Shopify, Headless & The Real Cost of Ecommerce Growth – with Marina Milojkovic, Grebban

June 17, 2026

Are brands looking far enough ahead when evaluating ecommerce platforms?

On the latest episode of The FODcast, James sits down with Marina Milojkovic, VP UK at Grebban, to unpack why total cost of ownership in ecommerce is often far more complex than brands initially expect.

From app sprawl and operational complexity, through to team structure, ownership and long-term scalability, the conversation explores why platform decisions cannot just be evaluated on implementation cost alone.

We cover a whole host of topics including:

  • Why Shopify doesn’t always mean lower TCO long term
  • The hidden cost of apps, integrations and operational complexity
  • Why brands need to look at years three and four, not just implementation
  • How regular TCO audits can help keep tech stacks lean
  • Why TCO, AI, brand experience and UX are increasingly part of the same ecommerce investment conversation

A really practical discussion for brands reviewing their ecommerce setup, planning a replatform, or simply trying to understand where complexity and cost actually come from.

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Written by:

James Hodges

Director of Client Engagement

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FODcast Takeaway: Is Poor Product Data About to Become Ecommerce’s Biggest AI Problem?

June 17, 2026

For years, product data often sat quietly in the background of ecommerce operations.

As long as product titles, descriptions, images, and attributes were broadly accurate, many businesses viewed product information management primarily as an operational requirement rather than a strategic priority.

The focus tended to sit elsewhere on acquisition, customer experience, performance marketing, and platform development.

The rise of AI is changing that very quickly.

As ecommerce increasingly shifts towards intent-driven discovery, recommendation engines, conversational interfaces, and AI-assisted purchasing journeys, the quality of product data is becoming far more commercially important than many businesses perhaps previously realised.

That was one of the key themes explored during a recent episode of The FODcast, where Tim Roedel sat down with Romain Fouache, CEO of Akeneo, to discuss how AI is reshaping digital commerce and why clean product data is becoming critical to future ecommerce success.

Why AI changes the importance of product data

One of the clearest themes throughout the conversation was that AI fundamentally changes how products are discovered.

Historically, ecommerce largely relied on structured search behaviour. Customers typed keywords into search bars, filtered categories, and navigated websites using relatively predictable browsing patterns. Product data still mattered, but often within fairly rigid ecommerce structures.

AI introduces a much more fluid and intent-led experience.

As Romain discussed, customers increasingly expect systems to understand what they mean rather than simply what they type. That creates a very different challenge for retailers because AI systems require significantly richer, more accurate, and more contextual product information in order to interpret customer intent properly.

The risk for businesses is that products with incomplete, inconsistent, or poorly structured data become harder for AI systems to surface effectively. In an AI-driven environment, weak product data may not simply create friction. It may reduce discoverability altogether.

Why clean data is becoming commercially important

Another important point raised during the discussion was that product data quality increasingly has direct commercial implications.

For many businesses, product information management has historically been treated as a technical or operational discipline sitting behind the scenes. Increasingly though, data quality directly influences customer experience, conversion, search visibility, and revenue performance.

As AI-driven recommendation and discovery systems become more prominent, product data effectively becomes the language through which ecommerce systems understand products themselves.

That means businesses need far greater consistency and depth across product attributes, descriptions, taxonomy, imagery, and contextual information. The companies investing properly in their data foundations are far more likely to create stronger discovery experiences and more relevant customer journeys.

This reflects a much wider shift happening across digital commerce, where operational data increasingly influences front-end customer experience directly.

The changing nature of ecommerce discovery

One of the more interesting themes explored during the conversation was how customer journeys themselves are beginning to evolve.

Traditional ecommerce websites are not disappearing, but they are increasingly being supplemented by AI-driven experiences that sit earlier within the discovery process. Customers may begin product research through AI assistants, conversational tools, or recommendation systems long before reaching a retailer’s website directly.

That changes the role product data plays within ecommerce ecosystems.

As Romain explained, customers do not always know exactly what product they want at the beginning of a journey. AI increasingly acts as the bridge between broad customer intent and specific product recommendations. For that to work effectively, retailers need product information capable of supporting far more nuanced interpretation and contextual understanding.

