4,500 retailers descended on Fira Gran Via in Barcelona for Shoptalk Europe 2025 to wrestle with the pressing question: how to thrive in a time of constant disruption and shifting shopper behaviour? This year’s Shoptalk conference revealed the latest priorities retail leaders are delivering against. With five stages and 300 exhibitors over 20,000 square meters it is impossible to see everything.
My colleague Dan Andersson and I split up to cover as much of the conference as we could. Here is our digest of the key themes and retailer actions, substantiated by direct insight from speakers and panellists.
Key themes
- Unified Commerce
- AI
- Retail Media
- Loyalty & experience
- Operational agility
- Fast-growing disruptors: TEMU, Shein & TikTok
1. Unified Commerce
Unified commerce is maturing and real-time, cross-channel inventory management and distributed order orchestration is now live for leaders like H&M, JD Sports, and Cultura, driving measurable uplifts in conversion and agility.
RFID and heatmap technology are also transforming physical retail. H&M’s New York flagship demonstrates the new benchmark: RFID tagging, in-store heatmaps, and AI-poweredmerchandising empower staff to serve with the same data-driven precision as e-commerce. H&M’s can track every product and shopper movement, enabling precision merchandising, in-store replenishment, and customer guidance akin to e-commerce.
Unified Commerce - retailer actions
- Designing stores to operate like websites: And investing in technology to bring the same precision understanding to retail stores as is possible online. As Ellen Svanström, H&M’s Group CDIO, put it: “Imagine your store behaving with the insight of a website.”
- Prioritising back-end integration as the engine for front-end experience: “If you don’t solve the back-end, it matters less and less what you do on the front end,” said Rahul Jagtiani, Landmark Group, underlining the importance of unified inventory, OMS, and SCM to consistent customer experience (session with Landmark Group, Estée Lauder, SSENSE).
- Investing in distributed order management for conversion and efficiency: Distributed order management (DOM) enables reliable pre-purchase delivery promises and post-purchase optimisation. Cultura (Spanish fashion retailer) stated on the Unified Commerce Technologies panel that this has given them 20% online conversion uplift.
2. AI
Social commerce and agentic AI (Google AI Mode, Perplexity, TikTok) are reshaping discovery and purchase. Retailers must now learn to influence both humans and bots.
Adam Plom, VP Content Europe (Shoptalk) mentioned the importance of planning to influence AI-powered shopping agents.
AI - retailer actions
- Start planning to influence AI-powered shopping agents: “AI is becoming the operating system,” observed Sam Altman (CEO, OpenAI), as cited by Adam Plom, VP Content Europe (Shoptalk), reflecting the shift seen with Google’s AI shopping assistant and OpenAI’s PayPal integration. Retailers need new skills to market to both humans and bots.
- Optimise product detail pages for intent-based, TikTok-influenced searches: L’Oréal shared how social-driven search (“Best SPF for Barcelona”) is driving product discovery.
- Prepare for ‘agentic commerce’: Adam Plom (VP Content, Shoptalk Europe) posed the challenge: “How do you market to a bot buying on behalf of a human?”, highlighting the next battleground for retail marketers.
- Leverage agentic AI for operational efficiency: Amazon reported $200M in savings by using agentic AI to automate development and back-office tasks.
- The employee experience is central: Automation and new workflows free staff from repetitive tasks, but upskilling and store-level champions are vital for tech adoption and service excellence.
3. Alternative revenue streams
Retailers are developing new income streams beyond traditional retail, most notably through Retail Media and the commercialisation of technology services. Each path brings growth opportunities but requires disciplined execution to avoid distraction from core value.
Retail Media & tech services
Retail Media Networks (RMNs) are surging, enabling retailers to monetise their digital and physical shelf space. Carrefour, Rewe, and Ahold discussed the risks of cannibalisation, B2B distraction, and the need for robust value exchange models. The opportunity is clear but so are the hazards. Disciplined execution and strong guardrails are essential.
Retailers such as Amazon, Tesco (with Tesco Transcend), and Zalando (with Zeos) are also now commercialising their technology, logistics, and data infrastructure. This shift turns operational expertise into B2B revenue streams, but requires new skills and a focus on not diluting core customer value.
Alternative revenue streams - retailer actions
- Pursue retail media with caution and avoid common pitfalls: RMNs can drive growth but risk misalignment or cannibalisation without disciplined execution.
- Expand commercialisation to tech infrastructure - not just media: Monetise technology, fulfilment, and data platforms, but stay laser-focused on customer value.
4. Loyalty & experience
Loyalty is shifting from transactional schemes to participatory models rooted in culture and experience. Meanwhile, physical retail is being reimagined as immersive, data-driven, and emotionally resonant.
