Digital Shelf Summit 2025 Recap

Last week over 800+ brands, retailers, tech partners and agencies descended upon New Orleans to talk about the future of commerce! It was fitting to have the conference in the birthplace of jazz because they have so many similarities. Jazz is about taking something and building on it, riffing and responding to your fellow musicians. Commerce is about working cross functionally and getting the right people in the organization aligned with the consumer journey. Jazz is about anticipating your fellow musicians' next move and embracing the unexpected notes. We have a lot of unexpected notes flying at us from all directions in commerce.

I opened up the day talking about how we are at an inflection point in our industry where the rules are being re-written and the way we have been operating will not lead us to success in the next five years. Organizations existing team structures are built for brick and mortar, the way they account for eCommerce sales is muddy and the concept of the category and product discovery is being fundamental disrupted in the wake of AI.

Let's look at product discovery...

When it was just in-store shopping, a consumer walked through a store they had 200-500 different items to choose from in an aisle. Then the digital shelf came along and there were hundreds of thousands of options. But what do consumers really look at…the first page of Amazon where there are only 10-60 products depending on if you are browsing on mobile or desktop. And now with the rise of #agenticAI consumers will only be provided with 1-5 different recommendations after having a conversation with an agent. And those agents are basing those recommendations on the data on your PDPs, ratings and reviews, what people are saying on Reddit and even what is on the broader internet. The way consumers find products is changing and your content strategies need to change to accommodate not only the consumer, but the algorithm, and the AI. That also means that your internal team structure needs to adapt to this new way of discovery.

How are you going to show up to your consumers in this new world and ARE you going to show up?!

The discussion around AI and the future of shopping was a common theme at #DSS2025 and there were a few others that stood out. Many of these themes aren't new, but the way they are being applied or the changes that need to take place are:

😫 Uncertainty

The amount of challenges and costs has increased in commerce. Russ Dieringer , CEO & Founder of Stratably , opened the day talking about how 'uncertainty' is the word of the year. There is uncertainty around the market, around tariffs and around how the consumer will respond. Brands in every category are being cautious and waiting to better understand how things will impact them. Regardless of that, they are focusing on the basics and getting visibility to data on what is working and what isn't.

🔍 Change Management

This topic is frequently discussed in commerce and is becoming increasingly relevant as organizations face a growing need for change. To compete effectively, organizations must transform their ways of working, which requires a robust change management plan. Parth Raval , Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer at PepsiCo , talked about how organizations have to measure their capacity for change and understand how much change they can implement over time.

👤 Consumer Focused

This may still seem like common sense, but in large organizations it is easy to lose sight of the end goal and get stuck in the day to day. Organizations are recentering on who their consumer is, what information they want, and how they shop. "You need to think about your consumer when building out your strategy." Jamie Schwab , Vice President, Global Digital Commerce, Colgate-Palmolive

📝 Iterative Planning

The traditional practice of annual planning is becoming obsolete due to the rapid pace of change. Organizations should instead adopt more iterative planning cycles, reviewed monthly or quarterly, to ensure continued relevance to the business. "Traditional planning no longer works and you have to think in iterative cycles. You need to think in scenarios and build from there ." Parth Raval

🔗Collaboration & Test & Learn

At this years DSS we had both a CIO and a CFO speaking, which is a big shift from previous summits and showcases how cross functional teams need to be involved in the discussion to be successful. John White , the CIO of Dorel Home, shared that an important key to success is having IT leaders have the same goals as sales leaders and that his number one mandate as CIO is "to get to yes." From a finance perspective, Jay Stone , CFO of MALK Organics , talked about how it is important to create a common language so both the commerce and finance team understand what each other needs. ”The safest thing to do for finance is cut marketing spend, but instead we need to build a model that works for everyone and open up the conversation.” -Jay Stone Collaboration between commerce finance and IT can transform e-commerce from a siloed function into a business driver.

Collaboration with your retailers was also a big area of focus. TJ Hanel, Director of Omni Commerce Retail Media at Kellanova , talked about collaboration in JBP and how it is important to ask "What are the things you can unlock in JBP to help enable your sales teams?"

The concept of test and learn was also a big theme as brands try to figure out what will work for the new generation of shoppers, GenAlpha and what will provide the best ROI. This is a culture shift in an organization and takes buy-in from leadership to shift the thinking. From a test and learn mindset, Parth Raval talked about how it is important to not be afraid to get rid of programs that aren't working.

🔒Core Content is Still Queen

The focus on content still remains and organizations are looking at how story-selling can help them reach their consumer. "Content is about meeting the consumer where she is, telling a strong product story and capturing moments in the funnel," Sarah Knox , Associate Director eComm Content & Growth Accelerator Team at The Clorox Company . The focus on making sure all elements of content work together from the PDP, to retail media ads, to branded websites is what story-selling truly looks like. "You need to focus on the why and what problem you are solving for your consumer." Aiyoko Ishida , Marketing Director, Aquor Water Systems

🤖 AI & Automation

AI is always a hot topic, but the focus was on automation and how it can unlock time to enable teams to focus on more strategic work. AI content creation will enable brands to keep up with the demands of content and create seasonality with their PDPs. Workflow automation will help to complete repetitive tasks will free up time for digital leaders.

But ultimately DSS is about the people and it was so great to see so many old friends and meet so many new ones. A huge shout out to all of the speakers Russ Dieringer Jeriad Zoghby Parth Raval Rachel Tipograph John White Joanne Doucette Jamie Schwab James Sheppard Marilia Moreira Aaron Bert Aiyoko Ishida Amanda Wolff Andrea K. Leigh Andrea Steele Ash McMullen Barbara Jenny Wilson Bruna Formagio Chris Perry Cristina Marinucci Gloria DeCoste Gregor Murray Gwendolyn Ange Iwao Fusillo Jay Stone Jeffrey Cohen Jennifer Angelus Jenny Holleran Jill Heyman Jill Rourke Jordan Mazzarella Josh Metzman Kacy Raffe Kate Armstrong, MA Laura Dennis Hyland Lindsay Earle DeFalco Luke Beatty Lynette Green Malvika Jaggi Megan Ferracane Mike Black Sai Koppala Sarah Knox Sarah Williams Scott Ohsman Tammy Ackerman TJ Hanel !

I closed out the summit with a quote from Art Blakey, a famous jazz drummer who said “The idea of playing jazz is to be professional enough to make a mistake, make the same mistake again, and then make something out of that. That’s jazz!” That is also commerce! Remember to keep the consumer at the center, embrace a test and learn mindset and #getyourshelftogether!!

AND make sure to save the date for ⭐️Digital Shelf Summit 2026⭐️ which will be at the brand new Signia Hilton Hotel in Atlanta from May 4-6! See you next year!!

#digitalshelf #commerce #omnichannel #community