Jared Shaner | B2B Online Chicago

B2B Online Chicago 2026

May 4 - 6, 2026

Chicago Marriott Downtown

Jared Shaner

Jared Shaner

VP of Strategic Commerce Zaelab

Jared Shaner is VP of Strategic Accounts at Zaelab, where he leads enterprise accounts for commerce and helps B2B manufacturers and distributors transform digital adoption into measurable business results. With 15+ years in B2B digital commerce and 100+ platform implementations across diverse industries, Jared has developed a unique expertise at the intersection of strategy and adoption. As (former) co-founder of Trellis (5x INC5000 recognition, acquired by Zaelab), he pioneered a "strategy and adoption first" philosophy—recognizing that platform success is determined not by technology, but by organizational readiness. Jared is an active member of the Young Entrepreneurs Council, an e-commerce ecosystem advisory board member, and regularly speaks on digital transformation, change management, and B2B commerce strategy.

Monday, May 4, 2026

10:30 AM Mastermind Roundtables (Manufacturers And Distributors Only)

Mastermind Roundtables are a wonderful way to continue to network and engage with your peers on a topic of your choosing. These interactive sessions allow you to find innovative digital and omni-channel solutions on the market in a relaxed setting. Each roundtable will have a specific theme for you to learn from. The Mastermind Roundtables at B2B Online are designed to foster intimate conversations around common hurdles. Come prepared to engage in small groups of 10-15 of your peers to discuss ways to re-strategize and overcome common roadblocks to success.

Table 1: Search is Upsetting Your Customers – How AI Powered Search Helps and Drives eCommerce Revenue Hosted by Jonathan Meyer, Senior Solutions Engineer, Hawksearch

Table 2: How are you building high‑performance, differentiated B2B buyer experiences in the era of AI and agentic commerce? Hosted by Corey Gelato, Sr. Business Advisor, Adobe

Table 3: Shopify Is Enterprise B2B Ready: Prove Me Wrong (?) Hosted by Jared Shaner — VP of Strategic Commerce & Aaron Brill – Director, Shopify Practice Lead, Zaelab

Table 4: Product Data Is Everyone's Problem & Nobody's Job. How Do We Fix That? Hosted by Justin Alvis - VP of Sales, Ntara

Table 5: Converging Demand and Retail Media: How to win in AI-driven discovery Hosted by Daniel Bharadwaj - Americas Region Head, FlipkartCommerceCloud

Table 6: From Months to Momentum: How B2B Manufacturers Are Killing the 18-Month Implementation – Hosted by Benjamin Woll, VP, Enterprise Commerce, Orium & Theresa Raczkowski, Solutions Engineer, commercetools

Table 7: From Fragmented to Unified: Aligning People, Platforms, and AI Agents to Power a Seamless B2B Buying Experience Hosted By Eric Rosado, Chief Product Officer, Kibo Software 

Table 8: Do More With Less (For Real): AI, Automation, and the New Marketing Operating Model - Hosted by Chris Shalchi, VP, Commerce - Altudo

Table 9: Why Your B2B Digital Experience Isn't Driving Revenue (And What to Fix First)Hosted by Brad Gerstein - Vice President, Experience Design, Tendo Communications

Table 10: From Search to Sale Reimagining the B2B Buying Journey with AI Hosted by Evan Burgess - Account Executive, AND Andrew Bartlett - Account Executive -  Rezolve Ai

Table 11: The Catalog Is the Asset: How Leading B2B Operators Are Turning Product Data into a P&L Lever - Jonah Santo, Head of Growth, Ekom.ai & Jon Rickets, Founder, CEO, Ekom.ai 

4:15 PM Presentation: Your New Platform Won't Save You: Why B2B Commerce Fails at the Org Chart, Not the Tech Stack

Your new commerce platform arrives with promises of growth, seamless integration, and competitive advantage. Six months later, adoption is flat, your sales team still email spreadsheets, and that $500K investment feels like an expensive PDF catalog.

Want the uncomfortable truth? The platform was never the problem. Your organizational culture was.

In this contrarian session, Jared Shaner — VP of Strategic Commerce at Zaelab — unpacks why 50–70% of B2B digital transformations underdeliver, and why it has almost nothing to do with technology. Drawing on a decade of experience helping 100+ manufacturers and distributors modernize how they sell and serve customers, Jared exposes the three organizational failure points that kill most commerce implementations before the first order is placed.

You'll learn how misaligned teams, outdated processes, and a technology-first mindset create a gap between platform capability and business reality. Pay attention: the companies that win stop obsessing over feature lists and start transforming through the customer lens.

Jared introduces the Commerce Readiness Score — a practical framework Zaelab built to measure whether your organization is as ready as your technology. After the session, you can diagnose where your business actually stands before writing your next RFP.

Walk away with:
- A diagnostic toolkit you can apply Monday morning to assess your organization's true readiness
- The hard conversation to have with your C-suite before selecting your next platform
- A reframe that might save your next replatforming initiative: the best commerce platform is the one your people actually use

Check out the incredible speaker line-up to see who will be joining Jared.

Download The Latest Agenda