Inside Forrester’s 2025 Commerce Landscape
Over the past few years, commerce has evolved from transactional to experiential. Brands are no longer just building online stores they’re orchestrating ecosystems that intersect data, content, and AI across every touchpoint.
The latest Forrester report highlights both the opportunities and the complexity of this new era and why working with, and selecting the right service provider has become a strategic growth decision.
We’re deep diving it, so you don’t have to.
Throughout this article we refer to ‘service providers’ as a term that encompasses agencies, systems integrators and consultancies as referred in the Forrester Report.
Forrester’s Take on Commerce Today
In their report, Forrester breaks down the macro environment of commerce into three core themes: Main Trend, Top Disruptor and Primary Challenge.
Main Trend: Transforming Commerce
Forrester outlines Commerce Transformation as the defining trend in commerce right now and it’s easy to see why. After years of rapid digital acceleration, many businesses are sitting on powerful technology stacks that are underutilized. The focus is shifting away from full-scale rebuilds and toward activating existing implementations that will drive real business results. In other words, the question has changed from “What do we need to add?” to “How can we make what we have work harder?”
This shift is partially pragmatic with budgets becoming tighter, expectations higher, and the pressure to deliver measurable outcomes has never been greater. But it’s also cultural with the commerce industry mindset maturing from collecting tools to, instead, connecting them. Innovations like composable architecture and faster development approaches are making this mindset possible, enabling teams to build, test, and iterate at speed.
At the same time, the commerce landscape has become more distributed. Social media, marketplaces, and retail apps are now where much of product discovery and purchase happens. These channels have become the new “front doors” to commerce, often taking precedence over traditional desktop sites. For brands, that shift means rethinking where and how they invest in experience; ensuring their ecosystems extend seamlessly across every channel consumers engage with.
Service providers, including Domaine, are responding to this by helping businesses activate omnichannel strategies through smaller, more focused projects that deliver results faster, proving that transformation doesn’t always require complete reinvention. Through our Shopify expertise and our extensive knowledge of the ecosystem, we help clients unlock value without unnecessary complexity, ensuring every integration drives measurable performance.
Top disruptor: AI’s transformation from differentiator to necessity
Commerce, although well-established, has been constantly evolving and adapting since its inception. However, Forrester indicates the pace is only accelerating. In fact, with the rapid growth of AI, it’s shifting more than ever.
AI is no longer a futuristic concept or a differentiator reserved for innovators. Over the past few years it has gradually, then very quickly, become a standard expectation across the ecosystem and a common conversation point among industry thought leaders, brands, and service providers alike. But what’s changed is its impact on consumer habits. What was once a method for competitive advantage and personalization, is now essential infrastructure. As the wider global landscape becomes more frictionless, so must commerce. Long gone are the days of browsing hefty catalogs; consumers want to be told what to buy based on their past purchases, their likes / dislikes and their needs. They expect, near demand, personalized, predictive experiences that make discovering the right product quick, intuitive, and enjoyable — because why wouldn’t they?
This shift, is prompting commerce service providers to adapt, rethink their proposition to the market, their in-house talent, their partnerships and their services. At Domaine, we’re no stranger to this adaptation. Earlier this year we launched our AI Commerce Suite with an AI Search Optimization practice, helping our clients optimize not only for search, but for the agents who decide what a customer sees. While traffic from AI sources for Domaine clients makes up less than 1% of overall traffic, it’s grown 1,850% since December 2024. So, we decided now was the time to dial up our internal focus on this and help our clients get ahead. It’s one way we’re responding directly to the shift Forrester identifies: from using AI as novelty to making it foundational in commerce operations. For more on the ‘why’ behind our AI Suite, read our latest article.
Primary Challenge: Fragmented Technology and Scattered Data
Commerce transformation is about activating what you already have, and AI disruption is about finding new ways to deliver more to consumers. The challenge is, these two ideas rarely intersect. Businesses aren’t lacking technology, they have too much of it. When a new disruption or trend emerges, another tool or platform gets added to an already inflating stack. And overtime, what was meant to simplify, becomes a tangled ecosystem of disconnected systems and data.
In the last few years, SaaS and composable solutions have made it easier than ever for companies to access the best tech on the market. However, abundance can breed complexity and tech debt. When tools aren’t built to talk to each other, or when data lives in separate systems, it becomes difficult to create the kind of joined-up experience that consumers expect. Teams start to work in silos. Marketing, ecommerce, and operations drift apart, even though each depends on the other to perform well.
As Forrester notes, true maturity in commerce depends on cohesion: building a unified tech stack and data foundation that allows businesses to respond to change with clarity and speed. Right now, many brands are trying to keep up with growing consumer expectations while managing increasingly complex systems behind the scenes. They’re doing it all, because all is what’s being demanded, but they rarely have the time or resources to do it cleanly.
