Friday 15 Podcast
Short, practical conversations with B2B ecommerce practitioners. Watch, listen, or read the recap.
Amazon Business and AI: A Wake-Up Call for Distributors
Brian reports from Amazon Business's Reshape conference: $60 billion in annualized sales, AI tools aimed at managed spend, and vending machines borrowed from the…
Anthropic’s S-1: What B2B Leaders Should Take From the IPO Filing
Andy and Jared go through Anthropic's S-1: $16.3 billion in first-half revenue, a $500 billion compute overhang, and what it means for B2B leaders…
From Website 1.0 to 2.0: How Composites One Rebuilt Its B2B Ecommerce Site
Christina Chatfield of Composites One explains how a customer advisory board, a silent launch, and a late lesson about listening to the internal business…
With Christina Chatfield, Head of Growth, Marketing, E-commerce and Sales Operations, Composites One
Does AI Success in B2B Depend on Middle Management?
McKinsey says 88 percent of companies use AI and only 7 percent have scaled it. A Harvard Business Review article points to middle managers,…
Takeaways from the B2B Exchange at Shoptalk Fall
Andy and Brian recap a packed week at the B2B Exchange at Shoptalk Fall, where B2C giants and B2B incumbents shared the same room,…
Leveraging New Payment Types to Capture Incremental B2B Sales
John Jakobe of TreviPay joins Andy and Brian to unpack why B2B credit terms are still stuck in a manual process, and what modernizing…
With John Jakobe, VP of Commercial Strategy, TreviPay
Where AI Agents Are Working in B2B Commerce, and Why
Jon Feldman of Salesforce joins Andy and Brian to unpack why the real B2B AI opportunity sits in the middle miles, not the flashy…
With Jon Feldman, Director of Product Marketing, Salesforce
See It, Order It, Deliver It: Earning Repeat Business in B2B
Andrej Maihorn of Kibo Commerce joins Andy and Brian to unpack the gap between B2B buyers' loyalty preferences and their actual behavior, and what…
With Andrej Maihorn, Head of B2B Product Marketing, Kibo Commerce
Turning Data Into Dollars in the Age of Agentic Commerce
Andy Didyk of Ntara joins Andy and Brian to unpack the gap between B2B companies' AI ambitions and their underlying data infrastructure, and what…
With Andy Didyk, CEO, Ntara
Does AI Recommend Your B2B Brand?
Michael Schenck of Jaipur Living joins Andy and Brian to break down the seven steps that actually make a B2B website visible and recommendable…
With Michael Schenck, Senior Digital Product Manager, Jaipur Living
Is the Search Box Now the Intent Box in B2B Ecom?
Dr. Andrea Polonioli of Coveo joins Andy Hoar and Brian Beck to unpack why B2B search still breaks on basic queries, how AI is…
With Dr. Andrea Polonioli, Product Marketing, Coveo
Is Punchout Just Old Tech, or a Hidden Growth Lever?
Kevin Kazenmayer of TradeCentric joins Andy Hoar and Brian Beck to explain what punchout is, why it still matters 27 years after its debut,…
With Kevin Kazenmayer, VP of Business Strategy and Development, TradeCentric
Is the CMO Disappearing in B2B?
Jared Blank joins Andy Hoar and Brian Beck to unpack why the CMO title is vanishing across the Fortune 500, and what that means…
With Jared Blank, Co-Founder, Master B2B
How to Use Analyst Research in Ecom Tech Selection
Brennen Volbeda of PCNA joins Andy Hoar and Brian Beck to walk through how research, proof of concepts, and peer networks fit together across…
With Brennen Volbeda, Senior Director of Digital Experience & Strategy, PCNA
The 2026 Paradigm B2B Combine for Ecom Platforms
Andy Hoar breaks down the eighth annual Paradigm B2B Combine, why research is a piece of the platform selection process rather than the whole…
Get Big or Get Small – Can a Mid-sized Distributor Survive Anymore?
Jared Blank and Andy Hoar on Meta's 75 percent AI price cut, why the middle keeps disappearing in B2B distribution, and what IBM's historic…
AI and the Executive Career Reset
Jared Blank and Andy Hoar are joined by commercial growth executive Meeta Kratz on what AI is changing about executive careers, from a shrinking…
With Meeta Kratz, Commercial Growth Executive
Are B2B and B2C eCommerce Converging?
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar on a convergence that now runs both ways, from David's Bridal and Home Depot moving into B2B to the…
From Catalog Chaos to Confidence: Getting B2B Product Data Ready for AI
Elastic Path CEO Bryan House on why messy catalog data is the real barrier to AI in B2B, how answer engines are becoming a…
With Bryan House, CEO of Elastic Path
Who Is Your Next Hire? Why the Old Hiring Playbook Is Being Rewritten
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar on a web where bots now outnumber humans, a labor market stuck in a low-hire, low-fire pattern, and a…
Are AI Token Costs Getting Out of Control? What It Means for Your eCommerce Stack
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar on runaway AI token bills, why usage is a poor measure of value, and what consumption-based pricing will mean…
Maximizing the Tech Investments You’ve Already Made: Why So Much Software Sits Unused
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar are joined by Dale Edman of Lipton Teas and Infusions to talk about why more than half of enterprise…
With Dale Edman, VP eCommerce and Shopper Marketing, Lipton Teas and Infusions What B2B Can Learn from B2C Merchandising
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar are joined by Denise Foley of ULE Group on why B2B buyers now expect a consumer-grade experience, where the…
With Denise Foley, EVP eCommerce, ULE Group
A Report from 2 Fields: Chicago and Manchester
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar share insights from recent B2B e-commerce events in Chicago and Manchester, covering Amazon's logistics expansion, the company's true B2B…
Announcing Bot 2 Bot, Andy’s New Book!
