Vercel, a developer-tools and infrastructure company, is expanding its footprint in digital retail through its Next.js framework and v0 vibe-coding platform. Jaime Sorgente, Head of Retail at Vercel, discussed how the company's tools are reshaping storefront development in an interview with Retailgentic. Vercel powers major retail storefronts including (Retailgentic) walmart.com and target.com, and serves brands like Under Armour, Crocs, PetSmart, and DeWalt.
A Deloitte Digital and Google study cited in the interview found that (Retailgentic) 100 milliseconds of load-time reduction drives a 7–8% lift in e-commerce conversion. Helly Hansen, owned by Kontoor Brands, achieved concrete results on Vercel's infrastructure: (Retailgentic) the retailer cut load times from 2.5 to 1.5 seconds, grew conversion 20% year over year, doubled A/B test velocity, and exceeded its Black Friday/Cyber Monday targets. v0 is now (Retailgentic) deeply integrated with Shopify, enabling storefront customization in plain English.
Project timelines have compressed significantly: (Retailgentic) custom storefront projects planned for a year are landing in six months, and six-month plans in three. Vercel positions itself as a storefront layer atop commerce platforms rather than a Shopify competitor, focusing on developer tools, infrastructure, and open-source software. The company has also adapted Next.js 16 to be readable and manipulated by AI agents like Cursor and Claude, creating what Sorgente calls a new class of "agent customer."