Ever wonder what the biggest e-commerce brands are discussing behind closed doors? We are opening up the vault. 🤫

In this episode of Growing Ecommerce, Mike Ryan and Chris Scharmueller give you a backstage pass to their recent strategy meetings with some of Europe's largest retailers. We are unpacking the exact playbooks, fears, and tactics dominating the boardrooms of the top 1% right now.

Forget the basic tutorials—this is what the mega-brands are actually testing. First, we tackle Google's controversial new push for "Demand Led Growth" (DLG). Are the top retailers really giving Google unlimited budgets, or is there a smarter way to use Target ROAS to capture demand spikes.

We also break down the reality of the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) and why Europe's smartest marketing teams are obsessing over conversational feed attributes to win the AI search war. Finally, we reveal what CMOs are secretly telling their CFOs: With Chinese giants like Temu driving up costs, cheap incremental growth is dead. Discover why Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) is the new survival tool for 2026.

🔗 Resources & Links:

• Access all our webinars, reports, and playbooks in our Knowledge Hub: https://smarter-ecommerce.com/en/knowledge-hub/
• How is your industry stacking up in the market? Find out with smec’s Google Ads Benchmarks:
  https://smarter-ecommerce.com/en/smec-market-observer/

About Smarter Ecommerce (smec):

Smarter Ecommerce (smec) empowers e-commerce brands with AI-driven PPC automation that optimizes for profit and business outcomes while maintaining strategic control.

The platform activates first-party data - profit margins, customer lifetime value, and key business metrics - to automate campaign optimization toward goals like profitability and efficient growth, while detailed campaign insights provide full transparency and enable PPC teams to focus on strategic oversight rather than manual execution.

As a Google Premier Partner and three-time Microsoft Retail Partner of the Year, smec manages over €500 million in ad spend and drives €5B+ in annual e-commerce revenue for 350+ global retail clients including THG, Snipes, REWE, and Intersport.

Make sure to follow smec - Smarter Ecommerce for more performance marketing insights:

smec - Smarter Ecommerce: https://www.smarter-ecommerce.com
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/smarter-ecommerce-gmbh
Newsletter: https://smarter-ecommerce.com/en/newsletter/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smarterecommerce/

Is the "clash of the titans" coming for your profit margins, and is Google about to take away your website traffic?

In this episode of Growing E-commerce, Mike Ryan and Chris Sharma tackle two massive, existential shifts threatening the traditional online retail playbook.

First, we dive into the aggressive European expansion of Chinese e-commerce giants. While JD.com (Joybuy) and SHEIN are making aggressive moves, Temu is completely taking over. We break down the official monthly active user data, revealing that Temu now commands a 40% overall market share in Europe – including a staggering 71.1% market share in Poland and 44% in Germany.

Are European retailers simply becoming collateral damage in this war of attrition?

Then, we unpack a recently granted Google patent that sounds like a sci-fi nightmare for marketers. The patent outlines a system where Google evaluates your landing page, and if it doesn't meet their qualitative standards, they will generate an AI replacement landing page within the ad ecosystem. We discuss what this means for the loss of your tracking data, zero-click purchases, and the ultimate "PMax-ification" of Google Ads.

🔗 Resources & Links:

• Access all our webinars, reports, and playbooks in our Knowledge Hub: https://smarter-ecommerce.com/en/knowledge-hub/

About Smarter Ecommerce (smec):

Smarter Ecommerce (smec) empowers e-commerce brands with AI-driven PPC automation that optimizes for profit and business outcomes while maintaining strategic control.

The platform activates first-party data - profit margins, customer lifetime value, and key business metrics - to automate campaign optimization toward goals like profitability and efficient growth, while detailed campaign insights provide full transparency and enable PPC teams to focus on strategic oversight rather than manual execution.

As a Google Premier Partner and three-time Microsoft Retail Partner of the Year, smec manages over €500 million in ad spend and drives €5B+ in annual e-commerce revenue for 350+ global retail clients including THG, Snipes, REWE, and Intersport.

Make sure to follow smec - Smarter Ecommerce for more performance marketing insights:

smec - Smarter Ecommerce: https://www.smarter-ecommerce.com
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/smarter-ecommerce-gmbh
Newsletter: https://smarter-ecommerce.com/en/newsletter/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smarterecommerce/

Why did OpenAI quietly kill its shopping feature, and what does it mean for the future of Google Ads? 🚨

In this episode of Growing E-commerce, Mike Ryan and Chris Sharma tackle the reality of the "AI takeover" in paid search. Following Chris's exclusive executive Think Tank with 20 leading CMOs in London, we are cutting through the noise to discuss the 2026 playbook.

First up: The ChatGPT Shopping disaster. We discuss why OpenAI had to walk away from its "thin Google Shopping wrapper" to save its burn rate, and why Google's ad ecosystem dominance is stronger than ever. We also dive into the "Wild West" of agentic commerce, including Amazon's massive legal battle with Perplexity over spoofed traffic and lost ad revenue.

But it's not all drama! The second half of this episode is a pure, actionable deep dive into the future of Google Product Feeds. With AI search queries getting 2.5x longer, we break down exactly how to future-proof your

About Smarter Ecommerce (smec):

Smarter Ecommerce (smec) empowers e-commerce brands with AI-driven PPC automation that optimizes for profit and business outcomes while maintaining strategic control.

The platform activates first-party data - profit margins, customer lifetime value, and key business metrics - to automate campaign optimization toward goals like profitability and efficient growth, while detailed campaign insights provide full transparency and enable PPC teams to focus on strategic oversight rather than manual execution.

As a Google Premier Partner and three-time Microsoft Retail Partner of the Year, smec manages over €500 million in ad spend and drives €5B+ in annual e-commerce revenue for 350+ global retail clients including THG, Snipes, REWE, and Intersport.

Make sure to follow smec - Smarter Ecommerce for more performance marketing insights:

smec - Smarter Ecommerce: https://www.smarter-ecommerce.com
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/smarter-ecommerce-gmbh
Newsletter: https://smarter-ecommerce.com/en/newsletter/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smarterecommerce/