agentic commerce

Sean Callihan

Sean Callihan Discusses Commerce’s Evolution and AI-Powered Data Optimization

Live from Ecomm Forum

Welcome to another episode of Talk Commerce, where host Brent Peterson sits down with industry leaders to discuss the latest trends shaping online retail. Recording live from the e-commerce forum in Minneapolis, this conversation features Sean Callihan, a partner manager at Commerce—the company formerly known as BigCommerce. During this engaging discussion, Sean shares insights into the company’s strategic rebrand, its growing focus on B2B solutions, and how the organization is positioning itself in the emerging world of AI-powered commerce. The conversation offers merchants and technology partners valuable perspectives on data optimization, platform flexibility, and the changing landscape of product discovery.

Key Takeaways

  • Commerce has evolved from BigCommerce into a parent company with three distinct products: BigCommerce (the SaaS platform), Feedonomics (a feed management and data optimization platform), and Makeswift (a low-code, no-code page builder)
  • B2B has become a strategic pillar for Commerce, with dedicated product development and go-to-market teams serving wholesale and B2B merchants alongside traditional B2C clients
  • The open SaaS approach allows merchants to integrate legacy systems without ripping and replacing their entire infrastructure, particularly important for B2B distributors
  • AI readiness centers on data optimization, with Feedonomics helping merchants prepare their product data for discovery through conversational AI and large language models
  • Product data enrichment serves dual purposes, improving both AI discoverability and on-site shopping experiences by pulling information from reviews, sizing charts, and social media
  • Makeswift will soon replace the native page builder within the BigCommerce platform, bringing advanced marketing capabilities directly into the core product
  • The low-code, no-code approach benefits both marketers and developers, allowing faster execution while still providing technical teams with workflow customization options

What is Irish Titan’s Ecomm Forum all about?

About Sean Callihan

Sean brings a unique perspective to his role at Commerce, drawing from six years with the company and an earlier six-year stint working within digital agencies. As a partner manager, Sean works extensively with both traditional system integrators and digital marketing agencies, helping them navigate the Commerce ecosystem and build successful merchant relationships. His agency background gives him valuable insight into the challenges partners face when implementing e-commerce solutions. Throughout his tenure at Commerce, Sean has witnessed the company’s transformation from a single-product SaaS platform into a multi-product organization serving diverse merchant needs across B2C and B2B segments.

Episode Summary

The conversation begins with Sean explaining the reasoning behind BigCommerce’s rebrand to Commerce. The strategic shift wasn’t merely cosmetic—it reflected the company’s evolution following two significant acquisitions. After purchasing Feedonomics, a leading feed management platform, the organization found itself in an awkward position. Feedonomics is platform-agnostic, meaning it works with any e-commerce system, including BigCommerce competitors like Shopify. This created messaging challenges when BigCommerce representatives tried to discuss the benefits of Feedonomics with merchants on other platforms.

The solution was creating Commerce as a parent company housing three distinct products. BigCommerce continues as the SaaS e-commerce platform that’s been serving merchants for years. Feedonomics operates as the data optimization engine, helping merchants push products to any channel they choose—whether that’s Walmart, TikTok, Instagram, or countless other marketplaces. The platform’s core strength lies in optimizing product data for each channel’s specific requirements, improving search rankings and return on ad spend.

The third product, Makeswift, came through a more recent acquisition. This low-code, no-code page builder solution doesn’t even require an e-commerce context—it works for informational sites as well. Marketers and developers both appreciate the tool because it brings stories to life on websites without requiring extensive technical knowledge. All three solutions can work together or independently, giving Commerce flexibility in how it approaches different market segments.

Sean then shifts the discussion to B2B, which has emerged as a major strategic pillar for Commerce. The company recognized that many merchants wanted to add wholesale or B2B arms to their businesses but lacked the tools to do so effectively. Rather than forcing merchants to cobble together various apps and workarounds, Commerce invested heavily in B2B-specific functionality. This wasn’t just a product decision—the company established dedicated B2B teams for product development, go-to-market strategy, and sales.

The B2B approach makes sense given Commerce’s B2C heritage. Business buyers increasingly expect shopping experiences that mirror consumer-focused websites. Since Commerce already excelled at B2C experiences, extending that expertise to B2B was a natural progression. The company maintains separate B2C teams to continue serving that market without alienation, while B2B teams focus on the unique requirements of wholesale, distribution, and business-to-business transactions.

Sean emphasizes the importance of Commerce’s open SaaS philosophy, particularly for B2B merchants. Many distributors and manufacturers work with legacy industry-specific systems they can’t easily replace. Commerce’s open API structure allows these companies to integrate existing systems without ripping out their entire technology infrastructure. If a merchant outgrows one solution, they don’t need to replace their e-commerce platform—they simply swap out the specific component that no longer serves their needs.

This approach acknowledges a fundamental reality: no single platform can feasibly build everything that’s perfect for every merchant. The e-commerce ecosystem contains numerous specialized players, each solving specific problems. Commerce’s extensibility allows merchants to assemble the right combination of tools for their unique business requirements, both today and as they scale tomorrow.

