eCommerce Expo is CloserStill Media's annual UK trade show and conference for ecommerce, digital retail and online marketing professionals, held at ExCeL London each September since the show returned there in 2022 (previously at Olympia London); the 2026 edition runs 23 to 24 September 2026 under the theme "Building Smarter Commerce," co-located with Technology for Marketing, with the organiser projecting more than 10,000 attendees and more than 200 solution providers.
eCommerce Expo is an annual trade show and conference for ecommerce, digital retail, marketing technology, fulfilment and customer experience professionals, held at ExCeL London and organised by CloserStill Media, a London-headquartered international B2B tradeshow organiser with events across Europe and Asia. It runs co-located with Technology for Marketing, sharing the same dates, venue and a single free registration route for retailers and brands (source: excel.london's 2026 listing and ecommerceexpo.co.uk, checked 20 September 2026). The show is supported by an exclusive partnership with IMRG, described in organiser-linked material as the UK's largest ecommerce and retail community, which runs a dedicated stage and benchmarking content at the event. eCommerce Expo previously ran at Olympia London; CloserStill Media's own show-recap material dates its move to ExCeL London, alongside Technology for Marketing, to 2022, when the two shows made what the organiser called a "successful debut" at the venue with more than 250 exhibitors on the floor (source: ecommerceexpo.co.uk news archive on the 2022 relaunch, checked 20 September 2026). The organiser's own 2026 material frames the show around AI-driven shopping, personalised customer journeys, scalable operations and profitable growth, under the 2026 theme "Building Smarter Commerce."
The 2026 edition runs from 23 to 24 September 2026, with hours of 09:30 to 17:00 on 23 September and 09:30 to 16:45 on 24 September (source: excel.london's exhibition listing and Retail Technology Innovation Hub's 19 August 2026 preview, both checked 20 September 2026; a third listing on Eventbrite rounds the closing time to 16:30, a minor discrepancy against the two sources above). The venue is ExCeL London, in east London. The show is co-located with Technology for Marketing at the same venue and on the same dates, and one source found in this research also names Parcel & Post Expo as sharing the same registration (unverifiable information), a claim not independently confirmed against a second source in the material checked this session. This is the same venue used since the show's move from Olympia London, confirmed for the 2022, 2024 and 2025 editions on record.
eCommerce Expo is organised by CloserStill Media, a London-headquartered international B2B tradeshow organiser that runs events across technology, learning and HR, healthcare and future transport and infrastructure markets, with a stated reach of more than 70,000 delegates and 2,500-plus exhibitors (organiser figures) across its portfolio (source: closerstillmedia.com and ecommerceexpo.co.uk/about-the-organiser, checked 20 September 2026). The general contact on record for the event is Graeme Howe, reachable at graeme.howe@closerstillmedia.com. No third-party co-organiser is named for the London edition; IMRG is described as an exclusive content and community partner, not a co-organiser.
The organiser projects more than 10,000 senior B2B and B2C leaders for the 2026 edition, alongside more than 200 solution providers on the exhibition floor and over 200 hours of CPD-accredited content across 10 conference theatres (source: excel.london's 2026 listing, echoed by Retail Technology Innovation Hub's 19 August 2026 preview, both checked 20 September 2026). This is a pre-event projection: at the time of this check, the show had not yet opened. The database's own target-audience field records the intended visitor base as "Trade Public." Registration is free for retailers and B2B/B2C brands, multichannel, pure-play, and both consumer-facing and business-facing; a paid rate applies to solution providers and vendors attending as visitors (source: ecommerceexpo.co.uk registration material, checked 20 September 2026). One aggregator listing found in this research separately puts exhibitor numbers at around 250 (unverifiable information), against the organiser's own "200+" figure; a further aggregator figure of roughly 755 speakers was also found but is not carried into this fiche, as it does not match any other source checked and is treated as an aggregator error rather than a documented fact (see Notes).
Named in an organiser line-up announcement covered by Retail Technology Innovation Hub on 19 August 2026, not a full published roster; the organiser states the show runs 10 conference theatres and 200-plus hours of content, and only a subset of individual names surfaced in the material found this session.
