5 Ecommerce Tips To Help Marketers Enter the New Year Stress-Free

From AI-powered shopping and retail media to omnicommerce, brands have explored several strategies to drive digital shelf growth this year.

As we head into 2026, your team may be wondering what’s next. But to move forward, it’s important to look back. Here’s a year-end roundup of the biggest ecommerce lessons from 2025 — and how your team can apply them in the new year to deliver even better product experiences. 

1. To Win on the Digital Shelf, Shift From Storytelling to ‘Storyselling’

Compelling brand storytelling has always been non-negotiable for engaging customers, but in a fragmented ecommerce environment, brands now need to elevate their storytelling to “storyselling.”

That was the key takeaway from Nestlé and Quickfire’s main stage session at the 2025 Digital Shelf Summit.

Storyselling is two-fold: Brands need to “be seen and be selected,” according to Gloria DeCoste, director of omnichannel marketing at Nestlé. Your brand needs to show up on the relevant channels to increase its visibility. To be selected, you need to craft content that resonates so deeply with your target audience that they choose you over everyone else.

DeCoste and Scott Ohsman, vice president of digital commerce at Quickfire, shared several strategies for effective omnichannel storyselling, including:

• Turn your product detail page (PDP) into a story hub: Use explainer videos, enhanced content, and quick-hit value propositions. PDPs are the place where “you’ve got more time to make the story pay off,” Ohsman says.
• Create consistency across channels: Deliver a unified message about your product, but don’t just copy and paste. The content can be specific to each channel and still tell a connected story.
• Don’t forget about context and seasonality: Good “storyselling” considers context, place, and time. Seasons, cultural moments, and unexpected events all influence the shopper experience.

In 2026, if your brand wants to stand out on the digital shelf, you can’t just tell a story for story’s sake. Every element of it has to be optimized to sell. 

2. Value Is the New Loyalty

Consumer behavior always shifts depending on the economic climate, and this year was no different.

According to Salsify’s “2025 Consumer Research” report, 66% of shoppers have cut back on non-essential purchases and shifted to store brands and less expensive alternatives to save money. And according to the upcoming “2026 Consumer Research” report, 39% of shoppers are comparing prices more carefully before purchasing, and 38% have reduced overall spending in certain product categories. 

Value has become the new loyalty driver. Price-weary consumers are turning to brands that offer quality products with competitive pricing. If your company wants to engage them, amp up the value story in your messaging and product content.

Incorporate value-driven keywords on your PDPs and fine-tune your promotional strategy with value-conscious consumers in mind. Consider exclusive promotions and loyalty programs to give repeat customers additional savings, value packs, and bundles to attract budget-minded shoppers with the best deals.

3. Organizational Transformation — Not Just Tech — Is An Ecommerce Growth Accelerator

Brands rightfully focus on optimizing their tech stack and product content to drive profitability and growth, but there’s another lever they can pull to build their strategic advantage — unlocking the full potential of their people.

Organizational transformation is vital to delivering a consistent, convenient, and complete digital experience, according to experts from Danone and The Campbell’s Company.

To accelerate organizational transformation, brands must foster an ownership mindset within their team. Danone has built this mindset and a culture of “everyone either sells or helps sell,” where employees are invested in and look for every opportunity to help the business succeed.

Defined processes and systems are also crucial.

“Where there is ambiguity, create structure.” 

— Jennifer Angelus, Director of Digital Shelf and Capabilities, Danone

She recommends that brands create an in-house commercial success activation guide and commercial activation checklist to crystallize the specific tactics that lead to digital shelf success. 

As these ecommerce leaders suggest, your people are your most powerful asset. So, empower them with the tools and capabilities they need to propel your ecommerce success.

4. Integrated Data Fuels Omnichannel Success

For years, the industry has framed first-party data as the Holy Grail.
While it’s still key, brands now need integrated data to thrive in today’s omnichannel commerce environment.

Integrated data enables smarter decisions and unlocks growth faster, according to ecommerce leaders at Mondelēz, PepsiCo, and CommerceIQ.

To develop this asset, both Mondelēz and PepsiCo created a new collaborative model where ecommerce sales, marketing, and supply chain teams contributed to — and pulled information from — a shared enterprise data infrastructure.

Iwao Fusillo, former global head of data and analytics for digital commerce at PepsiCo, says integrated data creates a single source of truth that makes it easier to align on the five key ecommerce levers: assortment, availability, visibility, content, and value.

“What doesn’t work is putting 10% of the marketing team’s brains, the supply chain team’s brains, the sales team’s brains, and assuming we can make significant progress on a digital transformation. That typically doesn’t work.” 

— Iwao Fusillo, Former Global Head of Data and Analytics for Digital Commerce, PepsiCo

The key takeaway here? Data silos don’t build agile organizations. To be more nimble in today’s commerce environment, your brand needs to integrate its data ecosystem.

5. Make Ecommerce a Shared Language

In many industries, particularly consumer packaged goods, ecommerce is still an afterthought.

Digital teams typically aren’t involved in the early stages of strategic planning, leading to a siloed approach that causes friction with finance, marketing, supply chain, and R&D teams who each have their own strategic goals.

To avoid this, companies need to embed ecommerce thinking into their organization’s DNA. 

“We’re all vying for placement on the digital shelf now, and that requires a new kind of cross-functional collaboration,” says Ash McMullen, head of ecommerce at Advantice Health.

Companies can build cross-functional alignment and a shared ecommerce language that drives omnichannel success through a few key actions.

• Create shared goals: Whether it’s profitable growth or predictable performance, shared goals serve as the foundation for collaboration.
• Develop a joint model: McMullen and Jay Stone, former vice president of finance at Advantice Health, worked together to create a collaborative planning framework, built with inputs from marketing, ecommerce, and finance. They tested how digital shelf performance metrics translated into business outcomes and impacted the company’s profit and loss statements, which helped create shared ownership and a single source of truth everyone could operate from.
• Translate jargon into business-oriented language: Every internal function has its jargon and specific performance metrics, but McMullen and Stone realized their teams needed to translate these terms into language their counterparts could understand. For example, instead of just saying, “Our ROAS [return on ad spend] is improving,” they’d frame it as, “We’re spending more efficiently, which is driving higher-margin growth.”

Putting Ecommerce Tips To Work

Success on the digital shelf never happens in a vacuum. It requires strategy, data and technology, collaboration, and unlocking the full potential of your people.

Whether it’s creating a collaborative planning framework like Advantice did, integrating data like Mondelēz and PepsiCo, or embracing the power of “storyselling,” 2025 provided several invaluable ecommerce lessons.

Now, it’s up to your brand to use them to win on the digital shelf in 2026.