What is Shopify Tech Stack?
Shopify, a leading multi-channel ecommerce platform, is a multi-channel ecommerce platform used by over one million ecommerce businesses. It allows brands to create an online store and sell products through a number of mediums. Businesses utilize Shopify for its comprehensive but easy-to-use tools, offering themes, SEO tools, mobile optimization, and more to improve the customer experience. Brands of all sizes rely on the platform, known for its robust backend Shopify development, to boost their sales. At peak times, Shopify can handle up to 80,000 requests per second.
Whether you’re already using Shopify or considering it for your online store, you should know what’s happening beneath the hood.
As an award-winning Shopify Plus partner, we can help your ecommerce business increase sales and scale with a customized tech stack and powerful design. In this guide, we look at the back-end technology Shopify uses and dive into what options you have to create the ultimate Shopify tech stack for your store.
In this article, you’ll learn:
- What Is a Tech Stack?
- What Technology Is Shopify Built On?
- Shopify’s Current Tech Stack
- Types of Ecommerce Tools for Your Shopify Tech Stack
- Creating a Shopify Technology Stack
- Verishop: Leveraging Shopify Plus Technology for Customization
- K-Swiss: Shared Code for Flexibility and Speed
- Shopify Plus Solutions
- More Shopify Plus Tech Stack App Partners
- How to Get Started with Help from Guidance
What Is a Tech Stack?
A tech stack is all the technologies used to develop a system or application. It generally includes the following components:
- Programming languages
- Frameworks
- Frontend and backend tools
- Databases
- APIs
- Monitoring and performance tools
- Behavioral and product analytics
What Is an Ecommerce Technology Stack?
An ecommerce tech stack refers to all the digital services and technologies used to create and run an ecommerce platform, including a content management system, payment gateways, and point-of-sale software. This data ecosystem provides merchants with the tools they need to launch, customize, and grow their online store.
Backend Shopify solutions form a significant part of this, encompassing programming languages, services, and applications that dictate the platform's overall function.
With Shopify's modular architecture, users also benefit. Instead of adding new tools that could bloat maintenance costs and slow down performance, it’s possible to install new apps and integrations to unlock new commerce capabilities while swapping out components that aren’t needed.
Ultimately, this flexible architecture allows online stores to craft a tailored experience for their existing market while improving their ecommerce store to reach new markets and align with changing customer expectations.
What Technology Is Shopify Built On?
Shopify is built on Ruby on Rails, one of the oldest existing Rails apps.
The original codebase is still there, but changes have been made over the years to improve the application.
One of the most significant changes was transitioning to a pods architecture to allow for better scaling.
In 2015, the company couldn’t continue buying larger databases to store all its data. It was also dealing with outages and disturbances because of the mammoth data loads. To solve this problem, Shopify first went from MySQL for its database management system to multiple databases, a process called sharding.
The shards helped relieve the performance issues, but it wasn’t enough to cope with such fast growth. So Shopify reorganized its architecture with pods, which are sets of shops that live on isolated databases, as you can see in this diagram:
When a new pod is added, it won’t cause a disruption to any of the other pods because there’s zero cross-pod communication. This change has allowed Shopify to scale its backend architecture indefinitely without impacting performance or causing interruptions.
Shopify Admin Tech Stack
Beginning with HTML and Prototype JavaScript, Shopify has transitioned through technologies like Batman.js, now relying on React and TypeScript. This development in the Shopify technology stack optimizes server-independent operations and improves resource access.
Shopify's Current Tech Stack
Shopify's tech stack is a comprehensive and dynamic array of around 100 applications and technologies. This includes key apps like Shopify POS and Shopify Ping, central to the Shopify infrastructure.
The platform's technology stack not only facilitates a broad range of services but also supports high-volume sales and scalability.
- Core Technologies: At the heart of Shopify's tech stack are essential technologies like Ruby on Rails, which forms the backbone of the platform. This robust programming language is supported by other technologies like JavaScript and HTML5, ensuring a responsive and interactive user experience.
- Database Management: Shopify leverages MySQL for its database needs, ensuring efficient data handling and storage. This is complemented by other database technologies like Memcached and Redis, enhancing the platform's data processing capabilities.
