AI, Unified Commerce, and MACH: The Trifecta Driving E-Commerce in 2024

The implementation of transformative artificial intelligence-enabled technology investments is shifting the paradigm for how e-commerce businesses operate.

Experts estimate that two-thirds of service providers are already forming cross-functional initiatives to manage generative AI projects. By 2026, 75 percent will be using GenAI to create synthetic customer data, which will be generated by algorithms that mimic real-world samples.

These advancements, as well as progress on unified commerce, will bridge the gaps required to deliver the ease customers expect from brands, such as seamless cross-channel integration, transparent and timely order information, and 24/7 access to customer support.

Businesses are applying MACH principles to build modular tech stacks that facilitate composing and swapping components without disrupting operations. This approach addresses pervasive pain points and builds competitive advantage, so it’s no surprise that adoption is on the rise.

Moving through the second half of 2024, you can expect widespread deployment of AI-enabled tools as well as formalized teams to manage these projects. You can also expect industry-wide progress on unified commerce that will make or break brand performance. Finally, when it comes to composable architecture, you’ll learn that your peers that have adopted MACH no longer face platform overhaul drag; instead, they can upgrade their environments piece-by-piece on-demand.

The e-commerce industry is already off and running with these initiatives; to stay on top of new developments, keep your eye on these three trends:

AI-Enabled Technological Advancement

Many e-commerce businesses are already using GenAI to enhance business functions, such as customer service, fraud detection, content creation and merchandising.

Forward-thinking market leaders have integrated AI-powered large language models (LLMs) that analyze and generate human-like text through deciphering context and relationships on a massive scale. Applying this capability, you can perform complex language processing tasks with high fluency and accuracy.

As the adoption of AI-enabled tools proliferates, your peers will be reaping the benefits of new capabilities. For example, many will be using predictive analytics to study customer data, market trends and other external factors to improve demand forecasting accuracy. They’ll also be using AI to improve supply chain management by predicting inventory needs, automating warehouse operations, and optimizing delivery routes.

AI can enable dynamic pricing and promotion initiatives, which refers to making real-time price adjustments based on supply, demand, customer behavior and competitor prices. Your peers are using this capability to continuously optimize campaign performance by offering the best-performing discounts and offers.

Unified Commerce

The e-commerce industry is evolving beyond “omnichannel” to unified commerce, which entails integrating all channels and touchpoints onto a single platform. This approach removes channel silos to deliver a seamless customer experience where shoppers can initiate, execute and complete transactions across channels with consistency.

Unified commerce relies on a combination of technologies that enable full integration of backend systems and customer touchpoints on a single platform — your peers are on their way to making this happen.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems ensure that all backend operations are synchronized and that datasets are consistent and centralized. Customer relationship management (CRM) systems maintain unified customer profiles, historical data and preferences. Order management systems (OMS) enable processing and fulfillment optimization, and e-commerce platforms provide features such as product catalog management, shopping cart functionality, and payment processing.

These advancements are driven by technological innovation, heightened customer expectations, and a quest to differentiate; businesses moving in this direction are enjoying better efficiencies, increased flexibility and scalability, and reduced IT complexity.

Composable Commerce

MACH architecture principles center on building in flexibility and agility using modular microservices. Each microsystem handles a function (e.g., checkout, payment, or catalog management) that’s independently developed, deployed and scaled.

Individual microservices scale easily on demand without affecting other parts of the tech stack, which means that unified commerce platforms can easily handle increases in traffic, transactions and data volume on demand. Because MACH architecture enables rapid innovation by facilitating the adoption of new technologies and integrations with third-party services, you can experiment with new features, functionalities and integrations without the constraints of monolithic systems.

Because you can adopt a best-in-breed approach to selecting and integrating specialized microservices, you can reduce the need — and cost — associated with extensive customization; this helps optimize your IT investments while achieving better performance and reliability.

Composable commerce will futureproof your business by providing a foundation for sustainable innovation and adaptation. Because you’ll be able to evolve your platform quickly and efficiently over time, you’re in a favorable position when it comes to expanding into new markets and responding to customer-driven trends.

Looking Ahead

AI-enabled technologies and MACH principles for composable commerce are transforming the e-commerce landscape. Fueled by GenAI, businesses like yours are improving services and efficiencies to deliver truly unified commerce. We encourage you to watch these trends as they continue to evolve and stay informed about additional advancements in the second half of 2024.

Ram Venkataraman is the CEO of Kibo Commerce, a leading composable commerce platform designed to simplify the complexities of delivering modern customer experiences.