In this special episode of the eCommerce MasterPlan Podcast, Chloe Thomas shares a panel discussion from a live webinar focused on one big question: what’s really going to move the needle for eCommerce brands in 2026?
Chloe is joined by three expert voices from very different corners of eCommerce – growth, consumer behaviour, and AI – to unpack what’s working, what’s not, and where brands should be focusing their time, energy, and budgets this year.
From TikTok growth and AI-powered customer experience to brand trust, tech stacks, and surviving economic pressure, this is a practical, wide-ranging conversation designed to help you grow smarter in 2026.
Key timestamps to dive straight in:
[04:51] “Future Advice for Brands”
[06:35] “Buying Decisions: Risk and Behavior”
[11:55] AI: Essential for Business Efficiency
[17:44] “Action-Driven Brands Drive Growth”
[27:32] Amazon’s Evolution & AI Branding
[30:09] Essential eCommerce Tools and Strategy
[39:12] AI for High-Quality SEO Content
[42:44] “Target Right Customers, Build Trust”
[46:29] Maximize ROI with AI Tools
[47:39] “Focus on Customers, Not Chaos”
Full episode notes here: https://ecmp.info/580
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[SPEAKER_03]: The only way to know what you should do for your business is going to come from deep knowledge of who your customers are, deep knowledge of the customer journey you take them on, and the data already within your business to show you what is working, what is not working and what you can cut to their channel more time and resources into what is working, and then building out from there.
[SPEAKER_02]: It’s the e-commerce master plan podcast.
[SPEAKER_02]: Here to help you solve your marketing problems and grow your e-commerce business.
[SPEAKER_02]: Cutting through the hinder to bring you inspiration and advice from the e-commerce sector and beyond, here’s your host, Chloe Thomas.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hello and welcome.
[SPEAKER_04]: It’s great to have you here.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you for hitting play and choosing to listen to one of our inspiring episodes.
[SPEAKER_04]: This year we are not bringing you one of our top tips from lots of experts for the year ahead episodes.
[SPEAKER_04]: There’s just too many reasons that aren’t that interesting to explain.
[SPEAKER_04]: So we’re going to ignore why we’re not doing that.
[SPEAKER_04]: But I couldn’t leave you without an episode all about how to be successful in 2026.
[SPEAKER_04]: So here it is.
[SPEAKER_04]: For our e-commerce tech brand, I got to host this webinar panel discussion all about what it’s going to take to succeed in 2026.
[SPEAKER_04]: I’m joined by three experts each with a very different take on it all.
[SPEAKER_04]: We’ve got Ashud Dooby from Alhina AI, bringing insights into all things customer experience, customer services, AI and more.
[SPEAKER_04]: We’ve got Sean Conway Wood from 181st Street
[SPEAKER_04]: And we’ve got Ian Sells who works with hundreds of D to C brands who are super focused on growth, growth, and more growth.
[SPEAKER_04]: We had a fascinating time discussing the big stories and answering the live audiences’ questions, so I know you’re going to get a ton out of this, especially if you are into.
[SPEAKER_04]: TikTok, efficiency, what else we talk about?
[SPEAKER_04]: We talked a lot about AI and AI tools and practical uses of AI.
[SPEAKER_04]: We talked a lot about understanding the customer and helping them to buy and dealing with all the challenges we’re facing.
[SPEAKER_04]: And there’s loads of great stuff in here basically, three awesome guests, great questions from the audience, what more can you ask for?
[SPEAKER_04]: So we’re going to kick off with the guests introducing themselves.
[SPEAKER_04]: So Ashley, welcome, great to have you here.
[SPEAKER_04]: Please let the audience know a little bit more about you and what you guys are up to.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey everyone, my name is Ashley Dubey and I’m the co-founder and see you at Alhina AI.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Alhina is an agentic commerce platform for brand selling online.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are very excited to be here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks, Chloe, for having me and the Alhina team.
[SPEAKER_01]: And excited to share what we are seeing on the ground.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I believe you spent last week at NRF.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was in NRF, yes, and the team at NRF, I’m happy to talk more about it, but it was a Gindick CX all the way, and a hybrid dive more into details of that, most of the vendors are still early.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, so faster, I imagine it was faster than AC walking around and saying where everyone was up to, but we may or we may not get into that, let’s see where the questions take us and where the audience takes us.
[SPEAKER_04]: Sean, great to have you here, please let everyone know a bit more about you and where you’re
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks, Chloe.
[SPEAKER_03]: Hi, everybody.
[SPEAKER_03]: My name is Sean Conwaywood, and the senior managing partner at 181st Street.
[SPEAKER_03]: We are a behavioral growth consultancy.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we’re a bit of a hybrid between a business consultancy and a marketing agency.
[SPEAKER_03]: And my specialism is growing the commercial side of brands through really deep understanding of human behavior and consumer psychology.
[SPEAKER_03]: So behavioral science.
[SPEAKER_03]: Marvellous and Ian.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, y’all my name’s Ian Cells, I’m actually usually from San Diego, but currently in Japan right now, where it’s one o’clock in the morning, but yeah, I founded a company called Million Dollar Sellers MDS, and it is a global network of over 700 plus multimillion dollar e-commerce brand owners.
[SPEAKER_00]: We host local meetups and get together as a masterminds all around the world through massive events.
[SPEAKER_00]: been around for about almost 10 years now and then also joined brands is my other company where we bring together brands and help them work with influencers, affiliates and creators, on large scales with companies like Mary Ruth Organics and Bloom Nutrition and some of the other big companies like that.
[SPEAKER_04]: So everyone, I did tell you we had a brilliant panel for you today.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I see we’ve already got one cracking question that’s coming in.
[SPEAKER_04]: So thank you for that, Ivan and I will make sure I asked that question definitely later on because it’s it’s one, it’s one panel.
[SPEAKER_04]: You may want to mull on this one a little bit before we get to it, but we’re going to start as we always so.
[SPEAKER_04]: So get more questions in, that’s what I want to tell you all.
[SPEAKER_04]: So what we like to do, or how I like to do.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I like to start off by posing some kind of complete the sentences or standard statements of mine for the panel to rip apart or complete in the case of this complete sentence.
[SPEAKER_04]: So this one is one.
[SPEAKER_04]: Which I just thought would be such a cool way for us to start off this and help us work out where we’re going to go with this.
