Digital sales trends for 2025

As we look ahead to 2025, the world of digital commerce continues to evolve rapidly. Building on a year of progress in personalisation, AI, and customer-led growth, change remains constant. To help you prepare, we’ve gathered insights from our consultants on the key trends that will shape digital sales in the coming year.

From smarter use of technology to more sustainable business practices, here are five trends to watch:

1. Turning behaviour into insights: the real value of customer data

By General Manager, Sweden, Simon Fransson

As we approach 2025, personalisation remains a crucial element of successful digital commerce, with effective customer data utilisation being the foundation of it all. However, many organisations are still in the early stages of their journey towards becoming truly data-driven. Many organisations underutilise their data, accumulating large amounts without taking meaningful action. The way forward is not about accumulating more data but about collecting the right data and using it effectively. 

A key trend is the increasing importance of understanding not just what customers do but why they do it. For example, a customer abandoning their shopping cart may appear straightforward, but the underlying motivations can vary widely: 

• For some, it may simply serve as a temporary repository for hard-to-find items on a complex website – which can be indicated by the number of products in their cart being higher than average.
• For others, it may be due to sudden distractions during the purchasing process, as mid-purchase exits can illustrate. 
  Regardless of the scenario, identifying these motivations allows for the delivery of more meaningful and valuable customer experiences.

The adoption of customer data platforms (CDPs) and other centralised systems to create a 360-degree view of the customer primarily captures what actions customers have taken. But even the best CDPs can only go so far without a robust strategy for interpreting behaviour. To determine the next best customer interaction, exploring the underlying motivations behind customer behaviours and applying the appropriate contextual lens to interpret their actions effectively is crucial.

The sunsetting of third-party cookies further underscores the need to gather and use first-party data effectively and one key trend we’ve witnessed is the emergence of apps, providing brands with direct control over customer data and interactions. 

The payoff is clear: consumers are willing to share personal information if it improves their experience, with 66% saying they would do so for better service (Redpoint & Harris). Personalisation at scale is not just about using a customer’s name in an email or deploying chatbots – it’s about delivering tailored experiences across all touchpoints. Whether it’s crafting unique product bundles or suggesting content based on browsing history, AI allows businesses to deliver what customers want before they even ask for it. Organisations already investing in this are setting a new standard for customer experience. In the past two years, advancements in AI, specifically LLMs, have significantly enhanced our ability to execute tasks accurately and efficiently. However, as we look toward 2025, the critical question shifts: Are we focusing on the right things?

2. AI’s turning point: From hype to operational value and profitability

By Principal Consultant Pirkka Kaijanen 

AI in digital commerce continues to be a hot topic, but businesses must move beyond the hype and start unlocking its operational value. How do you ensure AI is not just another line item in your tech stack but a driver of meaningful results?

One of AI's most transformative impacts lies in customer success and engagement. By leveraging predictive analytics and intelligent recommendations, businesses can anticipate customer needs, deliver hyper-personalised experiences, and proactively identify at-risk customers for timely retention efforts. These capabilities not only enhance satisfaction and drive cross-selling opportunities but also enable seamless engagement across all channels, aligning operational efficiency with exceptional customer experiences.

So far, the biggest leaps companies have seen with AI are related to its ability to handle repetitive, manual tasks with speed and precision. What we've seen increasingly more is the ambition to move beyond that – towards full-scale automation, customer data platform (CDP) implementation, and the democratisation of data. By adopting CDPs, businesses can make data accessible and actionable across teams, empowering employees to make better decisions without needing technical expertise.

Looking to the near future, Gartner forecasts that by 2030, up to 20% of corporate revenue could come from machine customers – AI systems acting on behalf of humans. These non-human clients prioritise efficiency and reliability over emotional connections, meaning businesses must align their offerings to meet these expectations or risk being left behind.

AI is also cementing its role as a foundational component across products and services, with SaaS tools increasingly featuring it as a standard capability while generative AI and AI agents are becoming the norm. For example, in 2024, HubSpot introduced Breeze, their new bundle of AI products, and Agent.ai – a marketplace for AI agents – while Salesforce launched Agentforce to enhance collaboration between humans and AI. These advancements underline the importance of businesses embracing AI as a strategic priority for sustainable growth.

