Hey, I’m David

🎯 Founder and successful exit of User Conversion; UKs top conversion rate optimisation consultancy
📕 Author of "The Person in Personalisation" 
📍 Founder of Made With Intent: Real-Time Intent Platform
🎆 Big kid. Fan of Disney 

--- 

As ecommerce professionals, we’re living in an era where data and insight have the potential to transform how we connect with our visitors.

We’ve been saying this for years. Using terms like customer-centricity, data-driven and even the dreaded P-word: “personalisation”.

Yet, each year, it feels like we get no closer. We are stuck in an entrenched way of selling that does not align with how people actually buy.

At Made With Intent, we’re on a mission to give you the data and delivery system you need to guide each visitor to purchase. Appropriately. In the most impactful way for them.

If you’re interested in using intent to improve your ecommerce experiences, or just curious about the world of data-driven growth, I’d love to connect.




✅ Former founder building (and successfully exiting) one of the UK’s largest independent conversion optimisation consultancies - User Conversion. 
✅ Global VP of CRO at Brainlabs building world-class conversion product for digital businesses.

David Mannheim

Chloë Thomas

➡️ What I do: I'm building a multi-audience media company that helps eCommerce brands and retailers plot their path to success, and helps SaaS and Agencies reach their target customers.

We currently produce:

- eCommerce Tech
Home to a thriving blog, eCommerce tech directory, and events directory, and home to a webinar event series as well.

- eCommerce MasterPlan Podcast
One of the OG email podcasts - in its 10th year.

- Keep Optimising Podcast
An eCommerce marketing show with a spin.

We also have TWO very distinct newsletters with their own audiences and content focus.


➡️ What I'm known for: opinions on eCommerce marketing, strategy, and sustainability. 
I've been working in the eCommerce space for over 20 years, mainly focused on marketing and growth, but with a healthy(?) interest in tech stack optimisation too.

I've been a top LinkedIn Retail Voice since 2023. Named number 34 in the top marketing influencers in the UK in 2025, and have written 5 bestselling books about eCommerce and eCommerce marketing.


➡️ What I'm passionate about: avoiding waste - in all senses from opportunity cost and missed opportunites to environmental sustainability. 

Via our content we try to accelerate the shift to sustainable thinking in the eCommerce and retail industries.

➡️ My Lived Experience: A couple of years ago I was diagnosed autistic, so I often talk about that - but then 20 years ago I realised I was an introvert and started talking about that, so it's not really a new topic!

And currently I'm going through a sod of a peri-menopause. 4 years in, and there's so much I wish I'd known a few years ago - so I also talk about this a bit.

--

At the moment I'm focused on:

1. Sales automation
2. Newsletter growth and monetisation
3. Podcast audience growth (without going full video...)

Feel free to contact me about the following, and I'll do my best to help:

- Advertising to our transatlantic audience of eCommerce brands
- Being a guest on your podcast / virtual summit.
- Being a speaker at your sales event, or chairing a panel at your sales event.
- Providing expert quotes
- Being a guest on one of the Emetko channels

Editor in Chief

A new exciting challenge - continuing the growth of the brilliant eCommerce Tech website.

Current focus = building great relationships with our key listings, and helping even more eCommerce founders, marketers, and CTOs find the right tech to solve their problems and explore their opportunities.

Would you launch a new warehouse and migrate to 2 new Shopify sites during peak?

This brand did, and did it hugely successfully…

One of the biggest challenges I see across eCommerce is brands outgrowing their tech stack.

Without realising it, they’re living in the land of “but we can’t do that”, “I know a workaround for that”, and “oh, just copy and paste”.

That’s why I’m looking forward to hosting the next Commerce Conversations webinar with Leader Online, alongside Brightpearl by Sage and Inventory Planner by Sage.

We’ll be unpacking how Leader Online has built and evolved their eCommerce tech stack and warehouse operations, the lessons they’ve learned from scaling, and what other brands can take from their experience.