Senior leaders from Space NK, Loaf, B&Q, L'Oreal, Amazon and Google are also named as speaking on practical case studies and Q4 and peak-season outlooks, without individual names given in the source checked. A separate search result names Google, Amazon, IKEA, John Lewis Partnership, Charlotte Tilbury, Primark, Holland & Barrett, Virgin Media O2, L'Oreal, Samsung and Adobe as companies with speakers on the 2026 programme, again without individual names in the material found. The remainder of the full speaker roster is published on the organiser's own speakers pages (ecommerceexpo.co.uk/speakers and ecommerceexpo.co.uk/speakers-ece), which could not be fetched directly in this research session (see Notes).
The 2026 edition runs under the theme "Building Smarter Commerce," covering AI-driven shopping, personalised customer journeys, scalable operations and profitable growth strategies (source: excel.london and Retail Technology Innovation Hub, both checked 20 September 2026). The organiser's 2026 projection, more than 10,000 attendees and more than 200 solution providers, is lower than what organiser-linked coverage reported for the completed 2025 edition: more than 12,000 ecommerce professionals and over 300 leading ecommerce brands and providers, for a show held 24 to 25 September 2025 at the same venue (source: ecommercenews.eu's 2025 event listing, checked 20 September 2026; see the headline-figures Why entry below for why this gap matters). Previous editions on record: 2025 (24 to 25 September, ExCeL London, more than 12,000 attendees reported), 2024 (18 to 19 September, ExCeL London, more than 300 solution providers, per A1 Retail Magazine's show-opening coverage), and 2022 (the first edition at ExCeL London after the move from Olympia London, more than 250 exhibitors, per the organiser's own recap). No named new features specific to 2026, beyond the theme and the confirmed 2026 speakers listed above, were found in the material checked this session.
The organiser states more than 200 hours of CPD-accredited content across 10 conference theatres, covering customer acquisition, customer experience, personalisation, logistics, operations and fulfilment (source: excel.london's 2026 listing and Retail Technology Innovation Hub, both checked 20 September 2026). Named strands include the IMRG-branded stage, historically called the IMRG Optimisation Stage in recent editions, carrying UK retail benchmarking content from IMRG; and the invitation-only Growth Summit (detailed in the side-events entry below). A full, dated session-by-session agenda, with times, rooms and the complete list of speakers beyond the names given above, is published on the organiser's conference agenda page (ecommerceexpo.co.uk/conference-agenda) and was not retrieved in full in this research session (see Notes).
Formats named in the material checked: keynotes and panel sessions across 10 conference theatres; a stage carrying IMRG's UK retail benchmarking content; and the Growth Summit, an invitation-only one-day format for senior leaders of UK retail businesses with GBP 10 million-plus turnover, split into a morning and afternoon session so attendees can split their time between Growth Summit content and the main show floor. The database's own fields record no formal business-matchmaking programme and no advance meeting-scheduling tool for this event (b2b_matchmaking and advance_scheduling both 0). The organiser's own "Meetings" page, found in this research, describes a self-serve way for attendees to arrange their own meetings with exhibitors via the event platform, run in partnership with IMRG as what the organiser calls "an alternative to 1:1 meetings" at trade shows: this is a self-serve scheduling tool for attendees, not an organiser-run hosted-buyer matchmaking programme, and is consistent with the database's recorded absence of a formal matchmaking format.
Documented for 2026: the Growth Summit, an invitation-only one-day event for senior leaders of UK retail businesses with GBP 10 million-plus turnover, held in the Platinum Suites at ExCeL London, offering a personalised ecommerce-performance benchmarking report across more than 40 metrics, roundtable discussions and expert panels (source: material on ecommerceexpo.co.uk's Growth Summit pages, checked 20 September 2026); and an awards ceremony, named "The Top 30 Awards Ceremony" on the 2026 conference-programme page, which 2025 coverage referred to as the "eCommerce Awards," historically held on the first evening of the show. The 2026 awards ceremony's exact venue was not independently confirmed in this research session; 2025 coverage places the equivalent evening event at the Hilton London Bankside (unverifiable information) for that year specifically. No separate satellite conference, hackathon or partner-day programme distinct from the co-located Technology for Marketing show was found in the material checked.
Registration is free for retailers and B2B/B2C brands, described by the organiser as multichannel, pure-play, and both consumer-facing and business-facing retail and brand companies. A paid rate applies to solution providers, vendors and agencies attending as visitors, with the exact price not publicly disclosed in the material checked this session; the organiser directs solution providers to its registration page for current pricing (source: ecommerceexpo.co.uk registration and landing pages, checked 20 September 2026). Speaking and exhibiting have their own separate cost structures, covered in the become-speaker and become-sponsor entries below.
