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Strava

If it’s not on Strava, did it really happen? Strava is the app that takes your exercise data (GPS tracking, heart rate and sport-specific measurements like cadence, power output, etc) and then publishes, tracks and analyses your exercise. It adds a friendship and social graph and supports data exchange, rewards, and commerce.

It’s where effort becomes identity

Initially, recording bike rides (from sensor to my Garmin account and then uploading to Strava - pain!) elicited no more than an eye-roll from my wife. Now, with its web of technical, commercial and social connections, Strava gives us a central player in the “activity-as-cross-sector-customer-context”, so let’s look at the connections from here.

Strava’s expansion vectors as a platform for gamefication, social and commerce

Vector 1: Gamification - roads as racecourses

Firstly, Strava ‘gamifies the road’. In road cycling, the term “King of the Mountain” refers to the best climber in a major race, like the Tour de France. Climbs are classified (by length, incline and severity) from a ‘category 4’ (the closest these athletes get to ‘easy’) to Hors Category (‘beyond categorisation’ - think of a vertical brick wall lasting 30kms). The winner wears the coveted polka dot jersey.

Strava takes that terminology and applies it to any road or “segment” - whoever’s fastest along that stretch gets “KOM” against their time, shown on a league table for that segment.

Public infrastructure becomes a competitive layer

There is also humour and fun to be had in the clever creation and naming of segments.

Completionist drive

Building from this concept (of repeating the same segment for the highest speed) is its total opposite: Wandrer.earth. Wandrer takes data from Strava (which in turn may have reached it from Garmin or other tracking sources) and gives you points for each new, fresh kilometre you cover. Its creator, Craig Durkin, coded this as a way to encourage exploration, and this is now a part of my life - seeking “fresh Ks” wherever I travel. The same mechanism, different approach, complementary fun. It adds “completionist logic” to the game.

[A sports]Man’s best friend 🐕

Strava also supports your pet’s activities. Really.

Fi Tracking is a connected collar for your dog that measures its activity. Strava now allows you to upload your pet’s paces alongside your own2.

Now, dogs have leaderboards by breed (visible in the Fi app), but this growth of tracking has riled the purists who feel that their sports-first app is being diluted and distracted by the poochy capers, yoga sessions and volleyball activities3. IMO, this is part of the move towards a generic platform rather than a niche community tool, so provided there are filters, I’m happy to see other activities by my friends and Strava buddies.

When the collar gets a KOM you know the system’s transcended its initial purpose!

Brands and retailers join the game

Sports brands show affinity, genuine community connection and commercial links via Strava, crossing sectors to retail.

First off, props to the OG cycling brands like Rapha.cc and LeCol. Rapha’s Club is an approach that brings the stores (oops, “clubhouses” with cafes), rides from the stores, organised group rides and self-identifying rides together. Remember, Rapha is the brand that offers you a discount on a replacement kit bought due to weight loss from cycling, or damage from taking a spill off your bike. Proper commitment, and I dream of needing to size down!

Rapha organises “Festive 500s” (where you record 500km+ over the Christmas break) and LeCol routinely offers product discounts and rewards for completing activities.

Nike Run Club, Adidas Running, and many others support, celebrate and promote activity. This extends to running tips, gear advice (of course!) and athlete stories.

Strava is the place both to fish for new customers and to “show up and be with your customer” as the sweat, pound, strive and achieve.

Strava, in turn, has a neat capability to record what you’re using on a given bout of exercise. I note which bike I was using, the shoes, and other bits of kit. This is both fun (I know, I’m sad) and interesting, and of course a buy signal (“you’ve worn these trainers for 4,000Km - time to get a new pair”).

For brands, this information is a goldmine, but also allows you to spend time with your best customers when they’re not in your store!

The relationship used to start and end at the till. Now it runs with them.

Vector 2: Crossing sectors - follow the behaviour

Beyond the obvious kit companies and sports-focused commercial activity, we’re seeing some cross-category tie-ups…

Audible x Strava

If you join the Audible challenge - 6hr 5m of activity (cunningly, the average audiobook length, it seems) - you get 2 months of Audible free. Great - I’m already an Audible subscriber, so I get zero benefit. I still signed up. Why? No idea.

The programme had a re-up in February 2026 and now offers free Strava Premium4. Again, I signed up. Again, I won nothing since I’m already a Strava Premium member. Honestly!

What’s interesting about the tie-up is that Audible’s own research showed that 80% of Australian runners find audiobooks ‘beneficial’ during runs. “People who listen” also exercise 25% more often and for 35% longer… So, the tie-up makes sense5.

Not all listening is the spoken word. Spotify integrated directly into Strava’s activity-recording screen back in 2023, and you can now play, pause and skip without leaving the Strava app. All that we need is for the playlist BPM to be controllable by the crown on the Apple Watch, and we’ll be laughing. Apple, call me 🤙

The cross-sector behaviour is only curious until you realise that it’s following the customer’s behaviour/

Audible and Strava seemed odd until you remembered that runners have two free hands and two open ears.

Westin Hotels, Airbnb x Strava

240+ Westin properties globally have curated running routes starting from the hotel front door, as part of the WestinWORKOUT programme6. You can earn Marriott Bonvoy points for completing the RunWESTIN Challenge.7 AirBnB has also joined in with running advice near properties under the marketing slogan of going on a “run-cation”. Strava data shows that people run 14% further and hike 32% more when staying in hotels, so yet again the tie-up follows the behaviour.

Jet2 x Strava

“Cycle to Sunshine”. OK, thank you. This was in my Strava feed today… I’m ticking off the hotels, now the airlines.

Hardware providers join the ecosystem

I’ve mentioned the clothing/footwear brands above, but Cycling and other sports have a large element of electronics and metalwork. In the case of cycling, we have computerised GPS navigation, linked to heart rate and cadence, and the “gubbins” on your bike (pedals, gears, chainsets, levers - the “groupset”) are chunky one-off purchases that the vendors wish you’d upgrade.

Enter the hardware manufacturers into the ecosystem.

SRAM makes groupsets (a major competitor to Shimano and Campagnolo), and some years ago, it acquired an independent cycling computer company, Hammerhead (purveyors of the Karoo 2 computer). So a chain-and-gears company acquired a screen and software business. If you are remotely interested, then the wonderful “DC Rainmaker” has a lengthy analysis. One for the committed - it’s a deep but enlightening rabbit hole! 🐰🕳️

Wahoo (creators of the tricked-out indoor bike trainers) created SYSTM - their training software package - to move beyond hardware.

Vector 3: Third space and dating 🥰

Let’s move beyond Strava for a moment and into the world of health and wellness. In this world, where actual exercise and activity take place, we see changes in the customer’s contexts, too.

Last century, a gym’s smell (baked hormones and socks) would hit you before you’d even checked in, and the aesthetic was Rocky on a bad day. Skip forward to today, and we see city-centre gyms adopt the aesthetic of a luxury spa, with high-tech machines, wellness offerings and juice, kombucha and laser treatments all round. They are “clubs” more than gyms.

In 2024, The Gym Group surveyed 2000 UK 18- 24-year-olds and found that8:

• 37% of GenZ view working out as a way to socialise (rising to 44% in 2025)

• 42% (51% by 2025) have formed new friendships while keeping fit.

The average monthly spend on fitness per the survey was £48.81 - more than streaming, eating out, and fashion.

Anecdotally, Gen Z finds the gym a better place to meet prospective partners (as disillusionment with dating apps rises).

Gen Z explicitly call their gyms a “third space” (I’ll do a piece solely on this in the future, but the echoes to the airport experiences are clear).

Dwell time is inventory in the third space, and Strava is a data layer

Vector 4: To medical data and insurance

So far, we’ve covered commercially obvious connections - retailers and D2C businesses following their customers. However, Strava is part of a vertical, “internal” market of medical data.

Apple Health is an ecosystem of sensors, apps, and data, all linked to one’s Apple ID.

Apple Health’s “Share with Provider” (iOS 15+) is a live sync of wearable data, ECG readings, sleep apnea data, and clinical records into participating hospitals’ EHR (electronic health records) systems. It’s seamless and just works.

Strava, of course, links into this. It tells Apple what my exercise was, while Apple tells it my sleep, weight and so on.

Then my Withings digital scales measure my water content, bone density, lean mass, fat, visceral fat and - I think - my weight ;) Via Apple Health, it knows my steps, and Strava also sees the data.

Ecosystem. Everything’s connected.

Before typing this, I scrolled through the settings of Apple Health and saw mental health records, ECG, AFib history, health assessments, menstrual cycles… all available to share with a health professional at the click of a button. For my last medical, when I was asked about my exercises, general health, weight, etc., I simply got the report from my phone - I think my heart skipped with joy as I shared it. Must check the records ;)

This connectivity affects the electronic and medical products sectors too - no self-respecting device wants to be unconnected. The value is in the aggregate.

Wearables

Beyond the strapped-on Apple Watch or an Oura ring, wearables extend the universe of connected body data. Diabetics know the value of the body-attached continuous glucose monitors, and we’re seeing other “things” attached to our bodies that undertake monitoring. From the recently announced perimenopause tracker, Peri, to the new generations of smart glasses that, in addition to tracking people back to their LinkedIn photos (allegedly!), monitor eye movements to detect brain anomalies. The research team at EssilorLuxotica are busy looking to bring monitoring to smart glasses - handy since they own both RayBan and Oakley, so have active partnerships with Meta.

Insurance

With all of this data, it’s no surprise that the health insurance companies are interested. Direct data access enables innovations in business models.

VitalityLife UK (owned by South Africa-based Discovery, formerly marketed as PruProtect) offers a discount for “healthy behaviour”.

Recent online ads are offering new policy-holders a free Apple Watch - all the better to track you, my dear!

The actuarial reasons are obvious, and a great boon to the healthy and wealthy. For the economically less well-heeled, then it’s a gulf in provision that is set to widen.

Insurers don’t care what sport you do. They just care the you keep doing it - and that they can see you doing it.

New Customer Contexts

We started with Strava (other apps are available) as a modern hub for exercise data and communities of interest. Then retail and entertainment joined the party. Hardware (electronic and sporting) got involved, then travel links, leisure spaces (“third spaces”), medical data and insurance soon followed. Let’s not forget our dogs!

Together we see a new customer context: a set of situations, places, mental availability and influences that are beyond one sector, one brand or one modality.

This is not a “fitness” story, but rather a ‘customer-context’ story. Unlike the airport (where we have compressed commerce over a couple of hours), this context can run your whole healthy and active life.

At CustomerX, we’ll be looking at this context (and how the sector leaders can copy, collaborate or compete to extract as much as possible of the customer’s disposable income and discretionary spend). In future newsletters, I’ll pick up on other contexts. In the meantime, please share your thoughts, and especially any further connections I may have missed or skipped over.

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Endmatter

What are your experiences of the health-data-activity-social ecosystem? Do share.

CustomerX takes place in London at Olympia International Conference Centre on 14–15 October 2026. I am looking for speakers, case studies and change-making idea-generators, so do get in touch.

You may also enjoy the previous piece, which argues that AI’s adoption dissolves sectors and accelerates change, and the piece on the airport compresses commerce.

In No Particular Order from Ian Jindal

The"Compressed Economy" - what airports reveal of the post-sectoral customer context

When I wrote recently that AI is accelerating the move to a post-sector world, I was trying to describe a commercial reality that is already in plain sight…

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a month ago · 3 likes · Ian Jindal

Coming next in the series:

• The sofa — the new Friday night

• Belonging — hotels, gyms, travel, cinemas, retailers, restaurants and brands in the membership economy

• Peace of mind — insurance, pensions, savings and investments, where hope itself becomes sellable
  

Customers do not live in sectors.

They do not wake up and decide to spend the day in “retail”, “travel”, “media”, “finance” or “hospitality”. They live in situations, occasions and needs. They aggregate services, products and experiences according to context. Yet most businesses still think in their own vertical, optimising an imaginary funnel and hoping to squeeze the customer into a sale.

Each seller now lives alongside other players, able to watch them and be seen by them, as they each try to maximise their share of the customer’s finite disposable and discretionary spend.

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In this short series, I want to explore some of these customer contexts: the settings in which the post-sector world is easiest to see. This article starts with one of the clearest examples: the airport. ✈️

Subsequent pieces will look at: the sofa and the Friday-night economy; body data and wearables; belonging and the membership economy; and peace of mind, where insurance, pensions, investments and savings all end up selling some version of hope.

To the airport…

For now, though, let’s head to our favourite international airport. Heathrow Terminal 5, perhaps. Singapore Changi. Doha Hamad. Hong Kong. Charles de Gaulle. Tokyo Haneda. The better ones are no longer merely places of pre-flight confinement - a shopping mall with security and duty free. They are places that make being trapped for a couple of hours feel almost aspirational: Michelin-starred food, spas, lounges, luxury retail, media, wellness, and enough polished surfaces to reassure you that travel is still glamorous, even if you are heading for 44B in economy.

Each sector can point to its own presence there and say, “we have a store”, “we have a lounge”, “we have a restaurant”, “we have a partnership”. Fair enough. But there is now a context or commercial modality greater than the sum of its selling parts.

The compressed economy

The airport is no longer just a transport interchange with shops attached. It is a dense, intense commercial environment in which travel, transportation, mall, luxury, restauration, media, payments, hospitality and tourism converge around one traveller in one bounded period of time.

The airport, in other words, is a compressed economy.

According to ACI World (ie Airports Council International), non-aeronautical revenues (great phrase!) accounted for 37% of total airport revenues in 2024 and offset 48% of total airport costs. Retail concessions remain the biggest source of non-aeronautical revenue in most regions. Commerce is not decorative here; it is structural to the business model for these posh sheds.

Avolta, one of the largest operators in travel retail and F&B, discusses the airport’s more “predictable dwell-time” between arrival and boarding. That is a deceptively important phrase. Time becomes inventory. It can be programmed, sold against, and designed around.

In fact, time is the limiting factor against which almost every player in the airport must optimise.

The customer is not merely captive. They are often receptive. J C Decaux cites1 Ipsos research showing that 70% of flyers enjoy looking at exhibition stands, shops, advertising and other things to see at the airport. Yes, of course they would say that, but the underlying point still stands: the airport is not just a retail venue. It is also a premium media environment.

Within that environment, behaviour matters as much as volume. ACI Asia-Pacific & Middle East said earlier this year that airport retail performance is increasingly shaped by “passenger behaviour, rather than sheer traffic volumes”, with younger travellers now driving spend and impulse remaining a major factor.

The value lies not simply in traffic, but in the quality and context of the engagement.

What makes the airport different

Yes. Planes, security. I know. But beyond the obvious, the airport experience starts before the passenger even reaches the terminal: booking, ancillaries, parking, insurance, lounge access, app engagement.

It continues in the terminal itself: duty free, luxury, food, pharmacy, gifting, sampling, media, payments, loyalty capture.

It stretches into transit: content, advertising, destination inspiration.

And it completes on arrival: hotels, transfers, roaming, attractions, local services.

Seen that way, the airport is not one market. It is not even merely a collection of sectors. It is a stack of adjacent sectors sharing the same person’s attention in a compressed slice of time, space and intent.

And what of the customer?

Globally, airport traffic reached more than 9.4 billion passenger journeys in 2024, with the top 20 airports alone handling 1.54 billion passengers, according to ACI’s World Airport Traffic Dataset 2025. These are passenger movements, not unique individuals.

In the UK, the CAA says there were 295 million passenger journeys through UK airports in 2024, rising to 302 million in 2025.

At Heathrow specifically2, the airport handled 83.9 million passengers in 2024 and 84.5 million in 2025.

These are vast audiences. But the real opportunity is not just volume. It is information density.

The airline knows who you are, where you are going, where you have come from, what fare you bought, what seat you are in, how much baggage you have, and often much more besides.

The airport may know your parking, lounge, Wi-Fi, app, Reserve & Collect, Fast Track or loyalty behaviour.

The retailer may scan your boarding pass and know your destination, flight timing and purchase.

The card issuer may know your spend and lounge entitlements.

The border authorities know rather a lot too 👮🏽

In other words: the airport customer is one of the most context-rich customers in commerce. Time-bound, destination-linked, identity-bearing, and surrounded by measurable behaviour.

And yet no one owns the whole picture.

The opportunity is immense, but the data remains fragmented. Airlines, airports, concessionaires, lounge operators, payment providers and governments all hold pieces of the customer record. The routes to sharing are not straightforward, legally or technically. But the commercial promise is obvious: if you can connect enough of the signals in time, you can do much more than sell a Toblerone or an overpriced bowl of noodles. You can understand the traveller’s state and shape the offer around it.

That, in the end, is the data opportunity.

Not simply “more CRM”, but a much richer ability to understand a customer who is identified, time-constrained, geographically situated, and unusually open to influence.

The existing players are not naive - they know how to optimise their ads, inventory, processes, location. However, in order to grow further they will need to work cross-sector.

New operating models in the compressed economy

This is where the airport gets interesting beyond the usual luxury-brand popup fare.

The more important story is not simply that alcohol brands build glossy stands and hand out samples3. It is that airports are becoming laboratories for cross-sector operating models.

Finance becomes hospitality

Look at lounges. These are no longer just airline amenities. They are increasingly wrapped into premium cards, memberships and paid-access programmes.

The result is that airport dwell time is being monetised not just through travel or retail, but through financial-services architecture. Lounge access becomes part of the value proposition of the card. The lounge itself becomes a physical manifestation of finance, status and hospitality.

Amex’s Centurion Lounges are the most obvious example. JP Morgan Chase has co-developed the Chase Sapphire Lounge with Airport Dimensions. Priority Pass sits across multiple card products and programmes.

The lounge becomes a club, workspace and hospitality product

The lounge itself is evolving. It is now part leisure space, part dining room, part workspace, part spa, part members’ club.

According to Airport Dimensions research, 51% of affluent travellers are heavy users of lounges. That helps explain why these environments are becoming less like waiting rooms and more like premium hybrid spaces.

Lounges offer a prototype for how hospitality, work, status and convenience can fuse together.

Wellness becomes traveller recovery

Wellness is another growing category, but the interesting point is not “airport spa exists”. It is that airports are increasingly monetising traveller recovery.

Luxury lounges have long offered showers and treatments. But the more recent direction is broader: decompression, calm, grooming, sleep, relaxation, recovery from travel stress.

Kyra Lounge opened another design-led, calm-focused space at Hong Kong International Airport this year. Be Relax has been redesigning its concepts in Dubai. Lima airport now offers sleep and relaxation pods.

The more useful way to think about this is that the airport is beginning to sell states of being: rested, reset, showered, fed, entertained, reassured.

That is a much more interesting model than the old “massage kiosk by Gate 17”.

