B2B Commerce UnCut Podcast: The Unvarnished Truth About B2B eCommerce

Hear what really matters in B2B. If you’re just dipping your toes in the waters of B2B eCommerce or if you’ve jumped into the deep end, we’re here to help. No BS, just honest, open talk about B2B eCommerce. Hear from thought leaders, disrupters, innovators, survivors, and winners.

B2B Commerce UnCut Podcast: The Unvarnished Truth About B2B eCommerce is a technology podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 51 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Unknown Host hosts B2B Commerce UnCut Podcast: The Unvarnished Truth About B2B eCommerce, a technology show with 51 episodes published.

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  Episode #31

  Inside B2B IT: Shadow AI, Cross-Functional eCommerce, and Winning Internal Adoption

  Sep 23, 202656 minS1

  Jacobi Zakrzewski has seen B2B from the manufacturing, distribution, agency, and IT sides. Now Director of IT at A.Y. McDonald Mfg. Jacobi shares his approach to shadow AI, how he separates useful AI from experimentation that creates more noise, and why internal adoption matters as much as customer adoption. Episode Highlights 05:42 – Why IT Leaders Need to Understand How the Business Makes Money 16:10 – Shadow IT, Shadow AI, and Why Blocking Experimentation Can Backfire 19:38 – The Gap Between AI Prototypes and Production Software 25:00 – The Boardroom “So What?” That Changed Jacobi’s Approach to IT 28:15 – What Counts as B2B eCommerce Beyond the Website 31:47 – Who Should Own B2B eCommerce  37:05 – Two Ways to Approach eCommerce Adoption 45:02 – AI Productivity at A.Y. McDonald Resources Mentioned A.Y. McDonald Mfg. Co. — The manufacturing company where Jacobi serves as Director of IT. Luminos Labs — Digital services and systems integration firm where Jacobi previously served as VP of Strategy. Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman — The LitRPG book series Jacobi recommends at the end of the episode.

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  Episode #35

  Step Zero: What Comes Before Every AI Rollout in B2B

  Aug 10, 202635 minS1

  Kulmohan Makhija of Azilen joins Aaron Sheehan to talk about the unglamorous reality of implementing AI in B2B manufacturing and commerce. Kulmohan shares why buyers are shifting their focus from flashy interfaces to operational systems, explains how agentic AI and Model Context Protocol (MCP) are changing system integrations, and breaks down why clean data is the mandatory "step zero" before any AI rollout. Episode Highlights: 00:07 – Introduction: Meet Kulmohan Makhija & Azilen's AI Practice 02:13 – Interfaces vs. Systems: What Buyers Are Actually Willing to Pay For 08:04 – Why No Manufacturer Wants AI Writing to Their ERP (Yet) 08:45 – MCP Explained: From API Guesswork to Governed Orchestration 12:58 – Low-Risk vs. High-Risk: Where the Human Stays in the Loop 17:14 – The High-Speed Garbage Cannon: Data Quality as Step Zero 19:14 – Digital Product Passport: When Compliance Forces a Data Reckoning 26:04 – How an SI Sells "We'll Do Less of What You Pay Us For" 28:43 – What Happens to My Team? Reading the Room on AI Adoption 31:20 – 12 Months From Now: What We'll Stop Arguing About Resources Mentioned  Book: Everyday Creativity by Pavan Soni Kulmohan Makhija’s email: kulmohan.makhija@azilen.com 

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  Episode #34

  Why Data Culture Matters More Than Platforms: Sam Russo on Automotive Aftermarket

