Your ecommerce site can’t outrun a weak foundation
Most ecommerce problems have nothing to do with the platform. Strategy problems typically show up after launch, when dealers can’t find products, customers start abandoning carts, or sales teams continue to work around the site instead of through it.
Across industry verticals, we see the same problem: the ecommerce buying experience wasn’t designed from the customer backward. It was designed from the tech stack forward. No work was done to align stakeholders on what success looks like or which audiences matter most. No one has determined how the system should behave when a distributor in one region has different needs from a direct buyer in another.
Getting it right requires deep insight into how your different customers buy and a technical architecture that can deliver that experience across all channels.
When Ntara leads your ecommerce strategy and architecture, you get a clear, data-driven roadmap and a connected system design built to execute it.
What we do
Customer and stakeholder discovery: We interview buyers, dealers, distributors, and internal teams to surface what is and isn’t working, and what customers need from a digital experience. This is structured research that turns real buying behavior into actionable insight.
User stories and requirements definition: Discovery findings become documented user stories and prioritized requirements. We align stakeholders before anyone makes any architectural decisions. That way, the build reflects shared business goals.
Current-state assessment: We audit your existing ecommerce environment, integrations, and data flows. We identify gaps between what your platform can do and what your customers and channels require, including how product data from PIM and DAM feeds into the buying experience.
Technical architecture design: We design a fully connected ecosystem, helping with everything from platform selection criteria to channel logic. We build architecture that accounts for your current stack and your growth trajectory.
Channel and persona mapping: B2B, B2C, dealer portals, distributor feeds, direct-to-consumer. Each channel has different data needs and buying behaviors. We map the right experience to the right audience and specify how the system handles them.
Omnichannel content and data strategy: Ecommerce doesn’t work without complete, accurate product content. We connect your product data and asset strategy to the buying experience by identifying what data needs to exist in PIM, what assets need to be governed in DAM, and how both should feed the front end.
Roadmap and MVP definition: We close with a phased roadmap and a clear MVP scope. You can go live with confidence, then iterate as adoption grows and channel requirements evolve.
What you get
- Customer and buyer research summary with key findings and implications
- Prioritized user stories and requirements, aligned across stakeholders
- Current-state ecommerce and integration assessment
- Technical architecture diagram and integration specifications
- Channel and persona map with content and data requirements per audience
- MVP scope definition and phased implementation roadmap
These outputs give your team (and any implementation partner) a shared, objective baseline. With our framework, you start with a tested blueprint.
What this looks like in practice
Hyster-Yale Materials Handling, Inc. is a global forklift manufacturer operating two brands across a dealer network of more than 350 branches in North America. Dealers were logging in and out of separate portals to build carts and place orders across brands and locations. Before any platform work began, they needed a clear picture of what dealers and customers needed from the digital buying experience.
We conducted research across customers, dealers, and internal stakeholders to establish a requirements baseline. Those insights drove platform selection, integration architecture, and the design of a unified ecommerce experience. The platform now supports more than 1,400 dealer locations and has delivered a 20% year-over-year increase in online sales.
Royal Brass & Hose, a distributor of hydraulic and pneumatic products, faced growing demand for ecommerce but had no validated picture of how their customers wanted to buy. Before any architecture decisions were made, Ntara conducted research to understand purchasing behaviors and identify what would drive adoption of a self-serve model.
That research informed platform selection, PIM implementation, and a phased rollout to a pilot segment of customers. On launch, sales increased 33% month over month, and order entry efficiency improved by 83%. The platform became the preferred channel for reorders, which was a direct result of designing the experience around how customers actually purchase.
When ecommerce strategy & architecture makes sense
- You’re planning an ecommerce build or replatform and don’t yet have a validated requirements baseline or architecture design
- Your current site launched without formal user research, and dealer or customer feedback suggests the experience isn’t working
- Stakeholders across IT, marketing, sales, and product have different definitions of what ecommerce should do, and those gaps are slowing decisions
- Your platform can technically support your channels, but the integration between ERP, PIM, and the front end is fragile, undocumented, or held together by custom workarounds
- You’re adding a new channel (B2B dealer portal, DTC, distributor feed) and need architecture that accounts for multiple audiences without rebuilding from scratch
- Your PDPs are often incomplete, with missing images or content that’s out of date
Ready to build ecommerce on solid ground?
Tell us where you’re starting. We’ll scope a strategy engagement that fits. Most discovery calls run 30 minutes.
