Irmantas Pakatilis
Irmantas started out as a manager in the HoReCa industry, but today he leads Adeo Web – an IT company that helps large scale businesses succeed with customized eCommerce solutions. With 15+ years of experience behind them, you can trust that they’ve got your back.

Irmantas is all about creating an open, honest work environment. No unnecessary formalities, just real conversations and real impact.

100 km on a bike and a good BBQ is his recipe for a perfect weekend.

Ten questions for Irmantas

1. What is one development e-commerce companies can no longer ignore?
I noticed that lately eCommerce media loves daydreaming about the future of almighty AI, agent-based shopping and similar trends. But none of that matters if you haven’t mastered basic eCommerce hygiene: product descriptions are missing, user flows are clunky, delivery options are confusing, and payments are a pain.

If I had to pick just one thing, I’d say it’s making checkout as seamless as possible. We have to realize that people today are shopping while driving (not cool), taking public transport, eating dinner, walking their dogs, etc. We as ecommerce developers must adapt to this lifestyle and tailor the buying experience accordingly.

2. Which decision or investment has delivered the most value for your organisation in the past year?
For us, the single most valuable decision over the past year wasn’t buying a shiny new tech platform, it was investing in our people, specifically through management training and team alignment.

This past year really drove home a fundamental lesson for our organization: tech is only as good as the people operating it. Hiring or keeping someone with great technical skills but a poor attitude often creates more friction than value. As cliche as it sounds, you can easily train someone on a hard skill or a software tool, but changing someone’s core attitude toward work and collaboration is exceptionally difficult.

By building stronger leadership and ensuring our teams were made up of people with the right mindset, our overall execution, ownership, and efficiency improved. If you get the human foundation right, every tech investment and business decision you make afterward yields a much higher return.

3. What do you see as the next major shift in e-commerce?
Honestly, I don’t expect a radical shift in B2C over the next few years, just steady, incremental changes.

But I noticed that a lot of action is happening in a far less glamorous, under-discussed sector: B2B. Buyer expectations are shifting fast, and the stakes are massive. For example, a recent Forrester study found that B2B buyers are willing to spend up to $500,000 without ever speaking to a sales rep. Yet the actual experience we offer them lags years behind B2C: still bogged down by endless email threads, phone calls, and huge spreadsheets. That’s where the real opportunity for optimization lies.

4. Which widely discussed trend gets more attention than it deserves?
Great question. I’m 100% sure it’s agentic shopping. There are various research studies showing different results; however, most of them agree that autonomous agentic shopping accounts for up to 1% of total merchandise sales today. Yet, it seems like we spend 90% of our time talking about it.

AI is genuinely helpful during the discovery and research phase, but when it comes to the actual purchase and checkout, buyers still want control. And, I think, people genuinely like shopping. We tend to forget that.

5. Can you give us a sneak peek of what visitors can expect from your session?
Over the past five years, average CAC has increased by roughly 60%, while ROAS continues to decline. Simply put, now it’s harder than ever to attract new clients. This raises a fundamental question: if acquiring new customers is getting harder and less profitable, where can sustainable business growth come from?

We discovered that there’s another source of income that gets ignored – existing clients. There’s so much untapped potential.

My goal in ShoppingToday this year is to offer ecommerce business leaders actual actionable tips that have really helped our clients to push their bottom line higher by using their client base.

In sessions like these I try to avoid hype that shoots for the moon, but rarely delivers. Those ideas sound cool on paper, but they rarely change anything for everyday businesses, and that’s the core audience I want to speak with at this event. These businesses might not always be glamorous, but they are essential to our economy – they keep the world moving every day.

6. Which brand or company do you currently see as an inspiring example in e-commerce, and why?
While it might sound a little sentimental, my go-to answer is LEGO. Beyond being a nostalgic favorite, it’s an incredible business success story. They’ve managed to stay relevant for decades regardless of how fast the world changes.

First, their core product idea is brilliant. The reusability of a LEGO brick is off the charts. A brick made 30 years ago fits perfectly with a set bought yesterday. That built-in longevity creates continuous value for customers and builds incredible brand loyalty across generations.

Second, their marketing and partnership strategy is always on the cutting edge. Look at their integrations with massive gaming worlds like Fortnite and Forza Horizon, or major franchises like Harry Potter. It feels less like traditional advertising and more like active cultural presence, which naturally drives people back to their digital and physical stores.

Finally, their digital strategy goes way deeper than just a shiny D2C website. What really impresses me is how they view digital capability across their whole operation, especially B2B. They’ve put serious effort into digitizing their B2B line items – like having tech leadership overhaul their Partner Portals so reseller ordering and tracking are fully automated and seamless.

To me, LEGO proves that true longevity doesn’t come from standing still. It comes from keeping a tight grip on your core identity while constantly innovating how you reach, serve, and connect with people.

7. What is the most valuable lesson you have learned about online retail or digital commerce in recent years?
Speed is very important, but quality still matters more than we often think. For example, in Lithuania we witnessed a story where a nation-wide ecommerce market leader of ten years was dethroned by a challenger – all because they got too comfortable and sloppy on quality. Product information degraded, deliveries lagged, and the platform started feeling dated UX-wise… And then the new kid on the block saw an opportunity. Now that new kid is no. 1.

The lesson is simple: never get complacent, because eCommerce competition is fierce.

8. If you could change one thing about the e-commerce industry tomorrow, what would it be?
Checkouts! Why do I need to complete a five-step quest, decipher a CAPTCHA, fill out my full family tree, and enter my street address twice just to buy a pair of socks?

I don’t want a long-term relationship with your form fields. Just let me scan my fingerprint, take my money, and let me go on with my life.

9. Which customer expectation has changed the most over the past few years?
That’s a good question. I feel like users have completely lost their tolerance for bad UX. Brand loyalty is not that important for the most part of the purchases anymore. People expect frictionless buying above everything else. If your ecommerce doesn’t deliver that – bye.

Unless your brand is really unique and special, today’s user is rarely invested in navigating complicated flows. There’s always a competitor one click away, so ecommerce businesses have to stay sharp more than ever.

10. What is your most important piece of advice for e-commerce professionals preparing for the future?
Keep growing, every day. The main difference between eCommerce and a brick-and-mortar business is relentless change. You could have built the best eCommerce website in the world a year ago, but as standards evolve, it won’t stay the best for long if you sleep on it. User expectations shift, and competition is always growing.

My advice is to never stop testing and refining your platform. Run technical audits for better performance, conduct UX/UI audits and user testing, and continuously work on conversion rate optimization (CRO).