3. Systematic and seamless customer engagement across all channels

By Managing Consultant Viljo Valovirta and General Manager, Finland, Ville Loppinen

The digital commerce landscape in 2025 is defined by a shift from fragmented customer interactions to a systematic, seamless approach across every channel. At the core of this evolution lies customer data, which fuels engagement across websites, e-commerce platforms, marketing automation, outbound calls, and traditional face-to-face sales. AI amplifies this by enabling real-time data processing, segment-of-one targeting, and scalable personalised content.

In our recent poll of over 200 commercial and tech leaders, 51% of Finnish organisations reported being in the early stages of leveraging customer data with proof-of-concept projects or experiments. This underscores the untapped potential for businesses to mature these efforts, moving from isolated experiments to a cohesive, data-driven operation. Additionally, the same poll revealed that the top outcomes organisations seek from data-driven strategies are improved customer experience, revenue growth, and operational efficiency. However, companies face challenges in processes and competencies (53%) and data infrastructure quality (51%), indicating that technological readiness must be paired with organisational capability.

By unifying customer data into centralised CDPs, businesses can achieve true omnichannel engagement. AI-powered analytics then take this a step further, enabling features like tailored recommendations, hyper-relevant marketing, dynamic pricing, and proactive customer service. The result is an experience that feels personal at every touchpoint, fostering loyalty and long-term growth. In 2025, organisations that address foundational challenges and embrace AI to scale personalized experiences will set themselves apart, building loyalty and driving sustainable growth.

4. Composable technology architecture expanding beyond B2C

By Managing Consultants Matti Liski and Sami Taipale

Composable architecture is a modern approach to building a tech stack by integrating smaller, independent, and reusable components, each designed to serve a specific purpose. While much of the conversation around composable architecture has focused on the B2C sector, its adoption in B2B is gaining significant traction, and we expect this trend to gain even more momentum in 2025. 

B2B merchants often encounter challenges due to rigid, outdated technologies and have more complex use cases compared to their B2C counterparts. Simultaneously, B2B customers are increasingly expecting a seamless, consumer-grade experience. This combination makes the advantages of composable architecture – such as flexibility, scalability, and customised solutions – particularly important for B2B businesses.

Moreover, the growing influence of AI and its dependence on high-quality data has highlighted the necessity of a solid foundation in composable architectures. Companies have recognised that to deliver exceptional experiences, they require not only a flexible and high-performing commerce engine or a modern frontend but also accurate, well-structured, and accessible data, such as customer and product data. This data empowers the top layers of the architecture, including AI-driven tools, to function optimally and deliver impactful, personalised experiences.

5. Sustainability meets strategy in digital business 

By Principal Consultant Maija Typpi-Häkkinen

As global challenges such as climate change, social inequality, and ethical concerns intensify, businesses cannot afford to ignore the environmental and social impacts of their operations. In digital sales, sustainability is no longer an optional consideration; it is a strategic priority that requires focus to meet consumer expectations, align with regulatory requirements, and create long-term value.

Legislation and directives should not be the primary motivation for reacting and regenerating business & operations, but they help to speed up the change. New requirements, like the Digital Product Passport directive (DPP), will push businesses to improve transparency and accountability. New sustainability reporting requirements will lead to an increased need for integrating data from various ecommerce platforms into reporting systems. Businesses are increasingly expected to align with global sustainability goals through measures such as adopting low-energy digital solutions, embracing regenerative business, and ensuring traceability in product manufacturing and supply chains.

While AI can be essential in automating sustainability reporting, optimising sales processes, and reducing resource waste, businesses must address its potential for bias and the environmental issues associated with training generative AI models.

Social sustainability extended to all relationships – from employees to suppliers. This includes promoting equality in career opportunities, fair pay structures, and employee well-being while ensuring ethical sourcing and production practices throughout the supply chain. Additionally, new accessibility requirements set to take effect in June 2025 will drive change for ecommerce. 

In 2025, forward-thinking organisations will see sustainability not as an obligation but as an essential component of business success.

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We're happy to answer any questions you may have and discuss the emerging trends in digital commerce further.