The conversation then turns to artificial intelligence and agentic commerce. Sean explains that Feedonomics provides Commerce with a significant advantage in this space because it’s fundamentally a data platform. This expertise positions the company well as it forms relationships with OpenAI, Perplexity, and other large language model providers. The way consumers shop continues to evolve, and merchants need their brands to be discoverable through these new channels.

Traditional search engine optimization focused on scraping websites and indexing whatever product information appeared on pages. AI-powered search works differently. Consumers have conversations with AI assistants, asking specific questions and expecting detailed answers. Merchants need their data structured to respond to these conversational queries. That data doesn’t come solely from product descriptions—it includes reviews, sizing charts, social media interactions, message boards, and other non-traditional sources.

Commerce is helping merchants prepare their data for this new reality through what Sean calls AI data readiness. An interesting byproduct of this work is that the enriched data optimized for LLM discovery can also feed back into the merchant’s own website. If the company is pulling proof points from multiple sources to educate AI systems, why not use that same enriched content to improve the on-site shopping experience? Merchants benefit twice: better AI discoverability and more robust product pages on their branded websites, where they maintain the highest profit margins.

Sean also discusses the future of product discovery pages. Many merchants currently provide minimal information—perhaps a few bullet points—on their PDPs. This approach doesn’t serve AI-powered search well. Through Feedonomics and its AI readiness initiatives, Commerce is helping merchants understand what data they need and where to source it. The result is product pages that satisfy both human shoppers and the AI systems that increasingly guide purchase decisions.

Regarding Makeswift’s roadmap, Sean shares his excitement about the tool’s integration into the core BigCommerce platform. Currently, Makeswift has been used primarily with Commerce’s Catalyst product for building headless websites. The next iteration will replace the native page builder within BigCommerce itself. This represents a significant user experience upgrade because Makeswift was built from the ground up with modern marketing workflows in mind.

The existing page builder serves its purpose, but it wasn’t designed with contemporary marketing needs as a priority. Makeswift brings that marketing-first thinking directly into the platform. Sean notes that the tool appeals to both marketers and developers, even though it’s positioned as low-code, no-code. Developers appreciate it because they can build out workflows and frameworks that marketers then leverage independently. This doesn’t eliminate development jobs—it shifts developer focus to enabling marketing agility rather than executing every individual page change or content update.

Sean wraps up by reflecting on why he returns to the e-commerce forum year after year. He’s attended four consecutive years, plus the virtual edition during COVID. He appreciates that Irish Titan, the event organizer, has created something inclusive rather than exclusive. Unlike some high-profile conferences that feel corporate and buttoned-up, the e-commerce forum welcomes the entire Midwest ecosystem—partners, merchants, and service providers all learning together in a relaxed environment.

The forum gives Sean opportunities to connect with the partner ecosystem he works with daily while also meeting merchants who attend to learn and network. Everyone arrives with their guard down, ready to share knowledge and have genuine conversations. It’s quirky, fun, and educational—a combination Sean clearly values as he makes the annual trip to Minneapolis.

Final Thoughts

Sean Callihan’s insights reveal how Commerce is positioning itself for the next evolution of online retail. The rebrand reflects strategic maturity, acknowledging that serving modern merchants requires more than a single platform. By housing BigCommerce, Feedonomics, and Makeswift under one parent company, Commerce can meet merchants wherever they are in their growth journey without forcing awkward product conversations. The B2B focus addresses a significant market opportunity while leveraging existing B2C strengths. Most importantly, the emphasis on AI readiness and data optimization demonstrates forward thinking about how product discovery will work in an increasingly conversational commerce landscape. As merchants prepare their businesses for AI-powered search and agentic shopping experiences, having clean, enriched, multi-source product data isn’t optional—it’s foundational to remaining discoverable and competitive in tomorrow’s market.

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Jason Nyhus

Live from Ecomm Forum: Jason Nyhus from Shopware Reveals How Agentic Commerce Transforms B2B Sales

Recorded live from the e-commerce forum in Minneapolis, host Brent Peterson sits down with Jason Nyhus, General Manager of Shopware‘s North American business. This marks Jason’s fourth or fifth appearance on the podcast, highlighting the strong relationship between Talk Commerce and Shopware. The conversation covers Shopware’s approach to AI and agentic commerce, the company’s momentum in the US market, and what makes their community-driven model stand out in an increasingly crowded e-commerce platform landscape.

Key Takeaways

  • Shopware views AI through two lenses: automating routine tasks for e-commerce professionals and implementing agentic commerce to free up B2B sales reps for actual selling
  • Sales representatives currently spend only 25% of their time actually selling, with the remaining 75% consumed by administrative tasks
  • Shopware has grown to several thousand merchants in North America and is now the fastest-growing e-commerce platform in the region
  • The platform’s success stems from three factors: being open source, European clients expanding to North America, and strategic partnerships with agencies
  • Shopware’s business model focuses on being world-class at one thing—commerce software—while letting partners excel at hosting, payments, marketing, and other services
  • The company’s Shoptoberfest event features 10-minute TED Talks by actual merchants sharing real experiences rather than vendor presentations

What is Irish Titan’s Ecomm Forum all about?