- App Ecosystem: The Shopify App Store is a vital part of the Shopify stack, offering a wide range of applications that extend the functionality of Shopify stores. These apps cover everything from marketing and sales to inventory management, providing users with the tools they need to succeed.
- Integration with Digital Tools: Shopify's tech stack seamlessly integrates with various digital tools and services. For instance, Google Analytics for data analysis, Facebook Shops and Instagram Shopping for social commerce, and various SEO tools to enhance online visibility.
- Cloud and Hosting Solutions: Shopify's cloud-based infrastructure ensures reliability and scalability. This allows the platform to manage large volumes of traffic and transactions, a critical aspect of the Shopify technology stack.
- Security and Compliance: Security is a cornerstone of the Shopify framework. The platform employs advanced security measures to protect merchant data and ensure compliance with various e-commerce regulations.
- User Interface and Design: Shopify’s focus on user experience is evident in its use of modern UI/UX design principles. This aspect of the tech stack Shopify uses is crucial in creating visually appealing and easy-to-navigate online stores.
The diversity and depth of Shopify's tech stack reflect its commitment to providing a robust, scalable, and user-friendly ecommerce platform. This Shopify technology stack enables businesses of all sizes to create tailored online experiences that resonate with their target audience.
Types of Ecommerce Tools for Your Shopify Tech Stack
Business tools in the Shopify stack are categorized into time-saving solutions and KPI-driven solutions.
The first is time-saving solutions, which automate business operations. Instead of creating documents and spreadsheets by hand, things like invoice generators, privacy policy generators, and bill of lading templates allow you and your employees to focus on other tasks.
The other category is KPI-driven solutions, which help you improve your revenue metrics, scale growth, and increase your profit margin. Tools like Shopify's CPM (cost per mile) calculator and profit margin calculator are KPI-driven. Both technology types can be immensely beneficial for merchants. Guidance recommends implementing a range of tools to get the most out of your ecommerce business.
Creating a Shopify Technology Stack for Your Store
Whether you have a subscription-based store or a traditional online store, Shopify tools can help drive repeat purchases and build a large base of loyal customers. Here are five app categories ecommerce businesses should consider for their tech stack.
Analytics Tools
Analytics apps track key metrics like customer lifetime value (CLTV), number of subscribers, and monthly recurring revenue (MRR). Some of the top Shopify analytics tools include:
- Realtime Stack
- TrueProfit
- Peel
Email and SMS Marketing Tools
Email and SMS tools make it easy to build relationships, nurture leads, gather feedback, and keep customers informed about their upcoming orders.
Here are some of the top email and SMS marketing tools you can add to your tech stack:
- Automizely
- Omnisend
- Seguno
3PL Fulfillment Tools
A good third-party logistics (3PL) service ensures your customers have a great delivery experience. They also take this time-consuming task off your business’s plate so you can focus on growing your brand and running the rest of your day-to-day operations.
For subscription-based products, 3PL is even more vital because it allows you to keep up with large order volumes.
Top 3PL order fulfillment Shopify tools worth considering include:
- ShipMonk
- Hive
- Easyship
- Steve (fulfillment in Europe)
Customer Experience Tools
From apps to manage product reviews to live chat and product personalization, ecommerce businesses that use Shopify have a wealth of tools at their fingertips for improving the customer experience.
Here are some of the best options:
- Hulk Product Reviews
- Smartviewer
- Kendra Live Chat
- Tidio AI Chatbot
- Crafty Product Recommendations
Checkout Tools
A well-structured checkout page reduces friction at the most important part of the buyer’s journey and increases conversions and upsells. It can also keep customers coming back and build confidence in your brand.
Here are some of the most popular checkout tools for Shopify:
- Checkout Buddy
- Checkout Plus
- Puco Checkout Rules
- Payfy
Verishop: Leveraging Shopify Plus Technology for Customization
For Verishop, it was the ease of customization that made Shopify Plus a win.
Most ecommerce websites are housed within a set navigation structure, and the homepage often exists as the front door to the rest of the customer experience. For Billie and Lett (Verishop's brands), the front door is the experience: in both designs, the homepage presents the entire catalog with full hi-res imagery all as an entirely shoppable Product Landing Page. This is unique to the ecommerce world and as such, it’s not a feature that presents out of the box with Shopify Plus, and usually requires some work from a Shopify Plus development company.
