For the latest instalment of Women in Commerce, we spoke to Sue Azari, EMEA eCommerce Industry Lead at AppsFlyer.

Having worked both client-side at brands including YOOX Net-a-Porter, The Very Group and Beauty Pie before moving into B2B SaaS, Sue has built a reputation as one of the industry’s most recognisable voices. Alongside leading eCommerce growth across EMEA, she’s also the creator of The Commerce Brief newsletter and a LinkedIn Top Voice for Retail.

In this Q&A, Sue discusses her career journey, the importance of building authentic relationships, why trust is becoming commerce’s biggest competitive advantage, and what she’d like to see change across the industry.

Tell us about your role and career journey so far.

I’m the EMEA eCommerce Industry Lead at AppsFlyer, a modern marketing cloud.

My role spans driving commercial growth across the eCommerce vertical, alongside thought leadership, sales enablement, and strategic account work with some of EMEA’s most recognised eCommerce brands.

My career began client-side, in marketing roles at YOOX Net-a-Porter, The Very Group, and Beauty Pie, among others. Over four years ago I made the move into B2B SaaS, and it’s been the most professionally fulfilling chapter of my career. Rather than shaping the strategy of one brand, I now get to work across dozens simultaneously, which means the learning curve never really flattens.

What achievement are you most proud of?

Building a genuine industry voice from scratch. I started my industry newsletter The Commerce Brief and grew my LinkedIn presence not as a marketing exercise, but because I genuinely wanted to contribute something useful to the industry conversation. Being named a LinkedIn Top Voice for Retail and speaking at over 20 global events are milestones I’m proud of, but what matters more is that the work has created real relationships and opened doors I couldn’t have planned for.

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned during your career?

That softer skills are some of the most valuable things you can bring to the workplace.

I see that empathy, relationship building, and intuition are what separate good professionals from great ones. The best client relationships I’ve built have come from genuinely understanding the person on the other side of the table.

Have you faced any challenges as a woman in the industry?

Yes, though I’d rather talk about them honestly than package them neatly.

In my career I have encountered rooms where I had to work harder to be taken seriously, and I’ve navigated the particular tightrope that many women in commercial roles will recognise: being seen as credible and authoritative without being perceived as difficult.

What I will say is that the industry has shifted meaningfully, and the conversations happening now, including ones like this, matter in keeping that momentum going.

What advice would you give to women looking to build a career in commerce or technology?

Invest in your network early and keep building it.

LinkedIn, your workplace, and industry events are all brilliant places to start. The opportunities that have shaped my career most have rarely come from a job board; they’ve come from people I’ve met, stayed in touch with, and built genuine relationships with over time. Show up, be consistent, and don’t underestimate the value of being known in your space.

Who has inspired or influenced your career?

My very first career inspiration was Sophia Amoruso, founder of the brand Nasty Gal.

She was the first woman I remember building something publicly whilst also sharing so much of her personality and life, including a real honesty and transparency about the harder moments and failures of her career journey. She gave so many women permission to believe in themselves, and she actually inspired me to start my own resale business early in my career.

What resonated most was that she proved you could build something from scratch on your own terms, without conforming to the traditional idea of what a business leader should look like, and for a lot of women of my generation, that was genuinely transformative.

What excites you most about the future of commerce?

The collapse of the boundary between discovery and purchase.

We are moving towards a world where a consumer can go from first encountering a product, on a social feed, in an AI-generated recommendation, through a creator they trust, to completing a transaction in seconds.

That shift has profound implications for how brands think about measurement, loyalty, and the role of the app in the customer relationship. It’s a genuinely exciting problem space to be working in.

What’s one thing you’d like to see change in the industry?

Two things, if I’m allowed.

More diversity in senior decision-making roles; the industry has made progress, but leadership tables still don’t reflect the breadth of people shopping, building, and working in commerce.

And a greater willingness to take risks rather than default to the same marketing and eCommerce playbook. The brands doing the most interesting work are the ones prepared to experiment, and I’d love to see that mindset become the norm rather than the exception.

Quick Fire

Coffee or tea? Coffee

Most-used app? Monzo

Favourite AI tool? Claude

A brand you admire? Reformation

A woman in business everyone should follow? Emma Grede

One word to describe the future of commerce? Relationship