Oh how I’ve missed you… it’s been a long five years since ChannelAdvisor Connect took place in person way way back in 2020. They did hold an event virtually in 2021, but then they were acquired by CommerceHub in 2022 who at the end of 2023 become Rithum. But, today they were back in person for the first Rithum Live in London and it’s fantastic to see, not just Rithum staff, but the hundreds of brands and retailers they support all in one place at one time!
AI and Agentic Commerce
Highlights were as you might expect, all about AI and Agentic commerce, there’s no getting away from it but it’s going to change how retailers think with consumers already shopping through AI agents and that’s only going to grow. (Heads up, if your CPA is rising it’s because less people are clicking!)
Top takeaway, the old SEO model of keyword matching, crawling and ranking, and link retrieval – the game of stuffing keywords, worrying about backlinks and page after page of search results mostly highlighted in purple as the consumer has already taken the link bait and quickly backed out are history.
Incoming are the AI agents, interpreting intent and mapping it to actions or answers. And AI agents want access to real time structured data via APIs, aiming to fulfil tasks and not just offer information. And it’s not just data they want, they want contextual intelligence because they’re more than likely only going to show one result – the best result that fits the consumer’s intent.
Brands should be worried, because AI Agents are going to be scraping reviews and feedback so they can match service with product and they’ll be no hiding poor service behind a heritage name. The AI Agents will offer the best match product with the best service so the brands who really get this right will win.
Marketplaces, Brands, and Retailers
But Rithum Live wasn’t all about AI, obviously there are channels out there that matter and we got to chat to Allegro, eBay Advertising, Zalando (and ZEOS), Kaufland, Amazon MCF, and Bol. And the brands presenting were world class from Nike and New Balance to Draper Tools and experts from WPP and Accenture.
Most off all my biggest takeaway from the event is that the UK matters to Rithum, their top execs flew in from around the world including their CEO, Lou Keyes and Managing Director Europe, Philip Hall. Then there are three key focuses – Rithum for Retailers, Rithum for Brands (formerly ChannelAdvisor) and how they work to connect suppliers with retailers. While there are a plethora of multichannel management providers to choose from today, Rithum can do things that no other can.
If you missed Rithum Live, keep a look out as the sessions were recorded, and if you want to supercharge your sales you can get in touch with Rithum here.
