58%, 40%, 58%: Why We Built HCL Commerce+

How Market Shifts and Customer Priorities Shaped a Strategy to Unify, Connect, Evolve, and Automate

Three numbers capture the changes reshaping enterprise commerce.

Nearly 58% of organizations struggle to connect commerce with the ERP and CRM systems they already use.¹

Gartner projected that 40% of enterprise applications would embed AI agents in 2026.²

And 58% of B2B buyers switched vendors during the same six-month period in which they made a purchase.³

Together, these numbers point to three clear pressures. Businesses need better connection across their technology environment. They need to prepare for new forms of AI-led interaction. And they need to respond faster as buyers become less willing to wait.

Our conversations with customers add another important requirement: progress should protect the value already in place.

Organizations have invested in storefronts, search, integrations, customizations, data, and the operating knowledge required to run complex commerce environments. They want to build on that foundation while gaining more choice over how and when they introduce new capabilities.

Those market signals and customer priorities shaped HCL Commerce+.

HCL Commerce+ is our enterprise commerce solution designed to bring greater flexibility to how organizations connect, extend, and evolve commerce. It combines a strong enterprise foundation with modular business capabilities, built-in orchestration, open integration, externalized extensions, and readiness for agentic commerce.

The strategy can be understood through four business outcomes: unify, connect, evolve, and automate.

Unify: Create One Consistent View of the Business

Most organizations do not have a shortage of data. They have customer, product, account, pricing, and order information spread across commerce, sales, service, marketing, ERP, CRM, and other systems.

The challenge is turning that information into a consistent view.

When systems operate with different versions of the same customer or account, the effects appear throughout the business. Pricing can vary unexpectedly. Personalization can miss important context. Teams may act on incomplete information. Customers may receive an experience that does not reflect their full relationship with the organization.

HCL Commerce+ is designed to bring commerce, experience, and business information together within a shared ecosystem. The goal is to give channels and teams access to more consistent context without asking businesses to abandon the systems they already rely on.

The outcome is greater trust, more relevant engagement, and fewer errors that put revenue or margin at risk.

Connect: Make Integration an Enabler, Not the Project

Commerce depends on a broad network of systems.

It must connect to ERP, CRM, payments, tax, order management, fulfillment, product information, and many other services. Yet integration remains one of the biggest sources of cost, delay, and complexity.

Organizations increasingly want the flexibility to select the capabilities that work best for their business. But they do not want every new capability to create another large integration program.

HCL Commerce+ combines modular business capabilities with the orchestration and shared services needed to make them work as one connected commerce environment. Its open approach allows organizations to use HCL Commerce+ capabilities, connect third-party technology, and introduce their own services where the business requires them.

This reduces the burden of assembling and governing the environment. It also gives teams a faster path from a business need to a working capability.

The business outcome is lower integration effort, faster launches, and less fragility as the commerce landscape changes.

Evolve: Protect What Works While Creating Room for Change

Commerce organizations need foundational capabilities such as cart, checkout, search, pricing, and catalog. They also need the freedom to support the processes and experiences that make their business different.

Their commerce solution should help them with both.

HCL Commerce+ is designed so individual capabilities can evolve without requiring the entire commerce environment to change at once. Extensions and differentiated business logic can remain separate from the core, helping organizations continue to support their unique requirements while maintaining a clearer path to future updates.

This is especially important for existing HCL Commerce customers. The strategy protects investments in storefronts, databases, search, customizations, and integrations while opening a path to adopt modular capabilities over time.

For organizations evaluating HCL Commerce+, it provides the same flexibility from the start. They can choose the capabilities they need, extend where they differentiate, and expand as their business priorities change.

The outcome is a lower cost of change and a better allocation of resources. Teams can spend less time rebuilding foundational commerce functions and more time improving the areas that create competitive value.

Automate: Put AI to Work With Control

AI is changing who participates in commerce and how work gets done.

Customers are beginning to use agents to discover products, compare options, and complete tasks. Businesses are also exploring how agents can support customer care, prepare promotions, identify opportunities, and reduce repetitive work for practitioners.

HCL Commerce+ is agentic ready. Its capabilities can support both human-to-business and machine-to-machine interactions, while governance keeps actions transparent and within the controls set by the organization.

An agent could monitor customer activity, prepare a promotion or quote, and present it to a practitioner for approval. The agent handles more of the routine preparation, while the business user remains responsible for the decision.

That is an important part of the business outcomes and our strategy. AI should not simply add another interface. It should help practitioners work more efficiently, help customers complete tasks more easily, and support better commercial outcomes.

The result can be both top-line growth and bottom-line efficiency. Businesses can respond to opportunities faster while reducing the manual effort required from internal teams.

A Strategy Shaped by Customers and the Market

The market is moving toward more connected channels, faster buying decisions, and greater use of AI agents. At the same time, customers have been clear that the path forward must protect their investments and give them control over the pace of change.

HCL Commerce+ brings those priorities together.

It helps organizations unify information across the commerce ecosystem, connect the systems their business depends on, evolve without repeatedly rebuilding what already works, and automate tasks through governed AI.

This is not change for the sake of technology. It is a strategy for helping businesses respond faster, use their resources more effectively, and focus on the products, services, and experiences that make them different.

The numbers show where the market is heading. HCL Commerce+ gives businesses a practical way to move with it.

Check out our landing page to learn more about HCL Commerce+.

Sources:

1. https://www.mytotalretail.com/article/retails-ai-ambitions-are-high-their-data-readiness-isnt/
2. Gartner https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-08-26-gartner-predicts-40-percent-of-enterprise-apps-will-feature-task-specific-ai-agents-by-2026-up-from-less-than-5-percent-in-2025
3. Digital Commerce 360/Google survey https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2025/12/05/google-survey-of-b2b-buyers/