Performance marketing costs are climbing while returns are shrinking, loyalty programs are evolving beyond points and discounts, and half of consumers are already using AI to find products before they ever reach a search bar.
Beth Shero (CEO & Co-founder, Shero Commerce) joins Nicole Delaney (General Manager UK, Shero Commerce) and Emma Gleaden (Senior Partner Marketing Manager, Shero Commerce), fresh from the Pulse eCommerce Summit in London and Lead Summit in New York, with their unfiltered read on what brands are actually doing, and what most are still getting wrong.
In this episode
-
Why 40% of one UK skincare brand’s revenue flows through its loyalty program, and what that means for how you think about redemption vs. enrollment
-
How the window to earn organic AI visibility is closing fast, and what brands can do right now before paid placement changes the game
-
Where post-purchase experience is killing loyalty, from returns strategy to order editing, and what Selfridges is testing to fix it
-
Why performance marketing alone is no longer enough to sustain growth, and what brands at Pulse said is filling the gap
Watch the conversation to identify the gaps.
Episode highlights
At the Pulse eCommerce Summit in London, UK, skincare brand Medik8 shared that 40% of its total UK revenue now comes through its LoyaltyLion-powered loyalty program. The discussion that followed challenged a common assumption: enrollment numbers matter less than redemption rates. The brands seeing the strongest results are focused on driving customers to actually use their rewards, with experiential incentives increasingly outperforming straight discounts, particularly for direct-to-consumer brands building around community and storytelling.
On AI, Beth drew a direct parallel to the early days of responsive design: the brands that moved slowly then spent years catching up, and the pace of change now is incomparably faster.
Nicole made a point that will stick with anyone running paid media: right now, AI visibility is entirely earned. There is no paid placement yet. That window is open, but it will not stay that way. Brands that get their product data and site structure right before paid AI placement arrives will have a compounding advantage that latecomers simply cannot buy back.
Post-purchase experience came up as one of the most overlooked loyalty drivers in the room. Selfridges shared that they are trialing a model where loyal customers receive a refund before their return even reaches the warehouse, a direct attempt to close the gap between the seamless pre-purchase experience most brands have invested in and the frustrating reality of what happens after the order ships.
It was also flagged that Loop Returns, as a tool, quietly changes the calculus around returns by converting potential revenue loss into in-store credit that keeps customers spending.