E-commerce has long been seen as a virtual boutique. A parallel sales channel.
A transactional site to "spin up". But this vision already belongs to the past.
Today, digital commerce has become a complex ecosystem, powered by data, propelled by technology and orchestrated by artificial intelligence. And in this new environment, success no longer rests on the platform, but on the architecture that connects everything else.
This is what we call commerce engineering.
For years, e-commerce has progressed by means of redesigns and new functionalities.
We changed platforms, rethought the experience, added a CRM, an emailing tool, an ERP, a CDP...
But as the ecosystem grew, complexity exploded. Each system began to operate in a silo, with its own logic, its own data, its own limitations.
Today, the average company juggles a dozen tools: ERP, PIM, CRM, marketing automation, data warehousing, conversational AI, performance tracking tools... which don't always communicate with each other.
The result:
Commerce engineering aims to bring all this together. It consists in conceiving commerce as a global system, where each component, whether technical, marketing, logistical or analytical, is designed to work in harmony.
An e-commerce project should never start with a platform. It should start with architecture.
Just as an engineer designs a bridge before building it, an e-commerce team needs to design its growth system:
This step is often neglected, because it's less visible. Yet it determines everything else. A clear, well-thought-out architecture is the difference between fluid growth and a system that collapses under its own complexity.
The companies that perform are those that approach their business like an engineering plan, modeling, testing, integrating and reiterating.
"Performance cannot be decreed. It is designed."
In an environment of global competition and instantaneous expectations, every millisecond counts. A slow or unstable site means a direct loss of revenue, but also of credibility.
Performance isn't just about speed. It's about the stability of the infrastructure, the quality of the code, the consistency of the data and the fluidity of the experience.
The most advanced brands treat performance like a science. They measure it, model it and continuously improve it. They know that every gain in speed, every automation and every integration has a measurable impact on the customer experience.
A successful business is not one that "works". It's one that learns, adapts and improves over time.
Commerce engineering is based on a simple principle, data is a design material.
It's not just used to analyze the past, but also to design the future.
Thanks to data, we can understand behavior, anticipate needs, and build personalized experiences that increase customer lifetime value.
Artificial intelligence amplifies this potential. By combining machine learning, automation and predictive analytics, companies can create continuous improvement loops, with each interaction feeding the next.
But without a solid architecture, data remains a pile of unused information. AI alone doesn't create performance, it reveals it.
"AI doesn't replace strategy. It reveals it."
Modern commerce goes beyond the transaction. The experience no longer stops at the checkout page; it begins before the purchase and continues long afterwards.
This requires perfect orchestration between channels and tools, store, marketing, CRM, logistics, customer service. Everyone must speak the same language and contribute to a fluid, measurable and coherent experience.
This is the role of commerce engineering, to create the invisible coherence that transforms technology into a human experience. A well-orchestrated system can't be seen. It can be felt, in the fluidity of the customer journey, the relevance of messages and the reliability of service.
The e-commerce of the future will not be a platform, but a living organism. A system capable of learning, evolving and adapting.
The brands that succeed will be those that think like engineers:
They will no longer see their business as a site, but as a strategic lever for continuous growth.
At Globalia, this philosophy guides our practice. We design high-performance, connected and intelligent e-commerce ecosystems, where every line of code, every piece of data and every interaction has a precise purpose: to create sustainable growth.
Because growth can't be improvised. It has to be designed.
Meet one of our e-commerce experts