These Are The Good Old Days

The glory days of DTC may be over, but the Ecommerce ecosystem has never been better.

The maturing Shopify ecosystem enables small teams to make a significant impact with their apps. Hamish at Order Editing and Daniel at Flare are standout examples for me.

US vendors backed by PE and VC funds, such as Loop Returns, are investing in growing their market share in the UK and Europe and localising their offerings. This creates more choices than ever in many popular categories, such as WMS, ERP, Returns, and inventory planning.

The Canadian company that acquired Peoplevox bought a US-based ERP for $100M and has started selling it in the UK. Fulfil.io (also from Canada) has begun to grow its footprint here too.

Changes to the core systems brands are choosing creates new opportunities and threats for every vendor downstream.

New opportunities exist to build consolidation solutions with high growth potential. These solutions leverage the existing ecosystem without trying to change the core systems—see the Two Boxes below.

Then you’ve got what we’re doing at Nolo Apps - filling the gaps in workflows with tailored Airtable solutions. We’re helping Operators who have realised that back-office tech isn’t some perfect puzzle you can piece together.

Every brand needs custom workflows. Whether you do them in Excel/Gsheets or hack them into your ERP, PLM or PIM, you need control over your processes.

Airtable is the only way I've found so far that doesn't make you utterly reliant on someone writing code.

Every brand needs custom workflows. You need control over your processes.

Oliver Rhodes, Co-Founder

We're working on a brief to replace SAP with Airtable

This retailer's data and operations are not suited to a generic ERP, even with customisation. We hope to save others from these expensive, failed ERP projects with our alternative approach.

Airtable's leadership sees its future in these ERP-type use cases. We're experimenting with Airtable's new 100M record solution to manage larger data sets.

An advanced feature set in Enterprise software can feel like child's play in Airtable—for example, extending workflows into supplier portals.

Every day, I see reasons to grow confident that our vision for Airtable as the single red thread linking Product, Supply Chain, and Marketing Operations in Ecommerce and Retail is coming true.

Nolo Apps has gone from an idea to income to business and has now been recognised by Airtable as the Gold Services partner defining the playbook for building vertical solutions.

The App for the Returns Processing gap

Two Boxes is an extension of your 3PL/WMS workflow that pulls in your inbound RMAs to give you visibility on what is coming and then extends the functionality of your 3PL/WMS to reduce the processing time, speed up refunds and ensure SOPs are closely followed.

What I love about their solution is that it extends the existing ecosystem into a workflow. Return platforms like Swap, Loop, and ReturnGo have standardised the use of RMAs, making this possible.

Two Boxes is worth evaluating if your 3PL struggles with your returns backlog or your warehouse team needs to speed up. This will be a lifesaver post-peak for many teams and a competitive advantage for 3PLs that are quick to adopt it.

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Things I'm Into This Week

The future of the CTO is the COO

9 Ecommerce Startups to watch out for

Charlie Vickery on luxury brands

From CTO to COO, 2025’s Rising Stars and the State of Luxury

The future of the CTO is the COO.

A shout-out to Joe Simms on his promotion from CTO to COO at Passenger Clothing, his role in shaping Nolo Apps, and his continued partnership as a client and trusted advisor.

9 Ecommerce Tech Startups to watch out for in 2025

Particl got me hooked on their Exploding Trends newsletter—and I don’t even run an eCommerce brand! Once it's part of the workflow, this one is hard to turn off for merchandising teams and trendsetters.

This write-up from Charlie Vickery on luxury brands

The Co-Founder of about:blank, gives an insider's view on the state of luxury and new luxury.

What We Do at Nolo Apps

💬 I've used this process with Wild, Jaded London, Sofa Club and Rat & Boa to unstick their tech stacks and enable them to move forward with their back-office tech.

👋 We've become the go-to for designing workflows from product design to Ecommerce, launching them on your store. Read more about our solutions, team and framework.

I'm trying to visit as many clients as possible this month and start planning for the year ahead. If you're thinking about your budget and curious about what Nolo Apps and Airtable would look like, now is the time to start that conversation.

Thanks, Oliver
Co-Founder @ Nolo Apps