3140: BigCommerce: Hyper-Personalization and E-Commerce Predictions For 2025

[00:00:04] So, what's next for e-commerce in 2025? Well, today's guest, Michaela Weber, SVP and GM of Payments and Global Business Development at BigCommerce. She's going to be exploring the transformative trends that are shaping the future of online retail. And together, we're going to be exploring the transformative trends shaping the future of online retail.

[00:00:25] And if you're hearing about them for the first time, BigCommerce is a leading open SaaS platform that has been at the forefront of empowering businesses to help them grow and adapt in a rapidly evolving e-commerce landscape.

[00:00:38] So today, Michaela is going to be sharing insights into how AI is revolutionizing e-commerce from hyper-personalized shopping experiences to predictive analytics for inventory and customer lifetime value.

[00:00:51] But I also want to dive into the critical challenges of cybersecurity, the rise of smart technologies, and that delicate balance between personalization and privacy, especially as generative AI and IoT continue to redefine possibilities.

[00:01:07] The big questions that are being asked repeatedly are, how can brands stay agile? How can they stay secure and customer focused in the years ahead?

[00:01:15] Well, let's uncover some of those answers right now as we get Michaela onto the podcast.

[00:01:20] So welcome to the show, Michaela. Can you tell everyone listening a little about who you are and what you do?

[00:01:27] So I'm Michaela Weber. I'm the Senior Vice President of Strategic Business Development, and I'm the General Manager of Payments at BigCommerce.

[00:01:36] BigCommerce is a software platform that helps retailers create and manage online stores to really maximize their growth and agility.

[00:01:45] So brands that we work with, which your listeners may know, would include Harvey Nichols, Brompton, White Stuff, and Sports Shoes.

[00:01:54] Well, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast with me. So much I want to talk about.

[00:01:59] 2023 was all about AI, 2024 was all about AI, and I suspect 2025 will be about AI as well.

[00:02:06] But I think it's more about how it's maturing now as a technology. We're starting to see real ROI on this.

[00:02:13] But I'm curious, from what you're seeing, how do you see advanced AI models transforming e-commerce, particularly in areas like brand content creation, predictive analytics, customer lifetime value forecasting, and all that good stuff?

[00:02:27] Because I think we're now coming out of a hype circle and making a measurable difference in business.

[00:02:31] But what are you seeing here?

[00:02:33] Yeah, so first of all, I totally agree with you. There's a lot of hype around AI, right?

[00:02:38] That AI is going to be doing your shopping. I yet to have AI show up at my doorstep with a refill of milk when my refrigerator is low.

[00:02:46] So I'm waiting for that. But let's talk a little bit about where we're seeing retailers and brands actually use AI, so actual use cases.

[00:02:55] So I would bucket that into two areas. One would be really on customer experience, and the second is operational efficiency.

[00:03:05] So on the customer experience side, one of the ways we see AI be really being helpful is in enhanced relevance in search.

[00:03:15] So Sports Shoes, for example, Sports Shoes has 15,000 products on their website.

[00:03:22] And so AI really supercharges their ability to give you the quickest and most intuitive online purchasing experience.

[00:03:31] For example, you could go to sportsshoes.com and type in lightweight shoes, lightweight trainers.

[00:03:38] You know, if maybe if I'm running and I say the biggest and most important thing to me is feeling that my shoes are lightweight.

[00:03:45] That will then return trainers that have lightweight as a characteristic.

[00:03:51] So it can really help you instead of just typing, you know, you're faced with thousands and thousands of trainer types and brands and the, you know, Tiger 7 model versus the Cat 6.

[00:04:03] And how do you know?

[00:04:04] So it really helps you as a consumer to locate the appropriate shoe.

[00:04:08] And then you can go in and, you know, decide that you want pink trainers and your size 6 and kind of refine down the brands.

[00:04:16] But that kind of personalization is really helpful.

[00:04:21] We also work with some customers that have Latin names.

[00:04:26] So you may be Sarah Raven and no one knows how to spell Amaryllis properly or, you know, or someone knows the Latin name and it's misspelled.

