According to PYMNTS.com, Commerce.com (formerly BigCommerce) reported $86 million in revenue meeting guidance, with shares rising 5% after the announcement. CEO Travis Hess revealed that annual recurring revenue reached $356 million, up 2% year-over-year, with enterprise clients now paying an average of $46,800 annually. The company is launching BigCommerce Payments Powered by PayPal in early 2026 and introduced Feedonomics Surface in Q3 to optimize product feeds across Google and Meta. For Q4, they’re projecting revenue between $87.8 million and $92.8 million. Several large brands are already in closed beta for AI-readiness programs ahead of the holiday season.
The AI commerce pivot
Here’s the thing – Commerce.com isn’t just adding AI features as a nice-to-have. They’re fundamentally rethinking what e-commerce even means in an AI-first world. Hess described a future where “product discovery begins with a prompt, not a homepage.” That’s a massive shift from the traditional browse-and-click model we’ve all gotten used to. Basically, they’re betting that people would rather talk to an AI agent than scroll through endless product categories.
And honestly? They’re probably right. Think about how you shop now – you might start with a Google search or even ask ChatGPT for recommendations. Commerce.com wants to position itself as the infrastructure that makes that work seamlessly for merchants. Their Feedonomics platform is central to this, syndicating product data not just to traditional channels but directly to AI agents like ChatGPT and Perplexity.
Why partnerships matter
The company isn’t trying to build everything themselves. Their partnership strategy with PayPal, Microsoft, Google, Stripe, and Perplexity shows they understand that AI commerce will be an ecosystem play. The PayPal integration in particular is interesting – embedding full payment capabilities directly into the platform means merchants can manage everything without jumping between systems.
But here’s what really caught my attention: Hess said their competitive advantage lies in data quality, especially unstructured data. Everyone’s talking about AI, but if your product data is messy, AI agents won’t recommend your products. It’s like having a brilliant salesperson who doesn’t know your inventory – completely useless.
The enterprise money machine
Looking at the numbers, this is clearly an enterprise-focused play. 76% of their recurring revenue comes from enterprise clients, and those clients are paying 7% more per account than last year. That’s significant when you’re talking about nearly $47,000 per account. They’re bringing enterprise-grade tools down market, but the real money appears to be in serving larger merchants who need sophisticated AI and data capabilities.
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The road ahead
So where does this leave traditional e-commerce platforms? The demand trends executives mentioned are telling – everyone’s focused on AI readiness and data strategy heading into the holidays. The closed beta programs with major brands suggest this isn’t just theoretical anymore.
The big question is whether merchants will actually see results from these AI investments. If Commerce.com can prove that their data syndication leads to more sales through AI channels, they might just have something here. But if the AI shopping experience doesn’t deliver better results than traditional search? Well, let’s just say the 5% stock bump might not last.
