ABOUT THIS EPISODE
François-Jérôme Gosselin is Co-Founder and CEO of Novatize, a digital commerce consultancy that helps manufacturers, distributors, and retailers build scalable eCommerce ecosystems. Since founding the company in 2014, he has helped organizations navigate digital transformation through commerce strategy, technology, and operational execution.
Justin King sat down with François-Jérôme to unpack the 2026 State of B2B eCommerce report, produced by Novatize with WBR and Shopify, and the gap between how much B2B companies are investing in AI and how little of it is going toward the groundwork that actually makes it work.
François-J explains why 70% of businesses plan to increase AI spending this year, starting with product data rather than flashier features. He covers why 31% of B2B companies still run on custom platforms, why Shopify has become the second most common platform among companies doing $500 million to $1 billion in revenue, and why composable commerce is becoming realistic again now that AI has lowered the cost of connecting systems together. He also breaks down why customer adoption, not platform choice, is what actually determines whether a digital channel succeeds.
They close with who should own eCommerce inside a company, and the four things B2B buyers now expect as standard: self-service, personalization, real-time visibility, and automation.
Key idea: The platform was never the hard part. The data underneath it was.