About Jason Nyhus

Jason Nyhus serves as General Manager at Shopware, where he oversees the company’s North American operations. With extensive experience in the e-commerce space, Jason has witnessed the evolution of digital commerce platforms firsthand. His approach centers on building authentic relationships with merchants and fostering a community-driven ecosystem. Jason’s leadership style emphasizes intimacy and partnership over transactional sales relationships, which has proven instrumental in Shopware’s expansion across North America. Before joining Shopware, he was already connected to the e-commerce community, having met Shopware’s founders, the Hamann Brothers, nearly eight years ago at a Magento unconference in Cologne.

Episode Summary

The conversation begins with Jason explaining Shopware’s perspective on the current AI landscape. He acknowledges that the industry is experiencing what he calls an “AI bubble,” where every company claims to be AI-first. Jason doesn’t mince words about this phenomenon, referring to it as “AI washing.” However, Shopware’s approach differs from the noise.

Jason breaks down Shopware’s AI strategy into two distinct parts. First, the platform uses AI to automate what he describes as “the blue collar work that the white collar people in e-commerce do.” This includes product creation, editing, imagery generation, descriptions, and campaign management. The goal isn’t to replace strategic thinking but to free up professionals to focus on higher-value activities.

The second aspect focuses specifically on B2B commerce through what Shopware calls agentic commerce. Jason provides a striking statistic: sales representatives at manufacturing companies spend approximately 75% of their time on non-selling activities. These activities include corporate mandated tasks that have nothing to do with building relationships or closing deals. “We view Agentic Commerce as a way to really give the sales reps more time to sell by introducing these agents that automate a lot of the blue collar work that they have to do that’s not selling,” Jason explains.

When Brent mentions hearing positive buzz about Shopware finding its footing in the US market, Jason points listeners to independent sources like Built With to verify the platform’s growth. The numbers speak for themselves—several thousand merchants now run on Shopware in North America. Jason attributes this momentum to three specific factors.

First, Shopware’s open source nature allows anyone to install and run the platform for free. This accessibility has led to organic adoption as merchants discover world-class capabilities without upfront costs. Second, European clients who were hesitant to expand to North America now feel confident doing so with Shopware’s established US presence. Third, Jason credits his team and agency partners for launching numerous new stores.

Jason rattles off impressive client names including Uppababy, Dunham Sports, Albany Fasteners, and Boo Ally. He confidently states that Shopware is now the fastest-growing e-commerce platform in North America, though he’s quick to credit the community and ecosystem for this success rather than taking sole credit.

Brent shares a recent conversation he had with the e-commerce manager at Eagle Crusher, who spoke highly of both Shopware’s team and their agency partner. This prompts a discussion about what makes Shopware different from larger platforms where sales representatives often disappear after closing deals, only to resurface during renewal time.

Jason acknowledges that Shopware is “still subscale compared to some of our competitors,” which allows for a level of intimacy that larger companies can’t maintain. He doesn’t view this as a weakness but rather as a strategic advantage. Jason emphasizes that Shopware targets complex use cases rather than straightforward implementations. “There are a lot of other solutions that are really good and great at solving the more kind of straightforward use cases,” he notes. “And so frankly, those aren’t really our customers.”

This complexity requires deep understanding of what makes each brand unique. Jason uses Above the Fray, an agency partner, as an example. They specialize in the American Equipment Manufacturing space and understand the pain points of merchants like Eagle Crusher. This specialized knowledge creates better outcomes for everyone involved.

Jason outlines three requirements for buying Shopware. First, clients must love Shopware’s people. The company invests heavily in hiring individuals that merchants will like and trust. Second, clients must love the product itself. Jason makes it clear that if Shopware isn’t the right fit, they’d rather walk away from the transaction. Third, clients must love Shopware’s partners. “We think if you line those three things up with a partner that we like and trust, our odds of success are very, very high,” Jason states.

Brent recalls meeting the Hamann Brothers nearly eight years ago at a Magento unconference in Cologne. He remembers them showing up, giving a presentation, and answering questions without any sales pitch. This memory illustrates the community-first approach that has become Shopware’s hallmark.

The conversation shifts to Shopware’s community events, particularly Shoptoberfest. Jason explains that there are six primary ways to make money in e-commerce: software, hosting, payments, marketing services, professional services, and app stores. He adds a seventh category for training and certifications. Rather than trying to dominate all seven revenue streams, Shopware focuses on being world-class at one thing—commerce software—and lets partners excel at the rest.

This philosophy fosters mutual dependence and collaboration. Companies can focus on their core competencies, remain competitive on pricing, and deliver better services. Jason credits the inspiration for Shoptoberfest to Stefan Hamann’s visit to the Ecom Forum in Minneapolis a few years ago. Stefan appreciated how the event didn’t take itself too seriously and how Irish Titan, the organizing company, took a back seat to let the community shine.