In many ways, ecommerce is moving away from purely keyword-driven experiences towards much more intent-driven interactions.

Why feedback loops and optimisation matter

Another important point raised during the conversation was the importance of continuous improvement.

AI systems become more effective when businesses understand how customers interact with products, where discovery succeeds or fails, and how user behaviour evolves over time. That means product data management cannot remain static.

As customer expectations and AI capabilities continue to evolve, retailers increasingly need feedback loops that allow them to refine, improve, and optimise product information continuously. Businesses that treat product data as a living commercial asset rather than a fixed operational requirement are likely to adapt more successfully over time.

This also reflects a broader change happening across ecommerce strategy more generally, where iteration, optimisation, and adaptability are becoming increasingly important.

The capability challenge behind AI-driven commerce

One of the wider themes that continues to emerge across digital commerce is the growing overlap between data, customer experience, ecommerce operations, and AI strategy.

Product data now sits at the centre of many of those conversations simultaneously. That means businesses increasingly need teams capable of understanding not just ecommerce platforms themselves, but also taxonomy, customer intent, AI-driven discovery, and data governance more broadly.

From our perspective, this is another example of how ecommerce capability is evolving beyond traditional channel management alone. The businesses best positioned for AI-driven commerce are often those building stronger operational foundations underneath the customer experience itself.

Final thoughts

What came through clearly in this conversation is that product data is no longer simply an operational necessity sitting quietly behind ecommerce platforms.

As Romain highlighted, clean and structured product data increasingly shapes discoverability, customer experience, and commercial performance in an AI-driven retail environment. The businesses investing in those foundations now are likely to be far better positioned as AI continues to reshape how customers discover and purchase products online.

For retailers, that means treating product data less like back-office administration and more like a strategic commercial asset that directly influences future growth.

A big thank you to Romain for sharing his insight and perspective on this topic. If AI-driven commerce, product information management, or ecommerce data strategy is something your business is currently exploring, the full episode is well worth a listen.

Catch up with the episode here

Written by:

Tim Roedel

CEO

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Industry News & Headlines | May 2026

May 30, 2026

With May coming to a close, and after what has felt like the first proper spell of sunshine and Bank Holiday weather of the year, there’s also a continued sense of momentum across the digital commerce market, particularly compared to the slower start many businesses experienced earlier in the year.

Q2 has started positively from our side, with an influx of vacancies across both new and existing consultancy and agency clients, many of whom have secured new projects and are now looking to strengthen their teams. More broadly, conversations remain productive, with healthy pipelines and encouraging levels of activity across our European network, particularly in the UK, Nordics, Netherlands and Germany.

That said, hiring remains measured. Businesses are still being highly considered in their decision-making, while candidates are taking a more selective approach when evaluating opportunities. Long-term fit, flexibility and culture continue to play a major role on both sides of the process.

AI, unsurprisingly, continues to dominate discussions and looks set to remain one of the defining topics of 2026. Alongside that, we’re hearing more around nearshore delivery models, Employer of Record hiring across Europe, and how businesses are balancing growth ambitions with more flexible, outcomes-led delivery structures rather than fixed scopes and rigid deliverables.

Events throughout May, including RTS and Pulse, also reinforced the growing focus on retail media, customer retention and loyalty, and the wider challenge of driving sustainable growth in an increasingly competitive landscape.

Overall, it’s been a strong and encouraging start to Q2 and, based on current pipeline visibility, we’re expecting that momentum to continue into the summer months.

Market Spotlight + Top 5 eCommerce Stories This Month

  • M&S relaunches Sparks with AI-powered personalisation and digital wallet rewards, introducing tailored offers and more data-driven shopping journeys as UK retailers continue investing heavily in loyalty and customer retention strategies READ MORE
  • Amazon expands Rufus and Alexa+ shopping capabilities to create more conversational ecommerce experiences, blending voice, recommendation and AI-powered discovery as major retailers reshape digital shopping journey READ MORE
  • Klarna launches Shopping Search app in ChatGPT, connecting conversational AI with live retail data and product discovery as brands adapt to emerging AI-led shopping behaviours READ MORE
  • Lululemon accelerates European expansion with new store openings and market launches across Greece and Central Europe, as premium activewear brands continue investing in international omnichannel growth opportunities READ MORE
  • TJ Morris owner of Home Bargains explores potential acquisition of Flying Tiger Copenhagen, signalling continued consolidation across value retail as discount brands seek international growth and stronger high street presence READ MORE