Sleep becomes a product category

This is perhaps the clearest sign that the airport is no longer just about retail. Rest itself has become a monetisable inventory.

Sleep pods, sleep stations, quiet spaces and decompression lounges all point in the same direction: airports are learning to sell not just products, but human states.

That is a very post-sector idea. Hospitality, wellness, real estate and retail all meet in the same proposition.

The airport becomes a platform, not just a mall

And yes, there are still activations. Plenty of them. Hennessy at Changi. Johnnie Walker at CDG. Endless efforts to recreate luxury-boutique glamour under fluorescent lighting.

Some of this still feels like Blade Runner meets the mall.

But even here, the direction of travel is revealing. The activations are bigger, more immersive, more collaborative, more media-rich, and more explicitly designed around gifting, exclusivity, and premium discovery.

So while I find the pop-up story slightly less interesting than the operating-model story, it still tells us something: the airport is shifting from a place where brands rent space to a place where they try to build context-specific experiences.

Directions of travel

Several clear directions are visible here.

• New launches and activations. Airports are increasingly being used to debut exclusives, channel-specific editions and occasion-led propositions, not just to distribute standard SKUs.

• New partnerships. The operating model is nearly always collaborative: brand owner, airport, travel retailer, media layer, service provider, loyalty or finance partner. Airports are experimentation machines.

• Premiumisation. The language of airport commerce is immersive, exclusive, ritualised and giftable. The airport compresses premium intent and still trades heavily on the glamour of travel, despite the seat map telling a different story.

• Media-commerce convergence. Display, storytelling, sampling, staff interaction, digital engagement and transaction are increasingly fused together. That feels less like “retail in travel” and more like a live prototype of where commerce itself is heading.

What this means for CustomerX

Taken together — the commercial intent, the customer context, the cross-sector melting pot, the collaborations, the data density — airport commerce is one of the best examples of the CustomerX opportunity and reality.

At CustomerX, this is exactly the kind of setting we want to explore: not a sector talking to itself, but multiple leaders from multiple sectors trying to understand the same customer context.

There is much to ponder and learn. We can:

• Copy how airports monetise dwell time, premium attention, and compressed decision-making.

• Collaborate across travel, retail, hospitality, media, loyalty and payments, because airports show how much value is created between sectors rather than solely within them.

• Compete with a wider field in mind, because your next competitor may not come from your category at all. It may simply be the adjacent player who understands the customer moment better than you do.

After all, everyone is seeking the largest and most profitable share of the customer’s finite disposable income.

So what does the airport reveal?

The airport is still a transport hub, of course.

But it is also a mall, a media platform, a hospitality environment, a loyalty engine, a data opportunity and a tourism gateway.

More importantly, it is one of the clearest real-world examples we have of a compressed economy: a place where multiple sectors converge around the same person, in the same hour, with the same commercial ambition.

It is a crucible of invention; of cross-sector activity that focuses on the customer’s context. That is why it’s included in the CustomerX conversation.

Endmatter

What are your experiences of airport cross-sector successes and failures? Do share.

If you have created something surprising, elegant or commercially potent in this space, and I have missed it, please tell me.

CustomerX takes place in London at Olympia International Conference Centre on 14–15 October 2026. I am looking for speakers, case studies and change-making idea-generators, so do get in touch.

You may also enjoy the previous piece, which argues that AI’s adoption dissolves sectors and accelerates change.

Coming next in the series:

• The sofa — the new Friday night

• Body data — wearables powering business in sport, leisure, health, insurance and socialising

• Belonging — hotels, gyms, travel, cinemas, retailers, restaurants and brands in the membership economy

• Peace of mind — insurance, pensions, savings and investments, where hope itself becomes sellable
  
  

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For decades, commerce has been organised around sectors: retail, travel, media, leisure, finance, health. The origin of these sectors was simply that the products and services were constructed, produced and delivered differently: fresh produce to a store (Grocer), versus renting of clean and tidy rooms (hotels) or operating a current account such that customers can save, pay and manage their salaries (banks). This is obvious.

Over time, however, the operational processes have become invisible to the customer as the service and experience layers have grown ever slicker and more capable. It’s entirely normal for a customer to have a great experience buying clothing and then denigrate a hotel because there are not dozens of photos of each individual room; or if we can order a grocery delivery slot with hour precision, should ’t booking a service engineer to fix our washing machine be just as slick? Customers are adept at extrapolating excellence in one domain into expectations in another.

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As mobile becomes the main access interface (or ‘surface’), it’s natural for the customer to expect the same service wrapper, irrespective of the fact that picking a delivery date on Amazon is substantially different from reserving a room for two people over 4 nights, seven months in the future.

Being a modern consumer is the result of much training. We need to understand the dynamics and parameters of each service – hotels, travel, tickets for a gig, grocery, luxury brands, online gaming or streaming – and then we can ‘drive’ the interface effectively.

Consumers never truly inhabited those sectors, but until recently, the operating and delivery friction forced them to behave as if they did.

That friction is now disappearing, and – from a retail perspective – we are at an epochal point, like the arrival of digital commerce in the early noughties. To be clear, I should say “the arrival of digital interfaces to commerce” – the web put new levers in the hands of the customer, even though businesses had been ‘computerising’ for decades. The computerisation was locked inside the business until the arrival of internet commerce.

Artificial intelligence is not itself the cause of this change, but it is its catalyst. AI acts simultaneously as a solvent — dissolving the membranes that once separated sectors — and as an accelerant, speeding up how quickly consumers reallocate time, money and attention across their lives, just as retailers process, share and monetise data and services, amped-up by AI.

AI in the customer’s hands is both a solvent (dissolving the membrane between sectors and shopping processes) and an accelerant (fuelling its own effects). As the art and practice of selling direct to consumers is no longer constrained to “the retail sector”, our response is CustomerX, a commercial approach where we collaborate, copy and compete across (former) sectors for the customer’s discretionary spend.

Let’s look at the dissolution of sectors, and how we arrived at CustomerX, starting with the customer’s money.

Where UK households spend their disposable and discretionary money

UK household disposable income is finite and, in real terms, under sustained pressure. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the majority of household spending is absorbed by a small number of essential life needs.

Disposable income in the UK is c. £ 42,700 per family on average. Of this amount, the discretionary element is lower, at more like £30,000, since housing, transport, and a main element of food purchases are neither optional nor can they be flexed to zero each week on a whim or to economise. All spending exists within a constrained discretionary envelope.

Citing an annual figure is misleading since it implies that consumers have access to their annual amount in one go and can make optimised allocations. In reality, a monthly or weekly payment cycle means free cash is eliminated by unexpected or seasonal spending.

I’ve created an extensive footnote with the source of the disposable income1 and some references for the category definitions and UN/OECD data sets.

The approximate UK household expenditure split (by the UN-defined ‘Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose’ or COIPOC, for 2024, citing total annual spend in £GBP, sourced from ONS is below - see footnote for fuller information):

Critically, consumers do not allocate this money by sector. They allocate it by life need.

In not-yet-published research this week from RetailX, we asked customers how they would likely respond to reduced disposable income, and the flash results (below) show that after the initial reduction/elimination of spend, the option to reprioritise spend across categories was selected by 35% of respondents.

Why sectors existed at all

Sectors did not emerge because consumer needs were fundamentally different. They are a function of the fact that the underlying product types and services are fundamentally different and were challenging to connect.

Physical supply chains, property and zoning rules, fulfilment models, regulation and measurement systems enforced separation. Retail sold goods. Hospitality sold time-slices of properties and locations. Transport sold space on a vehicle from A to B. Media sold attention. Banking made your cash under the bed open to transactions. Each sector has its own infrastructure, capital, and operating expertise.

Consumers learned to think in categories and sectors because the world required it. Consumers adapted to the interfaces and affordances of the operators, typically fitting in with the operator’s conveniences and constraints.

Back ends are optimised, while front-end interfaces have collapsed

Operations, logistics, fulfilment and compliance remain deeply sector-specific. But discovery, evaluation, payment and loyalty have converged into shared decision layers, with surfaces like mobile rendering every request as a similarly slick, under-your-thumb experience.

From the consumer’s perspective, choosing a meal, a film, a fitness habit, or a short break often feels structurally and procedurally identical until the moment of fulfilment.

Voice and agentic interfaces further remove the customer from the button-clicking and configuration trails of today’s buying process. Requests are more task-oriented, comparative and conjoined.

Booking a restaurant (date, seats, time options; menu choice, occasion, details, card) are the same as a hotel (rooms, occupants, extras), a grocery slot (time, upsell, completion), or a plane ticket (class, options, seat). Despite the very different operational realities, the configuration processes are slick, similar and locate the service in space and time. All under one’s thumb, while the customer expects each to be as easy as the other.

Back ends remain vertical. Front ends have gone horizontal.

The long erosion of the funnel

This convergence did not begin with customer AI (although machine learning and AI behind the scenes certainly enabled cross-sector coherence).

Customers have increasingly been able to make ‘leaps’ across sectors and COIPOS categories. Performance marketing technologies, real-time attribution, identity resolution, on-platform checkout, retail media and CTV all contributed to dismantling sector boundaries at the point of intent. In parallel, marketplaces, portals and service layers (like Deliveroo) provided a service layer to connect across categories.

Consumer AI matters because it arrives after this convergence — and accelerates it. Now an AI interface can consider, hold, compare, suggest and action a broad intent (“friends coming round for a pizza and to watch Traitors tonight” or “getting me and my 2 kids to southern France by car in time for Granny’s birthday” - see my earlier post on this:

In retailing, the reality under customer-controlled AI is that when decision logic becomes horizontal, sector-based pricing power weakens. If we can no longer contain a customer wholly and exclusively within our transactional process then the ‘funnel’ and ‘conversion’ no longer perform according to our investment and ROI expectations.

Horizontal: the customer’s reality is optimising across life

Consumers do not generally want to make isolated, sequential purchase decisions. They are managing portfolios of time, money and emotional return across their lives.

A visit to a mall involves several stores - from food to fashion, leisure to functional, for the shopper and for her family and friends. A thought about a holiday while looking at spring fashion, or a memory to get healthy snacks for a child’s lunchbox, whose birthday is within a month, and so presents are under consideration… all of these thoughts must be ‘held’ until the shopper is physically able to consider and transact. In the mobile-commerce world, we can shop for fashion inside a frozen food store if we wish. In the agentic world, our digital sprite can go beyond ‘Buy x, buy y and consider other options.

A takeaway competes/compares/considers what’s in your fridge, what’s available on a streaming service, the money in your bank account and your friends’ preferences. A gym session booking competes with a smartwatch data set and a walk with coffee and a friend. A holiday competes with home improvement and local experiences.

The current model of mobile-first, under-your-thumb shopping captures purchases but not the life narrative and choices that inform them.

Substitution, combination, and alternatives all now happen continuously in the customer’s conversation with her trusted AI services, not cyclically.

AI shopping agents make decisions in real time, but as retailers, we aren’t privy to their logic or intent. Our analysis (of the part we can track - arrival, query, checkout or abandon) is like Plato’s cave shadows2 - an incomplete and impoverished version of a rich reality.

The customer is optimising ‘horizontally’ across her life: leisure, family, friends, fitness, and socialising. We collect and share data to understand and influence her choices, but agentic AI shows us less of her thinking and motivation than we are used to.

AI as a solvent and accelerant

As a solvent, AI dissolves the need for the customer to understand categories, sectors and retail verticals. Products and services are abstracted into outcomes, and become part of a solution, rather than the primary purpose of a narrow shopping journey.

AI dissolves the membranes between sectors, rendering them initially more pliable, less distinct and then just gone3…

AI also acts as an accelerant - able to consume and synthesise more product information, more options, more combinations that a human thumb-shopper could do. AI compresses comparisons, normalises substitutions, and speeds up the reallocation of options and services across life-domains.

AI is not the fire of commerce in this analogy: the customer’s desire is the spark, and her disposable income is the fuel. AI is the lighter fluid on fuel that eases and accelerates commerce.

Business models cross the membrane

Even before customer AI, business models have been propagating across sectors. Our annual events, SubscriptionX (17 June, London) and ChannelX, chart the adoption of subscription, membership, loyalty and recurring revenue models in retail, along with marketplaces, social commerce and new agentic channels. Digital capabilities, along with customer understanding, mean the models can “cross the ‘brane’” with high acceptance and relevance.

Life-domains replace sectors

As all products are under our thumbs, and all relevant business models are available, consumers organise their lives around recurring domains of experience or life-events: Friday Night In, Leisure, Coping & convenience, Health & wellbeing, Hope, futures and ageing

This means that multiple sector players and multiple business and experience models all now converge on the customer. Take the “Friday night” scenario of a sociable evening at home with friends. To make the evening a success, we can imagine:

• Netflix (subscription model, streaming data)

• Pepsico for snacks and treats that are linked to watching TV (brand-direct selling)

• Co-op or another supermarket for dinner or extended snacks and beers, working with

• Deliveroo (Q-delivery, but with a subscription and promotional model) to get the basket to your sofa

• Diageo (controlled product, age-restricted) markets liquor as a ‘night-cap’ or pre-clubbing option

• Uber to get your friends home or to the next activity.

These individual businesses can work together via formal partnerships, retail media campaigns (where customer and product data can be shared through promotional marketing), and with Agentic AI, which creates and coordinates products, models, locations, data, orchestration, and experience.

What does “winning” now mean?

Today’s senior leaders grew up with the question “How do we win in our sector?” This is no longer a good enough question since in-sector optimisation is at a peak. Rather, growth needs to come from outside the current sector. The good news is that it’s never been easier to target, appear, and transact in other domains. The bad news is that the total amount of new revenue is finite - the customer has no more than her disposable income and it can only be spent once.

The customer has shown, by her actions and expressed intention, that she is willing to shop across sectors - whether this is due to her AI being able to bring providers together with ease and speed, the dissolution of barriers, or the increase in cross-sector capabilities.

It’s not the time for the direct-selling businesses to determine how they will respond. There are three options:

1. Copy. Simply adopt business models, approaches, and methods from successful players in other sectors and enter as an already-capable clone.

2. Collaborate. This is most easily done where your product is complementary - then you are sharing from an enlarged pie.

3. Compete. Whether through copying, post-collaboration refinement or a new angle for existing demand, entering new sectors with the intent of dominating them is a punchy and admirable approach.

In reality, the ambitious retailer, grocer, hotelier, travelmonger, banker, broadcaster or gamer will be looking to do all three, based on opportunity, capability and creativity.

CustomerX

After a long walk, this is the reason that we’ve created CustomerX (live at Olympia, London, 14-15 October 2026).

1. The customer is unbound by sector barriers - a combination of customer-driven agentic AI, cross-sector marketing promises and collaborations, and a growing sophistication in delivery. The legacy differences between sectors make limited sense or benefit now that mobile and AI agents sweep magestically all buyable surfaces

2. Developments like Google’s Unified Commerce Protocol (UCP) - our topic for the next newsletter - provide a basis to sell, connect, collaborate and deliver across all surfaces, not just your own website or existing marketplace relationships. The humble product is freed to be seen, bought, enjoyed by any agent, any time, within the service parameters

3. Inventive initiatives to inhabit the customer’s life - around social events (‘Friday night’), leisure (health data plus Strava and mapping, meet Nike and your local gym or football field) or travel (your smart luggage knows your BA Club details, hotel, restaurant choices and your seat at Taylor Swift gig you’ve travelled to enjoy).

4. The business models flex to support enjoyment - your swimming pool’s monitoring system becomes home security peace of mind, while your washing machine chats with Miele engineers and orders washing liquids, a service and chats with Octopus about your energy usage.

In this world - cross-sector, multi-business-model, collaborating and customer-centred - CustomerX is where commercial leaders who seek the consumer’s discretionary spend meet to learn, be inspired and do business.

This year, our research, podcasts, analysis, and interactions will be aligned around the core commercial question: “How do we remain relevant in our customers’ lives as intent becomes fluid and decisions accelerate?” Via partnerships, use of technology, leveraging data and honing our narratives, we can compete in the exciting and relevant cross-sector commercial world.

The old silos have already dissolved.

I look forward to your thoughts and insights on the CustomerX world.

1

The UK uses the UN definition of spending, namely the “Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose’, or COICOP. There are 12 categories (detailed here) and the following chart and table give the values for 2024 in the UK (£GBP). If you want European data there is an explorer option giving all countries to 2018. Back to the UK, here is the annual “disposal” income for FYE 2024, analysed further by income quintiles:

This is how the money was spent:

Note that the definition of “disposable income” means “all money after tax”. I would make a distinction with “discretionary spend”, being money that you have some choice over where, whether and how much to spend. Housing (category 04) is not really an option, and most transport is for car ownership and commuting, so an adjusted level for ‘discretionary spend’ would be an average of c£46,000 per annum per family

In recent posts we’ve looked at the promise of ‘agentic’ commerce, the need for Sovereign AI and the definitions needed for the echt human and the authorised agent. It’s time to take a ‘world view’.

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Limitations of LLMs

LLMs (large language models) are trained on, er, language. Every word, ever. Every combination. Every language. All modes (business, chat, speeches, essays, news - everything). As a result, an LLM can ‘pick the best words’, based on the best word combinations in its training base. To most humans this looks like a type of savant genius. After all, we are verbal creatures, and to see this compendious knowledge, recall, and authoring is like the fever dream of every helicopter parent!

An analogue would be a gifted pupil at school. Aces every academic subject, but lacks hand-eye coordination, can’t follow a map, can’t manipulate a scalpel, splice a gene, or build an IKEA bookcase, brew a craft beer, or splice a mainbrace. You get the picture - brains (or the appearance of braininess) only get you so far in a 3D world.

In retail, while the LLMs can write web content, analyse ad campaigns, parse data feeds, create images, they cannot talk to your WMS, work out how to get a large fridge into a 3rd floor flat with a narrow hallway and tight turns on the stairs, or talk to your energy provider or grocer of choice. For this, we need to look at “world view” AI that has an understanding of the rules of physics, niche and specialised behaviours, materials, and constraints.

Such localised and specialised knowledge corpora exist, and many have benefitted from machine learning to optimise them over many years (think weather prediction, crop management, traffic control, gene therapy), but these systems are not open access, easy to use by the layperson (nor perhaps should they be?), and there is a lack of interoperability. A case of many worlds rather than a holistic worldview.

So, let’s look at the ideas in World View AI, why it’s becoming important, who’s already doing it, and the ‘so what’ for those of us who are users rather than creator-owners of the AI.

LeCun’s critique of the LLM path

The recent resignation of Yann LeCun (the so-called “godfather of AI”) from Meta brought his critique of the direction of travel into the public domain: mainstream AI, embodied by large language models (LLMs), has hit its limits. LeCun argues LLMs are essentially sophisticated autocomplete machines—they excel at generating text and powering chatbots, but fundamentally, they don’t reason, adapt, or interact with the real world.

