Commerce Innovation & Technology Culture

• Commerce unveiled a broad wave of platform updates across BigCommerce, Feedonomics, and Makeswift, signaling a faster pace of product innovation and a more unified commerce ecosystem.
• New capabilities across catalog management, promotions, checkout, permissions, and multi-language storefronts are designed to help brands operate more efficiently and convert more shoppers.
• Major investments in storefront experiences, B2B workflows, payments, and omnichannel syndication aim to help brands scale faster without adding operational complexity.
• Commerce introduced a growing suite of AI-powered tools for product discovery, catalog enrichment, conversational shopping, and back-office automation as agentic commerce reshapes how consumers buy online.
• From native Catalyst hosting to AI-driven purchase order processing and agentic checkout integrations, Commerce’s roadmap reflects a long-term vision focused on speed, flexibility, and intelligent automation.

• Unified commerce connects your systems behind the scenes so customers experience one consistent brand across every channel.
• Customers don't shop in channels. They move between social media, marketplaces, search and your website as part of a single buying journey.
• Small moments of friction — inconsistent pricing, empty carts, and inaccurate inventory — quietly erode trust and drive shoppers to competitors.
• Brands that unify storefronts, product data, and customer experiences are better positioned to increase conversions, customer loyalty, and long-term growth.
• Building a connected commerce strategy starts by identifying where your customer journey breaks down and fixing those moments first.

Inside Commerce Live: The conversations defining modern commerce.

Commerce Live was everything attendees would expect from a conference. 

The new flagship thought leadership event, formerly known as Big Summit, was created to reinforce the evolution of the Commerce brand, which brought Big Commerce, Feedonomics, and Makeswift together under one umbrella. 

Held last week at Chicago’s Navy Pier, it was two and a half days jam-packed with listening and learning from industry experts, talking to peers, meeting vendors, eating whenever the opportunity presented itself, and, of course — lots of coffee. There was the prerequisite high energy welcome from corporate leadership, inspirational keynotes and breakout sessions tailored to the key topics commerce leaders are currently thinking about, plus the standard after-hours events.

That said, while the event fit the conference format, Commerce Live felt different. It had a sense of fun and energy right from the start when the host, Matt Marcotte, Founder and Principal of M2 Collaborative, walked on stage and defined the meaning of momentum: 

“It’s simple, mass times velocity. So, the bigger the object and the faster it’s moving, the more unstoppable it becomes. I would argue that’s the kind of story you’re going to hear and see today.”

Over the course of six keynotes, 13 breakout sessions, and an inspiring sit-down conversation between Travis Hess, CEO of Commerce, and DeMarcus Lawence, Superbowl champion, attendees collected incredible insights, ideas, and guidance on navigating commerce today — and how to prepare for tomorrow.

There’s far too much content for a single blog, so we’re delivering five over the next few weeks. Since many of the presenters were asked, “What’s one thing leaders can do right now to grow business and/or prepare for the future?”, we thought we’d kick off the series by providing some of the best answers. 

Let’s get started.