Shaping eCommerce with IronPlane IronPlane

On the latest episode of Shaping eCommerce, Tim Bucciarelli had the pleasure of interviewing François Chaix, Head of Partner Evangelism at Akeneo. On the podcast, they talk about:
- How Akeneo's technology works and how the company started
- The rise of omnichannel buying journeys in eCommerce
- Why retailers should explore PIMs like Akeneo
- How Akeneo was built to accommodate a composable architecture

#pim #productinformationmanagement #ecommerceproducts #ecommercesolutions

00:00 Shaping eCommerce with François Chaix, Head of Partner Evangelism at Akeneo
04:41 The future of eCommerce is omnichannel 
18:01 PIMs are ideal for GTM collaboration
23:56 5 reasons you should start using a PIM
32:05 PIMs accelerate time to market, especially for new retailers or those moving to a new strategy (ex. B2C to B2B)
37:40 How Akeneo fits into composable architectures

Find Akeneo at: https://www.akeneo.com/
Find François at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fchaix/

OTHER RELEVANT LINKS:
Reasons why a company should start with PIM
https://www.akeneo.com/blog/building-an-omnichannel-future-5-reasons-to-start-with-pim/

What is Composable Commerce, and Why is it Important?
https://www.akeneo.com/blog/what-is-composable-commerce/
Product Cloud, Product Activation, Product Experience; Oh My!
https://www.akeneo.com/blog/product-cloud-product-activation-product-experience/
PIM is the Keystone for Digital Commerce
https://www.akeneo.com/blog/pim-is-the-keystone-for-digital-commerce/

Building the PIM (and PXM) Dream Team
https://www.akeneo.com/blog/building-the-pim-and-pxm-dream-team/

PIM and DAM: Everything You Need to Know
https://www.akeneo.com/blog/pim-and-dam-everything-you-need-to-know/


The story of Julia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7I3caiy7BU

Bob founded IronPlane in 2012 to provide Magento, Adobe Commerce, and BigCommerce services to B2C and B2B clients. He's also founded multiple eCommerce companies himself.

In his interview with Tim, Bob focuses on how:

- eCommerce will become “unified commerce” or just "Commerce"
- BigCommerce seems to be in the middle between a true SaaS and something more custom or PaaS
- Marketplaces will continue to grow as a revenue strategy
- Magento open source is still best for customizations
- SaaS platforms will improve, but businesses may get better total cost of ownership with on-prem platforms
- AR/3D/VR will eventually be a necessity

You can read the transcription here:

#futureofecommerce #magentodevelopment #adobecommerce #unifiedcommerce

00:00 Future of eCommerce series: Bob Giovannini
04:13 Moving from eCommerce to just "Commerce"
10:27 His take on Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, and more
17:34 Why engage with a marketplace
22:54 The risk of SaaS vs. On-prem
25:48 It’s less about the future of eCommerce and more about the future of your business
28:30 Will SaaS win out over On-prem solutions?
35:23 Who is a good candidate for headless?
40:27 Helping clients find the right tool for their needs
46:24 Focus on tools that help you merchandise your products more effectively

Curtis is the Head of Strategy at Shero, an eCommerce growth agency focusing on Magento, Adobe Commerce, Shopify, and BigCommerce.

In his interview with Tim, Curtis explains that:

- In 5 years, there won't be much change; if anything, there will be contraction 
- In 10 years, companies will focus on tactile feel, reproducing the in-store experience with 3D, VR, AR, etc.
- BigCommerce is bigger than people think it is - they give customers a great toolbox
- On-prem isn't going away any time soon - industries like healthcare need more control
- Headless doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be faster
- Marketplaces will struggle to take advantage of platforms like Instagram and TikTok
- Your digital footprint matters - how diverse does your company look? Do you have any offset programs? What is the language of your site? 

Or you can read the transcription here: 

#futureofecommerce #magentodevelopment #adobecommerce #unifiedcommerce

00:00 Future of eCommerce: Curtis Schrum
02:10 Where eComm will be in the next 5 years
05:13 Integrations need to get much more seamless
06:32 Clients Shopify can serve well
08:32 Where Adobe Commerce is going
20:47 The interconnectedness of Magento
29:25 What's going to happen to Magento Open Source?
31:22 A discussion of Mage-OS

Aaron is the Director of Competitive Strategy at BigCommerce and has been in the eCommerce space for the past 8 years on the agency side of the business. He's worked with many clients in various industries and verticals and has a genuine interest in all things eCommerce-related.

In his interview with Tim, he gives his take on:

- Adobe - they see the future of eCommerce as composable for the enterprise only
- Shopify - they are following a salesforce model creating their own version of payments, CDPs, headless architectures
- BigCommerce - a much more open platform, letting partners fill in any gaps
- Composable and headless - they aren't in competition with one another
- Europe as the leader of headless innovation
- The Metaverse - there will be an increasing share of commerce transacted on virtual worlds
- The continued impact of privacy laws and prioritizing site security and accessibility

You read the transcription here: 

#futureofecommerce #bigcommerce #bigcommercedevelopment #composable #headless

00:00 Future of eCommerce with Aaron Sheehan
04:42 eCommerce and the Metaverse
07:50 "We're living in a weird last season of an HBO show"
08:25 Consolidation is looming
15:29 Web Accessibility
22:07 What's happening to Magento Open Source and Adobe?
29:08 Where Shopify's revenue comes from
34:10 Vertical integration
56:56 What is "composable"?

Damien is the owner of a small Magento and Adobe Commerce agency, Graycore. He's been a software engineer for the last 15 years and is the maintainer of Mage-OS, Faker-js (a Javascript library), and a PWA framework called Daffodil.

In his interview with Tim, Damien shares his thoughts on the future:

- We’re going to see consolidation - just like we have Apple, Microsoft, and Linux, we will see the same thing with eComm platforms
- Magento will be the Linux
 - Open source software will continue working best for small businesses - $0 - 30M and for really big companies
- Look out for Shopware - it's much like Magento and started in the German market
- Headless and composable are different things, and knowing how they work is critical
- MageOS will continue filling in Magento gaps, publishing a nightly version, and accepting pull requests from the community
- Look for more drag-and-drop eCommerce platforms
- Microservices will continue to carve apart various feature areas of eCommerce

You read the transcription here: 

#futureofecommerce #bigcommerce #bigcommercedevelopment #composable #headless

00:00 Future of eCommerce with Damien Retzinger
03:56 eCommerce consolidation
05:44 How Magento Open Source is different
13:35 SaaS vs. On-prem
19:45 "Headless" or "Headfull"
21:13 Composable commerce
33:01 Mage-OS

On the latest episode of Shaping eCommerce, Tim Bucciarelli had the pleasure of interviewing Gaia Vernaglione, Director of Business Development (US, CAN, LATAM) at Zakeke.

On the podcast, they talk about:

- How Zakeke technology works and how the company started
- Several unique Zakeke use cases
- How VR/AR/3D are no longer a nice to have
- How industry leaders are using Zakeke today

#3dcommerce #VR #AR #visualcommerce #ecommercetechnologies

00:00 Shaping eCommerce with Gaia Vernaglione, Director of Business Development (US, CAN, LATAM) at Zakeke
03:30 How Zakeke started
06:46 Unique applications of Zakeke
10:37 The difference Zakeke makes in terms of the customer experience
29:15 What merchants need to bring to the table to have a successful Zakeke launch
43:26 Why you need a comprehensive VR/AR/3D strategy

Find Zakeke at: https://www.zakeke.com/