Mert DAMLAPINAR

3 x LinkedIn Top Voice | Global eCommerce & AI Insights & Tech | Digital Transformation | MIT Technology Review Global Panel | Opinions are my own

[Mert DAMLAPINAR @MertDP]

🧠 “AI isn’t replacing marketers — it’s replacing manual marketing.”

At hashtag#Groceryshop2025, Greg Stevens (CEO, https://t.co/uOOEKOwhOk) shared how agentic AI is already automating omnichannel optimization:

“We unify off-site, on-site, and in-store campaigns into one platform,
then our AI agent auto-optimizes and reallocates budgets based on performance.”

The result?
⚡️ Higher yield, lower overhead, and fewer people doing the work of many.

From Singapore to South America, adoption’s rising, and trust in AI-led optimization is catching up fast.

[Mert DAMLAPINAR @MertDP]

🔥 Most CPGs are still piloting AI. A few are rewriting the rules.

Procter & Gamble just crossed $1B in AI-driven gains.
L'Oréal is scaling GenAI across product, media, and commerce, partnering with NVIDIA.

Leaders like Nestlé, The Coca-Cola Company, Unilever, LVMH Perfumes & Cosmetics are now not “testing” GenAI, they’re embedding it across media, ops, and product.

Meanwhile… most of brands are stuck in Stage 1.

This carousel breaks down:
✅ The 6 brands setting the AI pace
✅ How leaders like L’Oréal & P&G operationalize GenAI
✅ Where AI capital is actually going
✅ The 3-stage blueprint to escape pilot purgatory

If your AI strategy still lives in “test & learn,” this is your wake-up call.
From internal GenAI factories to creative commerce stacks, leaders like L'Oréal and Procter & Gamble are embedding AI into every layer of growth.

[Mert DAMLAPINAR @MertDP]

🛒 Most grocery sales still happen in-store…But online is where the growth is exploding.

So why are retailers still treating digital like a side project?

Again, at Groceryshop, we captured all the hot takes, now with Ben Miller (VP @ Shoptalk & Groceryshop) lays it out clearly in this episode:

“Grocery is still 90% in-store, in some markets 85%, but the growth is coming through online.
If I’m not doing online right, I’m missing the opportunity.”

[Mert DAMLAPINAR @MertDP]

“99% of brands are using AI wrong — here’s what the top 1% do differently.”

Most brands miss this when adopting AI…

It’s not about adding tools, it’s about changing how decisions are made.
From day-one retail media bets to scaled CDPs and first-party data control, this episode explores what brands actually need to enable smarter, faster, and shopper-led growth.

🎙️ Featuring:

Jessica Wegner, Senior Vice President Retail Media at Douglas
Abhishek Ahluwalia, Global Director of eCommerce at Mondelēz International
Andrew Pearl, VP of Industry Insights at Profitero+

💡 Learn how leading brands are:

Building playbooks from scratch
Bridging offline + online media impact
Scaling AI content with real measurement in mind

[Mert DAMLAPINAR @MertDP]

🧠 What the biggest names in retail just revealed at Groceryshop 2025 👀

🚨 New Episode Alert – Pulse of the Retail Industry

Watch the full episode on YouTube – link in the comments 👇

Straight from Groceryshop Las Vegas 2025, we talked to industry leaders, trailblazers and experts to unpack what no one tells you about the AI's next frontier on omnichannel retail, cross-channel growth, digital shelf and retail media. It was an honor to have them on the show:

���️ Ben Miller, Vice President Shoptalk / Groceryshop
🗣️ Grace Liesch, Enterprise Sales Director – MikMak
🗣️ Erik Mitchell, CEO – Seek
🗣️ Adam Zimmerman, Co-founder – Ideal™ by Design House
🗣️ Catherine Nickerson, Sr. Director, Industry Strategy – Blue Yonder
🗣️ Gilbert Hernandez, AI Sales Engineer – IBM
🗣️ Greg Stevens, CEO – Osmos
🗣️ Megan Murphy, Sr. Director of Marketing – Stackline
🗣️ Jason Busch, Co-Founder – Gain

This episode captures the real pulse of the retail industry, insights, predictions, and bold takes from the leaders shaping what’s next.

[Mert DAMLAPINAR @MertDP]

“40 minutes that flew by — and so did Bastien’s flight 😎💡 An unmissable deep dive into AI, GenAI, and data with Reckitt’s tech leader.”

I was with Bastien Parizot, CIDO and SVP IT at Reckitt for the next ecommert podcast episode here at the Reckitt North America offices in Parsipanny, NJ.

We had a blast, such a great conversation on all things hashtag#AI, hashtag#GenAI and hashtag#Data over 40 minutes and he almost missed his flight back to the UK. 🇬🇧😎

Looking forward to connecting with him again, a lot to learn and explore in the GenAI era.