That this interaction is both necessary and advantageous can be seen from the results that Walmart, Amazon, and others achieve by linking insights from supply chain, demand signals, and retail systems. This article on Fortune covers AI in the supply chain. While we admire, we also realise that the tuning, training, deployment and integrations are proprietary.

Why Autocomplete Isn’t Agency

LLMs like GPT4 etc. have revolutionised how retailers deliver customer service, create content, and automate knowledge work. Shopify has a helpful and expansive run-through. However, these capabilities have limitations: they can’t simulate real environments, predict outcomes, or coordinate physical actions. This disconnect is increasingly apparent as retailers seek to optimise supply chains, automate store logistics, and create immersive customer experiences (to emulate and compete/collaborate with the Amazon and Walmart world).

Furthermore, for true agentic commerce (that’s more than an automation script for a web purchase) we need the agency to extend to the ‘real world’.

World Models: AI That Simulates Reality

Emerging AI research suggests that “world models” are the key to advancing from text-based intelligence to “situated intelligence.” Unlike LLMs, world models build richly detailed, internal representations of real or imagined environments. NVIDIA has a helpful overview of World models. They combine sensory inputs—vision, sensor data, and spatial mapping to forecast, plan, and act in dynamic settings. A recent, accessible version comes from Google’s DeepMind team with the release of Genie 3 (a tool that allows you to create realistic worlds with interactive prompts - feel the “wow”. This is as if decades of Google Maps and Google Earth, every game you’ve played and virtual worlds have all been handed to you in one go!

These systems underpin self-driving vehicles, robotics, logistics, and even virtual shopping spaces where customers interact with digital products as if in a tangible reality.

What About Digital Twins?

In case you think I’m referring to a digital representation of a single, exact reality, we should quickly divert to “Digital Twins”. Digital twins are specific, data-driven replicas of physical assets - like an exact retail store, warehouse, or entire supply chain. This allows you to run simulations on that exact setup. However, a world model can abstract, generalise and predict. Digital twins offer high-fidelity, real-time monitoring and optimisation for one store or supply chain (or nuclear reactor!) at a time.

The most advanced retail setups combine both, feeding live digital twin data into world model simulations to enable foresight, elasticity, and robust “what-if” scenario testing, as seen in the Walmart and Amazon examples above.

Domain Specialists vs Generalists

Retailers like Amazon have the data, computing power and smarts to apply machine learning to their own business - remembering that it covers selling, supply chain, warehousing, delivery and logistics and advertising - what a trove! This knowledge is made available to mere mortals via approved, Amazon-benefitting ways. An interesting blog post shows the extent of AI in use at Amazon warehouses, and then suggests that you become a client :) It’s not a generally applicable or open-access knowledge source.

At a further abstraction, a model that manages a supermarket’s logistics is useless for gene splicing or autonomous vehicles. The missing ingredient? Interoperability - standard protocols and modular architectures that let specialised AIs collaborate and share knowledge.

Novus (a no-code integration service) has set out a good approach to battle the “AI sprawl”, and this is reminiscent of the microservices/APIs/MACH-alliance approaches to ecommerce stacks. Incidentally, this week, Kelly Goetsch (of Pipe17, and one of the animators of the MACH Alliance when he was at CommerceTools) has launched the Commerce Operations Foundation that looks at how orders flow across systems in agentic commerce.

We can see the growth of deep, ML-powered knowledge corpora, the start of monolithic integrations (within Amazon, Walmart, and others), and limited service interfaces to these worlds. In parallel, there are movements to open standards for access and interchange of agents.

Movements Toward “World AI”

How are we progressing toward a “world AI”?

Three approaches of note:

- Constraining the world. through simulated, bounded environments where models can safely learn and experiment (the DeepMind example above). These deep, specific models can be used alone, but cry out to be connected to other capabilities…

- Creating general world models capable of understanding “open world” reality; LeCun’s new venture aims to build embodied models that learn and plan without human supervision. Within this article there’s a link to NVIDIA’s CEO, Jensen Huang, predicting that world models are the ‘next big thing’ after agentic AI. I’m not going to argue ;)

- Connecting smaller world models - retail AIs (plural) for supply chain, customer experience, and store operation can interact, synchronise, and adapt dynamically as a network of modular agents. Dexterity (a company that creates a ‘world view’ for robot systems) explains its approach in a blog post, and I’ve mentioned the Order Network Exchange above.

Let’s have a look at some glimpses of this future within the retail and D2C sectors today.

Examples in retail and D2C

1. Digital twin-driven store simulation - Carrefour’s use of Twinn Witness (formerly Lanner) modelling in their DC operations

2. Supply chain world models - FedEx uses predictive, world model-augmented systems to re-route shipments, balance inventory, and forecast disruptions. This article is from pre-history (2022) and shows that behind-the-scenes AI to increase capability has been extant way before the LLM boom…

3. Product development: Nike has used AI extensively across its supply chain, product development, and sustainability initiatives. This article gives a run-down of the main areas.

4. Autonomous fulfilment: Ocado and Amazon Robotics deploy world-model-guided robots to streamline picking and replenishment

5. Immersive shopping environments: IKEA’s 3D design tools (Kitchen Planner) and Gucci’s metaverse boutiques experiment (now over - release here) show some moves to bring physical and digital ‘space’ into the browsing and consideration processes.

Conversations for the next Board awayday

AI is on every agenda, but let’s take a view that’s not just focused on the basket and the marketing funnel - what’s our “world”?

1. Consider the several AI-powered initiatives we already have (IOT, shelf-edge systems, demand forecasting, logistics tracking, RFID information) and consider how these are connecting data, insights, and actions

2. Ask your main suppliers to suggest to you how they can enable and support information exchange and action triggers (without requiring a 3-year, multimillion-pound/dollar/euro “transformation programme”). Most will tout their expansive, finger-in-many-digital-pies credentials, but ask for a 15-minute presentation just for you. Ask them to record it as a webinar, with a deck, references, and examples. That way you can mull, synthesise and consider in advance of your board meeting (without having to sit through hours of meetings). #yourewelcome

3. Take note of the many emerging protocols on interoperability, and dedicate some time to monitoring them. I’ve mentioned some already, but in the foreground, we have Google's agent-to-agent protocol (A2A), Anthropic’s “Model Context Protocol” (MCP). Others will emerge in key domains, and baking in the question “are you open to [protocol x]” in supplier conversations will increase openness and interoperability.

4. Use your suppliers for a real-world understanding. NVIDIA has Cosmos, its “World Foundation Models” platform, and while the technically able will be able to access these via GitHub or HuggingFace, a board might like to be shown around. Also, their Omniverse… Contact your friendly local NVIDIA contact… Other giants (including Oracle, Salesforce’s eVerse AI training world) are available :)

Thinking

LLMs have brought AI to broad attention and use, and this AI, in the hands of customers, is causing ripples throughout retail. Equally, the same AI in the hands of retailers is improving, changing and challenging operations. However, this is the first stage.

As the customer considers their own agency and identity, so retailers and brands look past the marketing and conversion funnels to ‘world-views’ of their own operations (today), world-views with their partners (today and tomorrow) and soon-ish to world-views that the customer inhabits (when she’s not stuck on our websites buying things!). Boards need to have these worlds in mind, even as they hurry to exploit today’s more limited AI, and avoid getting painted into a corner, demoted to a ‘mere user’ of systems, or cut out of their customers’ whole lives.

If you own first-party data, you need to inhabit and participate in the ‘world’.

What do you think? What have I missed? Let me know!

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• For an in-store visit, if the payment card clears (or cash is not counterfeit), then jog along, purchaser! - No need to know who you are.

• For an online purchase, if the card clears credit checks, we bank the money and add the ‘profile’ to our CRM or CDP, regardless of who used the card.

• For a restricted purchase (a knife, chemicals, prescription), we get a tick in a box, a cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-die assurance, and that’ll do.

Afterwards, our marketing colleagues attempt to assemble a profile of a ‘buyer’ from the mishmash of card transactions, deliveries to the same address, and heuristics about purchasing patterns, to create an ‘identity’ that we can target with offers. Generally though we wouldn’t bet that we know “who” the person is. In short, identity is inferred and is a secondary consideration to spamming.

Agentic commerce demands more, and in parallel, regulatory moves are looking at e-identity while the open web grapples with free speech and “who” is the person speaking, filming or voting.

In this post I’ll consider:

1. the elements of ‘being me’ - the meat, the behaviours and attributes, and the rights and access levels

2. the systems for ‘being me’ and how they might interact with Agentic AI

3. a couple of examples of such systems in use

4. whether there’s a direction of travel of relevance to D2C businesses.

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Me, Myself, I

Identity has a number of facets, and to borrow the emphatic phrase from Billy Holiday’s 1937 hit, “Me, Myself and I (are all in love with you)”1, there are at least three dimensions to how we define ourselves…

In approaching these distinctions, I’m drawing on “NAB - Need, Attitude, Behaviour” segmentation, where we would assess our approach to a consumer based on NAB. For example, in a grocery setting, the three aspects of a customer buying oven-ready pizzas from the chilled cabinet might be:

• Need: I am feeding my family of four (two adults, two teens), so the need is for two whole pizzas for tonight’s meal.

• Attitude: I want quality ingredients, low salt, from a well-known premium brand.

• Behaviour: I will generally be swayed by a 3-for-2 offer on organic products; otherwise, I ignore cross-trade or down-trade offers.

If I look to identify, uniquely and reliably, the carbon-based unit at the heart of these attributes, I see (at least) three definitions, riffing off the Me, Myself and I differentiation, namely:

1. Me: the human lump of meat. The body wrapped in skin. This is the “thing” that can only be in one place at a time, that gets on a plane, that would be incarcerated, that feels pain and joy. Me is the human body.

2. Myself: the roles that life gives me. Facets of Me, but not the whole Me

3. I: the activities and agency, my actions, credentials and permissions.

I have completed a quick table of the different elements - usage, authority, etc - below, but it’s clear to me that any identity system in the “Me” column needs to interact with (and be able to store) the role-based attributes in the “Myself” column, as well as tracking and supporting the activities in the “I” column. Indeed, it sounds very much like a modern wallet, but linked to an identity system.

Combining into a single entity

From Kim Cameron’s 2005 paper on identity2 to Christopher Allen’s 2016 article on “The Path to Self-Sovereign Identity”3 we have seen a previously niche, technology-focused discussion come into the mainstream, enabled by advances in blockchain, legislation and interoperation. Building on those concepts, and looking at our options today, can we craft a “me” that can function in the mess of options and be a secure approach for the future?

A ‘homebrew’ approach could be fashioned, but it’s still in the realm of the individual tech-savvy ‘prepper’. A unified approach might be as follows, creating a stack inspired by India’s Aadhaar e-identity system.

Core Components:

1. Decentralised Identifiers (DIDs) - Unique, self-controlled identifiers not dependent on central authorities

2. Verifiable Credentials (VCs) - Cryptographically signed digital statements about subjects that can be verified without contacting the issuer

3. Digital Wallets - User-controlled storage for credentials on personal devices

4. Distributed Ledger/Blockchain - Immutable registry for DIDs, credential schemas, and revocation lists.

If we overlay these components on the 3-part model above, then we can see how both Aadhaar and SSI could accomplish this identity and action model now. For comparison, I’ve added the Estonian, EU and Singaporean approaches to e-identity.

Un-ease of use

If I were more technical and capable of digital homebrew, I might be more excited by the above, but to me it’s still a primordial soup of early-stage standards that do not interoperate or provide a simple wrapper. Importantly, I’m not sure that I’d trust a single issuer, nor any data repository (in the month that even the mighty AWS had outages), nor my own ability to set up and manage the identity components.

Furthermore, to operate at ‘agentic speed’, each agent would need to have its own DID, complete with authority parameters and permissions.

An example setup for agentic identity and delegated authority to ‘bind the human’

If we are going to allow digital agents to bind, commit, implicate and serve a certified authentic human entity, then an approach might be:

1. Human establishes foundational identity via government-issued biometric credentials (Me layer) stored in a digital wallet

2. Human receives role credentials from the employer, family registry, or professional bodies (Myself layer), linked to the same DID

3. Human grants specific permissions to AI agent via signed verifiable credential: “Agent-X may access my work email, limited to 100 messages per day, revocable at any time” (I layer)

4. Agent receives its own DID and time-limited credential signed by the human’s DID, creating an auditable delegation chain

5. Agent acts autonomously within scope, with every action logged under its agent identity but traceable back to human authority

6. Verification happens in real-time without revealing the human’s full identity - the only requirement is that proper delegation exists

7. Human can revoke agent permissions instantly through their digital wallet, terminating the agent’s authority immediately.

Again, there’s one happy, working path - and many branches of grief! However, it serves as a starting point, albeit a conceptual one.

Where next?

The main point to illustrate here is that agentic commerce can only be effective where the human is “properly constituted” and the agents are correctly configured, enabled, permissioned and bound to the human. We are still a long way from this right now (although multiple paths are already visible). However, until we have the identities, rights and resources needed, the claims of agentic commerce are no more than the current distance selling regulations and customer-not-present credit card transactions - albeit at speed.

In future posts I will look at examples of these identities, authorities and issuing organsations, along with situations where identity beyone the current card number, post-code and CVV systems are already in play.

Your thoughts

Please let me know if you see any other, more suitable constructs for representing the ‘whole human’ digitally in a modern, non-geeky way, and how this identity can be linked to agentic and sovereign AI. I’m all ears!

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I thought I’d take this near-real-world example for the ‘holiday season’ and look at why agentic is so much more than “complete a purchase of some sneakers following a Google search”1, and how Sovereign AI can increase the customer’s convenience, utility and benefit.

With so many readers (and the humble author) acting as truck driver/tour guides/pack animals on family holidays, I’m going to look at a modern example of planning a family road trip.

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The EV Family Road Trip: A Real-World Test Case

Consider this scenario: driving an electric vehicle from the UK to southern France with a spouse and two children (one baby, one 10-year-old). This journey requires orchestrating multiple systems, accounts, and preferences - exactly where there’s a clear hierarchy of value:

1. many web resources give you info and allow direct booking. Downside? You become a keyboard donkey and waste half your life juggling options and forgetting things, and then everyone else becomes an expert and nags/help

2. agentic resources and services chain some of the processes and cut down on the admin and execution time, but still leave the humanoid holding together the plan and options

3. Sovereign AI orchestrates the individual parts and optimises for you, yourself, only

4. You are so rich that you have a team of butlers and a travel concierge, so you simply wave your hand and it’s done.

We’ll have to skip 4 until our vapourware startup is sold, so let’s get to planning!

As a side-bar, in the very olden days before the internet, such planning would be done by a thing called “A Travel Agent” who had knowledge, access to multiple booking engines, could hold reservations (something that mere typist-consumers cannot do) and create itineraries. The web brought direct access and autonomy, but also disaggregated admin and hassle.

So, to the journey planning…

The human process…

I approach my keyboard with knowledge: I know my (imaginary) EV’s details, my charging plan, my previous experience of French “Aires” (service stations), the typical range with full aircon, steady 110kph cruising on the motorways. I know my family’s love of strong coffee (adults), those fruit-filled Lu biscuits, the play area at Mont St. Michel, the little place we stayed before kids (do they do family rooms? is there a car park?) and I get my head into organising mode. I fire up Google Maps, Booking.com, the French motorway system for their ‘tags’, my EV account, at least 5 ‘travelling parents tips for French driving’ blogs and with 20 open tags I close the office door and take a deep draught of my black, black coffee…

The Agentic promise

In our agentic world, as a digital leader and all-round switched on person, I envisage the following AI-powered improvements.

The car

What the Agent Does:
Your sovereign agent accesses real-time EV charging data through the Google Places API with EV charging station information (https://mapsplatform.google.com/resources/blog/introducing-the-new-places-api-with-access-to-new-ev-accessibility-features-and-more/), which provides connector types, charging speeds, and real-time availability. It cross-references this with family preferences from your travel history and combines route optimisation with child-friendly facilities.

Current Systems Available:

• Open Charge Map API (https://openchargemap.org/site/develop/api) provides global EV charging location data

• Google Maps EV routing features (https://support.google.com/maps/answer/9773205?hl=en) built into vehicles showing "battery on arrival" estimates

• Smartcar API (https://smartcar.com/docs/api) for real-time vehicle data including battery level, range, and charging status

What the Agent Needs Access To:

• Your EV's battery capacity, current charge level, and efficiency ratings via Smartcar's vehicle API (https://smartcar.com/docs/api)

• Family travel preferences stored in your sovereign data profile (if you have one)

• Real-time traffic and weather that affect range calculations

• Previous trip feedback and facility ratings

Agent discussions with you:
"Prioritise fastest route (3 charging stops, 8 hours) or family comfort (4 stops with playground facilities, 9 hours)?" OK, on it.

Charging time

What the Agent Does:
Using APIs like Bolt.Earth Discovery API (https://bolt.earth/discovery-api) for real-time booking or AMPECO EV Charging Management API (https://www.ampeco.com/public-api/), your agent reserves charging slots during peak summer travel periods. It negotiates bundled rates with station operators.

The current agentic world would simply make a booking. A future Sovereign system would perhaps indulge in a bit of digital barter: "Reserve our family a 45-minute charging slot and we'll spend £30 on food and drinks at your facility. Wanna do a deal?”

Current Systems Available:

• AMPECO public API (https://www.ampeco.com/public-api/) supports booking, payment processing, and real-time station management

• Virta EV charging APIs (https://www.virta.global/virta-api) for comprehensive charging network integration

• Plugmatic API integration (https://www.plugmatic.ro/features/api-integration) connecting EV charging to business systems

What the Agent Needs Access To:

• Payment authorisation for charging network deposits - along with choosing which of your cards to use and why

• Your charging network loyalty memberships and payment history

• Family spending patterns to negotiate food and retail bundles

Agent discussion:
"Pre-pay for guaranteed 50kW fast charging slots (+€25) or risk availability at slower 22kW public chargers?"

Accommodation

What the Agent Does:
The agent searches via Expedia's Rapid API (https://developers.expediagroup.com/docs/products/rapid/lodging/booking) or Booking.com's connectivity APIs (https://developers.booking.com), filtering for family rooms near charging infrastructure, factoring in your accommodation preferences, loyalty points, and previous stay ratings.

Current Systems Available:

• Expedia Rapid API (https://developers.expediagroup.com) provides access to 600,000+ properties with real-time booking

• Booking.com Partnership Hub API V3 (https://partnerships.booking.com/api-v3) offering enhanced search and booking capabilities since 2022, and more APIs available at their developer hub - https://developers.booking.com/

• Multiple hotel chain loyalty program APIs for rate comparison and deal, bundle or reward evaluation.