Each month we send out the latest industry news and headlines, plus sector insight such as this via our newsletter, The Pulse. This also includes the latest jobs and internal news… click HERE  to subscribe

 

Written by:

James Hodges

Director of Client Engagement

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Pricing Isn’t Broken – it’s Blind, with Meghan Stabler

May 21, 2026

Pricing in retail still isn’t where it needs to be.

In this episode of The FODcast (and the launch of Season 8), we sit down with Meghan Stabler (Co-Founder and CMO at AI-driven, contextual pricing platform alentr) to explore why pricing remains one of the most complex and underdeveloped areas in digital commerce.

Drawing on her experience as former SVP of Global Marketing at BigCommerce where she helped scale the business through to IPO, Meghan shares a clear and practical perspective on the gap between performance metrics and pricing strategy – and what businesses need to rethink.

We cover:

  •  Margin vs conversion – why strong performance doesn’t always mean pricing is right
  •  The reality of discounting – easy to implement, harder to sustain
  •  AI in pricing – where it adds value and where it still falls short
  •  Static vs dynamic models – why many businesses remain reactive
  •  Pricing guardrails – protecting margin while staying competitive

If pricing is still being treated as a periodic review rather than an active, strategic lever, this is a conversation worth your time.

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Written by:

James Hodges

Director of Client Engagement

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FODcast Takeaway: The Hidden Costs of eCommerce Growth

May 21, 2026

If there is one area of digital commerce that businesses consistently underestimate, it is total cost of ownership.

Platform conversations around the hidden cost of eCommerce growth often begin with licence fees, implementation costs, and delivery timelines. Those factors matter, of course, but they rarely tell the full story. What looks cost effective in year one can start to look very different by years three or four, particularly as businesses grow, operations become more complex, and additional systems begin to stack up around the core platform.

In a recent episode of The FODcast, Marina Milojkovic, VP UK at Grebban, shared some valuable insight into the realities of ecommerce total cost of ownership, and why brands need to think far more carefully about long-term operational impact rather than simply upfront platform spend.

Why ecommerce total cost of ownership is often misunderstood

One of the most interesting points Marina raised was the way businesses tend to assess ecommerce platforms in isolation. In many cases, the focus remains heavily weighted towards the visible costs. Licence fees, implementation projects, migration work, and monthly platform spend are all relatively easy to measure.

What is harder to measure are the operational costs that develop over time.

As businesses grow, ecommerce ecosystems naturally become more complicated. Additional apps are introduced, integrations expand, workflows become more fragmented, and teams often find themselves managing increasingly disconnected processes. On paper, the platform itself may still appear relatively affordable, but the wider cost of operating the ecosystem around it can rise significantly.

That is where ecommerce total cost of ownership becomes far more complex than a simple platform comparison.

Growth changes the equation

A major theme throughout the discussion was the disconnect between current business needs and future growth expectations.

A platform that works perfectly well for a growing brand today may not necessarily support the same business three years from now. As product ranges expand, international markets open up, and customer expectations increase, operational demands inevitably become more sophisticated too.

This is often where businesses begin to feel the strain. What initially felt agile and flexible can become increasingly difficult to manage as additional functionality, integrations, and workarounds are layered into the environment.

Marina’s point was not that one platform is inherently better than another. Rather, it was that businesses need to evaluate ecommerce total cost of ownership through the lens of where they are trying to get to, not simply where they are today.

The hidden operational burden behind ecommerce platforms

One of the areas that often receives less attention is the impact on internal teams.

Operational inefficiency is still a cost, even if it does not appear directly on a balance sheet. If ecommerce managers are spending hours navigating multiple disconnected tools, manually managing processes, or troubleshooting platform limitations, that time carries commercial value.

The challenge is that these inefficiencies rarely appear overnight. Teams gradually adapt to complexity, adding new tools and processes as requirements evolve, until eventually the operational burden itself becomes difficult to manage.

