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The Upside Down Adobe Commerce Funnel

The Upside Down Adobe Commerce Funnel

AI Agents Are Reshaping Retail Media for CPG Brands with Sai Koppala

Brent Peterson
June 11, 2026

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The Talk Commerce Podcast Newsletter

Who have we been talking to lately? Focusing on conversations about eCommerce, AI, Entrepreneurship, and Marketing.

The Upside Down Adobe Commerce Funnel

By Brent W Peterson

A source close to Adobe Commerce confirmed that customers are leaving paid Adobe Commerce and routing back to free Magento Open Source, reversing the funnel Adobe intended when it acquired Magento for $1.68 billion in 2018. The original strategy was simple: free Magento Open Source feeds the top of the funnel, merchants grow, then graduate to paid Adobe Commerce. Instead, frustrated by slow infrastructure support, merchants are pairing Magento Open Source with managed-hosting partners like Webscale and skipping Adobe entirely.

Meanwhile, the open-source community is thriving without Adobe. Mage-OS shipped five releases in six months. Hyvä Themes, now open source, powers 6,400+ stores with significantly faster development. Both projects are European-led, reinforcing a pattern: Magento has more energy where Adobe has less control.

Adobe's response, ACCS (a closed SaaS product), removes code ownership and flexibility, which pushes merchants further toward open alternatives. Magento co-founder Roy Rubin framed open source as a strategic weapon, not just a philosophy, and argued Adobe spent eight years trying to hold that weapon closed instead of using it.

The conclusion is direct. The funnel is broken. Features and community momentum are being built outside Adobe, and merchants are voting with their feet.

Our Latest Episode:

AI Agents Are Reshaping Retail Media for CPG Brands with Sai Koppala

The rules of retail media have changed, and most brands haven't caught up yet.

On a recent episode of Talk Commerce, Sai Koppala, CMO at CommerceIQ, broke down how AI agents are reshaping the way CPG brands compete on platforms like Amazon and Walmart. Retail media spend is climbing, but returns are shrinking. Consumers are no longer starting their journey on product pages. They're asking AI agents like Rufus and Spark what to buy.

Sai shared why context is the missing ingredient in most AI strategies. Without macro, category, and brand-level signals, even the most advanced LLMs will make poor decisions. He also explained why CommerceIQ now leads with free pilots to cut through the noise of AI washing in the market.

Isaac Morey's Favorite Interviews from eTail Palm Springs: A Compilation of the Best Conversations on the Show Floor

Listen to the conversations with: Scott Ohsman, Elizabeth Lachhar, Amrit Shergill, Udayan Bose, Andrew Watt, and Patrick Yoon

Coming up next!

Get ready for eTail Boston

August 10-12

eTail Palm Springs is one of the most important events on the e-commerce calendar. As one of the most anticipated events in the e-commerce calendar, eTail brings together senior retail leaders, DTC brands, and digital innovators to explore the evolving future of online and omnichannel retail. Every year, the event draws a powerful mix of founders, marketers, technology providers, and retail operators — all under one roof in the California desert.

Isaac Morey, Co-Founder of Content Cucumber, was on the ground at eTail Palm Springs this year recording conversations for the Talk Commerce podcast. The result? A compilation video packed with some of his favorite interviews from across the show floor. Each one is a quick snapshot of the people, ideas, and energy that make eTail such a standout event.

Turn Subscribers Into Customers With Strategic Email Content

Email marketing delivers the highest ROI of any marketing channel. But only when it's done right.

At Content Cucumber, we build email automations that nurture relationships and drive conversions. From welcome flows that nail first impressions to drip campaigns that guide prospects through your funnel, every email is crafted with purpose.

Our process starts with a strategy session to map your customer journey, followed by sequence planning with clear goals and measurable outcomes. Our U.S.-based writers then create subject lines, body copy, and CTAs optimized for engagement and mobile readability.

We work with HubSpot, Mailchimp, and most major platforms. And we track everything from open rates to revenue attribution so you know which emails move the needle.

Stop sending emails that get ignored. Start sending ones people talk about at the office.