Q&A: Jon Cleaver, Chief Technology Officer at SportsShoes.com
Content based on the recording of Commerce Live EMEA, London, April 16th 2026
Technology is changing retail at a rapid pace, but successful transformation isn’t about adopting every new innovation. It’s about making the right investments to improve the customer experience while building a business that’s ready for the future.
Jon Cleaver, chief technology officer at SportsShoes.com, has spent more than 20 years leading technology transformation across retail and ecommerce. Today, he leads the online retailer’s technology strategy, helping shape the systems, processes and innovations that support the next phase of the business’s growth.
“You don’t really know how customers are going to interact with new technology until you put it in front of them. That’s why we test, learn and refine,” shared Cleaver.
In this conversation from Commerce Live EMEA 2026 in London, Jon shares his perspective on the future of retail, the lessons learnt from SportShoes.com’s digital transformation and why building the right technology foundations is key to long-term success.
Can you tell us a bit about your background?
I’ve spent more than 20 years working in retail technology, leading digital transformation programmes across a range of businesses. A lot of that time has been spent helping organisations move away from legacy systems and build technology that’s better equipped for the future.
I joined SportsShoes.com four years ago as chief technology officer. Since then, we’ve been on a significant transformation journey, modernising our ecommerce platform with a composable architecture and now turning our attention to the systems behind the scenes.
One thing I’ve learnt throughout my career is that successful transformation is as much about people as it is about technology. You can have the best platform in the world, but unless you bring the business with you and solve real problems for customers and your teams, you’re never going to get the full value from it.
What does SportsShoes.com do and what’s your USP?
SportsShoes.com is an online running shoes, running clothing and outdoor gear retailer that stocks many of the world’s leading brands. As the business has grown, we’ve continued to invest in creating the best possible experience for customers, both online and in-store.
What makes us different is our specialist expertise and focus on helping customers make informed decisions. Whether someone is buying their first pair of running shoes or preparing for their next marathon, our goal is to make it as easy as possible for them to find the right products for their needs.
What’s special about your ecommerce platform and approach?
Our approach has always been to build the right foundations first. Moving to BigCommerce, part of Commerce, and adopting a composable architecture has given us a flexible technology platform that can evolve alongside the business. Rather than chasing every new trend, we’ve focused on creating an ecosystem that’s adaptable, scalable and ready for whatever comes next.
We’ve also learnt the value of experimentation. You don’t really know how customers are going to interact with new technology until you put it in front of them, so we test, learn and refine. That’s true whether we’re exploring AI, improving product discovery or looking at new ways to make better use of our product data.
Ultimately, our technology approach is about solving real problems. If a new capability helps us create a better experience for customers or gives the business greater flexibility to innovate, it’s worth investing in. If it doesn’t, we move on.
What advantage does it add?
The biggest advantage is flexibility. Moving to BigCommerce and adopting a composable architecture has given us a much more agile technology foundation. Instead of being constrained by legacy systems, we can introduce new capabilities more quickly, integrate best-of-breed solutions where they add value and respond faster to changing customer expectations.
We’ve already seen the commercial impact of that approach. Since modernising our ecommerce platform, we’ve achieved a significant increase in conversion, while giving ourselves the flexibility to continue evolving the customer experience. It also means we can experiment more confidently, testing new technologies and refining them based on real customer behaviour rather than making assumptions.
Perhaps most importantly, we’ve built a platform that’s ready for what’s next. Whether it’s AI, improving product discovery or preparing our product data for future developments like agentic commerce, we now have the foundations in place to evolve without having to start from scratch every time the industry changes.
What did the implementation process look like, and how do you measure success?
One of the biggest lessons is that successful implementation is just as much about people as it is about technology. You’re asking teams to adopt new ways of working, so bringing everyone on that journey is critical. Getting buy-in across the business and helping people understand why you’re making those changes is every bit as important as the technology itself.
When it comes to measuring success, we always start with the customer. Commercial metrics like conversion are obviously important, and we’ve seen a 50% increase in conversion since modernising our ecommerce platform. But we also look at how quickly we can introduce new capabilities, respond to customer feedback and continue improving the experience over time. Success isn’t a one-off milestone. It’s creating a platform that allows us to keep moving forward.
How can retailers use technology to gain a competitive advantage, and what does best practice look like? Can you share an example from SportsShoes.com?
I think the biggest competitive advantage comes from understanding how your customers actually shop. It’s easy to get distracted by the latest technology, but if it doesn’t improve the customer experience or solve a genuine business problem, it’s probably not the right investment.
One of the most valuable things we’ve done at SportsShoes.com is review our product data through the customer’s lens. By understanding how customers search for and discover products, we’ve been able to improve the way we structure our product data and make better-informed decisions about where to invest. That’s also one of the reasons we implemented Feedonomics. As AI and technologies like agentic commerce continue to evolve, having accurate, well-structured product data will become even more important.
For me, best practice is about being prepared to experiment. We’ve been testing AI-powered product discovery and analysing how customers interact with it, because you don’t really know how people are going to use new technology until it’s in front of them. By testing, learning and refining, we’re able to make better decisions and continue improving the customer experience over time.
Are there other companies you partner with?
Absolutely. One of the benefits of moving to a composable architecture is that we’re able to work with specialist technology partners that are best suited to different parts of the business, rather than relying on a single platform to do everything. That gives us the flexibility to choose the right solution for each challenge and evolve our technology stack over time.
Alongside BigCommerce, we work with Feedonomics to strengthen our product data and Bloomreach to enhance product discovery, with each playing an important role in helping us deliver a better customer experience. The ability to integrate these technologies together has been a key part of our transformation.
For us, it’s less about any individual technology and more about building an ecosystem of partners that supports our long-term strategy. Retail is constantly evolving, so having the flexibility to adopt new technologies as the business grows is one of the biggest advantages of the approach we’ve taken.
What challenges are retailers facing in 2026, and how can they turn them into opportunities?
The biggest challenge is knowing where to focus. Technology is evolving incredibly quickly, but retailers can’t afford to invest in everything. The key is building the right foundations so you’re ready to adopt new innovations when they genuinely add value, rather than chasing every new trend.
For us, that starts with investing in a flexible technology platform, improving the quality of our product data and continuing to build a culture that’s open to change. High-quality data will become increasingly important as AI continues to evolve, while bringing people with you is essential if you want any transformation to succeed.
We’ll also continue listening to our customers. The best technology decisions come from understanding how people actually shop, testing new ideas and refining them over time. That’s how we’ll continue creating better customer experiences while preparing the business for whatever comes next.
What is on the horizon for SportsShoes.com?
Our focus is on continuing the transformation journey. We’ve made great progress modernising our ecommerce platform, and we’re now applying that same thinking across the rest of the business. It’s about creating a technology ecosystem that’s flexible, scalable and ready to support whatever comes next.
We’ll also continue exploring where AI can deliver genuine value. We’ve already seen some exciting opportunities, but we’ll keep taking a measured approach by testing new ideas, learning from our customers and investing where we can see a clear benefit. Technology will continue to evolve, but the fundamentals remain the same. If you understand your customers, invest in the right foundations and give yourself the flexibility to adapt, you’ll be in a much stronger position to take advantage of whatever comes next.
For us, that’s been the biggest lesson from our own transformation. Building a modern, composable technology stack has given us the freedom to keep innovating without having to reinvent everything each time the industry changes. We’ll continue to test, learn and evolve, because that’s what retail has always been about.
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