That’s where service providers can really add value: — simplifying complexity for brands that have outgrown their tech stacks. Our clients get value from Domaine’s ability to unify Shopify architectures and integrate analytics and CRM data, our approach helps teams reconnect the dots between marketing, ecommerce, and operations so they can move faster with more clarity.
Where Service Providers, Provide
All of this sounds like a lot for a business to juggle at once, and succeed. According to Forrester’s 2025 data, 48% of digital business strategy decision-makers say that a new commerce strategy will be a priority for their organization over the next 12 months. And how do businesses find the time to create this while managing the day-to-day? They outsource to service providers.
However, before you jump to the nearest service provider, consider that not all service providers are created equally. Considering factors such as size, vertical, geography and more will be essential in sourcing the right service for your business. In their report, Forrester deep dives a cohesive list of service providers that span regions, size, and services.
Domaine is featured as a Systems Integrator, serving North America and EMEA with a focus on retail, technology, and entertainment. Forrester positions Domaine as a niche player within the broader commerce services market — a recognition that reflects our specialist expertise in helping brands turn technology into tangible growth. The Systems Integrator classification highlights our focus on implementation and integration, consistent with our Shopify-centric model. As a partner deeply embedded in that ecosystem, we help premium and established brands connect strategy, design, and technology into one seamless commerce experience. Our size and focus mean we can move quickly, collaborate closely, and deliver a high-touch service where it matters most.
The Forrester “Commerce Services Landscape, Q3 2025” report categorizes Domaine as follows:
| Company Name | Domaine |
| Geographic Location | NA, EMEA (North America and Europe, Middle East, Africa) |
| Industry Focus | Entertainment, leisure, and hospitality; IT/tech services; Retail |
| Type of Partner | Systems Integrator |
| Size of Category | Small ($10M to <$100M in category revenue) |
| Specialist | A specialist in the Shopify ecosystem, targeting a specific segment of the market. |
| Niche Player | A niche player in the broader commerce services landscape, with a focus on retail and entertainment. |
| Premium Focus | A provider for premium and established brands looking for a high-touch, specialized service. |
| Full Service Provider | A full-service provider within its niche, offering a comprehensive suite of services around the Shopify platform. |
The Forrester Q3 2025 Commerce Services Landscape Report makes it clear that the commerce ecosystem is evolving fast, and the relationships between brands and their service partners are evolving with it. From AI disruption to tech fragmentation and new activation models, businesses are navigating an era defined by connection and adaptability. So, where does that leave digital leaders today, and what comes next?
Where Digital Leaders Go Next
The priorities are clear:
- Choose partners who understand your business, not just your tech stack.
- Treat AI and personalization as the baseline, not the differentiator.
- Build tight connections between strategy, content, and operations so every move serves a single growth story.
But knowing what to do next, and how to do it at scale, are two different things. That’s exactly what our Co-Founder and President, Marko, explores in his perspective piece — how the next era of commerce will be defined by orchestration, integration, and intelligence.
Final Words
Our inclusion in Forrester’s Q3 2025 Commerce Services Landscape Report underpins that Domaine is already operating at the forefront of this shift. The trends Forrester identifies around activation over reinvention, AI-powered experiences, and unified ecosystems are the same forces shaping our client work today. Whether it’s optimizing existing technology stacks, leveraging AI for smarter personalization, or bringing disconnected systems into sync, we’re focused on helping brands realize what this new era of commerce looks like in practice.
The full Forrester Q3 2025 Commerce Services Landscape Report is available now. If you’re exploring how to align your strategy, data, and technology for the AI era of commerce, connect with Domaine’s team to start a conversation.
FAQs
What is Forrester’s Commerce Services Landscape report?
Forrester’s Commerce Services Landscape, Q3 2025 report analyzes the evolving ecosystem of service providers, including agencies, consultancies, and systems integrators, that help brands build, manage, and optimize commerce experiences. It highlights market trends, emerging disruptors, and the growing importance of AI and integration.
What does it mean that Domaine was named a Systems Integrator in the report?
Forrester classifies Systems Integrators as partners who focus on connecting strategy, technology, and experience to deliver seamless commerce operations. Domaine’s inclusion recognizes our work in helping brands unify data, design, and technology, particularly within the Shopify ecosystem, to create measurable growth.
Why are commerce service providers so important in 2025 and beyond?
Commerce is shifting from transactional to experiential. Brands need partners who can connect content, data, and AI across every channel from marketplaces to social to owned platforms. Service providers bridge these gaps, helping businesses adapt faster and deliver consistent, personalized experiences.
How is AI changing commerce right now?
AI has moved from being an innovation tool to essential infrastructure. It powers personalization, search, and predictive insights across the entire shopping journey. Leaders are now focused on using AI to make experiences more intuitive and operations more efficient.
