Glossier Learned an Unneccessarily Hard Lesson in Technology Decisionmaking
Glossier Learned an Unneccessarily Hard Lesson in Technology Decisionmaking
Many Technology Organizations Like to Say "We are Different". It's a source of pride for the business because it means they "aren't limited" by what the industry is producing. You know, the industry that is investing billions in each little corner of eCommerce, but a $1M tech budget will somehow make up for that.
The cause is most certainly a combination of ignorance and hubris.
Often, building your own software comes with the territory with scale. There are no companies building "off the shelf" eCommerce platform for companies Walmart-sized because there are no other companies Walmart's size. But even companies Walmart's size can't afford to build the entire stack themselves.
Almost certainly this does not apply to your startup. It's with this lens that I analyze Glossier who recently laid off 80+ members of its technology team because it built a lot of its platform in-house rather than using off-the-shelf components.
If you are just a retailer or a brand, chances are someone is building something close to what you need. If your business model is so complex that it demands custom software, think carefully, and then evaluate even more carefully.
Choosing the wrong vendor can set you back several years. One rule I always try and follow -- for your mainstream use case, you want to see how your vendor is obviously motivated to improve it continually.
If as a retailer you don't "look like" the other customers on the platform now, chances are you won't look like them later on either.
Which ironically, might make you think you need to build your own software again.... when really, you just didn't find the right partners to be honest with you during the sales proess.
