://www.shopify.com/blog/business-strategy
\nJacob Winter picked up a new hobby during the pandemic. He discovered he was good at making tufted rugs—and people loved watching him create his designs on TikTok. After his rug-making videos went viral, Jacob transformed his hobby into a full blown business.
\nJacob and his team at Mush Studios are challenging conventional designs by creating playful rugs in fluid abstract shapes. The result? Standout décor statement pieces that are undeniably Mush designs. “We felt like we were missing this otherworldly, unconventional, not that serious, kind of aesthetic within rugs,” Jacob says. “People wanted something they had never seen before in terms of shape and texture.”
\nAhead, learn how Jacob created social media content that directly grew his business, and the strategy behind his long-term partnerships and unique collaborations with established retailers and brands.
\nMush Studios’ TikTok videos racked up 23 million views in just 12 months. Jacob didn’t want the business’s success to be truncated, and knew the brand would have more opportunities to grow if they expanded past their TikTok virality. “We didn’t want to just be associated with TikTok, or known as a DIY fast fashion brand,” Jacob explains.
\nTo achieve that, the brand expanded its range of content on the platform. “We thought it would be the best idea to showcase how we were going to operate as a brand, what our day-to-day work life was like, and who we are as people,” Jacob says.
\nAs Mush Studios’ content on social media shifted, it attracted an audience that appreciated the product as much as the process—and the brand’s sales grew as a result.
\nSince launching in 2020, Mush Studios has collaborated with luxury retailers and brands like SSENSE, MRKT, and Frankie’s Bikinis.
\n![\"Four](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/MRKT_NK_W1_2.jpg?v=1682374252\")
“We’re big believers in manifestation, so early on we layed out who we wanted to collaborate with, what brands we wanted to work with, and what retailers we’d want to share our essence with,” says Jacob. His vision from the start included partnering with retailers and brands he had looked up to since childhood. When companies started to reach out to him, he was more than ready.
\nThese companies not only had to share similar design values, they had to believe in the longevity of Mush Studios and be willing to invest. “For any retailer [we work with], we have to make sure we’re aligned visually,” says Jacob. “Since we were such a young and new company, we had to know these retailers were going to fight for us by investing in our brand.”
\nThrough their love of interior design and fashion, Jacob and his co-founder, Franki Peroff, have found these unique collaborations to be one of their favorite parts of growing the brand. “Once you have a partnership, it’s important to keep it,” Jacob says. “There are always more projects to come, or they could tell someone else about you, so always show you’re invested back.”
\nThe co-founders have put every part of themselves into the business, and have seen the brand grow as a result of their authenticity and willingness to experiment and think outside the box when it comes to traditional design and content creation.
\nTune in to the full Shopify Masters episode to hear Jacob share how the team transitioned their viral success to sales, built partnerships with major brands, and scaled their production.
\nhttps://www.shopify.com/blog/mush-studios-tik-tok-partnerships
\n"}]},"page_header":{"background":null,"backgroundOpacity":100,"color":null,"fieldGroupName":"page_header","title":"Convert TikTok to Sales","opacity":100,"position":"on","size":{"desktop":64,"tablet":null,"mobile":null},"spaces":{"top":null,"bottom":null,"leftright":null,"units":"em"}},"link":"/blog/how-to-turn-tiktok-videos-into-big-sales"},{"id":"cG9zdDo1NTQ4","title":"Pilgrim Saves Time Using Shopify to Streamline Order Fulfillment","date":"24.05.2023","slug":"pilgrim-saves-time-using-shopify-to-streamline-order-fulfillment","categories":{"nodes":[{"id":"dGVybTox","name":"General Articles"}]},"levels":{"nodes":[]},"acfPost":{"fieldGroupName":"acfPost","excerpt":"Pilgrim got its start 40 years ago, with one woman who had a passion for jewelry. In 1983, designer Annemette Markvad turned her creativity into a collection of handmade jewelry that she sold at music festivals throughout Europe","squaredImage":{"altText":"Pilgrim Saves Time Using Shopify to Streamline Order Fulfillment","localFile":{"childImageSharp":{"gatsbyImageData":{"layout":"fullWidth","backgroundColor":"#d8c8b8","images":{"fallback":{"src":"/static/f49ec09ca4752476e92a7b835fd2de9f/b956e/IMG_9175_1.webp","srcSet":"/static/f49ec09ca4752476e92a7b835fd2de9f/d1fa5/IMG_9175_1.webp 750w,\n/static/f49ec09ca4752476e92a7b835fd2de9f/b956e/IMG_9175_1.webp 1024w","sizes":"100vw"},"sources":[]},"width":1,"height":0.4228515625}}}},"metaData":{"title":null,"description":"Discover