Retail & Ecommerce IT · Alberta & BC

IT built for retail operators — where a slow register is lost revenue

We run the IT environment for ecommerce brands, multi-location retailers, food & bev operators and franchise stores across Western Canada. POS, in-store Wi-Fi, Shopify, M365, firewalls, PCI — under one flat monthly agreement. Built by an MSP that has actually lived inside retail operations.

POS & Wi-Fi uptime
PCI scope reduced, not ignored
Peak-season ready

Book Your Free Retail IT Assessment

We review the stack retail operators actually depend on — network, POS, in-store Wi-Fi, Shopify / BigCommerce config, M365, backup — and give you an honest picture. No pitch, no pressure.

We respond within one business day. No spam, ever.

12 min
Avg. first-response on P1 tickets
2–4 wks
Typical new-store IT stand-up
POS · Wi-Fi · PCI
Handled in one monthly agreement
AB & BC retail
Calgary · Edmonton · Airdrie · Kelowna · Vancouver

We've run IT inside retail operations — not just for retail clients

Most MSPs treat every business the same. Retail isn't the same. Saturday is a business day. Black Friday is a live event. A frozen register isn't an IT ticket — it's a line of customers walking out. Our team has spent years inside retail environments like Lululemon, Tommy Guns Barbershop, BC Tree Fruits Cider, Dirty Diesel and Barrier Boss. We know what breaks at peak, and we know what the operations team actually needs from IT.

Five flavors of retail, one MSP that speaks the language

Retail isn't one business model. We work across the sub-verticals where IT actually matters to margin and experience.

Ecommerce & DTC brands

Shopify, BigCommerce, headless. Small distributed teams, M365 / Google Workspace, 3PL integrations, identity and device management, peak-season uptime. We run the IT backbone so ops and growth stop babysitting tech.

Multi-location brick & mortar

POS uptime, in-store Wi-Fi, firewalls, SD-WAN, cabling, new-store openings, hardware lifecycle, PCI scope. We standardize the store stack so every location runs the same way and the fixes are repeatable.

Omnichannel retailers

POS + ecom + ERP glue. Inventory sync across stores and online, loyalty systems, BOPIS and curbside, returns infrastructure. The integration layer is usually where things break — that's where we spend most of our time.

Food & bev / CPG with retail distribution

ERP (NetSuite, Business Central), EDI with retailers, production floor networking, distributor portals, warehouse IT. We speak fluent ERP and we speak fluent retail — most MSPs speak neither.

Franchise retail

Standardized store stack, franchisee onboarding, central security & policy, tenant-aware M365, predictable per-location cost. We work to your brand standard or build the standard with you — and make sure every franchisee can actually follow it.

Not sure where you fit?

If you sell something to a human — in a store, online, through a wholesaler, or all three — we've probably seen your setup. Book the free assessment and we'll tell you straight.

Three disciplines, tuned for retail reality

Same TechOps / SecOps / CloudOps model as the rest of our work — calibrated to how retail actually runs. One team, one monthly agreement.

TechOps for retail

Store & head-office operations

Day-to-day support for registers, back-office PCs, printers, scanners, network gear, and the head-office team. Standardized deployment so every new hire and every new store runs the same way.

  • POS-network monitoring with alerting before a register drops
  • Standard store stack — firewall, switch, APs, cabling spec
  • New-store IT rollouts in 2–4 weeks
  • Helpdesk that understands “busy-Saturday” urgency
  • Device lifecycle for registers, iPads, handheld scanners
SecOps for retail

PCI-aware security baked in

Security that reduces PCI scope instead of pretending it doesn't exist. Network segmentation, MFA across the business, endpoint protection on every register, and identity hygiene for high-turnover store teams.

  • Cardholder data environment isolation & segmentation
  • MFA everywhere — ops, finance, Shopify admin, BigCommerce
  • Store-team identity lifecycle (onboard/offboard in hours, not weeks)
  • Ecommerce admin audits — who has access to your Shopify?
  • Phishing training tuned for retail scam patterns (gift cards, fake invoice)
CloudOps for retail

Ecom, M365 & the integration layer

Shopify / BigCommerce, M365 tenant, ERP, 3PL, and the middleware that holds it all together. Right-sized licensing, proper security configuration, and actual ownership of the integration layer — not vendor finger-pointing.

  • Shopify / BigCommerce admin hardening & app audits
  • M365 tenant properly configured for retail org structures
  • ERP + ecom + POS integration oversight
  • 3PL connections, inventory sync, EDI monitoring
  • Backup & disaster recovery for cloud-first retail

The failure modes we see most often in retail

These are the things we find in almost every free assessment with a retail operator. They aren't exotic. They're what happens when your IT provider has never had to keep a line moving on a Saturday afternoon.

