ecommert Podcast

Hosted by Mert Damlapinar

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May 2026

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Hosted by Mert Damlapinar, recognized as a Top Voice on LinkedIn and the #1 source in global eCommerce, retail media, artificial intelligence, digital shelf, and actionable insights.

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May 21, 202617 min

E-commerce Strategy Part 2: Agentic Commerce, AI Shopping & The Future of Digital Commerce with Andrew Lederman

In Part 2 of the ecommert® Podcast, we continue the conversation with Andrew Lederman to explore the future of digital commerce, AI-driven shopping experiences, and the rise of Agentic Commerce. Drawing from his experience across startups, Alibaba, BEES at AB InBev, and now Mondelez, Andrew shares how global CPG brands are adapting to rapidly evolving consumer behaviors, transforming organizational structures, and preparing for a world powered by AI shopping assistants and LLM commerce. From China's advanced social commerce ecosystem to India's quick commerce revolution, this episode dives into the global trends shaping the next era of retail and what brands must do to stay competitive in a frictionless commerce environment. In this episode, you'll learn: 🔹 Agentic Commerce & AI Shopping: Why AI assistants may become the most powerful sales channel in digital commerce. 🔹 The Future of Consumer Experience: How frictionless purchasing, contextual recommendations, and AI-driven discovery are reshaping shopping behavior. 🔹 The Evolution of the Digital Shelf: Why brands must optimize content far beyond PDPs — including Reddit, YouTube, FAQs, blogs, and every digital touchpoint. 🔹 Global Commerce Innovation: Key lessons from the US, China, and India on retail media, quick commerce, and social commerce ecosystems. 🔹 Cross-Functional Team Structures: Why modern commerce organizations need tighter collaboration between content, media, sales, technology, and marketing teams. 🔹 Leaner Tech Stacks: How enterprise brands are simplifying technology ecosystems while expanding AI and commerce capabilities. 🔹 Startup Agility at Scale: How large global companies can stay adaptable in one of the fastest-changing industries in the world. About the Guest: Andrew Lederman is the Global VP of E-Commerce at Mondelez, where he leads the company's digital commerce business globally. With experience spanning B2C startups, Alibaba, and AB InBev's BEES platform, Andrew brings a highly adaptable and future-focused perspective on how brands can scale meaningful business impact in the AI-commerce era. 🌐 More insights: https://www.ecommert.ai Mert Damlapinar | ecommert About ecommert: We partner with CPG businesses and leading technology companies of all sizes to accelerate growth through AI-driven digital commerce solutions. Our expertise spans e-channel strategy, retail media optimization, and digital shelf analytics, ensuring smarter and more efficient operations across B2C, eB2B, and DTC channels.

May 14, 202616 min

E-commerce Strategy: Retail Media, B2B & Digital Commerce with Andrew Lederman from Mondelez

In this episode of the ecommert® Podcast, we sit down with Andrew Lederman to explore how global CPG brands are adopting startup agility and preparing for the next frontier of digital shopping: Agentic Commerce. Drawing from his vast experience in both agile tech startups and massive enterprises, Andrew shares how Mondelez is redefining digital commerce through cross-functional integration, holistic content strategies, and localized operating models. From balancing brand equity with commercial impact to predicting the inevitable rise of AI-driven shopping assistants, this conversation dives into what it truly takes to stay ahead of the curve in a rapidly evolving global commerce landscape. In this episode, you'll learn: 🔹 Startup Agility in Enterprise: How to bring a scrappy, consumer-obsessed mindset to a massive CPG organization. 🔹 B2B Digital Transformation: The shift in traditional trade and how Mom & Pop shops are adopting B2B e-commerce platforms like BEES. 🔹 Bridging Sales & Marketing: Breaking down internal silos to balance brand equity with retail media investments through unified measurement across CX teams. 🔹 Global Market Maturity: Navigating the vastly different e-commerce landscapes and tech ecosystems of the US, China, and India. 🔹 The Rise of Agentic Commerce: Why AI shopping assistants sitting in consumers' phones are the future of digital commerce. 🔹 Holistic Content Strategy: Why brands must optimize their story across the entire web—from Reddit to YouTube—not just the digital shelf and PDPs. About the Guest: Andrew Lederman is the Global VP of E-Commerce at Mondelez, where he leads the digital commerce business globally. With a rich background spanning from a B2C marketplace startup (OpenSky) to global tech giants (Alibaba) and massive B2B platforms (BEES at AB InBev), Andrew brings a unique, highly adaptable perspective on how brands can connect with consumers and scale real business impact. More insights: https://www.ecommert.ai Mert Damlapinar | ecommert About ecommert: We partner with CPG businesses and leading technology companies of all sizes to accelerate growth through AI-driven digital commerce solutions. Our expertise spans e-channel strategy, retail media optimization, and digital shelf analytics, ensuring smarter and more efficient operations across B2C, eB2B, and DTC channels.

