Conference Agenda
Below is the work in progress agenda. This will be modified as talks and speakers are agreed.
Pre-Event Networking
Check-in and collection of conference passes
Tea, coffee & mini Danish pastries
Networking & peer-to-peer learning
Welcome to Ecommerce Scotland
Welcome by Laura Blair
Keynote from Richard Lochhead MSP
Minister for Business and Employment, Scottish Government
introduced by Dr. Peter Mowforth
Session 1 • Productivity & Skills
1.1 Unlocking Your Productivity Superpowers
(25 min talk) As a fun and entertaining start to the morning, this talk will showcase the peak performance "superpowers" of elite productivity. This unpacks the secrets to harnessing key mental states under pressure and on-demand on a daily basis. This also covers how to sharpen your essential "Critical Thinking" skills, the vital role of scepticism in the AI Age, and many other gems.
1.2 Add Depth to your Expertise with Guided Self-Learning
(5 min short talk) Tired of learning that doesn't stick? This session introduces Guided Self-Learning, a strategy that bridges the gap between self-directed initiative and structured support. Stop settling for surface-level tutorials. Instead, discover how to leverage AI tools like NotebookLM to build genuine expertise. You will learn to move past generic T-shaped capabilities and master the deep, V-shaped skills essential for success in the AI era.
1.3 Reshaping Ecommerce: AI, Automation & People
(20 min panel) This session moves beyond the hype to share real-world case studies of Ecommerce teams integrating AI. Discover what happens after the onboarding: the impact on productivity, the reality of change management, and the metrics that actually matter. We’ll discuss where AI succeeds in augmentation, where it fails, and how it can help you bring skills in-house to reshape your team structure.
1.4 Spin to Win
(5 min) Quick entertaining session while we swap between panels on stage with 3 chances to win £50 cash.
1.5 The End of Ecommerce? (as we know it)
(25 min multi-speaker talk) By 2030, many of your customers may never visit your website. The traditional storefront is fading, with marketplaces dominating and your browser's AI agent handling routine "chore" purchases: restocking household essentials, negotiating insurance, and booking travel. So, who are you marketing to? In this high-speed relay, four experts track the lifecycle of future transactions: from AI Agents negotiating via Commerce Protocols to dark warehouses run by robotics. We explore the bifurcated future of online retail: the Agentic Commerce of automated buying for bots, and the Experiential Commerce of deep brand immersion for humans. Is this the end of traditional Ecommerce? Or the beginning of an Invisible Economy?
Morning Break (40 mins)
Tea, coffee & biscuits
Networking & peer-to-peer learning
Opportunity to ask speakers one-on-one questions
Session 2 • Profit Optimisation, Retention & SEO
2.1 The Profitability Playbook: 10 Ways to Escape the Race to the Bottom
(20 min talk) Are you stuck in a high-revenue, low-profit loop? This talk provides a 10-point playbook for sustainable profit optimisation. Learn how to escape the discount-driven race to the bottom with high-impact tactics across Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Meta Ads, CLTV Flows, improve tracking, optimising payment fees, the uncomfortable truth about selling on Amazon, plus many more gems.
2.2 How Brands & Merchants are Winning with Server-Side Tracking
(5 min short talk) With ad blockers, iOS 14+, and cookie deprecation, client-side pixels are missing up to 30% of your conversion data. This signal loss shatters your attribution, weakens ad platform algorithms, and deflates your ROAS. As Apple prepares to remove click IDs (e.g. gclid, fbclkid) from Safari, the problem is getting worse. This session explores how brands are moving to server-side tracking to reclaim their data, build a resilient first-party data foundation, and accurately assign credit (attribution) to the channels that are actually driving sales and profitability.
2.3 Supercharging Owned Channels & Advanced Retention Strategies
(20 min panel) Go beyond basic marketing. This talk dives deep into supercharging your owned channels to build powerful retention engines (e.g. organic social, advanced email/SMS flows). Learn advanced strategies to increase AOV and CLTV, implement tiered loyalty programmes, and build effective win-back strategies using predicted churn models to keep customers before they leave.
2.4 Spin to Win
(5 min) Quick entertaining session while we swap between panels on stage with 3 chances to win £50 cash.
2.5 How To Dominate AI Search in 2026
(20 min talk) Is your SEO strategy ready for an AI world? Join Charlie to dismantle AI Search in 2026 and learn how to increase traffic and sales from ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Mode. You'll take away a practical framework to optimise for AI platforms, uncover AI citation targets, and measure bottom-line results.
