eCommerce Expo 2025 review: Nobody’s Child pushes past bottlenecks and hits one million orders on Shopify

Nobody’s Child has completed one million orders since its switch to Shopify earlier this year, the e-commerce platform announced at eCommerce Expo at Excel London last week.

Andrew Xeni, Founder and CEO at Nobody’s Child, told delegates it had taken the company two years to make the decision to switch platforms.

“The biggest thing for me was trying to remove the emotion from the decision,” he explained. “Loyalty is important, but business has to come first.”

The Chief Financial Officer calculated how much was being lost to doing things ad hoc, with “multifaceted bottlenecks” constraining the business. “Our tech wasn’t fit for purpose,” Xeni said.

In 2022, the fashion brand sold 27% of its business to Marks and Spencer, after becoming the first third-party brand to join the department store’s Brands at M&S platform in 2020. Nobody’s Child has since been named as one of the most popular brands on the site.

“It was a bit of a fairytale,” Xeni said. “But we also needed to make sure we had a foundation there.”

Nobody’s Child, which partnered with agency Limesharp to bring its new e-commerce site to life, completed the migration in four months and has recently celebrated its millionth order on the platform. 

DTC, which Xeni said has always been the “ambition”, despite beginning as manufacturers, now accounts for 70% of all Nobody’s Child sales. 

The new platform allows the brand to offer ‘back in stock’ notifications, which have become a significant source of sales. 

Nobody’s Child is also looking to use Shopify’s PoS technology in its seven physical stores. It also opened its first store on London’s Carnaby Street in 2021, but has since established a permanent presence there and other locations across the UK.

Xeni shared that the firm “has paused for a moment” on new stores, as it wants to avoid being too aggressive in its expansion so as not to lose its focus. 

“We don’t want to be everywhere,” Xeni said but added that the hope is to be in the double-digits for standalone stores by summer 2026.

“We want to be accessible, responsible, and affordable - that’s a tall ask,” Xeni added. “But this has been our DNA from day one - we want to own that lane.”

2025 RTIH INNOVATION AWARDS

E-commerce will be a key focus area at the 2025 RTIH Innovation Awards.

The awards. which are now closed for entries with our finalists and shortlists being announced last week, celebrate global tech innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.

Our 2024 hall of fame entrants were revealed during an event which took place at RIBA’s 66 Portland Place HQ in Central London on 21st November, and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by comedian Lucy Porter

In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “The event is now into its sixth year and what a journey it has been. The awards started life as an online only affair during the Covid outbreak, before launching as a small scale in real life event and growing year on year to the point where we’re now selling out this fine, historic venue.”

He added: “Congratulations to all of our finalists. Many submissions did not make it through to the final stage, and getting to this point is no mean feat. Checkout-free stores, automated supply chains, immersive experiences, on-demand delivery, next generation loyalty offerings, inclusive retail, green technology. We’ve got all the cool stuff covered this evening.”

“But just importantly we’ve got lots of great examples of companies taking innovative tech and making it usable in everyday operations - resulting in more efficiency and profitability in all areas.”

Congratulations to our 2024 winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Lucy Porter, and all those who attended November's gathering. 

For further information on the 2025 RTIH Innovation Awards, please fill in the below form and we will get back to you asap.