March 24th, 2025: Adobe teases new commerce offerings, BigCommerce launches new account functionality, Klarna files IPO paperwork, and welcome to Shoptalk Week!
Is Adobe Hopeless or Will The New Product Teases Get Them Back in the Game?
This week on the Watson Weekly podcast, we unpack two new product announcements from Adobe that are expected to launch by June 2025. One is the Adobe Commerce Optimizer, an eCommerce front-end that can be used with any storefront platform. This is one that I’m excited to see, particularly for larger merchants.
Second is a new cloud version of the Adobe Commerce Suite. This is a managed cloud version of the current Adobe Commerce product, which seems like a nothing burger to me?
You’ll find this and other stories about BigCommerce and Klarna’s new IPO filing… on the Watson Weekly podcast, coming straight to your earhole wherever you find your favorite podcasts.
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It’s March 24th, 2025 and this is the Watson Weekly - your essential eCommerce Digest!
Today on our show:
Adobe Teases New Commerce Offerings
BigCommerce Launches New Account Functionality
Klarna Files IPO Paperwork
Welcome to Shoptalk Week!
- and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.
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To hear new episodes of the show every Monday morning, subscribe now at rmwcommerce.com/watsonweekly and wherever you get your podcasts.
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BUT FIRST in our shopping cart full of news….
Adobe Teases New Commerce Offerings
Adobe Teasing New Commerce Offerings: I'm Not Eating the Cheese
Adobe's commerce efforts have been wandering in the desert for years. They tried to sell people on the whole "PWA Headless" thing several years back, which blew up in most client's faces. You would have needed an elite system integrator to do it right, and from my industry conversations mostly that did not exist.
The industry is looking for that Shopify alternative.
Salesforce keeps laying off people and changing leadership -- plus obvious they are truly trying to sell you Data Cloud more than anything (which you need to run their agents), with a few feints and dabbles in other areas.
BigCommerce has a new leadership and approach, but they are not going to challenge Shopify in B2C... they have trained their guns on B2B.
Adobe has the Magento legacy which has a lot of merchants STILL on it (remember when I said people don't want to replatform?) they don't want to lose.
They are testing a new front-end - Adobe Commerce Optimizer - which I think is what they are really trying to sell. After all, it's Adobe and they have their whole Creative Suite. I would put my money here if anything.
They are also releasing in 2025 essentially an instant provisioned cloud (Adobe Cloud as a Service - ACCS?) for users who don't want to provision their own Magento.
I think of it like this Wordpress hosts (WPEngine etc) which handle everything for you. Magento has tried to do this more times than I can count. At least a couple.
One of their system integrator partners released an odd Youtube video based on an email they sent, and Adobe also released a horrific obviously AI-generated podcast which forces you to listen to two excited AI people talking to each other like rabid goats. About the strangest product release tease I have ever seen.
The front-end Commerce Optimizer it's whatever... it's Adobe so you have to pay attention. I just hope people aren't being sold a bill of goods.
The platform, I would steer far away from. Adobe in this market is damned if they do and damned if they don't.
If they don't change much, which is what is happening here, it's just the same thing managed for you. In that case, it's like a tree falling in the woods. It will be for the people who are locked in and Adobe-committed and have few options.
If they change a lot, then they have the same Magento 1 -> 2 problem all over again. Screw over their user base, and for many people it was easier to replatform that to upgrade.
With a managed offering like this, customizations are a huge question. If you have customized your install to a great degree (which is most people at this point), my guess is that this transition becomes quite difficult.
If you haven't, you might use this transition period as yet another replatform off-ramp. In June 2025, we will know more but when the tree falls in the woods then, we might at least be able to use our binoculars and see what color the tree is.
[References:]
Our Second Story
BigCommerce Launches New Account Functionality
Manufacturers and Distributors Really Just Trying to Represent Their Business Accurately
The B2B world is in a race to digitize. Many companies in the mid-market are trying to digitize without feeling they need to opt into forever Salesforce agreements. The Salesforce CRM is most definitely needed to use the Lightning Salesforce B2B solution properly. Which, the solution will definitely work. No arguments here. How much cheaper can companies make it however?
While there is a lot you can do in Salesforce, it does come at a cost of lock-in - Salesforce (evenutually) everywhere. Salesforce keeps trying to go down-market, and they don't have the organization or product to match it.
With all that said, BigCommerce made a step in the right direction with a recent account hierarchy feature, but if you're not in the space it's not so obvious why you even need something like this. Digitizing old-school companies comes with issues, particularly in manufacturers and distributors where:
* Different buyer behavior patterns for different customer segments
* Different quoting, approval and service models for different business units, products, and approval workflows (do they go to sales? who? or do you funnel them to support?)
* The same customer may not have access to all my brands
* Different catalogs, pack sizes and pricing could be needed for different types of clients
* The company you bill to can be different than the company making the purchase, which may not have any clean relationship to the place any orders are shipped to.
To be clear, BigCommerce did not solve all these above issues with this update, but it did close another gap with Salesforce regarding the ability to nest companies in each other for a Client organization and how buyers within those organizations can take action across it.
