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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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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When to Take the Mic in an Interview: Smart Questions That Matter

January 10, 2026

When it comes to interviews, most advice focuses on how to impress. How to answer questions. How to sell your experience. How to stand out. 

But if you only remember one thing, remember this: the questions to ask at the end of an interview are not a formality. They are your best opportunity to turn a polished job pitch into something real, so you can decide whether this move actually gives you what you are looking for. 

Because most people are not leaving a role for “something different”. They are leaving for something specific. Better progression. Proper training. A manager who does not disappear when it matters. Flexibility that exists in practice, not just in a policy document. A client scope that stretches you, or a platform roadmap you can genuinely influence. 

In 2026, with hiring increasingly shaped by automation and AI screening, asking smarter questions is also how you bring the process back to humans. SHRM has been clear that the hiring experience is under strain on both sides, and that the answer is not more speed, but more trust and judgement. That trust starts with real conversations, not rehearsed ones.  

What follows is a practical way to prepare questions that do not feel scripted, do not waste time, and actually help you make a confident decision.  

Stage 1: Get clear on your “why” before you get clever with questions 

Most end-of-interview questions fail because they are generic, not because they are “bad”. If you ask generic questions, you get generic answers, and you leave with vibes instead of evidence. 

Start here. What are your top three non-negotiables? 

For digital commerce roles, the usual drivers are: 

  • Progression and career scope 
  • Training, coaching, and feedback 
  • Culture and ways of working 
  • Flexibility and boundaries 
  • Team health and leadership 
  • Client scope, stakeholder access, and decision making 
  • Modern tools, realistic delivery, and technical debt (even in non-technical roles) 

Once you know your three, you can ask questions that are pointed without being awkward. 

Stage 2: Ask “evidence” questions, not “opinion” questions 

A good end-of-interview question does one of three things: 

  • 1 – Forces clarity on expectations 
  • 2 – Reveals how decisions actually get made 
  • 3 – Gives you a story, not a slogan 

A useful trick is to swap “Do you…” for “Can you give me an example of…” 

Instead of: “Do you support development?” 

Try: “Can you tell me about the last person who progressed from this team, and what enabled that step up?” 

Same topic, completely different answer.  

Stage 3: Use this short set of questions, picked by what you care about 

By the time you reach the end of an interview, the dynamic has usually shifted. The formal questioning is done, the pace has slowed, and the conversation often becomes more relaxed. This is exactly why the questions you ask here carry more weight than many people realise. 

How you ask matters as much as what you ask. These questions should feel curious, not confrontational. Calm, considered delivery signals confidence. Good eye contact, a steady pace and a willingness to listen all matter. You are not interrogating. You are sense-checking. 

A useful mindset is this: ask as someone imagining themselves in the role, not as someone trying to “win” the interview. Framing questions from that perspective naturally leads to better answers. 

You do not need to ask everything. Pick five or six questions that genuinely map back to your original reason for looking. Depth beats volume every time. 

Below are question sets you can draw from, depending on what matters most to you. 

1) Progression and scope 

(When you want growth, not just a change of scenery) 

  • “What does success look like in the first 90 days, and then by month 12?” 
  • “What would need to be true for someone in this role to earn a promotion here?” 
  • “Where have people in this role typically gone next?” 
  • “What tends to hold people back from progressing here?” 
  • “How much of progression is driven by performance versus timing or headcount?” 

Listen for specificity. Clear answers usually indicate a role that is understood internally, not one that has been created in a rush. 

2) Training, feedback and support 

(When development and learning are a key driver for your move) 

  • “How do you coach performance day to day, not just in review cycles?”
  • “If I joined and you noticed I was stuck after a few weeks, what would you do?”
  • “What does good performance feedback look like in this team?”
  • “Who would I learn the most from here, and how does that learning actually happen?”
  • “How do you balance delivery pressure with giving people time to develop?”

Strong teams can explain how learning fits into real work, not just formal programmes.  

3) Culture and ways of working 

(When environment and leadership style matter) 

  • “How do decisions get made when commercial and technical priorities clash?” 
  • “What behaviours tend to get rewarded here, and which do not?” 
  • “How does the team handle disagreement or challenge?” 
  • “What does leadership do when things do not go to plan?” 
  • “How would the team describe the culture during a difficult period, not a good one?” 

