E-commerce trends 2025: Experience, customer understanding, artificial intelligence, partnerships and sustainability.

Leevi Parsama,
Chair of the Board
Digital Commerce Finland

AI and Genuine Customer Understanding

AI is the biggest trend in e-commerce. It will change all the aspects and functions of digital commerce. Personally, I place customers at the strategic core alongside AI. Companies that harness their own AI agents most effectively to analyse who the company's best customers are, and why they choose to buy from us will be the winners of the next period of growth.  

Profound customer understanding, emotional motivations behind purchases and hard variables – data & euros – feature among the main means of coping with the ever-increasing competition against global giants. You need to be genuinely meaningful to your customers, create original content, offer innovative services, and make shopping easy and hassle-free. In essence, this means the ability to manage the customer experience systematically and inspiringly.  

In addition, when you identify your own competitive advantages and know how to transform them in your own concept, which is managed with data 24/7, you’re firmly among the winners.

Michael Ovitz, 
Marketing Director
Delivery Hero Finland Oy, Foodora

A record-breaking year for express grocery deliveries

Grocery deliveries will see new record figures this year.  Interest in the delivery of groceries in less than 30 minutes will grow strongly throughout the country in both big and small cities. Changes in legislation related to the home delivery of alcohol products will also be of interest to the industry.

Collaboration between restaurants and transport services is growing closer: campaigns are created in close collaboration, and dialogue on productisation, pricing and even the potential locations of new restaurants based on transport data is taking place more than ever before.

Henriikka Raussi,
Head of Marketing, 
Foodello Oy, Fiksuruoka.fi

Sustainability is an asset in e-commerce
 

Online stores that operate as sustainably as possible are increasingly emerging as a counterforce to Temu and other discount platforms.

In addition to the product range, attention is paid to emissions from transport, packaging materials, green coding and the transparency of operations in general.  

Green values are not the most important driver of purchase decisions for most customers, especially in Finland, and prices have a strong impact on purchase behaviour. Yet there is widespread interest in more sustainable choices. Unfortunately, price awareness and sustainability are often seen as mutually exclusive, but is also possible to offer sustainable choices at affordable prices. Sustainable operations are crucial for the planet, and should be a basic operating model rather than a trend.

Hanna-Mari Jäntti, 
Senior Growth Marketing Manager,
with over 10 years of experience in advertising and e-commerce development for global brands in the agency and brand sectors, including Publicis Groupe, Amazon, Burberry, and Meta

Ecosystem approach and partnerships
 

The year 2025 will bring with it a significant shift from individual actors to broader ecosystems. Global brands no longer operate solely as independent entities, but build collaborative networks that combine marketing and customer experience, as well as production and logistics, in a seamless entity.

Companies are joining forces to create a fully integrated customer journey: marketing and media platforms, payment services, and distribution partners work together to provide customers a faster and easier shopping experience. Not only is this cost-effective: it also strengthens customer loyalty by providing effortless value at every stage of purchasing.

AI is used to build a seamless ecosystem that offers advantages to all parties – companies, partners and customers. For example, with the support of AI, companies are developing new logistics solutions that not only speed up deliveries but also reduce their carbon footprint – an issue that is increasingly important to consumers who value sustainability. While this may put pressure on smaller players, it also opens up numerous opportunities to stand out by offering tailored services and local expertise.

Kati Ilomäki,
Paid Search & Programmatic Specialist,
Suomen Digimarkkinointi Oy

Multichannel operations, artificial intelligence and strategic understanding

The key trends for e-commerce in 2025 are multichannel operations, artificial intelligence and strategic competitive advantages.

Analytics revealed the first signals of visitor traffic being brought to websites by AI tools last year. A multichannel presence is the lifeblood of successful trading: Product advertising is used to acquire new customers and promote seasonal discounts. Meanwhile, SEO and email marketing ensure long-term free traffic.

The most important thing is to increase the customer lifetime value by maximising the amount of the average purchase and the frequency of purchases. It is often only the customer's second purchase that is profitable for the store.

It all starts with a strategic understanding of the company’s competitive advantages, standout factors and target group. Once these are clear, channel weighting and definition of the marketing concept will be effective. 

Reetta Sinelampi,
Chief Business Development Officer,
Sortter Oy, sortter.fi

Digital lending and responsibility are emphasised in the financial sector

Digital lending is already the norm: financial and loan products are searched for, compared and combined online. Modern financial products are available in situations where they are needed.

In 2025, secured loans will also be digitalised.

Embedded finance makes financial products more widely available, enabling the emergence of new business models. Sustainability is increasingly important: a responsible and reliable operator is preferred. It also helps companies gain market share and partnerships.

AI brings its own dimension to sustainability. Innovation combined with the potential offered by AI provides a head start. It is better decide the direction of the market than follow it. This also applies to regulation.  

In the flow of information and in a competitive industry, the fairness and transparency of operations have a special place. These are the values on which customers will increasingly rely in the future. 

Mia Lähdesalmi,
Marketing Strategist,
Sanoma Media Finland

A community platform that is an experience in itself, and where the customer is a star

In 2025, one of the keys to the success for online stores is an entertainment-led content strategy, and the creation of a sense of community that engages and brings customers together and makes shopping an experience in itself. Gamification, live shopping and editorial content will emerge as key means of attracting and entertaining customers. AI offers a wealth of new opportunities for this: it can be used to create personalised product recommendations, styling tips and targeted content that speaks individually to different customer groups.

Using a brand ambassador or engaging video content to create a sense of community increases the store’s appeal and credibility. Making an online store part of customers’ daily lives as a sponsor or organiser of various events is also important in creating a sense of community and promoting engagement.

The online store is therefore not just a place to shop but also a platform for experiences and community, where the customer changes from a passive buyer to an active brand ambassador.