What: A Lectra chronicle by François Gonnot sets out how marketplaces, faster time-to-market and structured data are reshaping e-commerce operations, with fashion as its main example.

Why it is important: Marketplaces are becoming the default route to online demand, and brands that cannot launch, price and update products across them quickly risk being overtaken by standards set by others.

E-commerce keeps growing despite geopolitical tensions around supply chains, with global sales projected to exceed $8 trillion by 2028. The open question is how that value will be distributed, as AI, macroeconomic shifts and changing consumer habits push brands to rethink strategy under margin pressure.
Marketplaces accounted for nearly two-thirds of retail spending by 2024. Amazon’s leadership is challenged by Temu and Tmall, while vertical platforms such as Zalando are major players in European fashion. Their selection, shorter delivery times and integrated experience raise the standard for brands’ own sites, which remain relevant within omnichannel approaches.

Speed becomes decisive across the product lifecycle, from design to market launch. In fashion, short marketing windows tied to seasons, trends and campaigns reward brands that launch collections, activate products across several marketplaces and update prices and availability in real time. This requires automation, integration and control of information flows, without trading speed for quality.

Data is the foundation, since AI performs on reliable, structured and standardized information. Incomplete or outdated data causes description errors, stock discrepancies and uncompetitive pricing. The most mature brands are moving to native marketplace integration, end-to-end automation and centralized management, while laggards risk following standards set by others.

IADS Notes: Forecasts of online retail growth vary by source: a Forrester projection reported by Retail Dive in June 2024 put global online sales at $6.8 trillion by 2028, up from $4.4 trillion in 2023, with marketplaces and social commerce among the main drivers, while the article cites more than $8 trillion for the same year. Platform consolidation is one response to the competition, as Fashion Network in December 2024 reported Zalando’s €1.1 billion acquisition of About You to face Shein and Temu in European online fashion. On speed, Reuters in March 2026 covered Marks & Spencer’s monthly capsule collections, a faster product cycle that requires greater supply chain agility. On data, Journal du Net in March 2026 found that retailers unable to structure and govern their product data become progressively invisible to the algorithms that decide what shoppers see first, and Journal du Net in June 2026 showed that AI agents lose accuracy when data is fragmented across carriers, order and warehouse systems, CRM and marketplaces.

Marketplaces, data, and speed: the levers transforming e-commerce