I had a brilliant few days in Copenhagen attending Dansk Erhverv E-commerce 2026. I’d heard good things about the event, but I wasn’t quite prepared for the scale of it.
The conference, the exhibitors, the organisation, the people. It was impressive from the moment I arrived.
But as is often the case with these trips, some of the best parts happened away from the conference floor.
E-commerce in Denmark, a conference that gets the details right
It was also very well organised.
As a Scottish guy living in Croatia, my Danish isn’t exactly going to win any awards. Thankfully, they’d thought of that. English-speaking attendees were given headphones so we could follow the presentations in English while the speakers presented in Danish.
The first thing that struck me was the size of the event. There were businesses showcasing technology across pretty much every corner of e-commerce.
A small detail, perhaps, but it made a difference. They’d clearly thought about the experience for everyone in the room, rather than assuming we all spoke the same language.
And did I mention the coffee? Excellent coffee all day, Danish pastries and some very good food. You weren’t left wandering around looking for something decent to eat between sessions.
I’ve been to enough industry events over the years to appreciate when organisers get these things right. It’s easy to focus on the speakers and exhibitors, but the experience around them matters too.
The people make the difference
One of the main reasons I was looking forward to Copenhagen was catching up with Jomar and Steen.
I first met them at Split Tech City back in September, and it was great to spend more time with them. They’re genuinely nice people who are passionate about building a community around the industry.
That might sound like a small thing, but I think it matters.
There’s plenty of talk about partnerships, networking and business development. Sometimes it feels like everyone is looking for the next opportunity before they’ve finished the current conversation. Jomar and Steen have a genuine interest in bringing people together.
We met at their office, had a good chat, and then Jomar took us to a great local burger restaurant. The burgers were excellent, and he kindly showed us around Copenhagen afterwards.
It’s difficult to beat having someone who knows a city show you around. You see a bit more than the usual places you’d find after ten minutes searching online.
It was a great first day, and another reminder that business relationships aren’t built entirely through emails, LinkedIn messages and video calls. Sometimes you need to get out there and spend time with people.
AI, POS and the reality of running e-commerce
The conference itself was a chance to put my e-commerce hat back on properly.
I’ve spent more than 20 years in this industry, and one thing I’ve learnt is that you never really stop learning. The technology changes, the platforms change, and every few years there’s another development that apparently changes everything.
This time, AI featured heavily. There were sessions on AI applications, B2B agents and businesses’ real experiences implementing new solutions, alongside logistics, POS and the other technology that keeps online commerce running.
There’s no shortage of opinions about what AI will do to e-commerce. I’m more interested in what companies are actually doing with it. Where is it helping? What have they implemented? What has worked, and what have they learnt along the way?
We were also there to support Nicklas from Medusa and Emma from GUBI, who gave a fantastic presentation on how GUBI is using AI agents to handle B2B orders on Medusa. It was a good example of exactly what I mean: a real business showing what AI is doing for it now, not what it might do one day.
E-commerce is about a lot more than selling online
This is something I’ve said for years, but it’s worth repeating: running an e-commerce business means wearing a lot of hats.
Sales is one of them, and it’s a skill in its own right. But behind every online store there’s product data, inventory, fulfilment, logistics, customer service, payments, integrations and plenty more. In B2B, add pricing structures, customer-specific catalogues, account management and ordering processes.
All of it has to work together.
You can have a fantastic website and a brilliant marketing campaign, but if the stock information is wrong or the systems don’t talk to each other, you’ve got problems. The customer doesn’t care that your front end looks great if the order doesn’t arrive when it should.
Order handling isn’t glamorous, but in B2B it’s where a lot of time and money quietly disappears. That’s why I enjoyed seeing so much of the conference focused on the operations behind the shop front, not just the latest sales channel.
You need to attract and convert customers, and you need the foundations to deliver what you’ve promised. Neither works particularly well without the other.
A bit of Copenhagen outside the conference
The event was the focus, so time was tight, but we made the most of what we had. Walking and cycling between meetings is one of the things I love about Copenhagen, and a Saunagus session was a great way to round off a busy day.
Copenhagen never disappoints
Good people, useful conversations and a practical look at where AI is already earning its keep. After more than 20 years in this industry, that’s still why I get out to events like this.
Add excellent coffee, burgers that were better than they had any right to be, and a reminder to do more cycling back home in Kaštela.
What do you find most valuable at e-commerce events: the technology, the presentations or the people you meet along the way?
