The E-commerce Berlin Expo 2026 opened February 18, 2026, at Messe Berlin, drawing thousands of industry professionals focused on the intersection of artificial intelligence and digital sales. In a guest post for Ecommerce Germany, the editorial team reports that agentic commerce and AI-driven performance steering dominated the opening day. Dirk Hoffmann, COO at Messe Berlin, opened the event, which features global tech firms and retailers including Google, Zalando, and OTTO.
AI integration moves from hype to operational necessity
The central theme of the opening talks was the shift toward AI-first business models. Marcus Diekmann, Chief Strategy Officer at Sanicare, told performance marketers and e-commerce leaders that becoming AI-centric is no longer optional. According to the Ecommerce Germany report, Diekmann emphasized that companies failing to integrate these technologies risk total market irrelevance.
This shift is particularly relevant for the affiliate and performance marketing sectors, where automated systems increasingly handle data processing and decision-making. Mo Shiha, AI & Data Analytics Team Lead at Zalando, demonstrated this trend. He showcased how AI agents already transform internal decision-making processes.
E-commerce companies must now become AI-first or risk disappearing.
Holistic Steering and Retail Media Evolution
A significant portion of the Day 1 agenda focused on how large-scale retailers manage complex marketing mixes. Paul Gebel, Senior E-Commerce Performance Manager at Douglas, presented the company’s solution for group-wide "holistic business steering." This approach combines historical data with real-time experience to optimize the marketing mix. For affiliate managers, this development remains critical as they must prove the incremental value of their channels within a broader ecosystem.
Retail media also remained a focal point of discussion. Roxanne van Duijn, Retail Media Lead Germany at Google, led a panel examining whether the retail media surge of previous years maintains its momentum in 2026. The consensus among participants, including experts from OTTO, suggests that the integration of retail media data into performance tracking remains a top priority for advertisers seeking higher ROAS.
<!-- CALLOUT:callout-1 -->Technical Infrastructure and Market Integration
While the stages focused on strategy, the exhibition floor highlighted the technical infrastructure supporting these shifts. Key players in the payment, CRM, and logistics sectors—including Stripe, Adyen, Klaviyo, and Shopware—showcase tools designed to handle the increased complexity of modern performance marketing.
The event continues into a second day. It highlights a clear industry trajectory: the success of performance campaigns in 2026 depends less on manual optimization and more on the effective orchestration of automated agents and holistic data steering. Participants noted that the collaboration between major platforms like eBay and Kaufland e-commerce with niche technology providers is essential for maintaining growth in a saturated European market.
Affilitizer Editorial Team
This article was created with AI assistance and editorially reviewed.
