Alexander Ringsdorff

Reunion at ShopAgentic

Alexander — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 11:28:42 +0000

I’m beyond excited to announce a reunion that’s been years in the making:

Kai-Thomas Krause is joining me as Co-Founder of ShopAgentic, the Agentic Commerce System! Kai and I actually started working together way back in 2010, when we were responsible for major Magento launches at Visions new media GmbH across Europe. From there, we co-founded CouchCommerce GmbH, which had a successful exit, and then, together with Stephan Schambach and an amazing team, we co-founded NewStore. After a few years on different paths, Kai having brought his expertise to commercetools, we’re thrilled to be teaming up once more. This time, it’s an AI-first company, and I couldn’t be happier to have such a trusted partner on board.

Stay tuned, the best is yet to come with ShopAgentic!

Podcast: my startup story to date and more about NewStore and the future of retail stores

Alexander — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 12:36:55 +0000

I was recently invited to join Kelly and Dirk on their Commerce Tomorrow podcast as a guest to share my startup story and give more insights into what is happening to retail stores and brands in the US today.

We covered a lot of topics including building SaaS startups in retail technology, mPOS, clienteling, evolution and consumerization of store technology, mobile devices for store associates, technology trends at retailers and how commerce has changed over the last 15 years. I also gave an introduction into what NewStore is up to and how our platform powers stores and omnichannel as a service.

I had a great time with Kelly and Dirk on their podcast and I hope you enjoy listening to it:

Helping German Entrepreneurs to build successful US technology startups at VentureVilla Inc.

Alexander — Sun, 18 Feb 2018 17:29:06 +0000

I’d like to share some background on our recent launch of VentureVilla Inc. in Boston.

Nadine, Kai and I learned a lot during the last 12 years of founding, running, scaling and exiting startups. Especially our jointly founded startup CouchCommerce taught us a lot and continues (as NewStore) to be an exciting entrepreneurial journey between Germany and the US. We realized that it is really hard for German entrepreneurs to get access to good advice on how to build a company that is ready for growth in the US. This involves early steps like the right incorporation (Delaware Inc. and German GmbH), legal setup between German and US entities, IP rights and tax topics. Additionally finding the right people on both sides of the Atlantic and establishing a healthy remote work culture have proven to be challenges many startup entrepreneurs share who have similar ambitions.

During the last two years Nadine founded and ran the VentureVilla Accelerator in Hanover Germany for the local government owned investment fonds and successfully incubated an early stage startup ecosystem in our home town. Same as Nadine, Kai and I very much enjoyed mentoring and working with startup teams during this period. It has been a great pleasure to see how even a small network of experienced startup entrepreneurs occasionally acting as mentors can have such a positive effect on early stage teams.

However, the main challenges even for very promising startup teams from Germany continues to be attracting funding from professional and experienced business angels and venture capitalists. The reasons are diverse and I don’t want to dive into them at this point. But a path we recommend and more and more entrepreneurs from Germany try to take is to be become fundable in the US from day 1, even as a startup team with roots in Germany. This increases the likelihood of a successful outcome dramatically and reduces many risks down the road given that in a successful growth phase later in the life of the company the involvement of a US venture capitalist is anyhow very likely.

Taking this into account founding VentureVilla Inc. was the next logical step for us. Nadine is running VentureVilla on a daily basis as CEO while Kai and I are supporting the teams as mentors. We will try to share a lot of learnings so that these become accessible not only to the teams we work with but to all German entrepreneurs interested into this approach to startups.

To kick things off we are excited to support two amazing teams: Cruisewatch, Meta AI Cruise Search Engine & MachineLabs, GitHub for Machine Learning. We will keep you updated about their development and encourage you to have a look at their product.

Episode 11: Progressive Web Apps and what they mean for ecommerce

Alexander — Fri, 20 Jan 2017 11:21:43 +0000

This Week in eCommerce

In this episode Alex and Kai have a special guest – Pascal Precht (find him here on Twitter), who is a front end engineer and trainer and has long history with building sophisticated web applications. The three discuss in depth about the state of Progressive Web Apps, what they are capable of and what they still lack. Listening to this episode you get a nice overview of the topic and an idea, why this will matter to you in the future.

