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📍 Live from Palm Springs – Here’s What Went Down on Day 2!
Day 2 of eTail West 2025 was packed with game-changing insights from leading brands and tech innovators. From AI-powered personalization to the future of post-purchase experiences, here's what you missed.
🔥 Top Takeaways from Day 2
🔹 Sustainability Needs a Rebrand
Daniel Rodriguez, CEO of Currently Wine Co., challenged brands to rethink sustainability’s role in consumer decision-making. "Sustainability is on nobody’s Maslow’s hierarchy of needs," he said. The key? Make it desirable—not just responsible. Currently Wine Co. is doing just that by reimagining packaging with lightweight aluminum bottles, cutting the carbon footprint of wine consumption by 50% while enhancing convenience for customers.
🔹 AI-Powered Marketing Gets an Upgrade
Megan McDonagh, CMO at WPromote, introduced Polaris IQ, a next-gen AI platform helping brands allocate ad spend with pinpoint accuracy. "Instead of spending big and learning later, brands can now optimize creative before launch," she explained. AI-driven predictive analytics are making marketing spend smarter, not bigger.
🔹 Post-Purchase Is the New Battleground for Loyalty
David Morin, VP of Customer Strategy at Narvar, shared how brands like Lululemon are winning with seamless post-purchase communication. "Customers expect personalized updates across email, SMS, apps, and even chatbots," he noted. AI-driven insights are also helping brands combat return fraud while ensuring loyal customers get VIP treatment.
This is an AI-generated podcast based on our eTail interview with David Morin—not a direct recording.
🔹 Human Connection Still Wins in the AI Era
Austin Helm, Sales Manager at ZeroBounce, emphasized the power of human interaction in an increasingly automated world. "People still want to buy from people," he said. While AI is helping optimize efficiency, brands that keep real human touchpoints in their customer journey will stand out.
💡 Panel Recap: Tackling TikTok in 2025—Maximizing Impact Through Paid & Organic Strategies
By Hugo Hiley, Fospha
It was a great pleasure to attend the “Tackling TikTok: Maximizing Impact Through Paid and Organic Strategies” panel at eTail Palm Springs yesterday. We were fortunate to hear insights from TikTok, Every Man Jack, Stratia, Kut from the Kloth, and Kopari on how brands can maximize TikTok’s impact. Here are my key takeaways:
💡Consumers are more educated than ever—brands need to meet them with the right content: TikTok is a go-to platform for product and brand discovery, with creators acting as trusted advisors. Brands should focus on education-driven content that builds trust and engages audiences early in the funnel.
📈 TikTok is a full-funnel engine: Brands like Kopari are winning by pairing top-of-funnel storytelling with bottom-of-funnel tactics like ‘Add to Cart’ ads. A strong full-funnel strategy is key to make the most of TikTok's offering.
😇 The Halo Effect of TikTok is real: At Fospha, we’re always talking about TikTok’s halo effect on third-party sales channels like Amazon. It was great to hear Ross Wakeham from TikTok call out this 'spillover' as a huge measurement opportunity for brands looking to connect the dots in their marketing mix. If you're interested on TikTok's impact on Amazon you can read our latest research on this topic here 🔗
🔥 What’s Coming Up on Day 3?
Day 3 of eTail West 2025 is packed with insights from top brands and industry leaders. Here’s what to look out for:
Title: Understanding The Key Forces Transforming Retail in 2025
Time: 8:00 AM – 8:40 AM
Speakers: Phillip Jackson, Future Commerce
🔍 Key Insight: Retail is undergoing rapid transformation—this session will explore how shifting consumer behavior, data privacy regulations, and AI-driven insights are reshaping the landscape.
Title: Navigating The Next Phase of the D2C Revolution
Time: 9:00 AM – 9:40 AM
Speakers: Sara Jensen, Co-Founder, Hugh & Grace; Calvin Lammers, SVP, Digital & Media, Necessaire Inc.; Dianne Dickinson, Head of Growth, Barefaced; Amy Carr, Chief Marketing & Digital Officer, ThirdLove; Greta Meyer, Co-Founder & CEO, Sequel
🔍 Key Insight: As customer acquisition costs rise, brands must rethink their direct-to-consumer strategies. This panel will explore sustainable approaches to growth, attribution modeling, and customer retention.
Title: Retail Media & Measurement – Cracking the Walled Garden Challenge
Time: 10:30 AM – 11:10 AM
Speakers: TBA
🔍 Key Insight: Retail media is booming, but brands struggle to measure success within walled gardens like Amazon, Walmart, and Instacart. This session dives into new attribution models to track impact across platforms.
Title: Maximizing Marketing ROI in an AI-Driven World
Time: 2:00 PM – 2:40 PM
Speakers: TBA
🔍 Key Insight: AI is reshaping performance marketing, but how do you ensure every dollar spent delivers real business impact? This panel will explore best practices for full-funnel measurement and cross-channel attribution.
📍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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