“Americans love Oktoberfest. Why don’t we create event called Shoptoberfest,” Stefan proposed. Jason calls this one of the best marketing ideas he’s ever heard, especially considering it came from Stefan Hollein, whom he describes as the “self-proclaimed nerd of the business.” Shoptoberfest has now run for two consecutive years with tremendous success.

What makes Shoptoberfest unique is its format. Jason explains that most industry events feature speakers discussing high-level generalities about AI or trends without getting to practical applications. Shoptoberfest flips this model by making merchants the stars. The event features 10-minute TED Talks by eight merchants sharing their lived experiences with change management, AI adoption, and real-world problem solving. “It’s my favorite event of the year,” Jason admits.

Wrapping up the conversation, Jason praises Irish Titan for organizing the Ecom Forum. He notes that Minneapolis is home to major corporations like Best Buy, Target, Medtronic, and 3M, yet nothing really connected the e-commerce community before Irish Titan stepped in. He emphasizes that Irish Titan invests significant money and energy into the event not because it benefits them directly but because it strengthens the community. While Jason prefers the term “community,” he acknowledges that Darin from Irish Titan likes to say “ecosystem.” Regardless of terminology, the spirit remains the same—bringing people together for collective benefit rather than individual gain.

Jason Nyhus’s insights reveal a company that has found success by going against conventional wisdom. Instead of trying to own every aspect of the e-commerce value chain, Shopware focuses on being exceptional at one thing and partnering for the rest. Instead of chasing every potential customer, they target complex use cases where their platform truly shines. Instead of the typical vendor-customer relationship, they build genuine partnerships based on mutual respect and shared success. This approach has transformed Shopware from a European platform trying to break into North America to the fastest-growing e-commerce solution in the region.

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Sharon Gee

Sharon Gee Is Transforming Ecommerce with AI and Agentic Commerce

In this episode of Talk Commerce recorded live from Ecomm Forum in Minneapolis, host Brent Peterson sits down with Sharon Gee, Senior Vice President of Product at Commerce, to discuss the seismic shifts happening in ecommerce. The conversation explores how artificial intelligence and agentic commerce are reshaping the way merchants connect with customers. Sharon brings extensive experience from her six years at Commerce, where she oversees AI offerings across BigCommerce, Feedonomics, and Makeswift. What emerges from this discussion isn’t just another tech conversation but rather a roadmap for merchants navigating the transition from traditional SEO to a world where agents shop alongside humans.

Key Takeaways

  • Data has become the new storefront as consumers increasingly turn to answer engines rather than traditional search
  • Merchants need to provide structured, contextual data to AI agents, not just visually appealing websites for human shoppers
  • The adoption rate of AI tools like ChatGPT has outpaced every other consumer technology in history, including cell phones
  • Product data must now exist on multiple levels, from basic ad information to unstructured content hidden in PDFs
  • B2B commerce stands to benefit significantly from agentic AI, particularly through AI-powered sales assistants
  • Trust protocols are being established to manage transactions between shoppers, shopper agents, merchants, and merchant agents
  • AI democratizes marketing tools, allowing creative thinkers to execute ideas without engineering expertise
  • User reviews represent a treasure trove of search terms that should inform product descriptions

What is Irish Titan’s Ecomm Forum all about?

About Sharon Gee

Sharon serves as Senior Vice President of the Product Organization at Commerce, where she focuses on AI offerings across the company’s portfolio. She played a key role in leading the acquisition strategy for Feedonomics four years ago and served as General Manager of that business during its successful integration. Before joining Commerce, Sharon spent time agency-side in New York City. Her expertise spans ecommerce platforms, enterprise data feed management, and visual editing solutions. Outside her professional life, Sharon owns a flower farm and coffee shop in Colorado, offering her a unique perspective that balances digital commerce with hands-on retail experience. Throughout the industry, Sharon has become recognized for her insights on how AI and data optimization can transform merchant visibility and customer acquisition.

Episode Summary

The conversation begins with Sharon outlining her role at Commerce and immediately diving into what she describes as the most exciting development in ecommerce: agentic commerce. She explains that for decades, commerce professionals have been optimizing data for advertising channels, trying to improve conversion rates and return on ad spend. However, the fundamental rules remained consistent—acquire customers through Google or Meta, drive them to your website, and hope to convert them at rates between two and five percent.

“Somebody came along and bopped the board game and now we get to reset all the pieces,” Sharon explains. The game-changer is that consumers now turn to answer engines for their most basic questions. These aren’t simple queries based on price or size filters. Instead, shoppers ask complex questions like wanting a dress for a wedding in Italy in a specific color and size, delivered by tomorrow. This shift requires merchants to bring together data from marketing channels, internal systems, and content teams because data has become the new storefront.

Sharon emphasizes that answer engines need deep context to respond to long-form queries effectively. The challenge for merchants becomes ensuring their products are discoverable wherever shoppers are looking and making it easy to shop however the consumer prefers—whether that means clicking through to a personalized product page where they can visualize furniture in their living room or buying mascara with a thumbprint because they already know what they want.