Expect lots of great advice on how to follow in their footsteps from Gary Murray who led the project, and his key suppliers Anthony H., Beth Tyrrel, and Tim Mawson.

📅 Live session + recording
 👉 Register free: https://lnkd.in/eUHeUB2t

I’m really looking forward to learning from them all, so come and join us next week.

Brand partnership • Follow for eCommerce, Marketing, and Sustainability stuff + LinkedIn Top Retail Voice 2023-now. Plus insights on growing a media company.

banner for the commerce conversations webinar

5 days of no electric or usable internet connection: what it taught me about eCommerce, business and life...

🌬️ An electric car makes a BRILLIANT tech recharging station, but you do have to turn it on again every 30min (hello step count!)

🌬️ Mobile apps are FAR too dependent on a fast internet connection... I'm looking at you BBC weather, Amazon, Wob, and H&B. (why can't BBC weather hold onto the last data it gave me rather than going blank???)

🌬️ You need backup plans for your backup plans - backup mobile internet connections are of no use when the mobile towers are damaged too...

🌬️ It's very easy to find a temporary desk somewhere, it's very hard to find a temporary office somewhere... (you can't record podcasts or webinars with other people around!)

🌬️ If you have cats, make sure they have some white fur so you don't trip over them in the dark 😼

🌬️ Have ALL the account details of your telephone line suppliers on a piece of paper somewhere.

🌬️ Do NOT try to achieve "business as usual", you'll go mad. Instead, switch your mindset to make the best of the situation.

🌬️ A great team ReALLY helps.

🌬️ Solid systems REALLY help.

🌬️ Cut down the dead trees next to the overhead cables BEFORE the storm arrives.

🌬️ Timing your storm recovery with when half the industry is distracted by NRF is very helpful!

If you've been caught up in any of the weather/utilities weirdness this week - what are your tips?

🖼️ Picture is me after a few very ill-advised minutes outside during the storm. Idiot.

Follow for eCommerce, Marketing, and Sustainability stuff + LinkedIn Top Retail Voice 2023-now. Plus insights on growing a media company.

Me after an ill-advised few minutes outside in Storm Goretti

What's it going to take to be successful in eCommerce in 2026?

In some ways I think this is one the hardest years to answer that question, because there's no silver bullet...

Remember the glorious years of "Do Facebook", (and if you're old like me) "Adwords for the win"?

It's not that simple anymore.

Competition is high.
Let's not get into the economy.
And all our 'routes to customer' have become more complex.

Well, next week we're going to do our best to give you the answers and some clarity on what the winners are going to do in 2026.

I'll be hosting a panel of awesomeness including:

Ashu Dubey expert in all things AI and personalisation
Sian Conway-Wood who's all about profits, and behavioural science
AND Ian Sells who has a stellar back catalogue of helping brands drive BIG growth

I'm really looking forward to picking their brains, and you can too if you join us live.

Just register for free here https://lnkd.in/eJdBbGiU

And, yes, replay available within a couple of hours to everyone who signs up.

So... what's your answer for success in 2026? And is there anything you'd LOVE us to chat about? Let me know.

advertising banner for our upcoming "how to be successful in 2026" webinar.

🥳🥳🥳 We also had a great year on the Keep Optimising Podcast! 🎂

SOOO cool to see our top episode on Spotify is one that me and the guest worked hard to find the right content and the right way to position it...

Great work Becky Hopkin and Jonny Hyams

If you want to be a star guest this year - apply here: https://lnkd.in/eQAHrfuF
And if you want to sponsor this awesome show - DM me!

Huge thanks to the team, guests, sponsors and listeners.

View company: Keep Optimising Marketing Podcast

Phew! What a year it was! 

With some massive changes - at the start of the year, we were still getting used to our 5-episode series format. Then, at the end of the year, we started to take a week off between each series.

Clearly, the audience is enjoying the changes as we've had another great year of growth on Spotify.

