Category: E-commerce

  • Amazon Prime VP Jamil Ghani: “Prime is Not A Loyalty Program”

    Jamil Ghani is the Worldwide Vice President of Amazon Prime, leading product, technology, marketing, decision science, operations, and finance teams that build and operate the membership program for over 200 million members across 26 countries.  

    He sits down with Natalie at the end of the Amazon Prime analyst event in Seattle to discuss the latest innovations and strategic direction of Prime. They explore:

    • The key pillars of Prime: convenience, savings, entertainment.
    • With new Prime markets like Colombia and Ireland, Jamil discusses why Amazon aims to launch Prime internationally “as quickly as possibly but as slow as necessary”.
    • What Prime is NOT: Jamil says it’s not a loyalty program, not a breakage model, and not a loss leader.
    • Is Prime nearing saturation? Learn where Jamil sees opportunities for further customer acquisition in the US.

    The first half of the episode focuses on Natalie’s takeaways from the Amazon Prime analyst event. If you’d like to skip straight to the interview with Jamil, this starts at 10 minutes.

    * Natalie will be releasing a Forbes article with more insights from the event later this week. *

    Jamil’s bio:

    Over his 7-year tenure, Jamil has accelerated Prime’s growth, tripling the membership and doubling per member spend. He has also broadened Prime’s offerings, expanding to 13 new countries and launching new benefits in multiple high-value categories, including health care, grocery, and restaurant food delivery. He works across Amazon’s consumer businesses to innovate on behalf of customers, build the Amazon and Prime businesses, and make customers’ life better every day. Before coming to Amazon in 2017, Jamil served as Senior Vice President, Enterprise Strategy, Digital & Innovation, for Target Corporation. Before that, he spent five years at The Walt Disney Company focused on identifying, developing, and launching travel and leisure growth initiatives. This included the MyMagic+ experience system, Shanghai Disneyland Park, and Aulani destination resort. Jamil holds a BA magna cum laude from Harvard College in economics and computer science and an MBA from the Harvard Business School, where he was selected as a Baker Scholar. Jamil lives with his wife and two (soon to be three) daughters in Bellevue, WA.

    Find out more about the Retail Disrupted Podcast by visiting retaildisrupted.com

  • Not a One-Trick Pony: Nobody’s Child Founder on Becoming More Than a Dress Brand

    Andrew Xeni is the Founder/Chairman of Nobody’s Child and Soreto, and Founder/CEO of Fabacus. He joins Natalie for a video episode which can be watched on YouTube. 

    Andrew discusses the evolution of Nobody’s Child, an M&S-backed fashion brand known for its commitment to affordability and sustainability. He shares insights on the brand’s transition from pure-play e-commerce to physical retail and the importance of product diversification and brand elevation in order to achieve profitable growth. 

    We also get Andrew’s views on sustainability – how NC is embedding it into the organization and how other retailers should respond to growing demands for circularity. They discuss digital product passports – Andrew has been a real trailblazer here through his other venture, Fabacus, and soon every NC product will have a digital product passport. He shares how it’s enabling the business to enhance transparency and deepen customer engagement.

    This episode is sponsored by Aptos, a leading provider of Unified Commerce solutions for retail. For more, visit https://www.aptos.com/ 

    Andrew’s bio:

    Andrew Xeni is a visionary technology and retail entrepreneur; founder of award-winning businesses that are reshaping their industries.

    After building a successful family manufacturing business supplying the UK high street, Xeni went on to establish responsible fashion brand, Nobody’s Child, named 2023 & 2024 Drapers Retailer of the Year (<£100m), as well as building technology ventures; Fabacus, where he serves as CEO, and Soreto, where he acts as Chairman. Operating globally, his businesses are servicing some of the world’s largest organisations in licensing and retail, including Tesco, NBCUniversal and Samsung. Xeni also welcomed Marks & Spencer as a strategic investor and minority shareholder in Nobody’s Child.