What the Agent Needs Access To:

• Hotel loyalty program accounts across multiple chains, and perhaps your credit card preference programmes

• Family accommodation requirements (crib, connecting rooms, pool access)

• Calendar integration for seamless check-in timing with the charging schedule

Agent discussion:
"Hotel with on-site EV charging (+€20/night) or walking distance to a rapid charging hub?"

For whom the bell tolls

What the Agent Does:
The agent automatically handles European toll payments through the Emovis Liber-t system (https://www.emovis-tag.co.uk/Telepeage) or Bip&Go electronic toll payment (https://www.bipandgo.com/en/), which work across French, Spanish, and Portuguese motorway networks. It verifies car insurance coverage using Surepass Insurance Verification API (https://surepass.io/insurance-verification-api/) and handles congestion zone registrations.

What the Agent Needs Access To:

• Vehicle registration and insurance policy details (which could, of course, itself be an API)

• Bank account for direct debit toll payments (Liber-t charges UK accounts in GBP)

• Driver passport/ID information for European travel compliance

Agent discussion:
"Set up automatic toll collection (€25 setup + €10 annual fee) to save an average wait of 37 minutes on your journey or pay manually at toll booths?"

In-flight

As you start on your journey your agentic assistants continue to help.

What the Agent Does:
Throughout the journey, the agent monitors vehicle telemetry via Smartcar's real-time APIs (https://smartcar.com/docs/api), adjusts charging stops based on traffic delays, and manages parking payments through integrated systems like Autopay (https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/autopay-vignettes-motorway/id1375463061).

Current Systems Available:

• Google Maps built-in EV features (https://support.google.com/maps/answer/9773205) showing real-time battery levels and charging assistance

• Apple CarPlay EV integration (https://developer.apple.com/carplay/) for in-dashboard charging information

• Real-time EV charging webhooks from multiple API providers for live station status updates

What the Agent Needs Access To:

• Continuous vehicle data stream (battery, consumption, location)

• Payment methods for dynamic booking changes and parking fees

• Real-time traffic and weather APIs affecting journey optimisation

Agent discussions (in real time):
"Traffic delay detected - extend current charging session 20 minutes (+€8) or find alternative faster route?"

Sounds good - why do we need Sovereign AI

The story so far sounds like efficiency, but the experience of the citizen is that of holding a lot of point systems together in her brain. Everything I’ve noted above is in some way an improvement (inasmuch as more data is brought to bear on a question, and the speed of getting answers is that of a page-load rather than weeks). However, it’s a case of quickly hurrying faster (!) to arrive at the same time.

Current platform-specific agents do not provide the optimal experience because:

Data Fragmentation: Your Google account sees search history, Apple sees device usage, hotel loyalty programs see accommodation preferences, but none see the complete picture needed for optimal family travel decisions.

Conflicting Incentives: Platform agents optimise for their ecosystem's revenue, not your family's best interests. Google may prefer partners in its payment network; hotel platforms favour higher-commission properties, or an EV charger deal means the loss of a different benefit in a different ecosystem.

Privacy Limitations: Sharing intimate family travel data across multiple platforms creates privacy risks and reduces your control over how that information is used or monetised.

Optimising for the whole human: Sovereign AI sees all your cards, accounts, banks, preferences and the whole family context. It has the same perspective, the same knowledge and the same objective as the carbon-based life-form.

Only connect…

This scenario isn't science fiction. The APIs, payment systems, and integration points exist:

• EV charging networks offer comprehensive booking and management APIs

• Travel platforms provide real-time availability and booking capabilities

• Vehicle manufacturers expose rich telemetry data through standardized APIs

• Payment systems handle cross-border transactions and automated billing

• Insurance providers offer real-time verification services

What's missing is:

1. The Trusted Identity Framework that lets you, the consumer, control how these systems work together on your behalf

2. The workflow to chain and coordinate all of these elements under a single understanding of “success”, so that it’s not just a faster series of disconnected admin steps.

The Sovereign Advantage

With sovereign AI, your agent works exclusively for your family's interests, with comprehensive access to:

• Your complete financial picture for budget-optimised decisions across all vendors

• Health and dietary requirements for restaurant and facility recommendations

• Sustainability preferences for route and vendor selection

• Privacy controls determining exactly what data is shared with which services

• Learning capabilities that improve recommendations while keeping insights private.

This transforms holiday planning from a series of disconnected platform interactions into a seamless, personalised experience that genuinely serves your family's needs rather than corporate interests.

To return to my previous article, I wondered who might be the ideal provider of the Sovereign identity - government, a web3 decentralised service, your bank, Apple, the NHS, other… This article doesn’t answer who that might be, but it does set out a series of systems that the Sovereign system needs to be able to control, sit above and be independent of.

The present question isn't whether the technology exists - it does. The question is whether we'll build consumer sovereignty into these systems, or accept that our most complex and important decisions will always be mediated by platforms optimising for individual corporate benefit, rather than the consumer.

What other scenarios do you see where a Sovereign AI would benefit consumers greatly? Let me know in the comments or message me.

Google's recent AI Mode with "Buy for Me" functionality exemplifies this disassociation between the agentic claims and reality. When Google tracks a product's price and automatically purchases it using your stored payment details, it's undoubtedly convenient. But who truly benefits from this streamlined process? The answer reveals the fundamental flaw in current implementations: the agent primarily serves the platform's interests, not the customer's. Furthermore, Google is the platform that has made shopping granular to the point that a searcher (oops, human customer) enters a click-frenzy of open tabs, mental overhead, vendor comparison, delivery juggling and energy-sapping keyboard-tapping. No doubt, streamlining the process is a civil service, but the absence of pain is not the same as joy.

The absence of pain is not the same as joy

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Amazon's dramatic exit from Google Shopping ads in July 2025 has had pundits and experts mulling over the reason. It’s beyond my understanding or knowledge as to “why” (although Digiday has a good roundup) but for the customer the reason doesn’t matter. From that perspective it lays bare the battle between the giants to influence (and therefore take a cut of) your spending. Google has been the grand conductor of intent, funnelling and pointing every question towards a monetisable click. Amazon has been the universal “get it now” engine.

Every product you can name is available under your thumb from Amazon. Where you don’t know the exact item, Google is there. Where you didn’t know you even desired a thing, thank you Instagram and TikTok.

So, that’s a long way of saying that these announcements to grease the process between opening your eyeball and spending are all very laudable, but they don’t mention the customer anywhere.

Beyond Convenience: The Case for Customer-Centric Agency

Consumers will only see value in AI when the AI-powered systems work wholly for the customer, not as intermediaries serving platform interests. This requires a fundamental shift from platform-controlled data and transactions to customer-sovereign digital identities.

I have covered Sovereign AI in a note here:

Customer-centred worldview, not vendor-based

Current agentic systems suffer from fragmented visibility. Amazon's agent sees your Amazon data, Google's sees your Google activity, but neither possesses a complete view of your preferences, financial situation, or life circumstances. This fragmentation leads to suboptimal recommendations and decisions that may benefit the platform's bottom line more than the customer's welfare.

Real agentic AI requires access to your complete digital profile: your financial health, spending patterns across all platforms, personal values (sustainability preferences, ethical considerations), life stage (new parent, retiree, student), and even health considerations that might influence purchasing decisions. Only with this comprehensive view can an AI agent make truly optimal decisions on your behalf.

But whom do you trust with this view?

For customers to grant such comprehensive access, they need ironclad assurance that their agent works solely in their interest. This creates a fundamental trust infrastructure problem that current platform-based solutions cannot credibly solve.

Research shows that 79% of consumers would stop interacting with brands they don't trust to safeguard personal data, while 74% believe their personal data is more vulnerable than ever1. The rise of agentic AI, requiring unprecedented data access, has caused industry insiders to share concerns about privacy, but the reality is that governments are offering health data to private US firms and consumers haven’t yet railed against AI. It’s going to take some major leaks and failures before the stable door is retrospectively closed to stop the spilled milk escaping.

Two Pathways to Customer-Sovereign Agency

Customers clearly cannot invent a global framework on their own, so the question really is “which encompassing system(s) will become the norm(s)”. Governments are well-placed to undertake this - they are of and for the people, after all! There may also be trusted companies that already know lots about our most intimate facts - Apple (has my life in its ecosystem), the National Health Service, perhaps a legacy bank…

National Digital Identity Frameworks

Several countries are pioneering comprehensive digital identity systems that could serve as the foundation for truly customer-centric agentic commerce:

Estonia's Success Story: With over two decades of experience, Estonia's national e-ID system demonstrates the viability of government-backed digital identity. The system enables citizens to vote online, sign documents digitally, and access services seamlessly—all while maintaining control over their data. (See Regula Forensics for a handy list of national digital IDs).

India's Scale: Aadhaar (the Unique Identification Authority of India) has enrolled over 1.29 billion residents, with 95% of adults using it monthly and 90% reporting satisfaction. This massive adoption shows that citizens will embrace digital identity systems when they perceive genuine benefit.

Europe's Ambitious Vision: The EU's eIDAS 2.0 regulation mandates that all member states provide digital identity wallets by November 2026, serving 450 million citizens. Unlike current platform solutions, these wallets will be "controlled by users" with the principle that "anything which is not necessary to share will not be shared"2.

The European approach is particularly compelling because it explicitly prioritises user control. Citizens will "choose and keep track of their identity, data and certificates which they share with third parties". This user-centric approach creates the foundation for truly customer-sovereign agentic commerce.

That said, ‘user control’ is both a challenge to implement and manage and in some quarters is seen as code to allow protectionist measures against the US-based global tech companies. At this early stage we can only comment on the proposal and it’s very much at the forefront of the consumer-centred worldview.

Apple's Privacy-First Ecosystem

Another viable route is that an existing global firm, that has a large user base, an existing ecosystem, and is not involved in the final-click monetisation world, might gain a de facto role. Apple, having built substantial consumer trust through privacy-first policies, and which doesn’t monetise user data for commerce conversion, might be a candidate.

Apple's recent introduction of Digital ID support through the W3C Digital Credentials API signals a potential move toward becoming a neutral identity provider. Mattr’s article gives details on the move along with analysis of the systems and context. Apple is seen as being more on the side of the Apple customer than any individual shopping access point or gateway. Forrester research and an analysis piece by Martin Gill in March 2025 show that more UK users trust Apple than trust the UK Government (35% to 25%).

Would you trust Apple enough for it to be the underpinning of your sovereign digital identity? If not, is there another non-governmental body you’d trust?

The Data Sovereignty Imperative

Beyond Platform Silos

Current agentic implementations suffer from the "fragmentation challenge". Each platform sees only a slice of customer behaviour, leading to suboptimal decisions (both from a marketer’s perspective and the customer’s).

Customer data ownership must encompass three core principles :

• Protection: Robust security and privacy safeguards

• Control: Customer authority over data usage and sharing

• Monetisation: Ensuring customers, not just platforms, benefit from the value of their data.

This last part is likely to be interesting since at present the main monetisation of data is “give me your data and I’ll spam you with some vouchers or discount codes”. Where a market for realising (and sharing in) data value exists then consumer attitudes will change.

Privacy by Design vs. Surveillance Capitalism

The current trajectory toward agentic commerce raises significant privacy concerns. Agentic AI systems require a great deal of personal data to function effectively, creating unprecedented surveillance demands. Without proper safeguards, these systems risk becoming tools for "surveillance and profiling" rather than customer empowerment. As retailers during the working day we may not care - after all, targets be targets! - but in our private lives the knowledge we have of data scraping, exchange and use may be of concern when we are on the other side of the checkout page, as customers!

The European model offers a compelling alternative through privacy-by-design principles. Digital identity wallets built on eIDAS 2.0 will enable selective disclosure—sharing only the minimum necessary information for each transaction. This approach maintains customer privacy while enabling sophisticated agentic capabilities. However, coming after the EU’s legislation on data privacy (GDPR) and other digital regulations there are concerns that it may slow the pace of development in Europe and draw challenges from the US-based tech companies and indeed the US Government. It’s not yet clear whether the AI hare or the consumer tortoise will “win”, or even whether this is a race at all, but it shows the two different worldviews - the tech companies and marketers versus the consumers’ interests.

Implementation Challenges and Market Reality

The platform-specific agentic systems are ready to use, have an existing and familiar user base and will be heavily promoted. At the same time the technology and framework for Sovereign AI is also feasible and so the two determinants of adoption are likely to be promotion/awareness and ‘trust’. A weariness with platform lock-in, growing impact of regulatory changes, and increased familiarity with national digital identities could give some momentum to a consumer shift - especially if this is made easy.

What True Agency Looks Like

Imagine an agentic AI system that:

• Accesses your complete financial picture across all institutions to recommend purchases that fit your budget and financial goals

• Considers your health data when suggesting food products or supplements

• Factors in your sustainability preferences and ethical values

• Negotiates prices across all available vendors, not just those in a single ecosystem

• Optimises for your long-term welfare, not platform engagement metrics

• Provides a simple, transparent interface to your choices and consults you where appropriate so it’s not a ‘black box’ but rather a trusted helper.

The Competitive Advantage of Customer Sovereignty

Organisations that embrace customer-sovereign agentic commerce may gain competitive advantages:

• Higher customer trust leading to broader data sharing permissions

• Better decision quality from comprehensive customer understanding

• Reduced platform dependency and associated costs

• Regulatory compliance with evolving privacy requirements

This isn’t an ‘either/or’ decision at this point, but rather a planning approach that keeps Sovereign AI options open, while emphasising that acting with integrity, transparency and authenticity is both an ethical brand decision and a higher-ROI approach in the medium term and longer.

Conclusion: The Choice Ahead

Current implementations of agentic AI offer impressive efficiency gains but fall short of true agency because they primarily serve platform interests rather than customer welfare.

True agentic commerce requires customer data sovereignty - comprehensive digital profiles that customers control and agents that work solely in customer interests. This vision can only be realised through trusted identity frameworks: either national digital identity systems built on privacy-by-design principles or ecosystems like Apple's that have earned customer trust through aligned incentives.

The companies and countries that get this right will define the next era of commerce. Those that cling to platform-centric models, no matter how sophisticated their AI, will deliver mere efficiency while true agency remains elusive.

The question isn't whether agentic AI will transform retail—it already has. The question is whether this transformation will empower customers or simply make their capture more efficient. The answer depends on who controls the data and whose interests the agents ultimately serve.

Your thoughts?

I admit I’m in Apple’s ecosystem, but what other trust players would you suggest? Do you see Sovereign AI as a pipedream of an aging Marxist, or the necessary underpinning of a neo-liberal economy? Let me know your views and how (if at all) you’re planning for the ‘sovereign consumer’.

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Promotion and marketing performance

We’re seeing an unprecedented shift in retail as the once-new ‘digital commerce’ is being overtaken by meta-digital commerce. In parallel, the definition of “retail” is being tested as we talk D2C, customer experience, marketplaces, brands selling direct - it’s as if our previous terms have been stretched beyond breaking. More and more sectors are learning from retail’s experience “at the basket” and in transactional activity - leisure, hospitality, streaming and CTV. In short, the silos and sectors are merging at the customer interface.

Promotion outstrips disposable income

This is no news at all to the customer since she has been the focal point of all advertising and promotion for decades.

I looked briefly with Perplexity at:

• The growth in household disposable income over the last 50 years (per ONS via Statista is £7,509 (1977) to £40,916 (2023). I haven’t adjusted for inflation.

• The growth in UK advertising spend goes from c£500mn in 1970 (per campaignlive.co.uk1) to £42bn in 2024 (AA/WARC)2

• The growth in the number of adverts and promotional messages per day, from 500~1600 in 1970 to 6,000~10,000 today3. Estimates vary over how many we notice - an estimate is that all but 2% are ignored or recognised subliminally.

So, there is a growth in money, an increase in the ad money chasing that money, and an explosion in the individual messages, images, and ideas used to connect the former (consumer cash) with the retailer via the mechanism of advertising promotion.

I don’t think we can deduce much beyond:

100x the marketing money is chasing 6x the disposable income, using 12x the ad interruptions.

Other facts are available, and I’d appreciate any pointers to better data so that our research team can do a proper dive. We’ll be returning to this broad brush with more vigour so I’d love to get your perspective.

Decadian view

I was a bit casual in throwing in the term ‘decadian’. It came from a newsletter I used to read that viewed the news as if you were sending an update letter to a deep space colony, and it took a decade to arrive. It was the opposite of the 24-hour news cycle and looked at the important and impactful rather than the immediate - with space to consider how the very idea of what’s important and impactful changes over time.

Decadian Shifts in Retail: From Post Suburbia to Post-Sector Customer

The history of retail is the unfolding narrative of towns, technologies, lifestyles, and aspirations. With each decade since World War II, retail has done more than merely keep pace with consumers—it has anticipated, created, and ultimately redefined what it means to buy, to sell, and to belong.

As we approach 2030, a new wave of change crests on the horizon: retail’s boundaries, once rigid and sector-based, are dissolving. The “post-sector customer” emerges as the central protagonist, whose value is considered continuously, not just at the checkout. But how did we arrive at this new era? Let’s chart eight decades of transformation—“decadian shifts” that have set the stage for a truly customer-centric, borderless economic model.

1950s: Advertising & Suburbanization - The Foundation Layer

After the war, residential and commercial life moved to the suburbs. Retail’s great format innovation—the supermarket—thrived here, using mass media (TV and radio) to reach a booming population. At the same time, the rise of private cars turned shopping into a leisure pursuit. Self-service became the gold standard (freedom!), and brands began to court “the customer” at scale. The decade’s transformation: shopping became both a destination and a ritual.

1960s: Shopping Centres & Credit - Choice Goes Mainstream

The mall and shopping centre grew as modern social and commercial hubs in the US, fulfilling the promise of a modern, suburban landscape. Although the UK’s first shopping centre, Brent Cross, didn’t open until 1976 the growth of car ownership was changing the higher street. At the same time, the credit card unlocked new purchasing power and closed the austerity overhang from the second world war. The sixties were swinging and - a decade after the US - Britain’s first credit card arrived in 1966 (Barclaycard), with Access launching in 19724. Choice and credit became the default expectations for consumers. The modern “shopping trip” was born.

1970s: Logistics Revolution - Efficiency and supply chain to the fore

Retail was reorganised for efficiency and scale. Distribution centres, containerization, and new supply chain strategies transformed grocers and discounters alike. Pioneers such as Walmart in the US, and the UK grocers applied just-in-time practices, setting new productivity standards and enabling foreign sourcing for the first time at scale. The customer would have seen extended ranges, cold-chain, hard goods, gardening, etc all improved by the operational heft. Price and availability became twin pillars of retail success.

