The Ease Co · Retail tech stack recommendations

Updated July 29, 2026. Software pricing moves, so check before you commit. The current version always lives at theeaseco.com/stack.

The Ease Co · Updated July 2026

Retail tech stack recommendations.

Ten tools for independent, multi-vendor retail. What each one really costs, and how I actually use it. Most of these I ran my own store on.

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Prices verified July 29, 2026.

Shopify Partners

Certified partner

QuickBooks Online

Official partner

Chrome Web Store

Approved extension

The Boutique Hub

Vetted member

Lowcountry Local First

Member

Chucktown Startups

Member

I trialed a lot of apps running my own store. The hard part was never finding options. It was that almost nothing told me whether a tool was built for a brick-and-mortar, multi-vendor shop or just for ecommerce, and those are not the same business. I lost a lot of time to that, and I talked to a lot of people.

These ten are what I landed on. Klaviyo, Gorgias, ManyChat, Shopify and Slack are the ones I actually scaled the store on. The other few I found later, working with other teams, and they solve problems I was doing by hand at the time.

Every price is real and current, because adding technology to a store is overwhelming enough without a surprise on the invoice, and because somebody on your team has to own each of these. You don't need all ten. You do need a plan for which ones and in what order.

Victoria Winter

Lifelong retailer turned retail solutions enthusiast. Cofounder of The Ease Co and CTO of Invoe.

What the store runs on

The under-the-surface stuff that few people see and many people feel. We call this the gut health of the business. Having it on solid ground sets up everything else for success.

One thing to know about Shopify

We love Shopify, but it is more native to ecommerce than it is to brick and mortar. We are certified Shopify Partners, and the work we do on a move is making sure everything you actually need is covered, and that your Shopify is set up for the way you really work rather than the way the demo works.

The register and the website

I ran my store on this

Shopify + Shopify POS

One inventory record behind the counter and online. POS Pro adds staff tracking, ship-from-store, and buy-online-pickup-in-store.

Why it's on my list

I ran my store on it. Coming off legacy software the honest part is this: it’s a good platform that arrives half-configured. That’s the trade. You get something you can shape, and you have to shape it.

How I actually use it

The migration that goes badly is almost never about the products. It’s the history. Costs, vendor links, customer records, gift card balances, loyalty. Decide in writing what history you’re keeping and what you’re letting go before you move, or that decision gets made for you at two in the morning.

Incoming inventory

Wish I would have had this

Invoeours

Purchase orders in, catalog-ready product out. Built for stores buying from twenty to a hundred vendors.

Why it's on my list

Most systems treat inventory as a data point the moment it arrives at your store. We know the moment you place the order is when it becomes part of the story. Having a place for all of your incoming inventory to land, for your team to receive clearly on top of it, and to sync to your Shopify merchandised, was a dream of mine. I spent the last three years building it.

How I actually use it

Use it before the truck lands, not after. A purchase order sitting in Invoe for six weeks is six weeks of quiet editing: costs corrected, titles fixed, images pulled, categories set. When the boxes show up your team ticks what came in, and the listings are already done.

Counting what’s actually on the floor

Wish I would have had this

Pimsical Stock Take

Barcode counting across as many phones as you have staff. Cycle counts and full counts, in the Shopify POS app or a browser.

Why it's on my list

Jordan is a retail pro who deeply knows his stuff, and it shows. Counting stock is the job nobody volunteers for, and he made it survivable. Any time a client needs a stock take, this is where I send them.

How I actually use it

Stop closing for an annual count. Run one category a week on a slow Tuesday with two people on their own phones. By the end of a quarter you’ve counted the whole store and never lost a selling day.

When it doesn’t sell

Its own category, because the problem lands on its own schedule and always at the worst time. Max Retail only gets paid when you do, so there is nothing to weigh up.

Excess inventory

Wish I would have had this

Max Retail

Lists your unsold stock across a network of authorized secondary resellers. They handle photography, listing, service, and returns.

Why it's on my list

Melanie built it out of the retail side of this problem, and she has been genuinely supportive of me going from running a store to solving these problems for other people. Excess always lands in the same week new inventory shows up, which is exactly when you have no time for it. Performance-based means you can act in the middle of receiving season instead of after.

How I actually use it

Run it as a standing habit, not a rescue. Pull an on-hand report for anything older than two seasons at the same time you cycle count. Aged stock is cash sitting on a shelf, and the longer you hold it the less of that cash you get back.

Talking to your customers

Three tools, three doors. Email, support, and DMs. The stores that feel high-touch at scale are just the ones that set these up early.

Email and SMS

I ran my store on this

Klaviyo

Email built around a product catalog rather than a contact list.

