Fractional CTO for e-commerce and marketplaces
Building scalable e-commerce platforms that handle peak loads, optimize conversion, and delight customers. Expert guidance on performance, personalization, and omnichannel commerce.
Challenge
E-commerce challenges
- Peak load management: Black Friday, flash sales, viral moments (10-100x normal traffic)
- Performance and speed: page load time directly correlates with conversion
- Search and discovery: product search, filtering, faceted navigation at scale
- Personalization: product recommendations, dynamic pricing, personalized content
- Inventory management: real-time inventory across all channels, warehouse management
- Payments and checkout: abandoned carts, payment gateway optimization, fraud prevention
- Mobile commerce: mobile-first design, progressive web apps, native apps
- Omnichannel: unified experience across web, mobile, marketplaces, social
- Third-party integrations: ERP, CRM, PIM, WMS, shipping, marketplaces
- International expansion: multi-currency, multi-language, regional regulations
How I help
High-performance architecture
Load times <2 seconds for maximum conversion
- Page speed optimization: <2 seconds, Core Web Vitals
- Caching strategies: CDN, edge caching, application caching, database query caching
- Database optimization: query optimization, indexing, read replicas, sharding
- Image optimization: lazy loading, responsive sizes, WebP, CDN
- Progressive web apps: offline functionality, fast transitions, native-like experience
- Server-side rendering: Next.js, Nuxt.js for SEO and performance
Search, discovery and personalization
Smart recommendations and fast relevant search
- Product search: Elasticsearch, Algolia, Typesense for fast relevant search
- Recommendation systems: collaborative filtering, content-based, hybrid approaches
- Dynamic pricing: ML-powered price optimization, competitor monitoring
- Personalization: user segmentation, A/B testing, personalized content
- Faceted navigation: fast filtering by multiple attributes
- Search analytics: understanding what customers search for and can't find
Scalability and reliability
Automatic handling of peak loads without downtime
- Auto-scaling: automatic handling of traffic spikes
- Load testing: simulating Black Friday traffic, identifying bottlenecks
- High availability: multi-region deployment, zero-downtime deployments
- Queue management: background jobs for emails, inventory updates, analytics
- Database scaling: horizontal scaling, read replicas, caching layers
- CDN strategy: global content delivery, DDoS protection
Checkout and payment optimization
Reducing abandoned carts and maximizing conversion
- Checkout optimization: reducing abandoned carts
- Payment gateway integration: Stripe, Adyen, PayPal, local payment methods
- Guest checkout: no account creation required
- Multiple payment methods: cards, digital wallets, installments, crypto
- Fraud detection: real-time scoring, 3D Secure, address verification
- Payment recovery: retry failed payments, dunning management
Inventory and order management
Real-time inventory sync across all channels
- Real-time inventory: sync across all channels (web, mobile, marketplace, retail)
- Warehouse management: pick-pack-ship processes, multi-warehouse support
- Order management: order routing, tracking, returns handling
- Inventory forecasting: ML-powered demand prediction, auto-reordering
- Dropshipping integration: supplier management, automated order placement
- Multi-channel inventory: unified inventory across Amazon, eBay, Shopify, etc.
Analytics and optimization
Data-driven decisions for revenue growth
- Conversion funnel analysis: identifying and fixing drop-off points
- A/B testing platform: test everything (layout, copy, pricing, flow)
- Product analytics: which products drive revenue, which don't sell
- Customer analytics: LTV, cohort analysis, churn prediction
- Marketing attribution: which channels drive profitable customers
- Real-time dashboards: Revenue, conversion, traffic, inventory
Common use cases
Specialized solutions for different e-commerce models
D2C E-commerce
- Shopify/WooCommerce optimization
- Headless commerce architecture
- Subscription management
- Email/SMS marketing automation
- Customer loyalty programs
Marketplaces
- Multi-vendor platform architecture
- Seller onboarding and management
- Commission and payout systems
- Fraud prevention
- Dispute arbitration
B2B E-commerce
- Complex pricing (volume discounts, contracts)
- Quote management and approval
- Purchase order integration
- Multi-user accounts with permissions
- ERP system integration
Omnichannel retail
- Unified online/offline inventory
- Buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS)
- Ship from store for online orders
- Unified customer profiles
- POS system integration
Social commerce
- Instagram/Facebook shop integration
- Shoppable posts and stories
- Influencer management platforms
- User-generated content (UGC)
- Live commerce
Technology stack and architecture
Modern technologies for high-performance e-commerce
Frontend and platforms
- React, Next.js, Vue.js, Nuxt.js
- Progressive Web Apps
- Shopify Plus, Magento, WooCommerce, BigCommerce
- Headless CMS: Contentful, Sanity, Strapi, Prismic
Backend and databases
- Node.js, Python, Ruby on Rails, PHP (Laravel)
- PostgreSQL, MongoDB
- Redis for caching
- Microservices architecture
Search and personalization
- Elasticsearch, Algolia, Typesense, Meilisearch
- Recommendation systems
- ML for dynamic pricing
- A/B testing platforms
Payments and infrastructure
- Stripe, Adyen, PayPal, Square, Braintree
- AWS, GCP, Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare
- Kubernetes for orchestration
- CDN for global delivery
Analytics and monitoring
- Google Analytics, Segment, Mixpanel, Amplitude
- DataDog, New Relic for monitoring
- Grafana for metrics visualization
- Sentry for error tracking
How it works
1
Month 1: Assessment and quick wins
4 weeksPerformance audit and optimization opportunities. Conversion funnel analysis. Infrastructure review. Quick wins implementation (caching, image optimization). Monitoring and analytics setup.
