Our Founder and CEO, John Readman, has been named UK Ecommerce Business Personality of the Year at the UK eCommerce Awards 2026.
The award recognises the individual who has done the most for UK ecommerce over the past year. For John, that means building technology that puts enterprise-level analytics in the hands of every Shopify merchant, changing how the industry measures success, and giving back on a scale few business leaders match.
What the judges said
John Readman is a truly inspirational business leader whose impact reaches far beyond commercial success. Combining entrepreneurial achievement, innovation and exceptional leadership with an extraordinary commitment to giving back, the contribution to the ecommerce industry, its people and wider society, is authentic and incredibly commendable.
Judges’ comments, UK Ecommerce Business Personality of the Year
25 years spent on one problem
John has spent more than 25 years helping some of the world’s largest brands grow online, including building enterprise-level analytics for Argos. Across that time he has focused on one question: how can ecommerce businesses see clearly enough to decide where their next pound should go?
That analytics work for Argos cost hundreds of thousands of pounds. John’s vision was to distil the same engineering, and decades of ecommerce knowledge, into something any merchant could install with one click.
In 2026 that vision became real. ASK BOSCO® launched on the Shopify App Store as the only native AI analytics app of its kind. It unifies a retailer’s data, engineers it properly and adds an AI analyst anyone can question, plus ASK BOSCO® AI Studio, which builds reports in seconds. Trading managers, ecommerce managers, CMOs and CEOs get answers without waiting on a data team.
The results so far
- More than 100 ecommerce businesses helped to unify their data into a single source of truth
- Millions of pounds of media spend moved from underperforming channels into better-performing campaigns
- An estimated 50% of reporting time saved for ecommerce and agency teams
Profit, not just revenue
John is also leading the push for UK ecommerce teams to plan around POAS (profit on ad spend) rather than ROAS. Revenue can look healthy while margins disappear. POAS tells merchants where to spend for profit, and John champions it through talks, content and the platform itself.
Recognition along the way
- Named in the BIMA 100, the UK’s list of digital leaders, in 2024 and 2025
- Won AI Entrepreneur of the Year at the Great British Entrepreneur Awards
- ASK BOSCO® named Standout AI Solution at the 2025 UK Digital Excellence Awards
Building the team behind it
As a non-technical founder, John’s biggest challenge was building a technical team that could deliver the vision. He did it by creating a transparent, values-led culture, now recognised among the UK’s Best Companies to Work For, and by bringing in backers who shared the vision, including Skyscanner co-founder Bonamy Grimes.
More than £2m raised for children’s education
The judges singled out John’s commitment to giving back, and it runs through everything he does.
John co-founded Ride25, which has raised more than £2m for children’s education in Uganda and Tanzania through charities 1moreChild and Lyra. Modo25 donates 10% of its profits to charity.
Closer to home, John mentors young marketers and founders, and visits schools to talk about careers in digital.
Listen: Leaders on Shopify
John also hosts Leaders on Shopify, a podcast where he interviews the founders and leaders of scaling Shopify brands and the ecommerce agencies behind them.
Each episode gets into the real stories behind growth: the strategies, the data, the leadership calls and the lessons learned on the way from mid-market to enterprise. If you’re a founder, CMO or Shopify partner, it’s practical listening with no buzzwords.
What this means for our clients
This award belongs to the whole Modo25 and ASK BOSCO® team, and to the clients who trust us with their growth. It also reflects what John has always pushed for: giving ecommerce businesses clear data, honest answers and the confidence to spend where it counts.
Congratulations, John.
“I’m incredibly proud of what our team has built. Every ecommerce business deserves to know where its next pound should go, and I’m proud of what the whole team has achieved.”
Want to see what ASK BOSCO® could show you? Install the Shopify app or talk to the Modo25 team
