E-Category Leadership: The Future of Digital Retail Growth
Transform Your Category Strategy for the Digital-First Era
Discover how leading brands are partnering with retailers to drive mutual growth through data-driven e-category management and unlock the next phase of online success.
About This Session
Marc Warburton (CEO, Daedal) and David Halls (eStore Brands) explore why e-category leadership represents the biggest opportunity for brands to accelerate growth in today's digital retail landscape.
What We Cover:
- Why the power dynamic in e-commerce has shifted from brands → retailers → shoppers
- The 5-step framework for implementing e-category management in your business
- Real-world examples of category optimisation opportunities worth thousands in additional revenue
- How to build the right team structure and capabilities for e-category success
- Data strategies that transform retailer relationships from transactional to strategic
"The Power Has Shifted to Shoppers" 🛍️
"We've gone from brand power to retail power, and now it's about shopper power. The way that shopper power gets embraced is when brands and retailers work closer together - which is essentially where category management comes into play."
David Halls, eStore Brands
The Evolution:
Phase 1: Brand Power - SEO specialists dominated visibility
Phase 2: Retail Power - £1+ billion retail media spend gives retailers controlPhase 3: Shopper Power - Collaborative category growth becomes the competitive advantage
"This Isn't About Growing Share Anymore" 🥧
"This isn't about how you grow your share anymore. This is about how you grow the pie and thus grow your sales. It's all about thinking about growing the pie rather than growing your share going forward."
David Halls, eStore Brands
Why Category Growth Matters:
- Online represents 50%+ of most brands' future growth
- Traditional range decisions are still made through an in-store lens
- Unique online missions and occasions create new opportunities
- Digital shelf analytics reveal immediate optimisation opportunities
"Online is Probably Half Your Growth" 📈
"We get questions around 'online's only 15% of my business, so let's leave it alone.' We think that's a bit of a fallacy because we know that it's probably at least half of our business growth."
Marc Warburton, CEO, Daedal
The Growth Reality:
- Online continues growing faster than in-store across all retail sectors
- CFOs are increasingly focused on online performance
- Category strategies must be tailored for digital environments
- E-category management skills are becoming business-critical
"There's Still a Real Shortage of E-Category Roles" 👩💻👨🏻💻
"One of the heads you should put in first is an e-category manager. There's so much that person can do in terms of helping the business get more from digital shelf, driving insights, thinking about e-range and e-space, e-category strategy. But there are currently still a real shortage of these roles in companies."
Marc Warburton, CEO, Daedal
Building E-Category Capabilities:
- Most businesses are under-resourced for online category management
- E-category managers can transform digital shelf performance
- Investment in specialist roles delivers measurable ROI
- Training existing teams in e-category skills is essential
The 5-Step Framework for E-Category Success
Size the Opportunity
Calculate the category growth prize. Identify key online drivers vs in-store. Determine resource requirements and ROI potential.
Assess Your Capabilities
Audit existing skills and team structure. Evaluate data access and insight capabilities. Prioritise retail partners by will, skill, and commercial impact.
Build the Right Strategy
Make category strategy online-ready. Focus on unique digital missions and occasions. Integrate digital shelf insights with traditional category management.
Execute Through Partnership
Implement joint value creation processes with retailers. Align on shared growth objectives and action plans. Fix category basics while building strategic initiatives.
Track and Optimise
Measure effectiveness with relevant KPIs. Feed learnings back into strategy. Build case studies for wider rollout
About the Speakers
Marc is the founder and CEO of Daedal, an e-commerce consultancy specialising in e-category leadership, strategy, and capability building. With extensive experience working with brands and retailers globally, Marc helps companies transform their approach to online category management.
Daedal Services:
David brings 15 years of e-commerce analytics expertise, helping brands and retailers create better category stories and drive mutual growth online. At eStore Brands, David focuses on transforming how companies approach digital retail through data-driven insights.
eStore Brands Services:
Digital shelf analytics
eCommerce performance optimisation
Retail media strategy
Category management data solutions
david.halls@estorebrands.com