A PE fund had acquired four eCommerce brands running on four different platforms. The 3-year exit thesis required one unified technology foundation.
A private equity-backed consumer goods group had made four acquisitions over 18 months — each bringing its own eCommerce platform (Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, custom PHP), its own ERP integration, and its own engineering team. The PE fund’s exit thesis required a unified technology foundation to demonstrate operational leverage.
Our fractional CTO’s inventory of each platform’s technical assets and liabilities supported a Shopify Plus consolidation strategy: migrate all four brands to Shopify Plus with shared backend, unified customer data platform, and common ERP integration. The recommendation eliminated $2.1M in annual redundant technology costs while preserving distinct brand identities.
The migration was sequenced by revenue risk — smallest brand first, largest last. Each followed an 8-week playbook covering data migration, integration testing, staff training, and a 2-week parallel run. We also built a custom headless storefront for the flagship brand using Next.js and Shopify’s Storefront API, replacing the underperforming Magento site.
All four brands were on Shopify Plus within 12 months. Annual technology costs dropped by $2.1M. The headless storefront delivered a 28% conversion rate improvement on the flagship brand. The group’s technology infrastructure reduced from 14 systems to 6.
Technology consolidation after acquisition is one of the highest-ROI activities a PE-backed business can undertake — but only if led by someone who has done it before.
Book a free call with a CTO who has 27 years of hands-on experience — and a track record of measurable outcomes.