This feels particularly relevant in the current market. Ecommerce expectations continue to rise around customer experience, personalisation, speed, and performance, but many businesses are still trying to deliver against those expectations with relatively lean teams.

As Marina highlighted during the conversation, ecommerce total cost of ownership should include not just platform spend, but also the wider operational and organisational cost required to run it effectively.

Why regular TCO audits matter

Another practical takeaway from the discussion was the importance of reviewing ecommerce ecosystems regularly rather than treating platform decisions as fixed for the long term.

Technology stacks evolve quickly. Businesses add new tools, processes change, integrations multiply, and before long there is often significant overlap between systems and functionality. Without periodic reviews, brands can easily find themselves paying for tools they no longer use or maintaining processes that no longer make commercial sense.

Regular TCO audits allow businesses to reassess not just the technology itself, but the wider operational efficiency surrounding it. In many cases, simplification can deliver just as much value as further investment.

This is becoming increasingly important as businesses balance the pressure to innovate with the need to remain commercially disciplined.

The capability challenge behind ecommerce growth

One of the wider themes that continues to emerge across digital commerce is the growing relationship between technology investment and internal capability.

As ecommerce ecosystems become more sophisticated, businesses increasingly need people who can bridge the gap between systems, operations, customer experience, and commercial performance. That is not always an easy skillset to find.

Implementing technology is one part of the challenge. Managing complexity over time is another entirely.

We know first hand that the businesses seeing the strongest outcomes are often those that combine platform investment with the right operational structures and commercial talent around it. As technology stacks become more interconnected, the ability to manage change, interpret data, and continuously optimise the customer experience becomes increasingly valuable.

In many ways, ecommerce total cost of ownership is now as much about organisational capability as it is about technology itself.

Final thoughts

What came through clearly in this conversation is that ecommerce total cost of ownership extends far beyond the initial platform decision. Upfront costs are only one part of a much broader operational picture.

As Marina highlighted, businesses need to think more carefully about scalability, operational efficiency, resource demands, and long-term growth when evaluating ecommerce platforms and wider digital commerce investments.

From our perspective, it also reinforces something we continue to see across the market: technology alone rarely solves complexity. The businesses that scale most effectively are usually those that combine the right platforms with the right operational thinking and the right people around them.

A big thank you to Marina for sharing her insight and experience on this topic. If ecommerce platform strategy or total cost of ownership is something you are currently exploring, the full episode is well worth a listen.

Catch up with the episode here

Written by:

James Hodges

Director of Client Engagement

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FODcast Takeaway: Retail Pricing Strategy in 2026 (And Why It’s Still the Hardest Problem to Solve)

May 1, 2026

If there is one part of digital commerce that still refuses to fall neatly into place, it is pricing. For all the progress made across platforms, personalisation, and customer experience, pricing often remains slightly out of step, more reactive than strategic, and more constrained than it probably should be. As we move further into 2026, that gap is becoming harder to ignore.

In a recent episode of The FODcast, Meghan Stabler, Co-founder of alentr and former SVP of Global Marketing at BigCommerce, shared a perspective that will feel familiar to many retailers. Pricing is not broken, but it is lagging behind the rest of the ecosystem, and that is starting to have a real commercial impact.

Why pricing still lags behind

When you look across the digital commerce landscape, most areas have evolved quickly. Front-end experiences are more refined, personalisation is more accessible, and there is certainly no shortage of data. And yet, pricing is still often managed in ways that feel surprisingly manual. It is reviewed periodically rather than actively optimised, and in many cases it is shaped as much by internal limitations as it is by market conditions. That creates a disconnect. Particularly in a market where margins are under pressure and customers are more informed than ever, the ability to respond with precision, rather than broad adjustments, becomes incredibly important.

The reality retailers are navigating in 2026

The underlying challenges have not changed dramatically, but they have become more pronounced. There is a constant tension between staying competitive and protecting margin, and discounting remains an easy, if not always sustainable, lever to pull. At the same time, metrics like conversion rate do not always tell the full story.

