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03Commerce & Systems2026

Brew Society

A custom commerce platform wired into real operations.

In the story, this one is a business. Same method, different material.

Brew Society — The Team
Brew Society — The TeamFig. 01 — Commerce as a connected system

01 — The Challenge

Off-the-shelf commerce hides the plumbing — and the plumbing is where businesses actually break. Brew Society needed a storefront that stayed in lockstep with stock, customer records and the books, so the team could trust one source of truth instead of reconciling four.

02 — The Approach

  1. 01

    Mapped the full data flow first: Website → Unleashed (stock) → Xero (accounting), with Prospect as CRM.

  2. 02

    Chose a standalone custom build over a template so the integrations could be first-class, not bolted on.

  3. 03

    Structured the work as a phased roadmap — 12 phases with an approval gate between each — to de-risk a large system.

  4. 04

    Treated inventory, orders and finance as one continuous system rather than separate apps.

Retail Operations
Retail OperationsFig. 02 — Digital systems meet the shop floor
Brand Activation
Brand ActivationFig. 03 — Commerce continues beyond the checkout

03 — The Outcome

  • Phase 0 foundations delivered; a clear 12-phase path to launch agreed.

  • A single source of truth across storefront, stock and accounting — no manual re-keying.

  • An architecture the business owns outright, rather than renting from a platform.

04 — Lessons Learned

Commerce is an operations problem wearing a website's clothes.

Phasing with approval gates keeps a big build honest and fundable.

The hard part isn't the checkout — it's keeping every system agreeing with every other.

Skills demonstrated

Systems architectureAPI integrationCommercial strategyRoadmappingStakeholder managementFull-stack build

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