    Passionate about shaping the future of sustainable retail, in 2023, Fabacus and Nobody’s Child collaborated to launch a Digital Product Passport solution driven by compliant product catalogues, in preparation for incoming legislation around the world, set to redefine and evolve the retail landscape.

    Xeni is backed by a number of leading financial institutions and prominent individuals and in addition to managing a diverse portfolio of businesses, he is an active angel investor and mentor.

     

    Find out more about the Retail Disrupted Podcast by visiting retaildisrupted.com

  • Delivering the Future: Amazon Leaders on AI, Robotics, Last Mile, and Same-Day Delivery

    Live from Amazon’s ‘Delivering the Future’ event in Dortmund, Germany, Natalie speaks to three Amazon execs about today’s announcements:

    • Rocco Bräuniger – Vice President, Country Manager Germany & Expansion Countries EU
    • Nicola Fyfe – Vice President, Amazon Logistics Europe
    • Sarah Rhoads – Vice President, Global Workplace Health & Safety

    We explore the launch of Vulcan, Amazon’s first robot with a sense of touch. This is tech that Amazon says was unimaginable just three years ago and is now transforming their operations.

    We also discuss the all-important last mile. What actually happens after you place an order on Amazon? What role do Amazon’s delivery stations play and how is technology improving that experience?

    We unpack (no pun intended) Amazon’s plans to roll out same-day delivery to 20 more locations across Europe, as well as extend order cut-off times to as late at 6:15pm in some postcodes.

    We discuss how technology isn’t just about driving efficiencies for retailers and enhancing the experience for customers; it’s also, critically, improving workplace safety.

    More on today’s announcements:

    https://www.aboutamazon.eu/news/company-news/introducing-vulcan-amazons-first-robot-with-a-sense-of-touch

    https://www.aboutamazon.eu/news/company-news/amazon-is-investing-more-than-700-million-in-delivery-station-technology-across-europe 

    https://www.aboutamazon.eu/news/company-news/amazon-is-expanding-and-accelerating-same-day-delivery-across-europe 

     

     

    Find out more about the Retail Disrupted Podcast by visiting retaildisrupted.com

  • Forbes: M&S Chairman: Online Grocery Is A ‘Desert Of Profit’

    In my latest article for Forbes, I explore Marks & Spencer Chairman Archie Norman’s session at the Retail Technology Show, where Norman declared that grocery e-commerce is a “desert of profit.”

    He explained that although retailers around the world feel compelled to move into e-commerce, “nobody is really making true profit from food online.”

    “There’s been more wealth destroyed in people trying to develop food online businesses than any other industry I can think of.”

    Read full article on Forbes

  • Real-Time Retail: Why Fashion Retailers Need to Embrace AI

    Paid partnership with Centric Software

    With extensive experience in merchandising, Beatriz Ciraudo has worked with global brands such as Lacoste, Salvatore Ferragamo, Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Chloé. Her career spans Brazil, France, and Italy, giving her a unique international perspective on merchandising and retail strategy.

    Now, as a Presales Consultant at Centric Software, Beatriz helps retailers and brands leverage cutting-edge AI-driven planning, pricing, and market intelligence solutions to optimize decision-making and drive profitability.

    She joins Natalie on the podcast to discuss what retailers must do to stay relevant in the face of disruption. They explore:

    • Data, data, data: the dangers of relying on intuition (or Excel!) when it comes to making important decisions.
    • Real-time retail: what retailers can learn from disruptors like Shein and the importance of agility and speed for fashion retailers today.
    • Excess stock, brand-damaging discounts, and waste: why Beatriz believes that the best use case for AI in fashion retail is markdown optimization.
    • Can fashion retail ever be truly sustainable? Get Beatriz’s view on why retailers need to rethink the entire sourcing process.

