One thing is for certain: the world of e-commerce never sits still. But what should retailers be paying attention to now?
Agility requires not only adapting to changing consumer behaviors but also anticipating them. It’s about proactively shaping the future of retail, not just reacting to it.
Today, we’re going to talk about navigating the ever-shifting landscape of e-commerce, from micro-shopping moments to the evolving role of AI, as we get ready for eTail Boston, August 11-14, in Boston, Massachusetts. To help me discuss this topic, I’d like to welcome Lena Moriarty, Head of eTail Marketing at Worldwide Business Research.
About Lena Moriarty
Lena Moriarty is the Head of Marketing at eTail, the conference community designed to power your growth 365 days a year. At eTail, she takes charge on all things omnichannel marketing and strategy, from point A to point Z.
Lena Moriarty on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lenamoriarty/
Resources
Worldwide Business Research: https://www.wbresearch.com https://www.wbresearch.com
The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow
Catch the future of e-commerce at eTail Boston, August 11-14, 2025. Register now: https://bit.ly/etailboston and use code PARTNER20 for 20% off for retailers and brands
Don’t Miss MAICON 2025, October 14-16 in Cleveland – the event bringing together the brights minds and leading voices in AI. Use Code AGILE150 for $150 off registration. Go here to register: https://bit.ly/agile150“
Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstrom
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Transcript
Greg Kihlstrom (00:00)
One thing’s for certain, the world of e-commerce never sits still. But what should retailers be paying attention to now? Agility requires not only adapting to changing consumer behaviors, but also anticipating them. It’s about proactively shaping the future of retail, not just reacting to it. Today, we’re going to talk about navigating the ever-shifting landscape of e-commerce, from micro-shopping moments to the evolving role of AI as we get ready for eTail Boston on August 11 through 14 in Boston, Massachusetts.
To help me discuss this topic, I’d like to welcome Lena Moriarty, Head of eTail Marketing at Worldwide Business Research. Lena, welcome to the show.
Lena Moriarty (00:37)
Thank you so much for having me. I’m so happy to be here, Greg.
Greg Kihlstrom (00:39)
Yeah, looking forward to talking with you. Definitely looking forward to eTail Boston as well. yeah, before we before we get there and before we dive into the topics, why don’t you give a little background on yourself and your role at eTail and worldwide business research.
Lena Moriarty (00:53)
So first and foremost, Greg, thank you so much again. You’re a long time partner. We love having you at eTale. So eTale is the year round community built to help power your growth 365 days a year. Whether it’s conferences, webinars, meetups, you name it and we are there for you to really help foster the growth, learning and strategize. And we have eTale Boston coming up right around the corner. That’s one of our flagship events that’s going to be so fun centered all around really the customer journey, learning new tactics about AI, personalization at scale, and so many other topics.
Greg Kihlstrom (01:28)
Love it. Well, yeah, let’s let’s dive in here. So first thing, you know, with with the event coming up, seems like we were just in Palm Springs and now it’s already ⁓ it’s already coming on August here. So let’s talk a little bit about what to expect at eTail Boston. So what are some of the most pressing challenges that retailers are bringing to the table for for this show?
Lena Moriarty (01:50)
I know retail moves quick and life comes at you quick in the marketing world. And everyone’s focus and everyone’s major sense of urgency right now is really centered around the holiday season. Everyone is focused on doing well for the holidays. And I mean, you know, when Amazon pulls all paid ads from Google, things are a little bit crazy in the retail world right now.
With that, retailers are really wanting to measure what matters. So what their specific customers want and using that technology to then make it work for them. So with that, what are the real use cases of AI? What are the real use cases of solid tech that’s working not just for helping with things like copy, but helping with efficiencies and saving time within the day? So people are asking, how do we perform personalization at scale? How do we connect our fragmented data points?
There’s a million and a half channels that we could use. So it’s really just all about those pressing challenges right now. I feel like there’s a lot of them, unfortunately.
Greg Kihlstrom (02:48)
Yeah, yeah. And so from a solution or even strategy perspective, you know, can you give us a little sneak peek of, know, what what’s going to be showcased at the event?
Lena Moriarty (02:58)
Well, as we know, we launched our AI Summit, which has been an absolute hit and has been a real center of conversation. So a sneak peek into some of the solutions will actually have real life technology demos going on that show everyone personally, e-tailers personally, how AI can help with X, Y, Z challenges that we’re facing in our day-to-day life. So I think that that’s such an amazing hit because we’re looking for the use studies to actually break through the noise and not just you know, throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing if it sticks, so to speak. So we have AI demos coming from amazing technology providers like Moonshot AI, Drive Commerce, and Shop Vision among a couple. And also, I think that we can’t go a beat without hearing the words retail media network.
