Commerce Tomorrow

It's the end of the year, and the end of an era. In this special episode of the Commerce Tomorrow podcast, Kelly and Dirk reflect on the transformative changes in commerce and at commercetools throughout 2024. They share their favorite moments, discuss industry highlights, and provide a sneak peek into what’s next for the commerce world in 2025. Tune in for insights, laughs, and a heartfelt farewell to this chapter of the podcast.

Special edition! commercetools announced Compilations, a new semi-annual showcase featuring over 50 product and feature updates, reinforcing the company's commitment to delivering constant innovation, faster time to market, and improved customer experiences for both end users and commercetools Platform customers. Dirk and Kelly discuss the Fall 2024 Compilations announcement, the impact these features drive, as well as what’s ahead for commercetools in the coming months and the next Compilations showcase. Time stamps: 00:40 What is Compilations? 03:30 High-level themes for Fall 2024 compilations (customer experience, user experience, platform experience) 04:44 Customer Experience 08:29 User Experience 13:33 Platform Experience 19:20 What’s next for commercetools in the coming months & for the next Compilations showcase 20:38 Closing

Is shopping entertainment? Evan Moore, Senior Vice President, NBCUniversal Advertising & Partnerships, answers the question. NBCUniversal uses composable commerce to enable seamless shopping experiences but their unique approach to commerce is also leveraging moments of inspiration (built with their audiences) to the benefit of the brand partners they work with. Evan recounts a key moment when instead of moving an existing audience to a new ecommerce destination, they pivoted to bring the commerce experience to where the audiences already were. If phase one of shoppable television is taking existing content and layering it on top of ecommerce capabilities, then what’s around the corner for phase two? Evan explains what he foresees will be a valuable extension of the entertainment experience. Timestamps: 00:35 - Introducing Evan Moore, Senior Vice President, NBCUniversal Advertising & Partnerships, his role & NBCUniversal’s approach to commerce 02:04 - What has the impact of composable commerce been on NBCUniversal’s business and what innovations is it enabling? 07:06 - What opportunities are composable commerce bringing to NBCUniversal? (use cases, shopper experiences) 16:36 - What do you foresee as the future of commerce in entertainment? What trends are you paying attention to? 25:02 - The intersection between commerce, entertainment and advertising

From airport terminals to what happens when you run along the Hudson river, commercetools has some big news to share. Like Marcia, Marcia, Marcia! (if you know, you know), we’re at it again with MACH MACH MACH. Post MACH Three in NYC, commercetools announces a new CEO and a partnership with Microsoft/Azure. Needless to say, commercetools is not slowing down. For our valued listeners, we’ll discuss best practices for a digital commerce project implementation and what signs to look for that your project is going well. Structuring your company for success is a must - how customer meet ups and your CSMs can help. Finally, Kelly answers the question, “Are you a benevolent dictator?” Timestamps: 01:08 So much is happening! MACH Three, Microsoft/Azure partnership, HIPPA, commercetools new CEO 06:39 Best practices for a digital commerce project implementation 10:17 During the evaluation, what are the signs that a project is going to go well 16:41 Structuring your company for success 18:58 Are you a benevolent dictator? 20:24 Getting the most out of your vendor 26:43 When/how should SIs be used?

Imagine a world where everyone uses AR enabled by AI—what will shopping look like? Will we all have our own AI shopping assistants? Back again by popular demand, Dirk and Kelly find time in between their travels to explore "The Future of Shopping." With AI rapidly evolving into mainstream use, they discuss its significant impact on digital commerce, retail shopping and consumer behavior. 01:10: Anecdotes from the road 02:38: Reviewing ContentCon & going deeper on content management 08:38: Future of Shopping - how end-customers will be shopping digitally in the future 09:35: Digital commerce penetration as a % of overall retail 16:50: Staggering timeline of commerce revenue numbers 18:50: Technology changing consumer behavior - who wants a digital assistant? 21:30: “Headless” and its future Listing out some exciting heads in the coming future: Desktop (21:38), Social Media (22:39), Super apps (24:38), AR/VR (31:10) 35:30: AI & how it will change shopping 41:20: How will our kids be shopping in 10 years? 44:20: Movies/books, a technology predictor - envision how things will change once everyone simultaneously has access to and sees through AR and enabled by AI

Back by popular demand, we are back with another 1:1 episode where we're going deep on the topic of simplification. Dirk starts by talking through the founding of the commercetools product and original architecture goals, why MACH is mistakenly labeled as "complex" (hint: selection bias at play), how the buyers of commercetools have changed over the years, opinionated vs. unopinionated, the many ways we at commercetools are making our product and composable more generally easier, and where commercetools is positioned in the market. Timestamps: 00:48: Founding principles of the commercetools product 08:42: Selection bias - why MACH is sometimes labeled as “complex” 10:42: How have the buyers of commercetools changed over time 14:12: Opinionated vs. unopinionated 21:00: How are we as commercetools making enterprise commerce even easier? 28:02: How is Dirk feeling about the position commercetools is in the market right now?