    This episode is brought to you by Centric Software. Centric Software provides an innovative and AI-enabled product concept-to-replenishment platform for retailers, brands and manufacturers of all sizes. As experts in fast-moving consumer goods like fashion, outdoor, luxury, home, multi-category retail, grocery, food & beverage, cosmetics & personal care and consumer electronics, Centric Software delivers best-of-breed solutions to plan, design, develop, source, buy, make, price, allocate, sell and replenish products.

    Find out more about the Retail Disrupted Podcast by visiting retaildisrupted.com

  • Kingfisher’s Head of AI on Agentic AI, Visual Search, Chatbots, and Sustainability

    Mohsen Ghasempour is the Group Director of AI at Kingfisher. He joins Natalie on the podcast, live from the Retail Technology Show press briefing, to discuss how Kingfisher is utilising AI to drive operational efficiencies and improve the experience for customers. They discuss:

    • AI-powered markdowns and promotions.
    • How AI enabled Kingfisher to quickly scale its marketplace from 55,000 SKUs to over one million.
    • How visual search and genAI chatbots are improving the customer experience.
    • Sustainability: how Kingfisher is measuring the environmental impact of its AI initiatives.
    • The importance of incorporating compliance and legal teams into your development team.
    • The future: retailers must prepare for the age of agentic AI.

    Also on today’s show…

    How will we pay for goods in 2030? Will digital payments become ubiquitous around the globe and what are the implications for traditional forms of payment like cash and cards?

    Natalie unpacks three key findings from WorldPay’s 2025 Global Payments Report. To learn more about trends, insights and future payment predictions, download Worldpay’s Global Payments Report 2025 here: https://bit.ly/4hpBAuE 

    Worldpay is a leading payments technology company, processing over 50 billion transactions annually across 146 countries and 135 currencies. For the past decade, its Global Payments Report, based on a survey of over half a million consumers, has tracked the evolution of payment methods and is widely respected by merchants, experts, and the retail community.

    Mohsen’s bio:

    Mohsen Ghasempour is a distinguished expert in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) with a solid academic foundation, holding a PhD in Computer Science. Currently, Mohsen serves as the Group Director of AI at Kingfisher, where his leadership contributes to the advancement of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies within the organisation.

    With over 15 years of experience as an accomplished data scientist and visionary leader, Mohsen has consistently harnessed the power of data to drive strategic decision-making. Prior to his role at Kingfisher, he held pivotal positions in leading technology and retail organisations, including The Hut Group (THG) and Shop Direct. In these roles, he spearheaded cross-functional teams to implement cutting-edge Machine Learning and AI solutions, resulting in measurable and transformative outcomes.

    Find out more about the Retail Disrupted Podcast by visiting retaildisrupted.com

  • Sneakers and Scaling with The Sole Supplier Founder

    It’s Neurodiversity Celebration Week. Natalie shares her own neurodiversity journey and speaks to fellow ADHD-er and founder of The Sole Supplier, George Sullivan.

    George is a 34-year-old founder, born and bred in London.

    Ten years ago, whilst working in recruitment, he started a platform to help people find shoes. Since then, that online community has grown into an 8-figure global business and a key strategic partner to some of the world’s biggest brands like Nike, Adidas, Converse, Puma, and more.

    George and his team have built a community of over three million dedicated streetwear enthusiasts, generated over 1.5 billion impressions and driven over £250 million in revenue for brands.

    Natalie speaks to George at the Retail Technology Show press briefing. For more about the event, visit https://www.retailtechnologyshow.com/  

    Watch George Sullivan’s tips on how to build a business with ADHD:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzETy0vCHxk 

    Check out The Sole Supplier: https://thesolesupplier.co.uk/  

    Find out more about the Retail Disrupted Podcast by visiting retaildisrupted.com

  • Ebay’s Global Fashion GM on Secondhand, Sustainability, and the Say-Do Gap

    Kirsty Keoghan is responsible for eBay’s global fashion business. She joins Natalie to discuss the evolution of the fashion category on the platform, emphasizing the importance of a frictionless experience for both buyers and sellers, and the trust built through authenticity guarantees. Kirsty shares how the competitive landscape is evolving and the impact of eBay’s decision to remove fees for private sellers.

