Automation for ecommerce and multi-channel retail

1. Multi-channel inventory sync — $15,000 to $28,000

The defining problem of this sector. You sell the same SKU on Shopify, Amazon and a marketplace. Stock is one pool. Each channel believes it owns it. Oversell on Amazon and you take a metrics hit that costs more than the order.

What we build: a single source of truth for available quantity, with allocation rules per channel, buffer stock to absorb sync latency, and near-real-time updates on every movement rather than periodic pushes.

Why it is the most expensive build here: it is genuine two-way sync with race conditions. Two orders landing on two channels in the same second is a real event, not a hypothetical. Conflict rules, idempotency and reconciliation are the majority of the work — see why automations break.

2. Order routing and fulfilment — $10,000 to $18,000

Orders routed to the right fulfilment location by stock position, destination and service level; split shipments handled where a single location cannot fulfil; and dropship lines sent to the supplier automatically with tracking flowed back to the customer.

3. Supplier purchase orders and reordering — $10,000 to $16,000

Reorder points calculated from velocity and lead time rather than from a fixed threshold, draft POs generated for approval, supplier confirmations parsed back in, and expected-arrival dates updated so the reorder logic stays honest.

Kept deliberately conservative: POs are drafted, never sent automatically. This is a build where an error spends real money.

4. Returns and RMA handling — $9,000 to $14,000

Return requests validated against order history and policy, labels issued, the customer kept informed, inbound receipt matched to the RMA, and refund or replacement triggered on inspection outcome. Restocking decisions routed by condition.

Frequently the worst manual process in a growing DTC business, and the one customers judge hardest.

5. True margin reporting — $10,000 to $16,000

Revenue joined with landed product cost, channel fees, payment processing, shipping actuals, discounting and returns — per SKU, per channel and per order.

What businesses discover: which SKUs and which channels lose money once fees, shipping and returns are counted. Marketplace fees plus a 20% return rate can turn a healthy-looking gross margin negative, and most sellers do not have this view.

6. Customer service order context — $8,000 to $13,000

Every support ticket enriched on arrival with order history, shipment tracking, return status and lifetime value, so the agent starts with the answer instead of four browser tabs. See customer support automation.

7. Review and post-purchase sequences — $8,000 to $11,000

Review requests timed to actual delivery rather than to order date, suppressed for orders with an open support ticket or return, and differentiated by product category.

What we will not build: review gating, or generated review content. See what we refuse to automate.

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The systems you probably have

Two things to flag on cost. Amazon's SP-API has rate limits and an approval process that adds real time to a build. And 3PL integration is the most common place a quote moves, because "our 3PL has an API" and "our 3PL emails a CSV twice a day" are very different projects. Establish which before anyone quotes.

What we would do first

Margin reporting, then returns. Margin reporting is comparatively cheap, carries no operational risk, and frequently changes what the business does next — there is little point automating fulfilment for a channel you should exit. Returns second, because it is usually the worst manual process and the most visible to customers.

Inventory sync is the biggest prize and we would generally not make it the first build. It is the most expensive, the most technically demanding, and the one most likely to be better solved by buying software.