Insights
Notes on Shopify, commerce operations and the software we build. No newsletters you cannot unsubscribe from, and no gated PDFs.
A short list on purpose. Five new pieces are being written from work that shipped this year; the older ones that still answer something worth asking are kept, and the rest have been retired.
AI & systems
In progress
Of twelve systems we run in production, eight have no model in them at all. A cron job that reliably expires stale records is not less impressive than a chatbot — it is more useful. Where the model earns its place, and where it is decoration.
In progress
How to triage a dependency-alert pile without either ignoring it or losing a week: split dev from production by running the actual install command, grep for the vulnerable API rather than the package name, and check the minimum upgrade instead of the latest version.
In progress
Every capability we ship is gated by an explicit grant, returns a typed error when it is missing, and can be checked from outside. Boring, and the reason we let software touch a client's orders.
What AI actually changes about making things, and what it does not.Written in 2023, before most of this was fashionable.
Operations
In progress
We moved a client's order fulfilment onto new infrastructure and found the old host had already been deleted — no going back. What we changed in the caller first, and why a migration is almost never the URL flip it looks like.
In progress
We kept the same operational note in three repositories. Within a month they disagreed, and one confidently named a server that no longer existed. What we do now instead.
Doing things right and doing the right things are different problems. Most operations work confuses them.
Shopify
In progress
Customer-specific pricing, order editing and automatic B2B invoicing on a standard Shopify plan. We built Bee2Bee after quoting Plus one time too many.
What to weigh when the shop floor and the website have to agree — and where Shopify POS fits.
Layout, responsiveness and how far a theme bends before it breaks — the decisions that are expensive to reverse.
Plus earns its price at volume and with complex B2B rules. Below that it is an expensive way to buy features you already have — and for wholesale specifically, there is a cheaper answer.
Why it matters more than it sounds, what actually moves the numbers, and how to keep it from decaying.
The honest case for moving, written for someone who already trades somewhere else and is weighing the disruption.
A first call is thirty minutes and costs nothing. Bring the thing that is annoying you most — that is usually the fastest way in.
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