[00:04:35] So you can use predictive search to say, what's Neil actually mean when he's misspelled three letters in this long Latin name?

[00:04:44] Instead of just saying that it's not perfectly spelled, I return zero results, which as a consumer may lead you to abandon the site or go to Google.

[00:04:54] And then as Sarah Raven, I may lose you off my site.

[00:04:58] So that search is really important.

[00:05:01] The other kind of customer experience thing that AI is helpful with is giving you recommendations when a product is out of stock.

[00:05:09] So go back to sport shoes, you know, you're looking for some specific model in a size 7 that's out of stock.

[00:05:17] But maybe there's a shoe that's quite similar that the website can suggest to you in your size.

[00:05:23] Or a plant that's very similar that, you know, it's the same color or similar attributes.

[00:05:28] And so that really helps you.

[00:05:30] We want to capture you on the website.

[00:05:32] We want to make sure with brands, the most important thing is once I get you, Neil, on that website, I want to make sure you make a purchase.

[00:05:40] And the other thing I want to do that AI can help with is I want to increase your average cart size.

[00:05:46] So when you buy your shoes, how about trainer liners?

[00:05:50] How about a new water bottle?

[00:05:52] How about, I'm not very sporty, so I don't know.

[00:05:55] What other things that runners might need?

[00:05:58] You know, maybe a training talk.

[00:06:00] So that's the kind of thing that AI can help.

[00:06:03] You know, it's intuiting.

[00:06:05] What else could you add to your basket?

[00:06:07] And I think we've all experienced that as a consumer is I just bought something the other day that required batteries.

[00:06:13] And on the checkout, it surfaced, you know, your Christmas lights require AA batteries.

[00:06:20] Would you like to buy a pack?

[00:06:22] And like, of course, I need AA batteries.

[00:06:24] But that's really logical, that bundling.

[00:06:26] And on the operational efficiency side, it wouldn't be, you know, I think all of us have experienced to varying degrees of success chatbots on website.

[00:06:37] So we see natural language chatbots.

[00:06:40] Not all of them are created equal.

[00:06:42] Some are really helpful.

[00:06:43] That can, as a brand, really help with frontline support.

[00:06:47] Order questions.

[00:06:48] That can make a product recommendation.

[00:06:51] Track deliveries.

[00:06:53] So that really helps keep your customer support queries down.

[00:06:57] And it's also important because I don't know when the last time you called into a call center is, but especially for younger consumers, making a physical phone call into a customer support line is not their preferred method of communication.

[00:07:13] So if I can interact with a brand in a chatbot that's really successful, that is helpful.

[00:07:20] And that just really improves that efficiency.

[00:07:23] So that's one of the areas where we see, you know, operational efficiency being really helpful.

[00:07:28] And then brands and retailers also using AI to help manage stock levels and things like that, which, again, is just helping them run their business more efficiently.

[00:07:37] It's such a good example there, talking about the 15,000 pairs of sports shoes.

[00:07:42] We've all been on a website and bombarded with so many options, so much choice.

[00:07:47] And I think it really sets the scene for hyper-personalization and why it is becoming a key driver of e-commerce success.

[00:07:55] And we all want that.

[00:07:56] And just thinking about ringing up a support center and being on hold and pushing all those buttons fills me with dread.

[00:08:03] So I'm completely with you there, too.

[00:08:05] And just to dig a little bit deeper on that, especially for other retailers and e-commerce leaders that might be listening to our conversation today,

[00:08:13] how are you seeing brands leveraging AI and machine learning to deliver some of these tailored experiences that we're talking about,

[00:08:21] including dynamic pricing, which is another hot topic right now, and personalized content at scale?

[00:08:27] It used to be a bit of a pipe dream, but it's now possible.

[00:08:29] So how are you seeing brands putting this into action?

[00:08:32] Yeah, so we touched on it a little bit before.

[00:08:35] Some of the things are, for example, delivering an automatic website translation in the country of your IP address.

[00:08:43] So helping shoppers, especially in Europe, that can be really helpful.

[00:08:47] So being able to use that personalized experience that I'm intuiting that you are a French speaker and I'm delivering you a French site.

