Every year in ecommerce feels big. But 2025 felt formative.
Between tariffs landing faster than expected, Amazon tightening its grip on customer expectations, B2B finally stepping into the spotlight, and APAC proving it’s anything but a “secondary” market, this was a year that forced operators to rethink fundamentals.
In this special wrap-up episode of Add To Cart, Bushy revisited the eight conversations that personally shaped how he thinks about ecommerce, leadership, and growth. Not the most downloaded episodes. Not the loudest trends. But the ones that landed, lingered, and changed perspective.
Here are the eight guests: and the lessons ecommerce leaders should be taking into 2026.
1. Brett Sinclair – B2B Is No Longer Optional
B2B ecommerce officially stepped out of the shadows in 2025, and Brett Sinclair, Founder of the B2B eCommerce Association, helped explain why.
The biggest takeaway wasn’t about platforms or portals. It was about expectation. B2B buyers no longer tolerate clunky ordering systems, opaque pricing, or manual processes that slow them down. They expect to self-serve, manage accounts, pay invoices, and move seamlessly between digital and human interaction.
The real shift is mindset. B2B ecommerce isn’t replacing sales teams: it’s freeing them. When routine order-taking disappears, sales can focus on relationships, strategy, and growth. Brands that fail to modernise this experience won’t just frustrate buyers. They’ll lose relevance.
2. Anna Samkova – Customer Centricity Is a Leadership Problem
Anna Samkova has a gift for cutting through buzzwords, and her message on customer centricity was uncomfortably clear.
Most organisations say they’re customer-first. But only few can answer basic questions about retention, lifetime value, or who their highest-value customers actually are. That gap isn’t a data problem. It’s a priority problem.
Customer ownership has to start at the executive level. If leadership doesn’t prioritise customer outcomes, teams default to product, channels, and internal KPIs. Real customer centricity shows up in what leaders ask about, what gets funded, and what gets measured.
If those questions aren’t being asked in the boardroom, the customer is already an afterthought.
3: Ryf Quail – APAC Is Not One Market
A personal highlight of the year came from NRF APAC, and Ryf Quail explained why the region demands serious attention (and serious respect).
APAC is the largest retail market in the world, but it’s not a single playbook. It’s dozens of markets, languages, regulations, and cultural norms. Expansion isn’t about copying and pasting what worked in Australia or the US.
The opportunity lies in learning. Retailers in Japan, Indonesia, India, and Southeast Asia are innovating at scale, often in ways Western markets haven’t caught up to yet. Australian brands willing to listen, partner, and adapt have an enormous advantage. Those who assume familiarity will struggle.
4. Viv Conway – Trust Creators, not Briefs
Viv Conway from Girls Get Off delivered one of the most fun (and most instructive) episodes of the year.
Her approach to influencer marketing flips the traditional model. Instead of rigid briefs and forced messaging, creators are given creative freedom, commercial alignment, and genuine ownership in outcomes. They’re paid on performance, trusted to sell in their own voice, and encouraged to build products their audience actually wants.
The result isn’t just better content. It’s better conversion. Influence works when creators are invested, not managed to death. Brands chasing authenticity can’t manufacture it through control.
5. Sean Walsh – Amazon Sets the Bar for Everyone
Amazon is no longer the looming threat. It’s the benchmark.
Sean Walsh from Pattern broke down what many brands still misunderstand. Winning on Amazon isn’t just about price. It’s about distribution discipline, delivery speed, availability, and overall customer experience. Amazon mirrors the broader market. If a product is cheaper or easier to buy elsewhere, Amazon notices.
Even brands that choose not to sell on Amazon are still competing with the expectations it creates. Fast delivery, easy returns, and low friction are no longer differentiators. They’re table stakes.
6. Justin Irvine – Panic Is the Most Expensive Response
When tariffs hit, many retailers scrambled. Justin Irvine’s advice was refreshingly calm.
The brands that weathered the shock best weren’t the ones making dramatic changes, they were the ones who knew their inventory, margins, duties, and logistics inside out. Small mistakes (like paying duty on duty or mis-declaring values) quickly become expensive at scale.
Tariffs exposed operational fragility, not strategic weakness. The lesson was simple but critical: foundations matter most when pressure hits.
7. Marianne Marchesi – Legal Isn’t a Cleanup Job
Marianne from Legalite highlighted how legal blind spots quietly derail fast-growing ecommerce brands.
From IP protection to contracts, documentation, and AI governance, legal frameworks aren’t about slowing growth. They’re about protecting it. Founder-led brands often delay legal thinking until something breaks. By then, it’s expensive, stressful, and reactive.
The smartest operators build guardrails early, not to restrict ambition, but to support it safely.
8. Suzie Young – Transformation Starts Inside
The final highlight came from Suzie Young at Metagenics, and it was a masterclass in change management.
Her approach to ecommerce transformation didn’t start with vendors or technology. It started with clarity. Clear design principles. Clear decision-making frameworks. A clear understanding of what the business needed to change internally before any platform could succeed.
By avoiding unnecessary customisation, validating decisions through proof-of-concepts, and aligning teams early, Metagenics delivered transformation at speed, without chaos.
Technology followed leadership, not the other way around.
The Bigger Picture
When you step back, 2025 wasn’t really about one shiny new trend or platform everyone suddenly piled onto. It was more… a growing-up year.
Better questions started getting asked. Foundations got a bit more solid. Teams got clearer on who their customer actually is, how their business really works, and where the cracks were hiding. Ecommerce didn’t suddenly get easier, but it definitely got smarter.
And if there’s one common thread running through all eight of these conversations, it’s this: the operators who’ll win next year aren’t the ones chasing every new thing. They’re the ones who slow down just enough to think, get the basics right, and make deliberate calls.
Not sexy. Very effective.
Chapters
2:29 1. Brett Sinclair – B2B Is No Longer Optional
7:47 2. Anna Samkova – Customer Centricity Is a Leadership Problem
11:30 3: Ryf Quail – APAC Is Not One Market
16:05 4. Viv Conway – Trust Creators, not Briefs
19:00 5. Sean Walsh – Amazon Sets the Bar for Everyone
23:36 6. Justin Irvine – Panic Is the Most Expensive Response
28:00 7. Marianne Marchesi – Legal Isn’t a Cleanup Job
31:48 8. Suzie Young – Transformation Starts Inside
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