[SPEAKER_04]: So the advice I’ve been giving most brands and merchants to help them be successful in 2026 is and Ian can I pick on you to be the first answer of this because I think you’ve your life is talking to brands about this kind of stuff so you seem like a good place to start.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, actually, well, the advice that we have really is that, you know, you should focus on the channels that are really coming up as fast as possible.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that would be TikTok right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: So TikTok is helping brands scale tremendously fast, faster than we’ve ever seen before through any other channel and organically, as well as pay that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So TikTok is a game changer when it comes to distribution of your message, distribution of your products.
[SPEAKER_00]: And actually, it inflates all the other channels that you’re doing business on.
[SPEAKER_04]: It does seem to deliver on every front.
[SPEAKER_04]: There’s the marketplace element, the influence of element, the creator element.
[SPEAKER_04]: You’ve got the affiliate element.
[SPEAKER_04]: You’ve got, you know, the organic and brand awareness and almost thought leadership side of it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Do you recommend deploying every element that TikTok gives you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Right now, mostly focused on products, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And affiliates.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, trying to push sales through TikTok, which translates to sales on TikTok and sales on other channels.
[SPEAKER_03]: I’m sure on what would you want to be to this one?
[SPEAKER_03]: So unsurprisingly mine’s going to be from a behavioral lens and the advice that I give most often is around preconceptions and our assumptions of how we buy.
[SPEAKER_03]: We all like to think that when we’re making buying decisions, when we’re engaging with advertising and brands and social content that we are these.
[SPEAKER_03]: Wonderful, higher beings with cognitive reason and you know that we’re especially in the advertising industry that we’re absorbing all of that great creativity.
[SPEAKER_03]: and actually it’s our reptile survival brain.
[SPEAKER_03]: We buy because we are reducing risk, we are ticking certain needs within us, and that may be things like social status and acceptability within the herd.
[SPEAKER_03]: It may be obviously if you look at my eyes hierarchy of needs, we buy food because we need to eat.
[SPEAKER_03]: then there is a layer about which brands we choose to do that from but actually that choice is all about that risk reduction, it’s all about meeting those needs and so much of it it’s done subconsciously.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we just have to let go of that desire to think that our audience really wants to
[SPEAKER_03]: all of our creativity and everything else they do, but they’re reacting to it in a different way.
[SPEAKER_03]: They’re not there with their really kind of rational critical brain switched on.
[SPEAKER_03]: They’re in what’s called system one, 90% of the time, which is the very first, very intuitive.
[SPEAKER_03]: This feels right.
[SPEAKER_03]: This doesn’t feel right.
[SPEAKER_03]: Subconscious, emotional reactions to things.
[SPEAKER_03]: And actually that’s where you want them to be because it’s much quicker.
[SPEAKER_03]: If system two comes online, which is the judge mental brain, and the brain that does the reasoning,
[SPEAKER_03]: nine times out of ten, they’re going to talk themselves out of purchasing anything, let alone from your brand.
[SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, that’s the bit that I end up repeating all the time.
[SPEAKER_04]: I love the answers so fun.
[SPEAKER_04]: I’m going to go to question from the audience then actually I will be asking you this one as well.
[SPEAKER_04]: But I love that kind of like, he’s giving us that that super practical what channels to use, et cetera, that we need to be doing.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then Sean’s kind of going, but you need to remember how the consumer’s thing, which of course to cut through all the noise on all the platforms is just so critical at the moment.
[SPEAKER_04]: So very cool.
[SPEAKER_04]: But we had a question that Ian, I’ve got to ask you this.
[SPEAKER_04]: This is we were just talking about TikTok.
[SPEAKER_04]: Let’s do this one from Gillian.
[SPEAKER_04]: Would you still recommend TikTok investment if TikTok shop is not available in your country?
[SPEAKER_04]: So is TikTok organic worth it if you can’t do the marketplace and the affiliates?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, if you can drive traffic to your, you know, Shopify store, things like that, you can definitely utilize TikTok.
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s not as good of a growth lever and it’s not as high volume as you get, right, it’s not just a channel where you’re going to have one posting that the brands are really successful and take thought for one’s posted a lot, right, and working with tons of creators all at one time.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can’t just dip your toe in, I would say, on TikTok, but you can run ad just like on meta, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So get a nice video that you want to use for showing emotion and why people should buy and how it solves your problems, right, and how it’s transformative, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And then use as an ad, driving traffic, or, you know, views to your website.
[SPEAKER_04]: nice, Jillian, hopefully that I don’t know why that wouldn’t answer your questions, so that was next and answer.
[SPEAKER_04]: I hope that’s answered your questions.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I said, Ashley, we would bring you back to this one here.
[SPEAKER_04]: So Ashley, what’s your take on this?
[SPEAKER_04]: What’s the advice you’re giving to brands and merchants for this year?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so obviously brands come to us for everything AI and my advice is related with AI and I advise them to think about AI from three different perspective one is you can use AI on defense meaning using AI to improve efficiencies cut costs.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it could be maybe you are using a lot of hours in updating your product page descriptions and you can use AI to automate some of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so you can drive a lot of efficiency.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that’s one.
[SPEAKER_01]: The second is using AI for offense, meaning driving top line, driving revenue.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there are two components to using AI to drive a revenue.
[SPEAKER_01]: One is discoverability, which is all the ways AU, how do you appear in chatchipity, Gemini, Proplexity.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the second is once the users are on your brand own properties, it can be your app or website.
[SPEAKER_01]: How are you converting them?
[SPEAKER_01]: are you leveraging AI to convert them?
[SPEAKER_01]: And we we obviously play in both of them have different strong results for brands like Unilever, Victoria Pekcom, which is a database plan and others.
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, so that’s the most common advice is you need to start playing with the AI and not be on the sidelines.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you are on the sidelines, you’re missing out big time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even if you didn’t find the perfect vendor, it makes sense to go ahead and start
[SPEAKER_01]: deploying even like in a crawl walk around approach because the learnings from that will help you later, but you cannot be on the sidelines.
[SPEAKER_04]: I love the way you split it into offensive and defensive.
[SPEAKER_04]: I don’t know if I’ve heard anyone talking about it in that way.
[SPEAKER_04]: And it’s just, is that big kind of slap around the face that most of us need of, it’s not just AI, it’s why you’re using it.
[SPEAKER_04]: The problem is you’re trying to solve it.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I, I love that.
[SPEAKER_04]: I’m Ian Sean, anything you’d, as we’re talking AI, anything you’d add in the AI, and I see you’ve just immediately omitted.