[00:08:56] The dynamic pricing use case is really, really interesting.

[00:09:00] And we see this mostly for brands that are maybe selling in marketplace models or maybe reselling.

[00:09:08] So if I'm selling Makita power tools, you know, I'm selling a Makita power drill.

[00:09:15] That's not necessarily a product that is super unique to my site.

[00:09:19] I want to use AI to help run analytics on advanced data sets to understand where my pricing compares to others that may be returning in a Google result.

[00:09:30] If, you know, Neil, you're looking to buy a power drill to install your Christmas decorations,

[00:09:36] you are probably going to shop on price if you know that it's in previous customer experience, maybe,

[00:09:42] if you've experienced with a brand, if you know that it's essentially a like for like, you know, OEM product.

[00:09:47] So that pricing can be really important.

[00:09:50] And as consumers, we don't really like to think about dynamic pricing.

[00:09:55] I think we like to think that something costs, you know, $19.99 and that's what we're going to pay.

[00:10:00] But the reality is that as consumers do more comparison shopping, brands also need to do more comparison shopping,

[00:10:07] especially with discounting and things like Amazon results, you know, returning in your Google search.

[00:10:14] The other piece of this that I admit is a little bit more squeamish at times is how much personalization companies can know about you as a shopper.

[00:10:27] And there's certainly a lot of technology partners that specialize in working with brands to, in a GDPR friendly way,

[00:10:35] they would want me to say, to know a lot about your characteristics, who's in your household.

[00:10:41] When you are searching for a jumper that it's, you know, if I'm searching that it's likely a female jumper,

[00:10:47] they may know some things about where I've made previous purchases.

[00:10:51] They may know that I tend to buy things that are blue, you know, thing it's all about delivering to you content that you is going to be high converting that you're going to check out with.

[00:11:04] I think we've all experienced this if you are an Instagram user and you see tailored ads, some of which can be really attractive.

[00:11:13] And I admit that I've shopped things from my Instagram feed because I think that the algorithm really knows what I like.

[00:11:20] And it knows a scary amount about my preferences and it's able to deliver content and files of clothes and home goods that actually fit with my aesthetic.

[00:11:29] And so it is something that I think there's a bit of backlash from consumers where we've all maybe had the experience if you're in a home with an Amazon Alexa or Siri,

[00:11:40] and you discussed a certain topic or an esoteric item, you know, lawnmowers.

[00:11:47] And then the next day you're seeing push ads for, you know, new lawnmowers and it's a little bit disconcerting.

[00:11:53] So there's definitely a bright line there with using AI, that personalization.

[00:11:57] But as a retailer, it is really successful because it's all about conversion.

[00:12:02] It's all about delivering you the content that's going to lead you to make a purchase and then being able to, as we discussed previously, add additional items and try to push up that cart size.

[00:12:14] Yeah, it really is a tricky balance that between not being creepy, not being intrusive and giving that personalized experience that we also demand.

[00:12:23] And as customers, we all are notoriously difficult to deal with, I would imagine, for companies.

[00:12:28] Because if we don't get that personalized experience, we get extremely unhappy that the company doesn't know us or our favorite brand doesn't know us.

[00:12:36] But equally, if it's too intrusive and we're seeing certain brand of trainers following us around every single web page we go, though, we don't like that too.

[00:12:45] It is a balancing act, isn't it?

[00:12:47] It definitely is.

[00:12:49] Yeah, it's something that brands, some brands get more right than others.

[00:12:52] Just like I'm sure you have brands that reach out to you too much.

[00:12:56] You get too many communications and it leads you to actually unsubscribe.

[00:13:00] And as a retailer, that's the wrong, we force the wrong behavior.

[00:13:04] So how do you hit that sweet spot where I'm keeping you engaged and interested, but I'm not creeping you out, for lack of a better phrase?

[00:13:13] Yeah.

[00:13:14] Another one that drives me nuts as well is the notifications on mobile apps for certain brands.

[00:13:19] If I'm getting three, four of those notifications a day, I'm going to silence the notifications.

