Your tech stack is costing you more than the subscriptions.

There are certain phrases the marketing industry loves using that sound considerably more complicated than the things they're describing. Tech stack is one of them.

It gets thrown around in agency meetings and strategy presentations as though every business owner should immediately understand what it means. But I've worked with plenty of businesses that have accumulated years of software subscriptions without anyone ever sitting down to explain how the different systems are supposed to work together.

And that's where things become expensive. Not necessarily because the subscriptions cost too much. Because the systems aren't doing what the business thinks they're doing.

First, what is a tech stack?

A tech stack is simply the collection of software, platforms and tools a business uses to operate. For a small business, that might include a website, email provider, accounting software, CRM and booking system. For an ecommerce business, it could involve Shopify, Klaviyo, a subscription application, payment processing, inventory management, shipping software, analytics and advertising platforms.

The term sounds technical. The concept isn't. It's the collection of tools you've chosen to run your business, and what matters is how they work together.

Having the tools isn't the same as having a working system

Imagine an ecommerce brand running Shopify, Klaviyo, a subscription app and Meta advertising. Each platform works perfectly well on its own. Shopify processes orders. Klaviyo sends emails. The subscription app manages recurring deliveries. Meta runs advertisements. Everything appears to be functioning.

But what happens when a customer pauses their subscription? Does Klaviyo know? What happens when a payment fails? Does the customer receive the appropriate communication? What happens when someone purchases after clicking an advertisement? Is the conversion event recorded accurately? And when a customer changes their email address, do all the relevant systems update?

These are the questions that determine whether you've built a connected customer experience or simply assembled a collection of subscriptions.

Hannah Grant, Freshmade Creative

Every broken connection creates a potential blind spot

When systems don't communicate properly, information can be delayed, duplicated, recorded incorrectly or never transferred to the place it needs to go. Sometimes the data still exists in the original platform. Sometimes an integration can recover it. And sometimes an event was never captured in the first place.

Imagine someone subscribes to your product. Shopify records the order, but the subscription status doesn't reach your email marketing platform. That customer might receive a campaign encouraging them to subscribe to something they've already purchased.

Or perhaps someone completes a website enquiry form, but the information doesn't reach the CRM. The enquiry may exist in an email notification somewhere, but it never enters the sales pipeline. Nobody follows up.

That's not just a technical issue. That's a potential customer who may never hear from the business again.

The hidden cost of manual work

I've seen businesses employ people to move information between systems that should be communicating automatically. Export a spreadsheet. Clean the data. Upload it somewhere else. Check the records. Repeat next week. It's familiar, and because someone has always done it, it rarely gets questioned.

Automation isn't always the answer. Some processes genuinely need human judgement. But people shouldn't be spending hours compensating for systems that could reasonably communicate with one another.

Integrations aren't all created equal

One of the most misleading things in software marketing is the little collection of platform logos at the bottom of a website. Works with Shopify. Integrates with Xero. Connects to HubSpot. Wonderful. But what does the integration actually do?

• Does it send information in one direction or both?
• Does it update existing records or only create new ones?
• Does it transfer the fields your business needs?
• How frequently does it synchronise?
• What happens when something fails, and can it retry?

An integration existing doesn't necessarily mean the workflow you need is supported. This is why I like mapping the actual customer journey before recommending software. Start with what needs to happen. Then establish whether the tools can support it.

Your website is often the centre of the problem

For many businesses, the website is where important information first enters the system. A customer completes a form, books an appointment, creates an account or purchases a product. What happens next depends on the connections behind it.

For a service business, an enquiry might need to create a CRM record, notify the right team member and trigger an appropriate follow-up. For an ecommerce brand, an order might need to update inventory, send fulfilment information, record the transaction and update the customer's marketing profile.

If those processes aren't designed properly, the website may look perfectly functional while creating operational problems behind the scenes. A beautiful form that doesn't reliably deliver the enquiry isn't a good form.

The most expensive software is sometimes the software nobody uses

Businesses have a remarkable ability to accumulate subscriptions. Someone signs up for a reporting tool. Another person introduces a scheduling application. A freelancer recommends a new email platform. Eventually, nobody is quite sure what the business is paying for or whether some of the tools are doing the same job.

I'd review the stack periodically and ask:

• What does this platform actually do?
• Who uses it, and how often?
• Does another system already provide the same functionality?
• What information does it collect or store?
• Which other platforms does it connect to?
• What happens if we stop using it?
• Who owns the account and has administrative access?

The objective isn't necessarily to reduce the number of tools. It's to make sure every tool has a clear purpose. Sometimes paying for a specialist platform is absolutely worthwhile. Sometimes simplifying creates more value than adding another subscription.

Data ownership matters more than people realise

There's another consideration that tends to surface when businesses change agencies, developers or software providers. Who actually owns the accounts?

I've encountered situations where a business has relied on an external provider to set up important systems, only to discover that access, billing or administrative control sits with someone else. That creates unnecessary risk.

Your business should retain appropriate ownership and administrative access to critical systems, including your domain, website, advertising accounts, analytics and customer databases. You should also understand where customer data is stored, how it's protected, what can be exported and what happens when a service is discontinued.

And for Australian businesses, privacy obligations and consent requirements need to be considered whenever customer information is collected, shared or used for marketing. A connected tech stack isn't an excuse to send customer data everywhere.

How to audit your business tech stack

I would start with a surprisingly simple exercise. Write down every platform your business uses. Then map what information enters each system, where it needs to go and who is responsible for making sure it arrives. For each important connection, establish:

1. The trigger. What event starts the process?
2. The information. What data needs to move?
3. The destination. Which system needs to receive it?
4. The timing. Immediately, or can it wait?
5. The failure process. How will you know if something goes wrong?
6. The owner. Who maintains the integration?

You don't need to understand how to write an API integration to ask these questions. You just need to understand how your business is supposed to work.

Automation should make the business better, not simply busier

There's a tendency to assume that automating more things is always progress. It isn't. A badly designed automated process can make mistakes faster, send irrelevant communications at scale or duplicate information across multiple platforms.

Before automating something, I'd want to make sure the underlying process is worth preserving. Sometimes the right solution is an integration. Sometimes it's replacing a platform. Sometimes it's removing an unnecessary step altogether.

The goal isn't to have the most sophisticated tech stack. It's to have systems that support the business without requiring constant attention.

Hannah Grant, Freshmade Creative

Frequently asked questions

A good tech stack isn't one you need to think about every day. It's one that quietly does its job. And when something goes wrong, you know about it before your customer does.

HG

Written by

Hannah Grant

Founder and director of Freshmade Creative, a Brisbane studio working across brand, marketing and digital.