[SPEAKER_04]: So what’s your take?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I mean, I fully agree, you know, you need to be employing AI throughout your business to save money to become more efficient and also take advantage of, you know, what it can do for your business as far as like growth and new product research and understanding your customer and even ads and, you know, designs and videos that you can make with AI as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Definitely, I’m a big proponent.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that any, you know, futuristic CEO, a brand, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: A futuristic, but in today’s world has to actually have somewhat other team that actually is focused and also almost a developer that can actually run automations and set things up for the business.
[SPEAKER_00]: to be more efficient, because it is a time-consuming thing, so I see a lot of brand owners trying to do this themselves, and I always say, hey, you know, you can find a developer that you can bring on to your company to take all these automations and run these AI tools that can save you tons of money and grow you faster.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know what, one of the most surprising things I’ve found when it comes to AI is the the more top tier, more premium and brand is, the more open they’re to trying an AI, compared to the brands that are new and upcoming or maybe in the small to medium.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that can be perplexing because AI is supposed to, you know,
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, risk, there is, they’re supposed to be certain risks with AI and the premium brands have a lot to lose if they go wrong, but in my experience, they are way more forward than some of the brands that are in medium and small deer.
[SPEAKER_03]: I’m seeing that a lot we do a lot of work in luxury fashion and actually it’s the heritage brands, it’s the real kind of established legacy brands, the established luxury houses that are bringing it to the front of their business as well, you know, using AI models in their shoots and I know there’s a lot of fear and there’s a lot of worry and there’s a lot of talk about job displacement, that’s always going to happen when there’s new technology.
[SPEAKER_03]: my perspective on it is that it’s here, it’s going to stay.
[SPEAKER_03]: It’s going to be part of everything we do in our businesses and our lives in some way, shape or form.
[SPEAKER_03]: We have to get over the fear and the resistance of it and actually we’re starting to migrate out of because these heritage brands from an e-compspected, these heritage brands are the ones that are really leading the way.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like you said, we’re starting to get to the point where we’re moving out of early adoption.
[SPEAKER_03]: This becoming mainstream now and actually this for me this is the year that if you don’t really follow that advice that you’ve both just shared and really kind of go right how does this fit with our business where do we want it involved where don’t we want it involved and what’s that going to look like this is actually going to be the year I feel that there’s going to be that you know that gap widening that’s then not going to close it’s not necessarily where you and early adopter it’s now are you keeping up.
[SPEAKER_04]: So let’s dive into this AI bit.
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, we were going to end up talking about it sooner or later.
[SPEAKER_04]: So let’s dive into it for a few minutes.
[SPEAKER_04]: The thing, I find it fascinating that the heritage brands are in there because you would have thought they’d be the last ones to adopt it.
[SPEAKER_04]: But where does, I mean, is it, do we start on the defensive, do we start on the offensive?
[SPEAKER_04]: Is it about finding a good piece of tech that we can integrate to do things?
[SPEAKER_04]: Is it about just going straight to chat GPT and allowing the team to use that?
[SPEAKER_04]: Where do we,
[SPEAKER_04]: Where do we start?
[SPEAKER_04]: Where do we go to next?
[SPEAKER_04]: If we’ve been dabbling, but we now want to really see some results, happy for any of you to jump in on this, because I expect you’ve all got opinions.
[SPEAKER_04]: So whoever speaks for us can go further to the answer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, maybe I’ll go first as a practitioner of AI.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love for Yann and I’m starting to chime in.
[SPEAKER_01]: From a brand perspective, the lowest hanging fruit right now is customer support.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, in CX, you can deploy an AI.
[SPEAKER_01]: It’s very mainstream.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you’re not there, that’s the first place to start.
[SPEAKER_01]: It’s almost risk free, I would say.
[SPEAKER_01]: And once you deploy any sort of AI tool, there are certain things that come with it, meaning how to train an AI, how to prompt an AI, how to control the AI, how to make it speak like your brand.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so there are certain things that you learn, regardless of,
[SPEAKER_01]: how in what huge cases you’re going to use it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So start there, if you’re not.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you can start expanding from there, the adjacent huge cases.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, can you use AI just shopping assistant?
[SPEAKER_01]: Can you use AI as a product, FQ generator?
[SPEAKER_01]: And then on the merchant site as well, the brand efficiency site, can you use AI to generate more assets as saying for ads?
[SPEAKER_01]: And so then the huge cases will start expanding from there organically, and you will start having fun.
[SPEAKER_01]: or maybe on the CX side because that’s the more predominant and has been almost mainstream.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, so Ian, as she’s going for start with customer experience because you’ll learn, it will, it’s pretty low risk and then you can expand out from that.
[SPEAKER_04]: Where would you advise someone to go to next?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, I always go to growth, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So when I’m talking to brands, they always want to.
[SPEAKER_00]: How do I sell more products, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So figuring out how to use the AI to help them build new products to scale their ads up to come up with new ideas, quicker, and cheaper, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So that’s really where AI is coming into play.
[SPEAKER_00]: My platform helps you connect with real people that can deliver real,
[SPEAKER_00]: results and make purchases and influence other people and AI can also be used for developing videos and things the assets they can use as a business owner.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the reason why you’re seeing legacy brands moving quicker is because
[SPEAKER_00]: they have people and there’s businesses that can actually take on that role right away, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the brands that you see up and coming really fast and the ones that, you know, why are these brands moving so quickly and growing so fast is because they take action, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So there’s a big difference between brands who, you know, want to grow and should I sell here?
[SPEAKER_00]: Should I do this with that and then ones that, you know, just they go, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And they they put effort and time into a different market or marketplace and so
[SPEAKER_00]: ones that I see are doing this, they’re hiring people to run that particular division and scale it up in the growth sector, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Definitely customer service, you know, all of the tools they’re already using already have AI agents built into them, so they’re not really having to go, you know, create their own apps, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: You can just top and tap into, you know, intercom or, you know, from those other apps that people use with Shopify, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So I would take customer services really in easy one, but then it comes into product scaling, product element, I’m actually in a customer avatar, deeply and analyzing tons of data.
[SPEAKER_04]: Nice, I want to ask you so many questions about creative and advertising, but we’ll see what the audience wants a little later on.
[SPEAKER_04]: Sean, Ian, there was talking about, you know, getting to deeply understand the customer, is that where you would suggest people going next with AI?
[SPEAKER_04]: Or is there another angle you would recommend for this year?
[SPEAKER_03]: And surprisingly, yes, that’s the one obsessed with the psychology.
[SPEAKER_03]: I would say, you know, as a Grace consultancy, we are across so many different ways of deploying AI across all different industries.
