Today on our show:

• Google and Paypal Announce New Commerce Partnership
• Fireside Chat With Andy Jassy at Amazon Accelerate Conference
• The First Q4 Holiday Predictions Appear

- and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.

Today's episode is sponsored by Rithum.

https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly

We have a special episode of the podcast this week. Today we preview a new podcast from RMW Commerce — actually a Youtube Exclusive, called “Oh Shift! Where SaaS Meets AI”.

In this week’s episode, I interview the Shailesh Kumar, the SVP Of Engineering at Salesforce Commrece Cloud to talk about the company’s approach and pilots in the world of AI and Model Context Protocol or MCP.  To be clear, this is not any kind of sponsored interview.  It’s just an exploration of how the platforms - and I have asked them all to come on the program - are approaching AI and MCP, and what implications it has for brand and merchants.

Today's episode is sponsored by Rithum.

https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly

Today on our show:

• Shopify Betting Big on Design
• Amazon Still Stuck Muddling Through Day 2
• Why Software Sales Is Still Hard in 2025
• A New Podcast where SaaS Meets AI: Oh Shift

- and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.

Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.

https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly

Today on our show:

• Best Buy Relaunches Its Marketplace
• Target Earnings: Like a Slow-Moving Train Wreck
• Upcoming RMW Commerce Events in Second Half of the Year
• Walmart Raises Revenue Guidance in Earnings Call

- and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.

Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.

https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly

Join Rick and special guest Nate Skiver, founder of LPF Spend Management, as they dive into a fiery discussion about the state of shipping in e-commerce. In this spicy wing-eating challenge, Nate debunks a major shipping myth and shares his expertise from over two decades in the retail and consulting world.

In this episode, we explore:

• The biggest myth in shipping and why it's finally dying a slow death.
• How the e-commerce market has changed, creating more options beyond the "big three" carriers.
• The role of regional carriers and why more retailers are turning to them.
• How shipping technology advancements are making multi-carrier shipping easier to manage.

Grab a glass of milk and get ready for a fast-paced, insightful conversation that will change the way you think about your shipping strategy!

Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.

https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly

Today on our show:

• We Once Made a Deal with Google. The Deal Has Changed
• The Unspoken AI Enthusiasm Gap At Large Companies
• The Road Ahead for Commerce.com
• An Update On Gnawing Your Arm Off, or Replatforming

- and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.

Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.

https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly

Today on our show:

• Amazon Reports Earnings, Dogged by AI Questions
• Shopify Q2 Earnings Show Its Not Going Anywhere
• Klaviyo Delivers Growth, But Efficiency Still Lacking
• Recap from Austin: Auctane’s Spicy Innovation Delivered Event

- and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 4 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.

Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.

https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly

Today on our show:

• Bigcommerce Rebrands as Just Commerce
• UPS Q2 Earnings Highlights Strange Economic Times
• Last Flight of the Aggregator: OpenStore Valuation Burns
• Amazon Pulled out of Google Shopping for AI, not for Advertising

- and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.

Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.

https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly

In this debut episode of The CEO Spot, Rick Watson sits down with Dipti Desai, Founder and CEO of crstl, for an unfiltered look into one of the most quietly powerful protocols in commerce—EDI.

From her early days as an electrical engineer in Silicon Valley to building mission-critical infrastructure for today’s omni-channel brands, Dipti shares the journey that led her to found crstl—a SaaS network designed to modernize the way suppliers and retailers communicate.

We explore:

• The surprising origin story of crstl during the PPE crisis
• Why EDI is more like the English language than a piece of legacy tech
• The difference between the application layer and the protocol layer—and why it matters
• How penalties, complexity, and digital transformation are reshaping supplier operations
• Why crstl doesn’t charge by seat and how it's enabling real collaboration at scale
• The future of B2B commerce in an age of AI, API, and protocol convergence

Whether you’re a founder, brand operator, or just EDI-curious, this episode unpacks how structured data exchange is fueling the future of retail—and why ignoring the "boring" infrastructure could be your biggest mistake.

Today on our show:

• NRF Files Suit Against NY State Law
• Why Is There No Best Practice for ECommerce Org Structure
• Amazon Quietly Cornering Market on Robot Patents
• LuluLemon in Markdown Hell

- and finally, The Investor Minute which contains 5 items this week from the world of venture capital, acquisitions, and IPOs.

Today's episode is sponsored by Mirakl.

https://www.rmwcommerce.com/ecommerce-podcast-watsonweekly