The future of commerce hinges on agility, but most brands remain stuck at spreadsheet speed. Louis Camassa, Director of Product Management at Rithum, breaks down findings from the 2026 Commerce Readiness Index and reveals why data quality, inventory latency, and algorithmic visibility matter more than channel expansion. We’re uncovering the infrastructure bottlenecks threatening AI's potential, and what it actually takes for brands to compete when algorithms decide what gets discovered.

• 63% of commerce teams face data quality issues affecting business decisions
• Inventory latency remains a competitive differentiator in agentic commerce experiences
• Zero-click phenomenon reducing referral traffic by 9% across e-commerce channels
• AI compute costs compressed 10x in one year, matching traditional search
• Energy infrastructure, not algorithms, poses the greatest bottleneck to AI advancement

• [00:02:04] Lou Camassa: "Most companies, whether you're a retailer or brand, you're moving at spreadsheet speed. That's just not the way of the future."
• [00:10:55] Lou Camassa: "We don't want to take from the past and just push it into the future. When we go into a chat experience, we don't want to drop somebody onto a homepage with a banner and categories. Let's think about this differently."
• [00:18:58] Lou Camassa: "We're seeing drops of about 9% across e-commerce in general on referral sources from Google because data is just being propagated in the AI overviews."
• [00:24:04] Lou Camassa: "Inventory latency is going to be a big game changer. It helps us get faster shipping and creates a competitive factor, specifically in LLM search, where everything else is commoditized."

• Check out Rithum’s 2026 Commerce Readiness Index
• Learn more about Rithum’s offerings.
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
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• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

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Shipping frozen premium meats and prepared meals requires precise logistics that most marketplaces aren't built to handle. But Denys Gorbatiuk saw an opportunity where others saw impossible complexity. Grumpy Butcher became Temu's first frozen food seller and proved that operational excellence can break down expansion barriers and create a competitive advantage.

Within five weeks, Temu accounted for over 12% of Grumpy Butcher's online sales. Yet the real story isn't just about velocity, it's about reaching younger demographics and using real-time data to fundamentally rethink product creation and curation.

From corporate attorney to food industry innovator, Denys shares how mastering the operational challenges of frozen logistics, leveraging platform analytics, and partnering strategically with Temu transformed Grumpy Butcher from a pandemic-era startup into a fast-growing business that redefined how Americans shop for gourmet perishables.

• Being first in a hard category pays off: Pioneering frozen food on Temu positioned Grumpy Butcher as a category leader and innovator.
• Direct feedback and engagement with shoppers on Temu enabled product development, revealing stronger resonance with younger customers and reshaping the broader business strategy.
• Mastering complex logistics is defensible: Streamlining frozen food delivery and tackling common challenges helped Grumpy Butcher establish its core competitive advantage.
• Platform partnership means strategic collaboration: Temu provided operational support and guidance that went beyond transactional seller-marketplace relationships.

• Learn more about Grumpy Butcher’s journey on Temu
• Explore Temu's seller services and marketplace solutions

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

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Jessica De Gennaro didn't know what a succulent was when she launched Shop Succulents. But she knew how to solve operational challenges, work agilely, and move product quickly on marketplaces. She tapped into the pandemic’s succulent boom and built a multi-marketplace operation shipping hundreds of thousands of live plants every year.

But how do you scale across regions when you’re shipping succulents to consumers across different time zones with varying expectations, living in different climates?

And what happens when Temu’s scale and network efficiencies across third-party logistics partners help make fulfillment more cost-effective and sustainable for low-cost products that were previously constrained by fulfillment economics?

Jessica shares how Shop Succulents grew from 50 to 500 SKUs on Temu in months, leveraging platform-specific catalogs, vertical integration of growing operations, and continuous creative innovation to stay ahead in the highly competitive marketplace landscape.

• Marketplace success requires constant product innovation: The sea of sameness demands creative catalog curation, strategic bundling, and staying ahead of copycats selling competitive products for lower prices.
• Temu’s scale and network efficiencies across third-party logistics partners help support more cost-efficient fulfillment for low-cost products, unlocking new catalog opportunities.
• Owning your supply chain optimizes margin: Shop Succulents now grows plants in-house to control costs, differentiate its catalog, and ensure product quality.
• Platform partnerships should drive collaborative problem-solving: Working directly with Temu's team solved live plant-specific challenges. By directly addressing customer concerns and inquiries, Jessica and her team maintained customer satisfaction and loyalty.

• Learn more about Shop Succulents’ journey on Temu
• Explore Temu's seller services and marketplace solutions

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.