The POS network is flat

Registers, guest Wi-Fi, office PCs, camera system — all on one VLAN. Ransomware on the back-office laptop becomes ransomware on the register. We segment properly and keep the CDE isolated.

Shopify admin is a free-for-all

Twelve active admin accounts, no MFA, ex-employees still have access, the agency has the owner login. We audit, tighten, and bring Shopify / BigCommerce admin under the same identity controls as the rest of the business.

No real peak-season plan

“We'll be fine on Black Friday” is not a plan. We run a peak-readiness review 6–10 weeks out: network capacity, Shopify apps, POS uptime history, backup state, access hygiene. What we find, we fix before it matters.

Store openings take forever

Every new store is a snowflake. Different firewall, different cabling, different hardware, different configuration. We build a standard store stack so the next opening is a checklist, not an expedition.

Integration-layer finger-pointing

Shopify blames the ERP. The ERP blames the 3PL. The 3PL blames Shopify. Meanwhile inventory is wrong. We own the integration layer and coordinate vendors, so your ops team isn't the middleman.

Store team onboarding is slow and messy

New hire starts Monday, gets their M365 login Friday, has manager's password Saturday. High-turnover retail orgs need identity automation. We set it up so a role change is minutes, not a weekend project.

Retail tech we work with every day

Also hands-on with Shopify · BigCommerce · Lightspeed · Shopify POS · Square · Clover · NetSuite · Business Central · Meraki · Ubiquiti

From assessment to operations without disrupting the floor

1. Free retail IT assessment

We review the environment retail actually runs on — store network, POS, Shopify / ecom admin, M365, backup, PCI scope — and give you a written report. No obligation.

2. Scoped proposal, flat monthly

A clear proposal scoped to locations, users and tech stack. One predictable monthly number that covers TechOps, SecOps and CloudOps. No break-fix, no surprise project invoices.

3. Onboarding without drama

We deploy monitoring, harden the network, get Shopify / M365 under proper identity control, and take over operations — typically within two weeks and without a single register down during trading hours.

Retail environments our team has lived inside

Not every engagement is public — but our retail IT experience spans national apparel, specialty beverage, multi-location service retail, and franchise operations. Representative environments we've owned or supported:

National apparel retailer
Multi-country, hundreds of stores
"Store network uptime, POS reliability, in-store device management at scale. When a Saturday goes sideways, there is no second chance."
Multi-location service retail
40+ locations across Canada
"Standardized store stack and new-location rollouts. Every shop opens with the same firewall, same AP layout, same POS config, same M365 setup."
Specialty beverage & CPG
Retail & foodservice distribution
"ERP, EDI, distributor portals, production-floor networking. The kind of environment where IT is upstream of product leaving the dock."

Want to talk to a reference? Ask us on the assessment call.

Want an honest read on your retail IT?

Our free retail IT assessment covers network segmentation, POS dependencies, Shopify / ecom admin hygiene, M365 posture, backup state and peak-season readiness — in under 45 minutes. No pitch, just honest answers.

Book Your Free Retail IT Assessment →

Questions retailers ask before the first call

Our core service area is Alberta and BC — Calgary, Airdrie, Edmonton, Kelowna, and Vancouver. For ecommerce and DTC brands headquartered in that footprint with stores or fulfillment elsewhere, we manage the head-office IT environment and coordinate with on-site vendors at remote locations.
Yes. We support the network, Wi-Fi, identity, and endpoint layer that POS systems depend on — Lightspeed, Shopify POS, Square, Clover, Toast, LS Retail and others. For vendor-specific POS application issues we coordinate directly with the POS provider so your team isn't stuck in the middle.
We handle the IT side of PCI — network segmentation so the cardholder environment is isolated, secure Wi-Fi, vulnerability management, access controls, and audit logging. We work alongside your payment processor or a QSA on the full certification when required.
We standardize the store stack — firewall, switch, access points, register hardware, printers, and cabling spec — so every new location deploys the same way. Typical new-store IT readiness is 2–4 weeks once hardware is on site.
Yes. Our peak-season readiness review covers network capacity, POS and ecom uptime history, Shopify / BigCommerce app audit, backup state, and identity / access hygiene. We run it 6–10 weeks before peak so there's time to fix what we find.
Yes. Franchise operators get the most value from a standardized store stack, central policy enforcement through M365 / Azure, and a predictable flat-rate cost per location. We can work with the franchisor's standards or build the standard with you.
Yes — and for retail it's especially important that the switch doesn't land during trading hours or a peak week. We plan the handoff around your calendar, coordinate with your current MSP, and stage changes so there's no gap in coverage across any store.