Hey {{first_name|mate}},

Well…that escalated quickly.

Last week’s eCom Collab Club® London was…lively!

At one point the hotel next door’s fire alarm went off mid-panel. Given the noise levels in the room, it felt entirely justified.

Chaos? Rowdiness? Exactly what we like.

Somewhere between the networking (read: organised shouting), the panels and the caffeine hits, we covered two big topics:

👉 Loyalty & Retention Strategies
👉 Boosting AOV

As always there were strong opinions, a few uncomfortable truths, and more than one lightbulb moment.

Here’s what went down 👇

+ continue the conversation with more Loyalty-related events coming up this week that you won’t want to miss.

Caitlin

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eCom Collab Club® London: Retention, AOV & Other Beasts

We kicked things off with a bit of a reality check on Panel 1:

👉 Loyalty programmes don’t create loyalty.

They reveal whether loyalty already exists.

Before you start handing out points and perks…make sure your product, experience and brand are doing the heavy lifting.

From there, the message was pretty clear:

  • Strategy first. Tools second.

  • Talk to your customers (yes, actually talk to them)

  • Fix the friction across the journey

  • And stop looking for a “silver bullet. It doesn’t exist

Oh, and a biggie:

👉 Make it easy for customers to leave.

Treat people like humans and they’re far more likely to come back.

*Networking interlude*

After that, we moved onto AOV on Panel 2, where things got a bit real…

With acquisition costs climbing, this panel didn’t mince their words:

👉 Your existing customers = your best growth strategy

  • Your highest value customers are already telling you what works

  • Look at your cohorts and understand what drives them

  • Then do more of that (instead of guessing and hoping)

👉 Make your Personalisation personal

  • Tailor the journey based on real behaviour

  • Fix the experience

  • And get someone outside your business to go through your site and point out all the weird bits you’ve stopped noticing

    (There will be weird bits)

👉 Going global is not just copy + paste

Turns out the rest of the world isn’t just the UK with different accents… If you want to grow internationally:

  • Sort your taxes and duties (no nasty surprises at checkout)

  • Get your payments and currencies right

  • Build trust locally

  • And accept that different markets behave very differently

The bottom line

👉 Loyalty isn’t a tool
👉 Retention isn’t a campaign
👉 And AOV isn’t a “later” problem

It’s all connected.

Get it right and you’re quids in, mate!

eCom Collab Club® London: Want more?

Next month, Nathan Lomax from Quickfire will be back, hitting you squarely in the post-purchase with another very special mystery guest!

Rising costs, rising expectations and customers who often ghost faster than a bad Hinge date? Brands are being forced to rethink the post-purchase experience in 2026.

From delivery to unboxing to what happens next, we’re getting into the messy middle of keeping customers engaged, happy and actually coming back.

On the roster to speak so far:

  • Elsa Gomez – Brass & Bold

  • Peter Bollons – Slick Gorilla

  • Steve Willicott – Uncle Matt's Hats

  • Faye Whitley – Beevive

  • Joseph Aubry – Loyoly.io

  • Chris Forbes – Cheeky Panda

  • Carl Posadas – Glopal

  • Descartes Peoplevox

  • Luke Howitt – Supplied Agency

Plus more exciting DTC Brand founders to be announced very soon...

We’ll break down what’s delighting customers, what’s murdering repeat revenue with intent and how smart brands are turning fulfilment into a full-blown growth channel.

Get your ticket 🥞

eCC Podcast: Free in 30?

If your “retention strategy” is 14 Klaviyo flows and a big dollop of hope…we need to talk.

Adam’s jumping on with Craig Niven (FILDI) to break down what actually causes subscription churn

And why your emails are being asked to fix problems they didn’t create.

Expect strong opinions and at least one mention of Craig being Lord of one square foot of Scotland…

🗓️ Monday 13 April | 3.30pm (UK)

🎧 Join live in 30 mins on LinkedIn…before another batch of subscribers quietly disappears.

eCom events: Ones to watch

Loyalty Connect 2026 – Make Loyalty Make You Money

Everyone bangs on about loyalty. Very few people actually know how to make it work.

That’s where Loyalty Connect 2026 comes in.

🗓️ 14–15 April
📍 Online

Two days of useful content on how to turn loyalty from “nice idea” into a proper growth driver.

Featuring:

  • Former Red Bull marketing boss (so…the standard will be high)

  • Smart people from brands like waterdrop & P.Louise

  • The brains behind LoyaltyLion

👉 If you want your customers to stick around and spend more…attending this will be well worth your time.

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