[00:13:24] So you're right.

[00:13:26] Exactly the same with emails and you unsubscribe.

[00:13:28] So I think another thing I'd like to bring into the conversation here is over the last few years, we've all been forced to admit that we took the supply chain for granted,

[00:13:38] especially when things started disappearing off the shelves.

[00:13:41] So smart technology, though, is thankfully revolutionizing supply chain management and inventory optimization.

[00:13:48] So I'd love to take a little peek behind the curtain of the kind of things that we don't get to see.

[00:13:54] So can you tell me a bit more about innovations like IoT and automation and how these technologies are also helping brands enhance efficiency,

[00:14:02] reduce costs and ultimately improve customer satisfaction in ways that we don't fully appreciate?

[00:14:09] Sure.

[00:14:10] So I think that the first thing that's really challenging, and this is especially true for B2B customers,

[00:14:15] that big commerce we work with both B2B and B2C customers and some hybrid customers.

[00:14:20] But if you're selling online and in-store or you are doing some ordering to, in a B2B context, could be from very large quantities,

[00:14:31] you have to really stay on top of your inventory management, right?

[00:14:35] It's really important to have both predictive analytics on when you may have additional orders, either seasonality,

[00:14:42] or making sure that you have that real-time inventory management so you aren't going to run out of stock.

[00:14:48] So this would be things like automated reordering processes where either automatically or through notifications,

[00:14:55] you're pushing notices that the algorithms think they need to reorder items or certain items are getting low in stock.

[00:15:05] This gives you enhanced supply chain visibility.

[00:15:08] So that also could include tracking for how long it expects an order to get to you.

[00:15:15] Because certainly for some of our B2B customers, there can be quite long lead times on items that are coming by ship,

[00:15:22] for example, from Asia, other places.

[00:15:24] So really building in all those things because it's much more complex than the luxury we have as B2C end consumers saying,

[00:15:33] you know, Amazon next day prime delivery in a B2B context can be months of lead time and also taking production into account.

[00:15:43] So that's really important, this IoT smart technologies for customers.

[00:15:48] How can I build this in?

[00:15:50] How can I manage my inventory and supply chain?

[00:15:53] In a B2C context, we also see that where customers have,

[00:15:59] in a more luxury context, maybe a certain number of items.

[00:16:02] So if you're selling high fashion dresses, you may have two dresses in each of five sizes.

[00:16:08] And if I'm selling on the floor and on the website,

[00:16:12] I need to know that if someone just bought a size eight on the website,

[00:16:17] I might pick and pack that from the floor.

[00:16:19] And if someone's walking around with it in their hand,

[00:16:22] I'm actually maybe out of that dress, right?

[00:16:24] I need to be actually quite,

[00:16:27] have really fast reconciliation and make sure that I am accurately reflecting

[00:16:33] the orders that I have in store and the stock I have in store.

[00:16:37] It can be less of an issue if you have huge, huge numbers of SKUs of different things.

[00:16:41] And then we also see kind of on the B2B side, another trend that's a little bit related to

[00:16:47] some of the personalization we see in B2C, which is really wanting to leverage this higher loyalty

[00:16:53] conversion a little bit on AI.

[00:16:56] So this would be tailored product recommendations, dynamic pricing.

[00:17:01] So in a B2B context, you know, if you order more than a thousand units of something,

[00:17:06] you may get a discount on the whole basket or be in a different pricing level.

[00:17:10] I might price small kind of one man band traders if I'm a plumbing supply store differently than I

[00:17:17] would price someone that had 10 stores or was ordering a certain number of volume per year.

[00:17:23] So that can be really complex to technology and logic to build into an e-com site.

[00:17:29] But moving away from those paper processes just gives you so much more analytical horsepower

[00:17:35] and ability to control your business, control your margins and run the business more efficiently

[00:17:40] and with more customization, which is really what your end users who are consumers buying online

[00:17:47] in a very personalized way are starting to demand from the companies they work with in a B2B context.

[00:17:54] And we're recording this conversation in the heart of the holiday season at the moment.

