Category ecommerce

The Rise of Clippy 2.0?
With the integration of ChatGPT into Microsoft products, are we seeing the rise of Clippy 2.0 (the old Microsoft Office Assistant paper clip)? Will it go better this time? Clippy 1.0 Clippy was a virtual office assistant in Microsoft office from 1997. A “cute” animated character that would pop up and offer help. It was […]

What does AI Chat hold in store for ecommerce?
I was just watching a CNBC news item on the success of Dick’s Sporting Goods (DSG): Why Dick’s Sporting Goods Succeeded When Sports Authority Failed. One of the reasons given for their success was their ability during COVID to get in-store pickup live in 2 days, which helped them sell stock trapped in stores when […]
Memorial Day Musings: How to move the ecommerce industry forwards?
Karen Baker posted on LinkedIn about what ecommerce platforms need to succeed. Here are my Memorial Day musings for your entertainment. Support not Kill Let’s start with a controversial topic! One comment left on LinkedIn was the solution should support, not kill, existing products in the market. A fine principle. I disagree however. I think […]
Gartner at Modern Commerce Day on Composable Commerce
I attended some of the sessions this week at Modern Commerce Day (presented by CommerceTools). There were interesting sessions from companies such as how Lego has modernized their ecommerce site using serverless patterns, Express.com on migrating to a new architecture during COVID (online sales were their sole revenue stream due to physical stores being closed), […]

Next Generation Digital Commerce Architecture Daydreaming
Every so often I day dream of what a next generation ecommerce platform would look like. (Yes, this is one of those pie in the sky blogs.) First, I think SaaS platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, Volusion, and so on do a great job for many ecommerce merchants. What I wanted to focus on in this […]

Alternative online shopping experiences
Shopping as entertainment comes up frequently as a trend. For example, 10 Consumer Trends Shaping the Future of Retail mentions it including 51% miss “going shopping” as a way to socialize; and 25% regularly tune into video shopping channels like QVC or HSN. But how to create an enjoyable online social shopping experience? In this […]
Will live-stream commerce drive dropshipping variants?
TJ Gamble recently posted a great video on privacy changes on the web and the potential impact to dropshipping. I found it an interesting video to start the year with. Personally I have been watching live streaming for commerce, massive in China but not so big at least in the US yet. COVID has driven […]

Composable Commerce
Recently I have been hearing the term “Composable Commerce” more frequently, and I like it. It expands beyond “Headless Commerce”, separation of the frontend stack from the backend, into selecting best of breed technologies to build your commerce stack. The first reference I have come across is from Gartner (Composable Commerce Must Be Adopted for […]

My predictions for 2021 ecommerce
So what will be important in ecommerce in 2021? Is it faster web sites with better Core Web Vitals metrics? Do I need to do a better job of WebPack for my JavaScript assets? PWA, TWA, SSR, CSR? REST? GraphQL? React? Next.js? Vue? Angular? Tailwind CSS? Ecommerce platforms? Content management platforms? Bespoke applications? How about […]