Open-source software is software anyone can download, change, and build on. For a merchant, that means your store can work the way your business does, you can control your total cost of ownership, and you can adopt new trends or opportunities as needed without waiting on a platform’s roadmap.

Commerce is moving quickly. AI is increasingly used for product discovery , and your products need to show up in new places. In the near future, it could be common for agents to shop for customers. Nobody can say what things will look like in 2030. But what’s already clear is which brands will be positioned for it: those who can build for whatever comes, without waiting for a vendor.

That’s why the next 5 years of commerce are being built on open source. Here’s how to decide if it’s right for you.

Making source code public means thousands of people can improve it, find problems in it, and build on top of it, instead of only the company that wrote it.…