How To Prove The Business Impact Of Ecom Visual Strategy: From Cost-Center To Revenue-Contributor
Mel McVeigh, Interim Chief Digital Officer at Photoworks UK, kicked off the day by giving the audience a crash course in understanding the data behind the assets. She underlined the joy and opportunity of bringing together these traditionally opposite business areas and encouraged investing in the time to learn the language—to speak like a creative and CFO.
How do you get started with understanding your business impact?
- Partner with product and data to understand existing hypothesis approaches
- Define the hypothesis model and visual effectiveness and run tests to prove or disprove.
- Get access to the data to use it to drive performance.
- Test, test, test, and then scale.
With all this data, it’s important to remember that you first need to know what question you
Art Direction Trends in E-commerce Visuals
Did you know 95% of all purchases will be made online by 2040? Jo Bird, Independent Creative and Brand Consultant, dropped this knowledge on us to kick off her session. As many brands have optimized for efficiency over the years, she preaches leaning into optimizing for the soul to not end up looking like every other product page. She outlined 5 trends to help convey the ‘soul’ of your brand in visuals:
We’ve been here before with photography and currently everyone is still trying to figure out IP rights and AI. In the meantime, here are some steps to take:
- 5. Value Driven Storytelling
- Curated images that tell a story through texture, casting, props and color
- 4. Immersive Experiences
- Capture people’s attention and take them on a journey through website UX or give them a glimpse behind the scenes.
- 3. Connection, Community and Context
- 79% of people say UGC has an impact, but only 16% of brands have a UGC strategy. It provides context for your product and can also help build community by inviting your customers to be part of the brand.
- 2. Functionality
- If your product is unique, find ways to show it off through video or visuals that highlight functionality.
- 1. Brand World
- Even if it slows down your normal workflow, find ways to build your brand and show off your personality. For example, if you’re a gym brand, use athletes as your models.
Commercial Implementation Of Gen AI In E-commerce: Real-Life Use Cases
From McCann Manchester, we were joined by Faye Garland, Creative Technology Manager, and Criss Richards, Head of Creative Technology. They shared some real-life use cases of how generative AI is being used already. The implementation of generative AI has come a long way, but we cannot expect 100% perfection from it. Faye underlines that if Gen AI can improve your work by 20%, it’s worth using. The examples of Gen AI currently being used include:
- Creating mockups and storyboards during ideation
- Video dubbing for different languages or regions.
- Creating platform-specific content for products from longer content.
- Scaling marketing and branding content for vendors.
Finding The Green Zone For Gen AI In E-commerce
Kelsey Farish, Media Lawyer at Reviewed & Cleared, joined us again this year to provide a refresher and update on laws and regulations around Gen AI in e-commerce. There are numerous benefits to using Gen AI, which have been talked about endlessly, and Kelsey was there to be the voice of reason and let us know how we can deal with some of the risks that come along with it. The risks range from unhappy customers to the lack of transparency to lawsuits due to copyright violations.
The EU Artificial Intelligence Act is coming into effect in August 2025 to help put regulations in place around Gen AI. What can you start doing to prepare? Kelsey provided some points to think about as you start your Gen AI journey:
- Be curious, it leads to competency!
- Ensure there is human oversight over your Gen AI initiatives.
- Supplement your team with AI; don’t start replacing everything and everyone with AI.
- Never forget the Record Label. That means recording everything you do and labeling it.
- And, of course, work with a good lawyer.
Powered By 3D: From Design And Production To Visualization
3D presents the opportunity for brands to work smarter, be innovative, and cost-effective. Kristina Nedeljkovic, LORA LEGARTH, knows from experience running a brand and being a 3D specialist.
Utilizing 3D can help you make smart decisions earlier by removing the number of samples needed to go into production. It’s also a sustainable and cost-effective decision. And to get products online even faster, CGI models can be used. Kristina uses a mix of CGI and real models for her own brand.
Kristina left us with 3 pieces of advice as you embrace 3D:
- Collaborate across departments so the entire company understands the how and why of utilizing 3D.
- Create a basic library of 3D elements, such as textures and lighting. This will be a time investment, but it will set the foundation for creating in 3D.
- Finally, find the right people and the right talent.
Shaping Creative Standards In A Tech-Driven Landscape
We finished the day with Brian Guidry, Pixelz's Chief Growth Officer. Brian gave us a short history lesson on the technology that has helped shape and change our industry, highlighting the fact that with each new advancement, we’ve entered into a cycle of resistance before implementation and change.
As the speakers at FLOW have highlighted, Gen AI, CGI models, and 3D are already being used, and the range of offerings has exploded. Brian asks us to pause, reflect, and hit the reset button. Take this moment to figure out your new creative standards that incorporate these new technologies. He also highlighted a few questions to ask yourself as you start creating these standards:
- What kind of content can you create to impact storytelling?
- Can you be authentic with what and how you create it?
- How will you test and find the value it is bringing to your brand?