In a revealing analysis of current e-commerce trends, recent research from commercetools GmbH indicates that businesses are rapidly shifting toward more flexible and scalable platforms to meet evolving consumer demands. With only 14% of businesses reporting satisfaction with their current e-commerce platforms, the industry appears to be at a critical turning point.

In a recent conversation with Kelly Goetch, chief strategy officer of commercetools, theCUBE Research Principal Analyst Shelly Kramer touched on the urgency brands are feeling when it comes to delivering best-in-class customer experiences. 

“The market is demanding, and customers are not patiently waiting for you to get your act together,” Krame said. “Customers know what best-in-class e-commerce experiences look like, and they want them — now.”

E-commerce trends: The push for platform modernization

Replatforming and the move to more flexible, scalable platforms is a key area of focus for businesses right now, for a variety of reasons. Customer demand for hyper-personalization, fueled by flexible, scalable platforms beats old-school systems when it comes to an organization’s ability to enhance customer experiences and stay competitive.

Businesses are struggling to deliver on the core promise of personalized shopping experiences, according to Goetsch.

“The websites are old. They’re undifferentiated,” he said. “They’re based on monolithic, outdated technologies that only allow quarterly releases to production. They just can’t innovate very fast.”

The impact of these technological limitations is significant, with businesses reporting key pain points that include limited scalability, delayed implementation, low-quality customer support and a lack of advanced features.

The composable commerce revolution

That’s where composable commerce comes in. Built on MACH architecture — Microservices, APIs, Cloud and Headless — this approach represents a significant departure from traditional monolithic platforms, offering businesses the ability to innovate rapidly and adapt to changing consumer needs.

The results speak for themselves: Research indicates that 90% of businesses that migrated to flexible, scalable platforms reported increased sales and revenue, with 30% experiencing growth of 30% or more. 

“The era of big re-platforms is thankfully over,” Goetsch noted, citing use cases from large-scale companies, including Ulta Beauty Inc., which launched its buy-online-pick-up-in-store capability in just seven days.

According to commercetools’ “State of eCommerce” study, businesses are focusing their investments in three primary areas: modern e-commerce platforms, social commerce and artificial intelligence. Forty-one percent of brands and retailers report plans to upgrade their e-commerce platforms, specifically to create better customer experiences and compete with industry giants such as Amazon Web Services Inc. and Walmart Inc., while a striking 77% of companies plan to increase their social media channel usage, with Facebook Shop/Marketplace and TikTok leading the charge.

“That’s where the eyeballs are,” Goetsch explained. “Folks don’t want to download an app. They want the ability to consume their social media, scroll their feed, and oh, by the way, here’s a product that might go along with what I was just looking at.”

The AI adoption rate is significant, with 62% of businesses already leveraging AI and another 32% planning to implement it. However, Goetsch emphasized that success lies in purposeful implementation, saying, “The best form of AI is AI that serves a business need … the right question to be asking is, what business value are you delivering?”

The path forward on the platform modernization front

Replatforming and the move to more flexible, scalable platforms is a key area of focus for businesses right now, for a variety of reasons. Customer demand for hyper-personalization, fueled by flexible, scalable platforms beats old-school systems when it comes to an organization’s ability to enhance customer experiences and stay competitive.

For businesses considering platform modernization, the message is clear: Act sooner rather than later. The research shows that 94% of companies reported significant improvements in site performance after migration, while 88% gained more customization capabilities.

“Today’s consumers are savvy,” Kramer said. “When you’re asking me to hand over my money for something that you’re selling, I want to have a great experience, from everything — the web experience to the payment experience to the shipping experience.”

As the e-commerce landscape continues to evolve, the ability to deliver personalized, seamless shopping experiences is no longer a luxury — it’s a necessity for survival in an increasingly competitive digital marketplace.

Here’s theCUBE’s full conversation with Shelly Kramer and commercetools’ Kelly Goetsch about e-commerce trends:

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