The conversation then shifts to the technical differences between old SEO practices and the new reality of AI-driven discovery. Sharon points out that ChatGPT reached 100 million users faster than any other technology in history. This rapid adoption creates both opportunity and challenge. Answer engines need data, and while they can scrape websites for it, those websites aren’t optimized for agents. They’re full of HTML, images, and visual elements designed for human brains, not for AI consumption.

Sharon introduces a framework for thinking about data levels. Level one includes basic information needed for Google ads—title, description, image, size, color, and weight. Level two encompasses the significantly more extensive data required to list on marketplaces like Amazon. Level three consists of product specifications sitting in Product Information Management systems—manufacturing details, materials, origins, and technical specs. Levels four and five venture into unstructured data territory, including PDFs on websites and user reviews.

“That’s not the kind of data you usually show on a product detail page,” Sharon notes. This creates what she calls a bifurcated experience. Merchants now need to provision different experiences because agents are customers too. When an agent visits a site, it doesn’t need pretty pictures—it needs structured data and links to images it might want to reference.

Brent raises the question of whether this means adding data below the fold on product pages or creating entirely separate experiences. Sharon confirms the latter. When a merchant senses that an agent rather than a human is visiting, they should render a different version of the website filled with data rather than images. This aligns with what Sharon identifies as three fundamental truths: the customer is the channel, data is the new storefront, and agents are customers too.

The discussion moves to whether merchant sites might eventually become pure APIs without customer-facing elements. Sharon argues for a both-and approach. The brand site remains one channel where people interact with data, and it’s the one channel merchants fully control. However, on third-party agentic channels, merchants don’t control visualization—they only control the data they provide. This makes data investment critical for visibility on channels merchants don’t control, while simultaneously requiring deep investment in owned channels.

Sharon draws a parallel to how marketers have always known that sending better data to Google results in lower cost-per-click because the data more relevantly answers searcher queries. She observes that data specialists are inheriting the earth—the people who once led organic search, then paid advertising, now lead agentic strategy. This mirrors how creative directors once ran websites before being replaced by people who could read website analytics.

The conversation touches on both first-party and third-party AI applications. Sharon describes the baby version of what’s coming as shopper assistants or chatbot experiences on brand websites. However, she sees massive potential in B2B sales assistants trained on the same documentation as human sales representatives. If three-quarters of the sales cycle could progress overnight while sales reps sleep, those reps could focus on high-touch human interactions. Sharon believes B2B commerce will leapfrog B2C experiences through agentic AI because B2B companies are manufacturers with deep data, extensive documentation, and sophisticated pricing structures with custom price books and customer groups.

Brent raises concerns about AI reliability, noting his frustrations with coding assistants that make illogical mistakes and assumptions. He envisions scenarios where an agent searching for hiking shoes for Tuscany presents three options but autonomously purchases one without confirmation. Sharon acknowledges these valid concerns and explains that commerce platforms, channel partners, and payment partners are collaborating on protocols to address exactly these issues.

“You’ve seen more open protocols released in the past six months than like the previous 10 years combined,” Sharon observes. Companies across the industry recognize that nobody wants an internet that isn’t safe or trustworthy. Trust becomes paramount when authorizing agents to shop on behalf of consumers. The human-in-the-loop component requires careful protocol design because transactions now involve four parties: a shopper, a shopper agent, a merchant, and a merchant agent. All four must trust each other.

Sharon mentions specific initiatives like Stripe ACP and PayPal protocols, as well as Google’s AP2 and other agentic protocols. Technology companies are leaning into these challenges because the problems are both complex and exciting. Meanwhile, attorneys are appropriately concerned about data security. Sharon frames this moment as one where the new rules of the internet are being written in the agentic space.

The opportunities this creates excite Sharon tremendously. She asks Brent to imagine rewriting an entire product catalog with a button click using generative AI, based on search terms from various channels. A merchant could refocus their entire catalog around Halloween instantly. Previous limitations—insufficient copywriters or creative resources—no longer apply. While many discuss AI primarily as a cost-reduction tool for operational efficiency, Sharon emphasizes its role as a growth enabler. AI provides jet fuel for existing team members, unlocking capabilities and scale never before possible because humans are freed from operational tasks that robots handle better.

“I would love it if our generation is the last one to use a mouse and a keyboard,” Sharon declares, capturing her optimism about AI’s potential to improve user experiences fundamentally.

Brent agrees and adds that AI’s greatest value for merchants might be identifying what they’re not doing rather than what they should be doing. Instead of worrying about generating content, merchants should focus on finding patterns in their data that reveal missing content opportunities.

Sharon confirms that many Commerce customers use tools to define simulated personas based on actual users, then understand what queries those personas might ask on various channels. Based on those questions, merchants can determine what content they need. She returns to the example of someone in Colorado planning an Italy vacation—does a merchant have the right content to ensure their products get referenced instead of competitors’ products?