[SPEAKER_03]: I have worked in tech for years before I…
[SPEAKER_03]: So I am an earlier doctor of things.
[SPEAKER_03]: I’m like, get it, give it a go.
[SPEAKER_03]: Where we’ve had a lot of success in our own business and with clients, the most successful clients that I’m seeing are the ones that are very logistics focused about it.
[SPEAKER_03]: It isn’t, like you said, isn’t just dabble the chat GPT here and there and just dip our toe in over here, dip it in over here.
[SPEAKER_03]: right we’re going to take this as a project we’re going to implement it on customer service first or on this first or on this first we’re going to get that right and then we’re going to deploy elsewhere and then you do learn the skills that may are transferable but it is when you’re giving dedicated resource to it and you’re being really focused from a consumer point of view.
[SPEAKER_03]: There’s a lot of fear with brands, especially around it being deployed creatively in Adaset, in content creation.
[SPEAKER_03]: And you know, on LinkedIn, there’s the great M-Dash, which hunt, which pains me a bit as someone who loves writing, because it is a little, and you know, the rhetoric, they are all literary devices, but
[SPEAKER_03]: there is kind of negativity around AI tells and things.
[SPEAKER_03]: One of the key bits that I’m advising a lot on when brands are wanting to create models and replace models with AI and things is around the concept of the young canny.
[SPEAKER_03]: So this is actually a real kind of deep-seated survival instinct within us and it’s one of the things that look
[SPEAKER_03]: a little bit too perfect or a little bit, you know, it looks human, but it’s not quite.
[SPEAKER_03]: It’s why we find realistic dolls really creepy, like unbelievable, unbelievably creepy, because it triggers the uncanny.
[SPEAKER_03]: And actually, Freud wrote a lot about it, and then in tech, there’s the cart and robotics, there’s the concept of uncanny valley, which is for anyone who has seen the film The Stefford-Wides,
[SPEAKER_03]: There’s a big twist at the end of that and not to ruin it for anyone.
[SPEAKER_03]: It has been out for absolutely donkeys years, but it turns out that all these really perfect 1950s house lights are robots.
[SPEAKER_03]: That works as a kind of horror movie thriller because it’s triggering the uncanny all the way through and it’s really unsettling us.
[SPEAKER_03]: So one of the things if you’re deploying it creatively and you’re starting to do that is to start to understand some of the psychology of why we find these things creepy and not just you know the really obvious things like when some it’s generated a image and the person’s got three hands or three arms or something and it’s clearly got.
[SPEAKER_03]: But when it is an almost two-polished and two-perfect image, you know, we’re striving for that in our creative output, but actually that can have the opposite effect and that can trigger that backlash.
[SPEAKER_03]: But if you look at the customer data on it and things like the Coca-Cola Radvert, where this year for Christmas, they recreated the famous advert with AI, they did it last year, actually the data that customers couldn’t tell and didn’t care.
[SPEAKER_03]: So as long as you don’t trigger that and comey, their level of care around it and the level of backlash that brands are scared of is actually so much less than the fear of that love that and just to add a ridiculous anecdote before we go into the next question there’s an event I’ve
[SPEAKER_04]: done or about to do or may have done in the past because I’m naming no names who’ve done some really weird AI things with people’s headshots that if you know the people it I saw mine and I just laughed out loud it’s like that is not me it’s weirdly like me, but it’s not me and they’re currently I think they’re now changing them all.
[SPEAKER_04]: because they’ve had bad reactions from people because it’s like, you know, you hiring me for the Brown Recognition and if you change my face, it’s no longer me.
[SPEAKER_04]: Anyway, before I tangent completely off on that one, I’m Alexandra and Sophie, I see all questions, they’re really good, we will come back to them because I want to go back to the slide deck and ask another big old question.
[SPEAKER_04]: Kind of the inverse of the one I started with of our panel.
[SPEAKER_04]: which is I think I personally believe people in business are bad at killing off things that don’t work that they need to stop doing.
[SPEAKER_04]: And if you’re going to focus on growth and you’re going to focus on success, you have to create the mind space, the space for the team, the space for the budget to do it.
[SPEAKER_04]: So if there’s one thing a branch should stop doing this year, what would
[SPEAKER_00]: I’m not sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, this one’s always tough, you know, what should somebody stop doing in their business.
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s it’s always tough.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, you know, looking at where your your skills are best used right what your best time to spend on how to get your highest ROI and if you look at your business in that way and then you can kind of like analyze, okay, well, if I just do social media content.
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s not really making me any money.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love it, it’s great, but it takes a lot of time.
[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe I should be putting my skills and time into something else that’s higher ROI.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I would say, look at your business from that standpoint.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where do I see the most bang for my buck and my time?
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, put more energy into that.
[SPEAKER_04]: the perfect answer.
[SPEAKER_04]: As she’s shown, can either view do better.
[SPEAKER_03]: A lot of pressure.
[SPEAKER_03]: I’ll give it a go.
[SPEAKER_03]: So mine would be around killing off what makes your brand distinct, your brand assets.
[SPEAKER_03]: We saw some really big high-profile examples of that.
[SPEAKER_03]: attempted and then reversed last year with Cracker Barrel very famously and obviously Joe Lingo played into it by killing off duo and then bringing him back and creating a whole load buzz.
[SPEAKER_03]: But what I have seen a lot on kind of not on that level of brand but kind of mid-tier brands
[SPEAKER_03]: is because TikTok has become so popular and you can be so successful, very quickly like Ian said, there’s been a real kind of swing to let’s chase trends, let’s jump on the trending sound, let’s do the latest thing, the dance or whatever it is, the meme.
[SPEAKER_03]: And in doing that, very small, very reactive teams are forgetting to bring in the thing that makes their brand
[SPEAKER_03]: And actually the way that we buy is all based on if you look at all of the data and how we make buying decisions about 80% of it is the brand that we are most familiar with in that category at the time that we are ready to buy so it is about hammering home the things that make your brand distinctive and if you are jumping on trending audio you need to know that that audio is the distinctive brand asset within that piece the thing that people are going to remember is the trend it’s the audio is the dance it’s the meme.
[SPEAKER_03]: So how do you bring your brand into that into that piece of content?
[SPEAKER_03]: It’s really important to jump on those trends and do that to get the reach, but actually if that reach is going to do anything for you commercially, your brand has to be really present and that isn’t just about sticking your logo on it.
[SPEAKER_03]: And actually the people that do that best from a branding perspective are currently Markson Spencer.