Dirk and Kelly dive into all things B2B commerce with Andy Hoar, one of the world’s foremost experts in B2B commerce. From a modern definition of B2B, to the state of B2B commerce, this episode covers composability in the B2B context, what’s next from Paradigm B2B and a sneak peek into an upcoming digital maturity report from commercetools and Master B2B. https://www.paradigmb2b.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyhoar/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirkhoerig/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellygoetsch/ 01:00 Welcome back for a second time Andy Hoar! Personal background/Paradigm B2B Consulting intro 02:28 How does your combine process differ from a traditional Gartner MQ or Wave? 03:45 How Andy evaluates commerce platforms 07:11 “B2B” is a pretty broad term. Define its taxonomy and distinct needs for each? 09:15 What differentiates digitally mature B2B’s from immature B2B’s? 14:15 What's the state of B2B today vs. B2C? What holds back B2Bs as they build out new direct to consumer channels or attempt to modernize? 20:53 Distribution: is connecting distributors w/ the consumer a future model? 23:16 At Elevate you mentioned that all 18 of the 18 vendors you evaluated claimed to be composable. What in your mind equals true composability (in B2B context)? 29:18 What hires do B2B’s need to make (by profile, skills, and temperament) in order to succeed in digital commerce? 35:35 Tell us about your Master B2B classes? 38:47 You work with vendors all the time. What could we do better? Give us your top recommendations

Recorded live and in-person from commercetools’ Elevate - The Global Commerce Summit in Miami Beach, FL, we welcome Paul Hornby, Director of Digital Commerce Experience at The Very Group which boasts a heritage dating back to the late 1800s. Paul speaks of his journey towards composable commerce.

Step inside commercetools with Dirk and Kelly as they sit down with commercetools’ own CFO, Dan Murphy. This is an enlightening discussion around company efficiencies, key metrics to judge the health of a SaaS business, and what metrics to look for at various stages of company growth. Are your customers renewing? What does it cost to acquire a customer? Are the company goals aligned with its employees? How efficient is the sales organization? Is revenue growth the end all be all? Tune in to gain a CFO's perspective on this and more. 00:50: Introduction to commercetools, CFO, Dan Murphy 01:52: What does a CFO do? 04:14: Defining key metrics use to judge the health of a SaaS business (NRR, GRR, CAC + CAC payback, LTV, ARR/employee, Quick ratio, Magic number) 10:42: What is the rule of 40 as a metric and is it outdated? 16:04: Key metrics to look for at various stages of growth - Seed round, IPO, pre-revenue... 20:25: The market for enterprise SaaS has dramatically changed. Dan summarizes the market from ~2020 -> present day. What is valued today vs. a few years ago 26:35: At what point should VC-backed enterprise B2B SaaS aim for profitability? 35:44: When/why do you IPO? Tell us about that process

From a technology-standpoint, MACH is fantastic. However, the commercial-side of MACH can be cumbersome. Live from MACH Haus in New York, Kelly and Piyush Patel (Chief Strategic Business Development Officer of Algolia) go deep on the various industry initiatives to simplify the commercial-side of MACH. We discuss white labeling, BPO, cloud marketplaces, what the MACH Alliance has/can do, and more. 00:35 Welcome to NRF 2024, MACH Haus 02:17 What is NRF? 03:03 How does NRF differ from Shoptalk? 03:50 More about Algolia 04:55 Why the market is adopting MACH 10:03 Making the commercial side of MACH easier 11:45 Vendors and organizational boundaries within an enterprise - tech, business, finance, procurement, legal, etc 12:30 Defining Terms: SI/GSI, ISV, Order Form, MSA, DPA, NDA, SLA 16:00 Straight up purchase: What is it, how it works, when it makes sense, drawbacks 17:35 How do accelerators work? 19:25 AWS & GCP present/sponsoring at MACH Haus. Discussing their marketplaces 21:40 MACH Alliance and streamlining the commercial & legal side 24:25 What can individual vendors do to simplify resell 25:53 ISVs embedding other ISVs 26:31 Vendor consolidation 28:24 Let's say you're a retailer and you use an SI. Does that make it easier? BPO 31:35 What's the hope for the future? 34:50 Kelly’s challenge to the MACH Alliance

