 Hi everyone, welcome back to the cubes coverage of commerce tools elevate here in Miami, Florida I'm your host Rebecca Knight along with my co-host and analyst Shelly Kramer We we are wrapping up our our day of coverage here It's been it has been a day the the expo is closed right now because there's another key note going on But it has been a pleasure doing this show with you the first time ever that the cube has been here It has been amazing our our immersion into the world of commerce Yeah, and we are emerging with so much great information and insights from all of the people We had an opportunity to talk with it's been really great It has it has 88 speakers 25 sponsors as I said the first time the cube has ever been to commerce tools elevate so much Terrific content from the show and and really a deeper understanding of how the world of commerce is changing And that is something that affects all of our lives because as we came into this show Shelly We are both experts at each other. We are so we are professional consumers Yes, and I think really you know that is the premise at which everything starts is that the world has changed Customer expectations have changed and and today's customers We come into every situation short on time short on patience high on expectations and so serving up Perfect experiences, which is no easy bar, right? but perfect experiences that are personalized that make me happy to be a customer happy to be spending my money at Whatever it is that then I'm buying whether it's pet supplies or whether it's makeup or whatever And I think that that that that is a really high bar for vendors to meet And I think the great thing about the conversations that we had today was seeing how Brands are stepping up and taking on that challenge and how technology solutions Like the ones that we're exploring today are really making a huge difference. Well, it's as you said This is not just something. Oh, this is a business imperative to meet customers where they are No, this is a necessity customers demand this they expect to this and if they don't get What they want at the moment they want it they abandoned the part they say yeah, no, thank you I'll find it somewhere else. I'm you're wasting my time and so and so businesses really understand all the money That's at stake here and and it's not just that cart to it's the customer loyalty It's the will that customer come back. Did we make this a seamless easy experience? Did we? Tell the customer something they didn't know about a new product or about us services that they can find here at our at our company So I think that there's so much to making this this experience Easy flexible and and really immediate to the immediate gratification. That's so important. I agree So I think that what commerce tools has done with this elevate event is, you know I think we saw the power of community and collaboration at work, right? And so, you know from them from the beginning Kino they talked about you know bringing people with diverse backgrounds and Different levels of experience together and being able to form meaningful partnerships that help build the future of commerce and make it Customer-centric and so in all the conversations we've had today We've had an opportunity to talk with people who are incredibly passionate about that and about delivering the absolute best in customer Experiences, but also I think knowing that we we can't we really shouldn't try to do this alone I mean, this is really a journey a Transformation journey that is best when done You know in partnership and in alliance with trusted partners And I think we saw a lot of that in action today the PayPal alliance the EPAM You know all of that sort of thing These are these are companies that are really passionate about working together to deliver for customers and for brands and you made a Great point because it collaboration is not easy You've got different cultures different kinds of missions different ways of working different expectations And so the idea that these companies as you said there are coming together to do what's right for the customer and Serve the customer in this in these new ways that the customer demands and expects is is really exciting And I think that what is so clear about commerce tools is that it has a way of working that is Customer-centric they they they innovate with the customer in mind And so they are looking for partners who feel the same and who do the same thing and that is EPAM and that is PayPal of course And I think the other thing that's so clear and we do a lot of these shows We're at a lot of tech shows with the Cube is it really is all about the ecosystem It's about bringing together different voices at at conferences like this one. Yeah Saying oh, I dealt with that problem too. Here's what worked for us or oh, you're working with this challenge talk to this This this group over here. They did something similar here are some best practices that emerged So there's so much that really comes out of being together here and collaborating Well, and I agree and I think there's also so much learning that takes place along the way and I know that You know composable commerce, you know, that's something or headless commerce You know, these are terms that not everyone is familiar with but when we start diving into composable commerce and you know What that is and and descriptions that are shared like, you know, think of these as little Lego blocks that you can slide in and you know, I don't need to rip and replace everything that I've got right now I don't need to redo everything. I want to start out Maybe I want to start out slow and so I can plug in the elements into my tech stack that I need and I don't have to take this massive risk. I don't have to change everything at once And and of