    The discussion also touches on how consumer attitudes towards preloved are changing, what makes the marketplace model so attractive to legacy retailers, the integration of AI in enhancing the shopping experience, and the future trends that could drive further adoption of secondhand shopping.

    📺 This is a video episode and can watched on the Retail Disrupted YouTube channel here.

    This episode is sponsored by the Richmond Retail and E-commerce Directors’ Forum. For more info, including how to register for the event, visit: https://www.richmondevents.com/forums/details/ret25

    Kirsty’s bio:

    Kirsty Keoghan is eBay’s Global GM of Fashion, where she is responsible for the company’s global fashion business.  Since joining eBay in 2011, Kirsty has led a number of initiatives, including the launch of free fashion selling, the pivotal pre-loved fashion partnership with Love Island and the successful launch of Authenticity Guarantee in the UK.

    She has been leading the charge in repositioning eBay as a destination for buying and selling authentic high-end items. All of which has culminated in Kirsty being recognised in Retail Week’s Future Leaders 2023 list and The Tech List 2024. Kirsty is also an eBay seller herself, having joined the platform in 2007.

    Prior to joining eBay, Kirsty had a decade-long career working at some of the UK’s biggest fashion brands, including Arcadia Group, M&S, TK Maxx, and Brand Alley.

    Kirsty is mother to two fashion-obsessed kids, and loves to shop herself, investing in a mix of new and pre-loved classic pieces.

     

    Find out more about the Retail Disrupted Podcast by visiting retaildisrupted.com

  • Forbes: Amazon Stores CEO Says AI May Spawn New Retail Formats

    Artificial intelligence (AI) is going to radically transform the retail sector and could result in the creation of new shopping channels, according to Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores.

    “We really haven’t had a technology revolution as large as this since the start of the internet,” Herrington told delegates at the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) Big Show.

    He acknowledged that the shift to mobile and the rise of social media platforms were transformative, but both pale in comparison to the impact AI is going to have on the sector.

    “It’s going to touch all of us. It’s going to lower costs, improve quality, help us develop new customer experiences, and it may even spawn new retail formats.”

    This is an excerpt. Read my full article on Forbes.

  • Social Commerce Lessons From TikTok’s Top Candy Seller

    How did a family-run confectionery shop in Devon become the UK’s #1 seller of sweets on TikTok?

    George Robinson, Managing Director of SoSweet, shares the retailer’s remarkable TikTok journey which started with a Gavin & Stacey inspired clip that went viral in 2020. The business is now making millions on the platform.

    George and Natalie discuss:

    • The SoSweet story – how a pandemic pivot unlocked a lucrative new channel for the family business.
    • Monetizing your audience – how SoSweet’s early TikTok success positioned them well for the launch of TikTok Shop.
    • Halo effect – why TikTokers are flocking to SoSweet’s bricks & mortar stores.
    • Industry lessons – evolution of social commerce and opportunities for the future.
    • Advice for retailers and brands – embracing authenticity, community, evolution.

     

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    George’s bio:

    George Robinson is the Managing Director and Owner of SoSweet, a specialist confectionery business based in the South West of England. The business launched in 2014 and now trades through 16 retail stores across four counties in the South West. It also has a large presence online selling DTC through its website as well dominating the FMCG category on TikTok Shop.

    SoSweet also supplies a range of confectionery and snack products directly into hundreds of independent retail stores nationally through its direct-to-store wholesale business SoSweet Direct.

    George is a very hands-on MD with a strong involvement across all functions of the business. His long-term goal is to grow SoSweet into a nationally stocked household brand. 

    Check out SoSweet on TikTok.

    Connect with George on LinkedIn.

    Find out more about the Retail Disrupted Podcast by visiting retaildisrupted.com