Specialist
Former Director, Commerce Platform Sales, Southeast at Magento Inc (Adobe Inc)
Agenda
- Adobe Commerce (NASDAQ: ADBE) and its solutions, starting with Magento
- Implications of transition from legacy offering and open-source solution
- Competitive dynamics, highlighting Shopify (TSE: SHOP), BigCommerce (NASDAQ: BIGC) and Salesforce (NYSE: CRM)
- 1-3-year outlook, highlighting opportunities, including additional Adobe company alignment and integrations, as well as risks
Questions
1.
Adobe Commerce and/or Magento could be described as a combination of software that largely enables merchants and others to sell products online. What exactly do the businesses do for customers?
2.
Why was it strategically important for Adobe to add a commerce engine or transactional business? Was it because Adobe provided various solutions to create websites and content, so there was an increasing need to draw data, analytics and other aspects from the sites but no e-commerce component, which might be deemed a competitive hole?
3.
How has Adobe taken Magento and differentiated in the marketplace, either by continuing innovation or integrating commerce alongside its digital marketing and Adobe Experience offering? Adobe has been talking about predictive intelligence to enable better shopping experiences, so integrating Adobe Commerce alongside Adobe Experience and Adobe Experience Manager seems somewhat important and something that customers and users would be interested in.
4.
What do you make of the trajectory in Adobe’s digital marketing and Experience businesses? The company made large acquisitions with Magento and Marketo in 2018, and completed the Workfront acquisition in December 2020, so 2-3 years was spent assessing, integrating and deploying the solutions. Magento is known as a very open, very flexible and very versatile solution. Should it take that long to engage in a wholesale integration and deployment effort?
5.
The transition to Magento 2 from Magento 1 was fairly involved and wasn’t simply upgrading the platform, which can be a challenge in itself. I understand that clients considered other platform opportunities on realising that the move would be substantially disruptive. To what extent do you think that run-off has largely concluded? Have people made the decision to move to Magento 2 vs switch to a different vendor?
6.
Does it make sense for Adobe to have the Open Source offering, especially if it is the second-largest software company in the world? To what extent do you think there was a struggle and discussion inside the organisation offering the Open Source product?
7.
What’s your take on the competitive landscape? What are the considerations around Adobe competing with itself via the Open Source offering, being late in adding e-commerce to its solutions suite, along with the strategy and integration challenges and competitors benefiting from a complete re-platforming? Who are the top competitors? This segment is typically determined by the customer base with certain types of competitors at the higher end vs the mid-market vs SMBs. BigCommerce is probably the most obvious direct competitor to Adobe Commerce and Magento, but you suggested that BigCommerce and Shopify aren’t well-suited for an enterprise focus. Is BigCommerce trying to make a big push or impact on Adobe’s performance?
8.
You said when BigCommerce went public, it indicated being the new Magento and there were some similarities in the technology approach. To what extent do you think there would be one clear winner in a head-to-head battle? Has BigCommerce gained notable momentum since going public in 2020, or do you think Adobe Commerce has finally figured things out by integrating Magento, re-platforming to Magento 2 and offering the new solution alongside other digital experience offerings?
9.
When assessing the competitive landscape around Adobe Commerce and Magento vs BigCommerce, I think the most obvious distinction is the overall sizes of the companies. The big players in this category are global giants, not just large software companies. How much of a challenge is this for BigCommerce to overcome, whether winning or keeping business, especially given that it is a pure player? Other companies are offering so many other features vs BigCommerce. How much of an incentive is that to a would-be customer?
10.
Comparisons are frequently drawn between Adobe Commerce and BigCommerce but what do you think the latter needs to do to sell effectively and regularly into the enterprise customer base?
11.
How are you assessing Adobe Commerce and its growth strategy? Adobe seems to be trying for potential up-sells and cross-sells, which probably had something to do with the Magento acquisition and strategy. Having owned this business for around three years, presumably it has fully tapped into it. What are the potential growth drivers for the Adobe Commerce business over the next 1-3 years? You alluded to focusing more downmarket.
12.
Adobe is exploring new offerings such as headless commerce, merchant services and commerce intelligence. Do you think the company can gain significant traction with any of these?
13.
What’s your outlook on Adobe Commerce’s spending and investment? Adobe has owned Magento for around three years and seems to have spent a lot of time figuring out an optimal approach and best focus. What would you do if you were running the business? What would be your investments or priorities for the next 1-3 years?
14.
What’s your 1-3-year outlook for Adobe Commerce and Magento?
