Apps, apps, everywhere

Commerce gets by with a LOT of help from its friends. The ecosystem - as we see from a walk through the Shoptalk floor - is expanding.

Over the past 18m or so, the number of third parties live on a PDP has grown substantially, swelling 19% from 41 to 48.

What does this really mean for commerce? It’s complicated.

More third party apps can reflect innovation. Integrating more tech into your stack serves as an endorsement of the tech’s promise; traffic or revenue growth,  efficiency growth and so on.

More third party apps is a validation of the composable commerce movement. Let’s not forget: while composable commerce has been a louder buzz over the past few years, the tenets of the philosophy are well-worn. We’ve been integrating point solutions into commerce for decades. The notion of decoupling pieces of core ecommerce functionality is an extension of the app ecosystem. One brand’s core commerce is another’s point solution. Curating an experience on the shoulders of best-of-breed technology applications has and will remain a hallmark of commerce.

More third party apps can also represent a growing cost to compete. Many of these third parties are in the business of collecting data to store and connect elsewhere - sometimes for identity, and often for informing acquisition.

More third party apps ALSO have a hidden cost: page load. Each additional app pours more into the ecommerce chalice, requiring an extra sip of load time. More sips, means longer loads and a higher likelihood of bounce.

So yes - apps are the life of the commerce party, but make sure your party doesn't get busted by bounces.