613 Originals’ Next‑Gen Tech Stack: Unified Shopify Plus with Real‑Time PACE ERP Integration
613 Originals
613 Originals’ Next‑Gen Tech Stack: Unified Shopify Plus with Real‑Time PACE ERP Integration
Introduction
613 Originals, a leading custom apparel provider, was operating on a fragmented tech stack—Surreal CMS for product presentation, DSF for storefront delivery, and PACE ERP as its system of record. As demand for both Direct‑to‑Film (DTF) and screen‑printed products grew, the legacy infrastructure could not keep pace: storefront performance lagged, B2B workflows were rigid, and order fulfillment across Shopify and PACE was error‑prone.
To overcome these limitations, 613 Originals embarked on a strategic transformation: migrating its entire eCommerce presence to Shopify Plus, leveraging all of Shopify’s native B2B capabilities, and building a Node‑based middleware layer to integrate in real time with PACE ERP. Concurrently, the team planned and executed a complex data migration—transferring thousands of customer profiles, historical orders, and production art assets—without interrupting daily operations.
This case study examines the technical and operational rationale behind 613 Originals’ next‑generation tech stack. We’ll explore the specific challenges of legacy platform constraints, the step‑by‑step solution architecture—highlighting Shopify integration, PACE ERP synchronization, and data migration strategies—and the phased implementation approach. Through conservative, data‑driven results and best‑practice takeaways, we illustrate how a carefully orchestrated, API‑first migration can deliver significant gains in performance, flexibility, and long‑term scalability.
.png)
Challenges
As 613 Originals prepared to scale its custom‑apparel business, its disparate technology stack exposed critical limitations across performance, flexibility, and operational reliability. The combination of Surreal CMS, DSF storefront delivery, and PACE ERP as separate systems created silos that hampered both customer experience and internal workflows. Below, we examine the primary pain points that drove the decision to migrate to Shopify Plus, implement native B2B features, and build a Node‑based ERP integration layer.
Platform Fragmentation and Maintenance Overhead
- Multiple Systems, Multiple Admins
Managing product catalogs in Surreal CMS while coordinating storefront templates in DSF required duplicate updates and manual reconciliation. Each change to pricing, SKU data, or artwork needed to be applied in both systems, adding roughly 10 hours of administrative work per week. - Slow Release Cycles
Custom DSF templates and tightly coupled CMS logic meant even minor UI tweaks triggered full regression tests and multi‑system deployments, extending release cycles by up to three weeks and delaying feature rollouts.
Rigid B2B Workflows
- Inflexible Account Management
Wholesale customers lacked self‑service features such as tax‑exempt checkout, custom shipping accounts, and purchase‑order upload. All B2B orders required manual back‑end approvals, resulting in a 25% increase in order‑processing time and frequent order-entry errors. - Limited Pricing Flexibility
Bulk‑pricing tiers and volume discounts were hard‑coded into the CMS, making promotional campaigns laborious to configure and test, often taking two weeks to launch new B2B pricing models.
Error‑Prone ERP Synchronization
- Manual Order Reconciliation
Without real‑time integration, orders placed on DSF had to be manually exported and re‑entered into PACE ERP, consuming an estimated 15 hours per week and introducing data‑entry errors in approximately 4% of transactions. - Latency and Data Drift
Overnight batch imports led to delays in inventory and order‑status updates, resulting in occasional stock‑outs or oversells that impacted customer satisfaction.
Data Fragmentation and Integrity Risks
- Disparate Data Stores
Customer profiles, order histories, and art‑file metadata lived in separate silos, which required periodic manual exports to generate consolidated reports. This process, taking 8 hours monthly, often yielded inconsistent analytics with up to 6% variance. - Audit and Compliance Challenges
The lack of a single source of truth made it difficult to trace order lifecycles end‑to‑end, complicating compliance audits and hindering accurate forecasting.
Scalability and Performance Constraints
- High Page‑Load Times
Peak‑traffic page loads averaged 4 seconds—above the 3‑second benchmark for optimized eCommerce sites—contributing to a 17% bounce rate on promotional pages. - Infrastructure Overhead
Scaling DSF servers to handle seasonal spikes required manual provisioning, leading to 20% over‑provisioning costs and occasional performance bottlenecks during order surges.
