What Will You Do When E-Commerce No Longer Requires A Website?

In this episode of the Omni Talk Expert Series, hosts Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga are joined by Jon Cleaver, Chief Technology Officer at SportsShoes.com, and Malte Ubl, Chief Technology Officer at Vercel, for a forward-looking discussion on preparing e-commerce operations for agentic AI and the future of composable commerce.

Jon and Malte share their expertise on how retailers can transform their digital infrastructure through API-first architecture, cloud-based deployment, and composable commerce strategies. The conversation provides practical insights from SportsShoes.com’s complete website transformation and explains why these foundational changes are critical for retailers preparing for AI-powered shopping experiences.

Key Moments:

[0:33] – Introduction: What should you do when e-commerce no longer requires a website?
[2:05] – Jon Cleaver’s background and SportsShoes.com’s mission
[3:31] – Malte Ubl’s journey from Google Search to Vercel and the composable commerce space
[5:29] – What is composable commerce and why does it matter?
[8:48] – The challenges that triggered SportsShoes.com’s website transformation
[12:05] – Selecting the right technology stack: Big Commerce, Bloom Reach, Stripe, and Prismic
[14:17] – The key ingredients for successful composable commerce implementation
[16:13] – How release cycles transformed from weekly to continuous deployment
[18:04] – Scalability in the new world: handling viral traffic and Black Friday peaks
[20:56] – How AI is making software development faster and cheaper today
[24:04] – The future of product discovery and technical product research with AI
[32:30] – Envisioning the front-end consumer experience in an AI-driven world
[35:55] – Starting your agentic AI experiments: why your own website and loyal customers matter
[36:40] – What retailers must get right now: API-first approach and enriched product data
[39:05] – Managing costs and choosing the right AI models for your use case
[40:35] – Final advice: composable transformation as the foundation for agentic commerce

This conversation is essential for retail technology leaders, CTOs, and e-commerce executives looking to build the infrastructure that will support AI-powered shopping experiences and remain competitive in the evolving digital landscape.

Tune in now on the platform of your choice below:

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | SoundCloud | Amazon Music

Be careful out there,

– Chris, Anne, and the Omni Talk team

P.S. To see our full lineup of past Ask An Expert conversations, head here.

#retailtech #ecommerce #AI #composablecommerce

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