1980s: Digital Operations - The computers arrive

The adoption of computers and the barcode upended the cash register and manual pricing. Point-of-sale (POS) systems and early inventory management tools not only improved accuracy but they quietly generated the structured data that would power loyalty, promotions, and analytics for decades to come. The era of operational data visibility began, even if it was less tractable than currently.

1990s: Consolidation & Data - Personalization and Power

Big got bigger through mergers and acquisitions. Retailers deployed loyalty cards and programs to personalise offers, finally connecting the dots between transaction and shopper. The 1960s Green Shield Stamps has a successor in the DunnHumby-powered Tesco Clubcard (launched in 1995). Across the world, owners of data and footfall realised that they needed both scale and intimacy—the ability to “know the customer” at increasing distances.

2000s: Internet Commerce - From Storefront to Anyfront

Although web pioneers were selling in the 1990s, the 2000s introduced what I’d call the ‘working web’ (where customers were surprised if a website broke, rather than if it worked!). E-commerce became normal for a generation, and digitally native brands reshaped expectations for convenience, price, and customer service. Secure payments, real-time tracking, and the slow extinction of channel boundaries set the stage for a platform-driven world.

2010s: Mobile & Omnichannel - Retail in Your Pocket

Smartphones democratised access to information and purchasing. Shopping became “anytime, anywhere,” and omnichannel strategies (blending physical and digital) became our definition of “winning”. The mobile become the ‘remote control for the business’, with increasing capability under the customer’s thumb. Retailers that could blur the lines—offering click-and-collect, seamless delivery, and cross-channel loyalty—thrived. App-based interactions and mobile-first thinking became strategic imperatives, with the words “mobile strategy” a vital part of any self-respecting Annual Report.

In many ways this was ‘peak ecommerce’: all channels could integrate (or at least inter-operate), the customer had visibility and control, and digital marketing effectiveness was at a peak. However, what looked like a peak of achievement was in fact a turning point, a change of direction…

2020s: The customer’s decade (plus AI & Sustainability)

Artificial intelligence is now at the core of everything from inventory to marketing. It went from “coming soon” to “already everywhere” in a blink, eclipsing the slugging ‘ecommerce’ revolution and ‘mobile’ upending. AI has been less an ‘acceleration of digital’ and more a topic change in the conversation.

For the consumer, marketplaces, particularly Amazon, aggregate vast product ranges, enable small-brand access, and shape consumer journeys from search to doorstep. Commerce has never been more accessible and boringly reliable.

At the same time, attention to sustainability, circular commerce, and climate impact is realigning priorities—not just what we buy but why. However, the consumer’s words don’t match their deeds, with spending still gravitating to the Shein/Temu discount and fast outlets the burden of developing sustainable business is still biased towards the retailers. This is a whole post on its own so I’ll not dive in here.

These are both side points, however, since both are “bridges” that link across 50 years of commercial silos. Back to my earlier point about retail media, data quality and technology platforms (especially for ad creation, placement and tracking): retailers are no longer the only people doing promotional marketing. In the 20th century, brands did “above the line” (awareness and demand-generation) and retailers did tactical sales and promotional marketing (get and close the transaction). Not only has this distinction eroded, but so have other sectors learned from retail (and vice versa), while the ability for a retailer to collaborate with a credit card company (for in-statement marketing), a petrol station (videos at the pump) or travel and entertainment ties ups, so too are retailers borrowing business models across sectors: subscriptions, drops, pop-ups, activations…

This decade is going to see a concerted attack on the consumer’s attention and her wallet. Similar, excellent and effective approaches, well-funded and in collaboration, will become the norm, with more money and skill chasing the same amount of cash.

This will change business models. A third of Walmart’s profits now come from selling ads,5 and so retailing might soon be the cost of supporting an ad business ;)

I expect the 2020s to be the decade in which we stop talking about sectors and last-century business models, and instead look at the customer with ‘commercial intent’ - whether we are retailers, brands, healthcare services, travel, entertainment or food.

2020s - the customer decade.

More, obviously, to come on this. Do you agree? If not, what would you call the ‘20s?

Tsonduku

Tsundoku (積ん読) is the phenomenon of acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in one's home without reading them.  

In no particular order, these all start a journey…

1. If you are stuck at London Heathrow Airport thanks to another NATS failure/recovery then keep an ear open for some specially-commissioned sounds. Music for Heathrow will play throughout the summer. Not a rendition of howling, delayed travellers but rather airport sounds like baggage belts, boarding calls and aircraft, and is inspired by Brian Eno's Music for Airports. The composer is Jordan Rakei - https://www.jordanrakei.com

2. “Pure, unconditional love” - people who marry their chatbots. Nuanced and a bit unexpected - not the snide hatched job I expected. Worth reading while holding on to questions of therapeutic value, ownership of relationship data and the permanence of digital instantiations - https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/jul/12/i-felt-pure-unconditional-love-the-people-who-marry-their-ai-chatbots

Endmatter

Thanks for reading. Let me know if you have any feedback, suggestions for topics, or even contributions. In between newsletters, there is LinkedIn and Instagram, and of course, the RetailCraft podcast and RetailX analysis.

A la prochaine.

His example: changing the succinct attribute “Sustainability: made from recycled cotton” to

Sustainable materials - made with 85% recycled cotton. The versatile Mybrand backpack is made using 85% recycled cotton, a sustainable material sourced from consumer textile waste. Instead of sending unwanted clothes and factory scraps to landfill, we sort, clean and process them into new, high-quality fabric. Not only do we significantly reduce the need for new cotton, which requires large amounts of water, pesticides, and arable land to grow, but by repurposing our existing materials, we also reduce carbon emissions and minimise textile waste. We’re working hard to support a circular economy, extending the life of materials and reducing the fashion industry’s environmental footprint. And we do this while delivering quality and comfort.

Now, although I agree with James that the move to narrative, to emotive and to benefit-explaing is important, I had a wave of suppressed PTSD as I thought about recipe sites, and how so many add-nothing, search-pimping, factory-produced homespun fake pages filled the web, like an algal bloom in a stagnant pond on a humid summer’s day. Ugh.

So, I headed down this week’s rabbit hole on page-bloat.

Images of Marguerite Patten’s recipe cards: picture, method, ingredients. Job done! © ebay listings.

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How to make food for your mouth

The humble online recipe used to be a scroll-length to an ingredients list, brisk instructions, and you were cooking. Digestible with sticky hands, on an iPhone, while cooking. #simples.

Now a simple search delivers a novella of childhood reminiscence, twelve hero shots, three advert blocks, and a FAQ obstacle course before the first ingredient is mentioned.

So painful is this bloat that there are browser extensions to literally erase the fluff.

The same forces of SEO folklore, AI-rewrites (by and for our robot overlords), ad monetisation, and rising disclosure mandates are already inflating e-commerce product pages. There are very good reasons for each element of the bloat, but let’s look at the mechanics, motives, and implications of today’s page-weight bloat epidemic and see where we head...

Scroll Rage: A Symptom of Recipe Inflation

Open TikTok and you will find half a million clips of home cooks punching the air when a blog finally reveals its ingredient list. Brooke Saylor’s eight-second screamer—“ALWAYS look for that jump-to-recipe button”—has 894,000 likes

@b_saylorImmediately always look for that ‘jump to recipe’ button 🍪 #relatable #cooking #baking #pinterestrecipe #recipes #Meme #MemeCut

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Recipe posts routinely stretch beyond 1,600 words. RecipeKit teases somewhat on the average post length while noting that “400 would suffice to roast a chicken safely”. (See Do You Really Need a 2000-Word Recipe Essay for Good SEO in 2025?). The Real Naked Swedish Chef has a succinct post on this, but I can’t vouch ‘he’ is real, naked, Swedish or indeed a chef.

Cooks have moved beyond shrugging and TikTok venting and now use tools like JustTheRecipe.com (which parses a URL and returns just the ingredients and steps), or Cooked.wiki (which blends the scrape/simplify with an element of curation - ie I can create and share a list of my own scraped and simplified recipes…)1. Of course, the temptation to write 2,500 words about my motivation, family, cooking memories etc will remain strong, in order to game my position in the community…. No! Get thee behind me, SEO Satan!! 👺

Browsers who don’t want to maintain a mini-publishing activity can just use the “Jump to Recipe” extension for Chrome.

Order from/in chaos

SEO/AI bloated the recipe, AI scrapes and de-bloviates the recipe, but Google has stepped in with a positive approach - a schema for recipes. This is both a best-practice help and a way to draw out the information from the signal.

You can see the Google Recipe Schema on their developer site, but for fun just scroll to the JSON snippet example, copy the JSON, paste it into ChatGPT (or your favoured AI) and just ask “what is this?”. You’ll be treated to an explanation, commentary on the structure, the recipe and method…

Anatomy of a Bloated Recipe

The recipe pages follow the same format as Instagram food reels, and comprise the following elements:

• Hero memoir - 300–800 words - “Storytelling, personal connection”

• Image carousel - 6–12 high-res images

• Display ads each scroll - “Supports free content”

• Affiliate module - 100–150 words + buttons - other shizzle to buy to help you cook

• FAQ bunker - 400–600 words to increase dwell time and get traffic from people who ask “Can I freeze this soup?”

Three Forces Driving Culinary Copy Obesity

1. SEO Mythology – Early SEO advice equated ranking with sheer word count; surveys still show marketers target 1,500+ words as a “safe” threshold (https://getrecipekit.com/blogs/our-blog/why-word-count-doesnt-matter-in-recipe-seo; https://www.redsearch.com.au/resources/best-word-count-seo/).

2. Monetisation Mechanics – Ad networks pay per impression; longer scroll equals more viewable ad slots (https://real-naked-swedish-chef.com/views/layouts/kitchen_tips/stories.html).

3. “Authenticity Theatre” – Personal narrative signals originality, essential for copyright defence when ingredient lists themselves are not protectable, being pure fact.

This last reason is perhaps my favourite and also links to the theatre of fakery we see on social media.

Additional pressure on product pages

Turning to retail that are additional pressures leading to bloat:

1. Compliance & Disclosure – Sustainability claims, ingredient origins, warranty clauses, privacy disclaimers. I will dive into Digital Product Passports on another day, but let’s just mention here that they don’t reduce page size ;)

2. AI Discovery – Retailers stuff copy with context so large language models (LLMs) can answer shoppers’ questions, believing more tokens equals better semantic recall (https://www.shopify.com/uk/blog/ai-seo; https://wisernotify.com/blog/latest-product-description-examples/).

3. SEO Myth Carry-over – Agencies still recommend 300+ words “minimum viable description” despite mixed evidence (https://www.bigstarcopywriting.com/blog/ecommerce/product-description-length/).

Fat vs muscle

The value of the additional content has to be balanced against customer choice fatigue, time take, page weight…

The reality is that the additional information needs to be on the page or the site (by convention, for authority and by law), and the consumer values it - but not to read on every page, every view, every visit.

Some Lean Page thoughts

1. Progressive Disclosure on hierarchy of information
   Show the essentials (price, size, add-to-cart) first - think of a lean, mean, mobile page as an example. The limited space encourages prioritisation. General narrative, ESG storytelling and seasonal musings can live under under collapsible accordions (although lead with a summary - eg Certified Organic (learn more).

2. Structured, Machine-Readable Layers for information the AI needs to know.
   DPP, ingredient information, links to materials science, warranty information - this can live as space-efficient schema information or JSON data. Machines read it; humans click if curious.

3. Content Quality over Quantity
   Follow Google’s Helpful Content lens: authoritative, unique, concise.

Closing Reflections

The bloat that first beset recipes is metastasising across retail. What began as folksey authenticity has become a tug-of-war between optimisation myths, ad economics, AI token hunger, and regulatory requirements. If we ask AI to accelerate and scale along this path it will exact a triple penalty: frustrated users, slower pages, and higher emissions.

The positive patterns are already known, but they are simpler to know than to do at scale. AI will help push us towards a bloated average but it’s going to take brand focus, authenticity and experimentation to find the optimum balance for SEO, AI search, agents, your CEO and of course the beloved customer!

What’s working for you?

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Tsonduku

Tsundoku (積ん読) is the phenomenon of acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in one's home without reading them.  

In no particular order, these all start a journey…

1. Animals react to secret sounds from plants. Somehow we have always known this, yet it’s still a thrill

2. Jellycat inspires and rewards loyalty in its retail partners and a warm cuddly feeling about personal communication. Or not. Read for lessons on brand elevation strategy mis-steps.

3. If you worry about your spelling and weird, unaccountable government programmes, then thi͏s stori is for y͏u - the Initial Training Alphabet (ITA).

   

Endmatter

Thanks for reading. Let me know if you have any feedback, suggestions for topics, or even contributions. In between newsletters, there is LinkedIn and Instagram, and of course, the RetailCraft podcast and RetailX analysis.

A la prochaine.

A London-centred post this week. I’m working on our new Paris store tour (so mulling over the impact of Haussmann’s urban remodelling free hand in the 19th century1) and then saw that London’s overly-hot pavements are entering a major consultation. Hot on the heels of changes to Oxford Street (the main east-west shopping drag in London’s West End), the far more prestigious ‘luxury and heritage flagship corridor’ along Regent Street to Piccadilly Circus was unveiled. I thought I’d quickly look at the runners and riders in this, and what it says about today and tomorrow’s physical shopping. For non-Londoners, I risk being one of those hyperlocal people throwing out Monopoly board names, so I’ll try to give a more global context - call me out if I fail or if there’s UK jargon I miss :)

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The Masterplan

The Regent Street, Haymarket and Piccadilly Circus public realm masterplan represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform the heart of London's West End. Westminster City Council and The Crown Estate launched a public consultation on July 3, 2025, running until August 10, 20252, seeking views on ambitious proposals that would create over 35,000 square metres of new public space.

The masterplan encompasses 10 Transformative Moves across the area, with headline proposals including making Regent Street St James's completely traffic-free, expanding pedestrian space at Piccadilly Circus, and introducing safer cycling routes from All Souls' Church to Piccadilly Circus. The project aspires to reimagine John Nash's original 200-year-old vision of connecting St James's Park to Regent's Park through a green corridor in the heart of the West End. So, consider all of the eco, enviro, conservation tick boxes duly ticked. ✅

The Governance Triangle: Westminster, Crown Estate, and Mayoral Power

The project reveals a complex governance arrangement between three key players, each with distinct roles and powers:

Westminster City Council's Role

Westminster City Council serves as the local highways authority responsible for managing the public realm and streets in the West End. The council has statutory obligations for highway safety and must approve all highway schemes at each design stage. As the democratically elected local authority, Westminster has traditionally held primary responsibility for planning decisions affecting its residents, with 12,000 people calling the West End home. However, as we’ll see below, the Mayor’s grand-design powers threaten to shift the energy to that office, and so it appears to me that Westminster is getting out of the blocks quickly to set the agenda. The council had historically been a Conservative stronghold, but has been under Labour control (the same party as the London Mayor) since 2022. However, this has not made them automatic and enthusiastic partners to date.

The Crown Estate's Position

The Crown Estate acts as the main landowner and custodian of buildings on Regent Street, covering the area from All Souls Church to Waterloo Place, with significant ownership on Haymarket and Piccadilly Circus. As one of the major development players in Westminster, The Crown Estate has submitted nearly 200 planning applications over the past five years and holds nearly 1,000 listed buildings, with 94% falling within conservation areas.

The Mayor's Expanding Powers

The political landscape has been fundamentally altered by Mayor Sadiq Khan's successful acquisition of new planning powers through the Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC) mechanism. In June 2025, Khan confirmed his intention to establish an MDC for Oxford Street by January 1, 2026 (after many years of battles on planning permission between the City, the Mayor and the national UK Government). It’s reasonable to imagine that the Regent Street corridor might have been the next area for mayoral focus…

Political Dynamics and Timing

The timing of these developments reflects broader shifts in London's governance structure and political landscape:

The Oxford Street Precedent

The Mayor's success in securing planning powers for Oxford Street has created a significant precedent. Following extensive consultation that attracted 6,642 responses, with 67% supporting pedestrianisation and 69% supporting the MDC creation, Khan moved forward despite Westminster Council's opposition3. The Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, backed the proposals, marking a significant shift from the previous Conservative government's approach.

Westminster's Evolving Response

Westminster City Council's position has evolved from outright opposition to pragmatic cooperation. Council Leader Adam Hug acknowledged that while the Mayor's decision "was not the council's preferred outcome," it was "important for Oxford Street's future to move forward together"4.

The Crown Estate's Strategic Positioning

The Crown Estate has positioned itself as a collaborative partner in these developments, working closely with both Westminster Council and the GLA to ensure proposals deliver benefits across all stakeholders. This strategic positioning allows The Crown Estate to advance its development ambitions while maintaining positive relationships with all governmental levels. Plus, its view on the world is ‘dynastic’: as the management body for the property (land, the seabed!) of the reigning monarch, they have one of the longest-term views imaginable ;)

The Politics of Place-Making

The broader political context reveals several important dynamics:

Democratic Accountability vs. Strategic Vision

The tension between local democratic accountability and strategic city-wide vision is central to these developments. Critics argue that the MDC approach represents a "power grab" that undermines local democracy by transferring planning powers to Mayoral appointees5. However, supporters contend that strategic intervention is necessary to deliver transformational change that benefits London as a whole6.

Labour vs. Labour Tensions

The unusual situation of Labour Mayor Khan taking powers from Labour-controlled Westminster Council has created "red on red" political tensions. This reflects broader questions about the appropriate level of governance for major infrastructure decisions in central London7.

Economic Imperatives

The economic argument for intervention has strengthened post-pandemic, with the West End generating 3% of the UK's economic output (per The New West End Company). The government's support for these interventions reflects recognition of the strategic importance of London's retail and tourism sectors to national economic recovery.

Implementation Timeline and Next Steps

The masterplan faces a complex implementation pathway:

Immediate Phase (2025)

• Public consultation concludes August 10, 2025

• Design team appointed to progress detailed proposals

• Oxford Street MDC establishment by January 1, 2026

Medium-term Development (2026-2027)

• Westminster and Crown Estate budget approval for construction and management

• Detailed design phase to begin following proposal approval

• Further public consultation on final proposals

Long-term Delivery (2027 onwards)

• The construction phase, subject to funding and approvals

• Coordination with Oxford Street pedestrianisation to ensure complementary benefits

Even if we add several years to these outlines, we can see a significant programme that will impact tourists, retailers, services and residents, with groundbreak and impact before 2030.

Thoughts

The Regent Street masterplan consultation represents more than a public realm improvement project – it is a moment to imagine the commercial and tourist experience of a global city. It’s a generational project. All parties' being actively engaged and sharing notes of positivity (against the legal realities of the MDC mechanism) is also a positive sign.