how Pilgrim, a jewelry brand founded in 1983, transformed its operations with Shopify. Learn how Pilgrim streamlined its order management, fulfillment, and shipping processes to enhance efficiency and customer satisfaction"},"banner":{"title":"Pilgrim Saves Time Using Shopify to Streamline Order Fulfillment","showTitle":true,"image":{"altText":"Pilgrim Saves Time Using Shopify to Streamline Order Fulfillment","localFile":{"childImageSharp":{"gatsbyImageData":{"layout":"fullWidth","backgroundColor":"#d8c8b8","images":{"fallback":{"src":"/static/f49ec09ca4752476e92a7b835fd2de9f/b956e/IMG_9175_1.webp","srcSet":"/static/f49ec09ca4752476e92a7b835fd2de9f/d1fa5/IMG_9175_1.webp 750w,\n/static/f49ec09ca4752476e92a7b835fd2de9f/b956e/IMG_9175_1.webp 1024w","sizes":"100vw"},"sources":[]},"width":1,"height":0.4228515625}}}}},"timeToRead":null,"sections":[{"fieldGroupName":"post_Acfpost_Sections_ArticleRichTextContent","content":"Name: Simon Paquin, Director of Digital Marketing
\nBusiness: Pilgrim
\nYear founded: 1983
\nBased in: Montreal, Canada
\nSolutions: Order management, fulfillment, Shopify Shipping, returns management
Pilgrim got its start 40 years ago, with one woman who had a passion for jewelry. In 1983, designer Annemette Markvad turned her creativity into a collection of handmade jewelry that she sold at music festivals throughout Europe.
\nNow a thriving worldwide business, her mission is carried out by a team in Montreal who share her vision and values: bringing beautiful jewelry to individuals in North America who are looking to express themselves.
\nWith a booming online store, as well as busy retail locations, Pilgrim needed a way to streamline its operations to make fulfillment more efficient. That’s where Shopify helped.
\nThanks to Shopify, Pilgrim has been able to:
\nCustomers sometimes place their order online, only to realize shortly after that they need to change it. Whether they’ve selected the wrong item or entered the incorrect quantity, these last-minute updates happen.
\nOn Pilgrim’s side, these requests get delivered to customer support, who enter the change into the system, which notifies the warehouse team so they can make the update while fulfilling the order. The original system that Pilgrim used was buggy, so updates didn’t always sync in real time. This meant a delay between customer support receiving a request and the warehouse team being notified of the change.
\nPilgrim needed a way to provide a positive customer experience while streamlining the process for accommodating order updates. The company also needed a more efficient system for managing communication between the customer support and warehouse teams.
\n“For customer experience purposes, I was annoyed that our shipping tool was buggy sometimes and didn’t sync with order status in real time with Shopify. It started to create friction between our warehouse team and customers that had requested something from our CX team. Therefore, I began to envision how we could streamline everything.” —Simon Paquin, Director of Digital Marketing, Pilgrim
\nTo reduce this friction and ensure timely updates, Pilgrim turned to Shopify to manage, fulfill, and ship orders. “I like the simplicity, everything is in one place,” Simon says of Shopify, “and the support is great too!”
\n\nI like the simplicity, everything is in one place, and the support is great too.
![\"Simon](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/Pilgrim_image_1.jpg?v=1682621496\")
Customers send their requests through, the Pilgrim customer support team updates the orders page in Shopify, and the change is immediately sent to the warehouse team. Thanks to Shopify’s streamlined, real-time updates, Pilgrim spends less time going back and forth between teams. The company also saves time and money by not having to fix orders after the fact.
\n![\"Pilgrim](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/Pilgrim_image_6.jpg?v=1682622360\")
“There are fewer steps between what we did versus what we do now,” says Simon. “What changed is the time people spent fixing things that never should’ve happened in the first place. Prevention is the big benefit; Shopify helped a lot in terms of efficiency and saving costs that way.”
\n\nWhat changed is the time people spent fixing things that never should’ve happened in the first place. Prevention is the big benefit; Shopify helped a lot in terms of efficiency and saving costs that way.
Pilgrim works with Canada Post for efficient shipping and delivery to its customers, and connects its account to manage orders and purchase shipping labels within Shopify. The company also uses shipping presets to save preferred packaging and shipping carriers by default. This means Pilgrim doesn’t have to continually re-enter its preferences regarding Canada Post. Using the Shipping Manifest app is crucial—thanks to manifests, Pilgrim saves on costs incurred by Canada Post, since it no longer needs to scan individual packages.