[SPEAKER_03]: I absolutely love Marx’s sense of circus.
[SPEAKER_03]: I’m completely their target demographic, but the way that they bring Percy Pig and Colin the Catapila into every single trend.
[SPEAKER_03]: Now obviously it is so much easier to do that when you are mascot-led, and that’s why duo Lingo is the success story that it is on social media.
[SPEAKER_03]: But there are ways to do it if you don’t have a mascot, and it’s just about thinking how to bring your brand to the forefront of every single asset that you create so that you’re
[SPEAKER_01]: nice and just declare for everyone the takeaway from that is not to create a mascot okay not create a mascot please don’t go and do that as a resource which I’m just saying I’m actually your your take on this anything a branch is stopped doing in 2020 yeah I’ll build up on what song was saying which is essentially the brands and stop delegating their brand identity to the platforms they are on and that tendency is gonna go get stronger
[SPEAKER_01]: with the introduction of shopping agents in chatchipity or Google, with all the platforms you tend to just get lost in the crowd.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you need to think of, okay, these will act as a discovery layer, but how do I own my relationship with the customers, my loyal customers, and how do I retain them so that they become repeat purchases?
[SPEAKER_01]: That’s the question the brands need to think about and there’s a very strong tendency because if let’s say it’s, you know, of course, AI, because that’s where I do.
[SPEAKER_01]: If jagivity starts recommending your products along with three other brands, how do you appear?
[SPEAKER_01]: How do you control a brand?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is a key question that brand needs to ponder over an answer.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I would, if I can, I would add to that for those of us that are relative dinosaurs from the dawn of internet times and remember this.
[SPEAKER_03]: If you remember when Amazon first started, it was a discount platform and actually brands didn’t want to be on it because they didn’t want to be discounting a lot of agencies existed purely to help businesses set up and get their catalogs onto Amazon and they actually really struggled to sell their services because Amazon was seen as a discount platform.
[SPEAKER_03]: Obviously, then, the big transformation and the giant of e-comm that it is now, but that is the real challenge of that is how do you own your brand, how do you avoid any negative associations with the platforms that you’re on?
[SPEAKER_03]: And actually, with the kind of dawning of shopping within chatGPT and code and all of these different Gemini and all of these different platforms, we can learn a lot of lessons from that time and the journey that brands
[SPEAKER_03]: you know, some brands will have been through that and will now be going through it with AI some point of being around that long, but you can go and read case studies of these things from the agencies that took brands on the journey and, you know, go and be really matter about it, go and ask AI, you know, about what happened in those times, and how that transition was managed.
[SPEAKER_04]: And what’s your perspective on that?
[SPEAKER_04]: Obviously, you said that TikTok is the big play for this year, but presumably you and your community members are also tackling the GEO AI search issues as well.
[SPEAKER_04]: So what’s your advice around that at the moment?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it goes back to what CM was saying as well as like just the multiple touch points right you need to show to that customer multiple times for them to be right when they’re ready to buy there and buy something as familiar and so that’s how you show up is through these organic content and where your customers actually are if you’re if you’re selling products and your customers aren’t on take to talk to you probably should be doing take up right.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you can figure out, you know, maybe it’s Pinterest, maybe it’s something else, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So you gotta go where they are, maybe it’s Facebook groups, you know, so I’ve seen plenty companies actually grow by sharing or participating in Facebook groups.
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s incredible.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, yeah, getting that touch point going forward and, you know, how are you going to use when AI recommends a product over another one?
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s using crowdsourced data.
[SPEAKER_00]: So how many people are talking about it?
[SPEAKER_00]: How many people on Reddit are talking about?
[SPEAKER_00]: How many people on SEO?
[SPEAKER_00]: and Google and all the social media problems that they’re listening to, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So the data is coming in from everywhere, and so if you’re not having people talk about your brand recommending it, it even reviews to be all of things, then you’re going to fall behind for sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, you know, I think what it now brands that want to be relevant are trying to take his advantage of his much air time and space is possible on the platform.
[SPEAKER_00]: That’s exposing them the fastest, which is TikTok.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I think to be in in the world of obviously to be building AI tools for economists that there is a great place to be and but I think the other great place to be is if you’re in PR or you’re in content creation or high quality social media or community management.
[SPEAKER_04]: because that’s so crucial now for getting surfaced by the AI.
[SPEAKER_04]: But I want us, I promised at least three people we’re going to get to their questions.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I’m seeing the clock ticking by.
[SPEAKER_04]: So let’s start tackling some of the audiences questions.
[SPEAKER_04]: First off, from Ivan, who got his question in super duper early.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you, Ivan.
[SPEAKER_04]: It’s a big one.
[SPEAKER_04]: And you don’t all have to answer this if you don’t want to.
[SPEAKER_04]: But if you had to cut 50% of your current e-commerce stack
[SPEAKER_04]: Who fancies diving in on this?
[SPEAKER_04]: Or shall I pick on someone?
[SPEAKER_04]: Ian, can I come to you again?
[SPEAKER_04]: Can you give such a good answer on the what to stop doing?
[SPEAKER_04]: Can I pick on you on this one?
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, this is also one where I usually, you know, these are tools, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: They should be making you more efficient and helping you to understand your data better, or, you know, talk to more customers faster, or save money on employees.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, cutting your stack is not really the idea unless you’re just in cutting mode.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this is, you got to find new AIs and new tools and systems that can help you expand your
[SPEAKER_00]: place of being in scarcity or in growth mode, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So I would say, don’t look to cut things.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you’re not, if you sign up for a server, I like to review my software every quarter, everything that’s a recurring charge.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just like, how we looked at it in the last quarter, if not, and we cut it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you’re like, oh, wouldn’t that back?
[SPEAKER_00]: Kick cool, we just add it back.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it’s great to save money.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you’re going to exit your business as well, then it really makes sense to cut costs.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I think it is a, well, if we’re not using it, we should stop paying for it rather than a, I know, email marketing’s dead, killing your email marketing deck.
[SPEAKER_04]: I say that because it’s utterly ridiculous and it’s just in everyone.
[SPEAKER_04]: Do not, do not quote me on that.
[SPEAKER_04]: But I feel like like that’s it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Ash is shan, anything either of you, you wanna ask you?
[SPEAKER_01]: I’ll just give her an example of a customer and exactly to what AN said, it’s less about cutting costs, more about thinking holistically like what I can bring together seamlessly so it feels integrated.
[SPEAKER_01]: So famous skincare brand that we work where now they had like different things.