Pay attention not just to the answer, but to how comfortable the interviewer seems giving it.  

4) Flexibility and boundaries 

(When sustainability and balance are non-negotiable) 

  • “What does flexibility look like in practice over a typical month?” 
  • “How do you protect focus time and avoid meetings taking over?” 
  • “What happens when priorities collide or deadlines stack up?” 
  • “How do leaders here role-model healthy boundaries?” 
  • “When was the last time the team worked late or out of hours, and why?” 

Honest answers here often include examples, not absolutes.  

5) Client scope and stakeholder access 

(When influence and exposure are important) 

  • “Who are the key stakeholders I would need to win over?” 
  • “Where does this team sit when priorities shift?” 
  • “How visible is this role to senior leadership?” 
  • “What kind of stakeholder challenges should I expect in the first six months?” 
  • “Where does this role have the most influence, and where does it need to negotiate?” 

These questions help you understand whether you will be shaping decisions or simply receiving them.  

6) Risk, reality and what is not in the job description 

(When you want to avoid surprises) 

  • “What would make someone struggle in this role?” 
  • “What is still not working as well as you would like it to?” 
  • “What assumptions have been made about this hire that might not yet be tested?” 
  • “What would you change about the role if you could?” 
  • “What do you think will be the hardest part of this job in the first year?” 

These questions often surface the most useful insights of the entire interview. 

Stage 4: Close with one question that changes the dynamic 

If you have asked good questions, you have earned the right to ask a direct one. 

Try: 

“Is there anything you have seen today that makes you hesitate about my fit, so I can address it now?” 

This does two things. It gives you a chance to clarify. And it signals maturity, because you’re not waiting for feedback weeks later that you cannot act on. 

There is also a growing pattern in hiring where interviewers deliberately start by asking candidates to ask a question first, because it quickly reveals preparation and intent. You can use that same energy at the end, calmly and professionally.   

A final word on asking the right questions 

The end of an interview is not about filling silence or proving enthusiasm. It is about clarity.

A quick reality check after the call: 

  • Did they answer with examples, or principles? 
  • Could they explain priorities and trade offs, or did everything sound “fine”? 
  • Did you learn anything you could not have learned from the job description? 
  • Did the answers move you closer to your original “why”? 

 If you ask the right questions, calmly and with intent, you leave the conversation with something far more valuable than a good impression. You leave with information. Information about how decisions are made, how people are supported, how success is measured and whether the role genuinely aligns with what you are looking for next. 

Strong candidates do not rush this moment. They take it seriously because they understand that accepting the wrong role is far more costly than missing out on the right one. 

The best interviews feel balanced. Both sides leave having learned something. When that happens, even a “no” is useful, and a “yes” feels considered rather than reactive. 

If you walk out of an interview with more clarity than you had when you walked in, you have used that final question well. 

About Simply Commerce 

Simply Commerce is a specialist digital commerce recruitment partner. We work closely with candidates throughout the hiring process, helping them prepare; not just to secure an offer, but to make the right move. 

That means we actively coach candidates on how to assess roles properly, how to ask better questions in interviews, and how to sense-check what they are being told against the reality of the market. If you are considering a new role in digital commerce and want honest insight into culture, progression and long-term fit, we are always happy to have a conversation. 

 

 

Sources 

https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/hr-trends/recruitment-is-broken 

https://www.businessinsider.com/ey-talent-leader-questions-you-should-ask-in-job-interview-2025-6 

https://www.businessinsider.com/question-recruiter-starts-job-interview-2025-7 

https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-07-31-gartner-survey-shows-just-26-percent-of-job-applicants-trust-ai-will-fairly-evaluate-them 

https://www.economist.com/business/2025/12/18/how-to-conduct-a-job-interview 

https://hbr.org/2025/11/are-you-interviewing-a-candidate-or-their-ai 

 

Written by:

Jess Semrau-Tolley

UK Manager

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Your Cart Is Fine; Your Duties Are Not: Why US Shoppers Panic At Checkout with Jamie Vaughan

January 7, 2026

Confused about what’s actually working in digital commerce right now?