\n![\"An](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/Pilgrim_image_5.jpg?v=1682622336\")
As part of the daily pickup in the warehouse, packages need to be organized by whether they are express or local pickups. Using Shopify’s custom order views, Pilgrim can quickly see which orders fall into each category—from one centralized view.
\n“The biggest money and time-saver here is the back-and-forth we used to have with the customer support team based on orders that didn’t sync with [our previous solution]. It created a lot of friction, meaning delaying the work to get done, and therefore shipping fewer orders every day. With Shopify, we’re making more money per hour with less friction.” —Simon Paquin, Director of Digital Marketing, Pilgrim
\n\nWith Shopify, we’re making more money per hour with less friction.
Pilgrim has already seen results from embedding Shopify into its day-to-day processes, positioning the company for long-term success.
\nHaving the ability to pick, pack, and buy labels all in one place has reduced the time it takes to complete each order. With less back-and-forth communication across multiple channels, the fulfillment team has seen increased efficiency and improved accuracy of orders—ultimately leading to higher customer satisfaction.
\nShopify’s capabilities to search, tag, and filter orders have helped the company practice better (and more timely) decision making, reducing order delays while preserving attention to detail. Creating custom order views allows Pilgrim’s team to find and surface the most relevant information, enabling them to make better decisions in less time.
\nThe platform has also helped Pilgrim avoid delays and disconnects between apps, enabling more timely order fulfillment. “The idea is to have the leanest team possible, to scale, with the highest output,” Simon says. “More often than not, that comes with software solutions, such as Shopify.”
\nPilgrim also regularly uses shipping presets for packaging and carriers, saving them time and shipping-related costs. This tool has improved profitability and reduced waste, promoting a sustainable business model.
\nSimon notes that Pilgrim is undergoing massive growth, moving out of the Tribe stage and into the Village stage. According to Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies, a popular book and business model by Chris Yeh and Reid Hoffman, a company enters the “Village” stage once it exceeds 100 employees, shifting to a more formal culture and established processes for rapid growth. This is a step up from the “Tribe” stage, which would describe a company with less than 100 employees, and a developing company structure. With five retail stores, and more on the horizon, Pilgrim is growing and here to stay.
\nhttps://www.shopify.com/blog/case-study-pilgrim
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\nBusiness: WOLFpak
\nYear founded: 2019
\nBased in: Costa Mesa, United States
\nSolutions: Shopify Shipping, order management, fulfillment, inventory management
WOLFpak is a functional backpack brand that empowers people to not only carry their gear, but also share their stories. WOLFpak CEO Michael Henderson was inspired to create the company during a challenging time in his life.
\nIn 2019, Michael was diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer. This difficult news led him to reevaluate his life, and he decided he wanted to spend more time with close family and friends—his pack.
\nFor months, Michael had a daily hours-long commute to the hospital to receive chemotherapy treatments. During those drives, he started brainstorming ways in which he could build a brand and make his mark on the world.
\nAs an active member in the fitness community, he saw an opportunity to transform the traditional gym bag to be more functional and customizable. And so, WOLFpak was born.
\nNew to the ecommerce world, Henderson needed a way to grow his business, while streamlining operations for maximum efficiency. That’s when he decided to leverage Shopify.
\nThanks to Shopify, WOLFpak has been able to:
\nWith a variety of products across more than 500 stock keeping units (SKUs), WOLFpak needed a way to easily manage inventory. This meant finding a way to accurately understand how many items were left in the warehouse, which products were selling faster, and other helpful metrics.
\nOn top of managing inventory, WOLFpak handles all order fulfillment in house, across its two warehouses. Several shipping options are available to customers, so orders need to be pulled, packed, and sent out for delivery according to their chosen shipping method.
\nWith more than 3,000 orders per week, WOLFpak handles fulfillment processes throughout each day. The company is constantly packing orders and printing shipping labels, but with such a high order volume, it was becoming challenging to stay organized and keep things running on time—and on budget.
\n“There would be mistakes when we’d pull up the labels and purchase the labels—they’re on the screen. Then, the person gets distracted and closes the window. So the labels are paid for, they show to be printed, but they never actually printed. Then, you get that horrible email from the customer asking where the package is. And so we realize we paid for it, but we never printed it.” —Michael Henderson, Founder & CEO, WOLFpak
\nTo improve organization and operational efficiency, WOLFpak turned to Shopify’s built-in order management and delivery solution to manage this work.
\n“There are variables when you have to go from one platform to another,” says Henderson. “When you can reduce those variables and work out of one platform, it just makes more sense. It creates a user-friendly experience for me and the staff, and it’s easier to train on one platform versus jumping around.”
