Four e-commerce takeaways from the Berlin Expo

E-commerce is moving fast — and the conversations at E-commerce Berlin Expo reflected just how much has changed in the last few years.

Now that the event is over, here are four things I took away from speaking with key players across the industry, as Gcore's e-commerce GTM lead.

1. CDN is no longer simply technical jargon

Most decision-makers across various business functions are aware of the benefits CDN can bring to their brands: multimedia optimization, reduced manual workload, faster load times, and much more. Just a couple of years ago, you would only hear about this topic in enterprise boardrooms. Now, it's becoming part of a toolkit among SMBs and agencies — and demand is growing exponentially.

2. Infrastructure has matured

Teams have already amassed a colossal amount of data, and know exactly which pages trigger a purchase decision. For example, very few brands observed material performance degradation across critical flows (home, product, checkout) during the most recent Black Friday and Cyber Monday events. High-peak discount events no longer expose weaknesses as easily as they did a few years ago. Preparation cycles have become more mature, with even marketing teams treating infrastructure as a strategic priority rather than an afterthought.

3. Cybersecurity is a must-have

The most striking contrast was the difference I saw in the approach to cybersecurity — a total shift from five years ago. What was a long-tail risk acceptance (if it happens, then it happens) has now become part of a proactive risk-hedging strategy, e.g., how can we become more resilient? Decision-makers across all functions recognize the multitude of L3-L7 attacks. SQL injections, API abuse, credential stuffing, and outright payment fraud were all on the radar across operational and technical teams this year.

4. Data sovereignty has a price problem

Enterprise teams are all-in, embracing the EU data sovereignty approach. Compliance and DevOps have a robust understanding of the types of data they operate with, where the data travels, and who has access to it. But mid-tier and long-tail still prioritize price and accept the risks due to a lack of 360° full-stack solutions on the EU market. On top of this, the price factor still dominates — even the most regulatory forward-looking teams can become hesitant if the price tag for an EU switch becomes substantial.

Powering e-commerce: Gcore at Berlin Expo

For more insights from the event, take a look at this short video of us in conversation with e-commerce industry professionals about the role of AI and Cloud in e-commerce infrastructure.

And check out our in-person Masterclass from the Expo, if you're looking for even more insights into e-commerce success and why infrastructure is the foundation.

EU-sovereign infrastructure, built for e-commerce

All of these conversations and insights reinforced something we think about a lot at Gcore — particularly around data sovereignty. The demand is real, but price and fragmentation are still holding teams back. That's exactly why we've built a full-stack, EU-sovereign solution for e-commerce and retail that doesn't ask you to compromise on performance or cost to get there. If that's a challenge your team is facing, get in touch.

Chat to us about your e-commerce needs