You’re not alone. Between US conversion chaos, rising costs, and AI hype, it’s hard to tell what moves the needle and what’s just noise.

On this week’s episode of The FODcast, host Tim Roedel sits down with Jamie Vaughan, ex MD at Signifly, to cut through the chatter and get practical about what to fix first.

Here’s what we cover:

  • The “Donald effect” impacting US growth – and how to rebuild confidence through landed cost clarity and reassurance
  • Conversion that counts: prioritising high-impact experiments using RICE (Reach, Impact, Cost, Effort)
  • Life after cookies: why attribution and cohort analysis (with tools like Triple Whale) are now essentials
    Turning first-party data into your growth engine – not a last-ditch paid ads replacement
  • Plus, real examples, clear takeaways, and no fluff.

If you’re scaling, re-platforming, or rethinking your funnel for 2025, you’ll want to hear this one.

🎧 Listen now

 

Written by:

Tim Roedel

CEO

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Compliance Is the Floor; Inclusion Is the Strategy with Hilary Stephenson

December 20, 2025

Accessibility isn’t a niche feature set; it’s the operating system of a fair and profitable digital world.

On this week’s episode of The FODcast, James sits down with Hilary Stephenson, Managing Director at Nexer Digital, to unpack how inclusive design drives growth, reduces risk, and builds trust across every customer journey.

In our chat, we cover a whole host of things, including:

  • The European Accessibility Act – what’s in scope, what deadlines matter, and why compliance is only the floor, not the ceiling
  • The biggest friction points in retail journeys – and how to turn them into wins through clear content, contrast, and keyboard-friendly design
  • What government digital services get right: co-design, testing with assistive tech, and radical transparency
  • How inclusive design and immersive commerce can coexist, and why heavy scripts, pop-ups, and “dark patterns” are just bad UX
  • The practical sequence to start today: set a baseline, “fix the six,” publish an honest accessibility statement, and keep testing

With more than 25 years in content, UX and inclusive service design, Hilary brings the experience of someone who’s helped make accessibility business-critical for leading brands and public sector organisations alike.

Written by:

James Hodges

Director of Client Engagement

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2025: The Year Digital Commerce Got Louder

December 20, 2025

As we head towards the end of the year, we’ve been reflecting on what has been a truly standout chapter for our podcast – The FODcast – The Future of Digital Commerce.

We’re now firmly into our 7th season, and 2025 has been a record-breaking year for the podcast – more listeners, more downloads, and more brilliant conversations than ever before. What started as a niche commerce podcast has grown into a genuinely global platform for digital, B2B, retail and transformation leaders. So, in the spirit of the season, we’re delighted to present…

The 12 Days of FODmas

Our Top 12 FODcast episodes of 2025, counting you down to Christmas, one standout conversation at a time.

Here are this year’s must-listen episodes:

  1. Revolutionising B2B E-Commerce – David Höck
    David, co-founder of Vendure, discusses how innovative composable commerce solutions and practical strategies are transforming B2B digital commerce. LISTEN HERE

  2. Platforming the Future: B2B’s Digital Commerce Revolution – Jochen Binder
     In this episode Jochen, Head of Backend and Data Solutions at diva-e, explores the evolving digital commerce platform landscape and how pragmatic, AI-influenced approaches are reshaping both B2B and B2C LISTEN HERE

  3. The Art of Haggling Meets AI – Rosie Bailey
    CEO of Nibble, Rosie, breaks down how AI-augmented negotiation and customer experience strategies are changing modern e-commerce LISTEN HERE

  4. Crafting Community in a Digital Age – Steve Irwin
    Steven Irwin of Vivobarefoot shares how purpose-driven community building and brand values can drive loyalty and sustainable growth in digital commerce LISTEN HERE

  5. When AGI Lands, Your Business Model Might Vanish – Daniel Hinderink
    We chat with Daniel about how AI, data sovereignty, and external forces are reshaping digital transformation strategies across sector LISTEN HERE

  6. The Future of Composable Commerce – SCAYLE
    We were joined by Craig Smith and Rico Adler for this great discussion on composable commerce platforms, scalability, and the practical benefits for growing digital businesses LISTEN HERE

