---
call_id: "demo_ecommerce_20250115"
date: "2025-01-15T09:00:00Z"
duration_seconds: 2100
rep_name: "Marcus Chen"
prospect_name: "Jennifer Adams"
prospect_company: "CommerceFlow"
prospect_title: "VP Sales"
deal_stage: "Discovery"
deal_value: 250000
disposition: "Follow-up Scheduled"
tags: ["mid-market", "e-commerce", "shopify-competitor", "migration", "si-partnerships"]
key_themes:
- "Platform competition"
- "SI partnership challenges"
- "Migration risk concerns"
---
# Customer Interview: CommerceFlow
## Interview Summary
Jennifer Adams is the VP Sales at CommerceFlow, an $80M ARR e-commerce platform competing against Shopify in the mid-market segment. The conversation explored competitive dynamics, SI partnerships, and customer migration challenges.
## Transcript
**[00:00:15] Marcus Chen:**
Jennifer, thanks for taking the call. I understand CommerceFlow has been growing quickly in the e-commerce space. What's driving that growth?
**[00:00:30] Jennifer Adams:**
Thanks, Marcus. We've carved out a niche in the mid-market - retailers who've outgrown Shopify Basic but aren't ready for enterprise solutions like commercetools. We offer more customization than Shopify Plus at a lower price point, and that resonates.
**[00:01:00] Marcus Chen:**
How does the competitive landscape look from your perspective?
**[00:01:12] Jennifer Adams:**
Shopify is the elephant in the room. They're moving upmarket aggressively, and their brand recognition is massive. When we're in a deal against Shopify, we have to overcome the "nobody gets fired for buying Shopify" mentality. It's frustrating because our platform is actually more flexible for complex use cases.
**[00:01:50] Marcus Chen:**
What use cases do you win on?
**[00:02:00] Jennifer Adams:**
B2B e-commerce is big for us. Manufacturers who need pricing tiers, custom catalogs, and complex quoting workflows. Shopify can do some of this, but we're purpose-built for it. We also win on international - multiple storefronts, currencies, tax regimes. That's table stakes for us but an add-on for them.
**[00:02:35] Marcus Chen:**
You mentioned SI partnerships as part of your go-to-market. How's that working?
**[00:02:48] Jennifer Adams:**
It's a double-edged sword. We have partnerships with about 15 system integrators, and they bring us maybe 30% of our deals. But they also slow things down. An SI has their own sales process, their own timeline, their own margin requirements. What could be a 60-day direct sale turns into a 120-day deal when an SI is involved.
**[00:03:25] Marcus Chen:**
Are there particular challenges with those partnerships?
**[00:03:38] Jennifer Adams:**
Enablement is the big one. SIs have dozens of technologies they're certified on. Getting them to prioritize our platform, understand our differentiation, and sell it effectively - that's a constant investment. We have a partner team of five people just doing enablement, and I'm not sure we're getting enough return.
**[00:04:10] Marcus Chen:**
What about customer migration? I imagine switching e-commerce platforms is a significant undertaking.
**[00:04:25] Jennifer Adams:**
It's the number one objection we face. Retailers are terrified of re-platforming. They've heard horror stories about migrations that took twice as long and cost three times as much as planned. We've gotten much better at scoping migrations accurately, but the fear is still there.
**[00:04:55] Marcus Chen:**
How do you overcome that objection?
**[00:05:08] Jennifer Adams:**
References, references, references. We have a handful of customers who've successfully migrated from Shopify, BigCommerce, and legacy platforms. When we can get a prospect on a call with someone who went through the process, that's incredibly powerful. But coordinating those references is time-consuming.
**[00:05:45] Marcus Chen:**
What does your forecasting look like? How confident are you in your pipeline at any given time?
**[00:06:00] Jennifer Adams:**
That's actually one of our weak spots. We're probably at 65% accuracy, which isn't great. Deals slip because of migration concerns that surface late, or because an SI partner gets distracted by a bigger opportunity. We don't always see those risks coming until it's too late.
**[00:06:35] Marcus Chen:**
If you had better visibility into deal health, what would you want to know?
**[00:06:48] Jennifer Adams:**
Two things: competitive intelligence and migration readiness. Is the prospect seriously evaluating Shopify, or are we the frontrunner? And do they actually have the internal resources to execute a migration, or are they just kicking tires? Right now, that intel lives in our reps' heads and nowhere else.
## Key Takeaways
1. **Shopify Competition**: Fighting against brand recognition and "safe choice" mentality
2. **SI Partnership Friction**: Partners add 60+ days to sales cycles with enablement challenges
3. **Migration Fear**: Re-platforming anxiety is the top objection
4. **Forecast Accuracy**: At 65%, significant room for improvement