Here's our take on the standout insights...

🎧 Dedicated Audience

For over 250 people, we're in their top 10 most listened to podcasts 😱
And they've listened for over 1,000 hours.

🎧 Growing audience

Our audience grew by a whopping 471%, with a followers increase of 16%.

🎧 Clickbait works...

Our most listened to episode was our "5 do and 5 don'ts on Google Ads" chat with Becky Hopkin and Jonny Hyams - thank you for giving the listeners what they wanted!

🎧 Eclectic interests...

On our other show the top 5 audiobooks listened to by listeners was all business. FAR more eclectic for the Keep Optimising listeners...
1. The Trading Game
2. Stoicism
3. Diary of a CEO
4. Throne of Glass (well, we love a bit of fantasy too!!)
5. Building a Story Brand 2.0

Time to add some fantasy fiction to the show?? 🤣


Huge thanks to all our guests, sponsors, and listeners for helping us grow in 2025!

Want to get involved in 2026?
> Apply to be a guest https://lnkd.in/e8hiwQ_y (currently looking for SEO, GEO, and Growth experts)
> Want to be a sponsor? Contact Chloë Thomas

Keep Optimising Marketing Podcast Spotify Wrapped 2025

OK, AI search results, and GEO - what are you doing about it?

I've been really keen to get a brand-side rather than supplier-side perspective on it for the eCommerce MasterPlan Podcast listeners.

So when I met Miracle Inameti-Archibong  CMgr FCMI at eCommerce Expo, right after her super-practical keynote, I knew I'd found the right guest!

We held off on recording until December so we could put it out in January (you know, once peak is over!), and today... it's live 🎧.

🍏 On Apple
🦒 On Spotify
🕸️ OR just head to our website
Just search 🔎 "eCommerce MasterPlan" and hit play

Miracle has a pragmatic & insightful approach to how a brand should be dealing with the "threat/opportunity" that is the shift of consumer searches from search to AI, AND the shift of search answers from our websites to AI.

We get into:
🤖 How different is a GEO strategy from an SEO strategy?
🔍 What should we focus on? keywords? trust? brand? links?
🤖 How do we change our content strategy
🔍 What foundation work should we do? (yeah, product data!)
🤖 Metrics... and reporting
🔍 Ongoing planning and optimisation

It's a super reassuring episode, although it will fill up your to do list!

You have been warned - let me know what you think of the episode, or share you advice in the comments.

Thanks Miracle for being an awesome guest.

Can you help?

I need podcast guests for our upcoming SEO mini-series on Keep Optimising Marketing Podcast...

🤖 And YES this does include GEO and AI Search.

Do you know the great strategies that eCommerce brands need to know about to improve their organic sales?

- Product data
- Schema
- Legacy content
- Keywords
- Tracking and metics
- What NOT to care about anymore
- and more, more, more!

We're anticipating this will be a hot 🔥 hot topic - so I highly recommend getting your application in asap.

🎤 Want to be a guest? 🎤
First step is to fill in our application form https://lnkd.in/eQAHrfuF
- head to the Keep Optimising website 
- click on "Apply to be a guest" in the footer

⁉️Got an idea?⁉️
If you know someone we should be getting on the show, or there's a topic you'd LOVE us to cover... please comment below.

🚀AND sponsorship for the mini-series is currently still available... DM me if interested.

Thanks in advance for helping me make a crazy-helpful series. 🙏

#SEO #eCommerceMarketing #GenerativeAI

post it note on an untidy desk that says "must do, find SEO guests, AI? keywords? tech stack? blogs? pdps? techincal? speed?

3 Ways I Want AI to Improve eCommerce in 2026...

🤖 Kill data silos & democratise the data

The whole "garbage in, garbage out" situation (in both agentic, and generative AI) is pushing us all to get our data in order.

From content, or product data, to finance, to logistics, to marketing results - it all needs to be accurate, and accessible, AND secure.

