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commercetools Introduces ‘Autonomous Commerce’ Category And Unveils Sphere Platform For The AI Era of Shopping

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commercetools declares ‘Autonomous Commerce’ the next major era in commerce in which AI systems make and execute operational decisions in real-time.Autonomous commerce systems sense signals, determine the right action, and carry it out, within rules and boundaries.commercetools Sphere provides the infrastructure for autonomous commerce, enabling enterprises to adopt AI-driven operations without rebuilding existing systems.Sphere already powers more than $100 billion in annualized GMV and is designed for AI workloads operating at machine speed.

BOSTON, June 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — commercetools, the company that pioneered headless commerce and helped define the MACH movement, today introduced Autonomous Commerce, the new category for the AI era where businesses drive commerce operations faster and at a greater scale through AI systems that operate independently in real-time.

AI is rapidly becoming an active participant in commerce, from making decisions, executing actions, and operating at a speed and scale unmatched by humans. While agentic shopping focuses on AI acting on behalf of customers, autonomous commerce extends AI across enterprise operations, enabling systems to make and execute decisions in real-time. Instead of waiting for human input, autonomous commerce systems sense signals, determine the right action, and carry it out across pricing, inventory or marketing, within rules and boundaries.

Autonomous commerce demands three things no enterprise can deliver today: a headless foundation exposing every product, price, and checkout as real-time APIs; intelligence that orchestrates agents across pricing, promotions, and fulfillment from one platform; and governance giving every agent an identity, a scope, and human approval where it counts.

“The commerce industry is entering its biggest transition since the shift from monolithic to headless commerce,” said Chief Executive Officer Doug McNary. “It spent the last decade optimizing websites and apps for humans. The next decade will be about building systems that can support both humans and AI agents acting autonomously on their behalf to drive conversion. That requires a flexible and agile infrastructure which commercetools has been preparing for.”

commercetools transformed the industry more than a decade ago by breaking commerce away from rigid, monolithic platforms and enabling API-first, headless architectures built for the web and mobile era. Since then, commercetools has helped enterprises adopt headless architectures, running unified commerce, and more recently, agentic commerce capabilities.

As part of the announcement, commercetools unveiled commercetools Sphere, an enterprise commerce platform that brings together commercetools’ AI-native infrastructure and agent governance into a unified platform designed to provide the headless foundation required for the autonomous era.

Sphere already powers over $100 billion in annualized GMV at under 60 milliseconds average response time and is primed for autonomous workloads where AI agents act at machine speed.

Both headless and API-first, it will host the commerce modules including carts, orders, checkout, catalog, inventory, search, promotions and customer management. It also provides the secure entry point through which any AI agent, from commercetools, third parties or customers, can access commerce APIs, while enterprises retain full control over the guardrails – the permissions, policies and limits – that govern what every agent is allowed to do.

While AI is already increasingly participating in shopping by discovering products, comparing options, making decisions and transacting on behalf of customers, commercetools believes commerce is entering another major transition where agents will increasingly execute and optimize commerce operations autonomously rather than simply assist them. A recent Gartner study found that 80% of chief executives expect AI will force operational overhauls to their business from digital to autonomous.

“When we launched commercetools, we believed commerce should be flexible, headless and built for constant change. That philosophy matters even more in a world where AI agents become active participants in commerce itself,” said Founder and Chief Innovation Officer Dirk Hoerig. “Autonomous Commerce is not a feature. It is the next category of commerce. The companies that succeed will be the ones whose systems can act autonomously and react to market changes in seconds.”