Those three special words. You know, we launched also Commerce Media Brand Summit this year, which has been a major, major hit. But we’ll also be having a big retail media focus. eTail Boston. have Acadia coming fluent and we also have direct mail is back with so many channels. You know, I’m talking about the channels. The pendulum is always swinging. So we have some great direct mail technology as well that I’m actually really looking forward to seeing. Letter Labs will be there as well. So a couple of other ones.
It’ll be great.
Greg Kihlstrom (04:13)
Nice, nice. Yeah, I know direct mail is it’s one of those things where you know the further we get along with technology. It’s like some of the you know the the quote unquote old school even though there’s a lot of technology involved in direct mail now it always surprises me how effective it can be right.
Lena Moriarty (04:29)
I completely agree, you know, and the technology that’s available nowadays that allows you to scale your direct mail and to make it so personalized at scale, it is really wonderful to see.
Greg Kihlstrom (04:42)
Well, that’s great. So let’s talk about a few other things and maybe some macro trends in in in e-commerce and retail. So one of the things that we’re seeing is certainly there’s a lot of a lot of brands focused on the holiday shopping season. And yet the other kind of trend is shifting peak season. So, you know, holiday shopping is really important. But, you know, we just came off of Prime Day I set records for, you know, for for that that event. There’s lots of micro shopping events as well. So, you know, with the rise of events like Prime Day and others, how are retailers rethinking their strategies for peak seasons beyond traditional holiday shopping seasons?
Lena Moriarty (05:26)
Completely. I love that question because it’s while retailers are really gearing up for having a successful Q4, I think it’s also about unpacking those strategies to be used and utilized year round, which has actually been a very interesting shift because we’re not putting all of our eggs in the Q4 basket, if you will. We are stretching them out because we have things like Gen Z completely abandoning brand loyalty for consumer consciousness.
The shopper that we once knew is no longer the shopper that we currently have. So every holiday season as they come is looking different and different. Every prime day as it comes is looking different and different. So we’re thinking long game and we’re thinking shifting customer expectations and appealing to the volatility in the market. Because as we’re going through these different micro moments, if you will, it is hard to pinpoint an exact strategy that works in this date and time, but it’s very helpful and fruitful to learn about a longer term strategy and a more 360 degree strategy where these are the different things that are working for different types of audiences because it’s never really a one size fits all solution.
Greg Kihlstrom (06:36)
You know, feel like we often hear about some of the big players and their successes. But what about some of the smaller retailers? you know, how are they capitalizing on some of these, you know, whether it’s micro moments or some, you know, the kind of the shift of peak season to carve out their own niche and compete?
Lena Moriarty (06:55)
I will say the smaller retailers are winning with a little authenticity and a lot of TikTok shop. If you will, you know, I think that I’ve seen that. But in all seriousness, we do have amazing smaller retailers. Take Pepper or Little Sleepies who will be at eTail. They’re not billion dollar brands, but they’re absolutely nailing community and timing. So forming these micro communities has been such an integral part of the new age marketing movement.
And we almost see that taken from some of the bigger players like Duolingo, where they’re focusing on the micro communities and we’re seeing the small retailers take these bigger trends and adapting those trends to work for their brand. So it’s really amazing to see it to capitalize on, but I really think authenticity above all.
Greg Kihlstrom (07:39)
Yeah, yeah. Well, it also sounds like just, you know, whether it’s time of year or even, you know, the way that audiences are reached, sounds like brands in general are looking at those, you know, what worked in the in the big way with the peak holiday season or with one group at one time and trying to apply it just smarter and throughout the entire year, probably for a lot of reasons, right? Because not only is there opportunity, but also Just there’s increasing competition, right?
Lena Moriarty (08:09)
100 % and you’re needing to supplement that with other marketing spent like other marketing dollars made in different quarters, honestly. So looking to really win and that’s where we’ll have we’re having more flash sales, more independent holidays, if you will. And we’re going to see more of that. You know, I will hypothesize that we’ll see more people honing in on things like Christmas in July and doing different Valentine’s specials, maybe some St. Patrick’s Day.
just to make sure that we’re supplementing throughout the year.
Greg Kihlstrom (08:39)
Yeah, yeah, it makes sense. And of course, it wouldn’t be a podcast in 2025 without talking about AI. let’s know it. Let’s go there. We touched a little bit on it already, but like, let’s let’s let’s go in here. So obviously, you know, we’re seeing a rapid adoption of AI tools by retailers. You know, I would say any most software platforms at this point have some kind of AI component, whether it’s real or a bullet point and a list somewhere. you know what specific applications do you think are generating the most excitement out there and proving to be truly effective?