Lunch Break (1 hour 20 mins)
Light buffet lunch served with fruit juice & water
Networking & peer-to-peer learning
Opportunity to ask speakers one-on-one questions
Access to over 400 Glasgow Science Centre exhibits
Session 3 • Next Gen Brand Advertising
3.1 Why Your Ecommerce Brand Can't Ignore YouTube's 2.7 Billion Active Daily Views
(20 min panel) With nearly 2.7 billion monthly users, ignoring YouTube is no longer an option. Learn how to use AI as a creative spark for smarter video creation, turning product-heavy catalogs into engaging short-form video. We'll cover practical strategies to drive real Demand Gen and measure long-term brand uplift from the world's largest video stage.
3.2 Transform Your Brand with an Asset Generation Engine
(5 min short talk) This session explores how to transform your brand by building an "Asset Generation Engine". We'll dive into the strategy of creating a bespoke AI image generator for unique seasonal photography and email campaigns, ensuring perfect brand consistency. Plus, discover how to take it a step further by creating dynamic videos directly from your static images.
3.3 Does the Perfect Demand Gen & Demand Capture mix exist?
(20 min interactive panel) What's the perfect marketing mix? You tell us! Join this fun, high-energy panel where we use Slido polls to crowdsource the ultimate Demand Gen and Demand Capture tier list. Our experts will frame the debate as the audience ranks the top platforms and marketing channels for both "D2C brands" and "multi-brand merchants". This is a fast-paced, interactive session you won't want to miss.
3.4 Spin to Win
(5 min) Quick entertaining session while we swap between panels on stage with 3 chances to win £50 cash.
3.5 Scaling D2C: Architecting an Influencer Program for Predictable Profit
(20 min talk) Turn your influencer program into a true growth channel. This talk delivers a framework for combining strategic influencer seeding with powerful paid amplification. Learn how to find perfect-fit influencers on Instagram & TikTok, build a high-performance affiliate growth program, and master the art of scaling your influencer content into predictable profit.
Afternoon Break (40 mins)
Tea, coffee & biscuits
Networking & peer-to-peer learning
Opportunity to ask speakers one-on-one questions
Session 4 • Modern Customer Journeys
4.1 The Art of the Brand: Why Story is Your Most Valuable Asset in the Age of AI
(20 min panel) Why does Grey Goose sell for more than double the price of its competitors? Why is Red Bull a media empire that happens to sell energy drinks? The secret isn't in the liquid - it's in the narrative. This panel dissects the "Art of the Brand," contrasting the manufactured prestige of modern giants with the deep-rooted heritage of the Scottish drinks industry. Discover the psychological triggers that transform brands into global icons, and learn how Ecommerce SMEs can engineer their own "high-value" narrative to command premium prices.
4.2 Mastering the TikTok-to-Amazon Conversion Funnel
(20 min talk) TikTok Shop's rise has been phenomenal capturing nearly 40% of UK social commerce worth £2.9 billion. While TikTok Shop offers native checkout, many brands prefer to leverage Amazon’s established reliability for actual transactions. The challenge is that most treat TikTok (discovery) and Amazon (conversion) as separate silos, but the customer sees one continuous journey. If that journey isn't seamless, you lose the sale. This session offers a blueprint for unifying your strategy: using TikTok to drive the initial interest and Amazon to provide the trust and logistics to close it.
4.3 The Evolution of Physical Stores into Omnichannel Fulfilment & Customer Experience Hubs
(20 min panel) This session dives into how physical locations are becoming a brand's biggest asset, serving as both local fulfilment centres and rich experience hubs. We'll discuss practical strategies for in-store fulfilment, focusing on the latest developments in Click & Collect, used by 69% of UK shoppers and driving 85% of them to purchase additional items while in-store. We'll also explore community building and leveraging your product experts to deliver unified customer service and create compelling content for platforms like YouTube.
4.4 The Future of Ecommerce, Omnichannel Retail & AI
(20 min interactive panel) What's next for Ecommerce? Let's decide together. Join our panel for a session driven entirely by you. Using Slido, you’ll vote on the trends, quiz the experts, and debate the future of Ecommerce, Digital Marketing, Omnichannel Retail, AI, fractional roles etc. This is your conversation, come and shape it!
The Afterparty
Sponsored by
Venue = Radisson Red Sky Bar, a short 8 minute walk (600m) from the Glasgow Science Centre. Private Event for Afterparty Ticket Holders Only.
Free Finger Food & Pizza
Free Beer, Wine, Spirits, Cocktails, Champagne, Soft Drinks
Free Afterparty tickets are available from sponsor stands
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Please let us know if you'd like us know if there are any Ecommerce topics that you'd like us to cover: