Workflow Engine for Ecommerce Exceptions
Sara Du, co-founder and CEO of Alloy, on building the Switzerland of ecommerce software
This is why Alloy sits above app marketplaces instead of competing with them. Native integrations are best for the handful of connections every merchant needs, but the real operational mess starts when a brand wants rules like route VIP orders one way, hold risky orders another way, or sync custom fields across several tools. That requires a configurable logic layer, not just a prebuilt connector.
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Universal APIs and native connectors usually cover common read and write actions, but they miss custom fields, platform specific endpoints, and merchant specific branching logic. That is the least common denominator problem. The deeper the workflow, the more teams need an engine that can add rules and exceptions on top.
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In ecommerce, that long tail is unusually large because the stack is fragmented. A merchant may use Shopify or WooCommerce as a backbone, then layer on separate tools for shipping, inventory, support, subscriptions, and marketing. The integration job is not one connection, it is coordinating many systems around one merchant specific operating model.
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This is also why native and middleware products coexist. Horizontal tools like Zapier can handle broad automation across thousands of apps, while vertical products like Alloy go deeper on workflows such as bulk product changes or delivery operations. SaaS vendors use native integrations to reduce setup friction, then rely on workflow layers for edge cases and power users.
The category is moving toward a split model. More software companies will own their most important native integrations, because buyers now expect them out of the box. That raises the value of products like Alloy, which can absorb the growing backlog of exceptions, custom logic, and cross app workflows that standard integrations still cannot handle.