That’s a wrap for 2023! In this jam packed episode, Dirk & Kelly discuss their recent trips, recap Black Friday / Cyber Monday, AI innovations at commercetools and across the industry, the changing competitive landscape, the economy and its impact to the tech ecosystem, when someone is going to do a PE roll-up of MACH Alliance ISV members, strategic initiatives for 2024, and upcoming conferences. 00:00:53: Where in the world is Dirk? 00:11:00: AI update 00:23:24: How’s the overall economy doing? How is that impacting the tech ecosystem? 00:36:27: BF/CM recap 00:50:11: Strategic initiatives at commercetools for 2024? 00:57:10: NRF 00:59:10: Elevate

Hosts Dirk Hoerig and Kelly Goetsch welcome Maia Benson, Managing Director of Forum Ventures. The discussion traces Maia's e-commerce and logistics journey, spotlighting her pivotal role at Shopify and the challenges of building the self-embedded shipping network. They cover the Flexport acquisition, challenges in fulfillment systems, and the industry's dynamic nature amid Gen AI impacts. Maia also leads us through funding landscape trends and the startup thresholds needed to be fundable. Timestamps: Personal background / career to date 0:47, 01:10, 10:54 Explain the Shopify / Flexport debacle 04:33, 09:17 What is the Shop app? 06:06 Define fulfillment and order management. Common use cases, features required by software, etc 12:40 When does it make sense to have a standalone OMS vs one combined with your commerce platform? 14:36, 20:24 How does an eCommerce-only OMS differ from a retail OMS, or some other industry? 14:36 Should best in breed exist as a separate category? 19:17 How have Order Management Systems changed over the last 20 years? How have customer expectations changed and what are today’s use cases? 17:35 Tell us more about Forum Ventures and what types of companies you're looking to invest in 22:40 What are the thresholds that companies have to meet to be fundable? 23:31 Wrap / Where can people follow you? 28:20, 30:20 FYI - watch the MACH Alliance OMS CEO panel that Maia led 30:45

Greg Alvo, Founder/CEO of Ordergroove on Subscriptions by CommerceTomorrow

In this episode, Kelly Goetsch and Dirk Hoerig speak with Phillip Jackson and Brian Lange, founders of the media company, Future Commerce. Tune is as this roundtable provides cultural insight on the future of commerce. Is commerce simply technology that we adopt or is the future of commerce a bigger, more abstract idea - and, what does human nature and culture have to do with it? Additionally, we’ll get Phillip and Brian’s hot takes on AR, VR, Conversational commerce, AI and more! You can hear Phillip and Brian on their podcast, Future Commerce, on wherever you listen to podcasts. Timestamps: - Personal backgrounds 00:38 - What is Future Commerce? What does "Delivering cultural foresight for 8-9 figure eCom brands" mean in practice? 04:19 (04:53) - With 13,000 subscribers to your newsletter, a popular podcast and huge social media following, you've built an amazing brand / following...how? 14:40 (15:30) - 22:20 Lightening Round - The name of your company is "Future Commerce" - what do you think about: - AR 22:32 - VR 24:21 - Conversational commerce 25:38 - AI (briefly) 26:17 - Live shopping 27:47 - Social commerce 28:44 - Metaverse 31:19 - AI 31:31 - What are some examples of retailers doing digital well? 35:45

Mu Ventures runs a $10m fund focused on seed and pre-seed rounds. In this episode, we discuss the role of venture capital(VC) in tech, key terms in the VC space, the value VC offers to startups and to end-consumers, and the mechanics of how fundraises work. We also get Mu's investment thesis, Gary's outlook on the fundraising market, and what Gary looks for when evaluating CEOs for his portfolio companies. 00:55: Personal background 03:58: What is a VC? Where do they add value? 07:50: Define key terms - fundraise, GP, LP, due diligence, term sheet, carry, etc etc 15:42: What immediately adjacent spaces are you looking at? Examples of portfolio companies? 19:57: Explain the seed -> IPO pipeline. What are milestones at each tier? 24:38: What do you look for in a founder? 29:05: How does the fundraising market look? What are you expecting for the next 6, 12 months?