Applications go through the organiser's "Become a Speaker" page (ecommerceexpo.co.uk/become-speaker). The organiser states that free speaking slots are reserved for brands, end-user companies and independent thought leaders; solution providers (companies selling into the ecommerce and retail-technology industry) are not eligible for a free slot but can access paid speaking opportunities, arranged through the organiser's sales team (source: ecommerceexpo.co.uk/become-speaker, checked 20 September 2026). No specific application deadline for the 2026 edition was found in the material checked.
Enquiries go through the organiser's exhibitor enquiry pages (ecommerceexpo.co.uk/exhibitor-enquiry and ecommerceexpo.co.uk/exhibitor-enquiry-2026), which offer a "Book a Stand" route, or the general contact on record, Graeme Howe at graeme.howe@closerstillmedia.com. A "Why exhibit" page (ecommerceexpo.co.uk/why-exhibit) and a sponsorship-tiers page (ecommerceexpo.co.uk/our-sponsors) exist on the organiser's site; tier names beyond a "Platinum Sponsor" level referenced in page navigation, and specific prices, were not retrieved in this research session (see Notes).
A confirmed, named sponsor list for 2026 was not found in the material checked this session; the organiser's sponsors page (ecommerceexpo.co.uk/our-sponsors) references a "Platinum Sponsor" tier without a name attached in the content retrieved. Named exhibiting companies for 2026, confirmed by stand number on the organiser's exhibitor pages, include ShipStation and BigCommerce; these are documented exhibitors, not confirmed sponsors. For historical reference only, not asserted for 2026: exhibitors named at the 2022 ExCeL debut included Adobe, Amazon, Barclaycard, Clearpay, Genesys, Google Cloud, Okta, Shopify and Shopware, per the organiser's own recap of that edition.
No independently audited breakdown by sector or company size is published in the material checked. The organiser's free-registration criteria point to the intended mix: multichannel, pure-play, consumer-facing (B2C) and business-facing (B2B) retail and brand companies. The named 2026 speaker-linked companies skew toward large, established consumer retail and brand groups: general and department retail (John Lewis Partnership, Primark, B&Q), fashion and beauty (Charlotte Tilbury, Holland & Barrett, L'Oreal, Samsung, Space NK, Loaf, UNTUCKit, Asos), telecoms and media (Virgin Media O2), and large technology and marketplace platforms (Google, Amazon, Adobe). IMRG's own partner material separately names eBay, Estee Lauder and John Lewis among the retailers in its wider network, a description of IMRG's community rather than of eCommerce Expo's attendee base specifically. No comparably named list of the exhibiting solution-provider (technology vendor) companies as a group, distinct from these retailer and brand names, was found in the material checked this session.
The organiser's press-pass registration page (ecommerceexpo.co.uk/press-pass-registration) states that media are invited to attend eCommerce Expo and Technology for Marketing free of charge, with fast-track entry, press-invited meet-and-greets with headline speakers, and a dedicated Press Lounge hosted by the organiser's official press partner, Propeller, for working, recharging or conducting interviews. The page notes that a speaker's presence does not guarantee an interview, and that interviews should be arranged through Propeller where possible. Press enquiries go to press@closerstillmedia.com (source: ecommerceexpo.co.uk/press-pass-registration, checked 20 September 2026). No specific 2026 accreditation deadline was found in the material checked.
Coverage found for the 2024 to 2026 editions comes mostly from retail-trade and retail-technology outlets: Retail Technology Innovation Hub (a 19 August 2026 full line-up preview), CX Today (a 2026 event listing), and A1 Retail Magazine (coverage of the 2024 edition's opening day). Several further results found in this research, including ecommercetech.io, magebit.com and tradefairdates.com, function as event-directory and listing sites rather than independent press. No evidence of national daily or broadcast press coverage was found; coverage located in this session is retail-trade press and listing sites. The database's own official_media_partners field carries no entries for this record, and no formal media-partner list was found on the organiser's site in the material checked this session.
