Ah, Shoptalk. The annual retail reunion where marketers, technologists, dreamers, and caffeine-fueled founders descend on Las Vegas to talk about how to sell more stuff, smarter, faster, and with better margins. This year’s 2025 edition didn’t disappoint.
If you didn’t make it (or were too busy at the blackjack table to attend the keynotes), don’t worry, we’ve got the highlights. And yes, there will be mentions of AI, because of course there are.
Here’s what retailers and e-commerce brands should absolutely be paying attention to from Shoptalk 2025, and more importantly, how Bighorn Web Solutions can help you put it into action.
1. Put the Customer at the Center (For Real This Time)
You’ve probably heard the phrase “customer-centric” so many times barely registers anymore. . But this year’s mantra wasn’t just lip service. Brands are waking up to the fact that transactional loyalty is dead. Nobody’s sticking around just for points anymore.
Instead, building emotional connection is the new competitive edge.. Think storytelling, personalized experiences, and making your customer feel like you get them. If you want to stand out, be the brand that listens and remembers.
At Bighorn, we build customer journeys that feel less like sales funnels and more like relationships. Whether you’re selling luxury goods or everyday essentials, we help you create experiences that keep customers coming back for how you make them feel, not just what you sell.
2. AI Is Everywhere and It’s Getting Personal
It’s 2025. If your site still says “Customers also bought…” like a 2014 Amazon clone, it’s time for an upgrade.
AI is no longer a futuristic add-on. It’s powering the best ecommerce experiences today. Shoppers expect sites to remember their style, size, preferences, and even their weird late-night browsing habits. It’s not just about product recommendations. It’s about creating an experience that feels tailor-made.
We help ecommerce brands turn AI into something real. Whether you’re on Shopify, Magento, or another platform, we implement tools that personalize every part of the shopping journey. Smart suggestions. Adaptive pricing. Landing pages that adjust in real time. Think of it like your most intuitive sales rep—always on, always relevant, never guessing.
3. Retail Media Networks: The Plot Twist You Didn’t See Coming
Here’s one most brands didn’t have on their 2025 bingo card. Retailers are turning into media companies.
Target, Ulta, and even grocery chains are building their own Retail Media Networks. These are in-house ad platforms where other brands pay to reach their audiences. And it’s working. RMNs are unlocking new revenue streams, generating deeper data, and changing how brands think about visibility inside someone else’s store.
You don’t need to launch your own RMN tomorrow. But understanding how to participate in them and how to position your brand within them matters more than ever. It’s not just about ad spend. It’s about owning your presence across the platforms where customers are already shopping.
We help brands navigate this shift. Whether that means optimizing product feeds for better placement or creating brand content that stands out in a sea of sameness, we make sure you’re showing up where it counts.
4. Unified Commerce Isn’t Optional Anymore
Shoppers don’t care about your backend systems. They just want things to work.
Whether they’re browsing on their phone, checking in-store inventory, or asking Alexa to reorder their favorite product, the experience should feel seamless. That’s what unified commerce is about—creating a consistent experience across every touchpoint.
This means your POS, inventory, ecommerce platform, email flows, and fulfillment systems all need to be in sync. Not patched together. Not manually updated. Actually integrated and working together in real time.
We help brands make their tech stack talk to each other. From legacy ERPs to modern CRMs, we clean up the chaos behind the scenes so your customers get a frictionless experience on the front end. No excuses. Just clean data and smooth ops.
5. Value Over Volume
Here’s the shift we’re seeing everywhere. Shoppers aren’t looking for endless options anymore. They’re looking for clarity.
Endless scrolls of nearly identical products aren’t helping anyone. People want fewer choices and more confidence in what they’re buying. That means curated assortments, tighter messaging, and a brand story that actually resonates.
We work with brands to simplify what they offer and make it matter. That could mean cleaning up your product taxonomy, elevating your bestsellers, or rewriting your site copy so it sounds like a person, not a product feed.
If your current value prop is “we sell stuff,” we can help you refine that into something real. Something memorable. Something worth buying into.
TL;DR
If we had to sum up Shoptalk 2025 in one sentence, it’d be this:
Stop treating your website like a catalog and start treating it like a conversation.
Shoppers today are more informed, more distracted, and more impatient than ever. But if you meet them with intelligence, empathy, and a seamless experience, they’ll reward you with more than a one-time purchase. They’ll come back. We help make that happen.
Bighorn Web Solutions partners with ecommerce brands to build smarter strategies, faster sites, cleaner integrations, and experiences that actually convert. If your store is fine but not fantastic, let’s fix that.
Want to talk through your current stack or pain points? Reach out. We’ll bring solutions and probably a few strong opinions.