James Urbati joins UpStart Commerce to lead the company’s strategic vision, accelerate growth, and strengthen ecommerce offerings.
James Urbati is joining UpStart Commerce, an enterprise-focused commerce platform, as Chief Strategy Officer (CSO). This is the latest move in a set of strategic business decisions for the company that will include the expansion of its advisory board later this year. As CSO, Urbati will lead strategy and planning teams across all global offices, providing compelling direction that inspires innovation and helps shape the future for UpStart Commerce and its clients.
“We’re excited to welcome James Urbati as we continue to grow and mature our business,” says Gordon Cooke, UpStart Commerce CTO. “As UpStart continues to deliver value to the ecommerce space, I’m thrilled to welcome him to our executive team. After working together previously, I know his tireless push for innovation and his deep, strategic commerce market knowledge and expertise will help us drive continued success here at UpStart Commerce.”
Urbati’s approach to commerce is driven by more than a decade of managing design, implementation, hosting, and support of enterprise ecommerce clients including Aldo, Sony, Boeing, Burberry, Canon, Wiggle, Yankee Candle, Vera Bradley, Build-a-Bear, Sur La Table, Lululemon, and Micheal Kors. At UpStart Commerce, his short-term priorities include developing deeper “no-channel” commerce connections to consumer behavior, fueling growth, and continuing to foster UpStart’s culture of innovation.
“Digital commerce is at a turning point where new tools, skills, and capabilities are now required for success moving forward,’ Urbati said. “UpStart’s modern approach to commerce functionality and their ‘No-Channel Commerce’ concept drew me to them. They have a refreshing vision and the potential to make a real impact in the B2C space.”
Before joining UpStart, Urbati led the Commerce practices at Toronto-based Pivotree Inc. (TSXV: PVT) providing expertise to B2B and B2C customers across numerous verticals and supported platforms including Oracle Commerce, SAP Commerce Cloud, Magento, VTEX, and ElasticPath. He helped Pivotree embrace modern tech approaches and led them to MACH Alliance certification in 2022.
