eCommerceFest 2026 in Colombia: How to Make the Most of It If You Have an Online Business

eCommerceFest 2026 will take place in Colombia on September 29 and 30 and will bring together online stores, micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), large companies, and suppliers from the digital ecosystem. For a small business, an event like this can be useful—but only if you go in with specific questions. Walking around among solutions, talks, and suppliers without knowing what problem you want to solve usually results in a collection of contacts and few decisions.

Colombian e-commerce is entering this stage of the year with signs of growth: the Colombian Chamber of E-Commerce’s first quarterly report for 2026 showed a year-over-year increase of 22.2 % in the number of digital transactions during the first quarter. That figure reflects the aggregate market and does not guarantee growth for every store. Precisely for that reason, The value of an industry event lies in comparing your business's situation with best practices, tools, and partners that can help resolve a real bottleneck..

In a nutshell

• eCommerceFest 2026 is scheduled for September 29 and 30 in Colombia.
• The event is aimed at the digital commerce ecosystem: stores, MSMEs, companies, and technology providers.
• Before attending, it's a good idea to identify one or two specific business challenges.
• You don't need to buy a new platform to “take advantage” of the event; learning, comparing, and ruling things out are also useful outcomes.
• The best questions link technology to profit margin, operations, conversion, data, and team capabilities.
• After the event, there should be a testing plan in place, not just a list of tools with no one assigned to them.

What Kind of Business Can Benefit from eCommerceFest?

An e-commerce event isn't just for a store that already processes thousands of orders. It can be useful at different stages, as long as the goal changes based on the business's maturity.

Before You Attend: Assess Your Store in 30 Minutes

The best preparation doesn't start with checking your calendar. It starts by identifying where the most value is currently being lost. Do a quick review and choose no more than two priorities.

1. Acquisition: Are you having trouble getting traffic, or is traffic coming in but isn't relevant?
2. Conversion: Do people view products but leave before making a purchase?
3. Payment: Are there errors, insufficient resources, or friction during checkout?
4. Logistics: Are delivery times, costs, or returns affecting the customer experience?
5. Inventory: Do you sell items that turn out to be out of stock?
6. Attention: Does the volume of questions exceed the team's capacity?
7. Withholding: Does every sale depend on paying again to acquire the customer?
8. Measurement: Can you link a campaign to a sale and a margin?

If you don't yet have a stable e-commerce operation, be sure to also check out the Checklist for Launching an Online Store in Colombia. It will help you distinguish a real need from a feature that is appealing but premature.

What to Ask a Vendor Before Letting a Demo Win You Over

A demo typically shows the scenario in which the tool works best. Your decision should take into account what happens when an exception occurs, when another system needs to be integrated, or when the team doesn't have time to manage a new platform.

Payments and checkout: Don't look for other options if the problem is something else

A payment provider may offer additional payment methods, fraud prevention, or better reconciliation tools. That can be valuable, but before making a change, it’s important to know where the current drop-off is occurring. If the user doesn’t even reach the checkout page, the problem may lie with the product, trust, price, or navigation.

Helpful questions for this category:

• What payment methods do my customers actually use?
• What is the approval rate, and how are rejections identified?
• How are returns and reconciliation handled?
• What data does the store receive, and what information remains with the supplier?
• How does the cost change based on my volume and average ticket price?
• What controls are in place to prevent fraud and chargebacks?

Logistics: The Promise the Site Must Be Able to Deliver on

In e-commerce, the sale doesn't end when the payment is approved. The customer expects shipping information, a reasonable delivery date, and a solution if something goes wrong. That's why any logistics proposal should be evaluated from the promise made to the buyer all the way through the handling of any issues that arise.

Marketing: Ask About Profitability, Not Just Reach

At a digital event, it's easy to find tools for advertising, automation, personalization, and analytics. The key question should be whether they help improve a financial metric or a verifiable part of the customer journey.

Before adopting a new marketing solution, define:

• Which key conversion do you want to improve?.
• How much does it currently cost to acquire a customer?.
• What is the available budget for acquisition?.
• What customer information can you use with consent and for a clear purpose?.
• Whether the team can create and maintain the campaigns that the tool enables.
• What portion of the benefit depends on settings, data, or additional services?.

Artificial Intelligence in E-commerce: Where It Can Make Sense

AI is increasingly being used in search, customer service, content, recommendations, analytics, and automation. Instead of asking, “Do you have AI?”, it’s better to ask What specific task does it automate, what data does it require, and how is the result verified?.

If your company is evaluating agents, you can supplement this review with the guide on What Are Artificial Intelligence Agents and How Do They Use Tools?.

How to Make the Most of a Talk Without Turning It Into a List of Trends

A presentation can be inspiring and still fail to bring about any improvement. To turn it into a decision, note down five things:

1. Problem that the talk is addressing.
2. Type of business or scale at which the case applies.
3. Data or evidence supporting the result.
4. Dependencies: equipment, technology, budget, or data.
5. A small test you could try without changing the entire operation.

If you can't turn a trend into an experiment or a decision-making criterion, it's probably not a priority yet.

Purposeful Networking: What to Prepare

“Networking” is too broad a term. A conversation is more useful when the other person quickly understands what your business does and what you’re looking for.

• A 20-second explanation of your company and your client.
• A specific problem you want to solve.
• A basic metric that you can share without revealing sensitive information: monthly orders, categories, or channels.
• A professional and easy-to-remember way to get in touch.
• A quick note on why it's worth continuing every conversation.

How to Prioritize What You Discover During the Event

What to Do in the 72 Hours Following the Event

1. Eliminate contacts and tools that don't align with a real priority.
2. Group the findings by issue, not by provider.
3. Select up to three ideas that warrant analysis.
4. Request additional information only for those options.
5. Define a small test with success criteria and a due date.
6. Assign a person in charge and a maximum budget.
7. Review the results before making the test a permanent feature.

Common Mistakes When Attending an E-Commerce Event

• Purchasing a solution during the demo without reviewing integration and total cost.
• Confusing an industry trend with an immediate business need.
• Trying to solve five problems with five new tools at the same time.
• Don't ask how the data is exported.
• Ignore the time the team will need to spend operating the solution.
• Just collecting contacts and not defining next steps.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is eCommerceFest 2026 in Colombia?

The Colombian Chamber of E-Commerce has scheduled eCommerceFest for September 29 and 30, 2026. As with any event, the agenda or terms and conditions may be updated, so it’s a good idea to check the most current information before you go.

Is it only for large stores?

Not necessarily. An SME can still benefit if it comes with a specific problem and uses the event to learn or compare solutions. Scale changes the questions you need to ask.

Should I leave the event with a new tool?

No. Ruling out a solution that doesn't fit is also a useful outcome. A purchase only makes sense if there is a measurable problem, a reasonable test, and someone responsible for implementing it.

Does it make sense to attend if I don't sell online yet?

You can use it if you're evaluating the channel and want to understand its components before investing. In that case, prioritize content on business models, payments, logistics, and operations over advanced optimization tools.

An e-commerce event is worth it for the decisions it helps improve afterward

eCommerceFest can pack into two days the information, vendors, and experiences that would take weeks to explore separately. For an SME, the best way to make the most of it is to arrive with an assessment, ask targeted questions, and leave with a few well-defined tests. The goal isn’t to adopt more technology; it’s to find an improvement that can be measured and sustained within the actual operations of the business.