Why Platform Mediocrity Is the Real Cost of Doing Everything

Ben Marks joins Talk Commerce from the ecommerce forum in Minneapolis

Author

Brent Peterson
November 21, 2025

The Talk Commerce Podcast Newsletter

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

This Week's Featured Article: Why Platform Mediocrity Is the Real Cost of Doing Everything By Brent W Peterson

By Brent W Peterson

I watched Magento dominate e-commerce by doing everything for everyone. Then I watched Shopify win by doing less, but doing it exceptionally well.

Gartner's 2025 Digital Commerce Magic Quadrant reveals something fascinating: this isn't just competitive loss. Some platforms are actively donating market share.

Adobe, SAP, and Salesforce aren't being outcompeted. They're pricing themselves out with $350k-600k annual costs and implementation timelines measured in months. They're handing customers to Shopify on a silver platter.

Meanwhile, platforms like Magento, Commerce, and Intershop are donating complex B2B manufacturers to Shopware. Why? Generic features versus specialized capabilities. No AI workflow orchestration. No 3D product configuration. No digital sales rooms.

David Goggins talks about multitasking. You can't do anything well when you're multitasking. Commerce platforms are learning this the hard way.

I analyzed four platforms proving specialization wins. Read why being good at everything means great at nothing.

Our Latest Episodes:

Live from Ecomm Forum: Ben Marks on PHP Foundation and the Future of Open Source Commerce

Ben Marks joins Talk Commerce from the ecommerce forum in Minneapolis to discuss his new role handling fundraising for the PHP Foundation and his work with Nomicore. Ben offers a candid perspective on Magento and Adobe Commerce, noting that while Adobe supports the platform, it hasn't received feature updates in years. The open source community remains strong with continued volunteer contributions. Ben shares insights on AI as a forcing function in commerce, emphasizing that companies need to start somewhere and build intentionality. He illustrates AI's impact with a personal shopping experience that fundamentally changed how he thinks about commerce's future.

Sean Callihan Discusses Commerce's Evolution and AI-Powered Data Optimization Live from Ecomm Forum

Commerce partner manager Sean Callihan joins Talk Commerce from the e-commerce forum in Minneapolis to discuss the company's strategic evolution from BigCommerce to Commerce. The rebrand reflects acquisitions of Feedonomics and Makeswift, creating a three-product portfolio serving diverse merchant needs. Sean explains Commerce's growing B2B focus with dedicated teams and product development, plus the advantages of their open SaaS approach for integrating legacy systems. The conversation highlights how Feedonomics is preparing merchants for AI-powered product discovery through data optimization and enrichment from multiple sources. Sean also previews Makeswift's upcoming integration as the native page builder within Commerce, bringing advanced low-code capabilities to marketers and developers.

Coming up on Content in Commerce - The End of the Google Search Monopoly

We'll be talking about the ever increasing replacement of Google with LLMs, and the fact that more and more people are searching topics directly on social media platforms. 

This all shows why a multi channel and multimedia approach like the Content Flywheel is so valuable!

What Is Your Content Strategy?

If you’re reading this Talk Commerce newsletter, you’re already seeing how powerful multi-channel content can be. The podcast, newsletter, clips, and posts all work together to keep the conversation going.

That’s the idea behind our Content Flywheel Plan. It helps your brand do the same: turn one great idea into blogs, videos, and social content that reach people wherever they already are.

If you want to build a presence that your audience actually feels, not just finds, book a quick content strategy call with our Chief Editor, Isaac Morey, and we’ll help you get started.

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Last Time the Market Was This Expensive, Investors Waited 14 Years to Break Even

In 1999, the S&P 500 peaked. Then it took 14 years to gradually recover by 2013.

Today? Goldman Sachs sounds crazy forecasting 3% returns for 2024 to 2034.

But we’re currently seeing the highest price for the S&P 500 compared to earnings since the dot-com boom.

So, maybe that’s why they’re not alone; Vanguard projects about 5%.

In fact, now just about everything seems priced near all time highs. Equities, gold, crypto, etc.

But billionaires have long diversified a slice of their portfolios with one asset class that is poised to rebound.

It’s post war and contemporary art.

Sounds crazy, but over 70,000 investors have followed suit since 2019—with Masterworks.

You can invest in shares of artworks featuring Banksy, Basquiat, Picasso, and more.

24 exits later, results speak for themselves: net annualized returns like 14.6%, 17.6%, and 17.8%.*

My subscribers can skip the waitlist.

*Investing involves risk. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. Important Reg A disclosures: masterworks.com/cd.