Sphere will enable enterprises to integrate autonomous commerce throughout their operations, including:

Pricing: Dynamic pricing agents will monitor competitor prices, demand velocity, stock levels and margin targets simultaneously, adjusting prices in real time, protecting margin on low-stock items and staying competitive on high-intent categories, without a single manual rule update.Inventory and Reordering: Autonomous inventory agents forecast demand using real-time and historical signals, and automatically trigger replenishment orders when thresholds are met.Campaigns and Promotions: Autonomous agents will select the audience, set the discount parameters and launch across channels automatically, measuring performance and adjusting in real time, based on an initial goal set by marketers.Personalization at scale: Autonomous personalization engines adapt storefronts, product sequencing and promotional content for each visitor based on live behavioral signals.Fulfillment routing: Autonomous fulfillment agents select the optimal warehouse, carrier and route for each order in real time, factoring in stock location, delivery SLAs, cost and current carrier performance. They reroute automatically when a disruption occurs.B2B Procurement and Reordering: Autonomous agents manage routine procurement including monitoring contract terms, validating compliance, placing reorders against approved supplier lists and escalating only when decisions fall outside defined parameters.

commercetools will formally unveil its Autonomous Commerce vision during Shoptalk Europe (June 9-11) at Stall M30. This will include a preview of MosAIc, the first-ever autonomous commerce operations tool built for enterprises. It will enable multi-agent orchestration across pricing, promotions and fulfillment based on desired business outcomes.

About commercetools

For global enterprises, commercetools provides the leading commerce platform, delivering unmatched revenue growth and performance. Built on a headless, API-first foundation, our modular and scalable technology brings together the intelligence and orchestration to power agentic shopping and autonomous operations — with the governance enterprises need to run agents with confidence.

By removing the constraints of legacy systems, commercetools enables enterprises to respond to changing business needs quickly — realizing new opportunities faster, meeting the evolving demands of their customers, and expanding across offline and online channels, regions, brands, and business models without compromise.

Media Contact: comms@commercetools.com

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SOURCE commercetools

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Cheers to One Million! Broadway.com’s Instagram Hits a Milestone

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NEW YORK, Oct. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — A celebration is in order! Broadway.com’s Instagram account has hit a milestone one million followers.

For over a decade, Broadway.com has offered exclusive access to Broadway’s hottest shows and iconic stars via Instagram. Followers have been invited along to starry opening nights, glamorous red carpets and exciting one-night-only events. We’ve shared gorgeous portraits, introduced Broadway newcomers, celebrated screen stars taking to the stage and given tastes of exciting interviews. There have been curtain calls and exclusive performances, backstage visits and sneak peeks into rehearsal. Need to keep up with breaking news? We’ve got that too! If it’s happening, rest assured, Broadway.com is there, and will continue to celebrate the Broadway community for years to come.

If you’re one of the million, thanks for choosing to have us on your feed! If not, what are you waiting for? Join in on the fun!

CONTACT:
Andrew Mitchell
media@cambridgeglobal.com

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SOURCE Broadway.com

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Vusion Completes Acquisition of In-Store Media, Opening a New Chapter for Digital Retail Media in Physical Stores

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Vusion and ISM combine connected store technology and retail media expertise to unlock the untapped advertising potential of physical stores

PARIS, Oct. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Vusion (VU – FR0010282822), the global leader in AI-powered digitalization solutions for physical commerce, today announces the completion of its acquisition of In-Store Media (ISM), following the agreement announced on July 27, 2026 and the satisfaction of all conditions precedent, including the receipt of the required regulatory approvals. 

The acquisition is financed through a bridge financing facility with total commitments of €200 million, an initial maturity of 12 months and two six-month extension options.

Headquartered in Barcelona, ISM brings deep expertise in designing, deploying and monetizing in-store retail media networks, long-standing relationships with 90 retail banners and more than 1,600 brands, as well as a strong international track record in 9 countries across EMEA, Americas and APAC.

This acquisition strengthens retail media as a core pillar of Vusion’s connected store platform. Despite their significant shopper traffic and proximity to purchasing decisions, physical stores remain an underdeveloped retail media channel, capturing less than 3% of retail media spending. Unlocking this opportunity requires combining retail media expertise with the digital capabilities to understand audiences, activate relevant content and demonstrate campaign performance.

Together, Vusion and ISM aim to help retailers and brands better understand in-store audiences, deliver more relevant content and adapt campaigns in real time. By making in-store media easier to integrate into brands’ omnichannel campaigns and its impact on sales easier to measure, the combination will help brands invest with greater confidence and retailers generate more revenue from their media networks.