Sharon believes marketers who understand what shoppers actually want and can articulate their unique value proposition will win because AI has democratized tooling. All platforms are working to ensure an open, trusted transactional experience with secure data presentation. For brand marketers, this represents an extraordinary opportunity. An army of agents can now support goals that previously required engineering expertise. If someone can think it, dream it, and believe it would deliver good outcomes, they can do it.

As the conversation concludes, Sharon reflects on why she values Ecom Forum. She praises Darin and the Titans group as heartfelt humans in commerce who curate thought leaders dealing with real implementation problems. Despite AI’s omnipresence, Sharon reminds listeners that commerce still centers on humans. Sharon Gee’s insights reveal that success in this new landscape requires merchants to embrace data as their most valuable asset while never losing sight of the human experiences they’re ultimately trying to enhance.

Final Thoughts

The transformation Sharon describes isn’t coming—it’s already here. Merchants who recognize that data has become their new storefront and invest accordingly will capture outsized visibility in channels where attention is rapidly shifting. The bifurcation between human and agent experiences requires technical sophistication, but platforms are building the infrastructure to make this transition manageable. What remains constant is the need to understand customers deeply and articulate unique value clearly. As protocols establish trust frameworks for this four-party transaction ecosystem, the merchants who win won’t just be the ones with the best technology. They’ll be the ones who recognize that while agents are shopping, humans are still the ones making the final decisions—and both deserve experiences built specifically for them. In the end, you might say the future of commerce isn’t just about making transactions easier—it’s about making discovery more intelligent and trust more transparent, one data point at a time.

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Martin Balaam

Product Information Management Evolution in the Age of Agentic Commerce with Pimberly’s Martin Balaam

The landscape of product data management has undergone tremendous transformation. From simple spreadsheets to sophisticated artificial intelligence-powered systems, businesses now require robust solutions that can handle global marketplace demands while preparing for the next wave of commerce automation. In this compelling episode of Talk Commerce, host Brent Peterson sits down with Martin Balaam, CEO and founder of Pimberly, to explore how product information management systems are evolving to meet the challenges of modern e-commerce and the emerging world of agentic commerce.

Key Takeaways

• Product Information Management systems serve as the single source of truth for all product data, accelerating time-to-market and optimizing information for multiple sales channels
• Modern PIMs must handle over 100 different e-commerce platforms globally, each with unique validation rules and data requirements
• B2B companies are leading the adoption of agentic commerce solutions, particularly for complex procurement and parts replacement scenarios
• Machine-readable data formats like schema.org are becoming essential for LLM compatibility and future-proofing product information
• Reviews and contextual storytelling data are increasingly important for B2C brands and should be integrated into PIM systems
• PDF-to-data extraction represents a significant opportunity for unlocking legacy product information trapped in unstructured formats

About Martin Balaam

Martin brings a unique perspective to the product information management space, combining practical manufacturing experience with technological innovation. As the CEO and founder of Pimberly, he’s spent the last three years expanding the company’s presence in the United States after establishing the business in the UK. His background includes operating a family furniture manufacturing and distribution business, which provided the real-world foundation for understanding the complexities of product data management across multiple channels and markets.

What sets Martin apart in the PIM industry is his hands-on approach to understanding customer pain points. Rather than developing solutions in isolation, Pimberly emerged from actual manufacturing challenges, creating a platform that addresses genuine operational needs. His passion extends beyond business operations to classic car restoration, which he jokingly refers to as maintaining “the most expensive scrapyard” much to his wife’s chagrin.

Episode Summary

The conversation begins with Martin explaining that Product Information Management systems serve as centralized repositories for all product-related data, from specifications to rich media assets. He emphasizes how PIMs have become essential as businesses now need to manage product information across potentially hundreds of global e-commerce platforms, each with unique requirements.

“A PIM essentially is an e-commerce tool platform that is your single source of truth for all things product data,” Martin explains, noting how the system accelerates product onboarding while maintaining consistency across multiple sales channels.

The discussion shifts to artificial intelligence and agentic commerce, where Martin reveals that B2B companies are surprisingly ahead of B2C in implementation. The precision requirements of industrial purchasing create ideal conditions for automated procurement systems. He explains that successful AI integration requires machine-readable data formats: “It’s making sure that all your data is in accordance with things like schema.org.”

Martin distinguishes between B2B and B2C applications—while B2B focuses on precise technical data for exact product matches, B2C emphasizes contextual information and storytelling. He predicts consumer adoption will begin with low-risk purchases before expanding to higher-value transactions.

The conversation touches on extracting product information from legacy PDF documents, with Martin revealing Pimberly’s university collaboration to address customers’ “20, 30, 40 million pages of locked up data.” He also discusses how recent tariff impacts have driven companies to use PIM systems for supply chain scenario modeling.

Martin differentiates Pimberly through their manufacturing background and full-service approach, maintaining all implementation services in-house rather than relying on third-party integrators. This approach stems from real-world experience understanding complex product configurations and operational challenges.