Tercera is the leading growth private equity firm in the composable space, providing growth capital to systems integrators (including Orium). Think of Tercera as a VC but exclusively for growing SIs. In this episode, Bill and Michelle explain what they look for when making investments in SIs, how investment banking differs from private equity, consolidation within the SI ecosystem and more. Jason provides great context on the role that SIs play, why they took on growth equity from Tercera, and how he expects the SI space to evolve over time. - 1:35: What systems integrators are, the role they play in our ecosystem, etc. from an ISV standpoint - 03:17: Introducing our guests - 06:16: Explaining Terms: SI, GSI, agency and where Orium fits - 08:27: The Tercera business model, investment decisions - 12:45: What is an investment banker? - 14:02: Why do SIs build IP when they are ultimately paid on billable hours? - 17:37: There are commerce vendors out there who have substantial professional services teams, thereby competing for revenue. Why do they do that, how do you compete against a vendor's own staff? Thoughts on said venders. - 22:25: Evaluating SIs - what are the red flags? - 24:48: How does SI-focused PE differ from more traditional vendor-focused VC? - 29:27: "Real" AI is here. How does it impact business, both today and in the future? - 31:45: What’s the decision process around doing in-house, staff aug, having a partner do piece(s) or the whole thing? What type of orgs choose which approach and why? - 34:02: Consolidation in the MACH SI space - why are the GSIs buying up smaller SIs in this market? - 36:32: Closing remarks

In this episode, Kelly and Dirk go deep on everyone's new favorite topic - AI. They discuss why this moment in AI is fundamentally different than what we've seen in the past, explain the underlying technology that powers AI, discuss whether AI is actually "self-aware" (and what that means), where we are in the tech adoption hype cycle, how we at commercetools are looking at AI, how AI impacts the products we offer at commercetools, how AI impacts hiring, and how AI is already and will even further disrupt the commerce vendor market

By popular demand - Dirk and Kelly are back with another 1:1 episode! As they wrap a commercetools-offsite, they talk about the overall economy, what's happening with other commerce vendors, deep dive on the recent Shopify news, recap Shoptalk and look forward to MACH TWO, recap Algolia's news, discuss the future of AI + commerce, and provide some commercetools updates. 1:14: commercetools off-site recap 9:30: MACH / composable adoption 18:53: Shoptalk US / EU recap 27:21: Macroeconomic outlook 33:47: Shopify analysis 43:24: Algolia news

What drives a teenager to build a commerce platform? While many software vendors went bankrupt at the time of the dotcom bubble burst, brothers Sebastian and Stefan Hamann built Shopware and have gone to on to thrive in a very competitive market. From early beginnings to a hundred million in funding, the importance of remembering the shopper ALWAYS, to what it’s like to work with his brother for over 20 years, Sebastian discusses it all! Timestamps: Personal intro / background | 1:17 What drives a teenager to build a commerce platform? (Dial up, the first webshop, the first flat platform) | 2:16 Why do Germans like commerce so much? | 7:38 About Shopware - employees, customers, fundraising, stats | 11:48 Mid-market takes and a hundred million in funding | 13:03 Go wide or go narrow, the shopping experience | 15:15 The customer profile | 18:04 Why open source? Advantages/disadvantages of open source over MACH? | 19:51 Comparisons - Magento and Shopify | 24:50 How is it being co-CEO with your brother? | 28:57 What's next for Shopware? | 30:32 Commerce vendor market outlook 5-10 years from today? | 32:17

In this episode, Kelly Goetsch speaks with Darrell Rosenstein of the Rosenstein Group. Learn from one of the first ever LinkedIn users who literally went from index cards - yes index cards - to founding the Rosenstein Group, a leader in martech-related executive search. This episode features an overview of how the executive staffing industry works, how to stand out in this hiring market, how to prevent your top employees from being poached, who makes the best CEO, and how the types of people that companies hire over time necessarily changes. Personal intro / background | 1:19 Linkedin then, LinkedIn now-Darrell was one of the first!? | 2:25 How the executive staffing industry works | 4:47 Engagement work behind the scenes | 6:52 The Kolbe method | 8:55 What are the differences you look for when hiring for various company sizes? | 12:41 What types of profiles do seed stage companies need to hire? How does that differ from series D and IPO-bound companies? | 18:26 Why do companies hire you to find executives, rather than train and promote from within? | 21:56 So you you've described yourself as a people capitalist - what does that mean? | 26:34 The provider’s mindset | 30:15 What signs do you look for when approaching potential recruits? Are there signs that a prospective recruit may be disgruntled? | 31:18 What traits do you look for in a Ceo as a potential client and a potential investment target? | 39:49 Who makes the best CEO? Product people? Sales? Combination of the two? | 42:47 In this tight job market, how do candidates stand out? | 46:58 The Greatest Hits! Those spotted early on in their careers? | 55:20 How to get in touch with Darrell | 1:34