NXT Commerce Summit: Five insights into future of retail

How do you ensure customers keep returning, how do you respond to local preferences and what role will new digital channels play in sales? These are questions fashion brands grapple with daily. During the NXT Commerce Summit on November 5 at Felix Meritis in Amsterdam, brands such as Mr Marvis, PassaSports, Flâneur, Hunkemöller and Olivia & Kate shared their experiences with e-commerce development. FashionUnited highlights five key insights.

1. Customer research remains essential

During a session in collaboration with Yotpo, a platform for customer reviews and loyalty programmes, Frederike Kieboom, webshop and digital trade manager at Hunkemöller, explained how the Dutch lingerie brand uses customer insights to improve its online and offline shopping experience. To achieve this, Hunkemöller gathered feedback from over 600 existing and potential customers across various markets. This yielded valuable insights into product presentation. For instance, displaying matching colours and items on a single page proved not to align well with customer preferences.

The main takeaway is that assumptions about what customers want must be tested regularly. Customer research and product reviews also play a role when developing new collections and campaigns.

2. Loyalty is about more than discounts

Over 80 percent of sales at Hunkemöller come from customers who are members of its loyalty programme, according to Kieboom. The brand is exploring how the programme can offer more than traditional discounts. This includes exclusive product testing, events and other member experiences.

Kieboom explained that Hunkemöller also responds to seasonal needs. For example, the brand focuses on swimwear in the summer and winter pyjamas and Christmas gifts around the festive season. Through this approach, the brand aims to keep its offering relevant throughout the year.

3. Connecting data offers cross-selling opportunities

Willem Koopmans, CEO of PassaSports, spoke with payment provider Mollie during the summit about the sports company's e-commerce operations. PassaSports, the company behind TennisDirect and Humbleshop among others, comprises 37 labels. To better align these operations, the company spent approximately 18 months integrating its data and systems.

This revealed the insight that customers often practise multiple sports and purchase from different websites. This offers opportunities to engage customers across multiple sports categories within the company's own ecosystem. This strategy appears to align with customer trends: in 2025, the number of customers placing multiple orders per year and participating in multiple sports grew by 16 percent.

By the end of 2025, 35 percent of revenue came from the overarching PassaSports platform. The remaining 65 percent still came through the individual labels. PassaSports plans to further integrate its various operations to support international growth.

4. International growth requires local choices

A uniform international strategy does not automatically succeed. PassaSports recently launched in France and Austria. While Austria is growing faster than expected, development in France is proving more challenging.

Koopmans illustrated the importance of local conditions using an example from running. He pointed out that the sports season in Sweden differs from that in the Netherlands, partly due to the amount of snow. “When I look outside and it is sunny in the Netherlands, I think it is a good time to buy trainers,” he said. According to Koopmans, one cannot assess a foreign market solely from the perspective of the Netherlands.

Practical customer preferences also vary by market. For instance, the option to choose a specific delivery day proved more valuable to customers than standard next-day delivery. According to the examples discussed during the summit, international e-commerce requires an understanding of local payment habits, services and expectations.

5. Authentic content takes on a larger role in advertising

Amsterdam-based fashion company Flâneur, founded in 2019, shared its experiences using Snapchat as a sales channel during a conversation with Snap Inc., the technology company behind the social media platform. Dynamic product ads (DPA) and videos in a natural, user-generated style perform particularly well. Footage showing people trying on clothes or showcasing outfits proves more effective than standalone product photos.

According to Lars van Egmond, senior client partner at Snap Inc., 85 percent of Snapchat users worldwide are aged 18 or older, and roughly half of those are 25 or older. For Flâneur, the appeal of the platform lies partly in reaching new target audiences.

Based on last-click attribution, Snapchat's results are now roughly on par with those of TikTok. However, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, remains Flâneur's largest sales channel. In last-click attribution, a sale is credited to the final channel the consumer interacted with before making a purchase. Consequently, this method does not provide a complete picture of the role a platform plays in the purchasing process. Furthermore, Flâneur is still in a testing and scaling phase. The company plans to develop more content and test Snapchat further, also with an eye on expanding into new markets.

The examples shared during the NXT Commerce Summit demonstrate that the future of retail is not determined by a single technology or channel. Understanding customer behaviour, smartly connecting data and continuously testing new ways to reach consumers all play a vital role.