  Apr 22, 202650 minS1

  Sam Russo, Director of Demand Gen & Strategic Alliances at Pivotree, joins Aaron Sheehan to talk about the messy, human side of automotive data. Sam shares her unconventional path into data, explains why ACES and PIES aren't magic bullets, and breaks down what happens when companies throw expensive tech at dirty data. She also reflects on the Rebelle Rally and what navigating the desert taught her about data dependency. Episode Highlights: 01:08 – Introduction: Meet Sam Russo & Her Automotive Origin Story 07:44 – What ACES and PIES Actually Are (And What They're Not) 11:35 – The #1 Data Problem That Looks Like Tech But Is Actually Humans 13:48 – How Well Are Manufacturers Living Up to ACES & PIES Standards? 15:50 – Why Missing Data Makes You Invisible (Especially to AI) 18:13 – Pivotree as Pit Crew: F1, Foundations, and Why Data Isn't "Fixed" in 12 Months 23:29 – The Rebelle Rally: 2,500km, No GPS, Never Camped Before 29:57 – Finding Your Limits (Or Not Finding Them) 30:58 – Data Dependency vs. Human Instinct 33:45 – AI in Automotive: Data Normalization, Agentic Shopping & Fleet Management 42:33 – What the Aftermarket Needs to Attract the Next Generation 47:31 – Sam's media recommendation Resources Mentioned: SEMA Data Co-op — Industry data standards organization The Diary of a CEO — Podcast hosted by Steven Bartlett Rebelle Rally — The longest off-road navigation rally in the United States Podcast with Chantal Schweizer from Pivotree https://youtu.be/btq8K279e_k  

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  Episode #33

  The Data Behind the Deal: B2B Distribution Through an FP&A Lens with Ryan Cosby

  Apr 2, 202641 minS1

  Ryan Cosby, FP&A Manager at Salon Service Group, joins Aaron Sheehan for a ground-level look at B2B beauty distribution. Ryan shares how SSG manages cost-to-serve across multiple channels, wrestles with pricing complexity and margin leakage, and navigates the messy realities of month-end close. He also breaks down what vendors need to bring to the table to earn a yes from finance. Episode Highlights: 00:35 – Introduction: Meet Ryan Cosby & Salon Service Group 01:50 – How SSG's Distribution Model Works: Salons, Licenses & the Back Bar 03:25 – Cost-to-Serve: Is the Digital Channel Cheaper? 06:00 – Giving Reps Visibility Into eCommerce Behavior 07:34 – Commissioning Reps on eComm Sales and Why It Matters 08:50 – Pricing Complexity: Custom Agreements and Margin Leakage 12:40 – Sales Tax Complexity and Why SSG Uses Vertex 15:00 – The Tech Stack: System 2000, Qlik, and Excel 18:58 – Month-End Close: Reconciling Two Different Data Structures 22:07 – AI in FP&A: What SSG Is Piloting With Qlik 26:00 – What a Vendor Business Case Needs to Survive an FP&A Review 30:35 – Advice for Digital Champions Making the Case Up the Chain 34:45 – Payments Across Channels: Cards on File, Chargebacks & Debit Card Risk 39:16 – Ryan’s media recommendations Resources Mentioned: Qlik — BI and analytics tool used by SSG Vertex — Sales tax automation platform Imbibe Magazine — Ryan's go-to for drinks culture, recommending it as a great example of a media brand quietly and successfully reinventing itself.

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  Episode #32

  AI Hype Detox for Manufacturers and Distributors with Heather Hershey

  Feb 12, 202647 minS1

  What happens when you drop an LLM on top of five ERPs and a decade of M&A? Aaron Sheehan and analyst Heather Hershey map the practical path: B2B use cases that work, risks that don’t, and why chunk-by-chunk modernization beats “robot, take the wheel.” Highlights 01:06 – Welcome back and introducing Heather Hershey 03:35 – Defining AI, LLMs, and RAG  09:30 – Why probabilistic AI makes ops teams nervous  11:58 – Is LLM an overkill compared to ‘boring’ machine learning and rule-based systems? 15:19 – The real blocker: fragmented data across ERPs and other systems 19:40 – The strangler pattern: modernize in chunks instead of ripping everything out 21:13 – Why commerce platforms become the orchestration layer for AI/NLP 24:37 – If you had $100K for AI: where to spend it  27:27 – Prisoner’s dilemma: agentic shopping and the disintermediation trap 34:53 – Agentic commerce predictions for B2B  40:30 – Are people replacing Google with LLMs?

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