Sonja Keerl, one of the original founders of the MACH Alliance, joins the show to share her unconventional opinions on technology, ethics, and the future of commerce. By day, Sonja helps B2B SaaS companies with strategy, messaging, and positioning. By night, she is busy creating "Unomundi", a network for children to explore different cultures.

The conversation starts with Sonja's thoughts on how tech professionals have negatively impacted the internet and social media for the next generation. The hosts pivot to Sonja's role in co-founding the MACH Alliance in 2019, before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. She explains the alliance started in a London pub, to unite best-of-breed vendors and offer a flexible, agile alternative to the dominant monolithic platforms. The discussion covers the distinction between headless and composable, with Sonja using children's toys to illustrate how composable software needs interoperability standards to truly be effective for brands. Finally, Sonja discusses the current state of composability, the challenge of SI lock-in, and her vision for an AI-driven, automated future for buying commerce software.

This episode was originally recorded August 6th, 2025.

• The origin story of the MACH Alliance
  
  

• Understanding the difference: Headless separates presentation from content; Composable is modular software for specific business needs, but true freedom requires interoperability.
  
  

• The composable industry faces a challenge with "SI lock-in," where System Integrators provide the "glue" between systems and retain the intellectual property.
  
  

• The collision of AI and composability: modular vendors are uniquely positioned to leverage agents for back-end efficiency and goal orchestration across multiple systems.
  
  

• AI-driven interoperability is the next race and can make composable solutions feasible across different maturity stages in the coming years.
  

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Madhulika Saxena, Product Director at KIBO, discusses the recently launched Estimated Delivery Date (EDD) feature for KIBO's order management system. This feature allows retailers to provide shoppers with a promised date for when they will receive their items, a capability Madhulika considers "table stakes" in today's retail landscape. She emphasizes the importance of this feature for increasing "add to cart" rates and sales across various retail verticals, including apparel, grocery, and home furnishings.

The conversation delves into the complexities behind calculating accurate EDDs. Madhulika explains that factors like multiple inventory locations (stores, warehouses, regional DCs) necessitate accounting for transfer times between locations. Different processing times at various fulfillment locations and diverse carrier shipping methods further add to this complexity. Other critical considerations include fulfillment cutoff times and the ability to factor in future incoming inventory or remorse periods. She stresses that all these elements must be synthesized in real-time to provide the shopper with a reliable and accurate delivery date.

Show Highlights:

• The importance of Estimated Delivery Dates (EDD) as a "table stakes" feature for modern retail, boosting conversions and sales.

• The intricate factors involved in calculating accurate EDDs, including multi-location inventory, transfer times, processing variations, and carrier methods.

• How retailers can optimize customer experience by balancing delivery speed with cost efficiency, and offering flexible delivery options.

• KIBO's plans to use AI and machine learning to enhance EDD accuracy and granularity by incorporating real-time data like traffic patterns.

• The critical role of accurate and real-time data in successful EDD implementation.

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To learn more about KIBO visit our site https://kibocommerce.com/ and follow us on LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kibocommerce

Rutvee Shah, Director of Product at KIBO, discusses the exciting new rules management feature recently launched for KIBO's order management platform. She emphasizes that this feature provides clients with enhanced control and agility, allowing them to define, configure, and enforce business logic without needing engineering changes. This means businesses can automate decisions, adapt quickly, and align with changing customer expectations more effectively.

The initial rollout of rules management focuses on three high-impact areas: customer return policy rules, safety stock management, and B2B purchase limits. Rutvee provides real-world scenarios for each. For instance, a fashion retailer can set stricter 30-day return windows for clearance items while offering VIP customers a more lenient 60-day window. An inventory planner can establish minimum stock thresholds for high-demand items or specific locations, even adjusting dynamically for seasonality. For wholesale account managers, the feature helps prevent large resellers from over-purchasing popular items or exceeding contractual limits.

Show Highlights:

• The power of KIBO's new rules management feature, enabling businesses to define and enforce logic without code changes.

• Practical applications across return policies, safety stock, and B2B purchase limits.

• Enhanced self-service capabilities for business users, promoting operational agility.

• Future plans to integrate AI for automated rule generation based on desired business outcomes.

• How smart rules can improve customer experiences and reduce manual work for retailers.

Follow and Review: We'd love for you to follow us if you haven't yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select "Ratings and Reviews" and "Write a Review," then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second, and it helps spread the word about the podcast.

To learn more about KIBO visit our site https://kibocommerce.com/ and follow us on LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kibocommerce