What AI has not replaced in e-commerce agencies
In 2025, anyone can create a website. Or almost anyone.
Powerful templates, generative AI, no-code CMS, automated SEO assistants… The digital merchant has never had so many tools at his fingertips. And yet, in this over-solicited landscape, another reality is emerging: complexity has not disappeared. It has just changed shape.
And that’s where agencies are finding their role more than ever.
1.People no longer come to an agency ‘to build a site’.
This is one of the most persistent misunderstandings. In 2025, technical production is no longer an inaccessible luxury. A resourceful merchant can very easily :
- Generate their first content using AI
- Connect their tools via Zapier or Make
- Launch a Shopify or PrestaShop shop using optimised templates
- Create an automated e-mailing strategy
In short, many people can do ‘something’.
But doing better than something, structuring solid growth, orchestrating a fluid path between tools, channels and teams – that’s another matter.
Even Google recognises this in its research on multi-channel journeys:
‘The user experience is now defined by the consistency of services, not their quantity.’
What agencies really bring to the table: strategic clarity
In a context where solutions abound, the real role of an agency is no longer to add technical layers. It’s about creating a link.
Let’s take a concrete example.
You’re on Shopify in D2C. You use Klaviyo for your emails, Gorgias for after-sales service, Meta Ads for acquisition, and a parallel ERP for logistics.
Who manages what? What data comes back? Where are the gaps?
The agency becomes the external brain that makes it possible to :
- Map the customer’s ecosystem
- Identify critical duplications or gaps
- Prioritise projects according to maturity
- And orchestrate solutions (technical, human or partner)
C’est exactement la logique portée par le hub de compétences chez 202 e-commerce :
Connecting the right people, at the right time, around real business issues.
3. A consultancy approach reinforced by experience in the field
The merchants we work with have often already gone through several stages of digital growth. They don’t expect us to ‘build them a site’. They expect us to help them arbitrate, choose, sequence, and sometimes even… do nothing.
Because that’s what real advice is all about:
- Saying no to premature redesign
- Advise against over-dimensioned integration
- Prioritise better use of existing tools
- Redirect to a more suitable business partner than the agency itself
AI cannot offer this level of perspective, this cross-disciplinary viewpoint, on its own. It has neither the market knowledge, nor the political understanding of a project, nor the intuition for timing.
4. AI has simplified certain tasks… but made the whole thing more demanding
The illusion of a plug & play ecosystem is misleading. In reality, AI has eliminated the simplest tasks (texts, images, mock-ups), but has increased the density of management.
According to a Forrester study (2024), multi-channel merchants who integrate more than 6 different tools without a unified strategy see their operating costs soar by an average of +38%.
The promise of poorly managed automation becomes a scalability trap.
And as Gartner, points out, modern architectures (composable, distributed) require more governance, not less.
5. What we do at 202
We’re not looking to become the biggest technical agency.
Our ambition is to be a clear-sighted, adaptable partner. To understand the situation, the need and the right level of action. For us, this translates into a clear stance:
- Sometimes, we develop.
- Sometimes we configure it.
- Sometimes, we change direction.
- And we often connect the right people.
Conclusion
AI has not replaced us.
It has pushed us to evolve.
To stop doing for the sake of doing.
But to do better.
And sometimes, not to.
In this new world of e-commerce, the real luxury is knowing what not to connect.
And that’s where the role of a clear-sighted, independent and strategically positioned agency is more useful than ever.