April 30, 202620 min

If You Can't Measure It, Don't Spend It with Rishika Choumal from Henkel Part 2

In this episode of the ecommert® Podcast (Part 2), we continue the conversation with Rishika Choumal to explore how innovation, data, and AI are reshaping the future of retail media. As the industry moves beyond experimentation, Rishika shares how leading companies like Henkel are testing new approaches across first-party data, audience strategy, and AI-driven optimization — all while navigating talent gaps, evolving tools, and increasing complexity. From predictive bidding to data clean rooms and upskilling teams, this episode dives into what it really takes to stay competitive in a fast-changing commerce landscape. In this episode, you'll learn: 🔹 Retail Media Innovation: How brands are leveraging retailer first-party data to build smarter audiences. 🔹 AI in Action: Using AI for bidding, budget allocation, and performance optimization — beyond just content. 🔹 Smarter Spending: Why efficiency matters more than increasing media budgets. 🔹 Data & Talent Gap: The reality of data clean rooms, SQL skills, and building the right teams. 🔹 Upskilling at Scale: How global organizations are training teams across regions and functions. 🔹 Future of AI in Commerce: What brands really want from AI (and what's still missing). 🔹 Career Advice: Why data skills are becoming essential for the next generation in digital commerce. 🔹 Collaboration as Advantage: Why "collaborative is the new competitive." About the Guest: Rishika Choumal is the Global Retail Media Lead at Henkel, where she drives global strategy across retail media, performance marketing, and digital commerce. With a strong background in consumer psychology and full-funnel media planning, she brings a unique perspective on how brands can connect data, media, and real business impact. 🌐 More insights: https://www.ecommert.ai Mert Damlapinar | ecommert About ecommert: We partner with CPG businesses and leading technology companies of all sizes to accelerate growth through AI-driven digital commerce solutions. Our expertise spans e-channel strategy, retail media optimization, and digital shelf analytics, ensuring smarter and more efficient operations across B2C, eB2B, and DTC channels. 🎧 Thanks for tuning in to the ecommert podcast.

April 23, 202619 min

How Smart Brands Are Rethinking Retail Media with Rishika Choumal from Henkel Part 1

In this episode of the ecommert® Podcast, we sit down with Rishika Choumal to explore how retail media is evolving into a measurable, full-funnel growth driver for modern CPG brands. As digital and in-store worlds continue to merge, Rishika shares how leading companies like Henkel are redefining success through smarter measurement, sharper investment strategies, and deeper integration across channels. From breaking down silos to connecting media spend with real business outcomes, this conversation dives into what it truly takes to win in today's commerce landscape. In this episode, you'll learn: 🔹 Measurement in a Blended World: How brands connect online performance with in-store sales impact. 🔹 Smarter Media Investments: Why CPG companies are becoming more selective and data-driven. 🔹 Retail Media Beyond Silos: Integrating retail media into overall brand and marketing strategy. 🔹 Short-Term vs Long-Term Impact: Balancing performance marketing with brand building. 🔹 First-Party Data & Personalization: Unlocking growth through better targeting and consumer insights. 🔹 The Future of Retail Media: Why measurement, accountability, and integration will define the next phase. About the Guest: Rishika Choumal is the Global Retail Media Lead at Henkel, where she drives global strategy across retail media, performance marketing, and digital commerce. With a strong background in consumer psychology and full-funnel media planning, she brings a unique perspective on how brands can connect data, media, and real business impact. 🌐 More insights: https://www.ecommert.ai Mert Damlapinar | ecommert About ecommert: We partner with CPG businesses and leading technology companies of all sizes to accelerate growth through AI-driven digital commerce solutions. Our expertise spans e-channel strategy, retail media optimization, and digital shelf analytics, ensuring smarter and more efficient operations across B2C, eB2B, and DTC channels. 🎧 Thanks for tuning in to the ecommert podcast.

April 17, 202633 min

Part 2 : Omnichannel Transformation and Connected Experiences with Alberto Kechler, Arla Foods

