Replace Excel lists, copy-paste between portals and manual routines with lean internal tools – for order processing, returns, stock, pricing and reporting.
Back-Office Tools & Automation for E-Commerce
In many online stores, daily business runs on Excel lists, forwarded emails and copy-paste between store admin, ERP and supplier portal. That works at 20 orders a day – at 200 it costs staff, nerves and mistakes. I build the internal tools that fit your exact workflow: small, delivered quickly, connected to store and inventory.
Typical tasks
Order processing and approvals
Check orders, flag suspected fraud, approvals by rules (amount, country, payment method), bulk actions – one interface instead of five tabs.
Returns and complaints handling
Record returns, check condition, trigger credit note or replacement, charge the supplier – with status, history and analysis of which products come back suspiciously often.
Stock and reorder overview
Coverage, minimum stock, lead times and open purchase orders in one place – with suggestions on what to reorder from which supplier and when.
Pricing and margin tools
Bring purchase prices, competitor prices and target margins together, define pricing rules, push changes to the store and marketplaces.
Reporting and dashboards
Revenue, margin, return rate, supplier performance – merged from store, ERP and marketplaces, updated daily, without manual exports.
Automated routines
Send invoices, prepare dunning runs, generate supplier orders, data exports for accountants or logistics providers – as scheduled jobs with logs.
Customer and dealer portals
One login for B2B customers, field sales or suppliers: order status, documents, stock, feedback – connected to your existing systems.
Replacing Excel and Access solutions
The spreadsheet the warehouse cannot work without, as a multi-user application with permissions, history and backups.
How I work
- Understand the workflow: I look at how your team works today – which steps, which systems, where it gets stuck.
- Smallest useful step: First the tool that saves the most time. Live in weeks, not months.
- Extend: Further functions as needed, connected to store, ERP and integrations – see Integrations & APIs.
How I work
Three principles that apply in every project
Understand before building
First the short technical assessment: what is the actual problem, where is the lever, what makes economic sense? Then the implementation.
Build instead of forwarding
You talk to the developer who does the work – no handover chain, no black box, clear status updates and early warning about risks.
Hand over instead of holding on
Code in your repository, tests, documentation and a deployment process your team understands. No vendor lock-in – your system does not depend on me afterwards.
Background
Experience at a glance
- Today
- Senior freelancer in ongoing Shopware projects of several agencies and merchants – at home in foreign repos, processes and deadlines.
- Since 2021
- Self-employed as Stefan Pilz Ltd. – remote for merchants and agencies: Shopware 5 and 6, Symfony, migrations, maintenance.
- 2015 – 2020
- E-commerce backends: inventory, PIM and Amazon/eBay integrations for around 3.5 million products, then the Drillisch mobile-carrier web stores.
- Since 2012
- Full-time web developer – first at an agency: websites and stores with Joomla, xt-Commerce and Shopware.
- 2002
- Completed vocational training as a software developer (C/C++). First own PHP websites from 2004.
See current and completed projects Career and stack in the CV
Good fit
Works well when...
- you have a concrete business requirement that standard software does not cover cleanly.
- you need an experienced PHP/Symfony developer who implements directly instead of forwarding tickets.
- you run existing systems, stores or integrations that have to work together.