#norocketships August 2026
Summer madness here we come
A graphic that speaks to the power of the customer. This was a meme made in the Commerce Futures community, designed to represent the views of a customer group who have had enough of being screwed over.
No, Sicilian hoovers are not taking over the world.... we’re leaving that for the evil billionaires :(
Vile Rumour & Gossip
4 hours since April - Shopify has been down for 4 hours since April, a significant amount for a 3 month window. We’ll gloss over the fact that their status pages don’t reflect that fact, but WHY? is the question we’re all asking.
The hunt for an Algolia alternative.... it was ever thus. Every vendor ends up the lesser for some reason, and these guys are waning. With so much uncertainty about the future of search there’s no obvious replacement though. Constructor are pricey (they know they’re strong), but too pricey for most. Typesense and Meilisearch are both doable, but open source has its complications. Perhaps Algolia’s customers will await something stronger appearing, but we don’t see anything on the horizon just yet.
Is Akamai losing its lustre? OK, so lustre is too strong a word, but perhaps dominance is better. Akamai is one of the few tech firms to stay “in lane” for years.... CDN (Ok Security & CDN) is what they do, I don’t even need to check their website, it’s what they’ve always done. 25% net profit, and so expensive it hurts... people complain about their cost all of the time.
CDN revenue is slightly down recently, Security is up. Existing customers are searching for an alternative... it’s the price, nothing else.
AI’s “Trojan Horse” moment
If (like me) you listen to too much Scott Galloway, you’ll be up to date with Apple’s “stand back” approach to AI. They appear to be waiting for the current AI greedicons to “play in the road” and get partly wiped out - so that Apple can elegantly slide in with the best solution, a couple of years from now.
Certainly, if you compare stocks Apple is up 50% in a year, whilst Meta is down 25%.
I can’t help but think the same game is being played with AI that we all fell for with Facebook, Search and Social. Ultimately, we are the product.
Instead of greeks hiding inside the horse, it’s our souls and critical thought that AI is after - we rich, lazy humans with time aplenty and appetites that we now share only with our phones - :)
Enterprise AI Lock in
The AI models are out to lock you all in it seems... quelle shock :)
The narratives though are not quite what we might have thought. A really excellent article here describes the intricacies of building an architecturally robust AI system within an enterprise, and... surprise surprise it’s the same as any Cloud or SaaS approach.
If you cannot be bothered to click - here’s the quote you need: “teams buying hosted models need to map data retention, model-weight access, deployment options, and contract language before AI becomes embedded in core workflows“.
Sounds eminently sensible - but when you add this to the existing complexities of developing on top of the old stack (while keeping it alive), upgrading the store network, reigning in the eCom team to planned upgrades only - this is not going to be easy nor fast.
Lock in just got way way more likely - OR harder to avoid :)
Forrester’s demise
I did my customary post on LinkedIn last week about the inaccuracy of their eCommerce wave report thingy. Unlike previous years, they actually messaged me to say I’d infringed their copyright and would I please remove the photo of the wave itself.
Understood completely, that message was definitely about the picture, no question - not the laughable missing vendors, the lack of market understanding, nor the fact that they’ve conflated B2C and B2B to save money and in the meantime annoyed ALL the vendors (except Kibo).
I think we can all say that the Analyst waves are irrelevant, and that whilst they were good for customers who needed validation for a decision, the reality of today is that no deal is done for very long, and so every wave, case study and reference is good for less than it was even a year ago.
BTW - I had a huge amount of angst from at least 4 companies represented on the wave, so even if there’s an argument that it’s accurate they’ve managed to upset a lot of their clients in the process :)
It’s Sad.
An irregular workplace phrase below - not an insult but submitted by Gus Fune from Bærskin who keeps an eye on such things, thankyou Gus. More on substack, and increasingly we’re testing all the platforms just for fun.
This issue we’re our own sponsor - Let’s Go Shopping has added meat to the bones of the Agenda so if you want to learn about retail excellence please do join us.
until next time - Jamie
