Reference Architecture
Where Teamwork Commerce sits in your architecture.
What runs in the store, what is native to the platform, and what connects to the systems you already own, plus a full capability index for evaluation and RFP scoring.
ERP
WMS
E-commerce
The store transaction layer
Teamwork Commerce
POS · Inventory · RFID · OMS · Reporting
Payments
CRM
Finance
One codebase
POS, inventory, orders, product, customer and identity, on one data model.
Open at the edge
APIs for import and export, plus custom services alongside the core.
Google Cloud
The platform runs on Google Cloud Platform, everywhere.
Sells offline
The app and its data are on the device, so terminals trade through an outage.
Reference Diagram
Store or cloud: what runs where?
The sales floor at the top, the Teamwork platform running underneath it, and the systems you already run at the bottom, connected rather than replaced.
The top two bands are one codebase, not an integration between two products.
Where We Stand on Composable
Unified at the core. Composable at the edge.
Both extremes have a real failure mode. The useful question is which parts should never be allowed to disagree with each other.
Monolithic suite
Every module from one vendor.
- Take the whole suite or none of it
- Wait years for any one module to change
- No room for a system you already run
Fully composable
Every domain a separate service.
- Independently versioned services that agree on nothing
- A regression cycle across a dozen contracts per release
- Sync windows where two systems hold different answers
Teamwork Commerce
One core. Composable around it.
- One data model across POS, inventory, orders, product and customer, with no sync window
- One release and one upgrade path, not a regression cycle per connected app
- Open APIs, so the core is readable and writable by the rest of your stack
- Custom services run alongside the core, so bespoke work never becomes a version you are frozen on
- Interface composition per retailer: module sequence and exposure are configured, not coded
Why the core is the line: selling, inventory, orders, product, customer and identity are the domains where two systems disagreeing becomes a wrong answer in front of a customer. Everything outside that is yours to compose.
If your target state mandates fully independent, separately deployable services for every retail domain, that is a genuine architectural difference. Worth testing in a technical review rather than discovering in an RFP response.
What is native, and what is connected?
Every capability documented on this site, in one list. Native means it ships in the same codebase as the POS. Connected means it integrates with a system you choose.
| Capability | What it covers | Delivery |
|---|---|---|
| Selling & transactions | ||
| Mobile POS | Full POS on iPhone and iPad, sold from anywhere on the floor rather than a fixed cash wrap. | Native |
| Payments | Tap to Pay on iPhone, contactless, chip, swipe, split tender, gift cards, BNPL, foreign-currency cash. Processor-agnostic. | Connected |
| Promotions & loyalty engine | Thresholds, multi-item BOGO, stackable and customer-specific coupons, tax exemptions, configured in the POS. Carrying the same rules to e-commerce and mobile is an integration through real-time connectors. | Native |
| Line-level control | Per-line discounts, price overrides, associate attribution, gift messaging, suspend and retrieve, all permissioned and logged. | Native |
| Returns & exchanges | Cross-channel returns and exchanges with no sync lag, including promotion-aware bundle returns. | Native |
| Cash management | Drawer memos, shared drawers, paid-in/paid-out, blind counts with management sign-off, end-of-day reconciliation and fiscal summaries. | Native |
| Shopper display | Second customer-facing screen running targeted content and offers alongside the transaction, a mode of the POS app rather than a separate one. | Native |
| Inventory & RFID | ||
| Inventory control | Item-level visibility across stores, warehouses and channels; receiving, transfers and adjustments from the device. | Native |
| Counting | Full-store counts in about 20 minutes and targeted cycle counts, without closing the door. | Native |
| End-to-end RFID | EPC encoding at receiving, RFID checkout and self-checkout, no middleware. | Native |
| RFID hardware | Certified readers, sleds, bins, counter pads and tag printers, including Bluebird RFID handhelds. The full certified list is published separately. | Connected |
| Order management & fulfillment | ||
| Order routing | Order Fill Logic selects the fulfillment location; split shipments and incoming/outgoing queues. | Native |
| Omnichannel plays | BOPIS, reserve in store, ship-from-store, Endless Aisle, Save the Sale, BORIS. | Native |
| Carriers & warehouse | Shipping carriers, warehouse management and returns automation. | Connected |
| Product & customer data | ||
| Product information (PIM) | One product record with structured attributes, imagery, translations, catalog imports, brand concepts and seasonal staging. | Native |
| Customer data | Profiles, marketing consent, QR self sign-up, custom fields and customer APIs. | Native |
| Customer profiles | 360-degree profiles at the point of sale: history, preferences, wishlists and notes. | Native |
| AI at the point of sale | An AI assistant on the associate's handheld: ask in plain language, scan a tag or browse by category, with answers and pictures in seconds. | Native |
| Marketing & CRM platforms | Audience and campaign tools such as Klaviyo and Mailchimp. | Connected |
| Analytics | ||
| Reporting | Cloud back office with 150+ prebuilt retail reports, custom KPIs, segment views and scheduled distribution. | Native |
| BI dashboards | Looker dashboards out of the box; onward BI and data platforms by integration. | Connected |
| People & access | ||
| Identity & permissions | Matrixed rights across hundreds of corporate actions, rotating QR sign-in, every sale and override logged to a person. | Native |
| Enterprise identity | Integrates with the identity provider you already run (Active Directory, SSO and MFA) rather than adding another user store. | Connected |
| Biometric sign-in | Optional multi-user facial recognition on shared devices, off by default and governed by the retailer. | Native |
| Device management | Company-owned and personal devices governed side by side, with policy per device type. | Native |
| Global operations | ||
| Fiscal compliance | Automated compliance across 40+ countries (VAT, GST, NF525, TSE) with locally required fiscal summaries. | Native |
| Multi-currency & language | Configured per market from one dashboard, with destination-jurisdiction tax on shipped orders. | Native |
| Regional payment methods | QR wallets, digital invoicing in China, installment selection in South Korea, market-specific merchant platforms. | Connected |
| Tax free shopping | VAT refund for international shoppers issued at the till through Global Blue, so the refund form is part of the sale rather than a separate desk. | Connected |
| Platform | ||
| Hosting | Google Cloud Platform. | Native |
| Offline resilience | Every terminal stays fully operational through an outage, holding transactions locally, encrypted, and syncing on reconnect. | Native |
| Extensibility | Open APIs for import and export; custom services and logic overlays through external APIs without altering the core. | Native |
| Interface configuration | Module sequence, order and exposure set per retailer rather than developed. | Native |
| Enterprise systems | ERP including SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics and NetSuite; marketplaces, accounting, fraud, traffic counters and legacy internal systems. | Connected |
Every row is documented elsewhere on this site. If something you need is not listed, put it to a technical specialist rather than assuming either way.
Test it against your target state.
Bring your architecture, your integration map, and the constraints that will actually decide this.