Hearts & Fire — E-Commerce Plan

Context

Hearts & Fire is on Lightspeed R-Series POS (Account ID: 305080), going through a full rebrand, and needs an e-commerce solution for small shippable items under $500. Large furniture stays in-store only.

The Key Discovery

Lightspeed eCom (E-Series) is Ecwid — rebranded. Ecwid is a 15+ year e-commerce platform specifically designed to embed into any website. It's included in all R-Series plans at no additional cost, and it syncs product catalog, customers, and inventory with R-Series automatically.

This is not an experimental API integration. Embedding a storefront widget into a custom website is literally Ecwid's core use case — millions of stores do this.

What We Confirmed in Their Dashboard

• Lightspeed Payments: Active, native gateway, two WisePOS E terminals
• API access: Enabled (two existing clients)
• Product catalog: 10 clean categories, publishToEcom flag on items
• Items need for publishing: Image, category, and brand (all manageable in R-Series)
• No custom fields set up — relevant for shipping weight later
• Location: 11015 Elm St, Omaha, NE 68144 (North America — eCom + R-Series integration confirmed available)

The Approach: Vercel/React Site with Embedded Lightspeed eCom

Architecture

[Custom Branded Site (Vercel + React)]
     |
     |— Shop pages embed Ecwid/Lightspeed eCom storefront widget
     |   ├── Product browsing (synced from R-Series)
     |   ├── Shopping cart
     |   ├── Checkout (built into widget)
     |   └── Payment (Lightspeed Payments — same as in-store)
     |
[Lightspeed R-Series POS]
     └── Inventory, orders, customers — all synced bidirectionally

How It Works

1. Activate eCom: Client contacts their Lightspeed Account Manager to turn on eCom (included in their plan)
2. Product sync: R-Series items auto-sync to eCom. They flag shippable items with publishToEcom. Each published item needs: image, category, brand
3. We build the custom site on Vercel/React: Full design control for the rebrand — same headless approach previously discussed
4. Embed the storefront: On shop pages, we add the Ecwid storefront widget (a <div> + script tag — works in any framework including React). It renders product catalog, cart, and checkout within our site. Fully customizable via CSS and JavaScript API
5. Customer shops and checks out without leaving the site. Payment handled by Lightspeed Payments (credit card, ACH, Apple Pay, Google Pay) — same processor as their in-store terminals
6. Order completes: Sale records in R-Series automatically. Inventory updates across POS and online. One source of truth

Why This Is Reliable

• Ecwid has done this for 15+ years. Embedding into any website is their primary use case, not an edge case
• Single inventory: R-Series is the source of truth, eCom syncs bidirectionally
• Single payment processor: Lightspeed Payments handles both in-store and online
• No sync middleware: Direct integration between R-Series and eCom, maintained by Lightspeed
• Proven checkout/payment flow: Not building checkout from scratch — using Ecwid's battle-tested widget
• REST API available (OAuth 2.0, 600 req/min) if we need deeper customization beyond the widget

Shipping

• Phase 1: Flat-rate or tiered shipping by category (practical for $50–60 items under $500)
• Phase 2 (if needed): Ecwid supports live shipping rates from carriers. Custom shipping services can be integrated via the ExternalService API endpoint
• No weight/dimensions on items currently — add custom fields in R-Series later if calculated rates are needed

Compared to Our Shopify Headless Work

The Ecwid widget approach is actually less development work than our Shopify headless builds because we're not building checkout from scratch. And it runs on Vercel/React just like we discussed — Ecwid is designed to embed into any site regardless of framework.

What We Still Need to Confirm

1. Whether eCom is already activated on their account (may just need to be turned on)
2. Subscription tier — couldn't read billing page. Basic eCom tier limits to 100 products; need to know how many shippable items they have
3. Product readiness — how many items already have images, categories, and brands assigned
4. Ecwid widget customization depth — can we style it to match the rebrand quality? (Ecwid is known for strong CSS customization, but should verify with their current themes)

What NOT to Do

• Don't build a separate Stripe checkout (splits payment, adds complexity)
• Don't use only the R-Series POS API (no checkout/payment capability)
• Don't recommend Shopify as primary (adds second platform + subscription — eCom is already included)
• Don't build checkout from scratch via eCom API when the embeddable widget handles it

Proposal Framing

• "Your Lightspeed subscription already includes a full e-commerce platform — you just haven't turned it on yet"
• We build the custom branded website for the rebrand, and embed the Lightspeed eCom storefront for the shop
• Same inventory, same payment processor, same system they already use
• Shopify is only worth discussing if they want to leave Lightspeed entirely (bigger scope, bigger budget)

Next Steps

1. Confirm eCom activation status and subscription tier with client
2. Review Ecwid widget customization options to confirm it meets rebrand design standards
3. Scope development hours: Vercel/React site + Ecwid widget integration + styling
4. Identify which product categories/items will be published to eCom (shippable under $500)
5. Define shipping rate tiers by category for Phase 1

Assets

• E-commerce flow diagram: ~/Desktop/hearts-fire-ecom-flow.svg