The E-commerce Playbook for 2026: Strategy, Trends, and Lessons from 2025

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In this episode of D2C Diaries, Olly and Loukas break down the biggest lessons from 2025 and what they believe will be the single biggest changes shaping e-commerce in 2026.

They recap a huge Black Friday (nearly $40M spent on Meta in November), explain why Q5 (Boxing Day → early January) is the most underutilised growth window of the year, and share a clear creative framework for capturing short-lived New Year motivation without defaulting to lazy discounting.

The conversation also goes deep on leadership and operating lessons from scaling Soar - feedback loops, urgency, prioritisation, process mistakes - before closing with the D2C Diaries Awards, standout brands and campaigns, and predictions for where channels, creative, and acquisitions are heading next.

If you’re a founder, operator, or marketer planning for January and beyond, this episode is essential listening.

01:48 Black Friday recap: $40M spend & what actually worked
04:18 Why brands forget to analyse BFCM cohorts
06:17 What this episode covers
07:15 What is Q5 (and why it matters)?
08:10 Why CPMs drop after Christmas
09:17 The “flash in the pan” New Year motivation window
10:25 Q5 creative framework: TOF vs BOF mistakes
13:05 Why brands go too bottom-of-funnel
14:00 Creative mix for Q5 (TOF / MOF / BOF)
16:03 Outcome-led offers that outperform discounts
17:14 What was happening in Jan 2025
19:12 Biggest leadership lessons from 2025
23:42 Prioritisation, planning & time-blocking
27:45 Process rollouts & buy-in mistakes
29:41 Why urgency compounds growth
32:01 D2C Diaries Awards
40:11 New brand of the year: IM8
41:24 DTC dominator of the year
48:31 Most viral campaign of 2025
56:11 Predictions for e-commerce in 2026
1:02:47 Brand to watch in 2026

Follow Olly: https://linktr.ee/ollyhudson
Follow Joe: https://linktr.ee/joe_marston
Follow Loukas: https://shorturl.at/TRI8B / https://x.com/LoukasHambi
Follow Liam:   / liam-dean-a11a43152  
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