[SPEAKER_01]: So for example, they had a quiz to take, understand your skin.
[SPEAKER_01]: They had a different tool for routine
[SPEAKER_01]: And what the day day is, and of course, they are like product FAQs, they consolidate all of three with with Anhina as a like a single AI solution.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they still had those entry points like build a routine, do you have a question, click here to get an answer, maybe they’ll show questions as well, skin analysis tool as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: as a click on the skin analysis to it opens the AI.
[SPEAKER_01]: But all the three, they land into the AI, which is an integrated solution.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they were able to consolidate those tools that way.
[SPEAKER_01]: So now with AI, you can take a look at what different parts of my tool stack are desperate, like separate.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I can bring them together seamlessly so that if they flow, they feel more integrated and polished.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think that’s a really valuable exercise, like have we got any tools we’re not using, have we got three tools that are doing the job that one better to tool could do.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then the only other bit I would add to what you’ve both said there is aligning your text back to your funnel.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is just something that not enough brands do from my perspective.
[SPEAKER_03]: So what is your customer journey all the way through, including the nurture for the repeat customer and element and the keeping them in the brand world?
[SPEAKER_03]: And then just looking at what tech have we got at each stage of that and what is it doing for us and is it performing?
[SPEAKER_03]: I think too often when we go into cost cutting mode and like, okay, we’ve got so much software here.
[SPEAKER_03]: What can we cut?
[SPEAKER_03]: You go really straight into pounds and pennies or dollars ROI and go, okay, you know, we’re not getting a return on investment for that, but actually performance marketing and brand marketing and not separate anymore.
[SPEAKER_03]: We just talked about customers need to be talking about you.
[SPEAKER_03]: You need to be recognizable.
[SPEAKER_03]: Brand is a huge part of what drives performance.
[SPEAKER_03]: So you have to do that work of just going, how is this serving us?
[SPEAKER_03]: Is it a top of funnel thing where it’s about brand awareness?
[SPEAKER_03]: And then is it the most efficient tool for achieving that?
[SPEAKER_03]: Is it a conversion tool at the bottom that we would be expecting to be generating four pounds for every pound we spend on it?
[SPEAKER_03]: And then is it doing that?
[SPEAKER_03]: But just being really careful about what metrics you’re making those decisions based on and it’s not purely being about cost.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, right.
[SPEAKER_04]: We’ve got three more at the moment questions to get through.
[SPEAKER_04]: Or is there maybe time for me to ask another question as well because I’m going to ask my panel to give super quick answers and we probably won’t go to everyone for answers on all of these.
[SPEAKER_04]: But we are going to try and fit them all in so panel.
[SPEAKER_04]: short answers and you don’t have to answer every question because I want to make sure we get these answers for the audience.
[SPEAKER_04]: So first off, any real case studies or examples of AI tools that have actually delivered results clearly, Alexander has been having a bit of a nightmare with bad tools.
[SPEAKER_04]: Obviously, our Hina AI is amazing so you should go and check that one out.
[SPEAKER_04]: But are there any other tools, anyone’s willing to name check or advice on making sure your AI tools work?
[SPEAKER_04]: on this, because obviously we are in the land of garbage in garbage out, so it may be set up that’s the issue.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think you were the first to nod, so do you want to tackle this one for us?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, tools are only as good as the person using them, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So the only operator, of course, for me, I love a tool called Whisper AI, which allows me to basically talk to my phone.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I can basically type, I think it’s like 180 words a minute now, just with my voice and it’s like dead on.
[SPEAKER_00]: So like, I can respond to emails.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can send messages.
[SPEAKER_00]: I’m really type anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just dictate to my phone.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that’s been like way better than Apple intelligence or Siri or anything like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Check out Whisper if you want it basically saved yourself like basically five extra abilities to type.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it’s amazing.
[SPEAKER_04]: I’ve had very good things about that one, too.
[SPEAKER_04]: And you can get it to work on your computer, as well, if you’re a load computer, like me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Other than, I don’t even type, I barely type anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: I’m not going to have a cardboard tunnel because of this for sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I highly recommend it.
[SPEAKER_00]: That’s just like a tool that I think is great, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I’m going to use chatGPT every day.
[SPEAKER_00]: I use perplexity.
[SPEAKER_00]: I use, you know, grock.
[SPEAKER_00]: I use all of them, right, for different purposes, Claude, if we’re making coding stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: AI is way better than it was two months ago, and a month ago, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So like whatever you thought, it’s not the case anymore, and it’s moving super quick, so you got to take a advantage of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I like to upload, you know, a lot of data to it, and then ask questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that’s really where you kind of get like economies of scale and you can understand stuff or understand your, you know, your call logs with your customer service people, or
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you’re sales history and where people are buying from or all your customer data.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you can really start to learn really quickly versus what you just have to do in the past, which was, you know, make a spreadsheet, do a pivot table, like, you know, sort of the data, do all the things.
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s doing it all for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then of course, like, Ayahs can bring an outside data and do research for you on autonomous.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it’s pretty amazing.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, I’m going to move us on.
[SPEAKER_04]: I’m going to give Alex Andros my two answers to this and then we’re going to move on to the next question.
[SPEAKER_04]: So we put the next question up there.
[SPEAKER_04]: So you guys can read it whilst I tell Alex Andros my extra couple of these advice, one would be there’s so much specialist e-commerce tech now.
[SPEAKER_04]: I would look for something that is specialist e-commerce because it’s going to have already been built to do some of what you want.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I’d also look at your existing tool set and see what AI they’ve put in place that you can tap into it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Somebody else mentioned earlier on.
[SPEAKER_04]: because that’s quite a safe way to go into it.
[SPEAKER_04]: But, and follow all that great advice that you can just give us.
[SPEAKER_04]: So, Sophie Tovie is asking us another very, everyone’s in typing mode.
[SPEAKER_04]: You already using Whisper.
[SPEAKER_04]: Very, very, very worthy questions we’re getting today.
[SPEAKER_04]: So, she’s had a nightmare with the Google organic traffic.
[SPEAKER_04]: On a specific day, that’s suggesting it’s a Google rollout.
[SPEAKER_04]: We suggest it’s something to do with too much AI content
[SPEAKER_04]: massive challenge for all of us.
[SPEAKER_04]: How much AI do you or don’t you use for the content on your website?
[SPEAKER_04]: I know we don’t have any specific SEO specialists in here in amongst our audience today, but any tips for software for future content creation and fixing content on the site.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I can come in.