Final Thoughts

The evolution of Product Information Management systems reflects broader changes in how businesses approach global commerce and emerging technologies. Martin Balaam’s insights demonstrate that successful companies aren’t just managing product data—they’re strategically positioning themselves for the next generation of automated commerce interactions.

As artificial intelligence continues to reshape purchasing behaviors and supply chain management becomes increasingly complex, the role of sophisticated PIM systems will only grow in importance. The companies that invest in robust, AI-ready product information management today will find themselves well-positioned to capitalize on tomorrow’s commerce opportunities. After all, in the world of product data management, those who organize their information thoughtfully today will find themselves perfectly PIMed for future success.

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Scott Hendrickson

Live from Shoptalk: Agentic Commerce Transforms Shopping While Preserving Brand Identity with Scott Hendrickson

The conversation around agentic commerce has reached a boiling point, with everyone from tech startups to enterprise platforms making bold predictions about the future of online shopping. But what does someone actually building this technology think about all the noise? In this Shop Talk edition of Talk Commerce, host Brent Peterson sat down with Scott Hendrickson from Firmly to cut through the speculation and get to the heart of what’s really happening.

This wasn’t just another tech conference chat about futuristic possibilities. Instead, Scott brought practical insights from a company that’s been developing checkout technology for five years – long before agentic commerce became the industry’s favorite buzzword.

Introduction

Talk Commerce continues bringing listeners inside conversations that matter in e-commerce, and this Shop Talk Chicago recording delivered exactly that. Brent and Scott tackled one of 2025’s most discussed topics with refreshing honesty, examining how agentic commerce will actually work in practice versus the science fiction scenarios dominating headlines.

The discussion focused on real-world applications, consumer behavior patterns, and why traditional brand websites aren’t going anywhere despite AI advancement predictions.

Key Takeaways

  • Agentic commerce succeeds best with trusted brands where consumers have established purchase history and clear preferences
  • Different shopping scenarios require different AI approaches – autonomous purchasing isn’t appropriate for every consumer journey
  • Maintaining merchant of record status protects customer relationships and prevents tech platform dependency
  • Visual product exploration remains essential for many purchase decisions that AI agents can’t handle alone
  • The industry currently spans companies actively implementing solutions to those feeling overwhelmed by rapid changes
  • Consumer needs should drive technology adoption rather than capabilities determining user behavior
  • AI search engines and publishers offer significant embedded checkout opportunities without traditional website redirects
  • Brand websites will evolve alongside AI purchasing mechanisms rather than disappearing entirely

About Scott Hendrickson

Scott serves as Chief Revenue Officer at Firmly, where he’s spent two years leading revenue strategy for a company that anticipated today’s agentic commerce trends years before they became mainstream discussion points. His role involves helping merchants maintain customer relationship control while enabling seamless purchase experiences across multiple touchpoints.

Scott’s expertise comes from hands-on experience implementing technology that allows consumers to complete transactions without leaving their current browsing environment. Whether someone’s reading a publisher article, using an AI search engine, or viewing advertising content, Scott’s team has worked on making checkout possible without traditional website redirects.

This practical deployment experience gives Scott valuable perspective on what actually works versus what sounds impressive in theory. His insights prove particularly relevant given Firmly’s early entry into what’s now exploding as the agentic commerce space.

Episode Summary

When Brent asked for Firmly’s elevator pitch, Scott explained how his company built technology years ahead of current market demand. The core concept involves enabling consumer checkout with merchants regardless of location – whether on publisher sites, AI search engines, or advertising platforms – while ensuring merchants remain the merchant of record.

Scott emphasized that preserving merchant relationships and customer lifetime value represents a non-negotiable element rather than surrendering control to platform intermediaries. This approach protects the direct connection between brands and consumers that drives long-term business success.

Brent brought up agentic commerce’s current industry obsession, noting how the buzzword exploded at eTail earlier this year. Scott responded by addressing common misconceptions about autonomous purchasing, particularly oversimplified narratives suggesting AI agents will independently handle all consumer buying decisions.

“It’s just not real,” Scott stated when discussing utopian scenarios of complete purchasing automation. He explained that consumer shopping involves multiple journey types, each requiring different technological approaches based on trust levels, product categories, and purchase contexts.

Scott illustrated practical applications through specific examples. For repeat purchases with established brands like DoorDash or Wegmans, autonomous agents work effectively because consumers already have established trust and preference patterns. He described scenarios like modifying last week’s grocery order – adding items while removing others.

However, different situations demand different approaches. Product discovery journeys, such as finding birthday gifts, benefit from AI recommendations combined with visual confirmation. Scott described searching for presents for eight-year-old girls with specific interests, noting that consumers need visual evaluation before making final decisions.

Brent raised concerns about D2C websites potentially disappearing, replaced entirely by AI-powered purchasing platforms. Scott disagreed with this prediction, drawing parallels to earlier e-commerce adoption when merchants feared losing physical store traffic to digital channels.

