Focus on AI and loyalty as 2026 Technology for Marketing and eCommerce Expo kicks off in London
Technology for Marketing and eCommerce Expo 2026 opened its doors yesterday, welcoming thousands of retailers, brands and technology providers to ExCeL London for the first day of the two-day event.
If you’re attending today, Retail Technology Innovation Hub is on stand N54, so feel free to drop by, say hi and pick up a free copy of the latest issue of our printed magazine.
Yesterday kicked off with a keynote from Richard Shotton, Author of The Choice Factory, Astroten, exploring how the buying journey is changing as AI search, social discovery and shopping assistants reshape how customers discover and choose products.
Elsewhere, a morning session with execs from Sunbeam Marketing and Noble Panacea, LEON and Big Bus Tours explored ‘How Brands Earn Loyalty and Trust in an Age of Infinite Choice’, focusing on the value brands can create for customers and how businesses can distinguish true incremental loyalty from standard buyer behaviour.
Kate Hammond, Loyalty and CRM Consultant, Sunbeam Marketing and Noble Panacea, said: “Not even membership can be seen as loyalty. With fewer barriers and more incentives to join a rewards programme or download an app, an influx of signups doesn’t mean anything if those customers aren’t repeating with you as a business.”
Meanwhile, Hugo Harding, VP E-commerce and CRM, Big Bus Tours, commented: “Strong content helps to feed LLMs and agentic purchasing, so that Big Bus Tours shows up in itineraries and then delivers on the experience.
And Melody Courtois, Senior CRM and Loyalty Manager, LEON, observed: “People will have deeper connections with brands they really identify with or feel rewarded by. We need to listen more to customers about the money-can’t-buy experiences they crave”
AI was a key discussion point across the showfloor. In ‘Commerce Beyond the Storefront: How AI agents are rewriting digital commerce’, Shaun McCran, Adobe Commerce Product Marketing, Adobe, explored the importance of AI readable product data to the future relationship between AI led discovery and owned storefront experiences. Discussing the move, he said: “Intent, not a destination.” He also argued “AI is a decision-making solution. To make good decisions, you need good data.”
The theme of AI continued in a session featuring executives fromOpenAI, Shopify and DEPT. Jonathan Whiteside, Global EVP of Technology and CTO, DEPT, argued for maintaining a human element in AI: “Tasks highly empathetic should be done by humans, but on the other side dispassionate-based tasks, for example forecasting, should be done by AI.”
Joe Strolz, VP, Global Revenue & Support, Shopify, highlighted how businesses can identify opportunities for automation by using the tools already at their disposal: “the things that aren't, they get automated and then you just wind up spending more of your time on customer experience or product development.”
The conference continues today with a talk on ‘Building High Performing Teams Under Pressure’, featuring Millie Bright, former England Lioness, Chelsea Captain and UEFA Women’s EURO Winner, and Ellen White, former England Lioness, record goal scorer and UEFA Women’s EURO winner, plus sessions with brands including Space NK, InCard, LoveHoney Group, Selfridges and Jacquees of London.
So hot right now
Shopify is included in RTIH’s first ever Retail Technology Hot 100 List. Launching in August, this sees us bringing you the hottest companies whose solutions and systems are helping drive the retail sector forward.
Our Founder and Editor, Scott Thompson, drew up a list of 150 companies that had consistently been on his radar over the past 12 months whilst bringing our community the latest retail tech news and views that matter. These companies operate across the omnichannel retail landscape (stores, online, mobile, supply chain, payments etc).
Our judging panel, including Vineta Bajaj, Group CFO, Holland & Barrett, Dan McGrath, JD Group Customer Operations, JD Sports, Dr. Astha Purohit, Director of Product Management, Customer Data and Identity, Walmart, and Paula Bobbett, Chief Data and Digital Officer, Boots, provided feedback on those who have the most innovative, forward thinking technology offerings and are also best addressing retailers' current challenges, painpoints, and opportunities.
The judges used the following framework when making their picks:
1. Retailer problem fit - how meaningful, strategic, and widely felt the retailer pain being addressed is.
2. Production traction in retail (2025–2026) - real named retailer deployments, pilots.
3. Innovation and defensibility - genuine technical novelty paired with a defensible competitive position.
And there was also a public vote, with thousands of members of our community of retail tech enthusiasts getting involved. Thanks to all those who took part! Based on the judging panel's feedback and the public vote, we then drew up our first ever RTIH Retail Technology Hot 100.
So, without further ado, here are the 100 hottest global retail technology ventures right now. Drum roll, please…