[00:17:59] And I think looking back at Black Friday, busiest time of the year from a shopping point of view,

[00:18:05] going offline due to a denial of service attack or a cyber attack, it's just unthinkable.

[00:18:10] It's the busiest day of the year.

[00:18:12] And then equally, we're now looking at January sales and getting those bargains.

[00:18:16] And it's so important for every retail or e-commerce company to ensure that they stay online throughout.

[00:18:22] So with cybersecurity becoming a growing concern in e-commerce,

[00:18:26] especially with the rise of generative AI as well,

[00:18:30] what are the biggest risks that you're seeing retailers facing right now?

[00:18:34] And how can they ultimately build those stronger defenses while ensuring compliance and evolving regulations

[00:18:39] and ultimately ensuring that they don't go offline during those busiest times of the year?

[00:18:45] Sure. So I think it starts with your core e-commerce infrastructure providers, right?

[00:18:51] Your platform like big commerce, making sure that you have great uptime, your payments provider.

[00:18:56] So we had some customers who used a payments provider a few months ago that went down.

[00:19:02] I was shopping at a Sainsbury's a few months ago and all the tills were offline.

[00:19:06] They were only taking cash.

[00:19:07] And I didn't have cash.

[00:19:09] I just had my Apple Pay.

[00:19:11] So, you know, that's I couldn't make a purchase.

[00:19:14] And the cash machine was out of cash.

[00:19:17] So it's really important for all retailers that notion of uptime.

[00:19:21] But cybersecurity is a really challenging one.

[00:19:25] And especially because brands and retailers want to move quickly and they want to add the latest and greatest technology.

[00:19:33] But you also really need to work with a credible agency and tech partners who can support you on points of vulnerability.

[00:19:40] So on the payment side of things, fraud is a huge issue.

[00:19:45] Not only card testing.

[00:19:47] So card testing is when these large criminal organizations use bots to test stolen credit cards and see if they're active.

[00:19:56] And as a retailer, it's expensive because you pay every time someone tries to make a transaction on your website that off charge.

[00:20:04] And then also, if they're successful and they find the card, they may make a large fraudulent purchase, which then is going to be a challenge for you.

[00:20:13] So that's really important to work with a payments provider that is going to protect you and your e-com site that's going to help protect you from those types of fraud attacks that can sense them.

[00:20:24] And then the other issue is friendly fraud.

[00:20:27] So, you know, we work with a lot of sportswear retailers.

[00:20:30] Do you know what has really good street value?

[00:20:33] Very cool trainers.

[00:20:35] Because they're untraceable.

[00:20:36] You know, I might buy them online on eBay.

[00:20:38] They're easy to resell.

[00:20:41] And so friendly fraud is when you take delivery of a package and say that it never arrived.

[00:20:48] And you notify your credit card provider.

[00:20:50] So there's quite a lot of friendly fraud that is in the world.

[00:20:54] And certain companies are more susceptible because of the goods they sell.

[00:20:58] So you can work with payment providers that help identify frequent returners.

[00:21:03] You know, customers that may return items that are damaged.

[00:21:07] In the U.S., there was a really high profile retailer who was disclosed that people were mailing back bricks.

[00:21:16] And because they had such a fast returns policy, when they scanned the box at the warehouse to say it came back and Neil sent, you know, it was a 1.2 kilo box.

[00:21:27] They assumed that the high heels were inside.

[00:21:32] And then two weeks later, when the workers finally had worked their way through to open the box, it was actually just junk that weighed the same as the package was supposed to weigh.

[00:21:42] And by that time, it can be hard to chase that.

[00:21:45] If you've already made a refund, it can be hard to chase down the customer.

[00:21:48] So it's really you want to move quickly.

[00:21:51] And that's really a theme that we're seeing.

[00:21:53] You want to move quickly, but you also need to have the right processes in place to protect you.

[00:21:57] And so starting to work with partners that identify those vulnerabilities and making sure that you are having those assessments is really important.

[00:22:06] You want to have a frictionless checkout and e-com experience, but you can't make yourself vulnerable to these type of attacks, which could take you offline, cause you to incur extreme charges from fraud, or really ruin your authorization rates.