Carrie Baker, President, Brand & Commercial, Canada Goose & Kirsty McGregor, Executive European Editor, Vogue Business (Interviewer).
Loyalty & experience - Retailer actions
- Reimagine loyalty as community and culture: As Carla Buzasi (WGSN) said: “Loyalty now lives where culture happens.” Gamification, early access, and lifestyle alignment are replacing generic offers.
- Make retail spaces destinations, not just shops: Rituals’ Mind Oasis (spa, café, mind/body experience) and Canada Goose’s Snow Room show how experiential retail boosts dwell time and emotional connection.
- Fuse efficiency, experience & store tech: RFID, AR kiosks, checkout-free formats deliver both engagement and operational efficiency. “Physical stores must deliver data, drive media impressions, and fulfil digital orders,” noted Ben Miller, Shoptalk.
- Promote ‘spaving’ and calm commerce: As The Ordinary’s choose-your-discount model shows, shoppers value fairness over freebies. John Lewis’s in-store health checks and Hello Yoga’s dual digital/physical model tap into a desire for gentle wellness.
- Embrace paid/subscription loyalty models: These are gaining traction, especially where bundled with exclusive content or delivery perks.
5. Operational agility
European retail leaders expect continued volatility: Success will require both agility (for rapid response) and discipline (to maintain long-term strategic direction), as echoed in multiple keynote panels.
Retailers are also regionalising supply chains for resilience: Leaders like Estée Lauder and SSENSE are localising fulfilment, diversifying sourcing, and strengthening supplier partnerships—75% of Estée Lauder’s US sales are now fulfilled domestically.
Supply chain automation is accelerating: Drones (e.g. Manna or Amazon Air), robots, and modular systems are bringing both cost reduction and new service models to last-mile delivery.
Retailers are embracing operational agility as a holistic priority: Encompassing last mile, fulfilment logistics, order management, omni-inventory, and the need for constant adaptability. Resilience and speed are seen as non-negotiable. Speed is now a hygiene factor; convenience and control are the new differentiators.
Operational agility - retailer actions
- Regionalise fulfilment and diversify sourcing: “Source where you sell, produce near your customer,” said Jamal Chamariq, Estée Lauder.
- Know your bottlenecks and design for modularity: “Measure success by safety, experience, and employee engagement - cost will follow,” urged Melissa Malik, SSENSE.
- Invest in unified, real-time inventory: Landmark Group stressed: “Unified inventory across channels is a must. Visibility is the difference between delight and disappointment.”
- Adopt digital shelf labels and agile pricing: Cited as a key enabler for fast, accurate promotion and margin management. This replaces previous duplication across sections.
- Scale last-mile automation: Automation, data orchestration, and emerging methods (robotics, drones) are critical to last-mile efficiency, as highlighted by Manna and Sensei (Operations & Supply Chain panel).
6. Fast-growing disruptors
Retailers can’t ignore the Chinese-owned platforms rewriting the rules of engagement, fulfilment, and conversion. TEMU is now the fastest-growing retailer in history. Shein continues to scale by embracing localised sourcing and fulfilment models. TikTok Shop was repeatedly cited as the most disruptive platform, merging discovery, entertainment, and checkout in one seamless flow. The TikTok Shop session was among the most popular, with standing room only.
Fast-growing disruptors - retailer actions
- Benchmark and adapt platform agility: Study how these disruptors use speed, price flexibility, and demand-led assortment to meet hyper-adaptive customer needs—and defend or adapt logistics, fulfilment, and merchandising accordingly (session with Adam Plom, Anne Mezzenga, and Chris Walton).
- Reframe your TikTok strategy: It’s not just for Gen Z or beauty. As Anne Mezzenga of Omni Talk said: “Every retailer should be paying attention to TikTok shop.”
- Rethink content and brand strategy to match platform velocity: Retailers must adapt proposition, pricing, promotion, fulfilment, and content creation strategies to match the virality and conversion rate of TikTok, TEMU, and Shein.
Final thought
Retailers must juggle agility and long-term alignment in an era where volatility is the norm. As one panellist summed up: “Uncertainty is the only certainty” — a theme echoed by Adam Plom and Chris Walton during the final wrap-up session, describing the retail world as “mini pandemics” — bursts of intense disruption demanding faster, more resilient planning cycles.
The winners will be those who unify tech, culture, and operations around delivering meaningful, adaptive experiences.
At Columbus, our strategic approach is to deliver value incrementally and aligned to a strategic direction. We help our clients to deliver the people and business aspects of transformation alongside technology. If this resonates with you, get in touch!
