The Apps and Tools Behind Lulu Babe
Lulu Babe started in 2018 while I was on maternity leave, so from the beginning I needed a tech stack that was practical, reliable, and easy to manage around family life and little ones. Over the years, the tools behind the store have been tested, changed, and refined – some didn't last, others have been part of the business almost from day one.
What follows is a straightforward rundown of what we actually use today – the platforms, apps, and services that keep the store running – along with why we chose them and where they earn their place.
The Platform: Shopify
Shopify is the foundation everything else is built on. It handles product listings, inventory, checkout, discounts, and order management, and it integrates cleanly with almost every other tool in the stack.
As a working mum building the business around family life, I needed a platform that was reliable, low-maintenance, and easy to manage without constant technical issues. Shopify fits that — unlike WooCommerce, which requires you to manage hosting and software updates yourself, Shopify takes care of that in the background so you can focus on the business.
We chose it over alternatives like Squarespace because it’s scalable and built specifically for e-commerce – which means fewer workarounds and less time troubleshooting.
It is a monthly subscription rather than a one-off cost, so it’s worth running the numbers before you commit – but for a store at any meaningful scale, it’s a strong option.
If you're starting an online store and haven't already signed up, you can try Shopify free for a few days to see if it's the right fit.
👉 Start your Shopify free trial
The Theme: Turbo by Out of the Sandbox
Your Shopify theme determines how the store looks and how fast it loads – and load speed affects both the customer experience and Google rankings.
Lulu Babe started on Dawn, one of Shopify's free themes, which worked fine in the early stages. After about two years we switched to Turbo. We saw a noticeable lift in page speed scores, and our overall store performance trended upward in the months that followed.
Conversions and SEO performance both appeared to improve in the period after the switch – though a theme is just one of many variables, it was a change we were glad we made.
👉 Check out Turbo by Out of the Sandbox
Email Marketing: Klaviyo
Email remains one of the most consistent revenue channels in e-commerce, and Klaviyo is what we use to manage it. Klaviyo is built for ecommerce and integrates directly with Shopify, which makes it a natural fit for stores that want automations based on real customer behaviour – triggered by abandoned carts, first purchases, browse activity, and more, rather than just scheduled sends.
For Lulu Babe, it runs our welcome flow, abandoned cart sequence, and promotional emails. The segmentation is solid, and the reporting makes it straightforward to see what’s working. Pricing scales with list size, so it’s worth reviewing the tiers before signing up.
International Payments: Wise
Wise handles international transfers and multi-currency payments at rates considerably better than a standard bank account. For a business with suppliers, contractors, or costs in more than one currency, the difference in transfer rates adds up quickly.
Setup takes around ten minutes, and the exchange-rate transparency alone makes it worth having as an alternative to transferring through your bank.
We actually use Wise as our main business bank account, because we wanted an account with no monthly fees.
One practical detail worth knowing: you can hold both a personal and business account under the same login, which keeps things clean if you're using Wise for both.
Buy Now, Pay Later: Afterpay
Offering instalment payments increases conversion, particularly on higher-priced orders. Afterpay splits the purchase into four fortnightly payments for the customer at no extra cost to them — as the merchant, you receive the full amount upfront.
Australian and New Zealand shoppers are very familiar with Afterpay, and having it available at checkout removes a real barrier for customers sitting on the fence about a larger purchase. It's straightforward to add to a Shopify store and worth considering early.
👉 Learn more about Afterpay for merchants
Product Reviews: Judge.me
Product reviews are one of the most effective trust signals in e-commerce, and Judge.me is the app we use to collect and display them.
It integrates directly with Shopify and automatically sends review request emails after an order is fulfilled – so reviews come in without any manual follow-up. Verified reviews display on product pages, and the app supports photo reviews, though in our experience text reviews make up the majority.
Judge.me has a free plan that covers the basics, and a paid plan with additional features. We're on the paid plan, which includes an all reviews page and a few extra customisation options.
A Note on This Post
Some of the links above are affiliate links – we may earn a small commission if you sign up through them, at no cost to you. We only list tools we use and recommend.
Have questions about any of these tools, or something specific you'd like to know about running an online store? Leave a comment below.