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar discuss Andy's new book Bot 2 Bot, covering AI's impact on B2B commerce, plus breaking news on Google's record…
Should B2B companies own their own marketplaces?
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar examine whether B2B companies should build and operate their own marketplaces, exploring the strategic trade-offs as Amazon continues its…
The Most Overhyped (and Underhyped) Ideas in B2B eCommerce
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar identify the most overhyped and underhyped trends in B2B e-commerce, drawing on discussions from the Master B2B summit and…
Where will B2B eCommerce execs spend their next dollar (2026 edition)
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar explore where B2B e-commerce executives are directing their next budget dollar in 2026, as OpenAI's shutdown of Sora and…
Shoptalk 2026: A Report from the Field
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar share insights from Shoptalk 2026 in Las Vegas, exploring six ways B2B and B2C e-commerce differ and five ways…
Is AI Making Us More Productive or Just Creating More Work?
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar on the difference between production and productivity, why only 3% of workers are in the AI productivity sweet spot,…
A Recap of the 2026 Master B2B Mindshare Summit
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar on the key themes from this year's summit in Chicago, why peer-to-peer roundtables generate more value than traditional conferences,…
Is AI More about Making Money or Saving Money?
Brian Beck, Andy Hoar, and guest Trevor Pope on where B2B companies are seeing real AI returns, why revenue gains are harder to attribute…
With Trevor Pope, Senior Director of Solution Architecture at Optimizely
Measuring the ROI of AI: A Framework for B2B Leaders
Brian Beck, Andy Hoar, and guest Howard Blumenthal on why most AI projects fail to deliver returns, the four questions to ask before starting…
With Howard Blumenthal, eCommerce advisor and former digital leader at Motion Industries and Advanced Auto Parts
How Can Companies Build Trust When AI Has the Ability to Undermine It?
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar on the four foundational ways to build customer trust, why transparency about AI use increases rather than decreases confidence,…
Is AI Becoming an Oligopoly? The $3 Trillion Battle for B2B Commerce
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar on the protocol wars between OpenAI and Google, intelligence on demand as a commodity, and what it means for…
Has AI Rewritten the Hiring Process in B2B?
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar are joined by Kevin Stone of Motion Industries on AI's double-sided takeover of hiring, from resumes polished past recognition…
With Kevin Stone, Senior Vice President, Motion Industries
Is Google Winning or Losing the AI Race? The Battle for Search Supremacy
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar on Google's surprising stock surge, Gemini's rapid user growth, and what zero-click search means for the future of AI…
The Final Answer to Amazon 1P vs 3P
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar report from a live debate at B2B Online in Atlanta where practitioner teams argued whether 1P or 3P selling…
The One Reason Your Company Should NOT Sell Online
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar talk with Schneider Electric's Anthony Lockach about why one of the world's largest manufacturers chose not to sell direct…
With Anthony Lockach, Global Director of Distribution E-commerce at Schneider Electric
Software Buying Tips and Tricks from an Insider
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar talk with longtime software executive Gireesh Sahukar about the mistakes companies make when buying e-commerce software and what practitioners…
With Gireesh Sahukar, Master B2B Executive Adviser
Getting Your Company’s AI Strategy Unstuck
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar talk with futurist Dr. Lisa Palmer about why a third of B2B executives do not know where to start…
With Dr. Lisa Palmer, CEO of Dr. Lisa AI and author of Show AI, Don't Tell It
Can Research Analysts Stay Relevant in the Age of AI?
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar examine why analyst firm stocks have cratered, which parts of the research business AI can already do, and whether…
How B2B Brands Can Protect Themselves from Unauthorized Distributors
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar talk with brand enforcement attorney John Groa about the hidden costs of unauthorized resellers, why most manufacturers do not…
With John Groa, Partner at KJK
Has the Composable Commerce Approach Run Its Course?
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar examine whether the composable commerce model remains viable as platforms add pre-built capabilities and practitioners report implementation difficulties.
Do Managers Have Too Many Direct Reports in B2B?
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar examine the trend of delayering organizations and whether managers with 15 direct reports can effectively lead their teams.
Why Do 95% of AI Projects Fail?
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar examine MIT research on why AI projects fail and what separates successful implementations from expensive experiments.
Is AI Changing the Role of the Systems Integrator?
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar welcome Tim Elenius from American Eagle to discuss how AI is transforming systems integration work and what it means…
With Tim Elenius, VP of Strategic Initiatives, American Eagle
One B2B Executive’s Journey Into the Gig Economy
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar welcome John Pal to discuss his transition from corporate executive to fractional consultant and how AI and networks enable…
With John Pal, Strategic Adviser and Founder, E3 Omni Advisory
Has the Gig Economy Come for B2B Ecommerce Jobs?
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar examine how the gig economy is reshaping B2B digital roles, from interim executives to fractional workers augmented by AI…
The Key to Finding Digital Executive Roles in the Age of AI
Brian Beck and Andy Hoar welcome Ed Fenton from Greybar to discuss the challenges of finding executive roles when AI bots screen resumes and…
With Ed Fenton, VP of AI and Digital Transformation, Greybar