Welcome to Unofficially eTail – your insider guide to the biggest trends, insights, and conversations at eTail West 2025. For live event clips, speaker soundbites, and exclusive interviews, follow us on TikTok and Instagram!
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📍 Live from Palm Springs – Here’s What Went Down on Day 2!
eTail West 2025 is in full swing, and today’s sessions made one thing clear—brands are doubling down on AI-powered personalization, retail media strategies, and smarter attribution.
From tackling the walled garden measurement problem to rethinking how AI can drive real business outcomes, today’s sessions and conversations were packed with insights that will shape the future of e-commerce.
🔥 Top Takeaways from Day 2
💡 Retail Media is Booming – But Measuring It Remains a Challenge
Retail media spend is skyrocketing, but brands are struggling to connect the dots across Amazon, Walmart, and other walled gardens. Marketers are actively looking for solutions to track cross-channel performance more effectively.
🧠 AI in eCommerce: Real-World Use Cases Are Emerging
Forget the hype—real business results are happening. Bluecore’s AI shopping assistant Albee drove a 1.5% increase in PDP revenue and 6.2% of all PDP traffic engaging with AI. Retailers are now prioritizing AI that delivers measurable ROI.
📉 Creative is the New Ad Targeting – But How Do You Prove It Works?
With ad costs rising and traditional targeting declining, brands are betting on creative optimization to drive performance. The question remains—how do you measure creative impact across platforms?
🤝 C-Suite Collaboration is More Important Than Ever
Marketing, finance, and tech leaders need shared attribution insights to optimize spend and drive growth. Retailers are shifting towards unified measurement frameworks to prove marketing’s value across departments.
Exclusive Interview: George Kanuck, CRO, Monetate – AI, Personalization & Reducing Bounce Rates
"The biggest challenge in retail today? Short attention spans. Brands are struggling with high bounce rates because consumers expect immediate relevance. AI-powered recommendations are no longer a ‘nice-to-have’—they’re essential."
🔹 On Competitive Edge: “We focus on delivering hyper-relevant, real-time personalization. If a visitor lands on a site and doesn’t immediately see something that aligns with their intent, they leave. AI helps solve that problem before they even think about bouncing.”
🔹 On AI’s Role in UX: “We’re seeing demand for AI-driven search and recommendations that adapt instantly. Consumers don’t want to browse aimlessly—they want intelligent assistance that gets them to the right product in seconds.”
This is an AI-generated podcast based on our eTail interview with George Kanuck—not a direct recording.
Exclusive Interview: Cedric Parsiegla, Director of Digital Strategy, Henkel – Winning in Social Commerce
"We’ve launched all of our beauty brands on TikTok Shop—because that’s where the customer is. In 2025, brands need to let consumers drive the conversation."
🔹 On the Shift to TikTok & Pinterest: “Social commerce is changing how beauty brands engage. We’re seeing strong ROAS from TikTok Shop, but Pinterest is also an interesting channel with high purchase intent.”
🔹 On AI in B2B & B2C: “We’ve started using AI-powered text message marketing that targets customers when they’re most likely to purchase—and it’s already driving strong results.”
🔹 On Keeping Up with Change: “Retailers often feel behind in AI adoption, but the reality is—everyone is figuring it out in real-time.”
This is an AI-generated podcast based on our eTail interview with Cedric Parsiegla—not a direct recording.
🔥 What’s Coming Up on Day 2?
Day 2 of eTail West 2025 is packed with insights from top brands and industry leaders. Here’s what to look out for:
Revolutionizing Retail: From Zero Digital Presence to Unleashing Omni-Channel Customer Success
Time: 8:00 AM – 8:40 AM
Speakers: Jill Pavlovich, SVP, Digital Shopping Experiences, Albertsons
🔍 Key Insight: As retail continues to evolve, brands must balance digital expansion and in-store engagement. This fireside chat explores how brands can leverage data, AI, and personalized experiences to drive conversions across all channels.
Bringing Your Brand to Life Digitally
Time: 9:00 AM – 9:40 AM
Speakers: Jenn Volk, Head of Digital, H&M; Moderator: Jill Manoff, Glossy
🔍 Key Insight: Creative execution is becoming the new targeting as cookie-based advertising fades. This session will unpack how brands can scale visual storytelling, social commerce, and AI-driven content strategies to boost performance.
Bringing Back the Surprise & Delight Factor to Drive Continued Brand Engagement
Time: 10:30 AM – 11:10 AM
Speakers: Doug Hwang, VP, Digital Commerce, Harry’s Inc.; Mimi Swain, CCO, Ring & Blink; Jeffrey Warren, VP, Selling & Customer Experience, Macy’s
🔍 Key Insight: With customer acquisition costs rising, retention is more critical than ever. Learn how brands are measuring the impact of loyalty programs, personalization, and AI-driven customer journeys to drive higher lifetime value (LTV).
Managing Marketplaces: How to Win in the Next Era of Retail Advertising
Time: 2:00 PM – 2:40 PM
Speakers: TBA
🔍 Key Insight: Retail media is booming, but measuring performance across marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart, and Instacart remains a challenge. This session explores new attribution models and AI-powered insights that help brands track omnichannel impact.
CX & The Customer Journey: Attribution, Engagement & Conversion
Time: 3:30 PM – 4:10 PM
Speakers: TBA
🔍 Key Insight: Understanding the customer journey from first touchpoint to conversion is crucial. This panel will cover marketing attribution, AI-powered insights, and full-funnel measurement strategies to ensure brands make data-driven investment decisions.
📍The Big Question: Are Brands Measuring What Matters?
Across sessions and side conversations, one theme keeps coming up: marketers lack the tools to measure full-funnel impact
As channels fragment and platforms guard their data, brands need better ways to understand what’s working—whether that’s attribution, predictive modelling, or AI-driven measurement.
🚀 We’ll be digging deeper into this all week, so stay tuned.
💡 Want to chat about it? Let’s meet at eTail.
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