Issue #11 - Fresh from MACH Two in scorchio Amsterdam
In this issue: eCommerce gossip (as always) | Mid-market composable | The race for AI meaning in Search & Merch | Upcoming events (for clients and for merchants)
CF eCommerce Gossip
We caused a little kerfuffle last month when we reported that eComm is perceived as recovering. Some merchants amongst our subscribers pointed to the IMRG data (and equivalents elsewhere) to disagree, but given our community group is now c.250 members strong - and continues to engage, we stand by the report.
This month we’re hearing:
Google continues to turn down the dial on Paid - Many previously high spending digital merchants are struggling to get their budget spent, and we can only imagine this is in the run-up to GA4 being fully launched (so that they can claim uplift etc…)
There seems to be a race to address both product information richness/quality AND store systems. The product quality issue is directly linked to search (and what merchants believe is coming from organic with AI arriving in most search platforms in a rush) - but also…. “Housekeeping”.
There’s a Shopify theme / headless race afoot…. Apparently patience has run out with the restrictions of Shopify’s front-end, and as CMS-land explodes with providers there is a real opportunity to express the brand better, for very little ££ outlay.
Mid-market composable
I think I might be becoming obsessed with this. Life in SaaS can’t be all about doing business with enterprise companies. In Amsterdam (where we’ve just run MACH TWO) there are only 64 “global” enterprise companies with local HQ’s, compared to over 179 in London and 217 in NYC. Just in Amsterdam there are 1,500 companies with a turnover between $50m and $100. This obsession with enterprise ICP’s just has to stop - and a composable tech stack needs to be made both attractive and affordable to smaller companies.
With the emergence of well-built integration platforms (no, not Zapier) - such as Pipe17, Patchworks and Xiatech - there is hope on the horizon. Our CF community is an upper mid-market group in the main, and they just aren’t interested even in the word composable (or MACH, which they see as a sales term). They are, however, super-keen to differentiate their front end design and reduce the length of contracts they sign with SaaS vendors. Our event themes will really start to reflect this reality - having spent the first 5 months of 2023 speaking with nearly 120 potential customer speakers we do feel we have our finger firmly “on the pulse” when it comes to the issues that are top of mind.
AI in Search & Merchandising
We’ve written about this a little, but there is a big opportunity in S&M right now (see product information reference above). The “Old wine in new bottles” guys won’t be able to keep up, but Constructor, Advanced Commerce and a few others with key differentiators seem to have the whip hand in key sectors.
Fast search on its own just won’t cut it any more. Rules-based merchandising, AI-based competitive research (that in turn automates results) is now operational and will be mainstream in 12 months, and so the opportunities are significant. Whether teams in merchants will trust the AI to do its job is another matter 🙂- implementations could be poor for some time to come.
Finally, valuations. VC’s want profitability to get to the C or D rounds, and injecting AI is a great way of putting that profitability target off - AI is the only space where VC’s are just chucking money around (see the raise by Mistral AI - 4 weeks old and has raised 105m euros). If you want to delay becoming profitable - become an AI business.
A little self promotion
We have been so busy executing events in H1 we forgot to talk to any potential clients about the events we have in H2. A few opportunities to join below (where you see a + there’s a slot)
Luxury Dinner (Sept) - Milan - Big Commerce +2
CPG/FMCG Dinner (Oct) - London - Recharge +2
Luxury & Premium Beauty Dinner (Nov) - London - Inviqa +2
Sports & Outdoor conference (Nov) - London - Big Commerce, Dotdigital +4
MACH Alliance members events
NYC Breakfasts - Both Sept - 2 slots to join Hygraph, Kin & Carta, Storyblok, Mercaux & Dynamic Yield
Berlin Dinner (Nov) - Hygraph, Emporix +1
Paris Dinnner (Oct) - Emporix, Dynamic Yield +1
ChristMACH (Dec) London - Algolia +3
We have speakers lined up already: Decathlon, Apidura, Stellar Equipment, Canali, flaconi, Botega Veneta, Ellis Brigham, ASDA and more 😁
Our gentle term of abuse for this issue:
Security light - Only works when you walk past them.