Retail Is Losing Billions to Fragmentation. Salesforce, Celigo, Block, and Extend Explain Why

Retail is losing billions not because demand is weak, but because systems still do not work together.

Fragmentation across channels, data, and operations is quietly draining value at scale. At the same time, customers expect seamless experiences across discovery, checkout, and post purchase. The gap between what retailers offer and what customers expect is widening.

That tension is pushing unified commerce from a buzzword into a business priority.

Leaders including Adriana Bourgoin from Salesforce, Jan Arendtsz from Celigo, Morgan Kunze from Block, and Rohan Shah from Extend made one thing clear. AI can accelerate transformation, but only if retailers fix the foundation first.

Commerce has outgrown its original model

Ecommerce was never designed for the level of complexity retailers face today.

What started as a side project has evolved into a distributed ecosystem where customers move fluidly between platforms, channels, and touchpoints. According to Adriana Bourgoin, Chief Customer Strategy Officer at Salesforce, brands are now expected to show up everywhere while maintaining consistency.

That is where many retailers struggle.

Customer acquisition costs are rising. Fraud is becoming more sophisticated. Attention spans are shrinking. Yet brands still need to deliver a consistent voice and experience across every channel.

Unified commerce is the only way to make that possible. It brings together systems, data, and customer interactions into one coordinated approach rather than a patchwork of disconnected tools.

Agentic commerce is changing how retail operates

Bourgoin introduced a concept that is gaining momentum across the industry. Agentic commerce.

This approach uses AI to both optimize backend operations and improve customer interactions in real time. It reflects a shift away from isolated automation toward systems that can act, learn, and adapt across the entire business.

On the backend, AI is improving workflows like demand planning, order management, and fraud detection. On the frontend, it is reshaping how customers discover and interact with products.

The key is not just intelligence, but coordination.

Retailers are no longer in control of a single channel. They are managing a network of experiences. AI helps connect those experiences, but only when the underlying systems are aligned.

The real problem sits behind the scenes

While much of the industry focuses on customer facing innovation, the biggest limitations are often hidden in backend systems.

Jan Arendtsz, Founder and CEO of Celigo, pointed to a common issue. Retailers want to grow faster by adding new channels, but their systems cannot keep up.

Inventory data does not sync. Orders do not flow smoothly. Processes break under pressure.

This creates what he described as a tax on growth.

The solution is not another standalone tool. It is integration and automation. Connecting systems, automating workflows, and creating visibility across operations allows businesses to scale without adding complexity.

There is a reason most companies successfully using AI already have automation platforms in place. Without that foundation, AI has nothing reliable to build on.

Payments are shaping the future of commerce

Payments are no longer just the final step in a transaction. They are becoming a key driver of conversion, loyalty, and customer experience.

Morgan Kunze from Block highlighted how Gen Z is reshaping expectations. This generation represents hundreds of billions in spending power and prefers digital first financial tools.

They are more likely to use digital wallets and buy now pay later options than traditional credit cards. They also expect flexibility and personalization throughout the checkout experience.

Retailers that understand this shift are seeing tangible results.

Offering the right payment options at the right moment can increase basket size, improve conversion, and strengthen customer relationships. It is not about adding more choices. It is about offering the right experience for the right customer.

Post purchase is where loyalty is won or lost

Most retailers still treat post purchase as an operational necessity rather than a strategic opportunity.

That mindset is costly.

Rohan Shah, Co-Founder and CRO of Extend, highlighted the scale of the challenge. Returns alone represent hundreds of billions in cost, and restrictive policies are pushing customers away.

Many shoppers review return policies before they buy. A poor experience can end the relationship before it even begins.

The deeper issue is that not all customers behave the same way.

A small percentage drives the majority of profit, while a small group can generate disproportionate costs. Treating every customer equally leads to inefficiencies and missed opportunities.

Dynamic post purchase strategies change that.

By segmenting customers and tailoring experiences based on behavior and value, retailers can reduce costs while improving satisfaction. AI enables this by identifying patterns and guiding decisions in real time.

Fragmentation is holding retailers back

Across every topic, one issue kept resurfacing. Fragmentation.

Retailers are often managing multiple systems for payments, fulfillment, returns, and customer support. Each system operates in isolation, creating gaps in data and experience.

From the customer perspective, this feels like inconsistency. From the retailer perspective, it limits the ability to act on insights.

Unified commerce solves this by bringing everything together into a single, connected ecosystem.

It creates a complete view of the customer and enables more intelligent decision making across the business.

AI is a company wide shift

One of the most important insights was around ownership.

There is no single team responsible for AI. It touches every function, from operations and product to marketing and customer service.

According to the speakers, success comes from combining leadership direction with broad adoption across the organization. The people closest to the problems are often best positioned to apply the technology effectively.

AI is accessible to everyone. That is both its strength and its challenge.

The shift retailers need to make now

Unified commerce is not built from the outside in. It starts internally.

Retailers need to connect systems, clean up data, and automate core processes before layering AI on top. Skipping these steps creates more complexity instead of solving it.

The companies moving fastest today are not necessarily the ones with the most advanced tools. They are the ones with the strongest foundations.

As Bourgoin, Arendtsz, Kunze, and Shah made clear, the future of retail will be defined by how well businesses connect their operations, understand their customers, and deliver seamless experiences across every stage of the journey.

AI will play a major role in that future. But unified commerce is what makes it work.