Category: Technology

  • How AI is Disrupting Discovery, Customer Service, and Fulfilment

    How AI is Disrupting Discovery, Customer Service, and Fulfilment

    Paid partnership with Manhattan Associates

    There has never been a time when disruption in business has been more consistent, Manhattan Associates’ CEO Eric Clark reminded us earlier this month at Manhattan Exchange.

    Although disruption takes many forms – economic, geopolitical, and environmental – it was technological disruption that dominated discussions throughout the two-day event in Antwerp.

    AI: the most transformative tech of our lifetime

    Clark, who took over as CEO earlier this year, sees a future where hundreds of AI agents are involved across every process that a retailer runs. “AI is probably the most transformative tech of our lifetime,” he told the packed room of retailers.

    Manhattan Exchange, Antwerp, Belgium, October 2025
    A packed room of retailers at Manhattan Exchange, Antwerp, Belgium, October 2025

    A similar sentiment was expressed in the Google session where Mark Steel, Director, Global Retail & Consumer Industry Strategy, described AI as the third big shift to hit consumer industries, following e-commerce and mobile commerce. Remember the term ‘m-com’? Hugely disruptive at the time but now it’s just… shopping.

    Previously, with the rise of e-commerce and then mobile commerce, brands were essentially creating new digital experiences and then communicating the benefits to consumers. That is not the case with AI. “Consumers are driving pace of change and they’re ahead of most consumer organizations,” Steel noted.

    He rightfully called out the growing disparity in customer experiences when using ChatGPT or Gemini versus using a retailer’s site – and I couldn’t agree more. For example, it takes a matter of seconds for shoppers to receive an AI-generated, hyper-curated meal plan – complete with recipes, ingredient lists, and portion sizes. Can that level of speed and personalization be replicated on a retailer’s site? At the moment, no.

    Discovery and service will fundamentally change

    In terms of AI adoption, the Google view is that the early stages were all about chatbot experiences; content generation; developer assistance and productivity; and data analysis. Retailers are now beginning to embrace more complex use cases – AI shopping advisors; agents for data, creative, service; multi-modal campaigns; and GenAI in stores.

    And the future? Retailers should look to AI to solve complex supply chain management issues; real-time price personalization; and complete product lifecycle management.

    Several retailers talked about “unleashing the agents”. Shoppers are ready. They’re much more comfortable interacting with AI today compared to just a year ago.

    A trend I think we should all be watching is customer-controlled fulfilment – in other words, allowing shoppers to engage with AI agents to modify their orders post-purchase.

    “What happens today is you submit your online order and it becomes locked. The next time you have any opportunity to interact with that order is when it arrives at your door,” said Brian Kinsella, Senior Vice President, Product Management.

    Digital chatbot, A.I., robot application, conversation assistant, AI Artificial Intelligence concept. Woman using mobile smart phone chatting with digital chatbot customer service

    Last year, Manhattan rolled out its GenAI assistant Maven which was its first step towards AI agents. Allowing customers to directly modify their orders has many benefits – happier customers, fewer returns, and less strain on contact centres. Not to mention that younger shoppers expect this level of self-service.

    When it comes to customer service, the volume of inquiries coming through email still far exceeds those submitted via chatbots, so it was interesting to learn that Maven is now being used to handle email queries. AI-powered automated interactions are getting smarter and more effective, even in those instances where customers expect a more considered response.

    We also heard from Deloitte’s Jennifer Wieland, Director Supply Chain & Network Operations, who reminded us that having more inventory doesn’t mean better fulfilment. Visibility and dynamic stock levels are key and, in the future, placing an online order as we know it may become obsolete as agentic AI takes hold.

    Manhattan’s Kinsella also touched on the opportunities when it comes to employee engagement, specifically how frontline staff are using AI in stores. It’s not necessarily about typing questions into a chat box; instead, leaders should give associates a prescriptive newsfeed of recommendations — and gamify it! Real-time feedback and goal setting throughout the day empower teams.

    In summary, AI isn’t “just another tool” for retailers. It’s the catalyst redefining how customers discover, interact with, and receive products, and those who embrace it will set the pace for the future of retail.

    You can also check out my podcast episode with Ben Sillitoe where we unpack the key learnings from Manhattan Exchange.

  • 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

  • When the Till Goes Silent: The Urgent Need for Payment Resilience

    Paid partnership with FreedomPay

    New research from FreedomPay and DynaTrace, in partnership with Retail Economics, shows that UK retail, hospitality and leisure businesses are losing up to £1.6 billion in potential sales annually due to payment system failures.

    It’s a staggering amount.

    From extreme weather and power failures to cyber-attacks and system outages, disruption is becoming the norm. To help merchants navigate this complexity, FreedomPay and DynaTrace hosted a breakfast roundtable in Westminster this week. Here’s what I learned.