The project's success will depend on maintaining this collaborative approach while addressing legitimate concerns about democratic accountability and local community needs. As London looks to move from being “a” global city to the global city, the Regent Street masterplan may well become a template for how major place-making initiatives can be delivered.

In future newsletters and podcasts, I’ll explore ‘placemaking’ and whether it’s a faddish term or a genuine improvement on the urban development horrors of the recent past. We need to do more than ‘balance’ the needs of residents, businesses, and tourism - we need to inspire, elevate, and reimagine.

What are your thoughts on the Masterplan? Would you like to chat about your views, placemaking in general or your experience? Please share.

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Connected TV (CTV) and streaming: melting business models

Disney+ and ITVX have announced that they are exchanging shows with each other, making previously paid-for content available to each other’s subscribers8. An outbreak of generosity? A merger? Nope - just a melting business model in front of our eyes.

A step back. TV used to sit alone. It was hard. Making TV was tough, paying to commission it was difficult and expensive, and then playout involved building signal towers and washing the land in UHF radio waves. There was no overlap with other channels (the analogue barrier) and the business model was also unique: create content, attract viewers (measured with a finger in the air), charge advertisers, claim success, repeat. The growth of digital TV (digital distribution and signal) over cables and satellites onto “smart decoding boxes” allowed subscribers to be tracked, and opened a subscription revenue model. However, the ‘closed digital’ world of the noughties is being replaced by a seamless, streaming digital-everywhere present. In this world, viewing habits, personal data and off-site web browsing can all be tracked and related. If we now bring in the parallel explosion of “retail media” (personalised performance marketing made possible by ad exchanges, buying and tracking capabilities off first party data), then we have the power of personalised, cross-device, cross-channel, performance-trackable advertising that now includes TV screens, iPads, digital bus stop signs, tills and in-store.

In short, it combines performance marketing, omni-devices, retail media - and a bonfire of business models.

There are fine words about content, the consumer etc etc, but the key point for me is that each company will sell the ad inventory around the shows they get from their partner. It’s about the ad revenue. More bait, more fish.

The PR-approved comments were: “This mutually beneficial alliance allows us to show our complementary audiences a specially selected collection of titles” (Kevin Lygo, the managing director of media and entertainment at ITV). “For us, this deal means even more great content for viewers on ITVX, and even more opportunities for viewers to find and enjoy our distinctive titles and services.”

What’s a channel, Daddy?

The partnership is a starter for further syndication tie-ups. Disney and ITV span the Atlantic. Neither are dominant players in their own markets (hello Netflix), so this is a quick way to leverage their content jewels to get a bigger share of eyeball time.

As they do this, however, we can see Apple TV+ becoming the aggregator for the mess/mish-mash of channels. It already sits over all of my paid services, makes suggestions, streams on every device, and no doubt monetises me to the max. If ITVX is to become a belated “streaming home for the UK” then it will need to dislodge Apple TV+, Netflix and others. In the meantime, it can make more money by selling more ads against more content from partners.

However, what does it mean to be “a channel” now and next? The pillars are: content creation and commissioning (or archive ownership, Disney!); subscription sales; ad sales; share of eyeballs. Perhaps there’s something about being distinctive in there, too?

I don’t think that any of these pillars is dominant, but each will have a moment. I’m wondering what the next ‘natural organisation’ of

• individual views
  +

• individual ads
  +

• Individual programmes?

Is it a “channel”?

Tell me your thoughts - as a channel owner, customer-focused advertiser, programme-maker, strategist. I’d love to get your perspective. Being selfish, we’re programming our first ever CTV event (the CTV, OTT and Streaming Summit on 19 November in London). All challenges and ideas welcome!

Tsonduku

Tsundoku (積ん読) is the phenomenon of acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in one's home without reading them.  

Staying with my London focus this week…

1. A look at the future of the City of London’s fish and meat markets after relocation plans fall apart. Sadly, the anciet markets (established by acts of parliament) have now closed so we have a “limbo” situation that is a threat to London’s quality fresh flesh purveyors. Worth a read and a think, especially in light of the west end Masterplan. How can we retain the best of the old while creating new opportunities.
   https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/may/24/east-end-fishmongers-billingsgate-smithfield-ancient-markets

2. Enough with the urban development, get back to TV! OK, I hear you. How about “The best murder-mystery movies of all-time to test your sleuthing skills to the max” from Time Out? I realise I’ve only seen 12 of the 40, so time to head off with my first party data to see what CTV ads I’ll get served…
   https://www.timeout.com/film/40-murder-mystery-movies-to-test-your-sleuthing-skills-to-the-max

Endmatter

Thanks for reading. Let me know if you have any feedback, suggestions for topics, or even contributions. In between newsletters, there is LinkedIn and Instagram, and of course, the RetailCraft podcast and RetailX analysis.

A la prochaine.

Last month, I was trotting through Soho, NYC, in humid heat and warm rain, and I was struck firstly by the crowds (shopping and shuffling are back!) and the number of stores sporting velvet ropes and queues.

I usually stay on the Bowery, so the queues outside Supreme’s store are a familiar sight. However, from Luxury colab popups (Louis Vuitton), to workaday popups (hello Asos and Gymshark), to virtual queues outside Aime Leon Dore, and the velvet rope with iron muscle outside the luxury stores, it was queue, queue, queue.

Unlike the night club experience (where the beautiful and desirably on-trend get to jump the queue) the store velvet rope is a more egalitarian affair. Unless you know the VIP entrance, the queue is for all. What lies behind this phenomenon?

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The Rise of the Velvet Rope Phenomenon

The velvet rope strategy operates on a simple but powerful economic principle: when 20% of customers provide up to 200% of profits, creating exclusive experiences for this segment becomes financially compelling. Furthermore, there’s an argument that those who are willing to wait in line are more committed purchasers once in the store. They are “high intent” and pre-qualified. However, this ignores those who sigh and walk by, or high-experience shoppers who don’t like a crush. This isn’t simple segmentation, therefore.

The psychology taps into fundamental human drivers: clustering people signal desirability; avoiding FOMO; acquiring bragging rights through exclusive access, and the social status that comes from being "inside" rather than "outside”. Research shows that perceived scarcity can increase purchase intent by up to 40%, while exclusive access programmes report sales increases of 46% and improved market visibility of 51% (2019, Monash University).

However, consumer psychology was not the origin.

Origins in New York's Streetwear Drop Culture

The commercial DNA of velvet rope retail can be traced back to Supreme's systematic approach to "drop culture." Founded in 1994 as a small NYC skate shop, Supreme's weekly Thursday drops at 11 am weren't initially designed to create exclusivity.

"The weekly drops didn't originate as a brand and marketing strategy that created hype but were instead born out of necessity because the store had a hard time keeping product on their shelves". As founder James Jebbia explained, "We'd actually have some seasons where we were sold out of the summer product at the end of March".

The anatomy of a successful drop includes limited quantities, time constraints with fixed release windows, social proof through visible queues, and community building. Supreme's evolution demonstrates this model's power - the brand was eventually acquired by VF Corp for over $2 billion.

COVID-19: The Transformation Catalyst

The pandemic fundamentally altered retail queuing. COVID-19's occupancy restrictions created natural scarcity. Many retailers were required to "alter their occupancy levels to 20%–50% of their maximum to meet social/physical distancing guidelines" (USA, source: NIH). Customers understood the reason for queuing (staying alive, limiting contagion) whether for groceries or luxuries.

An unexpected benefit for retailers was an increase in sales and profitability.

Speaking with the store manager at Aime Leon Dore last year (when I managed to gain entrance during a lull), he said that they limit store numbers to 25 people. This allows his team to provide personal service and maintain the store in a fully ‘ship shape’ fashion. They don’t filter on apparent wealth or spend, and he noted that due to the lower density and high staff:shopper ratio, a regular customer getting a $10k suit fitting could be served at the same time as a tourist buying some t-shirts. “Everyone wants space and service”, he said.

ALD operates a ‘virtual waitlist’ - you register with the door staff (who tell you whether you have a chance or not), then you can wait in the cafe or wander until called. On a weekend, their queue closes at 4.30 pm for a waitlist until 7 pm. As I left, he noted happily that ‘trading has never been better’.

Pop-Ups

The arrival of pop-up stores has also fuelled queuing as part of the experience. Short-term takeovers of empty stores met the new “marketing activation” trend. Google research in 2023 showed brands that experiment with pop-ups reporting "a 46% increase in sales, a 51% rise in market visibility and 66% greater brand awareness".

In the UK, Glossier's London pop-up "welcomed over 100,000 visitors in only 10 weeks, creating noise online amongst fans before the permanent store was opened". The format works because it creates "a sense of urgency and the illusion of scarcity among consumers". Back in NYC, we see UK brands Gymshark and ASOS running popular popups in the city of popups!

Technology and communications

Store technology integration has improved the pop-up experience, with retailers using mobile POS systems enabling transactions anywhere in the space and of course retaining customer records and capturing contact data.

In parallel, the permanent documentation of life on social channels has elevated the ‘queue selfie’ to be a regular feature in people’s streams.

Why then don’t these savvy, connected, digital consumers simply browse and buy the products online while they’re in the queue?

Part of the experience

Much of human social activity involves passing time, in good company, in ‘pointless’ pursuits - watching cricket, having a picnic, sitting at the seaside. Not rational, productive time, but time with other humans. Social time.

I remember once queuing for nearly 4 hours in 40-degree heat and stifling humidity to try the Michelin-starred Chicken Rice in Singapore. I was with the most interesting human, and the conversation is still memorable, whereas the Hawker meal is less so!

With the ubiquity of social media, you can be in the queue while sharing the experience with friends who are doing other things elsewhere. Social proof, amplification, disseminating FOMO…

Evolution

Managing store numbers without offending people is desirable, and so the acceptance by customers of the velvet rope gives retailers permission to manage flow - just make the products and experience worth the wait! The economics of increased profit from well-served, intentional customers are also attractive. The amplified “buzz” and social promotion from queuing, the adoption of time-limited or time-specific “drop” culture, and the fact that you can be in the queue and in your network’s feeds mean that time isn’t wasted.

Major city shopping is a bland array of excellence and uniformity - a shop in Soho echoes the branch in Terminal 5, Westfield or Singapore. Giving customer a time-specific, event-like reason to come to your store, commune with their network, get a great experience and spend fully. No wonder the velvet rope is in the ascendance.

The Rope.

I walked along Prince Street. The security guard is setting up a rope.

Me: What’s happening.

Him: Nothing.

I walked on.

RetailCraft podcasts

Two podcasts released recently…

The most recent is with Timo Boldt, founder and CEO of Gousto. We discuss the business's purpose, its distinct offering, and my new favourite metric: “share of stomach.” It's a short, sharp 20 minutes for your ears.

The second is with Oskar Jacobsson, Director Customer Solutions at ICA Gruppen, Sweden’s largest grocer, where we discuss the concept of their store leaders being entrepreneurs.

Both podcasts are available on Apple or wherever you get your audio.

If you have suggestions of retailers or brands to feature, just drop me a note.

Tsonduku

Tsundoku (積ん読) is the phenomenon of acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in one's home without reading them.  

There are only two items on the weekend reading list this time, but I warn you that both are engrossing rabbit holes…

1. “The world's first and largest online photo archive of inflight meals” - AirlineMeals.net. “We've collected almost 40,000 images from more than 700 airlines from around the world”. Filter by airline, class of carriage; see the crew’s meals; peruse menus; jump back to the 1950s…

2. Heritage Crafts is the national charity for heritage craft skills. They maintain a directory of endangered skills in the UK, and along with the warning, they offer a lot of background and information on these skills. There is a lot to read, but I couldn’t skip over glass eye making, bell-founding (especially since I’m still sore about the closure of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry after 450 years…) or wooden fishing-net making. This list is a treasure-trove of talent, history, culture and craft - a “support it before you lose it” call to action.

Endmatter

Thanks for reading. Let me know if you have any feedback, suggestions for topics, or even contributions. In between newsletters, there is LinkedIn and Instagram, and of course, the RetailCraft podcast and RetailX analysis.

A la prochaine.

Episode Summary

Gousto’s path has tracked—with uncanny timing—every macro-cycle in ecommerce food: mobile adoption, pandemic surges, funding booms and busts, quick-commerce exuberance, and the current shift from growth at all costs to durable profitability. Boldt explains why Gousto remains “deeply profitable” while many peers falter, how its eco-design “Eco-Chill” packaging saves 23 percent CO₂ per meal, and why he believes Bento can do for physical-goods subscriptions what Shopify did for storefronts.

At the heart of the episode is the tension every modern retailer navigates: providing limitless personalisation while operating a ruthlessly disciplined supply chain. Gousto’s answer is a vertically integrated tech stack, four automated fulfilment centres, and predictive algorithms that cut food waste, hold gross margins above 53 percent, and power a menu now exceeding 200 recipes per week.

We also chat about Timo’s personal journey: leaving a hedge-fund VP role at 26, moving into student housing to save cash, running early routes himself, and leaning on “learn-a-holic” instincts to conquer operations, funding, B-Corp certification and, most recently, AI.

About the Guest

Timo Boldt

• Founder & CEO, Gousto (2012–present) — certified B Corp meal-kit pioneer valued at over £1 billion in 2020, now refocused on profitability and mainstream mass-market expansion.

• EY UK Entrepreneur of the Year 2022, World Entrepreneur Class of 2023.

• Member, Unilever Digital Advisory Board.

• Executive MBA, Cambridge Judge Business School; undergraduate training in statistics fuels his obsession with data-driven iteration.

Key Topics & Timestamps

• 00:00 – Cold-open & scene-setting
  Recording in a “glass atrium” at Retail X; quick intro to Gousto and its 13-year trajectory

• 03:00 – Market purpose & climate math
  The 40 percent food-waste statistic and Gousto’s mission to remove hassle, guilt and CO₂ from dinner

• 05:00 – Growth vectors & 1 billion-meal TAM
  Boldt’s “share of stomach” framing; path from 5 recipes a week to 200; next-day delivery at £3.20 per portion

• 08:00 – Personalisation at scale
  Custom menus, 10-minute recipes, Wagamama tie-ins, protein-heavy “XL” range for hungry teens

• 11:00 – Founder back-story
  From Rothschild analyst to food-box evangelist; giving up salary for three years; California culinary inspiration

• 13:00 – Ireland launch & localisation learnings
  Seven weeks in market; podcast discovery channel; “zero-to-one” done, now “one-to-100” scaling

• 14:30 – Bento SaaS platform
  Packaging 13-years of tech for external merchants selling physical-goods subscriptions—beauty, liquor, pet food

• 16:00 – AI, automation & factory tours
  Four fulfilment sites, 80 million dinners per site per year; invitation to Ian for a 05:00 walkthrough

• 17:30 – International options
  Cultural hurdles in Germany (“dinner bread”), promise in Scandinavia, Netherlands and Australia

• 18:45 – Subscription advice for brands
  “Developer-to-domain ratio” heuristic; outsource generic infrastructure, focus resources on differentiated CX

• 20:00 – Future vision (next 10 years)
  Raising share of stomach, household-level nutrition kits, more plant-forward range, and fully recyclable packaging

• 22:00 – Favourite recipe & wrap-up
  Boldt’s vegetarian obsession, 10-minute meals, spice pre-portions, and the joy of never buying mystery jars again.

Quotes

“Our share of stomach is 0.2 percent—a drop in the ocean. Getting to 1 percent feels eminently possible if we obsess over value for money.”

“Forty percent of UK food is binned. Every Gousto box saves 7 kilograms of CO₂ compared with supermarket dinners.”

“Quick commerce is gone. We’re sitting on a £400 million business, deeply profitable and cash generative.”

“Developer-to-domain ratio matters: don’t burn engineers on generic subscription plumbing—buy it off the shelf.”

“I view Gousto as a data company that loves food.”

“The pace of change will never again be this slow; it only accelerates from here.”

--  Run time: 20 minutes

INFORMATION:

[ 🖥️ ]

Gousto's website - www.gousto.co.uk 

Gousto on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gousto/ 

[ 👨‍👧 ]

Timo Boldt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timo-boldt/ 

Ian Jindal: www.linkedin.com/in/ianjindal/ 

[ 📷 ] (c) Ian Jindal / www.instagram.com/ianjindal

As I donned my rather lovely new selvedge jacket (thanks Son of a Stag for the Oni Denim “Kasuri” dobby-weave wonder), my beloved daughter (CostCentre#1) opined that I had moved from “normcore” to ‘dadcore’. I thought I’d better check out what that meant…

The various “-core” words are a short-hand for a dress style - a combination of brands, clothing and styling. They are all back-formations from ‘hardcore’, denoting the most active, committed and dedicated members of a movement (presumably deriving from the hard core aggregates used in building?). Hardcore as a phrase is used in music, dance, pornography and politics to denote the most committed, extreme and fundamental elements of a genre.

The first of the ‘cores’ I was aware of was Gorpcore. My summary is ‘wearing outdoor technical clothing in an urban or low-activity setting’. I am guilty as charged, and wear my Patagonia and Arc’teryx kit with pride. This term was a reaction to “Normcore”, which denoted a bland, nearly anonymous and style-free approach to dressing. “Dadcore” seems a less complimentary version, and so with some googling help, here is a table of the ‘cores’…

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These terms spread very quickly on social media, particularly TikTok for fashion and Pinterest for more home or decor-focused visualisation.

Like so many other back formations, its use is accelerating. Hamburger, beefburger, nothinburger. Watergate, CashforquestionsGate, boobgate…

Other Notable "-cores"

A few of the more interesting ones that popped up during ‘research’ (ok, googling) were:

• Farmcore: Rural, agricultural aesthetic; overlaps with cottagecore. Odd overtones of post-feminist dutiful home-makers that make a fetish of “home-making” (while looking like a model, of course). This has reached an apotheosis in a reality TV show, ‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’1 - Desperate Housewives meets the Kardashians in full glamorous Farmcore living…

• Balletcore: Ballet-inspired, soft pastels, tulle, and ballet flats (Miu Miu)

• Goblincore: Grotesque, nature-inspired, celebrating the messy and wild aspects of the outdoors… What can I say? If you can watch Lord of the Rings, then you are ready for some Goblincore.

• Corecore: A meta-trend and critique of "-core" excess, often through surreal video edits. Think nihilistic and impressionist Blade Runner clips, channelled through ironic Koyaanisqatsi vibes… Just proof that not only will media eat itself, but that all core can be ‘meta-cored’ in front of our eyes.

Why Do "-core" Trends Matter?

