1 Week to go to The Marketplace Think Tank at CustomerX

I’m thrilled to be hosting The Marketplace Think Tank on the 14th of October, part of the two day CustomerX conference which runs on the 14th-15th October. If you’ve not yet got your tickets then it’s time to register! Get your CustomerX Ticket!

The Marketplace Think Tank The Marketplaces Think Tank explores how businesses can use marketplaces to accelerate online growth while protecting brand identity and customer loyalty.

Across three sessions, the discussion covers innovative marketplace business models, differentiation in crowded platforms, brand dilution, price sensitivity and the risks of relying too heavily on dominant players. It also examines the rise of vertical, social and AI-driven marketplaces—and what these shifts mean for future marketplace strategies.

The format is panel followed by a round table where you’re part of the conversation to test the challenges against your own business reality with strategic next steps to take away: The Panel Provocation: A series of high-intensity panel discussions designed to challenge the status quo and surface the real constraints.

The Roundtable: You’re not watching this part. Each panel breaks straight into a small-group discussion to pressure-test the provocations against your own business reality. The Output: Every brief concludes with a set of clear options and strategic next steps – not just more questions.

Marketplaces, Social Commerce and Winning the Next Generation of Consumers Brands are increasingly wary of over-relying on any single dominant platform – and at the same time, new models are emerging fast: vertical marketplaces, social commerce, retailer-owned marketplaces, and AI-driven discovery.

This panel brings together the trailblazers experimenting with social platforms, marketplaces and DTC, to discuss what’s actually working, where the real trade-offs are, and what’s next What does the next generation consumer really want? What is actually driving brands to diversify; cost, control, data, risk, or something else?

How do these emerging models differ social commerce vs. marketplace vs. DTC? Where does AI-driven commerce like agents/AI shopping assistants fit into this shift?

I’ll be joined by George Robinson, Herculano Rodrigues, Yana Sirenko, and Jon Nicholson Winning in Crowded Marketplaces: Building Brands Customers Choose As marketplaces become increasingly competitive, how can brands maintain differentiation, strengthen customer relationships and avoid becoming commodities?

From pricing and merchandising to customer experience and data ownership, what separates the brands that thrive from those that simply compete on price? Building brand equity within third-party marketplaces. Creating differentiation beyond price. Who really owns the customer relationship?

Protecting trust while scaling through marketplaces Using data to create loyalty beyond the transaction Georgia Leybourne host this panel and will be joined by Leanne Oddy and Anthony Dawe Marketplaces as a Growth Driver To unlock true scalability, brands must treat digital marketplaces as multi-dimensional engines for geographical expansion and economic performance.

This session explores the practical strategic levers required to drive profitable, cross-border marketplace volume/ What is the relationship between UX and Revenue and how can you convert low-intent marketplace browsers into high-value, predictable economic growth Using existing platform infrastructure to instantly scale territory footprint Protecting margins and keeping product pricing profitable and consistent across different global platforms The final panel will be hosted by Michel Koch with his guests Nur Eral and Dima Riabenko.