What if your e-commerce platform is actually holding you back? Mikel Lindsaar, founder of StoreConnect and author of the forthcoming book Customer Commerce, explains why most platforms end up controlling your business rather than serving it. We explore how unified data systems enable smarter automation, faster page loads, and the kind of personalised customer experiences that build lifetime value.Mikel shares practical examples including a museum using AI to identify VIP visitors, automated refunds that create customer delight, and how one company consolidated 76 websites across 26 brands onto a single platform. We also discuss why his strongest advice has nothing to do with technology: put a phone number on your website and actually answer it.Key Point Timestamps:09:23 - The Tail Wagging the Dog Problem15:21 - AI for Customer Identification22:04 - The Real Cost of Platform Fragmentation26:41 - Creating Moments of Joy39:34 - Why Phone Support Still MattersThe Tail Wagging the Dog Problem (09:23)Mikel had three clients approach him in a single year asking to build e-commerce platforms that integrate with Salesforce. His initial reaction was to redirect them to Shopify or BigCommerce. Their response changed his thinking entirely."Those platforms are all fantastic for the front end," Mikel explains. "They do an incredible job at helping someone buy a widget. What they all genuinely suck at is if I want to access the data in my way, or I want to build automations the way I want to build those automations."The result is what Mikel calls "the tail wagging the dog" - your e-commerce platform dictates how you access data, how you report, how you contact customers, and how the checkout flow works. Instead of your business processes driving the technology, the technology drives your business.The Hidden Cost of Plugin Sprawl (22:04)As e-commerce businesses grow, they accumulate SaaS tools. Shopify, then Klaviyo, then reviews, then loyalty, then subscriptions. Before long, you've got 20 different products running your business."You now have your data in Shopify, in Klaviyo, and maybe six or seven plugins on random Amazon servers around the world," Mikel points out. "That data is becoming a bit of a challenge from a security point of view."Each plugin charges monthly, holds a piece of your customer data, and potentially slows down your site. The clever automations that actually transform customer relationships become nearly impossible to build when your data is fragmented across dozens of systems.Creating Moments of Joy (26:41)When your data lives in one place, you can start treating customers as humans rather than transactions. Mikel shares a common scenario: you buy something, then days later receive an email offering 10% off the thing you just bought.Now flip it. A customer buys something 24 hours before a 10% sale launches. Instead of sending them the promotional email, your system automatically refunds 10% to their credit card and explains what you've done."If I got an email like that, I'd be like, are you kidding?" Mikel says. "These moments of joy, treat them as humans. Don't treat them as just a transaction."AI That Actually Works (15:21)Mikel suggests using AI for pre-processing rather than real-time calculation. An education provider using StoreConnect runs algorithms when a student completes a course, determining the next best course based on their entire history. By the time the congratulations email goes out, it already contains a personalised recommendation."Instead of having to send them to a site which is trying to calculate the next best course for that student, you've already done all that work in the back end," Mikel explains. "That page loads within a tenth of a second or less." The key is...

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