Progressive Web Apps Link List

General information in Progressive Web Apps on Google Developer – https://goo.gl/3tCLRI

General overview of Progressive Web Apps – https://goo.gl/6jfiqT

A Beginners Guide To Progressive Web Apps – https://goo.gl/phAQFC

Progressive Web Apps Pros and Cons – https://goo.gl/DW6tfr

Examples of Progressive Web Apps – https://pwa.rocks/

Checklist for Progressive Web Apps on Google Developer – https://goo.gl/dUY73Y

Tutorial for writing your first Progressive Web App –

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Episode 10: amazon go technology deep dive

Alexander — Mon, 12 Dec 2016 18:17:52 +0000

In this episode we did a deep dive into the technology used for Amazon Go!

This Week in eCommerce

In this weeks episode Alex and Kai take a deep dive into amazons latest viral news: amazon go. They look behind the curtain and discuss the technology behind it plus the impact it may has on the retail industry.

amazon go

amazons project website – http://amazon.com/go

Amazon Go – A 3D Approach To Create Great Customer Experiences – https://goo.gl/SO9eLN

Amazon just opened a grocery store without a checkout line – https://goo.gl/asfU3U

Amazon Go Will Not Kill Retail As We Know It – https://goo.gl/KA6woL

Amazon won’t shake up your neighborhood store anytime soon – https://goo.gl/Y7xXkn

Will Amazon Go replace jobs? ‘I don’t think we can stop it,’ author says – https://goo.gl/MHIk2S

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Episode 9: Drones vs. Droids in ecommerce delivery

Alexander — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 09:39:05 +0000

This Week in eCommerce

In this weeks episode Alex and Kai talk about the new delivery world for ecommerce – drones and droids. As the first companies are going into real world test runs, these options become more and more interesting for merchants. We take a deep dive and discuss what’s happening right now and how the future might look like.

Drones vs. Droids

Droids Not Drones Are the Future of E-Commerce Deliveries – http://goo.gl/2UESKv

Domino’s is now testing a drone delivery program that drops pizza from the heavens – http://goo.gl/4c7gCN

Domino’s introduces ‘Dom the Pizza Bot’ for Facebook Messenger – https://goo.gl/GBb0Ub

Amazon plans to start Drone Deliveries within 5 years “Somewhere in the World” – https://goo.gl/cQe3pi

Why We’re Still a Long Way Away From Drone Delivery for E-Commerce – https://goo.gl/CJJdl4

The Economics of Drone Delivery – http://goo.gl/WGBMhZ

See the Flirtey Drone in action – http://flirtey.com/#demo

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Episode 8: Pokemon Go in retail and ecommerce, Amazon’s Prime Day 2016 and Sephoras Pocket Contour Class

Alexander — Tue, 19 Jul 2016 08:24:25 +0000

This Week in eCommerce

In this weeks episode Alex and Kai talk about the Pokemon Go craziness and the implication it can have for retail owners and ecommerce. Also we make a short recap of Amazon’s Prime Day. The third topic is Sephora and it’s Pocket Contour Class.

Pokemon Go

Will Pokémon GO become a marketing platform for local businesses? – https://goo.gl/XpWL5I

Nintendo Shares Surge on Pokemon Go Juggernaut – http://goo.gl/sEv58Q

Retailers Scramble to Use Pokémon Go As Their Next Marketing Tool – http://goo.gl/G8gO3t

Why Retail-Minded Marketers Are Intrigued by Pokemon Go’s Forthcoming Ads – http://goo.gl/4kpXc2

Can Pokémon Go help brands catch consumers via sponsored locations? – http://goo.gl/PWHptd

Amazon’s Prime Day

Prime Day 2016 was Amazon’s biggest day ever – https://goo.gl/umjzwV

Amazon is using Prime Day discounts to entice Prime members to try newer Amazon services – https://goo.gl/Lf853h