These intertwined challenges underscored the need for a unified, API‑driven platform—one that would centralize storefront and catalog management, automate B2B workflows, and enable real‑time synchronization with PACE ERP—paving the way for the subsequent migration and integration phases.
Solution
To remedy the limitations of its legacy tech stack, 613 Originals adopted a unified, API‑first architecture centered on Shopify Plus, a Node‑based middleware layer for PACE ERP integration, and a robust data‑migration framework. This approach delivered a scalable storefront, real‑time order orchestration, and seamless data continuity.
1. Shopify Plus Integration
613 Originals replatformed from Surreal CMS/DSF to Shopify Plus, leveraging its native B2B feature set for wholesale pricing, tax‑exempt checkout, and purchase‑order upload. All product catalogs and SKU variants were migrated into Shopify’s centralized catalog system, eliminating duplicate updates. A storefront—built with Shopify’s cutting edge framework—was deployed behind a global CDN, reducing asset‑delivery latency and enabling sub‑3‑second page‑loads. The admin UX was consolidated: merchandisers now manage collections, pricing tiers, and promotional campaigns directly in Shopify without switching between multiple systems.
Key elements:
- Catalog Consolidation: All 6,000+ SKUs imported via Shopify’s bulk‑API; metadata, tags, and SEO fields preserved.
- B2B Workflows: Native tax‑exempt registration flows and customer‑managed billing accounts enabled self‑service, cutting manual approvals by 80%.
2. PACE ERP Integration via Node Middleware
A custom Node.js microservice—hosted in AWS Lambda—became the conduit between Shopify Plus and PACE ERP. This middleware listened for Shopify webhooks (orders/create, orders/updated) and invoked PACE’s REST APIs to:
- Create Jobs: New orders automatically generated corresponding production jobs in PACE, with SKUs, quantities, and custom art‑file references.
- Sync Inventory & Pricing: PACE stock‑level changes pushed back to Shopify, ensuring storefront availability matched actual capacity.
- Manage Invoicing: Order payments recorded in PACE, and tax‑exempt transactions flagged for finance.
The middleware’s event‑driven design included retry queues (via AWS SQS) and dead‑letter handling to guarantee at‑least‑once delivery. Error rates have since dropped below 0.2%, with typical sync latency under 5 seconds—far outperforming the prior overnight batch window.
3. Data Migration & Continuous Synchronization
Migrating thousands of customer profiles, 7,500+ historical orders, and 10,000 artwork file references demanded a zero‑downtime strategy. The team executed a two‑stage ETL process:
- Bulk Migration: Python‑driven ETL scripts exported data from Surreal and the DSF database, transformed fields to Shopify and PACE schemas, and loaded records during low‑traffic hours. Automated validation compared record counts and sample checksums, achieving 100% data fidelity.
- Delta‑Sync Cutover: Following the bulk load, incremental sync jobs ran every five minutes to capture new or updated records until DNS switchover. This ensured no orders or profile updates were missed.
Post‑go‑live, the Node middleware continues to orchestrate delta synchronizations—propagating customer‑profile changes and order‑status updates in real time between Shopify Plus and PACE—maintaining a single source of truth across systems.
Key Components
The effectiveness of 613 Originals’ tech‑stack modernization stems from four foundational building blocks—each engineered for reliability, performance, and extensibility. Together, these components eliminate silos, automate core workflows, and deliver a consistent, real‑time view of products, orders, and customer data.
1. Shopify Plus Core Platform
- Centralized Catalog & B2B Feature Set
All 4,000+ SKUs, variants, and metadata now live in Shopify’s native catalog. Shopify Plus’s wholesale tools enable tax‑exempt registration, purchase‑order uploads, and volume‑discount tiers without custom code. - API Endpoints & Webhooks
Shopify’s REST and GraphQL APIs serve as the primary integration surface. Webhooks (orders/create, orders/updated, customers/update) drive real‑time event streams, eliminating polling and ensuring low‑latency data exchange. - Apps & Extensions
Off‑the‑shelf apps handle shipping‑label generation, fraud detection, and analytics, minimizing bespoke development and accelerating time to market.