In this episode of the Ecommert Podcast, we sit down with Alberto Kechler, Global Head of E-commerce for Arla Foods, at their Utrecht offices in the Netherlands. We explore the massive shift from e-commerce hypergrowth to a mature, omnichannel landscape—where breaking down organizational silos is the key to creating a channel-less consumer experience. Alberto shares his journey from 15 years in digital commerce across giants like Nestle and Mondelez to leading the omnichannel transformation at Arla Foods. We discuss why the future of e-commerce isn't just about standalone digital teams—it's about embedding e-commerce expertise directly into local business units. In this episode, you'll learn: 🔹 The Omnichannel Shift: Why the industry is moving away from siloed e-commerce teams toward a fully integrated, channel-less approach. 🔹 "Click and Cook" Case Study: How Arla successfully turned 35 million recipe searches into 1 million shoppable carts in Denmark using API integration. 🔹 Retail Media ROI: Why every retail media investment must have a positive impact on sales, and how to navigate fragmented retailer data. 🔹 Mastering the Digital Shelf: Why perfecting the basics of content, imagery, and availability remains vital before adopting advanced AI and conversational search. 🔹 The JBP Advantage: How clear budget allocation, data, and cross-functional collaboration empower brands during Joint Business Plan (JBP) negotiations with retailers. About the Guest: Alberto Kechler is the Global Head of E-commerce for Arla Foods. With over 15 years of experience in the digital commerce space, including leadership roles at Nestle and Mondelez, Alberto is now focused on driving omnichannel transformation, retail media excellence, and seamless consumer experiences for one of the world's largest dairy cooperatives. 🌐 More insights: https://www.ecommert.ai Mert Damlapinar | ecommert About ecommert: We partner with CPG businesses and leading technology companies of all sizes to accelerate growth through AI-driven digital commerce solutions. Our expertise spans e-channel strategy, retail media optimization, and digital shelf analytics, ensuring smarter and more efficient operations across B2C, eB2B, and DTC channels. Thanks for tuning in to ecommert podcast.

April 9, 202626 min

Reduce the Click: How Instacart Reaches You Everywhere with Jeong Woo from Instacart

In this episode of the Ecommert Podcast, we sit down with Jeong Woo, Director of Brand Partnerships at Instacart, at Instacart's headquarters in New York. We explore the transformation of Instacart from a grocery delivery platform into a full-scale retail media and ad tech ecosystem powering over 240 retail partners. Jeong shares her journey across Microsoft, Amazon, and Pinterest, and how those experiences shaped her perspective on digital media, data, and commerce. We dive into how Instacart is helping CPG brands reach consumers both on and off the platform, and why the industry is moving toward a world where everything is shoppable and friction in the shopper journey is minimized. We also discuss how retail media is evolving beyond lower-funnel tactics into full-funnel strategies, powered by first-party data, advanced targeting, and closed-loop measurement. In this episode, you'll learn: 🔹 The Evolution of Instacart: From last-mile delivery to a grocery technology company powering over 240 retailers with white-label retail media solutions. 🔹 Retail Media at Scale: How brands can reach consumers across on-site and off-site channels, including social, CTV, and programmatic. 🔹 Everything Is Shoppable: Why CPG brands are pushing for frictionless experiences and how reducing clicks is reshaping the consumer journey. 🔹 First-Party Data & Targeting: How Instacart leverages its data to help brands reach high-intent, lapsed, and new-to-brand consumers. 🔹 Incrementality & Measurement: How brands can measure true impact through lift studies, closed-loop attribution, and third-party partnerships like Circana. 🔹 From Search to Discovery: The rise of inspirational formats like shoppable recipes, bundles, and occasions to drive awareness and new customer acquisition. About the Guest: Jeong Vu is the Director of Brand Partnerships at Instacart, where she leads strategic relationships with CPG brands, primarily in the beverages category. With a career spanning Microsoft, Amazon, and Pinterest, Jeong brings deep expertise in digital advertising, retail media, and commerce strategy, helping brands drive measurable growth through data-driven solutions. 🌐 More insights: https://www.ecommert.ai Mert Damlapinar | ecommert About ecommert: We partner with CPG businesses and leading technology companies of all sizes to accelerate growth through AI-driven digital commerce solutions. Our expertise spans e-channel strategy, retail media optimization, and digital shelf analytics, ensuring smarter and more efficient operations across B2C, eB2B, and DTC channels. 🎧 Thanks for tuning in to the ecommert podcast.

March 26, 202637 min

The AI Tsunami in Here: Will You Dive In Or Get Left Behind? with Stephen Howard-Sarin from Criteo

