Last week was all about Otto Krammer and me focusing on the E-Commerce Expo in Berlin. In today's edition, we’re giving a quick update on what’s currently on the community's mind! For over 15 years, Comsysto Reply has been building complex e-commerce solutions for clients across all industries. At the same time, we track and analyze relevant trends in our e-commerce lab to ensure we’re ready for tomorrow’s challenges today. We share our insights here every Tuesday!
Two days, five stages, 284 exhibitors, and more than 13,000 visitors—the first major e-commerce event of the year was a solid start to 2025. It was a busy event, and one thing is already certain: next year, the move to the Messe Berlin venue will make it even bigger. But let’s stick to 2025 for now. We spent two days attending countless talks, visiting exhibitors, and having many interesting conversations!
Yes, AI is the focus here too
We were particularly interested in innovative software solutions that help us solve our clients' real-world problems better than before. And, as we’ve already covered in two newsletter issues this year, that naturally involved the possibilities of artificial intelligence. The beauty of in-person trade fairs is that you can easily gauge the relevance of topics just by observing the crowds. And one thing is for sure: the interest was huge, both in the presentations and at the booths!
A hype only makes it into practice when it delivers real value. Measurable value, that is! As much as LLMs can help in other areas, such as content creation, the hardest currency in e-commerce remains the conversion rate. And that is exactly where various products are focusing their efforts from different angles.
Explaining, advising, sorting, …
Should users receive the same level of advice in an online shop as they would from a real salesperson? Sven Mößbauer and Nicolas Buchalik from Neocom.ai gave us a live demonstration of their answer to this problem. Integration is incredibly simple; essentially, all you need is an up-to-date product data feed and a few additional details about the company itself to embed guided product advice funnels or completely open chat conversations into your own shop. Other providers like Frontnow are also promoting shopping assistants and using AI for data enrichment and correction.
If the user isn't looking for specific advice on a single product (the classic example: "I need a new bike") but rather a broader shopping experience, such as finding new outfits, another dimension becomes extremely relevant: proper sorting. Personalizing this promises potentially huge improvements in conversion. However, this often fails due to either slow response times or data privacy concerns. This is exactly the problem that ODOSCOPE solved – including precise tracking of the resulting uplift. And completely without data that requires cookies or similar. Sounds too good to be true? Matthias Bettag would be happy to tell you more about how that works…
What will e-commerce look like in 2030?
Beyond specific solutions, we were inspired by the presentation “Courage Instead of Mediocrity: Innovative Strategies for Long-Term Success” by Sebastian Hamann, the Co-CEO of Shopware. Key takeaway: We are currently in a phase of transition. Classic online shops (landing pages, PLP, PDP, checkout) will soon become less relevant, and we are moving toward a future where there will essentially be solutions for two different target groups. Either the shopping experience is the focus, or it is about finding a specific item as easily and quickly as possible. In one of our next issues, we will go into more detail about the implications – providing advice and personalized sorting in the right place is a start, but it is far from the end…
How do we get to this future?
As always, there is no clear path that we just have to follow. What is clear is that long-term success requires continuous adaptation to changing customer expectations – and data-driven analysis to see if this adaptation leads to the desired results. This requires an e-commerce platform with the necessary flexibility and agility to support this in the best possible way. This is exactly the conclusion reached by Michael Türk from Spryker in his presentation “The Collapse of Traditional Commerce: Why Innovation is No Longer Optional”.
And what is happening in the analog world?
Above all else: the goods must reach the customer. Whether at their front door, at a parcel locker, or via click & collect. Logistics is and remains one of the most complex areas in online retail. Especially when the online and offline worlds merge. This is where MediaMarktSaturn is setting new standards, delivering products to homes in major German cities in 90 minutes or less - a close integration with Uber Direct makes it possible!
Other things in the physical world, however, are losing relevance - for example, the call center. While the AI version of customer support often still leads to a lot of frustration today, the direction is clear. The latest data point: last week it was announced that OTTO is cutting nearly 500 jobs in its call centers and closing some of them entirely. (Ecommerce News)
That’s it for today - and here’s what’s coming up next
Next time, you’ll also find a link in this newsletter to our video podcast, where Otto and I will be reporting from the E-Commerce Expo. If you can’t wait, just keep an eye on our YouTube channel!
See you next week!
Christian & the Comsysto Reply e-Commerce Lab