"Accessibility isn’t a niche feature set; it’s the operating system of a fair and profitable digital world."

On this week’s episode of The FODcast, James sits down with Hilary Stephenson, Managing Director at Nexer Digital, to unpack how inclusive design drives growth, reduces risk, and builds trust across every customer journey.

In our chat, we cover a whole host of things, including:

• The European Accessibility Act - what’s in scope, what deadlines matter, and why compliance is only the floor, not the ceiling
• The biggest friction points in retail journeys - and how to turn them into wins through clear content, contrast, and keyboard-friendly design
• What government digital services get right: co-design, testing with assistive tech, and radical transparency
• How inclusive design and immersive commerce can coexist, and why heavy scripts, pop-ups, and “dark patterns” are just bad UX
• The practical sequence to start today: set a baseline, “fix the six,” publish an honest accessibility statement, and keep testing

With more than 25 years in content, UX and inclusive service design, Hilary brings the experience of someone who’s helped make accessibility business-critical for leading brands and public sector organisations alike.

Tune in, enjoy, and let us know your thoughts!

Simply Commerce is the leading supplier of talent into digital commerce across technology, digital marketing, product, sales, and leadership.

Find our more about our approach and our services within digital commerce recruitment here: https://simply-commerce.co.uk/

AI is not just changing tools, it is changing teams, skills and how customers find you online.

In this week’s episode of The FODcast, host James Hodges sits down with Rob Goodwin, Chief Data Officer at MSQ Partners, to talk about what is moving fast, what is hype, and what leaders should fix now.

We cover:

• AI agents for triage, code generation and repetitive analytics, and what that means for junior and mid-level roles
• The rise of AI Ops to monitor, tune and audit models in production
• Why first-party data quality still beats shiny tools, and how to clean and enrich what you already have
• Practical steps to align clickstream, CRM and purchase data so personalisation actually works
• Trust in an AI world, including QA, transparent citations and brand-owned communities

If your 2025 plan touches AI, data or search, this one is absolutely ESSENTIAL listening.

🎧 Tune in now

#AI #DataStrategy #DigitalCommerce #MarTech #Search #Personalisation #FODcast

Simply Commerce is the leading supplier of talent into digital commerce across technology, digital marketing, product, sales, and leadership.

Find our more about our approach and our services within digital commerce recruitment here: https://simply-commerce.co.uk/

We’ve got an extra special episode of The FODcast dropping this week - not only do we have both Tim Roedel AND James Hodges side by side in the interviewer’s seat once again, but we’re also joined by two guests from global commerce agency Domaine, Kim Samuelsen and Max Rolon.

In this four-way chat, we discuss how Shopify’s native capabilities now handle serious complexity across EMEA without the overhead of composable stacks - and what that means for brands weighing platform choice, expansion, and cost control.

From Markets and meta objects to multilingual storefronts and local payment methods, we explore what’s changed, what still trips brands up, and where the smart money goes when every budget line is under pressure.

The conversation digs into:

• The real barriers of European expansion - compliance, duties, and fulfilment quirks like lockers and pickup points
• When to stick with Shopify Payments versus legacy gateways
• Why clean, centralised data underpins everything from AI personalisation to CRM efficiency
• How unified commerce is replacing brittle omnichannel integrations

You’ll also hear real-world examples; from a Magento-to-Shopify B2B migration that finally brought B2B online to an enterprise furniture launch that hit a 23-week timeline and lifted conversion by 19%.

If you’re weighing platform choice, entering Europe, or tightening spend ahead of Q1, this is your field guide to cutting TCO without cutting ambition.

🎧 Enjoy!

#ShopifyPlus #Ecommerce #DigitalCommerce #UnifiedCommerce #PlatformMigration #FODcast

Simply Commerce is the leading supplier of talent into digital commerce across technology, digital marketing, product, sales, and leadership.

Find our more about our approach and our services within digital commerce recruitment here: https://simply-commerce.co.uk/