Grow cluster · E-commerce, merchandising, retail ops
Technology Rewired: Commerce and Retail
Commerce software moved from in-store POS and on-prem e-commerce platforms to hosted storefronts, marketplaces, and cloud order management. AI added recommendations and dynamic pricing. Agents now shop, compare, and in some flows check out on a buyer's behalf, so merchants must make catalogs, pricing, and policies readable by machines.
The shift: Shoppers send agents to buy; storefronts must sell to machines.
Copilot today
3.1 in five years
How has the commerce and retail team changed across five eras?
Era 1 · On-prem
Before 2005
0.3Retail ran on store POS systems, buyers and merchandisers working from spreadsheets, and on-prem e-commerce platforms that needed a dev team for every change.
Era 2 · SaaS and cloud
2005 to 2020
1.2Hosted storefronts and marketplaces let small teams sell online, and roles split into e-commerce managers, performance marketers, and marketplace specialists. Fraud and chargebacks became a daily job.
Era 3 · AI-assisted
2020 to 2024
1.7Recommendation engines, search ranking, and pricing models personalized the store. Merchandisers still set the catalog, promotions, and policies.
Era 4 · Agentic
2024 onward
2.0Shopping agents now research, compare, and in some flows buy for the user, which I cover in agentic commerce. Merchants need machine-readable catalogs and checkout that can verify an agent acting for a real customer.
Era 5 · Next 5 years
2026 to 2031
3.1My bet: a meaningful share of purchases starts with an agent, and commerce teams add roles that manage agent-facing catalogs, payment authorization rules, and disputes when an agent buys the wrong thing.
Which commerce and retail software is being rewired?
No deep dives yet. The first ones are in the queue below.
Coming next
- Agentic shopping
- E-commerce platforms
- Product catalogs
- Inventory
- Order management
- Returns
- Loyalty
- Point of sale
Also wired into this category: Identity and Access Management (IAM and CIAM).