E703 SCALING ECOMMERCE OPERATIONS FROM GROCERY CHAOS TO GLOBAL DOMINATION | MARAT BOLATOV - NATIVE COMMERCE | THE ECOMMERCE EDGE Podcast

Show Notes In this episode of THE ECOMMERCE EDGE, Jason Greenwood sits down with Marat Bolatov, co-founder of Native Commerce. Marat shares his wild journey from musician to eCommerce veteran (Rocket Internet, Zalando, Lazada, AliExpress), building a $150M quick commerce startup, and now creating Native Commerce - a powerful operations platform tackling the hardest parts of scaling eCommerce. They dive deep into why grocery is the ultimate test for retail tech, the massive gaps in order routing & inventory, why most stacks fail at scale, and how AI is transforming everything from warehouse picking to building entire eCommerce businesses. A must-listen for founders, operators, and anyone serious about scaling beyond Shopify-level chaos. Guest: Marat Bolatov Platform: Native Commerce - https://thenativecommerce.com Timestamps [0:00:00] - Welcome Marat Bolatov & London weather chat [0:01:30] - Marat's origin story: musician to Rocket Internet eCommerce empire [0:03:45] - Building Jiffy Grocery to $150M valuation and quick commerce realities [0:06:30] - Why grocery is the hardest (and best) vertical to master in eCommerce [0:11:45] - Fashion vs grocery complexity and multi-industry lessons [0:14:30] - Why early eCommerce favored high-margin categories like fashion [0:17:30] - Order management, routing, and ship-from-store challenges [0:20:45] - The deadly cost of stockouts and poor inventory visibility [0:23:00] - Why most Shopify + NetSuite + WMS stacks become Frankenstein monsters [0:26:30] - Native Commerce: Not just software — full operational execution [0:31:15] - Small operational tweaks that deliver massive impact [0:34:30] - Making complex systems simple enough for non-technical teams [0:39:00] - AI & MCP revolution in eCommerce operations and administration [0:43:45] - How clients are already building custom dashboards with AI [0:48:00] - Vision for an AI eCommerce Studio — business in a box [0:52:45] - Uberization of eCommerce and removing operational barriers [0:54:30] - One thing Marat would change: eliminate cross-border taxes [0:55:30] - Death of old-school green screen ERPs [0:56:00] - Marat's question for Jason: What does peak eCommerce operations look like? [0:57:45] - Jason on billion-dollar companies still running on spreadsheets [1:01:30] - Closing thoughts and how to connect with Marat