  7. Why eCommerce Success Isn’t About Platform Choice – Matt Parkinson
    In this throwback from back in May, Matt debunks platform myths and focuses on practical, future-ready approaches that matter more than simply picking tech LISTEN HERE

  8. Physical Retail’s Vital Pulse: Why In-Store Still Matters – James O’Hare
    A topic that’s still as relevant today as it was in the early Summer, James O’Hare highlights how in-store experiences, unified commerce, and smarter tech are keeping physical retail relevant and impactful LISTEN HERE

  9. Prompts, Products, and Profits: The AI Revolution Nobody Saw Coming – Sander Berlinski Sander cuts through AI hype to explain how data foundations and intelligent automation are delivering real value today LISTEN HERE

  10. Turning Intuition into Growth – Martijn WijsmullerMartijn shares his journey from corporate to entrepreneurship and how entrepreneurial mindset and practical insights fuel e-commerce succes LISTEN HERE

  11. Pioneering New Paths in Digital B2B – David WilliamsDavid discusses how AI and emerging technologies are helping B2B organisations innovate and adapt in a shifting digital landscape LISTEN HERE

  12. The Future of E-Commerce: Gen Z, AI & Unified Retail – James Brooke
    James explores how Gen Z behaviours, AI-driven personalisation and unified retail thinking are shaping the future of commerce LISTEN HERE

Whether you’ve tuned in every week or missed a few along the way, this is the perfect opportunity to catch up on the conversations that defined digital commerce in 2025.

Did you know?

In 2025 alone, The FODcast has been streamed thousands of times this year across six continents and dozens of countries worldwide.

Alongside strong audiences across the UK, Europe and North America, we’ve also seen listeners tuning in from Angola, Nepal and Kazakhstan – proof that the conversation around digital commerce really is a global one!

Be Our Guest in 2026?

We’re already planning next year’s lineup and would love to hear from:

  •  Founders
  •  CTOs, CDOs & Product Leaders
  •  Commerce, B2B & AI innovators

If you’ve got a story to tell or insight to share, get in touch to join us on The FODcast. Thank you for listening, sharing, and supporting our podcast this last year. We’ll be back in 2026 with even more insight, challenge and conversation around the future of digital commerce.

In the meantime, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a successful New Year!

Written by:

James Hodges

Director of Client Engagement

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Key Takeaways from The NXT:Commerce Summit 2025: ‘Commerce in Motion’

November 19, 2025

Earlier this month James and I travelled to Amsterdam for the acclaimed (or at least consistently talked about) NXT Summit, and it genuinely felt worth stepping away from the desk for a couple of days. There is something grounding about hearing from people who are actually building, scaling and wrestling with the realities of modern commerce, and it gave us the headspace to think more deeply about the future of digital commerce, and what that means for the brands and clients that we work with.

NXT has a reputation for being practical, candid and less self-congratulatory than a lot of other events, and this year it delivered exactly that: real conversations, real examples and a very real sense of how fast things are shifting under our feet.

We heard everything from AI-driven shopping to grassroots brand building, to cross-border scaling headaches and the newfound importance of content operations. What follows is a summary of the themes that resonated most strongly, along with how these trends play out in the wider market and what they might mean for teams like ours and the brands we support.

AI and the Changing Rhythm of Modern Shopping

A defining topic throughout the summit was the role of AI in reshaping shopping behaviour. There was broad agreement that the pace of change is much faster than many organisations are prepared for, and that AI in its many forms is now deeply influencing the path to purchase. Speakers shared examples of brands experimenting with an integrated “AI button” that customers can tap to get sizing help, delivery advice or personalised product recommendations in real time. These tools are not about replacing human input but about making the customer journey smoother and more intuitive.

Internal AI use came up repeatedly too. From tagging to segmentation to categorisation, retailers are now leaning on AI to remove manual drag and free teams to focus on strategic or creative work. There was some concern that AI risks making brands sound generic, but most speakers took the view that the real magic happens when AI amplifies human creativity rather than diluting it.

This is backed by emerging market research. McKinsey has forecast that agentic commerce, where AI agents research, compare and even execute purchases on behalf of consumers, could unlock between three and five trillion dollars by 2030.

