Hidai's highlights from eCommerce Expo (including speaking!)

After digesting over the weekend, trying to unpack & share my highlights from 2 very exciting & intense days at the eCommerce Expo in London (this time also as a speaker for the first time), which were hugely valuable and kept its place as one of my personal favourites.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was very excited to be given the opportunity to be on stage - even more than usual to be honest, as it is UK’s biggest eCommerce event and also I felt the responsibility of the interviewer in the fireside chat format, so really tried to stick to the questions Melina Delgado and I prepared, while also keeping it flowing & natural!

(It was also interesting to see how people responded when they saw the word "Speaker" on my badge - there was an immediate interest & respect and it took the conversation from the usual "so what do you do" straight to "what are you talking about, when, oh I will try to come", which was very nice and surprised me - and some actually came!)

Eventually I really enjoyed it and looks like it went well based on the feedback we got from the audience, and Melina was great in sharing pragmatic tactics & ideas for effective cross-team collaboration, balancing data with customer experience, identifying potential opportunities & testing them, challenging assumptions, adapting to various markets & cultures, and how AI can help - all of those are essentials to drive profitable global growth, and were actually the main topics discussed in other talks & conversations, from various perspectives...

On the global topic, Guliz Bilgutay spoke well about the potential of the emerging markets as growth engines and how to fulfil it, and the very impressive June Sarpong OBE took it to a whole new level on the headline stage with her inspiring story and message about diversity & inclusion in the workplace including the need to have uncomfortable conversations - she was also incredibly kind afterwards and I was honoured to meet her.

In the "stand size" test, I was happy to see companies & products I know & recommend for many years now, maintain their strong presence - Shopify, Klaviyo & Yotpo (which also combine very well together). And it was interesting to see Amazon making a statement with a massive stand with its own stage (which led to discussions about the opportunities & challenges of it and other global marketplaces in comparison to direct channels).

It was a great opportunity to meet some of my favourite UK-based industry veterans Dan Conboy & Ofir Neuman, to bounce ideas and get their perspective - we agreed that unfortunately one of the ongoing challenges is for small & medium businesses to navigate this overwhelming & confusing landscape to spot the real value out of the hype & noise (now with AI as well...), and then being able to use it with limited resources.

And so much more... but will have to stop here!

Thanks again and well done to Alyssia Smith and the entire team, looking forward to next year!

Link to original post on LinkedIn