Aaron Conant is the Co-founder and Chief Digital Strategist at BWG Connect, a leading platform for executive strategy and networking sessions. He is an eCommerce expert with over a decade of experience in digital commerce, providing advisory services to brands on Amazon sales strategies, retail media, DTC platform selection, and SEO. BWG Connect, in conjunction with BWG Global, has built an exclusive network of over 125,000 senior professionals and hosts over 2,000 virtual and in-person networking events annually.<br>In this episode…<br>Digital commerce is evolving at a pace that makes it difficult for even experienced professionals to keep up. New tools promise efficiency, but they often introduce more complexity and uncertainty. As expectations rise and technology shifts, businesses are being pushed to rethink how they operate, market, and grow. So how can companies adapt when the rules seem to change faster than they can respond?<br>Aaron Conant explains that the current environment is defined by rapid transformation, where AI, changing search behavior, and increasing demands on marketers are reshaping the landscape. As a digital commerce expert with deep experience advising brands, he highlights the importance of understanding emerging trends like conversational search and answer engines, while also emphasizing foundational elements such as clean data and strong content. Aaron suggests that companies focus on continuous testing, invest in learning, and avoid waiting for clarity before taking action. The key is building systems that allow for adaptability rather than chasing perfection.<br>In this episode of The Digital Deep Dive, Chad Franzen of Rise25 talks with Aaron Conant, Co-founder and Chief Digital Strategist at BWG Connect, about how AI is reshaping eCommerce and digital marketing strategy. Aaron shares insights on the rise of AEO and GEO, the growing role of personalization, and the challenges of AI adoption. He also explores content evolution, data readiness, and why constant testing and learning are critical for staying competitive.

How AI Is Reshaping eCommerce and Digital Marketing With Aaron Conant

The Digital Deep Dive With Aaron Conant

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** The Digital Deep Dive With Aaron Conant

## Participants

- **Aaron Conant** (BWG Connect)
- **Chad Franzen** (Rise25)

## Transcript

You're listening to The Digital Deep Dive, where we tackle the newest trends, strategies, and pain points shaping growth across the digital landscape. From Amazon and D2C to international expansion, join our host and eCommerce leaders across multiple industries for in-depth discussions on how to maximize your brands in the digital arena. Now, here's your host, Aaron Conant. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to The Digital Deep Dive podcast. I'm your host, Aaron Conant.

And today, we are going to be flipping the script. So, some longtime friends, partners, supporters of the network over at Rise25 have known them for years now, got connected with them via James Thompson way back in the day around experts in the podcast space as a whole. And this is a thing that they do a lot, I guess, which is kind of flipping the script, which is then they're interviewing me.

So, I think a lot of the listeners know I spend a lot of time just interviewing experts across the digital landscape on everything from eCommerce to digital marketing to, I guess, AI now and cybersecurity. But today, we're in a foot bit. So, Chad's here from Rise25. So, this should be fun. Like, Chad, do you want to jump in? And I'll kind of, I guess, hand it over to you. It's interesting. Yeah, sounds good. Looking forward to talking to you. We'll just kind of get into, you know, the state of eCommerce, digital marketing, AI, things like that.

As we kick it off here, how do you kind of define or how do you look at the current state of eCommerce and digital marketing today? Wow. Oh, this is right out of the gate, huh? Yeah. Yeah. So, I think it's a, it's very complicated. That's what it is. I think it's changed so much over the past, like, six to seven years, obviously accelerated by COVID.

And then just as things started to slow down just a hair, AI comes on the scene. And there's a massive push right now by organizations to have their teams execute using AI. And the tough part for everybody, and this includes the digital marketers, but there's no real direction on that.

And at the same time, there's a lot of pushback from IT tech teams with security issues as a whole. And so as a digital marketer, you're being asked to do more than you've ever done before with newer tools that you may or may not be able to use and execute it faster and deliver results. All to a lot of executive teams that don't really even understand AI and agentic and what it means.

And so it was just an interesting time. That's what it is. It's super difficult. And one thing I'd like to tell you was we're doing multiple, we'll probably do 20 dinners to 30 dinners on AI this year and a ton of webinars is right now. 99.99% of people are at square one. So if you're behind, if you're listening to this and you think you're behind, you're probably not. You'...

How AI Is Reshaping eCommerce and Digital Marketing With Aaron Conant

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
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How AI Is Reshaping eCommerce and Digital Marketing With Aaron Conant

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.