A strong conversion rate can just as easily suggest that pricing is too low as it can that it is right. Layer on top of that the continued unpredictability in supply chains and cost bases, and it becomes clear why static pricing models are starting to feel increasingly fragile.

AI in retail pricing: promise and practicality

Unsurprisingly, much of the conversation has shifted towards AI in retail pricing, and with good reason. The potential is there to analyse vast amounts of data, respond to competitor movements, and adjust pricing in a way that simply has not been possible before. But in practice, things are a little more nuanced.

The challenge for many retailers is not access to AI tools, but the ability to embed them effectively into decision making. That requires clean data, clear ownership, and a commercial framework that defines how pricing should behave in different scenarios. AI can absolutely enhance pricing strategy, but it works best when it is supporting a well defined approach, not trying to replace one.

Towards a more considered pricing model

What is emerging is not a need for constant change, but for more controlled flexibility. The retailers making progress here tend to have a clear baseline built around their cost structure and margin expectations, combined with defined guardrails that prevent unnecessary erosion. From there, pricing can be adjusted more selectively, based on where it will genuinely make a difference. It is a subtle shift, but an important one. Moving away from reactive discounting towards more deliberate, informed decisions changes the role pricing plays within the business.

Why this matters now

For a long time, pricing has sat slightly outside of digital transformation conversations, often seen as something separate from the technology stack. That is changing. As platforms become more standardised and experience becomes more consistent across the market, pricing is one of the few remaining levers that can materially influence commercial performance. It is also one of the least mature areas in many organisations, which makes it both a challenge and an opportunity.

The talent behind the shift

One of the more interesting themes that continues to come through is the role of people in all of this. Technology is advancing quickly, but the capability to interpret data, apply commercial judgement, and bridge the gap between systems and outcomes is still in relatively short supply. Pricing, in particular, sits across multiple disciplines, data, finance, and trading, and that makes it harder to define, and often harder to hire for.

As AI becomes more embedded, that gap does not disappear. If anything, it becomes more important to have the right people shaping how those tools are used.

Final thought

What came through clearly in this conversation is that pricing is not a new problem, but it is becoming a more visible and more complex one. As Megan highlighted, the combination of margin pressure, customer expectation, and the growing role of AI is forcing retailers to rethink how they approach it.

From our side, what we continue to see across the market is that this is not just a technology challenge. It is a capability one. The retailers making the most progress are those who are able to bring together data, commercial thinking, and the right people to make sense of it.

Those who start to treat pricing as a strategic capability, supported by both technology and talent, are far more likely to protect margin and drive sustainable growth. Those who do not risk staying in a cycle of reactive decision making in a market that increasingly rewards precision.

A big thank you to Megan for sharing her time and insight on this topic. If this is an area you are currently exploring, it is well worth listening to the full episode for a deeper dive into the thinking behind it.

Catch up with the episode here

Written by:

James Hodges

Director of Client Engagement

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B2B Commerce Isn’t Broken – It’s Complicated with Tom Williams, UNRVLD

May 1, 2026

B2B commerce complexity isn’t just technical. It’s organisational, behavioural and cultural.

On this week’s episode of The FODcast, James sits down with Tom Williams, Managing Partner at UNRVLD to unpack why B2B transformations stall…and what actually gets them moving.

We cover a whole host of topics including:

  • Complex pricing + org structures: different users, permissions and hierarchies; and why it needs uncovering early
  • Legacy order channels (email, punchout, OCR and more): you often can’t “switch it off” even if it’s inefficient
  • Customer-first vs tech-first: most businesses start with a feature tick list, not customer behaviour
  • Digital maturity reality checks: why teams think they’re further along than they are
  • Integration first: a robust middleware approach that lets you change systems without breaking everything else

If you’re modernising B2B, this is a practical conversation: start with the “as is”, map the “to be”, then make progress iteratively – without forcing a big bang.

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Written by:

James Hodges

Director of Client Engagement

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Industry News & Headlines | April 2026

April 30, 2026

With March behind us, it’s fair to say the tone of conversations across the market feels more positive than it did earlier in the year.

There’s still a competitive edge to hiring and ongoing pressure on costs, but the direction of travel is encouraging. Retail in particular feels more active, with budgets being released and projects starting to kick off again after a slower start to the year. Alongside that, we’re seeing a broader uptick in hiring activity across the industry, particularly in commercial and engineering roles.

