Platform Agnosticism: What It Means To Us And Why It Matters
"It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail."
A lot of agencies operate according to Maslow’s Hammer. Their expertise is tied to one platform or one tool, so every brand — no matter its size, industry, or complexity — ends up with the same recommendation.
That’s not strategy.
We take a different approach. Platform agnosticism means we choose the tool based on the business, not the other way around.
As Brian Benic, our VP of Client Growth, puts it: “True digital commerce success starts with strategy…defining business objectives, understanding customers, and mapping the buyer journey.”
Strategy Before Technology
We don’t begin conversations with Shopify, Adobe, BigCommerce, or anything that sounds like a platform recommendation. We begin with the business.
Because at the end of the day, technology doesn’t decide whether your brand grows. Strategy does.
Or in Brian’s words: “A platform-agnostic agency places strategy first, ensuring that the selected platform is a tool to achieve the vision, not the driver of it.”
When the vision leads and the technology follows, brands avoid the most common (and costly) missteps in replatforming and digital transformation: buying too big, buying too small, or buying something that will bottleneck them in 18 months.
Avoiding Technology Bias
Bias is the root of most failed platform decisions. Most agencies are built around one ecosystem because it makes operations simpler for them, not necessarily better for you.
“Platform-specific agencies often approach problems with a predetermined solution. While this may simplify their sales pitch, it creates a bias that doesn’t necessarily align with a brand’s unique goals or growth trajectory,” says Brian.
We refuse to operate that way.
Because we’re platform-agnostic, we’re not incentivized to push one technology over another. We’re free to dive into your business, understand your model, and recommend solutions sized to your budget, your complexity, and your growth plans. We don’t believe every merchant belongs on Adobe Commerce. We don’t believe every merchant belongs on Shopify. We don’t believe any platform is right for everyone.
And every recommendation we make is built around what you actually need, not what we’re used to selling.
Access to Broader Expertise
Being platform-agnostic means we work inside multiple ecosystems every single day: Adobe Commerce, Shopify, BigCommerce, Shopware, and more. That cross-platform experience gives us uncommon perspective.
“This breadth of experience provides richer insights into best practices, integrations, and scalability,” says Brian. “Brands gain a partner with proven knowledge across industries and platforms, ensuring recommendations are rooted in real-world performance rather than theoretical fit.”
Because we understand how platforms behave in the wild, we can guide merchants toward what will actually work, not what sounds good in a pitch meeting.
Reducing Risk, Increasing ROI
Selecting the wrong platform is expensive. Not just financially, but operationally, too.
“Selecting the wrong platform can lead to significant operational inefficiencies, spiraling costs, and even lost revenue,” Brian says.
We’ve seen merchants held back by:
- Platforms that couldn’t scale with their growth
- Overbuilt systems that strangled agility
- Tools that created tech debt instead of solving it
Partnership Over Platform
At the core of our approach is a simple belief: our incentives should align with your success—not with the platforms we work with.
“We don’t chase commissions, tiers, or badges from our partners,” says Brian. “We focus on delivering what actually moves your business forward.”
Our recommendations don’t serve our partners. They serve you.
That’s why our clients stay with us. Not because they’re locked into a platform, but because they’re partnered with a team whose only bias is toward the outcome.
What Platform Agnosticism Looks Like at Above The Fray
- We lead with discovery and strategy, not technology selection
- We evaluate platforms through the lens of your business case
- We align platform capabilities with your future growth, not just your present needs
- We base recommendations on experience across industries, platforms, and scale
And above all, it means we tell you the truth, even when it’s not an easy thing to say. Because when we say we put merchants first, platform agnosticism is how we prove it.
