The problem

The Bullseye Agency has been building BigCommerce apps for years. But when one client approached them, what seemed like a straightforward BigCommerce project quickly became one of the most complex data integration challenges they'd ever faced.

The client had 15,000 products stored in a specialized construction ERP system, and they wanted to move from manual order processing to automated online sales. The challenge wasn't just the scale — it was the complexity of the data. Their inventory was completely asymmetric, with only 10 specific variants out of 36 or 64 potential product combinations actually in stock.

"BigCommerce tries to create and fill in all the gaps and all the missing combinations," Marco explained. "But all that did was cause problems. Whenever you try to edit something directly on BigCommerce, it just wrecks the whole product."

Making matters worse, the client had already spent months working with another developer building the integration through Google Sheets. The script-based solution took eight hours just to sync product images and felt fragile and unprofessional for a company processing significant revenue.

The project was falling behind schedule, the client was losing confidence, and the team faced a critical decision: find a better way to handle the integration, or risk losing the project entirely.

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The solution

When Marco Hernandez discovered Gadget, he realized it could solve multiple problems at once. Rather than fighting BigCommerce's limitations, they could build a custom interface that worked exactly how their client needed it to work.

"We decided we were going to build it, so the plan was to use Gadget and build an internal app that would let us do what we needed with BigCommerce," Marco shared. “We knew there had to be a way to get the functionality we wanted.”

What had seemed like a daunting project quickly became feasible as they began to explore Gadget. The platform gave them everything they needed to build a sophisticated backend management system: automatic API connections, a managed database, comprehensive logging, and production-ready infrastructure. Most importantly, they could build custom interfaces without worrying about the underlying technical complexity.

The team went from a spreadsheet as a proof of concept to map and organize the 15,000 products into roughly 1,000 manageable product groups. But when it came time to build the production system, Gadget's capabilities made all the difference. While the spreadsheet had throttling issues that limited API calls, Gadget's infrastructure could handle the massive data synchronization requirements without breaking a sweat.

"With Gadget, we don't have that throttling issue," Marco explained. "What took eight hours to push all the images through the Google Sheets script took minutes through Gadget."

Using Gadget's backend framework and database capabilities, the team built a custom product management interface that gave the client complete control over their inventory without the limitations of BigCommerce's native tools. They could create product variants, manage options, update prices, and sync inventory levels — all while maintaining the complex, asymmetric product structures their business required.

The solution included real-time synchronization between BigCommerce and the ERP system, automatic image management, and order processing that captured data from multiple channels including direct website orders and Amazon sales through Feedonomics.

Gadget's single browser tab approach also transformed team collaboration. With automatic documentation generation and the AI assistant built into the interface, developers could quickly understand the complex data relationships without lengthy knowledge transfers. Whether working in the browser or syncing to their preferred IDEs, the team had instant access to all the context they needed about the intricate product mappings and API connections.

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The results

Building with Gadget transformed what could have been an impossible project into a streamlined success that exceeded the client's expectations.

• 8x faster image syncing – reduced from 8 hours to 1 hour for full product catalog
• 15,000 products successfully mapped and synchronized between systems
• Real-time inventory sync between BigCommerce and construction ERP
• Multi-channel order processing handling website and Amazon orders
• Custom management interface that bypassed BigCommerce limitations

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Dramatic performance improvements

The most immediate impact was the massive improvement in data processing speed. While the previous Google Sheets solution required eight hours to sync product images, Gadget's infrastructure completed the same task in just one hour – an 8x improvement that made daily operations actually feasible.

"It's a combination between what solves an immediate need, but long-term I need something that every day is synchronizing and pushing images and updating statuses," Marco explained. "The cloud platform behind Gadget is strong enough to support all those API calls without having issues."

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Solved the asymmetric product challenge

The team successfully built a custom interface that handled the client's complex, asymmetric product catalog, which would have been impossible using BigCommerce's native tools alone. The app can now automatically map the 15,000 individual SKUs from the ERP into approximately 1,000 product groups in BigCommerce, while maintaining accurate inventory levels and pricing.

"We built a backend graphical interface that allows us to modify the product as we need," Marco shared. "It's very custom built, and clients can do everything they need almost from one screen."

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Enhanced team confidence and capabilities

Working with Gadget's platform gave the development team confidence to take on projects they might have previously avoided. The robust infrastructure and comprehensive tooling meant they could focus on solving business problems rather than wrestling with technical limitations.

"It helped us build a lot of competence in-house on BigCommerce because we went our way through the backend through the APIs and tried to figure things out rather than using their platform," Marco noted. “Gadget gave me a new level of confidence on what is possible for my team – if the interface is limited, we'll build our own interface."

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Professional infrastructure for enterprise clients

The switch from makeshift solutions to Gadget's professional platform made all the difference for client confidence. Instead of running critical business operations on Google Sheets scripts, the client now has a robust, scalable solution built on enterprise-grade infrastructure.

"If you're looking at a million-dollar company behind the scenes, they're not running it on Google Sheets," Marco emphasized. "They're running it on something more appropriate – better infrastructure."

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Streamlined operations and user experience

The custom management interface eliminated the frustration of working within BigCommerce's constraints. Rather than fighting the platform's limitations and risking data corruption with every edit, the client's team can now manage their complex inventory through an intuitive interface designed specifically for their needs.

The solution handles everything from product creation and variant management to real-time inventory updates and multi-channel order processing – all while maintaining data integrity across multiple systems.

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Expanded possibilities for future projects

The success of this complex integration has opened new opportunities for the team. They now approach custom projects with confidence, knowing they have the infrastructure and capabilities to handle even the most challenging requirements.

"It just opens up the possibility of what else we can do," Marco reflected. "I'm looking at Gadget not just for the e-commerce part, but in reality, I can use it for almost anything."

The platform's versatility and the team's growing expertise with Gadget's tools position them to tackle increasingly sophisticated projects across different industries and use cases.

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About the agency

Marco Hernandez leads a development team specializing in custom e-commerce solutions and integrations. With expertise across multiple platforms including Shopify and BigCommerce, they focus on solving complex business challenges through innovative technical solutions that prioritize user experience and operational efficiency.