    Six minutes or bust

    First up, we heard from Richard Lim, CEO of Retail Economics, who talked us through the research. Most consumers will only tolerate up to six minutes of payment disruption, Lim said, with 22 minutes being the absolute limit. The average outage, however, lasts 84 minutes.

    Lim noted that, perhaps unsurprisingly, younger consumers were even less patient, expecting retailers to resolve outages almost immediately. This intolerance is exacerbated by the fact that younger consumers are less likely to have cash is in their wallets: just 19% of Gen Z and Millennials say they always carry cash with them, compared with nearly half of Baby Boomers. No cash safety net means abandoned purchases.

    Time is money

    Lim therefore stressed the urgency for retailers to be able to restore payment systems as quickly as possible. In fact, doing so within the first ten minutes can mitigate over 80% of the potential financial impact.

    However, the research showed that one in five retail and hospitality businesses still lack a secure digital backup for when systems fail. And they do fail: on average, businesses report five major outages a year and the majority (61%) of those disruptions occur during peak trading period, when the cost of failure is greatest.

    Digital dependency and erosion of trust

    Lim also noted how higher-income consumers are disproportionately impacted by payment disruptions, given their reliance on digital payments and more frequent visits to retail and hospitality venues. When these outages occur, it’s not just about mitigating the financial impact but also ensuring that consumer trust remains intact.

    “It’s really about three things,” Lim said. “Firstly, speed. You need to resolve things as quickly as possible. Secondly, redundancy. You need to take a multi-layered approach. And thirdly, trust. Every payment failure is potentially damaging to the brand.”

    Societal impact and customer comms

    Allison Hutchinson CBE, Chief Executive of Pennies, highlighted the societal impact of these outages. Retailers can’t accept charitable donations when their systems are down, and staff must contend with disgruntled customers which can unfortunately lead to abuse in some cases.

    Everyone agreed that keeping the customer in the loop was critical during these incidents, as we’ve witnessed with M&S, Co-op, and Harrods navigating the recent spate of cyber-attacks. It’s also critical that retailers clearly communicate any contingency plans to customers. For example, if contactless payments are down, can retailers still accept chip and pin? How else might shoppers be able to complete the transaction?

    One of the merchants in the room – a major high street brand – noted how during a power outage, they would give away refrigerated food to customers. They couldn’t avoid the financial loss, but they could at least reduce food waste, keep their customers happy and avoid any reputational damage.

    Improving payment resilience

    It’s clear that disruption is not going away any time soon, so how can retailers improve their payment resilience in today’s uncertain world? As a start, retailers must invest in integrated systems that provide redundancy, failover capabilities, and real-time monitoring.

    The room was optimistic about the impact of AI here, with faster detection and speedier response times. However, as one of the participants reminded us, “As much as we’re using AI, so are the hackers.”

    Partial preparedness is no longer enough.

    Download the whitepaper

    Check back in for my conversation with Richard Lim – coming to the podcast next week.

  • World Retail Congress: What Did We Learn?

    Andrew Busby joins Natalie live from the World Retail Congress to reflect on key takeaways from the event. They discuss why AI is only as good as the data you feed it and why Gen Z shoppers are loyal to trends and not brands, picking up on insights shared by Estee Lauder and Albert Heijn.

    For the second half of the conversation, they turn to sustainability in fashion retail. Are we doing enough in the West? Is the ease of buying preloved online encouraging shoppers to actually buy more clothes? And whether it’s charging for returns, banning serial returners, or educating consumers, how can retailers stem the tide of returns?

    Andrew’s bio:

    A well-known retail industry expert, speaker, and writer, Andrew Busby has extensive experience and knowledge in the retail sector, particularly in areas such as retail technology, customer experience, and emerging trends. He is Senior Industry Adviser at BOXTEC, Board Adviser at The Industrious and founder of Redline Retail Consulting (formerly Retail Reflections), a retail consultancy firm that provides strategic advice and insights to the industry community. He is a retail writer at Fortune Magazine and also a regular contributor to various media outlets, including retail trade publications and national news media where he is known for his expertise in analysing and commenting on the latest developments, challenges, and opportunities in the retail industry.

    Author of the best-selling retail book, ‘Harry Was Right All Along’, and ‘Breathless – Covid, Two Metres and Me’, Busby is recognised by the industry as a global thought leader and is a member of the exclusive global retail community ReTHINK Retail.

    In a retail career spanning over 25 years, he held senior positions at Kingfisher and Superdrug before joining a number of leading technology partners to bring innovative solutions to many retail businesses. In addition to publishing many retail blogs and articles, Andrew is a member of the IORMA Advisory Board, Advisory Board member at Retail Week, Founder of the Retail Advisory Board and is also editor at large for Retail Technology magazine.

    Check out Andrew’s articles at Fortune and Substack.