[00:22:21] Because payments providers, if they think you have more fraudulent transactions, will approve less of the payment attempts that come from your site.

[00:22:30] And that can be really damaging for a business.

[00:22:32] And I think this is a perfect moment to introduce people listening that might be outside of the industry to what you do at BigCommerce, because you do have a big reputation for being this open SaaS platform that caters to businesses of all growth stages.

[00:22:45] But can you tell me a bit more about how your approach actually enables brands to adapt to emerging technologies like AI and IoT and this rapidly changing e-commerce environment?

[00:22:56] Because I think some of these new tech trends, a lot of businesses will find overwhelming, maybe even daunting.

[00:23:03] So I'd love to hear more about how you're helping businesses through that transition.

[00:23:07] Sure.

[00:23:08] Yeah, it's a great question.

[00:23:10] So in contrast to what we think of as a more monolithic platform that has really fixed architecture,

[00:23:16] or we see a lot of brands who started building their custom website in 2005.

[00:23:22] And they kept adding and kept adding.

[00:23:25] And now this is a spaghetti system of super customized things that can make it really hard to add on new features or functionalities or technology partners that are really helping to transform your business.

[00:23:39] So BigCommerce, what we allow is both out-of-the-box solutions where we can recommend technology partners to you that you can add on to our kind of core site builder.

[00:23:52] And then also what's commonly known in the industry as a headless approach.

[00:23:56] And so think of headless as really it's the pick and mix of e-commerce, right?

[00:24:02] It's a best of breed.

[00:24:03] You can choose your payments provider.

[00:24:04] You choose your content management solution, your order management solution, and kind of stack all that together to build the website that's most optimized for your needs.

[00:24:16] So one of the things we've recently released is called Catalyst.

[00:24:20] And Catalyst helps to build a reference architecture for headless.

[00:24:25] So you're not with a total blank sheet of paper.

[00:24:28] We're giving you, you know, it's a little bit paint by numbers or we're giving you some guidance on a way to bring a little bit of that out-of-the-box ease to a headless best of breed build.

[00:24:41] And then we also recently purchased MakeSwift, which is a visual editor.

[00:24:45] It's a really cool tool.

[00:24:47] And that creates, that allows you to create and deploy in a headless environment, really beautiful visuals.

[00:24:55] So it's all about this opportunity for customization.

[00:24:57] If you want to be more out of the box with big commerce, you can absolutely do that.

[00:25:02] But given the nature of how fast the e-commerce industry is moving, being able to add on new technologies and have new features and functions is really important as brands evolve.

[00:25:14] And we're seeing a lot of brands that have this legacy custom architecture that takes a huge number of people to run.

[00:25:22] They're paying agencies a large amount of dollars to operate, moving over to a company like big commerce where they just have more control and more customization.

[00:25:32] So it's all about that agility.

[00:25:35] And I think it's also time to think about 2025.

[00:25:38] Just saying that out loud makes me feel incredibly old.

[00:25:41] So I've got to ask you, if I ask you to look forward and look into my virtual crystal ball, what do you predict will be the most significant challenges?

[00:25:49] And equally, some of those opportunities that retailers can find in balancing technological innovation with that need for enhanced security and customer trust and all that sensible stuff.

[00:26:00] But where do you see all this heading this year?

[00:26:03] Sure.

[00:26:03] Well, I think one theme we talked about earlier is this notion of building brand loyalty, but not overwhelming a customer.

[00:26:12] So not being too personalized, right?

[00:26:15] Not over-communicating to the customer.

[00:26:17] And I think that continues to be a real theme for us is brands really wanting to further understand their customer segments that have a high propensity to purchase, that have a high basket size.

[00:26:29] And really treating those customers as VIPs and giving them what they want in personalization.

[00:26:35] The other trend that we see, and this has been a trend this year as well, is speed of checkout.

[00:26:42] So what we would call accelerated checkout.

[00:26:44] So Stripe is a partner of ours, and they have some amazing data that if your checkout takes longer than two minutes, 60% of customers will abandon.

