Orium and Gluo Launch Composable Commerce Center of Excellence

An initiative based in Mexico City will bolster the presence of composable commerce in Latin America and beyond.

Two of the most established companies in composable commerce in America have teamed up to launch a Center of Excellence in Composable Commerce in Mexico City.

Orium, based in Toronto, has invested in the initiative in collaboration with Gluo, which is headquartered in Mexico City.

Orium is the leading consultant and systems integrator in composable commerce for omnichannel retail in North America. Gluo specializes in developing products and digital experiences for the composable commerce market, including eCommerce websites, mobile apps, user interface/user experience design, and content management systems (CMS).

Jason Cottrell, founder and CEO of Orium, believes that the new Center of Excellence will strengthen both the composable commerce ecosystem and the partnership between the two companies.

"We see ourselves as sister firms serving in America. Our goal with the Center of Excellence is to build and expand a solid team of over 100 people, to serve major composable commerce providers like commercetools and BigCommerce in the Latin American region," said Cottrell.

The Center of Excellence gives Orium a greater presence in Latin America and more opportunities to tap into the rich talent pool of the region. Gluo will gain access to Orium's React.js accelerators for composable commerce, in addition to Orium's resource catalog for training and skill development.

Jaime De la Fuente, founder and CEO of Gluo, said this partnership will expand his company's reach in the North American market and enhance his team's knowledge base.

"Orium has experience in composable commerce in North America, which is a leading market in technology and cutting-edge digital commerce. Latin America may be a few years behind in that sense. Therefore, Gluo can leverage Orium's expertise to accelerate our offerings in Latin America and bring that experience to our projects in the region," said De la Fuente.

Shared Values

Although Toronto and Mexico City are separated by 4,000 kilometers on the map, Orium and Gluo already have a lot in common. Both have existing relationships with composable commerce solution providers like Algolia, commercetools, Contentful, BigCommerce, Elastic Path, Netlify, and Vercel. But Cottrell said the synergies between Orium and Gluo go even deeper.

"What caught my attention was that Jaime and the rest of the Gluo team really shared our vision that composable commerce is the next wave of commerce, the next horizon. There are also many similarities between our team cultures and the way we approach work. We are already working together on joint projects with clients, and that's what ultimately encouraged us to move forward with this," said Cottrell.

De la Fuente also emphasized the importance of culture at Gluo, which is celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year.

"Twenty years ago, technology was very different and we've been riding different waves of technologies. Riding all those waves over all these years, working through many challenges, receiving good feedback from our clients, and growing together, that's what I'm most proud of. It's our team and their ability to deliver," he said.

According to a 2022 research report, the e-commerce market in Mexico:

• was valued at $48.6 billion in 2021

• is the second largest in Latin America, after Brazil

• is expected to grow by 24% between 2021 and 2025

The report also notes that online retail sales now account for 15% of the total retail market in Latin America, more than double the 6% it stood at before the pandemic.