In this edition of 5 Minutes With…, we speak to David Benaïnous, Sales Director at Brevo, about the industry’s biggest challenges and opportunities, the growing role of AI and first-party data, and why retention is becoming the defining priority for brands looking to drive sustainable growth…
Brevo is an all-in-one CRM and customer engagement platform trusted by more than 600,000 businesses worldwide.
We help companies manage the full customer journey from a single platform: email, SMS, WhatsApp, push notifications, live chat, sales CRM, loyalty, wallet, and customer data management.
What makes Brevo different is our ability to unify customer data and activation in one place. Instead of stitching together multiple tools, businesses can orchestrate marketing, sales, and transactional communications from a single platform that is both powerful and easy to use.
Today, we process more than 30 billion messages every month across multiple channels.
What have been the biggest challenges the eCommerce/Payments industry has faced over the past 12 months?
The biggest challenge has clearly been profitability.
Customer acquisition costs continue to rise while consumer loyalty is becoming harder to maintain. At the same time, brands are navigating stricter privacy regulations, the decline of third-party cookies, and increasing pressure to deliver highly personalised experiences.
On the payments side, complexity has also increased significantly whether around PSD2 compliance, fraud prevention, or managing multiple payment experiences across international markets.
For many ecommerce businesses, the challenge is no longer simply driving traffic. It’s about maximising customer lifetime value while keeping operational costs under control.
And what have been the biggest opportunities?
The biggest opportunity has been the shift towards first-party data and owned channels.
Brands are investing more heavily in channels they fully control — email, SMS, WhatsApp, loyalty programs, and mobile wallet experiences — because these channels drive stronger engagement and better profitability.
We’ve also seen strong momentum around omnichannel automation. Businesses that connect purchase data, customer behaviour, and communications into a unified journey are generating significantly better retention and repeat purchase rates.
In many ways, the current market is rewarding operational simplicity and customer intelligence.
What is the biggest priority for the eCommerce/Payments industry this year?
Retention.
With acquisition costs at historic highs, sustainable growth increasingly depends on a brand’s ability to retain and reactivate customers.
That requires a much deeper understanding of customer behaviour: purchase frequency, channel preferences, loyalty engagement, payment behaviour, and overall lifetime value.
The companies winning today are the ones using customer data in real time to deliver the right message, on the right channel, at the right moment.
What are the main trends you are expecting to see in the market this year?
Three trends stand out.
First, conversational commerce will continue to accelerate, especially through channels like WhatsApp.
Second, AI-driven personalisation will become much more operational and accessible. Brands no longer want generic automation; they want communications that adapt dynamically to customer behaviour.
Third, loyalty is evolving beyond points and discounts. We’re seeing growing interest in loyalty experiences that combine personalisation, mobile wallet, gamification, and community engagement.
What technology is going to have the biggest impact on the market this coming year?
AI will clearly have the biggest impact, particularly around predictive marketing and operational efficiency.
We’re already seeing strong adoption of AI for content generation, segmentation, send-time optimisation, and campaign orchestration.
But the real shift will come from AI helping teams make faster and smarter decisions: identifying churn risks earlier, recommending the next best action, and automating parts of the customer journey in real time.
The companies that successfully combine AI with high-quality customer data will gain a significant competitive advantage.
Next year we’ll all be talking about…?
The convergence of customer data, AI, and automation.
Over the next few years, marketing teams will increasingly move from manual campaign execution towards intelligent orchestration.
The real competitive advantage won’t simply be sending more campaigns — it will be the ability to react instantly to customer intent and create highly relevant experiences across every channel.
Which person in, or associated with, the eCommerce/Payments industry would you most like to meet?
Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe.
Stripe has fundamentally transformed how businesses think about payments and developer experience.
What’s particularly interesting is how payments are increasingly becoming a strategic customer data signal, not just a transaction. The intersection between payments, customer intelligence, and engagement platforms is one of the most exciting areas in ecommerce today.
What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learnt about the eCommerce/Payments sector?
How much value is still underestimated in post-purchase communication.
Many brands focus heavily on acquisition and checkout optimisation, but the customer relationship truly starts after the purchase.
Order confirmations, delivery updates, replenishment reminders, loyalty communications — these moments drive engagement, trust, and repeat revenue, yet they are often treated as purely operational messages.
There’s still enormous untapped potential there.
You go to the bar at the eCommerce/Smarter Payments Summit – what’s your tipple of choice?
A glass of natural wine, ideally French, slightly unconventional, and memorable.
What’s the most exciting thing about your job?
Seeing how differently businesses use technology to drive growth.
At Brevo, we work with companies ranging from fast-growing ecommerce brands to large international organisations, and every conversation gives us new insight into customer engagement strategies, retention models, and operational challenges.
It’s an environment where you constantly learn.
And what’s the most challenging?
Maintaining focus.
The customer engagement market evolves extremely quickly, and there are always new channels, trends, and technologies emerging.
The challenge is staying disciplined: focusing on the initiatives that genuinely create value for customers and drive long-term business impact.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
“Fall in love with the customer problem, not your product.”
In sales and in business generally, the best outcomes come from deeply understanding the customer’s challenges before trying to position a solution.
Succession or Stranger Things?
Succession.
It’s probably the closest thing to a masterclass in stakeholder management and complex negotiations.