Salesforce has also revealed that the first half of 2025 saw a 128 percent monthly increase in retailer interactions with AI-powered tools and assistants, which shows just how quickly adoption is steepening.

Benchmarking and Market View

Across commerce, AI is no longer a novelty. It has moved decisively from a “nice to have” to a “must have” for customer experience, marketing automation, smarter search and genuinely personalised journeys. This shift is becoming particularly visible in areas such as conversational search, where brands that optimise their content for LLM visibility and agent-friendly discovery are already gaining a clear first-mover advantage.

At the same time, many organisations still feel uncertain about how to apply AI in ways that are sensible, safe and true to their brand. Guarding tone, protecting authenticity and avoiding generic outputs remain real concerns. The companies making the most meaningful progress are those approaching AI with intention and healthy scepticism, using it to enhance the human experience rather than replace it.

Brand, Community and Experience Taking Priority Over Technology Alone

Another strong theme was the renewed importance of brand and community, which many speakers argued is becoming more meaningful than the underlying tech itself. We heard examples of brands such as OBEY, and Corteiz leading with culture, opinion and community rather than product or platform. The story of Corteiz swapping old jackets for new ones and then donating the originals to the homeless was mentioned multiple times because it demonstrated how powerful simple, values-driven ideas can be when shared by a connected community.

There was also a strong prediction that 2026 will be a reset year for many businesses. Rather than endlessly adding new systems and tools, brands will start simplifying their tech stacks, making more strategic use of the data they already have and reconnecting with the heart of their brand. Loyalty programmes, limited editions, community-specific drops, user testing and real customer conversations were highlighted as core ingredients of brand-first growth. TikTok Live and TikTok Shop were also described as significant touchpoints, especially for younger demographics.

This shift aligns with broader industry moves. Technology is becoming more standardised and easier to implement, so the strongest differentiator is now the expression of brand identity and the sense of community that surrounds it. Social commerce continues to grow, and live and creator-led channels are shifting from experimental to essential. 

Cross-Border Growth, Marketplaces and the Realities of Scaling

The final theme that really stood out focused on the operational complexity of scaling in a cross-border world. The session titled “From Drop to Doorstep” offered a frank look at the friction brands face when expanding into multiple countries. De minimis duty thresholds, import transparency and customer communication came up frequently, with several brands choosing to shift towards B2B2C models as a workaround for tax or logistics barriers.

One of the most discussed examples was a marketplace migration to Shopify involving a catalogue of over two hundred thousand products, combined with Algolia for search and scale. It sparked a healthy debate about whether Shopify can truly support enterprise complexity. The conclusion from the speakers who lived through it was that Shopify absolutely can do it, but only when the implementation team is experienced, aligned and realistic about standards and governance.

Shopify’s own October 2025 analysis supports this, outlining how B2B commerce, global expansion and data-centred experience design have become major growth drivers for enterprise-level brands.

The discussion then shifted to content operations, with many brands now experimenting with more structured content systems to ensure consistency across channels. The message was encouraging but cautious. These systems can deliver enormous value, but some tools still feel early and risk flattening brand tone unless teams handle them carefully.

All of this reinforces a broader market pattern where businesses move away from costly, monolithic platforms in favour of lighter, modular stacks that scale with them. The complexity of multi-market operations, marketplaces and hybrid business models is increasing, and the more unified and rationalised the stack, the easier it becomes to scale effectively.

 

Closing Thoughts

What struck us most about the NXT Summit was how grounded the conversations were. The genuine future of digital commerce is not going to be defined by technology alone, nor by brand creativity on its own. It will be shaped in the space where the two meet. It will be built by teams that use technology to enable better ideas, not replace them, and by brands that understand why people connect with them in the first place.

For teams like ours, and for the businesses we support, the opportunity now is to decide where to lean into this shift. Combining thoughtful technology choices with strong brand identity and efficient operational systems will put any organisation in a far better position to navigate the next wave of change with clarity and confidence.

Simply Commerce is a specialist in technology recruitment and consulting across commerce, digital and data. If you’re scaling your tech team and need deeper insight or access to talent, we can help.

Written by:

Tim Roedel

CEO

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