[SPEAKER_01]: I used to lead SEO for LinkedIn before Alhina.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so Sophie, the advice here is, the AI content per se is not the problem.
[SPEAKER_01]: The low quality content is the problem.
[SPEAKER_01]: So what the tendency with the AI has been is to create lots of content, scale the content in terms of quantity without looking at the quality.
[SPEAKER_01]: can harm you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it takes a really long time once Google penalizes you to come out of that hole.
[SPEAKER_01]: It’s far more work to come out of that hole than to not go in that hole.
[SPEAKER_01]: So my advice would be use AI to create high quality content that people find the
[SPEAKER_01]: and go back to the core metrics, which what’s the dual tag?
[SPEAKER_01]: How much time they’re spending?
[SPEAKER_01]: Once they see your content in AO or search results, are they clicking on it?
[SPEAKER_01]: So those are the two or three key metrics that matter for SEO and as long as and they’re same apply for AO as well, especially when it comes to the Google universe.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, that will be my advice is a focus on quantity, quality, not on quantity, and you can use AI, like Google wants you to use AI
[SPEAKER_04]: I don’t think any of us are gonna beat Ash’s knowledge in this space, so I think we’ll move on to the next one.
[SPEAKER_04]: And so for the other thing I would say to that is the good news is we are not in the days of Penguin and Panda, I say aging myself.
[SPEAKER_04]: So there is plenty of advice out there of how to recover from this situation.
[SPEAKER_04]: You’re not gonna be, I mean,
[SPEAKER_04]: from Robin Bell.
[SPEAKER_04]: Whilst you’re all reading that quickly, there’s a bit of Sean, thank you for the recommendation to Alexander and the chat, do go and have a read of that.
[SPEAKER_04]: Robin has another marvelously long question, thank you, which is basically
[SPEAKER_04]: With all that’s going on in the e-commerce space at the moment, what is going to be the number one key drive of e-commerce success in 202627?
[SPEAKER_04]: A slight repetition of my very first question, where you know, what advice are you sharing with people?
[SPEAKER_04]: But Ian, are we still all about the TikTok?
[SPEAKER_04]: Is this still the key drive of e-commerce success in 202627?
[SPEAKER_04]: Or is there a kind of a strategy behind the scenes and a approach that you’d also like to mention?
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it’s going to keep the attention for quite a while.
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s where the youth is, right, and what they’re looking at and watching.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, and now it’s not being banned.
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s being controlled.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think, you know, between that Instagram, they’re just their forces to be reckoned with as far as attention goes.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that’s where you want to be.
[SPEAKER_04]: simple as that, um, Sean, any alterations from you on early anything deeper you want to go to with this one?
[SPEAKER_03]: I would pick on the challenging economic environment.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, let’s not go into too much detail because we don’t want to throw myself out, but no, we don’t.
[SPEAKER_03]: We all have eyes and the news and social media feeds and we can also see what’s going on in the world and how it’s affecting us.
[SPEAKER_03]: And we can see and feel how it’s affecting us spending and we are seeing disposable incomes become so much tighter.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that is affecting people’s purchasing behavior.
[SPEAKER_03]: So there’s always talk about demographics are dead and, you know,
[SPEAKER_03]: Psychographics is where it’s at, you need both, and actually a demographic targeting tells you who has the disposable income that they could spend on you.
[SPEAKER_03]: That should always be your first step.
[SPEAKER_03]: Don’t be trying to target customers that just cannot afford you.
[SPEAKER_03]: You’re not going to make them want to afford you.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then for those ones that can afford you, but it’s going to be quite challenging to win the most of our because of what’s going on economically and they are more considered about
[SPEAKER_03]: where you’re willing to spend and how quickly you’re willing to make a decision and so obviously if your money is tight you’re going to spend less money on impulse purchases.
[SPEAKER_03]: So the real way to cut through, it is about being on the right platforms, it is about doing the right things for the algorithm to get attention and to cut through but it is also about lifetime value and it is about once you warm that customer, your cost of acquisition is going to be more expensive so once
[SPEAKER_03]: keeping that relationship with them like we said earlier and the way that you’re going to do that is through building brand trust.
[SPEAKER_03]: There’s been so many shiny, lovely, very expensive PDF reports commissioned by the marketing industry as we love to do at this time of year and everyone devours them and then comes to LinkedIn and goes, brand is back, brand is back, brand never went away, brand is about signifying trust and reducing risk and
[SPEAKER_03]: What I would say is my kind of nugget to take away from this little random rambul that I’ve gone on here is just be in that mindset of not how do we convince them to spend you’re never going to convince them you’re never going to change their behavior you need to
[SPEAKER_03]: fit in with the existing behavior and fit in with the economic conditions around them, actually how can we de-risk this purchase for them?
[SPEAKER_03]: If you focus it from that, what are their barriers assume that it’s a no, and that you have to win them over with a yes by de-wisking it?
[SPEAKER_03]: So what are all the possible reasons that our customer could say no to this purchase?
[SPEAKER_03]: And then how do we address those at every stage of the relationship and at post purchase to keep
[SPEAKER_04]: There we say you’ve got to be a better marketer again.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think I say that every single year.
[SPEAKER_04]: But I do find it fascinating how the impact of AI, both in AI search, in how we’re using chatGBT and the garbage and garbage outside of things, in how it’s changing how the ad platforms are working, how it’s changing, how content is delivered on platforms like TikTok.
[SPEAKER_04]: is actually making brand more important and the understanding of the customer and how the customer talks and all of this so much more important and I could waffle on about that with no stats about me up on for hours.
[SPEAKER_04]: Ashley, do you have an answer to Robbins?
[SPEAKER_04]: Very long question.
[SPEAKER_01]: It’s hard to beat what’s on in Ian just already and so I’ll keep quite.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, cool.
[SPEAKER_04]: the timing going on in my head, thanks you massively for that.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, so that is it for questions from the audience.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you all for the questions you have said through.
[SPEAKER_04]: We really appreciate it.
[SPEAKER_04]: I have my final question to the panel, which,
[SPEAKER_04]: is as always a very big question where undoubtedly at least one of you will bring up something we haven’t yet talked about and throw me a total curve but what would be your key takeaway for someone who has watched this, he was looking to have a really successful 2026.
[SPEAKER_04]: You can repeat something you’ve talked about already, we can go into something, you can share something we haven’t
[SPEAKER_04]: talked about so they have to go and do a little googling or chat GPTing after this to find out the answers.
[SPEAKER_04]: But what would be your key takeaway for everyone from this?
[SPEAKER_04]: What’s your key?
