Java is the dominant technology solution in retail. Out-of-the-box OpenJDK distributions can negatively impact e-commerce application performance and damage shopper experiences. A high-performance Java platform for retail improves application performance and saves on cloud costs.
The world’s top retail and e-commerce businesses look for every edge to provide better shopper experiences than their competitors, and their decisions impact their IT spending and technology choices. Java is the dominant underlying infrastructure used to build applications in retail, and performance can have a material impact on a retailer’s success.
Out-of-the box OpenJDK distributions can negatively impact e-commerce application performance and damage purchasing conversion rates, average order values, ad recommendations, and customer loyalty.
Speed matters in retail
Online shoppers are growing more sophisticated and demanding, and retailers must find ways to differentiate themselves.
| 57% of shoppers will abandon a site after waiting 3 seconds for a page to load |
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| Drip |
Retailers face growing fraud threats
More sophisticated instances of fraud compromise customer data, disrupt operations, and damage brand reputation. When fraud detection platforms experience pauses and slow performance, often due to standard OpenJDK, the risk of fraudulent activity rises, putting customers at risk.
| Global e-commerce losses to online payment fraud surpassed $44 billion in 2024 |
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| Statista |
Social selling relies on Java
Price-conscious consumers require retailers to quickly adapt their offerings and marketing strategies and expand into social commerce. In 2025, sales through social networks account for an estimated 17% of total global online sales and are expected to continue growing in the coming years. [Statista]
| The global social commerce market grossed $688 billion in 2024 |
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| Chainstoreage |
AI requires a high-performance Java platform
Controlling spiraling cloud spend is challenging given the growing compute needed to run AI-powered customer click stream analysis/recommendation engines using ML/Big Data analytics with open-source Apache frameworks, while maintaining site stability.
| The retail market is expected to increase its use of AI at a CAGR of 23.0% from 2025 to 2030, powered by frameworks like Apache Spark and reaching $40.74 billion by 2030 |
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| Grand View Research |
High-performance Java reduces cloud costs
Right-sizing and autoscaling instances are important functions for reducing cloud costs. Moving applications to the cloud without implementing cost optimization best practices can be a mistake. To optimize costs, organizations must continuously monitor and adjust resources, taking full advantage of the cloud’s dynamic capabilities.
| Workload optimization is the top priority for 50% of FinOps practitioners |
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| FinOps.org |
Create a better shopping experience with Azul Platform Prime
Azul Platform Prime optimizes Java performance to enable retailers to build responsive, intelligent, and scalable systems that adapt to shopping behavior in real time.
By switching to Azul’s high-performance Java platform, retail and commerce platforms gain powerful advantages across AI, big data, and customer engagement use cases.
- Real-Time Personalization: Ultra-low latency ensures personalization engines respond in real time to changing customer behavior, from product recommendations on social platforms to individualized promotions during live shopping events.
- Optimizes Big Data Pipelines: Reduce resource overhead with advanced JIT compiler and memory management improvements enabling data ingestion, enrichment, and analysis to run faster and more efficiently.
- Consistent Performance: Ensure consistent, pause-free performance under unpredictable, high-volume traffic during flash sales, influencer promotions, or viral moments on social platforms with the C4 garbage collector.
- Intelligent Shopper Experiences: Rapid development and reliable performance of next-gen shopping features—like embedded marketplaces, third-party ad engines, and algorithmic merchandising across social ecosystem.
Read the new white paper, Unlock Retail Java Application Performance, and you will learn:
- How leading retailers are tackling economic uncertainty, rising fraud threats, while driving customer loyalty.
- Java’s critical role in powering high-performance, resilient, and personalized e-commerce applications — while optimizing cloud costs.
- How forward-thinking retailers are improving application speed, stability, and scalability.