Mixed, and skewed toward retail-trade and event-listing sources rather than general business or consumer media. Retail Technology Innovation Hub and A1 Retail Magazine are independent retail-trade outlets, but their previews and recaps mainly restate organiser-supplied figures (the 10,000-plus attendees, 200-plus solution providers and theme material for 2026) without an independent count of their own, which places this coverage closer to independent-but-promotional than to adversarial reporting. CX Today, ecommercetech.io, magebit.com and similar listing sites republish organiser-supplied event data with no visible independent verification, and one such listing's figures (around 250 exhibitors and roughly 755 speakers) disagree with the organiser's own "200+" figure and are not corroborated elsewhere, which this fiche treats as a caution on aggregator reliability rather than as fact. No press coverage that questions or audits the organiser's attendance or exhibitor figures was found in the sources checked on 20 September 2026.
Solution providers hoping for a free speaking slot: the organiser reserves free speaking opportunities for brands, end-user companies and independent thought leaders, so a vendor's documented route onto the stage is a paid speaking arrangement through the sales team, not a free application. Attendees who need a confirmed live remote or virtual-attendance option: no livestream or virtual pass was found in the material checked for this event (see the remote-attendance entry below); only post-event on-demand session recordings are documented, and only for past editions. Smaller retail businesses hoping specifically for the Growth Summit track: that side programme is invitation-only and aimed at UK retail businesses with GBP 10 million-plus turnover, so it is not open to every attendee even though the main show floor and conference theatres are.
eCommerce Expo's 2026 dates, 23 to 24 September, fall in the same week as NRF Retail's Big Show Europe in Paris (15 to 17 September 2026) and on the same two days as dmexco in Cologne (23 to 24 September 2026), Europe's digital-marketing and ecommerce technology show: a UK buyer weighing both German and French events in the same fortnight should note the direct calendar overlap with dmexco specifically. Earlier in the year, two other UK-focused shows sit in the same broad space at the same venue, ExCeL London: the Retail Technology Show (22 to 23 April 2026) and, from CloserStill's UK ecommerce and retail competitor set, IRX, the Internet Retailing Expo, now run by Clarion Events, which for 2026 splits into a standalone Birmingham NEC edition and a co-located "IRX at DTX+UCX" edition at ExCeL London, both on 19 to 20 May 2026. Later in the year, Shoptalk Europe (Barcelona, 9 to 11 June 2026) is the other pan-European retail and ecommerce event of comparable scale. On current sourcing, eCommerce Expo's free-to-attend model for retailers and brands is the main point of differentiation from paid-conference shows such as NRF Retail's Big Show Europe and Shoptalk Europe in the same sector calendar; EventsIndex's 2026 dates for IRX, Retail Technology Show and Shoptalk Europe were not independently reverified in this research pass beyond the sources cited here.
Yes, under the same organiser but as a separate event: eCommerce Expo Asia, delivered jointly by CloserStill Media and Koelnmesse and also branded "eCommerce Expo | DMEXCO Asia," runs in Singapore at Marina Bay Sands, with its next dated edition on 7 to 8 April 2027 (source: closerstillmedia.com's events library and Macau Business's coverage of the 2027 edition, both checked 20 September 2026). This is a separate event with its own registration, agenda and dates, not another sitting of the London show. A US edition, "eCommerce Expo US" (ecommerceexpo.us), was found referenced in older material from around 2021, but no 2026 edition, dates or current activity for a US show were found in this research session; whether it still runs is not documented in the sources checked, and it is recorded here as a gap rather than asserted as active or discontinued.
English. No dedicated language-policy page was found in this research, but all organiser material, registration pages, exhibitor and speaker listings checked this session are in English, consistent with a UK-only edition; unlike some pan-European shows in the same sector, no simultaneous-translation or interpretation service is mentioned in the material checked.
No livestream or virtual-attendance pass was found in the material checked for the 2026 edition: registration described in the sources checked is in-person only. The organiser does publish post-event, on-demand session recordings for past editions, for example at ecommerceexpo.co.uk/access-2025-recordings; an equivalent 2026 recordings page was not yet live in the material checked before the show, which is consistent with the pattern of publishing recordings after each edition closes.
