Build vs. Buy: Embracing a Modular Approach to Your Marketing Tech Stack

Companies today face the challenge of staying ahead in a highly competitive market. Technology plays a pivotal role and in many cases organizations have to make the decision whether they should build new solutions in-house or buy third-party tools. At Lounge by Zalando, we’ve experienced this firsthand, particularly when it comes to our marketing tech stack.

The decision to build or buy isn’t always straightforward; it involves evaluating resources, market availability, and long-term goals. With a modular approach to our technology stack, we've developed a balanced strategy that empowers us to scale efficiently while keeping ownership of critical processes. Here are seven steps we take as we navigate the "Build vs. Buy" dynamic at Lounge by Zalando.

1. Investigate What Solutions Are Available

The first step in our decision-making process is always to evaluate existing solutions in the market. If a tool already exists that can meet our needs, it might make more sense to buy. These off-the-shelf tools benefit from years of development and a specialized focus that would be difficult and costly to replicate internally.

For example, when we wanted to improve our customer engagement, we explored the market and chose Braze as our third-party customer engagement platform. That allowed us to integrate our campaign data seamlessly, leveraging their platform's advanced targeting and personalization capabilities without the overhead of building something from scratch.

2. Ensure Connections Between Third-Party Tools and Internal Systems

One of our guiding principles is to create interfaces that allow us to extract maximum value from the third-party tools we buy. This involves building custom connectors that integrate external solutions like Braze with our internal systems, ensuring a cohesive and automated flow of data.

At Lounge, we believe in the power of APIs. Tools like Braze are API-first solutions, allowing our teams to automate tasks, personalize content, and scale efficiently. Our campaign managers can even trigger campaigns without directly interacting with the platform’s UI, thanks to our integration with Contentful. This modular approach ensures that each component of our tech stack works together seamlessly. If we need to swap a tool, we can do it fast and with minimal disruption.

3. Prioritize Trust Above All

No matter how advanced or seamless a third-party solution may be, trust is non-negotiable. At Lounge by Zalando, we adhere to strict principles around data privacy and customer trust. Every tool we implement must align with our data protection standards, particularly in the era of GDPR and other privacy regulations.

When selecting our customer engagement platform, we prioritized its ability to integrate securely with our data streams while respecting customer privacy. Compliance with data protection regulations was paramount in our decision-making process, ensuring that while we optimize for personalization, we remain fully compliant.

4. Embrace a Radical Domain Focus

We believe in specialization. To ensure the best outcomes, we build dedicated teams around specific marketing areas. This radical domain focus allows our teams to become experts in their fields, ensuring they have the depth of knowledge needed to make informed decisions, whether it’s about content automation or audience segmentation.

By specializing, our teams maintain strong partnerships with our marketing departments and external vendors, keeping everything aligned with our business goals.

5. Act Like an Owner

At Lounge by Zalando, we operate with an ownership mentality: you build it, you own it. This means that any team responsible for developing a solution also takes full accountability for its ongoing performance. There is no shared ownership of code; we own the whole process. This has been key in our work with Braze. By fully integrating Braze with our systems and taking ownership of every step, we’ve created a level of control and efficiency that only happens when teams understand not just how things work, but why. This sense of responsibility drives better decisions and ensures our tools are doing exactly what we need them to do.

6. Build to Scale—Fast

Speed matters. In a market as competitive as ours, the ability to scale quickly without sacrificing efficiency is critical. When we build, we don’t just think about the current needs, we look ahead to make sure our systems can handle future growth.

This is why our tech stack is modular. We build and integrate tools that can scale as needed, without having to reinvent the wheel every time we grow. This mindset allows us to move fast, adjust quickly, and keep the focus where it matters—delivering value to our customers.

7. Review and Recycle

Technology changes fast, and we make sure to regularly review our systems. This constant evaluation ensures we stay ahead of the curve and keep our tech stack optimized.

This "review and recycle" mentality keeps our tech agile and future-proof.

Final Thoughts

The build vs. buy debate is a complex one, but at Zalando, we’ve found that a modular, strategic approach helps us strike the right balance. By carefully evaluating available solutions, prioritizing trust, and embracing ownership, we can build a marketing tech stack that is not only scalable but also adaptable to our ever-changing needs.

Interested in digging deeper into the Build vs. Buy question? Check out Braze VP of Technology Services Jamie Doheny’s article A Technology Leader's Perspective on Build vs. Buy.