[References:]
Our Third Story
Klarna Files IPO Paperwork
First. Klarna and Shop Pay are both examples of things that should not exist if Paypal has its eye on the ball. (eBay had similar stories with GOAT, Grailed, StockX, etc)
On the other hand, with what I believe to be at least paying attention leadership from Paypal, I worry for Klarna (it's still always going to be one of many) but I do not worry for Shop Pay (it has a structural advantage while Shopify is ascendent).
Klarna at $105B in GMV facilitated is approximately a quarter of Paypal branded checkout GMV of ~$500B (not released but popular estimates put this % at one-third of Paypal's total $1.68T TPV).
Klarna revenue growing 24% means its growth is about 4x fast fast as Paypal.
It would also put Klarna at a similar size to Shop Pay (Shop Pay was $27B in Q4), with Shop Pay growing 2x as fast as Klarna (50%).
Second. Klarna has made a lot of noise about advertising and identity. Still, it's primarily a "Pay Later" network (80%+ GMV). Advertising is 11% of revenue and growing, but not exponentially so.
Third. Sweden is still the market that stirs the drink. The company has 80%+ consumer penetration in its home country. No other country has > 40%, with Germany the closest second at 33%, followed by UK at 20.4%. The company is telling stories about how markets will behave like the more mature markets, but it's a big stretch in my mind.
The company's revenue is growing 24% y/y at $2.4B and they barely squeaked out a net profit of $21M.
[References:]
[PAUSE]
And Our Last Story
Welcome to Shoptalk Week!
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It’s That Time Friends, for our Investor Minute. We have 5 items on the menu today.
First
Decentralized Parcel Delivery Network Relay Raises $35M in Series A Funding
Alternative parcel delivery network Relay has raised $35 million in Series A funding that will be used to hire developers and operational staff and to grow its network in the UK. An asset-light marketplace that uses gig economy drivers to ship parcels to consumers? Where have we heard of this, and why will Relay differ from what has happened with Uber or DoorDash?
Link: https://supplychaindigital.com/logistics/relay-funding-transform-ecommerce-delivery
Second
Highstock Raises $5.5M to Help Brands Connect Their Unsold Inventory with Wholesale Buyers Who Need It
Crossborder inventory management platform Highstock, which enable brands to move unsold inventory to wholesale buyers, has raised $5.5 million in Seed Funding. It is hard for brands to move unsold stock due to the potential brand harm this may cause in local markets; cross-border offers access to platforms that can move this inventory without impacting brand equity. This leads to revenue creation without having unsold inventory ending in landfills. It will be interesting to see how Highstock grows in the current climate.
Link: https://highstock.com/blog/introducing-highstock
Third
DoubleVerify To Acquire Rockerbox In $85M Deal
Digital media measurement, data, and analytics platform DoubleVerify has announced that it will acquire marketing attribution solution Rockerbox for $85 million. The acquisition will enable DoubleVerify to advance its capabilities to offer end-to-end media performance measurement and AI-powered activation. A battle is happening in the marketing measurement sector as DoubleVerify aims to become a true end-to-end solution for advertisers and publishers.
Link: https://www.axios.com/2025/02/26/doubleverify-acquire-rockerbox-85-million
Fourth
eCommerce Retention Marketing Platform Instant Raised $18M In Series A
Australian headquartered eCommerce retention marketing platform Instant raised $18M In Series A funding at a reported valuation of $100 million. The new funding will be invested in product development and enhancing self-service capabilities for North American expansion. The retention of anonymous customers who abandon their carts via retargeting that leads to a conversion is a hot sector, as startups are using artificial intelligence to generate revenues for brands.
AND FINALLY …
Swap Raises $40M to Streamline eCommerce Logistics
Swap, a cross-border trade platform, has announced that it has raised $40 million in Series B funding that will be used to build on the company’s existing footprint with U.K. businesses, with an expansion plan into wider Europe and the U.S., as well as enter Australia and Canada. The company has found early success in the apparel sector and will now build solutions for beauty, home goods, and consumer electronics. Swap will compete against incumbents such as Shopify and Global-e, and in the current climate, cross-border can only become more complex.
Link: https://www.businessinsider.com/swap-secures-funding-streamline-e-commerce-logistics-2025-3
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Did you know that RMW Commerce has another podcast? Check out The Watson Weekend for an unfiltered and lively eCommerce chat each week with me, Rick Watson, my co-host Jess Lesesky, and an array of interesting guests and topics. All focused on eCommerce. You can find the Watson Weekend by searching for it on iTunes, Spotify, or Youtube.
That’s all for this week! Till next time Watsonians.....
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Hi, I’m Rick Watson, CEO and Founder of RMW Commerce Consulting and host of the Watson Weekly podcast - your essential eCommerce Digest.
Our production partner for the series is Podcast on the Fly. This podcast is produced by RMW Commerce.
To hear new episodes of the show every Monday morning, subscribe now at rmwcommerce.com/watsonweekly and wherever you get your podcasts.
