Ecommerce Expo 2025
This year, team true arrived at Ecommerce Expo with a bang. We worked the floor, hosted a talk on The Future of Digital Commerce stage, and attended some incredible sessions.
Ecomm Expo 2025, Excel, London.
Miss some of the key discussions at the expo? Here are true’s takeouts from some of the top sessions across the two days.
We recently returned from Ecomm Expo after a very busy couple of days running our stand and speaking on The Future of Digital Commerce Stage. The team attended several sessions, and there was no shortage of insights! From email strategy to AI content, and from site navigation to organisational trends, here’s our round-up of some of our favourite talks.
Title: The Fast-Track School of Email Marketing
Speaker: Frank Brooks, Head of Marketing, Dotdigital
Frank’s session on email marketing boiled down to one simple truth: your audience decides in seconds whether your email is worth their attention. His memorable top tips were:
1. Lead with your best content and show it "above the fold". People rarely scroll. Put your most compelling offer or image above the fold. “You’ve got about eight seconds to earn a click - don’t waste it with a bland header,” Frank said.
2. Relevance is the new deliverability factor. Email filters are smarter than ever. If opens and clicks are falling, it’s not just performance - your emails may literally be getting flagged as spam. Read your delivery reports regularly and rectify issues.
3. Segmentation isn’t optional. Batch-and-blast emails aren’t good enough anymore. Group your audiences - whether by lifecycle, behaviour, or demographics - and tailor messaging accordingly. This personalisation is the key differentiator that turns emails into drivers of repeat customers.
Title: UK Media Consumption and the Response to AI-Driven Content
Speaker: Will Ulstein, CEO UK – YouGov
AI content is everywhere, but the UK audience remains sceptical. In this session, Will shed some light on how to beat the algorithms by doing things differently. He explained that:
1. The UK is more worried than most countries about the rise of AI content. Only 13% of us feel ‘excited’ or ‘optimistic’, whilst 40% are ‘concerned’ or ‘uneasy’. That puts us a long way behind Eastern markets (UAE, India, and Singapore), which are much more positive. The unease comes from concerns about misinformation, deepfakes, but also a more general lack of human touch in content creation.
So, whilst using AI-generated content might help a brand appear innovative to a small number of early adopters, marketers should be cautious about using it for communications aimed at a mainstream audience.
2. There’s a big generational divide in attitudes, with younger audiences feeling far more comfortable with AI content in brand marketing. More than 30% of Gen Z feel comfortable with AI content being used, with only 11% or fewer within the Baby Boomer generation feeling the same way. Marketers should tailor their approach to their target audience: youth-oriented brands should start to explore AI content, but brands with older audiences should consider waiting.
3. Disclosure is key. Even 86% of Gen Z say it’s important that AI-generated content is labelled as such, a feeling that rises to 92% among Baby Boomers. Marketers should make sure AI content is always labelled, or risk damaging credibility and trust among audiences.
Title: Delivering Enterprise Commerce Simply: Bringing Multiple Brands Under One Roof.
Speakers: true
This case study explored balancing traditional ecommerce journeys with highly customised, bespoke products. Our top takeaways:
1. Use a flexible, scalable platform for multi-brand commerce
The project focused on consolidating multiple brands into a single enterprise commerce platform. This required handling complex product configurations, diverse user needs, and seamless brand integration - all while ensuring scalability, security, and future-proofing with composable DXP and headless architecture.
2. A user-centric experience drives adoption
A major emphasis was placed on creating intuitive user journeys across wholesale and made-to-measure channels. The team demonstrated how simplified navigation, smart search, product filtering, configuration guidance, and cross-sell opportunities aimed to increase usability, loyalty, and conversion.
3. The importance of building measurable business impact
Results showed strong performance in wholesale compared to more mixed outcomes in the made-to-measure channel. For brands, this highlighted the importance of continuous iteration, audience-specific strategies, and aligning UX improvements with revenue and loyalty goals.
If you'd like to find out more about this project, drop us a quick message here.
Title: How Do Customers Navigate Ecommerce Sites?
Speaker: Andy Mulcahy, Strategy & Insight Director, IMRG
Andy’s talk explored best practices in site navigation and user journeys, highlighting trends in drop-offs, conversions, and checkout behaviour. The top insights we took away were:
1. Product pages are the make-or-break point – with 43% of users dropping off here, optimising content, images, CTAs, and trust signals is critical to reduce abandonment.
2. Search drives high-intent conversions – since users who search are more likely to buy, investing in smarter, more intuitive site search can significantly lift revenue.
3. Focus on key conversion drivers – prioritise the homepage, product pages, and checkout simplification, while recognising that most users don’t scroll fully, so key information should appear above the fold - only 16% scroll all the way down a page.
Title: Rebuilding an Icon- Inside Topshop’s Global Comeback Strategy
Speaker: Moses Rashid, Global Marketing Director
Topshop is making a comeback! Moses’s session unpacked how Topshop is being rebuilt into a global icon, balancing authenticity with bold, culture-shaping campaigns. Returning to the basics of brand values, combined with rapid execution and fearless risk-taking, has formed the backbone of Topshop's comeback strategy. The highlights:
1. Stay true to your brand values – In this instance, choosing the right ambassador (Cara Delevingne) who understands and is totally aligned with the values of Topshop, and who brings authenticity and consistency across their touchpoints.
2. Action, Action, Action – launch campaigns quickly, test, gather feedback, and optimise. Keep the feedback loop constant and continuous.
3. Think bold, take risks – daring moves like shutting central London down for the day to activate Topshop’s Trafalgar Square runway show prove that standout ideas can redefine a brand and create cultural moments.
The Round-Up
Ecomm Expo 2025 highlighted the pace of change in digital commerce. From personalisation in email marketing, the cautious yet strategic use of AI content, to multi-brand commerce platforms and optimised user journeys, the leading thought from the day was to really understand your audience, act decisively, and take bold, thoughtful risks.
Whether you're rebuilding a brand like Topshop or refining an ecommerce site, it feels like a genuinely exciting time for ecommerce, with tonnes to play for in creating transformative digital experiences that build brands and keep customers returning.
Do you have an ecommerce challenge? We'd love to talk - drop us a line today.
