It’s Time to Invest in Commerce Enablement: The Dynamics of the Recent Past
- Sid Mookerji
- Mar 18
- 2 min read
We’re pleased to bring you our new Silicon Road Ventures blog series which will post weekly and cover a range of topics and insights. It kicks off with a three-part series, It’s Time to Invest in Commerce Enablement, which will examine the dynamics of the recent past, where the industry stands at present, and answer the question “What is the path of least resistance for today’s consumer?” It will conclude by plumbing what lies ahead in the near-term for the industry and those investing in its ecommerce technologies.
Part 1
Generational change is rendering old distinctions between e-commerce and traditional retail meaningless. Gen Z wants multi-channel access to products tailored for them and their friends, they want those products priced competitively, they want to pay for them any way they want, and they want to get ahold of them quickly. No matter the item, the brand, and whether it originates 15 miles away or 1500, those expectations remain the same.
And it’s no longer just Generation Z who sees retail in this light. According to the US Census Bureau, the pandemic made these expectations the norm across generations (1). But while these expectations pose huge challenges for retailers of all sizes, a whole range of startup and small-size companies are rising to meet their needs. New AI applications are taking aim at consumer research, the supply chain, optimal pricing, supply chain logistics and innovation—in all cases leveraging ecommerce technology to either vastly accelerate an existing process or materialize a new opportunity.
These commerce enablement startups are also excellent bets for investors.
The recent past
Retail was growing before Covid and was one of the very few industries to grow during Covid and has continued since the pandemic. Yet over this same period, the number of bankruptcies in retail has also risen. This unpredictability is currently playing out in terms of store closures—up—and store openings—down, with some unexpected winners and losers (2).
According to Coresight Research CEO Deborah Weinswig, the simplest explanation for this difference is the ability to withstand fleeing customers: “Inflation and a growing preference among consumers to shop online to find the cheapest deals took a toll on brick-and-mortar retailers in 2024 (3). She traces the difference between the winners and the losers to how they price their products and how swiftly they can be obtained. In this era, the retailers who remain standing have invested in meeting (or shaping) customer demand and are benefiting disproportionately. Another observation by Weinswig, however—that “we continue to see a trend of consumers opting for the path of least resistance”—deserves our attention.
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