“We are delighted to welcome the In-Store Media teams to Vusion,” said Thierry Gadou, Chairman and CEO of Vusion. “We share the same vision that physical stores will be the next great digital media. Together, we now have an exceptional opportunity to bring that vision to life, combining our cutting-edge connected store platform and ISM’s retail media expertise to create lasting value for retailers, brands and shoppers.”

“Joining Vusion is a tremendous opportunity for our teams and customers,” said Fernando de Vicente, CEO of In-Store Media. “We have built our business through close partnerships with retailers and brands, and a deep understanding of how to make in-store media work. We look forward to leveraging those foundations with Vusion, accelerating our digitalization, and expanding what we can achieve together.”

In-Store Media to participate in Vusion’s Capital Markets Day

ISM will participate in Vusion’s Capital Markets Day in Paris on November 18, 2026. The event will provide an opportunity to share more about the role of in-store digital retail media in Vusion’s medium-term strategic plan and the growth opportunities created by this acquisition.

About In-Store Media

The Spanish multinational, founded in 1998, is today a global benchmark in the development of Retail Media advertising solutions. Present in 9 countries across Europe, Latin America and Asia, it works with more than 90 retailers and maintains partnerships with over 1,600 brands. It covers hypermarkets, supermarkets, shopping centres, department stores and specialty stores in Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Poland, Mexico, Argentina, Chile and the Philippines.

About Vusion

Vusion is the global leader in AI-powered digitalization solutions for physical commerce, serving over 350 major retail groups in the world. www.vusion.com

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Abel Communications CEO Greg Abel Named President of Newly Formed Public Relations Society of America Maryland Chesapeake Chapter

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Merger of two regional public relations chapters creates new opportunities for professional development and industry connection across Maryland

BALTIMORE, Oct. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Abel Communications announced today that CEO and founder Greg Abel will serve as President of the newly formed Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Maryland Chesapeake chapter, helping lead an expanded network of public relations and communications professionals across the Baltimore region.

The PRSA Maryland Chesapeake chapter brings together the PRSA’s Maryland and Central Chesapeake chapters following a merger approved by both chapters’ members and boards, as well as PRSA’s national leadership. Effective immediately, the merger will support broader professional engagement across Maryland, with a strategic focus on the Greater Baltimore region.

“This is an exciting day and the culmination of a great deal of behind-the-scenes work by leaders who are committed to promoting and supporting the public relations profession,” said Greg Abel, CEO and founder of Abel Communications. “By combining our energy, talent, and networks, the PRSA Maryland Chesapeake chapter is committed to delivering high-quality and consistent programming for our members.”

As President, Abel will work alongside a board representing public relations agencies, higher education, public media, philanthropy, and advocacy organizations. This board aims to strengthen the chapter’s programming and create more opportunities for members to learn, build relationships, and contribute to the public relations profession.

Beginning in the fourth quarter of 2026, the PRSA Maryland Chesapeake chapter plans to offer monthly virtual learning sessions with industry thought leaders, monthly in-person coffee meetups at member locations, and visits every other month to local news organizations and other organizations making news.

PRSA and Public Relations Student Society of America members are invited to help shape the chapter through its Communications, Programming & Professional Development, and Membership & Engagement committees. Those interested in joining or volunteering can learn more by visiting https://prsamd.org.

About Abel Communications
Abel Communications is a full-service public relations firm, delivering strategic communications programs for regional and national clients in sectors including health and wellness, professional services, and local, national, and global brands. The firm provides strategic counsel to help clients navigate the intersection of media relations, content development, social media, and digital strategy.

About the PRSA Maryland Chesapeake Chapter
The PRSA Maryland Chesapeake Chapter is the premier professional organization serving strategic communication, public relations and marketing professionals across Maryland. Formed through the union of two established regional chapters, PRSA Maryland Chesapeake fosters lifelong learning, ethical standard-setting and collaborative connection through programming, professional development and industry leadership.

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SOURCE ABEL COMMUNICATIONS

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