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

  • Aisle to Algorithm: David’s Bridal’s New CEO on Retail Transformation

    Kelly Cook is the newly appointed CEO of David’s Bridal. She joins Natalie on the podcast to discuss how David’s Bridal is embarking on the biggest shift in its 75-year history, transitioning from a legacy bridal retailer to becoming a tech-powered retail, AI, and media powerhouse.

    📺 This is a video episode and can be watched here.

    Kelly and Natalie explore:

    •    How David’s plans to expand beyond wedding dresses to capture a bigger piece of the $65 billion wedding industry, leveraging first-party data, AI-driven planning tools, and a digital marketplace to transform how brides shop, plan, and celebrate.
    •    Retail media: with 90% of all US brides entering the David’s ecosystem, how is David’s monetizing this reach and what does Kelly think of the broader retail media explosion we’re witnessing around the globe?
    •    From virtual try-ons and mood boards to AI chatbots, how is David’s utilizing AI to enhance the customer experience?
    •    100% of all David’s owned communications are now AI-driven! How has this enabled David’s to better serve the customer?
    •    From cowboys boots to QR codes, what are the key bridal trends that Kelly is observing in 2025? 
    •    Learnings from pandemic pivots – curbside pick-up and augmented reality.
    •    Kelly is the most recent example of a CMO to CEO transition, but we’ve also seen this with brands like Starbucks and Taco Bell. What’s behind this trend?
    •    Advice for future retail leaders.

    Kelly’s bio:

    Kelly Cook is a visionary executive with over two decades of leadership in omnichannel strategy, digital transformation, IT, branding, and marketing. A catalyst for growth, she has a proven track record of driving business growth through brand evolution, pioneering innovation and aligning teams behind transformative strategies that drive bottom-line impact. Her leadership has propelled organizations to new heights – boosting profitability, increasing stock value, and earning industry accolades from Newsweek (Best Place to Work for Women) and Forbes (Most Inclusive Marketing).

    Her career spans a diverse mix of industries ranging from airlines and fashion to home decor and retail, and now the bridal fashion and wedding industry. Prior to joining David’s Bridal, Kelly held executive leadership roles at top companies, including Continental Airlines, DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse, and Pier 1, where she spearheaded large-scale brand, marketing and digital initiatives that redefined customer engagement. In her current role at David’s, Kelly leads marketing, IT, digital, customer experiences, analytics and e-commerce, ensuring that innovation and customer-centricity remain at the heart of the brand’s growth.

    Recognized by Harvard Business School as one of 2003’s Most Dynamic Women in Business, Kelly embodies a leadership style grounded in service to others. She finds joy in seeing individuals at any and every level do extraordinary things. She is a steward of the power of determination, often toting her mantra: “If cauliflower can become pizza, anything can happen.”

    Kelly holds an MBA and a Master of Finance from Tulane University’s Freeman School of Business. Beyond the boardroom, she is a devoted wife of 30 years to her husband Damon, the proud mom of five kids (including triplets,) as well as two pampered, plump basset hounds, Jasper and Rufus. Based in Houston, Texas, she continues to inspire her “Dream Makers,” disrupt industries, and shape the future of brand innovation.

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

  • 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

  • Jigsaw CEO: Uncertainty And Disruption Is Our New Normal

    Hash Ladha, CEO of Jigsaw and former CEO of Oasis and Warehouse, joins Natalie to discuss fashion retailing, the resurgence of accessible luxury, and lessons for the next generation of retail leaders.

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

    Hash and Natalie explore:

    • Accessible luxury – with competition intensifying, how does Hash see the sector evolving?
    • Why there hasn’t been a “normal” year in retail since the Brexit vote in 2016.
    • From the Budget to tariffs, what’s keeping the fashion industry up at night?
    • Self-checkout in clothing stores – does this enhance or detract from the customer experience?
    • Why the first step to combating returns is sticking to a full-price proposition and why fast and free delivery is a race to the bottom.
    • Leadership – Hash shares his views on what makes a good retail leader, drawing on lessons from both personal and professional experiences.
    • DEI – as some US retailers dismantle their DEI policies, what are Hash’s views on diversity, equity, and inclusion?

    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 

    Hash’s bio:

    Hash Ladha is CEO of Jigsaw, which is a contemporary British fashion brand founded in 1970. He was appointed CEO in November 2023 and previously had served as Group CEO of Oasis and Warehouse. Prior to that he was COO of the group. He joined as Group Multi Channel Director from Asos where he had been Marketing and Operations Director. 
     
    Ladha has a proven track record in leading and growing omni-channel businesses. A passionate leader and strategist that has successfully created differentiated customer propositions, developed brands and accelerated sales. Results oriented and pragmatic whilst driven to achieve; someone who values people, their contribution and invests in their development. A very strong belief in creating an inspiring place to work and creating a strong ethos of personal accountability. A leader who understands the importance of diversity and inclusion and is a champion of the cause, who harnesses an open and honest culture, underpinned with integrity.

    For more, visit https://retaildisrupted.com

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