🇬🇷 Still reflecting on the Unified Commerce Conference in Athens last Wednesda
By Miyaknights · October 21, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
🇬🇷 Still reflecting on the Unified Commerce Conference in Athens last Wednesday, where it was a privilege to deliver the keynote on “Mastering Unified Commerce: What to Learn, Build and Measure in 2027.”
What struck me most was Greek retailers' and brands' eagerness to share and learn. Hearing Georgios Antonakakis (Kotsovolos-Κωτσόβολος), Manos Lougiakis (L'Oréal Hellas) and Alexandros Tsamis (Marks and Spencer) on the morning’s unified commerce panel confirmed that the challenges are the same worldwide: in-store and e-commerce data asymmetry hampering omnichannel effectiveness; customer data as liquid gold that is still proving tricky to harness. The appetite to tackle them was striking.
Which brings me to the point I most wanted the room to leave with: the fundamentals of shopping have not changed in 30 years. People still need help finding what they need, confidence it is right for them and reassurance about when, where and how they buy. What has changed is the retailer’s digitally enabled, data-driven ability to recognise and respond. The 2027 question isn't which technology to buy, but which customer-facing choices to make sector by sector, and which orchestration layer to build underneath it all.
I'm also grateful to have shared the stage with fellow keynote speakers Steve Dennis (whose opening on the soul of the store set the tone beautifully), Dan Marc on the retail media opportunity, and Päivi Korvela for her social commerce growth insights.
Special thanks to Marlos da Silva of MC, who flew in to walk us through Continente Bom Dia — the world’s largest autonomous supermarket, and the clearest proof I know that the future of the store is here already, as evolution not revolution. (The checkout stayed. That’s the point.)
Thank you to Vassilis Kafiris and the BOUSSIAS Events team, and to MarketingWeek, for the warm welcome — and to every delegate who connected with me on LinkedIn or asked me to sign a copy of 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑭𝒖𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑺𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 afterwards. Twenty minutes is never enough. Glad there’s a book to carry the rest. 🙏
#unifiedcommerce #retailtechnology #DoingMoreWithLess #BookPromo