On October 13–14, 2026, our team was in London for the Connected Commerce Summit London 2026, organized by myDigitalShelf at the Park Plaza Victoria. The audience came from FMCG, retail, and digital commerce leadership, and one theme ran through both days: discovery, recommendations, media, and purchase keep moving closer together.
One slide we saw in the room summed it up in a line: "The shopper journey became the signal layer." The path a shopper takes is now a data source in its own right.
What our team took away
Back from London, we compared notes. These are the points we kept coming back to.
- Focus over more channels. Growth comes less from adding channels and more from focus and consistency along the whole path to purchase.
- Shopper behavior should guide spend. The strongest commerce strategies connect what shoppers actually do with smarter decisions about media and investment.
- AI pays off once it is put to work. AI is moving fast, but the advantage goes to teams that operationalize it, with clear use cases, strong data foundations, and a direct link to commercial results.
- Discoverability runs from search to checkout. From AI search to agentic commerce, products need to be easy to find, choose, and buy.
Where DS Stream stands
The commerce conversation has shifted from channels and touchpoints to connected experiences, data, and better decisions. In our work, AI earns its keep when it becomes part of everyday processes such as pricing, assortment, product information, and commercial planning. As more search, recommendation, and buying happens with AI involved, the quality of product data and how easily a product can be found become strategic capabilities.
Thanks to the organizers
Thank you to myDigitalShelf for putting the summit together, and to everyone who traded ideas with us in London. We help companies build the data foundations and AI capabilities that turn these shifts into measurable business results. If that is on your roadmap, get in touch with us.