Lena Moriarty (09:18)
Yeah. You know, it’s buzzword time, Greg. So I’m going to throw some at you. Have you ever heard of agentic AI? No. But I will say three big ones that keep coming up again and again and again. have agentic AI, which, as you know, has been a hot topic in 2025 and beyond. Conversational commerce. And actually, what I’m seeing a lot of is AI driven content generation. I think with the quote unquote death of SEO, as we know it, people are looking to generate content at mass scale that doesn’t seem like the AI slop that a lot of people are putting out. And with that, we are needing to get, dive deeper, deeper into technology. So we have different sessions at eTail coming up, like AI powered customer journeys, where Be Heard Labs is gonna show how AI is reshaping touch points into personalized human experiences. And things like Moonshot AI, where they’re turning an e-commerce site into a self-authorizing machine basically. So with that, seeing what works and what doesn’t and a divide with that.
Greg Kihlstrom (10:20)
Yeah, yeah. And so on the on the flip side, then are consumers embracing AI and retail as readily as retailers are deploying it?
Lena Moriarty (10:32)
So I believe that that’s where a lot of the nuance lies. think that consumers are looking for the benefits that come from retailers embracing AI, but they are not looking for us to admit that it’s AI. So they’re really wanting the benefits, the efficiency, the personalization, but they’re also focused a lot on the transparency. There’s a lot of anti-AI chatter that we are seeing currently in the news, but I think that in our kind of niche segment of technology retail and brands, we’re seeing a lot of pro AI chatter where we’re saying, how is it working? So I do think that there is a slight divide and there is going to be a concern where it’s AI using it ethically, transparently. You can’t scare away the modern day consumer. And I think that we’re going to see a lot more on transparency and authenticity in the
months to come. I don’t think it’s years, think it’s months.
Greg Kihlstrom (11:30)
Yeah, no, I agree. And, I would say on the on the pro side of that, it’s, you know, the smaller brand. mean, for better or worse, a few very large companies have set the standard for how e-commerce and customer experience and expectations are set. Right. So as a smaller brand, like you have to keep up and you have to compete and a I provides ways to do that. Now, to your other point, the A.I. slop and the all of that stuff like you’ve got to avoid that. But I think there’s this there’s definitely this race to how do we get to good, you know, not just like automate stuff and and and then have it be, you know, not a lesser experience. But, know, how does a smaller retailer, not even a tiny one, but a smaller retail compete with the very large ones? And, you know, is a critical way to do it.
Lena Moriarty (12:21)
Exactly. These smaller teams need help. And the way that we operate with smaller teams is using the tools and technology that we’re given. And right now, AI is definitely making things more efficient.
Greg Kihlstrom (12:32)
Yeah, and so to go back to your other point about building trust and transparency, how should retailers be looking at this? while they’re again, racing to implement AI and increase efficiency and CX and all that stuff, how do they build that trust without alienating their shoppers?
Lena Moriarty (12:51)
Yeah, not to be a dead horse, but like you said, trust really is everything with today’s consumer. So I’m really looking forward to actually going to the session, the ROI on trust with Tentories, David Luba. It’s about showing your work and how you’re using AI ethically, transparently and with real intent. So, you know, what is the difference between using it in a good way and maybe a not so good way? So I think that how we can build trust is
is with transparency and using it epically and also speaking up when maybe we feel something might be being used wrong because I think that we’re in a new territory that no one has necessarily navigated before and we are going to encounter some issues that people haven’t encountered before. So we’re going to have to just all talk and learn and strategize the best that we can.
Greg Kihlstrom (13:40)
Yeah, yeah, makes sense. Well, I’m definitely looking looking forward to you tell Boston it’s, ⁓ you know, as of this show airing, it’ll be very soon. ⁓ But yeah, definitely encourage everybody to to check it out. And Lena, thanks again for for all your insights. One last question for you before we wrap, though, what do do to stay agile in your role and how do you find a way to do it consistently?
Lena Moriarty (14:03)
I absolutely love that question. Amazing question, Greg. And before I dive into it, I just want to let everyone know that you could use code partner20 for 20 % off your ticket as a dedicated partner with Agile brand. We would love to give all listeners 20 % off. And what I do to say Agile is really always be learning and curious. I think that while curiosity might have killed the cat, it made the better worker. but.
That mixed with a little bit of competition and staying up to date with the latest trends is really the perfect recipe for agility to me in today’s day and age. So I’m always learning, always growing. And this has really been absolutely amazing. I thank you so much for having me and I love being on the show and I can’t wait for eTail Boston.
