Technology
LEAN STACK VS SCALABLE STACK
Start lean and buy nothing you cannot operate. The India technology team's first job is reporting — SKU-level sell-through from week one — not building a recommendation engine.
Lean startup stack
£160 /month
Recommended for months 0–12.
Scalable stack
£9,400 /month
Triggered by multi-market operation, not by ambition.
| Layer | Lean | £/mo | Scalable | £/mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| E-commerce platform | Shopify Basic | £30 | Shopify Plus | £2,000 |
| CRM + email/SMS | Klaviyo starter | £45 | Klaviyo scaled | £800 |
| Analytics | GA4 + Shopify reports | — | Warehouse + BI | £900 |
| ERP / inventory | Shopify inventory | — | Cloud ERP | £1,200 |
| PIM | Spreadsheet + Shopify metafields | — | Dedicated PIM | £600 |
| WMS / 3PL | 3PL portal | — | Integrated WMS | £700 |
| Customer service | Gorgias starter | £60 | Gorgias + AI triage | £500 |
| Returns management | Manual + portal | £25 | Returns platform | £400 |
| Marketing automation | Klaviyo flows | — | Multi-channel orchestration | £500 |
| AI recommendation / forecasting | Rules-based | — | In-house models (India tech) | £1,500 |
| Social commerce | TikTok + Meta shops | — | Full social catalogue ops | £300 |
| Payments | Shopify Payments | — | Multi-PSP + local methods | — |
Monthly costs are planning estimates at launch volumes. Platform pricing changes frequently — confirm with each vendor before budgeting.