Unsurprisingly, AI continues to dominate the agenda. What’s shifting now is how it’s being applied. We’re seeing more candidates approaching opportunities with an “AI-first” mindset, while businesses are starting to factor AI capability into both hiring decisions and wider partner selection. It’s also beginning to reshape delivery models, with some early conversations suggesting significantly leaner teams supported by the right tooling.

With a number of major industry events around the corner, including MACH X and Retail Technology Show in April, followed closely by Pulse and Shoptalk, we expect the pace of insight and innovation to accelerate further over the coming weeks.

From our side, there are encouraging signs heading into Q2, with new vacancies coming through and lots of positive action-focused conversations. If March is anything to go by, the next quarter looks set to be a busy one.

Market Spotlight + Top 5 eCommerce Stories This Month

  • Tesco partners with Adobe to personalise Clubcard rewards using AI, tailoring offers to individual customers and improving engagement across digital channels as retailers look to drive loyalty and customer value READ MORE
  • Visa launches agentic commerce tools to support AI-led shopping journeys, helping retailers integrate with emerging AI assistants and enabling more seamless discovery, decision-making and payment experiences across digital channels READ MORE
  • Primark launches its first UK mobile app to support phygital growth, connecting in-store and online journeys with features designed to improve product discovery, availability and customer engagement across channels READ MORE
  • Nike deploys interactive AR mirror experience in JD Sports Oxford Street store, using LoookAI technology to blend physical and digital retail and enhance in-store product engagement and customer experience READ MORE
  • OpenAI pivots its ChatGPT shopping strategy after instant checkout underwhelms, shifting focus toward product discovery and recommendation as AI-led commerce journeys continue to evolve beyond direct transaction READ MORE

Each month we send out the latest industry news and headlines, plus sector insight such as this via our newsletter, The Pulse. This also includes the latest jobs and internal news… click HERE  to subscribe

 

Written by:

James Hodges

Director of Client Engagement

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Industry News & Headlines | March 2026

March 30, 2026

With the evenings getting lighter and signs of spring starting to appear, it feels like a good moment to take stock of how the year is shaping up so far.

As mentioned in the previous newsletter, January saw a strong start with a high number of new vacancies qualified across the Simply Commerce desk. Since then things have settled slightly, although our pipeline remains healthy and we’re optimistic about how the coming months will develop.

Interview processes are still moving a little slower than we would ideally like to see. In a competitive talent market, we know all too well that the businesses who move decisively tend to secure the strongest candidates, so there’s a real opportunity for hiring teams to act quickly when the right people become available.

Encouragingly, we’ve seen a gradual increase in demand for commercial hires, particularly across sales and partnerships roles throughout the UK.

More broadly, the market continues to show strong buying signals. Interest in areas such as personalisation and loyalty remains high, and with AI accelerating capability in these areas the opportunity for brands is significant, even if investment decisions are still being made carefully.

AI is also beginning to influence hiring processes themselves, with more companies experimenting with automated screening tools at the first stage. The reaction in the market is mixed. Personally, I’m not entirely convinced yet, although there may well be a place for these tools in the near future. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts.

Market Spotlight + Top 5 eCommerce Stories This Month

  • John Lewis is testing ways for customers to discover and buy products through AI assistants and social platforms, reflecting how conversational AI and social commerce are beginning to reshape ecommerce discovery READ MORE
  • Just Eat begins UK trial of autonomous delivery robots with pilots in Bristol and Milton Keynes. The test reflects a broader push across retail and ecommerce to automate last-mile logistics and improve delivery efficiency READ MORE
  • Boots accelerates data-driven beauty strategy using loyalty data from its 17m Advantage Card members (alongside AI trend platforms) to identify emerging products faster and bring viral beauty brands to market more quickly READ MORE
  • European fashion marketplace, Zalando, expects operating profit to rise as AI-generated product imagery, virtual try-ons and smarter logistics reduce costs and returns while increasing customer engagement across its ecommerce platform READ MORE
  • Ocado confirmed plans to reduce headcount across its global operations as robotics and warehouse automation improve productivity across fulfilment centres and its technology platform READ MORE

Each month we send out the latest industry news and headlines, plus sector insight such as this via our newsletter, The Pulse. This also includes the latest jobs and internal news… click HERE  to subscribe

 

Written by:

James Hodges

Director of Client Engagement

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The Agentic Commerce Talent Gap: Why Agencies Need To Act Now

March 13, 2026

Agentic commerce is creating a hiring gap most Shopify agencies and brands have not even named yet

Over the last few months I have had a familiar set of conversations with Shopify agencies and Shopify merchants.