\n\nWhen you can reduce those variables and work out of one platform, it just makes more sense. It creates a user-friendly experience for me and the staff, and it’s easier to train on one platform versus jumping around.
![\"WOLFpak](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/WOKFpak_image_2.jpg?v=1682694954\")
Shopify has made the fulfillment process much easier and more affordable for WOLFpak, enabling the company to create and buy its labels from a centralized location. For domestic shipments, the company leverages UPS, but for its international customers, WOLFpak uses Shopify’s Markets Pro to send packages through DHL. Thanks to Shopify’s industry-leading rates, it costs less for WOLFpak to buy and print labels through Shopify Shipping than it would working directly with the carrier.
\n![\"For](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/WOLFpak_image_3.jpg?v=1682694974\")
Thanks to the shipping labels index, WOLFpak can check in real time whether shipping labels were printed—saving time and money, while also providing great customer service through on-track deliveries.
\nTo better understand business performance and see which items are in stock, WOLFpak uses Shopify’s robust inventory reporting capabilities. Leveraging the days-remaining metric helps the company understand approximately when an item will run out. WOLFpak also leverages inventory automations with Shopify Flow to let specific team members know when the company is running low in stock for a specific product. In addition, using metrics like quantity sold per day and top products and units sold, WOLFpak can see which products are performing well, helping the company better plan its business roadmap.
\n“With Shopify, we can streamline order fulfillment by doing everything in one place. We have one place to view and organize orders, and buy and print labels. We also like using Shopify to ensure our information is accurate and no fulfillment mistakes are made. We can double check order and shipping details are correct, and use the shipping labels index to see what labels have been purchased and printed, as well as ensure all packages are being delivered by UPS. We want to provide a great delivery experience to our customers, and Shopify helps us do that.” —Michael Henderson, Founder & CEO, WOLFpak
\n\nWith Shopify, we can streamline order fulfillment by doing everything in one place. We have one place to view and organize orders, and buy and print labels. We also like using Shopify to ensure our information is accurate and no fulfillment mistakes are made.
WOLFpak has seen impressive results and is happy to be growing with Shopify. “When I first started my business, I thought about it like building a castle,” says Henderson. “You start with picking the best plot of land for the castle. Shopify was that plot of land. It provided me with the best foundation to build my business empire. It has given me everything I need, each step of the way.”
\nThanks to efficiencies provided by the platform, WOLFpak is able to leverage Shopify’s ecommerce platform, providing one centralized place to handle all of its business operations. In addition, by using UPS through Shopify Shipping, WOLFpak saves $12,000 per month.
\n“What I love about Shopify is that it gives us a great platform to create a website, but takes it beyond that point,” says Henderson. “Shopify gives us all these features that support a business and its growth—from the point of sales channels to the analytics, inventory control, and the bar-coding. It’s everything a business center needs all on one platform. I believe Shopify has it figured out, which keeps us as part of the Shopify family.”
\n\nShopify gives us all these features that support a business and its growth—from the point of sales channels to the analytics, inventory control, and the bar-coding. It’s everything a business center needs all on one platform.
As Henderson has expanded WOLFpak with Shopify, he has seen the power in sharing his own personal story of overcoming challenging times, and he’s proud to provide a brand that inspires others to do the same.