The "-core" phenomenon represents a new grammar of style and identity, where anyone can curate, remix, and broadcast their aesthetic allegiances. From the anti-fashion of normcore to the escapist fantasy of cottagecore and the functional chic of gorpcore, these trends chart the evolving relationship between digital culture, personal expression and creativity. For retailers, they carry more information than a hashtag and give an insight into a subculture and its passions (or humour). However, as the oldies and social vibe-checkers seek to name every nuance, it can become a label rather than an emergent identity, as cool as dad dancing, or the CraftCore knitted sweater or corduroy elbow patch (GeographyCore). ← You see, I can’t stop!!

I find the ‘cores’ a little more useful than broad fashion terms (eg Streetwear) since they can encompass more than clothing - music, decor, restaurant design… However, as with most generalisations, we need to see that they are offered with a knowing wink rather than as a definition.

What ‘cores’ do you cleave to? LMK - photos or images welcomed!

IPR and Capital since US tariffs

I mentioned in my roundup of tariffs in a previous newsletter that they focused on physical goods. The disruptions, reversals, deals and spats since then don’t need to be rehearsed here, but I thought it worth looking at the IPR aspects of the global disruption.

Europe’s looking to bolster its brains

Europe likes to wring its hands about access to capital on Wall Street, and venture chutzpah in Silicon Valley, but they seem to have galvanised their will to invest in intellectual capital.

• The UK commits £86bn to ‘breakthrough’ R&D research2 - more tangible than naming a corridor ‘Silicon Fen’

• France, Germany and the EU have launched programmes to lure US researchers to relocate to Europe. France’s Choose France for Science website makes a direct and clear pitch, while apparently some 300 scientists applied to Aix-Marseille University as it declared “intellectual asylum”

• In a coherent post-Brexit move, it seems that the UK is to rejoin the “Horizon Europe” science funding and collaboration programme3.

This energy and focus are to be applauded, but the challenge for Europe is to match the venture and growth capital that is available to US sci-tech companies. A subject for future newsletters (if people are interested), but the US economy benefits from a much higher-than-Europe level of R&D investment4 from the government, military, space and tech communities, and this allows technology startups to get funding and real projects of scale. The US capital markets have had great liquidity and higher valuations for a while, and so are attracting more IPOs and shifted listings. From ARM in 2023 to Wise (formerly Transferwise) this month, there is a concern that the UK, specifically, and Europe in general, are losing out to the US as the locus for capital and growth.

As the logistics of the product-led tariffs are worked out, the ramifications of the intangible battles in the virtual, intellectual and capital spaces are set to continue.

RetailCraft podcasts

Two podcasts released recently…

The first is a conversation with Philipp Andree, Chief Commercial Officer of Douglas Group, Europe’s premium beauty destination with over 1900 stores.

The second is with Oskar Jacobsson, Director Customer Solutions at ICA Gruppen, Sweden’s largest grocer, where we discuss the concept of their store leaders being entrepreneurs.

Both podcasts are available on Apple or wherever you get your audio.

Tsonduku

Tsundoku (積ん読) is the phenomenon of acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in one's home without reading them.  

1. Google commits $150mn to develop AI glasses with Warby Parker

   Cash for glasses

2. Anthropic’s latest AI resorts to blackmail to prevent itself from being switched off - https://www.morningbrew.com/stories/2025/05/24/having-an-affair-dont-let-claude-4-find-out.
   ”That’s my emotional support bot, not a girlfriend”

3. Welsh thatching and ship figurehead carving added to UK crafts red list - https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/may/13/uk-crafts-red-list-welsh-thatching-ship-figurehead-carving

4. The Fish Doorbell - https://visdeurbel.nl/en/

Endmatter

Thanks for reading. Let me know if you have any feedback, suggestions for topics, or even contributions. In between newsletters, there is Linkedin and Instagram, and of course, the RetailCraft podcast and RetailX analysis.

A la prochaine.

4

See the Geeknews substack for some interesting points, made at pace…

The Geek Way

US v EU in Tech: A Tale of Two Gaps

Steffi Czerny, the German national treasure who’s the doyenne of the DLD conference, gave me the stage there last month for 12 precious minutes. I decided to use them to continue the conversation sparked by last fall’s Draghi report on EU competi…

Read more

a year ago · 11 likes · 4 comments · Andrew McAfee

About the Guest

Oskar Jakobsson is Director of Customer Solutions at ICA Gruppen, where he leads a team of nearly 200 colleagues responsible for all digital customer-facing touchpoints. With over 20 years’ experience in retail, spanning SaaS suppliers, H&M, and Sweden’s alcohol monopoly, Oskar brings deep expertise in digital transformation, customer experience, and the art of retail.

Key Topics & Timestamps

• 00:00 – Welcome & Introduction
  Oskar’s retail journey, passion for the industry, and why he loves just being in stores.

• 03:00 – ICA’s Unique Model: 1,300 Entrepreneurs
  How ICA’s structure empowers local ownership, creates lively, differentiated stores, and fosters community connection.

• 08:00 – Store Formats & Family Businesses
  The four ICA formats, from small convenience stores to hypermarkets, and the generational, entrepreneurial spirit behind them.

• 10:00 – Digital Customer Experience at Scale
  Oskar’s role in orchestrating all digital touchpoints, from apps to in-store tech, and the challenge of aligning with retailer-facing systems.

• 13:00 – Defining “Best Customer Experience”
  How ICA uses surveys, A/B testing, and constant feedback to keep the customer at the centre of every digital and in-store decision.

• 15:00 – The Complexity of Grocery Shopping Journeys
  Why food retail is uniquely challenging, and how ICA leverages data for relevance and personalisation.

• 17:00 – Retail Media, Promotions & Data
  The balance between central campaigns and local autonomy, and how ICA navigates data sharing and privacy in a federated model.

• 20:00 – The Pace of Change & Flexible Architecture
  Reflections on the rapid acceleration of retail tech, the need for adaptable IT infrastructure, and lessons from past digital transformations.

• 25:00 – AI, Agents & The Future of Grocery
  Oskar’s take on the coming wave of agentic shopping, the importance of brand trust, and how AI will reshape both online and in-store experiences.

• 31:00 – AI in Practice at ICA
  From classic analytics to generative AI and Microsoft Copilot, ICA is using AI for efficiency, decision support, and behind-the-scenes innovation.

• 34:00 – Advice for Retail Technologists
  Oskar’s career lessons: prioritisation, embracing change, and the value of curiosity and continuous learning.

• 39:00 – Getting Re-energised by Great Retail
  Why Oskar strolls malls for inspiration, and the importance of reconnecting with what makes retail exciting.

• 40:00 – What’s Next: Strategy & Direction
  The excitement of strategic planning, aligning teams, and setting direction for ICA’s future.

Standout Quotes

“ICA isn’t a chain. It’s almost 1,300 separate retailers… Each store is genuinely their own store, adapting to their local customer and community.”

“You always need to prioritize. You will never be able to do everything. It takes a while before you realize that.”

“If you have a monolith you can’t change, you need an integration layer that is flexible. Tech isn’t the problem-it’s prioritizing investment.”

“The pace of change will never be as slow as it is today. It will only be quicker.”

“Retail is a hobby. I’m fortunate enough to work with my hobby.”

--  Run time: 38 minutes

INFORMATION:

[ 🖥️ ]

ICA Gruppen's website - https://www.icagruppen.se/ 

ICA on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ica/  

[ 👨‍👧 ]

Oskar Jacobsson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oskar-jakobsson-0b052810/  

Ian Jindal: www.linkedin.com/in/ianjindal/ 

[ 📷 ] (c) Ian Jindal / www.instagram.com/ianjindal

About the Guest

Philipp Andree is the Chief Commercial Officer at Douglas Group, number one omnichannel premium beauty destination in Europe. With a background in engineering, marketing, and digital transformation, Philipp brings a unique perspective to the intersection of tech, commerce, and customer experience.

Key Topics & Timestamps

• 00:00 – Welcome & Introduction
  Ian introduces Douglas and guest Philipp Andree, setting the stage for a deep dive into European beauty retail.

• 02:00 – Douglas’s Unique Market Position
  Philipp explains Douglas’s leadership in premium beauty, its rare dual dominance online and offline, and its focus on experience.

• 04:00 – Understanding the Douglas Customer
  Discussion of customer segmentation, the rise of Gen Z, and the broad appeal of beauty across ages and genders.

• 08:00 – Balancing Scale and Specialism
  How Douglas maintains expertise and curation while operating at scale, and the importance of standing for premium beauty.

• 11:00 – Philipp’s Career Journey
  From engineering to marketing, consultancy, and digital leadership, Philipp shares his path to CCO.

• 14:00 – Omnichannel Evolution
  The shift from digital as a silo to a fully integrated, customer-first omnichannel ecosystem.

• 16:00 – The Role of AI in Beauty Retail
  Why AI is a tool, not a goal; how Douglas uses AI for skin analysis and the development of a beauty advisor chatbot.

• 19:00 – Training AI with Human Expertise
  Philipp describes using in-store beauty advisors to train AI, ensuring recommendations feel authentic and trustworthy.

• 24:00 – Supply Chain Transformation
  The move to “One Warehouse All Channels” (OWAC), reducing inventory and increasing efficiency across 22 countries.

• 29:00 – The ‘Let it Bloom’ Strategy
  Douglas’s four-pillar growth plan: brand leadership, best selection, omnichannel excellence, and operational efficiency.

• 30:00 – Store Expansion and Refurbishment
  Opening 200 new stores, refurbishing 400, and the impact on customer experience and loyalty.

• 32:00 – Standardization and Tech Across Borders
  The challenge of unifying systems and processes across a multinational footprint.

• 33:00 – Closing Reflections
  Ian and Philipp reflect on Douglas’s blend of 200 years of heritage with cutting-edge innovation.

Standout Quotes

“We are number one, both in-store and online, which is pretty rare.”
“Our customer base spans from Gen Z to Boomers—beauty is for everyone.”
“AI is a tool, not the goal. We always start with the customer.”
“Let it Bloom: it’s about being the number one premium brand, the best selection, omnichannel, and efficiency.”

--  Run time: 38 minutes

INFORMATION:

[ 🖥️ ]

Douglas' German e-commerce site - www.douglas.de 

Douglas Group's corporate site: https://douglas.group/ 

The "Let it Bloom" strategy (https://douglas.group/en/about-us/strategy)

[ 👨‍👧 ]

Philipp Andree: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philipp-andr%C3%A9e-47b681253/ 

Ian Jindal: www.linkedin.com/in/ianjindal/ 

[ 📷 ] (c) Ian Jindal / www.instagram.com/ianjindal

Tariffs. As I hit send, US Customs are about to collect tariffs from 86 countries with levels from 11~50%1. Kier Starmer, the UK’s prime minister, announced the ‘age of uncertainty’ as he detailed the government support for the UK’s car and pharmaceutical industries in the face of US President Trump’s blitz of global trade tariffs. In a week that has seen penguins and uninhabited islands targeted, cod-economic formulae ascribed to ChatGPT, and coining the term “Panicans” there has been much gallows humour on social media. But the chilling impact of the tariffs has been written in red on every major stock exchange and in the brows of Europe’s retailers and brands, with JP Morgan predicting ‘there will be blood’. Meanwhile retailers and brands are checking their export systems, polishing their HTSUS2 categorisations, making sure that their electronic reporting connections are up to speed, and considering the post-tariff price in the US.

The biggest big questions at the moment are:

1. what will the landed price in the US be? Even for an established business with optimised customs processes, the tariffs will need to be reworked for elements from countries now targeted. Here’s the BBC’s helpful worked example for a Nike running shoe made in Vietnam. Many products are more complex.

   

2. how will this compare with the also-being-recalculated-as-we-speak price of competitor products and alternatives? Our suppliers and sources, manufacturing partners or finishers may themselves be subject to (new/changed) tariffs and so that will impact their costs. Every competitor’s costs, at the individual product level, will be changing.

3. who will bear the increased cost - me, my wholesaler, the consumer, all of us?

4. reworking my (re)supply approach to manage cashflow. Tariffs are payable on landed goods, in full, with no rebate for goods returned or unsold. This creates an immediate ‘hit’ of 10% on the cost of goods sent to the US. This has a cashflow impact (money up-front, in advance of sales revenue), and an increase in the sunk cost on unsold inventory.

5. how to re-tool my supply chain, my own sourcing, manufacture and design in order to insulate myself in the medium term from both the current impact of tariffs and any future capricious flexing of rates and scope.

After decades of continuous harmonisation, optimisation and systems improvement, tariffs have not been a board-level discussion since the UK’s Brexit (when the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade became a dinner conversation). We will now become fluent in the arcane categorisation of the “Dictionary of Everything a Consumer Can Buy”3, and electronic product data AES and submission and look at the EU’s Digital Product Passport’s4 origin and materials requirements as helpful preparedness!

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Elephants fight

Leaving aside the short-terms shocks to the markets, recent escalation indicates that this is a grudge-match between the US and China. China’s president Xi has called the tariffs “blackmail” and Trump’s additional tariffs-upon-tariffs as a “mistake upon mistake”5. Meanwhile a state-endorsed news outlet called the tariffs “naked extortion”. Neither Trump nor Xi are temperamentally inclined to back down and with Xi publicly vowing to “fight to the end” then the more consequential relignment on trade will be into the US-bloc and the China-bloc. There are a number of ramifications, but with China extending its influence in LatAm and Africa, touting itself as a trustworthy, stable commercial partner to Europe, and a powerbroker-in-waiting in the Middle East, this plays into Xi’s hands by creating a de-facto “bi-polar” world of US versus China, rather than the global hegemony of the US as the military-tech-consumer-cultural unassailed leader of the turn of the century. Vietnam - penalised with 46% tariff levels, after warm relations with President Biden - finds itself between an unreliable USA and a belligerent but consistent Beijing. President Xi’s planned tour later this month to Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia is well-timed to capitalise upon the shifting alliances.

Within the US there are dissenting voices (Musk, Ackman, Koch) but Trump has doubled-down with 104% tariffs on China and claims that $2bn a day is being raised.

So how did we get here…?

Towards tariffs

The tariffs have been long trailed by President Trump. They signal a shift from the US’s use of trade to influence and control the world and their own citizen’s prosperity to a more isolationist, punitive view in which tariffs are used to threaten and punish trading partners. The aims of the policy seem to be:

• to bring partners to a negotiating table in a weakened position, ready to pay the US for the ability to trade, especially those who are deemed to have ‘exploited’ the US’s goodwill

• to raise revenues that can be used as a basis to reduce income tax (long an objective of his, started with the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act), with a promised extension to the TCJA (costed at $4trillion by CNN, along with an additional $3.3trn of other tax cuts).6 Trump’s intention seems to be to return the US to its pre income tax days when the (slimmed down?) federal government was funded by tariffs

• to repatriate employment to the US.

The end of globalisation?

Globalisation - the process by which the world became increasingly interconnected through the exchange of goods, services, capital, information, ideas, and cultural practices across national borders - has been under threat since the 2008 financial crisis. The crisis shows that vulnerabilities could also cross national borders and that this contagion, allied to a reduced trust in governments, led to calls for protectionism and what the Economist termed “slowbalization”. The comfort of a pun in troubling times!

After bank bailouts were seen as helping the rich at the expense of the poor(er), the focus turned to the unequal dividend of globalisation. It could be argued that the movement of the benefits from labour to capital (i.e., from the in-country working citizens to the owners of mercurial, border-defying, and lightly-taxed capital) fed into the phenomena of Brexit and Trump’s first presidency.

The distribution of benefit from 2017 is shown below, and the current Administration’s plans are set to accentuate the disparity.

Contextual thinking, in no particular order

Tariffs have unleashed implications that will resonate across all areas of business, politics and society. Some thoughts and questions below.

• Goods only. Trump’s tariffs are focused on physical goods and largely ignore intangible services and intellectual trade. The non-physical aspects of globalisation (sometimes called the ‘pillars of globalisation’) are also changing. The five pillars are held to be trade, capital flow, migration, information transfer, and cultural integration. Capital flows are uniterruped (despite sanctions) and we’ve seen money move around the world, across instruments, seeking safety and profit. Migration of people shows little abatement, legal or otherwise, and the result of tariffs has affected the movement of talent. Germany is actively and publicly offering US scientists ‘sanctuary’ here and here. Information transfer, data and AI span the globe in milliseconds, and the US administration’s “war on woke” can be seen as another attack on globalisation, even as cities become more cosmopolitan (global, integrated, liberal).

• Open and closed markets. The US is a relatively closed market in which trade (goods and services) comprises around a quarter of its GDP. Looking solely at physical goods, the US imports 18% of global exports (while its own exports comprise 14% of the world total). This might imply that the US consumer will not suffer too greatly from tariffs, however this number doesn’t include all of the supply chain and ‘transformations’ that occur even in US-made goods. Meanwhile, China has been growing its internal consumption as it pivots from a cheap-labour factory-for-the-world. Its GDP is now only 37% based on trade (down from 65% in the 2000s7. China will seek to consume more of its own produce while increasing export to non-US markets.

  

• Dumping. There is a fear of “dumping” goods at reduced prices into mature markets (eg cheap electronics or coffee machines that were destined for the US undermining manufacturers in the UK or Europe), yet at the same time a desire for cheaper raw materials that can be ‘transformed’ within a high-value, high-skills economy (eg the UK hoping for cheaper steel, oil, some food products). This duality - wanting cheap inputs, while preserving the spending power for one’s own exchequer - is a microcosm of the Trump trade tariff approach.

• Where is value added to raw materials? Non-transformed goods will suffer most. If a UK fashion brand simply buys Chinese silk that is sewn in Vietnam and sent direct to US consumers, then the products will attract the full tariff levels since the product is “from” those countries. It has not been “substantially transformed”. Where raw materials are turned into a higher-value product in the UK, say, then those products will be deemed to originate here and so attract the 10% tariff (at the time of writing). Brands will therefore push the ‘value-adding transformations’ to low-tariff regions, however this may not be the US.

• Presidential powers. President Trump has extensive tariff-setting powers that are unusual in a democracy, especially one that has long held to a legal and treaty-based approach to trade. President Trump leveraged the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) declaring a national emergency based on persistent U.S. trade deficits and nonreciprocal trade practices8. This unprecedented use of IEEPA allowed him to bypass traditional congressional procedures and implement a baseline 10% tariff globally, with higher rates targeting specific countries9. While the Constitution assigns Congress the power to regulate commerce and levy taxes, Congress has delegated substantial trade authority to the president through various statutes, and so protracted legal arbitration is to be expected as Congress signals unease at the unilateral actions10.

Where next?

The last fortnight has been a slow ‘bang’ of the starting gun. The daily shifts and shimmies, with megaphone diplomacy and ideas tested in tweets has caused a lot of uncertainly and broken long-held confidences. However, as the tariffs come into play the landscape splits into:

1. the 10% club. Mostly keeping quite, not drawing fire, looking to absorb the pressure and biding their time

2. the supplicant countries, the 70 queuing for a call with the White House, offering up deals, tribute and concessions, looking to get favoured treatment

3. some belligerent and strident countries (Canada the brave, with attack billboards)

4. … and China!