In this episode of the Ecommert Podcast, we sit down with Stephen Howard-Sarin, Managing Director of North America for Criteo , at the Commerce Media Brands Summit in Atlanta . We explore the massive reinvention happening in the retail media landscape—from solving buy-side fragmentation to the explosion of AI-driven conversational commerce. Stephen shares his journey of over a decade in commerce media, having built giant advertising businesses at eBay, Walmart Connect, and Instacart before joining Criteo . We discuss why the industry is shifting away from trade spend constraints, the reality of shopping within Large Language Models (LLMs), and how brands must prepare for a future where product discovery starts with a picture rather than a keyword. In this episode, you'll learn: 🔹 The Retail Media Reinvention: Why the industry is shifting toward buy-side tool consolidation, allowing brands to seamlessly manage campaigns and reach audiences across multiple retail networks. 🔹 Trade Spend vs. True Media: The defining line of retail advertising—"it's not advertising if the advertiser can't say no"—and how brands are capping trade investments to focus on real media ROI. 🔹 The AI Checkout Delusion: Unpacking the Silicon Valley myth around LLM checkouts, with predictions that only 2% of e-commerce transactions will actually happen inside an AI chat by 2029. 🔹 Picture vs. Keyword: How multimodal AI is fundamentally changing product discovery, moving from traditional search terms to contextual, image-based conversations. 🔹 The AI "Black Box": The new challenges of closed-loop attribution when consumer discovery and consideration happen through ambiguous chatbot conversations before the actual purchase. About the Guest: Stephen Howard-Sarin is the Managing Director of North America for Criteo . With over a decade of pioneering experience in the commerce media space, Stephen has played pivotal roles in building and scaling giant advertising businesses at eBay, Walmart Connect, and Instacart . At Criteo, he focuses on turning complex retail media fragmentation and the rise of conversational AI into scalable growth strategies for brands and retailers alike. 🌐 More insights: https://www.ecommert.ai Mert Damlapinar | ecommert About ecommert: We partner with CPG businesses and leading technology companies of all sizes to accelerate growth through AI-driven digital commerce solutions. Our expertise spans e-channel strategy, retail media optimization, and digital shelf analytics, ensuring smarter and more efficient operations across B2C, eB2B, and DTC channels. Thanks for tuning in to ecommert podcast.

March 11, 202630 min

Part 1 : Omnichannel Transformation and Connected Experiences with Alberto Kechler, Arla Foods

September 29, 2025Episode 519 min

What does AI really mean for CPGs, Insights from Retail Leaders

What does AI really mean for CPG? 🚀 In this medley episode, leaders from L'Oréal, Tesco Media, Shalion, Vizit, and Pentalog share how they're using AI to transform retail media, shopper insights, and digital commerce. 🔥 Key Insights • AI as an "employee," not just a tool • Rise of agentic systems for end-to-end problem solving • Smarter shopper segmentation across D2C, retailers & publishers • L'Oréal's One Consumer project → building unified IDs through clean rooms • Collaboration over silos: collectively creating value with partners 🎤 Featuring: Jack Lindberg – Shalion Andreas Reiffen – Pentaleap Florian Clemens – Tesco Media Jehan Hamedi – Vizit Glenn Cloarec – L'Oréal 👉 Watch the full episode on your preferred channels: 🎧 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gE5NsjHz 📲 Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/gsnTeCji 🎵 Amazon Music: https://lnkd.in/g2jq3R4U 📺 YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gniwpKhj 🌐 Learn more at: https://www.ecommert.ai/

July 3, 2025Episode 431 min

S3E04 - Part 2: Visual Intelligence at Scale: How Vizit is Redefining Content Performance in Digital Commerce

In this episode of The Ecommert Podcast, host Mert sits down with Jehan Hamedi, Founder and CEO of Vizit, at their Boston headquarters to explore the intersection of visual content, AI, and digital commerce. Jihan shares his entrepreneurial journey, shaped by a family legacy of business building, and how it led him to create a company that's transforming how brands analyze and optimize content in real time. The discussion covers the growing influence of visual content in the digital shelf, the unique science behind Vizit's "audience lenses", and how companies like L'Oréal are using AI-driven insights to improve their content effectiveness and consumer engagement. Jihan also unpacks the challenges brands face in keeping up with evolving content demands and how retail media is reshaping strategies across the CPG landscape. From real-time content optimization to predictive analytics, this episode offers a deep dive into the future of content performance in a data-first, image-driven e-commerce world. Highlights include: Jihan Hodi's Journey from Family Entrepreneurship to Visual Intelligence The Rise of Visual Content in Consumer Decision-Making Vizit's Audience Lenses and Predictive AI Technology The Link Between Retail Media, Traffic, and Conversion Rates Solving Content Challenges in CPG and Digital Shelf Strategies How Brands Like Mars and L'Oréal Use Vizit to Drive Growth Global Differences in Consumer Visual Preferences Real-Time Content Optimization and the Future of Visual Commerce Advice for Future Leaders in Digital Retail 🎧 Tune in on YouTube and all major podcast platforms to hear how Jihan is unlocking the potential of visual content—and how your brand can too. 👉 Watch the full episode now: 🎧 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gE5NsjHz 📲 Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/gsnTeCji 🎵 Amazon Music: https://lnkd.in/g2jq3R4U 📺 YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gniwpKhj Find us on: 🌐 Website: https://www.ecommert.ai/ 🔗 LinkedIn: https://lnkd.in/gm4tiHQV 🔗 X: https://x.com/e_Commert