[SPEAKER_04]: How what’s really going to move the needle in 2026?
[SPEAKER_04]: Well come in, we’ll come to you first, then Sean, then Asha.
[SPEAKER_04]: You’ve got about one max two minutes each to answer if that’s possible.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, to sum it up for me, it’s just take advantage of the things that are, you know, then produce the highest ROI for your business and, you know, analyze from that standpoint, take advantage of tools that are going to save you time and money and help you create, you know, new levers that you can use in your business.
[SPEAKER_00]: brands in MDS are taking a band of AI all over the place from, you know, how they can put it in their business to create new products.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, others in the customer to, you know, scaling up their operations and enjoying brands we use it internally as well to analyze customer data and help you find the right, you know, creators and influencers for your business.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, for me, enjoying brands also a tool.
[SPEAKER_00]: that brands need to use as part of their text act to talk to creators and influence the affiliates within seconds versus DMing them and doing all the things that you should do.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that’s why we built that tools to save time and money and create that frictionless environment for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that said, yeah, I think you just gotta take take advantage of stuff and focus on what is going to work and actually take action.
[SPEAKER_04]: efficiency, efficiency, and action.
[SPEAKER_04]: I like it in.
[SPEAKER_04]: I would like it a lot.
[SPEAKER_04]: Michelle, you’re taken.
[SPEAKER_03]: I had to mute because I had a rogue cat.
[SPEAKER_03]: So hopefully she hasn’t caused too much care.
[SPEAKER_03]: So there are hundreds of thousands of things that you could do that could potentially
[SPEAKER_03]: and it’s really overwhelming.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then you look at the news, and as we’ve just discussed, that’s really overwhelming too.
[SPEAKER_03]: The only way to know what you should do for your business is gonna come from deep knowledge of who your customers are, deep knowledge of the customer journey you take them on, and the data already within your business to show you what is working, what is not working, and what you can cut to then channel more time and resources into what is working.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then building out from there,
[SPEAKER_03]: and the number one bit of advice that was given to me in the early days that was invaluable that I try to give to everybody.
[SPEAKER_03]: Whenever I have a chance is everything you see on social media and LinkedIn and the internet is somebody’s shockfront.
[SPEAKER_03]: it’s really highly polished, it’s beautiful, it’s not real life.
[SPEAKER_03]: Real life is the stalker bird in the back that is really messy and boxes are stacked up and nobody really knows where anything is.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it’s really valuable to be on social media and to be consuming but you should always be creating more than you consume and you should really really try to protect
[SPEAKER_03]: your own bubble in terms of your mental health, your comparison, and your strategy.
[SPEAKER_03]: Set that strategy, set that plan based on the data within your business, and what you know to be true about your customers, and let that be the absolute guiding start.
[SPEAKER_03]: And from there, you can try things, you can jump on trends, you can try any platforms, you can do all of that, but you can do it with a plan so that you don’t end up burning loads of time, loads of resources, and burning yourself out.
[SPEAKER_04]: So easy to get distracted by all the bright shiny objects, but if you’ve got that guiding star, as you said, then you are, you can stay on track and when you go inevitably off track, you can bring yourself back to the guiding star as well.
[SPEAKER_04]: And actually last but definitely not least, what’s your final thought for the audience, please.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah and I think it comes to someone asked me like what’s your, what’s the hardest thing if you had a magic one that you could change and my answer to that question was if I could make people believe in the power of like how capable AI actually is it’s it’s unbelievable if you get it right and so for example if I tell you that all the brands are living maybe 5% or 10% of revenue on the table.
[SPEAKER_01]: only if they started using a shopping agent on their brand-owned properties apps and websites, they’ll increase the revenue by that much.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that’s just sounds unbelievable.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you got to try it.
[SPEAKER_01]: We recently published the case study with Victoria Beckham, we had the drove over 10% revenue and 20% average auto value using shopping agents.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that you can use it in like AI is moving way faster and you can use it in any function.
[SPEAKER_01]: So for example, my engineering team produces three times more work than they used to two years ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is because we use AI agents heavily, same for my marketing team, same for my
[SPEAKER_01]: and it’s not AI Slap.
[SPEAKER_01]: It’s again going back to some of the questions about quality versus quantity.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you still have to focus on quality, but the capabilities of the AI, it can really help you scale.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if there is one thing that’s going to move the needle in 2022, it’s going to be how you’ll leverage AI in all functions of your work.
[SPEAKER_04]: Nice, love, it’s about scaling, it’s not about replacing the job, it’s about doing more in the job, I suppose, isn’t it?
[SPEAKER_04]: Love those answers.
[SPEAKER_04]: Huge thank you to our panel Ian, Ashie and Sean.
[SPEAKER_02]: It’s been awesome having you involved in this.
[SPEAKER_04]: See, I told you, it was an amazing session so much stuff swirling around in my head after that.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I love some of the themes that came out of it around efficiency and making better decisions about how if you’re using AI right, it will scale and enable your team to do more.
[SPEAKER_04]: It’s not so much about we can get rid of that role because we’ve replaced it with AI.
[SPEAKER_04]: It’s about enabling your team and giving them the tools to do a better job for you and a more impressive job for you.
[SPEAKER_04]: both Sean and Ashie are seeing that it’s the luxury heritage brands which are adopting this more quickly especially on the front end.
[SPEAKER_04]: So as we fascinated to see how that evolves this year.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hopefully that’s clearly given you some really clear insights on what you should be doing this year.
[SPEAKER_04]: You get your hands on our notes from the episode by heading over to ecommercemasterplanned.com.
[SPEAKER_04]: You can also use our direct episode short links just put ECMP.info4- the number of this episode into the URL bar and you will be redirected straight to the right episode page.
[SPEAKER_04]: When you get to the website, go on.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Now, if you like this episode, then another one which is spot on with top things you need to know about in 2026 is episode 570-8578, where we have the brilliant miracle sharing her brand-side view on how to tackle the opportunity and challenge
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you so much for tuning in to this and every episode that you do of the E-commerce Master Plan podcast, we bring you all these interviews because we want to inspire and help you to succeed and thrive with your businesses, including progressing along that path to net zero.
[SPEAKER_04]: So if you know someone they show can help, please tell them to listen to the E-commerce Master Plan podcast.
[SPEAKER_04]: They have an excellent week and an excellent year and don’t forget to keep optimising.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for listening to the e-commerce Master Plan podcast.
[SPEAKER_02]: Find out more at e-commercemasterplanned.com slash podcast.
