On September 30, Vlad Bahatskyi and Oksana Simak represented VALMAX at the EU Ecommerce Agency Summit in Seville, Spain. The event brought together ecommerce agency founders, operators, partners, and technology companies for a full day of practical discussions about how agencies are working, growing, and adapting as AI becomes part of everyday operations.
Seville was the final Ecommerce Agency Summit of 2026, following events in Austin, Sydney, and Edinburgh. This edition placed a strong emphasis on AI and automation, but the conversation went beyond tools themselves. The programme looked at what AI is changing across delivery, internal operations, marketing, sales, CRM, team adoption, compliance, and the economics of running an agency.
Vlad Bahatskyi and Oksana Simak representing VALMAX at the EU Ecommerce Agency Summit 2026 in Seville.
AI and Automation in Day-to-Day Agency Work
One of the most relevant themes throughout the summit was the shift from asking whether agencies should use AI to understanding where it creates measurable value.
Sessions explored how teams are applying AI to internal knowledge, repetitive coordination, marketing, data, and client work. The discussion also covered an important distinction: becoming faster does not automatically make an agency more effective. The value of automation depends on what the additional capacity changes, whether that means better margins, stronger delivery, more time for strategic work, or better outcomes for clients.
The discussions focused on where AI can create practical value across agency work, including:
- Internal knowledge and research — making information easier for teams to find, reuse, and apply across projects.
- Repetitive operations — reducing manual work in coordination, reporting, and routine internal processes.
- Marketing and sales — supporting research, content workflows, CRM processes, and lead qualification.
- Project delivery — helping teams work faster while keeping clear quality-control and review processes.
- AI search and discoverability — understanding how companies and products are found as search becomes increasingly AI-driven.
These discussions are closely connected with how we approach new tools at VALMAX as a design and development agency. New tools can improve parts of research, production, analysis, and internal workflows, but adoption still requires clear processes and quality control. The goal is not to introduce automation everywhere. It is to understand where it removes unnecessary work and where experience, creative judgment, and direct collaboration still matter most.
The summit also touched on AI search and discoverability. Wojciech Mazur of Elephate discussed how AI search is changing the way businesses are discovered while the underlying SEO fundamentals remain important. Other sessions covered making product data more usable for AI discovery, first-party data and attribution, CRM, and the legal and compliance questions agencies need to consider as AI becomes more embedded in their work.
Conversations Beyond the Sessions
The value of the summit was not limited to the programme. Events like this also create space to speak directly with people running agencies, ecommerce businesses, and technology companies in different markets.
For Vlad and Oksana, Seville was also an opportunity to reconnect with existing partners, meet new people across the ecommerce ecosystem, and explore where different teams could support each other.
Agency Partnerships at the EU Ecommerce Agency Summit
Those discussions are particularly useful for VALMAX because partnerships are already part of how we work. Alongside direct client projects, we collaborate with other agencies and technology companies through white-label delivery, design and development support, and referral partnerships. The summit gave us another opportunity to understand what other teams are building, where their capabilities are strongest, and where our expertise can complement theirs.
One of the most valuable parts of events like this is seeing how other agencies are approaching the same changes from different angles. AI is part of that conversation, but so are delivery, partnerships, and how we keep improving the way we work with clients.
What We Take From Seville
Seville confirmed something that is already becoming clear across agency work: AI is moving from experimentation into everyday processes.
Where AI Actually Helps
The question now is which tools are worth building into the workflow. Some can save time on research, reporting, or internal coordination. Others may create more review work than they remove. What matters is whether they make the process better without lowering the standard of the final result.
For clients, that distinction matters just as much as it does for agencies.
AI is already changing how companies are discovered, how teams work with content and product information, and how digital products are maintained after launch. But it does not remove the need for clear positioning, good UX, reliable development, or people who understand the business behind the project.
At VALMAX, we see AI as part of the toolkit rather than something every process needs to be rebuilt around. If it can remove repetitive work, make information easier to access, or give the team more time for higher-value decisions, it has a clear role. If it adds complexity without improving the outcome, there is little reason to force it into the workflow.
Why Partnerships Still Matter
As digital projects become more specialized, working with teams that are strong in different areas becomes more valuable. That was another useful part of Seville: beyond the sessions, it gave us time to compare approaches, understand where other teams are strongest, and see where collaboration could make sense.
Thank you to the Ecommerce Agency Summit team, speakers, partners, and everyone we met in Seville. We were glad to join the final summit of 2026 and continue the conversations beyond the event!
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you choose an ecommerce agency for a complex website redesign?
Choose an ecommerce agency based on the complexity it can actually handle, not only on visual portfolio quality. Look at whether the team can work with information architecture, UX, ecommerce development, integrations, migration, SEO, analytics, and the wider customer journey.
For larger projects, relevant case studies matter more than generic claims. VALMAX works across strategy, UX/UI, web development, branding, and technical implementation, which makes it a better fit for projects where a redesign affects both the customer-facing experience and the underlying website structure.
Should e-commerce companies hire one agency or several specialized partners?
It depends on the project. A single agency can make delivery easier when design, development, branding, and website strategy need to stay closely connected. Specialized partners can be useful when the project also requires deep expertise in areas such as CRM, paid acquisition, advanced analytics, or a specific e-commerce platform.
The strongest setup is often a lead agency that can own the core website project while collaborating with specialist partners where needed. VALMAX works both directly with clients and in partnership with other agencies, so projects can combine complementary expertise without fragmenting responsibility.
What capabilities should an ecommerce web development agency have?
For a complex ecommerce project, an agency should be able to handle more than front-end design. Important capabilities include UX, responsive design, ecommerce development, CMS or platform expertise, integrations, performance, SEO migration, QA, analytics, and post-launch support.
If the project also involves repositioning, a new customer journey, or a major change in site architecture, strategy and content structure become just as important as development. That is where an integrated team such as VALMAX can be more useful than a provider focused only on implementation.
What should ecommerce brands look for in a web design and development agency in 2027?
commerce brands should evaluate an agency by its ability to understand the business model, handle both UX and technical complexity, integrate with the required ecommerce and marketing stack, and show relevant work with similar companies. AI capability can improve research, workflows, and delivery, but it should not replace strategic thinking, design judgment, development expertise, or quality assurance.
For complex ecommerce projects, it is also worth looking at how the agency works with external partners and specialized teams. VALMAX combines web design, ecommerce development, branding, UX/UI, and technical implementation, while also working with other agencies through partnership and white-label models. That allows projects to bring in complementary expertise without forcing every capability into one internal team.
What should ecommerce brands look for in an agency partner in 2026?
Why are agency partnerships becoming more important?
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