Thereotically this should enable huge amounts of automation, as well as the opportunity for some very clever strategic developments.

BUT if the data isn't good AND un-siloed it's never going to work.

So I'm hoping an AI outcome this year is that businesses really get on top of their data and how they leverage it in lots of ways.

🤖 Agentic Support Agents that really deliver - for the user

Yes, I'm talking about Agents BEHIND THE SCENES.

The ones that help a brand team leverage everything they can from their software.

And even analyse the results and make proactive (easy to implement) solutions.

From what I'm hearing from SaaS teams this has been one of the biggest AI opportunities for them in the last year- so let's see more of it, and further development of it.

🤖 Strategic Adoption of AI in Brands

It's scary how many brands don't have AI policies in place - huge dangers from the wrong software being used, and data getting mishandled.

It's also scary how many brands haven't yet progressed past the generative copywriting stage of AI adoption.

I think it's most similar to when the internet became a tool. It's a change that affects everyone and everything in a business. Whilst you don't want to be a dictator about it, you do want to provide a clear playpen for your team. In internet terms- the dark web is out of bounds, and you only use the official email accounts for work.


What have I missed? What would be on your list?

post it note with "What do we want from AI this year?" written on it.

What do you need to be listening to at the start of the new year? 

The latest Customer Acquisition ideas, of course!

Lucky for you, that's exactly what the 5 most recent episodes on the Keep Optimising Marketing Podcast are all about - going deep into what the cool eCommerce kids will be doing for improved customer acquisition this year.

We've got 5 brilliant guests sharing what you need to know on 5 MASSIVE topics:

Episode 284 🆕 Performance PR (via affiliates)

This is such a cool new acquisition channel - bringing together 2 tried and trusted routes to market, and we have the brilliant Rick Magennis back on the show to explain all.

Episode 285 🆕 Instagram DM Automation

Will 2026 be the year of conversational commerce? Maybe, and if it is you need to start getting the hang of all this. Mel Eilers is taking us into the details of turning instagram DM's into a sales channel.

Episode 286 🆕 Meta Ads

Well, we couldn't do this series without a Meta Ads episode! Elyse Collat is sharing exactly what you need to know to make your Facebook Ads more successful next year.

Episode 287 🆕 Brand as the key to full funnel strategies

Of course, as competition goes ever upwards embracing both the full funnel approach AND consistent, real brand (we're not just talking logo and hexcodes!!) is at the heart of it all - and Jaye Cowle 😊 is on the show to explain how to do it all.

Episode 288 🆕 4 Steps to GEO Traffic Success

Another topic we couldn't avoid - GEO - getting seen on AI and getting traffic and sales. Super pleased to have booked Lisa Wendland, MBA to explain all this.

Critical listening for marketers and founders alike...

You can hear them all right now.

Yesterday I had a pair of fascinating LinkedIn DMs:

1x wanted to connect with me because they were looking for "introverted leaders"
1x wanted to connect with me because "eCommerce MasterPlan is a software that helps brands with their customer support issues"

We don't market me as an introverted leader.
We don't market eCommerce MasterPlan as a CS SaaS.
And I'm 99% sure we've never used those phrases about our brands anywhere...

The first one is true - I'm autistic, that's about as introvert as you can get.
The second one is wildly untrue.

I see this is an example of GEO or AI Search in the wild.

Clearly the AI has a much better understand of what "Chloe Thomas" is than it does of "eCommerce MasterPlan". 

I have some work to do. 🤣 

But the goal isn't to stop bad cold outreach, I don't mind if I still get cold DM thinking I run a SaaS business.

The goal is to help the AI understand us in a way I want it to understand us - so we get found for what we want to get found for.

Already on the to do list for eCommerce MasterPlan - but going up the priority list fast...

Any tips?

taplio

The Battle

David Mannheim

Chloë Thomas

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The Battle

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Chloë Thomas

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