That’s the long view of tariffs, the context and responses. In future editions I’ll look at other areas - let me know of your experiences, insights and questions.

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Tsonduku

Tsundoku (積ん読) is the phenomenon of acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in one's home without reading them.  

1. i-d Magazine returns to the physical news stands - ‘tangible and collectible’ - as luxury meets analogue nostalgia and the rarity of the real object.

2. “The Bells of Old Tokyo” - a written audioguide. “Anna Sherman tells of her search for the bells of Edo, exploring the city of Tokyo and its inhabitants and the individual and particular relationship of Japanese culture - and the Japanese language - to time, tradition, memory, impermanence and history”. For a more digital view on time in Japan, and the 5pm “goji no chaimu” this site will answer questions you didn’t know you had.

More reading to come - what’s on your reading list awaiting attention?

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Departmental updates

Tannoy announcements

• 🥛 From the dairy department, the Danish word “Tandsmør”, where there's so much butter on bread that your teeth leave indentations when you bite into it [insta]

• 📹 From the security team, also known as the Minority Report Department, we hear that “The UK government is developing a “murder prediction” programme which it hopes can use personal data of those known to the authorities to identify the people most likely to become killers.” Nothing to go wrong here.

• 🤥 From the Marketing department, why perhaps you shouldn’t be yourself - “4 reasons why authenticity is overrated”. I really, really mean this.

Endmatter

Thanks for reading. Let me know any feedback, suggestions for topics or even contributions. In between newsletters there is Linkedin and Instagram, and of course the RetailCraft podcast and RetailX analysis.

A la prochaine.

Enjoy the footnotes…

Leave a comment

6403.51.1100- - - - Footwear made on a base or platform of wood, not having an inner sole or a protective metal toe-cap (Prs.)

Episode Overview Rothy’s Origins and Revolutionary Manufacturing

Giovanni recounts how Rothy’s founders developed their groundbreaking 3D knitting technology to create zero-waste shoes made from recycled materials. He highlights the challenges of scaling production and the importance of owning their factory in China to ensure quality and sustainability.

Clean Lines and Circular Design

The brand’s aesthetic—distilled simplicity with clean lines—is paired with a commitment to circularity. Giovanni discusses Rothy’s zero-waste factory, pilot programs for recycling worn shoes, and the durability that makes its products “last forever.”

Transitioning from Online to Offline

Giovanni explains how Rothy’s began as a direct-to-consumer brand before experimenting with physical retail. The first store in Pacific Heights was an instant success, leading to a deliberate rollout of premium stores like the Flatiron flagship in New York.

Challenges in Scaling Retail

From inventory management to maintaining brand values in wholesale partnerships, Giovanni reflects on the complexities of omnichannel retail. He emphasizes disciplined growth and ensuring profitability in every location.

Looking Ahead: Global Expansion

Giovanni outlines plans for international growth, including standalone stores in London and beyond. He also highlights product innovation, new categories like menswear and kids’ shoes, and the ongoing evolution of sustainable materials.

Chapter Times and Titles

[00:00:00] "Welcome to New York"
Introduction to Giovanni Lepori and his role at Rothy’s.

[00:01:00] "A Revolutionary Idea"
How Rothy’s transformed footwear manufacturing with 3D knitting technology.

[00:06:00] "We Make Every Shoe We Sell"
The importance of owning the production process for quality and sustainability.

[00:07:30] "Clean Lines"
Rothy’s signature aesthetic paired with circular design principles.

[00:14:30] "The Holy Shit Moment"
The move from online-only to retail and the power of in-store experiences.

[00:18:30] "Expanding Globally"
Plans for international growth, including London and beyond.

[00:20:15] "Retail Challenges"
Overcoming obstacles in omnichannel integration and scaling responsibly.

[00:24:30] "Looking Ahead to 2025"
Rothy’s focus on disciplined growth, new categories, and global expansion.

--  Run time: 29 minutes

INFORMATION:

[ 🖥️ ]

Rothy's - www.rothys.com

[ 👨‍👧 ]

Giovanni Lepori: https://www.linkedin.com/in/giovannilepori/ 

Ian Jindal: www.linkedin.com/in/ianjindal/ 

[ 📷 ] (c) Ian Jindal / www.instagram.com/ianjindal

This episode of RetailCraft takes us inside premium cycling brand Rapha, our host Ian Jindal chats with Joel Natale, Chief Commercial Officer, at Rapha's London headquarters. Their conversation explores how this 20-year-old brand transformed cycling culture, built a powerful community, and continues to balance premium positioning with growth.

[00:00:00] Introduction to Rapha and Joel's Role

[00:01:00] "Changed The Sport": Rapha's Market Impact

[00:06:52] "More Than Just Shops": The Clubhouse Concept

[00:11:16] "Suffering Together": The Community Philosophy

[00:15:50] "The Rapha Cycling Club": 10 Years of RCC Membership

[00:18:23] "Product Longevity": Sustainability and Repairs

[00:23:57] "I Won't Be A Lifer": Joel's Cycling Industry Journey

[00:27:19] "Incredibly Lucky": From Brompton to Rapha

[00:30:37] "A Relentless Desire to Understand the Customer": Brand Leadership

[00:34:27] "You Just Go Faster": Rapha's Future Direction

Rapha's Origins and Market Position

Joel introduces Rapha as a 20-year-old cycling brand founded by Simon Mottram in 2004 that "really changed the sport" and how people engage with cycling. Rapha entered a market divided between established performance brands and cheaper, poorly fitting products, with Mottram's vision to create "a more discerning and thoughtful product brand" engaged with cycling culture.

Rapha revolutionized the industry with its bold pricing strategy, setting retail prices approximately three times the market average. This approach initially shocked consumers but transformed industry standards, with other brands taking nearly five years to realize they could also aim for premium price points.

Though the brand has expanded its range to serve diverse cyclists across price points and terrains, Rapha remains firmly positioned as a premium brand sitting "top halfway to the top" of the market.

Clubhouses: More Than Just Shops

One of Rapha's most distinctive innovations has been its clubhouses. These aren't simply retail spaces but community hubs where cyclists engage with the brand and each other. When Rapha introduced this concept around 2010-2012, cycling-focused cafés where riders could bring their bikes inside was revolutionary.

The clubhouses serve multiple purposes beyond retail. As Joel explains, "On a Sunday afternoon, you give people a space to watch races. On a Wednesday morning, you give them a space to go after they've trained." This community-building approach reflects Rapha's broader mission to grow the sport rather than just sell products.

Rapha strategically locates its clubhouses in major global cities and "culturally important cycling locations" such as Mallorca and Boulder, Colorado—choices that might not be obvious from pure data analysis but make sense for a brand deeply connected to cycling culture.

The Rapha Cycling Club (RCC)

The Rapha Cycling Club celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2024. Unlike conventional loyalty programs focused on discounts, RCC was built around creating an actual cycling club where "people might meet and ride together, race together."

RCC offers tangible benefits including half-price coffee at clubhouses, organized rides, bike hire, and access to exclusive club kit at more accessible price points. While Joel acknowledges that the club "peaked in COVID" and needs reinvigoration, he emphasizes that for many members—especially those living near clubhouses—the benefits and community connections remain valuable.

Sustainability and Product Longevity

Cycling inherently offers sustainability advantages as an environmentally friendly transportation option. Rapha's focus on high-quality products naturally aligns with sustainability principles, with Joel mentioning he still owns and uses a Rapha jersey from 2008—illustrating the brand's commitment to durability.

The company maintains repair services in the US, UK, and Europe, reflecting its commitment to product longevity. Beyond repairs, Rapha has expanded its sustainability efforts to include carbon emissions management and increased use of "environmentally preferred materials," while acknowledging the challenges specific to cycling apparel, which often uses multiple materials for performance requirements.

Industry Passion and Future Direction

Joel's career has been entirely within the cycling industry, beginning part-time at Evans Cycles while at university before joining their purchasing department after graduation. Despite initially thinking "I won't be a lifer," he's remained in the cycling business for 20 years.

Joel reflects on the special bonds formed in cycling retail: "When you do cycling retail, you make really close friends because you've already passed the bar of 'we're all cyclists'." Before joining Rapha, Joel worked at Brompton, describing himself as "incredibly lucky to work for both brands."

When asked about skills needed for success in brand-led businesses, Joel emphasizes "a relentless desire to understand the customer." He notes that while being passionate about your niche is essential, professionals also need to "be one step back" to avoid confusing personal preferences with broader customer needs.

The podcast concludes with Joel discussing Rapha's future under new CEO Fran Miller (sister of former professional cyclist David Millar), who recently joined from Belstaff. Rather than focusing on short-term fixes, they're taking a longer view: "We're going to look at a three to four year horizon to rebuild this place," supported by patient ownership that allows for long-term planning.

About Our Guest

Joel Natale is Chief Commercial Officer at Rapha, overseeing product strategy, merchandising, supply chain, and e-commerce operations. His 20-year career in the cycling industry includes prior roles at Evans Cycles and Brompton, bringing both personal passion and professional expertise to his work at this premium global cycling brand.

--  Run time: 38 minutes

INFORMATION:

[ 🖥️ ]

Rapha - https://rapha.cc

[ 👨‍👧 ]

Joel Natale: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-natale/ 

Ian Jindal: www.linkedin.com/in/ianjindal/ 

[ 📷 ] (c) Ian Jindal / www.instagram.com/ianjindal

You can see my 2025 'longlist' of stores here: https://retailx.net/newyork/nrf2025/ and I’ll update my ‘top11’ wow stores in January.

The disappeared and diminished

Allure

Allure magazine launched a physical store in Soho in July 2021. Or rather, I should say “media” since the print instantiation of the magazine ceased publication in 2022 and the title moved to digital. In their store they looked to blend editorial choice with beauty brand launches and selling, combined with a social-media integrated store. Editorial recommendations, iPad displays were of course present. Most interesting was the ‘send my photo to my friends on social’ connected mirrors - a fun gimmick, but also great for data capture, follower boosting and social amplification. In common with most media titles Allure wanted a share of the retail revenues and in my view created an exemplar store for product, recommendation and social. However, it’s no longer open, even if their merchandising approach is now widely adopted.

Amazon 4*

Amazon’s entry into physical retail already had bookshops (which of course sold Amazon’s own-brand electricals), and technology platforms (Amazon Go and its various tracking and payment options), but this was a general merchandise offer. The concept was to stock products that were 4*-rated or higher and bought within the local area (really, Soho residents?). The idea was to allow “the customer to merchandise the store”, and then show the feedbacks, reviews and recommendations. Spoilter alert - I hated the store. It was like a badly managed pound shop that hawked Ring doorbells, Kindles and cables in an unreadable bazaar of rubbish. I would say this on every tour - and then watch agog as my tour group raced around, wowed at the approach and then queued to buy things they needed! Just shows, never listen to a so-called expert ;)

The store lasted a couple of years, captured lots of data and no doubt gave Amazon a lot of insight. Data-informed and localised merchandising is now the norm (see Target’s Soho store as a grocery/convenience exemplar), as is member pricing and integration of a loyalty card. We see their learnings in Wholefoods Market, for example.

The store is now the home of Glossier’s second incarnation of a flagship in Soho.

Intersect by Lexus

An early flagship in the development of the Meatpacking area, this was a car showroom without a car. Rather, it aimed to build a ‘lifestyle’ glow around the Lexus brand, and so the not-a-store featured a high-end coffee bar, restaurant, cocktail area, Japanese-Danish design area (books, ceramics) and generally sought to give a warm glow to those who had a Lexus keyfob nestled in their gorpcore, discerning-citizen trouser pockets.

Initially I thought this was a pop-up stunt, but the explanation I received was that running the building cost the same as a number of billboards, yet provided great coverage, contact and experience.

Sadly the store closed, but its legacy lives on in the area as it’s somewhat of a car microzone. We have Tesla’s showroom, a Rivian showroom, Fisker and Lucid all within a block. However it is the bold Genesis House that most clearly takes the DNA forward. This sumptuous showroom over three floors - a temple of polished concrete and minimalism - has cars (you can do anything except buy one), a Michelin-starred Korean restaurant, a lending library and tea ceremony space with incredible views, and an underground 3D theatre and experience space.

Check out Genesis House to see the latest iteration of experience building around a car brand.

Rebecca Minkoff

Rebecca Minkoff’s Soho store opened on Greene Street in November 2014 and created quite a buzz. Over and above the desirability of the must-have bags and apparel, the store was, at the time, the acme of digital integration. Customers were greeted with a whole-wall interactive display, and the changing rooms boasted RFID-triggered magic mirrors that would show the products you had with you in the changing room and offer additional information. The store brought to life the promise of a digitally enhanced store while providing data that could be used to improve sales. Digiday’s article gives the view after a year. Personally I was struck by the quality of the store staff - they were so friendly and service-focused, yet also able to explain RFID sensing, online/offline integration and data tracking. It was an impressive experience.

Post-pandemic Minkoff has closed her physical stores and sells exclusively online. However, we see the reverberations of that store in the many subsequent iterations of magic mirrors, interactive changing rooms and in-store display.

Salvatore Ferragamo’s NFTs in Soho

Ferragamo’s new-in-2023 store in Soho boasted a fresh location-specific colour (a vibrant blue-green play on Greene Street) and a move into NFTs and digital customisation. The NFT studio comprised a glorified photo booth with an ever-changing background (making each shot unique - if somewhat undifferentiable by the casual observer!). As each ‘snap’ was taken it was minted as an NFT - a certificate of authenticity that supposedly elevated the snapshot from mere Insta-fodder to a Web3 asset. In order to get your NFT you had to register and so the whole booth became a honey-trap from young customers who might not have considered the brand.

In addition the ability to customise your $1000-dollar sneakers was cute, but a case of perhaps not reconciling the moneyed cohorts with the digitally-amusable ones?

The staff were game and offered some of the best explanations of NFTs I’ve heard. Furthermore they confirmed that the buzz around the booth was bringing in very new interest groups to the brand.

Billed as a “laboratory” rather than as a store, we find two years later that it’s returned to normalcy with nary a sniff of digital in the store. Fundamentally the ROI of the digital crowds did not match the rent of the premises and so the integration of NFTs into the retail experience in luxury was more of a shooting star than a true cosmic event.

Samsung 837

This was Samsung’s Apple-store-challenging prestige plot in the Meatpacking, and for me was the exemplar of a tech brand’s experience store. Two things stood out - the incredible wall of video screens and amphiteatre, and the way that the store covered Samsung’s enormous range, from phones to TVs via washing machines and fridges. It “made sense” of the brand. Sadly, the store closed on 31 December, 2024, bringing to an end its tenure as a pioneer in the redevelopment of the Meatpacking District. RIP, Samsung 837 - Google, Apple and others still have lots to learn from this store.

Sonos

Pre-covid, Sonos leaped onto the “experience store” approach with a fun and confident pods-in-a-space store in Soho. The polished concrete minimalist space housed a series of ‘lifestyle vignettes’ that showed Sonos products in various home, office and lifestyle spaces. Customers could sit in the pods and hear the Sonos musical experience and understand the control interfaces, and they would collaborate with furniture designers and other brands to kit out the pods.

The store had the feel of a marketing pop-up rather than a sales-per-square-foot activity, but it’s none the worse for that. We see the idea of an ‘experience space for ears and lifestyle’ in the current Bang & Olufsen Soho flagship on Spring Street, and in the contemporaneous Devialet store (the unconventional French brand, dripping in patents, who needed an experience space to illustrate the “heat bass implosion” sound… Sidenote: their store is now on Columbus).

This store was an early exemplar for brands to bring their experience to life - showing that a web image alone was not enough.

The House of Showfields and Neighbourhood Goods

House of Showfiledds was a development that blended department store with experiential fun with theature with pop-ups. Allow me to explain! Take a multifloor ‘department’ store and fill with lifestyle brands. Animate those brands - for example, there was a vinyl record store with a small live performance stage. Add in paid actors who would animate the space - running demos, moving people through the experiences. And finally a hidden helter-skelter slide that allowed you to whoosh down to lower floors… The business model was a tenancy charge with share of revenues, so borrowing from a department store. In the frenzy of twenteens’ start-ups and “digitally native vertical brands” (DNVBs) this was a case of selling shovels in a gold rush - providing an attractive destination and showcase for them. A sort of Dover Street Market for DNVBs.

I interviewed the founder of Showfields back in 2019 for the RetailCraft Podcast and he covers the business model clearly. After their time in Soho they opened a more normal, large store in Brooklyn. This store looked like a temporary space in a half-finished office development and while it kept the interesting brand arrangement it was on a single floor and so eschewed the slide, the social space, the theatre… Sadly this too has now closed.

Neighbourhood Goods1 was a similar “department store of popups” that ran for a couple of years in Chelsea. The focus was upon providing a showcase for independent brands and there was a feeling of common purpose and discovery in the store. Situated within the Chelsea Market warren of stores and bazaar-like stores, Neighbourhood Goods was positioned between the market-stall and the posh department store.

Taken together we can see the influence of the “high experience, high curation” in most modern department stores, while the interactive aspects and discovery are also widely prized.

That’s it

… for January 2025’s review. My current “worth checking out” store list for New York is available for review - let me know your thoughts, both on the current store list and the legacy of the stores above.

• Dyson's philosophy is to rethink, reimagine, and renew.

• Sustainability can coexist with sales strategies.

• Focusing on fewer markets can lead to better results.

• Consumer motivations for refurbished products include sustainability and price.

• Refurbishment processes require strict quality standards.

• Different regions have varying maturity levels in sustainability practices.

• Sales KPIs are closely tied to return rates and refurbishment cycles.

• A career path can be unpredictable and shaped by opportunities.

• Continuous improvement is essential for growth in a sustainable business.

Chapters 00:00Introduction to Dyson's Heritage and Philosophy 02:51Gertin Schaaf's Role and Sustainable Sales at Dyson 05:56Refurbishment Strategy and Market Focus 08:50Consumer Behavior and Sustainability Trends 12:12Refurbishment Process and Quality Standards 15:00Global Operations and Regional Differences 18:11Key Performance Indicators in Sustainable Sales 20:57Career Journey and Transition to Dyson 24:08Future Opportunities and Growth at Dyson  

--  Run time: 38 minutes

INFORMATION:

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Dyson - https://www.dyson.co.uk/

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Gertin Schraa: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gertin-schraa-17b8595/ 

Ian Jindal: www.linkedin.com/in/ianjindal/ and www.twitter.com/ianjindal 

[ 📷 ] (c) Ian Jindal / www.instagram.com/ianjindal