The hidden cost of disconnected commerce

Yesterday’s thought-provoking ‘Uncomfortable Conversations’ event with The Marketing Society tackled a critical challenge: disconnected commerce. Why do organisational silos persist when consumers shop seamlessly across channels?

Steve Ricketts, Chief Commerce Officer at Publicis Media, revealed that businesses lose 10–20% in potential sales when teams don’t coordinate. Aligning digital shelf optimisation with retail media can even double effectiveness.

Our expert panel – Astrid Lloyd (Publicis Commerce), Alan Fawbert (Carlsberg), Natalie James (Brown-Forman), and Tom Goulden (Very Group) – shared practical insights from the frontlines of commerce transformation:

🔹 Leadership courage is the critical success factor
🔹 Data harmonisation enables teams to speak the same language
🔹 The digital shelf is a brand stage, not just a sales channel
🔹 Small wins build big organisational change

The consensus? Rather than attempting organisation-wide transformation, successful leaders prove the connected commerce model one campaign at a time – building advocates through results, not theory.

Thank you to all attendees for another engaging discussion that challenges our industry to do better and thank you to Dino Myers-Lamptey for hosting.