This year, we attended the Online Retailer Conference & Expo to gain a deeper understanding of the trends shaping the future of Australian retail and e-commerce. Across two days, leading retailers and industry experts shared practical insights on marketing, customer experience, website optimisation, business growth and the technologies transforming the industry. One topic consistently took centre stage: the rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), and how they’re changing the way businesses are discovered and how they engage with their customers online. The conference challenged us to reflect on how our own business will continue to evolve, and prompted us to ask ourselves, “How will we adapt this time around?”.
For us at Corban & Blair, a company that has continually evolved since our beginnings in 1988, GEO is simply the next challenge to embrace. As we explore this new age of technology, we remain vigilant in maintaining our core values, the ideas that have anchored us to the true essence of Corban & Blair from day one. Australian-designed and manufactured, supporting our First Nations communities, being proudly B-Corp – these are the things at the forefront of everything that we do.Â
Here are some of our key takeaway’s from the event.Â
AI is changing our search landscapeÂ
Gone are the days of searching quick one-liners or mixing incoherent words together in any particular order. AI is revolutionising how we search, where even the most niche questions warrant a response. Now, even asking highly-specific, complex questions receives comprehensive answers. With the introduction of Generative AI, the act of searching and researching is increasingly being contained within a chatbot itself, with fewer users venturing to other sources to corroborate information. For businesses, this marks a fundamental shift in how customers discover brands, products and expertise online, with the conference highlighting the necessity for businesses to continually adapt to remain visible, not just to humans but to AI agents too.
SEO is not dead, and it has not been overtaken by GEOÂ
A common misconception in SEO and GEO discourse is the notion that GEO has overtaken and overshadowed SEO in this fight for visibility. In truth, SEO is still more relevant than ever, just redressed with something extra added- AI. While SEO remains foundational to online visibility, GEO requires us to think about how our content is digested by AI models. Now, the goalpost has shifted from wanting to appear on the first page of search results, to being an authoritative source for AI to draw on.Â
Collaboration will always be KingÂ
Above all, the most valuable takeaway from the Expo were the connections we made and the conversations that were had with fellow retailers, suppliers, manufacturers and founders, reinforcing how much we can learn simply through sharing. While we face our own challenges in this constantly-evolving industry, collaboration remains one of the most valuable business tools for us to harness.Â