\nhttps://www.shopify.com/blog/case-study-wolfpak
\n"}]},"page_header":{"background":null,"backgroundOpacity":100,"color":null,"fieldGroupName":"page_header","title":"Wolfpak: Shopify Success","opacity":100,"position":"on","size":{"desktop":64,"tablet":null,"mobile":null},"spaces":{"top":null,"bottom":null,"leftright":null,"units":"em"}},"link":"/blog/wolfpak-grows-from-lone-wolf-to-a-pack-of-many-thanks-to-shopify"},{"id":"cG9zdDo1NTM2","title":"How To Build a Martech Stack for Your Business","date":"24.05.2023","slug":"how-to-build-a-martech-stack-for-your-business","categories":{"nodes":[{"id":"dGVybTox","name":"General Articles"}]},"levels":{"nodes":[]},"acfPost":{"fieldGroupName":"acfPost","excerpt":"A tech stack is the set of technology tools used to run your business. For instance, if you run a bakery that accepts credit card payments, your payment processor is part of your tech stack.","squaredImage":{"altText":"How To Build a Martech Stack for Your Business","localFile":{"childImageSharp":{"gatsbyImageData":{"layout":"fullWidth","backgroundColor":"#487878","images":{"fallback":{"src":"/static/d3378755bdb367838200ac2be9365f3c/b956e/martech_20stack.webp","srcSet":"/static/d3378755bdb367838200ac2be9365f3c/d1fa5/martech_20stack.webp 750w,\n/static/d3378755bdb367838200ac2be9365f3c/b956e/martech_20stack.webp 1024w","sizes":"100vw"},"sources":[]},"width":1,"height":0.4228515625}}}},"metaData":{"title":null,"description":"Learn what a martech stack is and how to build one for your business. Discover the components, including foundational, function-specific, and advanced technologies, and get tips for selecting the right tools and integrating them smoothly. Improve your marketing efforts and achieve your business objectives with an effective martech stack"},"banner":{"title":"How To Build a Martech Stack for Your Business","showTitle":true,"image":{"altText":"How To Build a Martech Stack for Your Business","localFile":{"childImageSharp":{"gatsbyImageData":{"layout":"fullWidth","backgroundColor":"#487878","images":{"fallback":{"src":"/static/d3378755bdb367838200ac2be9365f3c/b956e/martech_20stack.webp","srcSet":"/static/d3378755bdb367838200ac2be9365f3c/d1fa5/martech_20stack.webp 750w,\n/static/d3378755bdb367838200ac2be9365f3c/b956e/martech_20stack.webp 1024w","sizes":"100vw"},"sources":[]},"width":1,"height":0.4228515625}}}}},"timeToRead":null,"sections":[{"fieldGroupName":"post_Acfpost_Sections_ArticleRichTextContent","content":"A tech stack is the set of technology tools used to run your business. For instance, if you run a bakery that accepts credit card payments, your payment processor is part of your tech stack.
\nIndividual business units like HR and accounting teams can also have their own tech stacks. Marketing teams use a specialized stack called a martech (marketing technology) stack, and the decisions you make for this stack can be as significant as selecting a hosting service for your website or payment method for your business.
\nIn this article, we’ll show you what a martech stack is, and how to build one.
\nA martech stack—or marketing tech stack—is the combination of tools and platforms you use to support your marketing efforts. The term “stack” refers to the layers of technology working together to achieve marketing goals or objectives. These technologies include platforms that help you manage and optimize your marketing campaigns and strategies, uncover user behavior on your site, and send and track email campaigns. They vary depending on the size and type of business and its specific marketing objectives.
\nMarketing tools like Google Analytics, Klaviyo, Ahrefs, and Zapier are commonly included in martech stacks.
\nA martech stack can be divided into separate levels. The lower part of the stack consists of foundational technologies that support the entire marketing technology infrastructure, whereas the upper part consists of more specialized and targeted tools that perform specific marketing functions. In other words, the lower levels (your stack’s foundation) will impact which tools you select for the upper layers. Therefore, it’s best to consider your stack in three parts: foundational, function-specific, and advanced components. Here’s how they differ:
\nFoundational martech components include the services you use to build and manage your website. They are often the first software you decide on in your marketing tech mix because, through compatibility or integration, they influence what advanced or complementary tools can be added on top of them. For example, content management systems (CMSs) like Shopify and WordPress have a marketplace of integrated plug-ins or apps designed for that CMS. If you need the functionality of a specific plug-in, you’ll need to choose the related CMS.
\nThe two primary foundational martech components are:
\nWhen choosing foundational martech components, marketing often isn’t the only consideration, since these components can impact other business units. For example, your operations team may have specific CMS requirements, such as the ability to edit prices without touching the code.
\nUnlike foundational martech components that impact many areas of your business, function-specific components are designed specifically for marketing tasks. When considering these parts of your martech stack, identify their ability to integrate with the other tools across your stack. Here are examples of function-specific martech components:
\nAdvanced martech components help unify activities across channels and level up existing channels in nuanced and technical ways. Unlike function-specific components, their purpose isn’t to unlock new marketing channels.
\nMost of these tools, which can be technical and costly, are typically used when your business is large enough for a marketing team to manage them. A few examples of these components include:
\nThe right martech stack for your business depends on your business model, marketing strategy, and budget. Consider the following when building your martech stack:
\nTools like BuiltWith.com can help you see the martech stack of companies you admire. Here’s an example of a typical martech stack for an ecommerce business:
\nThere are three key components in a martech stack: foundational, functional, and advanced. Within these categories, there are many individual marketing technologies, such as customer relationship management (CRM) and tag management systems (TMS).
\nThe goal of a martech stack is to enable efficient, effective marketing. The best way to measure martech performance is to calculate your marketing efficiency ratio (MER): your total sales divided by your total marketing costs. A higher MER indicates more efficient marketing operations.
\nhttps://www.shopify.com/blog/martech-stack
\n