This year our Excellence in Ecommerce conference took place at IMMA. We gathered our clients friends and industry partners to discuss all things ecommerce. From AI-driven efficiencies to the human element of high-performing teams, the day was packed with actionable insights. If you couldn't make it or just want a refresher, here are the core takeaways from our sessions.
Marketing: You’re Generating Attention. Are You Converting It?
Hollie and Zara opened by challenging the audience to rethink their most recent “unplanned” purchase. In a market where Meta CPMs have surged by over 20% in a year and email click-throughs are declining, they proposed that the channels aren't broken, but the strategy is. Most retailers are only showing up at isolated points of the user journey, rather than building a “Venn diagram” of touchpoints across social, search and email. These touchpoints then follow up consistently until the moment a customer is finally ready to buy.
The solution lies in moving from broad awareness to capturing high-intent moments. Using the “So Can You” method, Hollie demonstrated how social and search can be unified to identify exactly where a shopper is in their journey. Zara emphasised that prioritising automated flows, such as Welcome, Browse Abandonment, and Abandoned Cart, retailers can deliver the right message to the right person at the right moment. The goal is ensuring every euro is targeted toward a customer ready to take action.
Ecommerce Strategy: When ecommerce growth creates more pain than profit
Dancho challenged the room to look past vanity metrics, noting a common paradox in retail: revenue and orders are climbing, but the bottom-line remains flat or declining. Businesses are often wired to ask “How do I grow faster?” when the more important question is “Where is the constraint in my business and am I fixing it?” Without identifying these, driving more traffic is simply adding fuel to a fire without checking if it’s burning efficiently. Simply put, you aren't scaling a success, you are accelerating an inefficiency.
The secret to profitable scaling is doing the right things in the right order. Dancho introduced a practical framework centred on Foundational Readiness, built across four pillars: Unit Economics, Customer Economics, Operational Readiness, and Strategic Priority. By focusing on these, retailers can avoid the mistake of “scaling before diagnosing, such as increasing ad spend before understanding allowable acquisition costs. This shift ensures that every growth initiative is built on a stable, profit-first foundation, moving the business away from a “growth-at-all-costs” mindset and toward sustainable health.
Retailer Panel with Sabina Sarbu and StudioForty9 clients
Sabina sat down with a panel of StudioForty9 clients including Liam Lennon (Intersport Elverys), Gemma Hurley (Evergreen Healthfoods), Damian Rooney (Petstop), and Padraic McMahon (Carraig Donn). This session discussed the realities of running large-scale Irish retail operations.
The panel shared several high-level strategies that have proven successful in driving growth and efficiency across the board. Key themes included the power of a disciplined A/B testing roadmap to optimise Average Order Value and the strategic importance of predictable revenue models. Some clients have chosen to lean into subscriptions and frictionless reordering processes to help with their growth strategies. These retailers have gained the breathing room to plan more effectively for staffing and logistics. From “lift and shift” replatforming successes to the integration of live stock feeds and merchandising tools, the session served as a masterclass in scaling steadily while staying focused on the customer’s needs.
Technology: From Browser-Based Novelty to Practical Retail Solutions.
AI is certainly a bit of a buzzword but in this session Alan and Emma focused on how AI is actually being used on the ground today. They showcased practical AI solutions, from intelligent search and product discovery to automated backend operations. The most impactful AI isn't found in flashy headlines, but in the “unglamorous” corners of specific workflows, the places where margins are leaking. By looking at a retailer's unique data, AI can be used to close these gaps, moving it from a “nice-to-have” experiment to a core operational tool that protects the bottom line.
The session walked through three specific areas where these solutions are being applied right now to help retailers protect their margins. First, in Acquisition Cost, by making ad spend work harder in an increasingly crowded market. Second, in Operational Capacity, by automating manual tasks to achieve in hours what used to take teams weeks. And finally, in Conversion Drop-off, by using AI to identify exactly why customers leave the funnel and how to fix it.
Functional & Fabulous Podcast with Ciarán McCormack
The live recording of the Functional & Fabulous podcast featured a fascinating conversation with Ciarán McCormack, CEO at Select Technology Group. Ciarán shared his unique perspective on managing massive multi-brand retailers and why meeting the customer where they are, rather than where you want them to be, is the key to long-term retention. State tuned for the full podcast release happening soon.
What High Performing Teams Do Differently with Shauna Moran
Shauna Moran delivered a masterclass on what high performing teams do differently. Regardless of whether you're leading a team, operating within a team or just a team of one, Shauna guided the audience through what actually drives performance and why performance can break under pressure. Shauna examined the 4 main conditions that allow performance to hold sustainably within teams: Clarity, Ownership, Safety, Regulation. Her talk provided a practical playbook, emphasising that a team is the most valuable currency.
Closing Keynote: The Future of Omnichannel
No StudioForty9 conference would be completed without hearing our founder, Gerard Keohane. Bringing everything back to the era of the customer, he highlighted that online catalogues can sometimes feel a little like a well-organised stockroom. But the problem is that the stockroom is not actually where your customer browses, they don't see how the products go together, there's no sales assistant behind the counter. This begs the question “Why should this customer buy from you instead of anyone else?” He offered a proposition to rectify this:
- The People: Who is the customer?
- The Product: What solves the customer's need?
- The Proof of Value: Why buy from your store?
He suggests that loyalty can be considered a mechanic, with the points system, the repeat purchases, and the tiers that are put in place. But in fact, the glue that holds it all together is actually the proposition and the relationship that keep customers coming back. His closing message: If you cannot see your proposition on your site, neither can your customer!
Ready to apply these insights to your business?
Whether you're looking to overhaul your marketing automation or scale your ecommerce strategy, the team at StudioForty9 is here to help you navigate the journey.