2. Node.js Middleware Layer
- Event‑Driven Microservice
Deployed in AWS Lambda, the Node.js service subscribes to Shopify webhooks and invokes PACE ERP APIs. Its modular architecture (API Gateway, business‑logic handlers, retry queues, dead‑letter processing) guarantees at‑least‑once delivery and robust error recovery. - Message Queuing & Resilience
AWS SQS buffers high‑volume events, decoupling peak storefront traffic from backend processing. Failed messages land in a dead‑letter queue with automated alerts, enabling rapid investigation and replay. - Logging, Monitoring & Alerting
Integrated with Datadog, the middleware emits detailed traces and custom metrics (processing latency, error rates) to maintain sub‑5‑second sync SLAs.
3. PACE ERP – System of Record
- Job Creation & Order Fulfillment
New Shopify orders automatically spawn production jobs in PACE, complete with SKU details, custom art‑file references, and customer instructions—eliminating manual order entry. - Inventory & Pricing Synchronization
Real‑time stock‑level and price updates flow from PACE back to Shopify, ensuring storefront availability mirrors actual capacity and reducing oversells. - Financial Reconciliation
Payment statuses, tax‑exempt flags, and invoice records in PACE stay in lockstep with Shopify transactions, streamlining accounting and audit trails.
4. Data Migration & Continuous Sync Framework
- Bulk ETL Engine
Python‑driven scripts bulk‑exported customer profiles, 7,500+ historical orders, and 10,000 art references from Surreal/DSF and loaded them into Shopify and PACE. Automated checksum and record‑count validations ensured 100% data fidelity. - Delta‑Sync Orchestrator
Upon initial load completion, incremental jobs run every five minutes: capturing new or updated records in Shopify and PACE, transforming schemas, and applying changes via the Node middleware. This guarantees zero data loss and uninterrupted operations post‑go‑live.
Implementation
613 Originals executed its tech‑stack modernization in three tightly coordinated phases, each combining agile sprints, rigorous QA, and stakeholder checkpoints to minimize risk and deliver incremental value.
Discovery, Planning & Shopify Plus Launch
Discovery & Requirements Definition
A cross‑functional kickoff workshop mapped existing Surreal CMS/DSF workflows, PACE ERP processes, and operational pain points. The team documented:
- Product catalog structure and variant rules (4,000 SKUs)
- B2B requirements (tax‑exempt checkout, custom shipping, PO uploads)
- Data‑migration scope (customer profiles, 7,500+ orders, 10,000 art‑file references)
- Success criteria (page‑load <3 s; B2B self‑service adoption >75%; zero data loss)
Shopify Plus Configuration & Catalog Migration
- Store Setup: Configured Shopify Plus settings—payments, taxes, shipping rates, and wholesale registration flows—leveraging native B2B features to eliminate custom code.
- Catalog Import: Developed Python scripts to bulk‑load all SKUs via Shopify’s Admin API, preserving metadata, tags, image associations, and SEO fields. Validation scripts compared record counts and sample data hashes, confirming 100% fidelity.
Soft‑Launch & Training
A controlled soft‑launch directed 20% of traffic to the new storefront. Real‑time monitoring (Datadog) tracked performance, B2B self‑service adoption, and error rates. Concurrently, training sessions equipped merchandisers and support staff to manage Shopify’s admin interface, wholesale portal, and basic troubleshooting.
ERP Integration & Data Migration Cutover
Node.js Middleware Development
- Architecture & Infrastructure: Deployed a Node.js microservice on AWS Lambda behind API Gateway. Integrated AWS SQS for retry queues and configured dead‑letter queues with automated alerting.
- Webhook Handlers: Implemented listeners for orders/create, orders/updated, and customers/update. Each event triggered corresponding PACE ERP REST calls—createJob, updateJob, syncCustomer.
- Error Recovery: Developed retry logic to replay failed events up to three times, with errors surfaced in Datadog dashboards.
Bulk & Delta Data Migration
- Bulk ETL: During a low‑traffic window, Python‑driven ETL scripts extracted customer, order, and art‑file data from legacy systems. Transformation layers normalized fields to Shopify and PACE schemas before loading.
- Validation: Automated checksums and record‑count comparisons ensured 100% match between source and target.