Using the beautiful designs and the creative vision from Billie and Lett, Guidance customized the homepage to be a fully immersive “quick shop” experience with colorways and sizes available on hover-state and Add-to-Cart features directly on the PLP.
Shopify Plus was selected as the ecommerce platform for its quick time to market coupled with the ease of management post-launch. By using an ecommerce platform like Shopify Plus, Verishop can focus on its specialty, fashion, without worrying about the technical details. As a SaaS platform, Shopify Plus removes the burden of hosting, security updates and managing downtime.
K-Swiss: Shared Code for Flexibility and Speed
For K-Swiss Global Brands, launching nine Shopify Plus sites across Europe, the UK, the US, and Canada was a significant challenge due to the varied currency regions. Opting for Shopify Plus offered not just reduced licensing costs but also enabled less technical users to manage content and promotions with ease, thanks to its user-friendly backend.
To efficiently handle this rollout, Guidance implemented a single shared code base for all nine sites. This approach, leveraging the Shopify Plus tech stack, ensured consistency and efficiency across different regions, perfectly aligning with the diverse tracking and marketing requirements. This strategy demonstrates the adaptability and scalability of the Shopify technology stack in managing complex, international ecommerce operations.
Shopify Plus Solutions
Shopify Plus offers a broad range of solutions for merchants. Some of the most notable solutions offered on the platform include the following:
- Enterprise Online Store - Allows you to design your web store and customize your checkout experience using HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and Liquid.
- Shopify Flow and Scripts - Enables you to personalize product recommendations based on your customers' behaviors.
- Multi-Channel Ecommerce - Helps you expand your horizons to selling on Amazon, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, and eBay.
- Launchpad - Makes it easy to automate your sales, promotions, and campaigns across all channels.
- International Ecommerce - Helps you reach international audiences with multiple stores and currencies.
- Shopify POS - Allows you to move between online and in-store retail with built-in omnichannel merchandising. This tech solution includes customizable checkout, inventory management, unlimited cataloging, local pickup and delivery, fully synced customer profiles, integrated loyalty programs, hassle-free returns and exchanges, and unified reporting.
Other Shopify Plus solutions include Headless Ecommerce, Wholesale, and B2B Ecommerce. Altogether, Shopify’s list of solutions provides you with expansive capabilities that you will not find with other ecommerce platforms.
More Shopify Plus Tech Stack App Partners
In addition to the core categories covered earlier, here are other useful apps Shopify users can add to their tech stack.
For recurring billing, you can utilize:
For affiliate marketing, you can use:
- Refersion
For conversion optimization, Shopify syncs with:
- Nosto
- Justuno
For managing returns and exchanges:
- Loop Returns
- Returnly
For content and visual merchandising, you can leverage:
- Searchspring
- Algolia
- Klevu
- Shogun
If you're using UGC (user-generated content), you can implement:
- Yotpo
- Okendo
- PowerReviews
Merchandisers who want to create loyalty and rewards programs can download:
- Yotpo
- Smile.io
- LoyaltyLion
- Swell
For PIM (product information management), you can integrate:
- Salsify
- Jasper
For CRO (conversion rate optimization), business intelligence, and reporting:
- Daasity
- Listrak
For tax support, you'll want to integrate:
With these extensive partnerships, Shopify combines solutions for all of your business needs in just one easy-to-use platform.
Shopify Plus Ecommerce Web Development by Guidance
Shopify Plus is an integral part of the ecommerce development services we offer at Guidance. If your business sees a high volume of online sales, you'll need a powerful, scalable, secure cloud-based platform. Guidance can create a Shopify Plus website for your enterprise that's tailored to your brand's product offerings, customer base, existing marketing strategy, and goals.
Guidance works with mid-market and enterprise-level merchandisers and manufacturers in both B2C and B2B industries. We've been delivering dependable Shopify Plus ecommerce site development for over 25 years and implement cutting-edge technologies and innovations that work—take a look at our Portfolio of Shopify Plus clients to see how. Whether you need assistance with B2B or B2C ecommerce development, we can help—contact us today!