2
Month 2-3: Core optimization
8 weeksPage speed optimization. Search and discovery improvements. Checkout flow optimization. Payment processing improvements. A/B testing framework.
3
Month 4-6: Scaling and advanced features
12 weeksPersonalization and recommendations. Inventory and order management. Multi-channel integration. Peak traffic preparation. Team training and documentation.
Results you can expect
Performance improvements
- Page load times: from 5 seconds to <2 seconds (3x faster)
- Mobile load speed: from 8 seconds to <3 seconds (2.5x faster)
- Search results: from 2 seconds to <200ms (10x faster)
- 99.95%+ uptime during peak loads
- Handling 10-50x traffic spikes
Business impact
- 20-40% increase in conversion
- 30-50% reduction in abandoned carts
- 15-25% increase in average order value (AOV)
- 50-70% reduction in infrastructure costs
- 10-20% increase in customer satisfaction
Technical maturity
- Production-grade monitoring and alerting
- Automated scaling and deployment
- A/B testing for continuous optimization
- Real-time inventory across all channels
- Disaster recovery and backup systems
Who this is for
Pre-Seed/Seed stages
Building first version of e-commerce platform. D2C brand launching online store. Developing marketplace MVP.
Series A
Scaling to 1M+ monthly visitors. Adding personalization and recommendations. Multi-channel expansion.
Series A+ and above
International expansion. Omnichannel commerce. Enterprise e-commerce platforms.
Peak season preparation
Black Friday, holiday sales, new product launches. Need expertise to prepare infrastructure for 10-50x traffic increase.
Pricing
Suitable packages for E-commerce companies
Contract Length:
Growth CTO
Most popular$6,000per month
10 hours per week, 40 hours per month
Post-Seed to Series A startups actively building product and team (3 to 10 engineers).
- Weekly call with founders (1 hour)
- Bi-weekly sprint reviews with the team
- Active hiring involvement: sourcing, interviews, offers, onboarding
- Product architecture and technical roadmap ownership
- Emergency availability for critical situations
- Slack support (24-hour response time)
What's included:
- Quarterly OKRs for the technical team
- Hiring playbook for first 5-10 engineers
- Architecture Decision Records (ADR)
Outcome:A solid technical foundation and team ready for rapid growth and product scaling without chaos.
Contract term:from 3 months
Scale CTO
$12,000per month
≈3 days per week, 80 hours per month
Series A+ startups with 15-20+ engineers preparing for the next funding round.
- Everything from Growth CTO package
- Participation in executive meetings and investor discussions
- Building engineering management team (leads, engineering managers)
- Due diligence support for fundraising
- Organizational design: team structure, processes, rituals
- Technical debt strategy and refactoring roadmap
- Vendor and partner negotiations (AWS, third-party services, contractors)
What's included:
- Engineering handbook and team culture code
- Leveling and compensation framework
- Engineering metrics dashboards (DORA, velocity, code quality, etc.)
- Incident management and on-call rotation
Outcome:A mature engineering organization with clear processes, metrics, and a culture of product ownership.
Contract term:from 6 months
Related services
Frequently asked questions
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Start with a free 30-minute consultation. We'll discuss your goals, challenges, and determine how I can help.
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