Why it's on my list

For a deep catalog that changes every week, nothing else comes close. The flows that run without me are the ones that paid for it: browse abandonment, back in stock, post-purchase.

How I actually use it

Those set-and-forget flows are only as good as your collections. A back-in-stock email does nothing if the product never got tagged into the right collection. That’s the seam where most stores quietly lose the value they’re paying for, and it’s worth an hour a month to keep clean.

Customer service

I ran my store on this

Gorgias

A help desk that sits on your store, so whoever answers can see the order without leaving the reply.

Why it's on my list

Customer service was the biggest headache I had while I was scaling, and it was the one thing I refused to let slip. Gorgias is how I kept it without answering everything myself.

How I actually use it

Route by customer value, not by keyword. I tagged my top segment and set a rule that pinged me directly if one of them wrote in over a weekend. Showing up high-touch isn’t about answering everything fast. It’s about never missing the twenty people who matter most.

Instagram DMs

I ran my store on this

ManyChat

Automated replies and keyword triggers on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp.

Why it's on my list

I started using it in 2019 to pre-launch our semi-annual sales and it doubled our email list growth. With a catalog that changes weekly it’s also the fastest way to point someone at the right page.

How I actually use it

Set the welcome greeting, not just the keyword links. Treat a new follower the way you’d treat a first-time visitor on the site: a hello and fifteen percent off, sent automatically. Most stores use ManyChat as a link dispenser and skip the one message that starts the relationship.

Talking to your team

How you communicate inside the store matters as much as how you communicate outside it. Give people somewhere to put things and you finally get the feedback you’ve been asking for.

What the team knows

I ran my store on this

Slack

Channels instead of a group text and four notebooks behind the counter.

Why it's on my list

People hear Slack and think corporate. When I was studying how businesses last, one that stuck with me was Zara, which drives trend decisions off what staff hear on the floor every single day. That’s the most valuable thing an independent store already collects and almost never keeps.

How I actually use it

Give every recurring thing a channel and a habit. Fit and quality feedback from the floor. Time-off requests. Instagram references someone wants to copy. Customers asking for what you don’t carry. Then the one that changed the most for us: closing staff write tomorrow’s opening procedure before they leave, including the box that only got half unpacked. When people have somewhere to put it, you finally get the feedback you’ve been asking for.

Staff, commission, and payroll

Wish I would have had this

EasyTeam

Scheduling, timesheets, tips, commission, and payroll, run inside Shopify POS.

Why it's on my list

Sales incentives were a huge part of how I drove my business, and I calculated all of it by hand. Commission is one of the real advantages independent retail has, and most owners skip it because the math is miserable. This removes the reason to skip it.

How I actually use it

Start with a category bonus before a full commission plan. Pick the one department you need moved this season and put a rate on it. You learn what your team responds to without rewriting how everybody gets paid.

Phone numbers that stay with the business

Wish I would have had this

Google Voice

A second number your staff carry in an app. Calls, texts, and voicemail, in your own area code.

Why it's on my list

When someone leaves and the vendor relationship lived on their cell phone, the relationship leaves with them. Nobody thinks about this until it happens once. It also means your staff never have to hand out their own number.

How I actually use it

Set it up before you need it, on the roles that talk to vendors and clients. The number is an asset of the business. The person answering it changes, and the number doesn’t.

Where to start

Where I'd start at your size

You don't need all ten. Here's the order I'd go in, and roughly what it costs a month at the entry tier.

One location, one or two people

You’re still doing every job yourself.

Max Retail
Shopify + POS
Invoe
Pimsical
Klaviyo
ManyChat
Slack (free)

about $170 a month

One location, a real team

You have staff, a growing list, and more customer questions than you can answer alone.

Everything above
Gorgias
EasyTeam
Google Voice

about $400 a month

Two or more locations

Multi-vendor, multi-door, and the spreadsheet stopped working a while ago.

Everything above at higher tiers
POS Pro per location
Slack Pro

about $800 a month and up

Take it with you

The whole guide as a printed sheet, laid out to mark up and hand to whoever owns this for you.

One list. Unsubscribe whenever. I don't sell it or share it.

Want a second opinion on yours?

Tell me what you're running now and where it breaks. Wiring these together is most of the work, and it's the part we do.

Book a call

Partner links. Some links here are partner links, marked as such on the card. If you sign up through one, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It doesn't change what makes this list. Every tool is one I ran my own store on or set up for a client, and the plain link to each company is always the one on the card.

Invoe is ours. We build it. That's said on its card rather than buried down here.

Prices. Verified July 29, 2026 against each company's own pricing page. Software pricing moves, sometimes without notice. Check before you commit.