“I don’t think that every consumer journey requires that the consumer go to the merchants website,” Scott acknowledged, while emphasizing that brands shouldn’t surrender customer lifetime value to tech giants. He compared current hesitation to historical resistance during e-commerce emergence.

The discussion explored brand identity preservation within emerging commerce frameworks. Scott argued that consumers still need visual content, exploration capabilities, and brand experience elements that agents cannot replicate independently.

Brent highlighted how brand experiences differ dramatically between company websites and marketplace presentations. Scott agreed, noting that brand consumption defines consumer identity and requires controlled experience creation. “The brands that we consume define who we are,” he explained, adding that pure agent interactions cannot create meaningful brand value.

Scott concluded by observing Shop Talk attendees at various agentic commerce understanding levels. “There are people who are figuring it out and there’s people who are scared shitless,” he noted, reflecting the rapid industry evolution happening even within recent months.

This honest assessment captures the current industry state where transformation occurs at different speeds across organizations. Scott emphasized that successful implementation requires focusing on consumer needs rather than chasing technological capabilities for their own sake.

Final Thoughts

This conversation with Scott provides essential perspective for an industry caught up in agentic commerce excitement. His insights demonstrate that successful implementation requires understanding diverse consumer journey types rather than pursuing universal solutions that ignore shopping behavior complexity.

The key insight centers on technology enhancing existing customer relationships rather than replacing them entirely. Merchants who maintain control while enabling flexible checkout experiences across multiple touchpoints will likely outperform those surrendering everything to platform intermediaries.

Scott’s perspective suggests the future involves channel diversification rather than elimination. D2C websites will evolve to work alongside AI-powered mechanisms, each serving specific consumer journey segments based on trust levels, product types, and purchase contexts.

As the industry navigates this transformation, success depends on balancing technological capabilities with practical business considerations and consumer preferences. The question isn’t whether agentic commerce will change retail – it’s whether businesses will implement changes thoughtfully while preserving what actually drives purchase decisions.

Perhaps most importantly, Scott’s insights remind us that in a world where agents can handle transactions, real commercial value lies in creating experiences worth having agents transact for. After all, being truly agentic about commerce means being intentional about every customer interaction that matters.

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Jason Grunberg

AI Shopping Agents Transform The Future of Retail with Jason Grunberg at eTail West

As your host of Talk Commerce, I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Jason Grunberg, Chief Marketing Officer at Bluecore, during E-tail West in Palm Springs. Our conversation dove deep into one of the most transformative trends in e-commerce: the rise of agentic commerce.

The Evolution of AI in Consumer Experience

The way we interact with technology is rapidly changing. As Jason pointed out, consumers are already being conditioned to expect AI-powered experiences in their daily lives. From Google’s Gemini summaries to Amazon’s Rufus AI shopping assistant, these tools are becoming an integral part of our shopping journey. The frustration we feel when these AI features aren’t available speaks volumes about how quickly we’ve adapted to this new normal.

Different Flavors of AI Agents in Retail

During our discussion, Jason outlined several key types of AI agents that are reshaping retail:

  • AI Shopping Agents: These predictive tools answer customer questions and guide the path to purchase
  • Customer Support Agents: Automated systems that handle post-sale inquiries
  • Marketing Agents: AI-powered systems that handle audience segmentation and campaign creation
  • Sales Agents: Automated sales assistance tools

Personalization 2.0: The Human Element

One of my favorite insights from Jason was his personal perspective on automation versus human interaction. He shared a compelling example about shopping for his six-year-old daughter. While he’d welcome AI automation for routine purchases like seasonal basics, he values the human experience of shopping for special occasions, like vacation preparations. This highlights an important distinction: AI should enhance, not replace, meaningful shopping experiences.

The Future of Agent Interfaces

A fascinating point Jason raised is the potential future where consumers will have their own AI shopping agents that interface with retail brands’ AI systems. This raises important questions about:

  • Brand loyalty in an AI-mediated world
  • The role of traditional digital touchpoints (websites, apps, email)
  • Data privacy and consumer control
  • Universal API standards for AI agent communication

The Trust Factor

Perhaps one of the most crucial aspects we discussed was the issue of trust and data control. As Jason noted, consumers are increasingly aware of their data’s value and expect more control over how it’s used. This will likely lead to a future where consumers can grant or revoke AI access to their data based on how well retailers meet their expectations.

The rise of agentic commerce represents more than just a technological shift – it’s a fundamental change in how we think about shopping. As we wrapped up our conversation, Jason shared that Bluecore is already at the forefront of this transformation, working with major retailers like QVC and Evo to implement AI shopping assistants.

For those interested in exploring this technology, Bluecore is offering free trials and proof of concepts through June of this year. You can reach out to Jason directly at Jason.Grunberg@Bluecore.com or connect with him on LinkedIn.

The future of retail is being shaped by these AI innovations, and it’s clear that businesses need to start preparing for this agentic commerce revolution. The question isn’t if this transformation will happen, but how quickly retailers will adapt to meet evolving consumer expectations.

Find more conversations about innovations in retail here.

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