Stay tuned.. 🎙️

[Mert DAMLAPINAR @MertDP]

“Agentic Ordering” Is Changing Everything You Know About E-Commerce 🚀

🚨 The Future of Commerce: Agentic Ordering Is Here.

At Groceryshop Las Vegas, Megan Murphy, Sr. Director at Stackline, joined us to unpack one of retail’s hottest topics, how AI-driven shopping agents are reshaping shopper behavior and digital shelf strategies.

🧠 From SEO to “Agentic Optimization”
Brands must now write content for AI to read, not just for humans, ensuring product data, attributes, and features are structured for recommendation algorithms like Amazon Rufus and ChatGPT shopping tools.

🎯 “We’re helping brands prepare for the next wave — when consumers don’t search, they ask.”

[Mert DAMLAPINAR @MertDP]

�� Digital Shelf Is the New Frontline, So Why Are So Many Brands Still Playing Defense?

New FMCG benchmarks show:
🚨 20–30% sales are lost due to poor content health
🚨 10–18% lower discoverability from limited Share of Voice
🚨 Up to 30% engagement gaps from underused enhanced content

🧴 Beverage and Alcohol remain the most underperforming categories.

Meanwhile, leaders like Procter & Gamble and L'Oréal are turning digital shelves into growth engines — from 40% higher ROI to 80% higher conversion with enhanced content and AR experiences.

💡 3 Tactics for Brands to Win the Shelf:
1️⃣ Upgrade visibility metrics
2️⃣ Link shelf metrics to sales
3️⃣ Unify teams with one data source

📈 The message is clear: it’s time to turn your shelf data into a growth strategy.

[Mert DAMLAPINAR @MertDP]

🥔 Lay’s 2025 Refresh Is More Than Just a New Look.

42% of consumers still don’t know Lay’s chips are made from real potatoes — a striking awareness gap for one of the world’s most iconic snack brands.

That’s why Lay’s 2025 rebrand focuses on:
🌱 Real farming roots
🥔 Clean ingredients
✨ Healthier choices

With the new “Lay’s Rays” identity, the brand is closing the trust gap by showing the people and stories behind the product.

🌎 From the U.S. and U.K. to Colombia and Asia, Lay’s regional variants will reflect this refreshed global identity, led by Frito-Lay North America, which drives 27% of PepsiCo’s total revenue.

[Mert DAMLAPINAR @MertDP]

🚨 42% of Lay’s consumers don’t know chips are made from real potatoes. In 2025, it’s a healthy ingredient strategy trigger.

Lay’s has launched its biggest redesign in nearly 100 years, from farm-forward packaging to reformulations with olive oil (−50% fat) and avocado oil (reduced-fat Kettle line).

And it’s not just U.S. core SKUs.
🌎 Walkers (UK), Sabritas (Mexico), Margarita (Colombia), and Asia-Pacific variants are rolling out clean-label upgrades too.

The clean-label race is industry-wide where General Mills, Kraft Heinz, Nestlé, and Kellogg Company’s have all made similar commitments in response to more and more consumers are demanding transparency, while regulators are cracking down on artificial ingredients.

And brands are rewriting the rules of trust.

This 10-slide breakdown covers:
✅ Why Lay’s is going clean-label
✅ How PepsiCo is reshaping trust through farmers
✅ What CPG brands should do now

👉 If you lead a brand in food, beverage, or retail media, this shift is already in motion.

[Prof. Carl Sagan @ProfCarlSagan]

Right Now, most of the American can relate to this message from the 90's.

[eCommert @e_Commert]

New Episode! "S2E7 - PART 1 - Imteaz Ahamed, Reckitt: Data, Performance Marketing, and Social Commerce: The Future of CPG Commerce"

This episode features Imteaz Ahamed, Head of Performance Marketing…

Player links & show notes: https://t.co/IvXNxMFqSI

[Mert DAMLAPINAR @MertDP]

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹����’𝘀 𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗼𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝘂𝗽 𝘁𝗼 $𝟴𝟴 𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰
The top 3 brands (Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Red Bull) command 67% of the total value among these nine brands, highlighting extreme market concentration.

Coca-Cola's $33.5B value is nearly double its nearest competitor, PepsiCo ($18.3B), demonstrating its exceptional brand equity and market dominance.
What's particularly interesting is the energy drink segment's strong showing, with Red Bull ($6.9B) and Monster ($6.8B) claiming the 3rd and 4th positions. This, in my opinion, reflects the significant growth and premium positioning of the energy drinks category, outperforming traditional carbonated soft drinks like Dr Pepper ($4.4B) and Sprite ($4.2B).