- Delta Synchronization: Post‑bulk, delta‑sync jobs ran every five minutes. Incremental scripts captured newly created or updated records (orders, customers, art‑files) and applied them through the middleware, ensuring no data drift.
Final QA, Go‑Live & Hypercare
Comprehensive Testing
- End‑to‑End UAT: Stakeholders executed scripted test cases covering: B2B registration, bulk‑order checkout, tax‑exempt flows, order splits, and ERP job creation.
- Performance Benchmarks: Load‑testing against concurrent user scenarios validated sub‑3‑second page loads and middleware processing latency under 5 seconds.
- Security & Compliance: Penetration scans and code reviews ensured secure handling of customer data and compliance with internal audit requirements.
Full Go‑Live & Hypercare
- DNS Switchover: Cutover to the new Shopify Plus domain during a scheduled maintenance window with zero downtime.
- 24×7 Support: A two‑day hypercare period staffed by development and operations teams resolved any post‑launch issues—most within minutes due to pre‑configured alerting.
- Post‑Mortem & Optimization: A retrospective captured lessons learned, fine‑tuned retry thresholds, and optimized Lambda concurrency settings to support sustained growth.
By structuring work into these three phases—each with clear deliverables, testing gates, and feedback loops—613 Originals achieved a seamless transition to a modern, scalable platform while safeguarding business continuity and data integrity.
Results
613 Originals’ migration to Shopify Plus, paired with real‑time PACE ERP integration and a rigorous data‑migration framework, delivered substantial and measurable improvements across customer experience, operational efficiency, and data integrity. Below are conservative estimates based on industry benchmarks, system telemetry, and stakeholder feedback.
Enhanced Customer Experience
- Faster Page Loads
After deploying the storefront behind a global CDN, average page‑load times fell from roughly 4 seconds to 2 seconds (a 50% reduction), moving well under the 3‑second eCommerce benchmark. As a result, promotional‑page bounce rates declined by 20%, driving more engaged browsing sessions. - Higher Conversion Rates
The consolidation of wholesale and retail checkouts, along with self‑service B2B capabilities, produced a 10% uplift in overall conversion rates. Notably, tax‑exempt and volume‑discount orders—previously hampered by manual approvals—now convert at rates matching retail flows, expanding recurring revenue opportunities. - Streamlined Wholesale Adoption
Native B2B features enabled 80% of existing wholesale customers to complete registrations without support assistance. The time from wholesale registration to first bulk order shrank from an average of 3 days down to under 4 hours, accelerating revenue capture.
Significant Operational Efficiency Gains
- Reduced Administrative Overhead
Centralizing catalog management in Shopify eliminated duplicate updates across Surreal CMS and DSF, saving 10 hours per week of merchandiser effort (an 80% reduction). - Elimination of Manual ERP Entry
Automating order sync via the Node.js middleware cut manual PACE data‑entry time from 15 hours per week to under 3 hours per week. Error‑related rework dropped from approximately 4% of transactions to below 0.2%, improving order accuracy and reducing support escalations.
Robust ERP Synchronization
- Near‑Instant Data Sync
Moving from overnight batch imports to event‑driven webhooks, Shopify‑to‑PACE order and profile updates now complete in under 5 seconds. This real‑time link eliminated stock‑out risks and ensured that production and customer‑service teams always had current information. - Error‑Resilient Processing
The implementation of AWS SQS queues and dead‑letter handling lowered middleware processing errors to <0.1%, with automated alerts enabling rapid remediation. SLA compliance for sync latency (≤5 seconds) has consistently exceeded 99.9%.
Data Integrity & Reporting Improvements
- 100% Data Fidelity
Automated checksum validation during bulk migration coupled with continuous delta‑sync yielded zero data loss. Pre‑migration data‑variance issues of up to 6% (caused by manual exports) have been eliminated, providing a single source of truth. - Accelerated Reporting
Consolidated data flows removed the need for monthly manual exports (previously 8 hours per month), enabling on‑demand analytics. Finance and operations teams now run real‑time dashboards without waiting for stale or inconsistent CSV extracts.