[00:26:55] As a retailer, two minutes is actually not that long if I'm asking you to write in your full address, type out your full credit card number, register as a new customer.

[00:27:07] So accelerated checkout, and I'm sure we've all experienced Fastlane by PayPal, which is actually coming to the UK this spring.

[00:27:17] Stripe Link, other providers where your card details are saved, and that follows you around, and your address is saved, and it really helps from a checkout experience.

[00:27:27] So speed is really important.

[00:27:30] But to your earlier question, you have to maintain the security.

[00:27:34] So how do we let customers go fast and create frictionless environments?

[00:27:38] Apple Pay is a great example.

[00:27:40] I use Apple Pay all the time when it's an option, right?

[00:27:42] It's very, very easy.

[00:27:44] How do I let customers go fast but also keep my security high?

[00:27:47] And that is really a huge challenge for brands that want to make it as easy as possible to purchase but need to also have the right protection to know that you're a legitimate customer, not a bot, not a card tester, not a fraudster.

[00:28:02] The second kind of big opportunity we see is really unified commerce between in-store and online.

[00:28:10] So I had an example a few days ago where I bought something online and brought it to a store and thought that I could exchange for a different size in the store, and they didn't allow it.

[00:28:21] So I had to actually purchase a new item in-store and then mail back the item I bought online.

[00:28:28] And that's a terrible customer experience.

[00:28:30] So buy online, return in-store, which we call Boris.

[00:28:34] Buy online, pick up in-store.

[00:28:36] Or if I'm a store associate, you know, I say, Neil, you're looking for – let's go back to the trainer's example.

[00:28:42] We don't have these trainers.

[00:28:43] Let me get your details.

[00:28:45] I see your profile.

[00:28:46] We're going to have them at your house in two days, right?

[00:28:48] How do I capture that customer, build that loyalty, use the information I have to ensure that you have this unified brand experience?

[00:28:58] That's a big challenge.

[00:29:12] And then the third is, you know, we talked a lot about AI.

[00:29:18] I think if you have aspects of your business where AI makes sense in search and personalization, in B2B, dynamic pricing, how can you build that into your tech stack for 2025 to improve that customer experience and drive operational efficiency?

[00:30:05] Love that.

[00:30:06] The first thing that's the industry is moving is to work with partners, whether that's your agency, you know, your e-commerce platform like BigCommerce or your payment provider.

[00:30:15] They're going to help you evolve and try new things.

[00:30:19] If you stand still in 2025, your business is not going to grow.

[00:30:23] So making sure that you work with technology partners and providers, they're going to help you take the next step, do some experimentation, add new features and functionality.

[00:30:33] That's incredibly important, given how competitive the online retail environment has gotten and will continue to be as everyone's competing for both consumer and B2B dollars in 2025.

[00:30:47] Fantastic advice.

[00:30:48] Fantastic advice.

[00:30:48] And I'm very conscious we've been very forward thinking today and looking into the future and how technology impacts ourselves, our brands, our life and even world.

[00:30:57] But before I let you go, I'm going to ask you to look back in time for a moment because you've got a hugely successful career.

[00:31:04] But of course, none of us are able to achieve any degree of success without a little help along the way.

[00:31:09] So is there a particular person that you're grateful towards?

[00:31:12] Maybe saw something in you, invested a little time in you, who helped you get you where you are.

[00:31:18] So we can give a little shout out and a little thank you to who would that person be?

[00:31:23] Yeah, it's a great question.

[00:31:24] I was thinking a little bit about this and there's been so many leaders.

[00:31:28] I think I've been so blessed to work with, with both leaders and peers that have been amazingly transformative.

[00:31:33] But I did my probably single most memorable leader was I was at JP Morgan in Hong Kong, which was a challenging environment.

[00:31:41] You can imagine as an American who moved to Asia, having never been to Asia before, which is I don't know if it's something I recommend, but it worked out.

[00:31:49] And I worked in sales and trading and the managing director of the Asia equities business was a guy called MJ.

[00:31:56] And he came from a military background, so he's very process and team oriented.