From a portfolio perspective, PepsiCo appears three times in this ranking (Pepsi, Gatorade, Lipton), showing strong diversification across beverage categories - from carbonated soft drinks to sports drinks. This multi-brand strategy helps hedge against changing consumer preferences and maintains their competitive position against Coca-Cola's dominance.

In my opinion, these brand valuations suggest two key strategic imperatives for CPG brands: building category-leading positions (like Red Bull in energy) and maintaining diverse portfolio strategies (like Coke and PepsiCo) to capture evolving consumer preferences.

#CPG #FMCG #brands #growth #strategy

@CocaCola @PepsiCo @redbull @MonsterEnergy @Nestle @KeurigPepper @Unilever @ProcterGamble @CP_News @Beiersdorf_AG @Henkel @kenvue @Mars @Ferrero @MDLZ

[eCommert @e_Commert]

5 Star Review: Engaging and Informative

"ecommert keeps me hooked with its engaging discussions on CPG digital strategies and retail media. the hosts break down complex topics into digestible insight…

[eCommert @e_Commert]

New Episode! "EP 8: Unilever, Melda Hamarat - Unilever Ice Cream Omnichannel Strategy with Retail Media Boost and Quick Commerce Success"

Welcome to Episode 8 of the ecommert Podcast! Tune into an …

Player links & show notes: https://t.co/smtQYEtw2e

[Mert DAMLAPINAR @MertDP]

We had our first off-site team activity and Team ecommert® finally got together, traveling from the USA🇺🇸, the UK🇬🇧, Italy🇮🇹 and Netherlands🇳🇱 We are less than 2 months in this journey and we’re already making waves. 🌊🌊🔥🔥

We had so engaging conversations and so delish drinks apparently, we forgot to take pictures from our dinner and cafe moments at the end of the day. 😂 We’ll make up for that next time..

Now we’re preparing for Q4 24 and 2025, speeding up with some upcoming announcements.
You’ll hear many exciting updates and you’ll see us in major events worldwide.

Stay ahead of the curve with us, we’re just getting started. 🚀

#ecommerce #retailmedia
#AI #GenAI #digitalshelf #ecommert #ArtificialIntelligence
#cpg #fmcg #omnichannel #digitacommerce #digitalmedia #brand #growth #strategy

[Mert DAMLAPINAR @MertDP]

LISTEN NOW ON 🎧📲:

Spotify: https://t.co/EhtJAhpoiz
Apple Podcasts: https://t.co/f61hxHkSrM
Amazon Music: https://t.co/nRUlChC6C9

Website: https://t.co/V3eum3Oszd

[Mert DAMLAPINAR @MertDP]

Episode 7 of the ecommert® podcast is NOW LIVE. 🚀 In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Josh Clarkson at the stunning Mars offices in London 🇬🇧 for an in-depth discussion on retail media, of course, growing impact on digital commerce, strategic planning for JBP and retail media network prioritization, budgeting challenges, AI’s impact on digital shelf and retail media performance.

Available now on all major platforms, links in the comments. 👇 🎧📲
𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘁 𝗽𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗼𝗽 𝟮𝟬𝟬 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗻 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝗻 𝗝𝘂𝗹𝘆 𝟴𝘁𝗵.

Thank you very much for the hospitality and the brilliant conversation one more time Josh. The video and the audio of this episode on ecommert® podcast will be amazing.

Stay ahead of the curve and subscribe for more episodes every week.
𝗧𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀, 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 ecommert® 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿. 👇

#retailmedia #ecommerce #cpg #fmcg #omnichannel #digitacommerce
#digitalmedia #AI #GenAI #digitalshelf #ecommert #brand #growth
#strategy

[Mert DAMLAPINAR @MertDP]

@arsmaxx 😂😂 buralarin yabancisiyim, benim mecram LinkedIn ve YouTube

[Mert DAMLAPINAR @MertDP]

𝗜𝘀 𝗡𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗹é’𝘀 𝗖𝗘𝗢 𝗗𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗮 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗦𝗵𝗶𝗳��� 𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗴𝗴𝗹𝗲𝘀?
Leadership change at the world's largest food company ☕ 🍪 🍫

I published my latest ecommert article on the recent CEO change at Nestle, no fluff, only data-driven insights.

You can access the full article (paywalled) here 👇

https://t.co/B4QCVhIWoJ

Here are the topics and a short excerpt from the full article.

𝗜𝘀 𝗡𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗹é’𝘀 𝗖𝗘𝗢 𝗗𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗮 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗦𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁 𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗴𝗴𝗹𝗲𝘀?
Leadership change at the world's largest food company ☕ 🍪 🍫

++ 🔎What’s Inside ++

1. It's Never a One-Man Show
2. How Nestle Got Here
3. Let's Look at the Figures
4. Looking Ahead
5. The Next Skipper at the Helm