course, there are customers who want to do that and that's fine and and possible as well but I think that the the composable commerce element of it makes it incredibly attractive because It allows you it meets customers where they are and I think that is Incredibly important and I think we see really see We see the company doing a great job of addressing that and saying, you know, we've got tons of solutions, but we're here Ready to meet you where you are and right? That's what customers are looking for because it's not a one-size-fits-all Proposition and and yet what is so striking too is we had great Executives on from Petsmart as well as Ulta Beauty and you think okay one sells dog food one sells mascara Common theme here and yet there are so many Commonalities that they that of course Petsmart has grooming services. Well, guess what Ulta Beauty has a brow bar and then they're also trying to Meet customers who have cats or iguanas and then they're also trying to meet customers With with with the dogs and more and more typical common pets And then Ulta Beauty is trying to meet young Gen Zers and then they're also trying to meet them I think they also want to meet the people who you know write the checks or use the credit card Actually, we don't write checks anymore, right? So I know that they're very happy to see me come in because you know or my teenagers come in with my credit Well, exactly exactly, but that's my point is that they're really both Retailers are trying to make sure that they are providing a seamless omni-channel experience for customers But I think that on the channel sometimes it gets forgotten a little bit in this that we think it's all the tech And it's all the using your app But in fact there is a significant part of the in-store experience that technology is underpinning. Yeah, and you know When we were talking with Ulta it was so interesting to think about I tend to be not the kind of person I do really don't want to download your app But when he was talking about how you know the app works in conjunction with an in-store experience And so it actually made me interested in trying it out the next time I'm in an Ulta store because you know You have the ability to open the app and be in this channel and do some exploration And then when you get comfortable You know asking a question then you can migrate to a salesperson and you know seek out help on Brow solutions or whatever so I thought that was really interesting and again I'm always Especially interested when somebody talks about something that I don't do and how I might change my behavior and get a better experience along the way so I thought that was kind of interesting and and You know, I think that I think that you know everything I loved the focus areas that Commerce Tools talked about in and what they want to you know We're all of their work and their releases will fall and it's really pretty It's really pretty easy to think about it's all about delivering on the simplicity front and you know This is how to make it easier to implement new brands new regions new channels Anything that you might want to do their goal is to make it easy Leadership they are it's so passionate about sort of owning this composable commerce space and And demonstrating their passion for leadership and sort of showing the way and the investments that they make and and Delivering more value and sharing customer use cases and that's anything we're going to hear some of those use cases I think from the CMO here in a little bit and then the other the the last Underpinning of their strategic foundation is they just want to outperform everybody else. Yeah, okay Okay, I mean, I'll take it like that to me that is That commitment is just I love it I love the passion for that and I love the confidence like we know we can outperform everybody else watch us I'm looking forward to great things from commerce tools. I mean, and that's the thing we have seen the momentum that this company has We've seen their their growth story and and we heard from the from the founder CEO der corrig who he said look You know, we were really on an upswing COVID happened It exploded went down a little bit after the pandemic But now we're really starting to see the solid 8% growth and that's what our expectations are There is which we talk the CFO Dan Murphy who who said that there there's a potential path for an IPO So there's a lot of excitement here, you know, you tried Did I try to get him to share information with that's okay. That's what we have to do We have to poke him prod right, you know The other thing that I'm so excited to see is the move to focus on B2B Manufacturing with their foundry solution and I think that you know We often make the mistake of thinking that B2B is Tremendously different from B2C, but the reality of it is people consume in a lot the same ways And we have a lot of the same expectations and the last handful of years have the last decade has taught us to be Excellent online Purchasers of the things that we need to fuel our lives and and it's not only just our personal lives It's our business lives as well. So I think that bringing in A focus on the B2B market Really opens the door for the opportunity that is ahead for commerce tools And I think that's something I personally want to stay on top of because I think there's just tons of great things that can happen there Well, it has been an absolute pleasure co-hosting this show with you. We've met a lot of great people a lot of great customers We've had an amazing incredible crew with Andrew Ken and Dawn and Alex and so thank you so much, and I hope we get to do work together again. I'm sure we will yeah I'm Rebecca Knight for Shelly Kramer. That has been our coverage of commerce tools elevate coming from Miami, Florida Thank you so much for watching