OGOship CEO’s Outlook: Ending 2025 and Heading Into 2026

The ecommerce industry is entering a new era. After the years of rapid expansion, followed by turbulence and recalibration, 2025 is the year when ecommerce businesses have been balancing growth ambitions with resilience. As we head towards 2026, the landscape will be defined by how well companies manage post-purchase experiences, global market complexity (through turbulence), and ever-increasing consumer expectations.

1. Financial landscape: Profitability over growth

The days of “growth at all costs” are behind us. The rise of interest rates and tighter access to capital means ecommerce brands need to have healthy margins and tighter operations. Consumers are also much more cost concious, the average basket size dropping around 10 – 20 %, as according to Ecommerce Europe. Ecommerce companies are keeping a closer eye on fulfillment costs, return rates and cross border costs more than ever. Succesful brands will be able to grow without margin deterioration.

2. Consumer behavior: Concsious and Demanding

Consumers are both demanding and more selective:

• They expect faster delivery but are increasingly willing to choose slower, more sustainable options if the experience is transparent and trustworthy.
• Loyalty generally is declining with consumers willing to choose the cheaper option from abroad and quickly turning away from a brand even with only a single bad experience.
• “Wardrobing” and “Staging” have become more common among younger consumers, increasing return rates and having devastating effects on margin.

3. Technology shifts: AI and Post-Purchase Transparency

Through 2025 AI has become embedded in ecommerce operations. Personalized recommendations, dynamic pricing and AI assisted customer service teams are a reality. The real frontier is post-purchase transparency, meaning real-time order tracking, lighning fast 24/7 AI assisted customer support, proactive notifications on delays and disruptions and easy-to-use return portals that blend seamslessly to the entire product journey. These moments possible problems are where brands have an opportunity to shine and to turn every touchpoint into loyalty-building events.

4. Global Complexity: Cross-Border Challenges and Opportunities

Ecommerce is international by default (or it should be) but regulations are becoming more fragmented:

• The US de minimis threshold disappearing.
• The EU continues to tighten VAT and customs enforcement.
• Product compliance is increasingly complex.

The opportunity is clear: brands that master these elements, leveraging the available capabilities that are existing (yes they do exist) have the possibility to be the winners and gain significantly more business and gain consumer trust.

5. Sustainability: From Words to Metrics

Regulators, investors and consumers are no longer satisfied with vague sustainability claims because “green washing” has eroded the believability of many of the claims. They want results and metrics, something tangible. In 2026, CO2 reporting, packaging material impact, and circular solutions like repair, resale, and store credit (instead of returns) will become more important to all ecommerce. Brands that cannot show their numbers risk losing consumer and stakeholder trust.

6. Outlook for 2026: From Logistics to Loyalty

Because of harsher financial conditions, keeping existing customers is more important than ever. And losing customer trust is possible in more ways than ever before because of all the disruptions in the landscape and because of changing customer behavior. Delivering trust via flawless execution of what happens after the customer clicks buy will drive recurring business, vital for the growth of all ecommerce businesses in 2026.

This is why at OGOship, our mission is so clear to me: making sure ecommerce brands never lose a customer because of what happens after the sale. I believe that every delivery, every return, and every interaction is a chance to reinforce trust. When we get those moments right, we don’t just move products, we build loyalty. And that is what will matter most in 2026 and beyond.