Scalability & Business Agility
- Faster Feature Rollouts
Moving from three‑week release cycles to two‑day sprint deployments, new B2B pricing tiers and promotional campaigns can now be launched in under 48 hours, a significant acceleration compared to legacy processes. - Cost‑Effective Growth
Decommissioning Surreal CMS and DSF servers, combined with Shopify Plus’s managed infrastructure, has reduced hosting and maintenance costs by an estimated 30%, freeing budget for innovation and marketing.
These results demonstrate that 613 Originals not only resolved critical pain points but also unlocked new operational capabilities and growth pathways—all through a carefully executed, API‑first migration strategy.
Best Practices & Key Takeaways
- Centralize Your Catalog in Shopify Plus
Consolidate all SKUs, variants, and metadata into Shopify’s native catalog to eliminate duplication, reduce administrative load, and ensure a single source of truth for product data.
- Leverage Native B2B Features First
Use Shopify Plus’s built‑in wholesale tools (tax‑exempt checkout, purchase‑order uploads, volume discounts) before layering on custom solutions—accelerating time to value and minimizing maintenance overhead.
- Isolate Integration Logic in Middleware
Build a dedicated Node.js microservice for ERP synchronization—complete with webhook listeners, retry queues, and dead‑letter handling—to decouple core storefront operations from back‑office workflows and ensure reliable, at‑least‑once delivery.
- Design for Event‑Driven, Real‑Time Sync
Favor webhooks and message queues over batch imports to achieve sub‑5‑second data propagation between Shopify and your ERP—eliminating stale inventory data, avoiding stock‑outs, and improving customer trust.
- Adopt a Phased, Test‑Driven Rollout
Break your migration into discovery, soft‑launch, and hypercare phases—embedding performance benchmarks, UAT scripts, and real‑time monitoring (Datadog) at each gate to verify success criteria and mitigate risk.
- Automate Delta‑Sync for Ongoing Consistency
After the bulk cutover, implement five‑minute incremental ETL or delta‑jobs to capture new and updated records—guaranteeing zero data drift and preserving business continuity without maintenance windows.
- Embed Monitoring & Alerting from Day One
Instrument each integration point and critical workflow (webhooks, API latencies, job‑creation errors) with detailed metrics and automated alerts to detect anomalies early and maintain SLA compliance.
Conclusion
613 Originals’ transition to Shopify Plus, underpinned by a Node.js middleware integration with PACE ERP and a meticulous data‑migration strategy, demonstrates the transformative impact of a modern, API‑first architecture. By consolidating its catalog into Shopify, the company eliminated redundant maintenance tasks and empowered merchandisers with a unified admin interface. Native B2B features enabled wholesale customers to self‑serve complex workflows—tax‑exempt checkout, purchase‑order uploads, and volume discounts—cutting manual order‑processing time by over 80%.
The custom middleware layer ensured real‑time, event‑driven synchronization with PACE ERP, reducing data‑entry errors from 4% to below 0.2% and slashing manual reconciliation time by more than 90%. This approach replaced overnight batch imports with sub‑5‑second webhook‑driven updates, maintaining accurate inventory and pricing and virtually eliminating stock‑outs. Complementing these integrations, the bulk ETL and delta‑sync framework migrated thousands of customer records, orders, and art assets with 100% fidelity and zero downtime, preserving business continuity throughout the cutover.
Key performance gains include a 50% reduction in page‑load times, driving a 20% drop in bounce rates, and a 10% lift in overall conversion rates. Wholesale registration self‑service adoption jumped to 80%, and new site releases moved from three‑week cycles to two‑day sprints—a 90% acceleration in time‑to‑market. Together, these results generated substantial labor savings, improved data integrity, and paved the way for rapid feature rollouts.
613 Originals’ journey offers a clear blueprint for enterprises seeking to modernize legacy systems: adopt a centralized, cloud‑native commerce platform; isolate integration logic in resilient middleware; prioritize event‑driven data flows; and structure migrations in phased, test‑driven releases. This combination not only addresses immediate operational challenges but also establishes a flexible, scalable foundation for future growth—whether launching new product lines, expanding into new markets, or integrating next‑generation digital experiences.
We’re Listening
We’d love to hear from you, whether you have a partnership inquiry or just want to discuss ways to improve your online store.
Please reach out to our team at services@mlveda.com for general questions, or simply fill in the form to start the conversation. We're here to help bring your ecommerce vision to life.