Per the organiser's published event terms and conditions (ecommerceexpo.co.uk/terms-conditions and the CloserStill event terms and conditions page, both checked 20 September 2026): event ticket fees are non-refundable if an attendee decides not to attend, and the organiser will not reimburse related expenses. If the organiser itself needs to cancel and cannot reschedule or replace the event, it will take reasonable steps to notify registrants by email at least one month before the event date, though it cannot guarantee advance notice if cancellation happens at short notice for exceptional circumstances; in that case, it will automatically refund the full ticket price plus any booking fees to the original payment card, allowing up to 90 working days for processing. Separately, invoices for paid attendance are due within 14 days of the invoice date or before attendance, whichever is sooner, and tickets are emailed no later than two weeks before the event.
Partially documented, combining an event-level statement with general venue information. The organiser's own FAQ page (ecommerceexpo.co.uk/faq) states that the venue is suitable for wheelchair access. At venue level, ExCeL London's general accessibility material describes wheelchair access via low-gradient ramps and automatic doors at all public entrances, level flooring throughout once inside, free wheelchair hire available from both ends of the venue via the security concierge, and accessible toilets throughout the venue (source: excel.london's accessibility pages, checked 20 September 2026). No eCommerce Expo-specific companion-ticket policy or accommodation-request process beyond this general FAQ statement and the venue-level information was found in the material checked this session.
The venue is served by Custom House station, on the Elizabeth line and the DLR, which is the closest stop to ExCeL's West entrance; and by Prince Regent DLR station, the closest stop to the East entrance and the ICC London hall, roughly one minute by direct DLR train from Custom House, with services running about every five minutes (source: excel.london's public transport pages, checked 20 September 2026). eCommerce Expo publishes its own travel and directions page at ecommerceexpo.co.uk/getting-there-ece. Specific onsite parking, coach or accessible-transport guidance for the 2026 show itself, beyond this general venue travel information, was not retrieved in the material checked this session.
Because it is CloserStill Media's dedicated UK trade show for ecommerce, digital retail and marketing-technology buyers, free to attend for retailers and B2B/B2C brands, which removes the cost barrier that applies to paid-conference shows such as NRF Retail's Big Show Europe or Shoptalk Europe in the same sector calendar. Because it runs co-located with Technology for Marketing at the same venue on the same two days, a single free registration covers both show floors, more than 200 solution providers and 10 conference theatres on the organiser's own figures. And because the confirmed 2026 speaker line-up already includes senior figures from large, recognisable UK and international retail and brand names, John Lewis Partnership, Primark, Charlotte Tilbury, Holland & Barrett, Virgin Media O2 and L'Oreal among them, alongside global platforms such as Google and Amazon, which for a UK-focused buyer is a concentrated set of peers and case studies in one two-day visit rather than spread across smaller events.
Because every scale figure attached to the 2026 edition, the 10,000-plus attendees and 200-plus solution providers, was published by the organiser or organiser-linked outlets ahead of a show that had not yet opened at the time of this check, 20 September 2026, three to four days before it began. None of it is an audited or independently counted figure. The gap with organiser-linked coverage of the completed 2025 edition, more than 12,000 attendees and over 300 solution providers, a higher pair of numbers than this year's own pre-event projection, was not resolved in this research and is worth noting rather than assuming away. The same caution applies further down the sourcing chain: one aggregator listing found in this research puts 2026 exhibitor numbers at around 250 and speaker numbers at roughly 755, figures that disagree with the organiser's own material and that this fiche does not carry as fact.
Official site: ecommerceexpo.co.uk. Registration and landing page: ecommerceexpo.co.uk/landing-page. Conference agenda: ecommerceexpo.co.uk/conference-agenda. Speakers: ecommerceexpo.co.uk/speakers and ecommerceexpo.co.uk/speakers-ece. Become a speaker: ecommerceexpo.co.uk/become-speaker. Exhibitor enquiry: ecommerceexpo.co.uk/exhibitor-enquiry-2026. Sponsors: ecommerceexpo.co.uk/our-sponsors. Terms and conditions: ecommerceexpo.co.uk/terms-conditions. Press pass registration: ecommerceexpo.co.uk/press-pass-registration. FAQ: ecommerceexpo.co.uk/faq. Getting there: ecommerceexpo.co.uk/getting-there-ece. General contact on record: Graeme Howe, graeme.howe@closerstillmedia.com. Press contact: press@closerstillmedia.com. The official site could not be fetched directly in this research session (see Notes): this domain is the one on record for the event before this pass and is the one named consistently across every independent source found in searches on 20 September 2026.