They are not really about tooling. They are about capability.

The question underneath most of them is this. If the buying journey is increasingly shaped by AI, and if more of the purchase flow starts to happen inside conversational interfaces, do we have the people in place who know how to build, run, and improve that world.

Most teams do not. Most agencies do not. And that gap is already showing up in hiring.

In the next 6 to 12 months, I think the winners will be the ones who treat this as a people and operating model shift, not a feature update.

The context, quickly, why this is happening

Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol, developed with partners including Shopify, is part of a broader move toward agentic commerce. In plain English, it points to a world where customers express intent in an AI interface, and the purchase can be completed reliably without the same old loop of tabs, product pages and checkout friction.

That will not replace websites overnight, but it does change the centre of gravity. Discovery, decisioning, and even conversion can start to happen in places brands and agencies do not fully control today.

If that is true, then the most valuable work shifts upstream. Less time spent purely on building pages, more time spent on making product data, commercial logic, experience, and operations machine readable, consistent and optimised for intent based journeys.

That is why the talent problem matters more than the protocol itself.

The early signal we are already seeing in the market

This is not hypothetical for the Shopify ecosystem.

A UK agency and a Finnish agency, both Shopify focused, have told us they are struggling to find enough strong solutions consultants and lead consultants. These are the people who can translate client needs into platform decisions and delivery reality, and they are already in short supply.

A Shopify agency in the Netherlands has reached out asking how to build out an engineering team that is more AI savvy, more prompt focused, and capable of what they described as book ending AI, meaning engineers who can work effectively with AI tools while still owning quality, maintainability and outcomes.

On the merchant side, a UK Shopify agency asked for support hiring around AI strategy focused on CX and the customer front end, because their clients are asking the questions but nobody internally owns the answers.

All of that is a talent signal. The market is trying to staff for a shift that has not yet been formalised into neat job titles.

Gentian Shero, Co-Founder and CSO at Shero Commerce, put it well:

The biggest mistake I see right now is treating AI readiness as a technology problem. It is an operations and people problem. The merchants with clean data, clear ownership, and someone accountable for how AI fits into their commercial model will be ready when agentic commerce scales. Everyone else will be scrambling. For agencies, the question is simple: if your client’s customer never visits a website, where does your value sit? The ones building around data strategy, AI enablement, and commercial operations have a future. The ones still selling builds as the whole offer will have a problem.

The four role shapes that will matter most

These are not the only roles that will evolve, but if you are an agency founder, a delivery leader, or a merchant running a Shopify programme, these four shapes are the ones that stop this becoming a collection of disconnected experiments.

1. Agentic Commerce Lead, sometimes called AI Strategy Lead

What they do day to day They own the roadmap and the decisions. They decide what is being tested, why it matters commercially, and how it gets rolled out without breaking customer experience or operations. They align product, engineering, CX, and commercial teams so AI does not become everybody’s side project and nobody’s priority.

What backgrounds translate well You rarely find this person with a perfect title. They tend to come from digital product leadership, eCommerce leadership, strategy and consulting, platform partnerships, or strong solution consulting backgrounds where they have operated at the intersection of commercial goals and technology reality.

What a good job description actually focuses on Ownership, governance, prioritisation, and commercial outcomes. Not prompt engineering. Not an AI evangelist. Someone who can make decisions and bring people with them.

2. Product and Data Architect with an AI focus

What they do day to day They make the catalogue and commerce data usable for machines, not just humans. That includes product attributes, taxonomy, variants, availability, pricing logic, promotions, and the operational rules that sit behind the scenes. They also tend to be the person who stops AI initiatives failing because the underlying data is messy or inconsistent.