[00:32:01] And what I learned from him is he had so much confidence in the capabilities of the team.

[00:32:06] It really built, York built my confidence to pitch a new idea, have confidence in working with customers.

[00:32:14] And he gave a lot of iterative feedback, but it was constructive and it never felt remedial.

[00:32:21] And trading floors can be really tough, notoriously tough environments.

[00:32:25] But we as a group had a really strong team mentality that he led.

[00:32:30] And I always felt he had our back.

[00:32:32] So he was the kind of person that would make sure the quiet person in a meeting had an opportunity to share and wasn't run over by the louder voices that were taking up more airtime.

[00:32:44] So I do try to bring some of those principles to my own leadership style.

[00:32:49] But I think you take something from each of the leaders you have.

[00:32:52] So it's things you pull from each of your managers.

[00:32:57] But certainly it was a memorable period of my career working at JPMorgan in Hong Kong.

[00:33:01] And I'm really grateful to him.

[00:33:03] Oh, fantastic answer.

[00:33:05] And I'd love to give a quick shout out to MJ.

[00:33:08] Hopefully he gets to hear this because I think he's probably blissfully unaware of the impact that he had on yourself and your career.

[00:33:16] And also how you implement some of those aspects into your own career now and help others.

[00:33:22] And also just recognizing that he was sticking up for those quiet voices in the meeting room too.

[00:33:29] And I do hope he gets to hear that.

[00:33:31] And for anyone listening that just wants to find more information about anything that we discussed today about BigCommerce,

[00:33:38] about some of the trends we're talking about, or connect with you or your team,

[00:33:42] where would you like to point everyone listening?

[00:33:44] Yeah, sure.

[00:33:45] So you can find us on BigCommerce.com or BigCommerce.co.uk.

[00:33:50] And BigCommerce on LinkedIn.

[00:33:52] Also would love to hear from people on my LinkedIn.

[00:33:55] So I'm Michaela Weber with 1B, which, you know, the Brits love a 2B Weber, but I'm Weber with 1B.

[00:34:01] And we also have a podcast of our own, the Make It Big podcast,

[00:34:05] which you can listen to wherever you listen to podcasts.

[00:34:10] And we'd love to hear from you at BigCommerce.

[00:34:12] We'd love to hear about some of your current retail challenges, give you some suggestions,

[00:34:17] and see how we can help advise you to grow your business at scale.

[00:34:22] Awesome.

[00:34:23] Well, I'll add links to everything, including the Make It Big podcast as well.

[00:34:27] I'll be checking that out.

[00:34:29] And we covered so much today from the impact of AI on e-commerce,

[00:34:32] some of those big hot topics from hyper-personalization and smart tech,

[00:34:36] to some of the more belts and braces approach to IT, retail, cyber security as well.

[00:34:41] So just a big thank you for shining a light on this and bringing it all to life for everyone.

[00:34:46] Thank you.

[00:34:47] Thanks a lot, Neil.

[00:34:48] I think as Michaela has shown us, the future of e-commerce is both as exciting as it is dynamic.

[00:34:54] Whether it be AI-powered personalization to the operational efficiencies of smart technology,

[00:35:00] the opportunities for innovation are immense.

[00:35:04] Yeah, challenges like cyber security and balancing customer privacy with tailored experiences,

[00:35:11] reminders of the complexities that come with rapid technological advancement,

[00:35:15] but there's so much to be excited about at the same time.

[00:35:18] So again, thank you to Michaela and BigCommerce for sharing those forward-looking insights with us all today.

[00:35:24] And for you and your business, how do you envision AI and smart tech shaping your own e-commerce experiences in the years ahead?

[00:35:32] Let me know your thoughts.

[00:35:34] I'd love to continue the conversation with you.

[00:35:36] You can get me on X, LinkedIn, Instagram, just at Neil CQs.

[00:35:40] Let's keep this conversation going.

[00:35:43] Other than that, I'll be back tomorrow with another guest for your listening pleasure.

[00:35:47] Hopefully you'll join me again then, but bye for now.

[00:35:49] Bye.

[00:35:50] Bye.