Amazon Prime Day’s record sales pretty much guaranteed Prime Day 2017 – http://goo.gl/SaLxHG

Amazon Prime Day’s mobile…

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Episode 7: Amazons Echo grows (but only little in ecommerce) and robots deliver on the streets

Alexander — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 14:15:43 +0000

This Week in eCommerce

In this weeks episode Alex and Kai take a deeper dive into Amazon’s Alexa and how it works. We discuss what it already can do for ecommerce and what is missing. We also cover how to take first steps developing a skill for it. As closing topic we talk about delivery robots that will come to the streets of some major European cities this year.

Alexa and ecommerce

Amazon’s voice-activated assistant adds skills – https://goo.gl/PuuN8g

Alexa Skill Quick Start – https://goo.gl/6D7Mmt

Alexa Skill Testing Tool by Echosim.io – https://goo.gl/Sh0jOQ

Introducing the Internet of Voice Challenge with Hackster.io and Raspberry Pi – https://goo.gl/xE4Ojb

Alexa on Raspberry Pi – https://goo.gl/9iToq9

Robots deliver on the streets

Robots run routes for parcel and food deliveries in Europe – https://goo.gl/H2PGbc
Starships homepage – https://www.starship.xyz/
Metro Group tests delivery robots from starship technologies – https://goo.gl/KwUCPU

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Episode #6: Brexit and ecommerce, Oaklabs Magic Mirror @Rebecca Minkoff and Ralph Lauren and Zaras Self Checkout

Alexander — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 08:49:07 +0000

This Week in eCommerce

In this weeks episode Alex and Kai talk about the Brexit (aka the UK leaves the European Union) and the impact that can have on the ecommerce world. Also Oaklab made it to the news – the company behind the Magic Mirror from Rebecca Minkoff and Ralph Lauren flagship stores. And finally we discuss if the self checkout approach of Zara is likely to be successful.

Brexit and ecommerce

What would Brexit mean for the UK’s ecommerce economy? – http://goo.gl/527tFF

Brexit’s Implications for the Digital Economy – https://goo.gl/eazWVn

Wie der Brexit den Onlinehandel gefährdet – http://goo.gl/NOK6mk (German)

Schockstarre oder Chance? Der E-Commerce nach dem Brexit – http://goo.gl/v0IEan (German)

OAK Labs Magic Mirror @ Rebecca Minkoff and Ralph Lauren

Inside LA’s new, futuristic store — magic mirrors included – http://goo.gl/WFz7xv

Rebecca Minkoff’s Store Of The Future Will Blow Your Mind – http://goo.gl/rajH4o

Ralph Lauren, Oak Labs Debut Interactive Fitting Rooms – http://goo.gl/np6qwn

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Episode 5: Retail Automation, More on Payment and the Death of Apps

Alexander — Thu, 23 Jun 2016 16:27:33 +0000

This Week in eCommerce

In this episode Alex & Kai talk more about the the actual development of the payment landscape, especially Apple Pay in the web and Samsungs further rollout. The automation of retail and logistics is another interesting topic, as well as we discuss the possible death of the app (as we know it).

More on Payment

Apple Pay Is Coming to All Shopify Stores This Fall – https://goo.gl/zJCQdu

Shopify leads slew of retail partners implementing Apple Pay for Web – http://goo.gl/Vrsj3B

Apple takes on PayPal with Apple Pay on the web – https://goo.gl/94RVKl

Samsung Pay launches in Australia to take on “tap-and-go” credit cards – https://goo.gl/ZeKIrq

Facebook ups its ecommerce game by trialing payments for Pages – http://goo.gl/538O3b

PayPal advances mobile checkout convenience new One Touch log-in requirements – http://goo.gl/ZwrlbN

Retail Automation

Should Retail Brace For Workforce Automation? – http://goo.gl/nSPUkG

Wal-Mart’s drone at a distribution center highlights efficiency – https://goo.gl/DwrjZT

Are Robots Better…

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