What backgrounds translate well PIM and MDM specialists, feed management, merchandising operations, ecommerce architecture, data product roles, CMS and DXP data heavy environments, and sometimes very strong platform engineers with a data leaning mindset.

What a good job description focuses on Structured data, catalogue health, commercial rules, integration awareness, and the ability to work with merchandisers and engineers equally well.

3. AI Experience and Conversation Designer

What they do day to day They shape how a brand appears inside AI driven journeys. They think about how customers ask questions, how products are surfaced, what the decision flow looks like, and how trust is built when the interface is not a traditional website. They also work closely with CX to make sure the experience is coherent from discovery through to support.

What backgrounds translate well UX content, service design, CRO leadership, lifecycle and CRM journey specialists, customer experience design, and anyone who has built guided selling experiences, quizzes, configurators, or complex assisted journeys.

What a good job description focuses on Decision journeys, clarity, trust signals, information design, and collaboration with CX and product.

4. Commercial Operations and Enablement Lead

What they do day to day They connect the strategy to reality. They make sure fulfilment, returns, customer service, and commercial reporting can cope with new buying behaviours. They also help answer the awkward questions about margin, performance measurement, and what success looks like when the old signals become less reliable.

What backgrounds translate well Trading and merchandising leads, revenue operations, commercial analytics, fulfilment operations leadership, customer operations, and people who have owned performance across multi channel commerce.

What a good job description focuses on Commercial ownership, operational coordination, performance measurement, and the ability to turn theory into repeatable execution.

The important point is that not every business needs to hire four net new people tomorrow. Plenty of organisations will evolve existing roles. The risk is simply having no clear ownership at all.

Where you actually find these people, because the titles do not exist yet

This is the part nobody talks about, but it is the practical blocker.

If you search for agentic commerce lead in most markets, you will not get a clean set of candidates. The way to hire for this is to recruit from adjacent backgrounds and hire for capability, then shape the role.

At Simply Commerce, we sit across Europe, the UK and the US with both contract and permanent talent pools, covering commerce, POS, CMS, PIM, and the wider DXP layer. We see where the transferable skills actually live because we are speaking to these people every day, not reading about them.

In practice, the best hires often come from solution consulting, product leadership, digital strategy, data heavy commerce and DXP roles, and commercial operations leadership. The mistake we see agencies make is hiring someone who can talk about AI, but cannot run a programme, influence stakeholders, or tie decisions back to commercial outcomes.

Another common mistake is assuming your engineering team will just absorb this naturally. Some engineers will, especially those already using AI tools responsibly. Many will not. You need a deliberate plan for capability building, not a hope based strategy.

What to do in the next 6 to 12 months

If you are a Shopify agency, I would focus on three things.

  • First, decide whether you want to lead on this with clients or react when they ask. That decision shapes your service roadmap and your hiring plan.
  • Second, build a readiness assessment offer. Something simple and repeatable that looks at data quality, commercial rules, operational constraints, and where AI driven journeys could realistically add value for your client base.
  • Third, invest in one or two of these role shapes early, even if you start with a fractional hire or a senior consultant. Waiting until clients demand it usually means you are hiring in a panic, and that is when you overpay and underhire.

If you are a merchant, the biggest win is clarity. Decide who owns this internally, clean up the basics, and make sure your partners can talk about more than storefronts and build projects. If your organisation cannot name who is accountable for AI commerce decisions, then you are not yet taking it seriously, even if you are running experiments.

Closing thoughts

UCP and agentic commerce will keep evolving, and nobody should pretend they can predict the exact timeline. What we can say with confidence is that the talent market is already moving, and agencies and merchants are already feeling the gaps.

The organisations that do well in the next 6 to 12 months will not be the ones who collect the most AI tools. They will be the ones who build the clearest ownership, hire for the right capabilities, and create teams that can turn a shift in interface into a shift in commercial performance.

Tim Roedel | Managing Director | Simply Commerce

With input from Gentian Shero at Shero Commerce: If you want to compare notes on what you are seeing, feel free to message Gentian or myself on LinkedIn

Written by:

Tim Roedel

CEO

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