About the World Retail Congress 2025
This year, the World Retail Congress returned to London, bringing together senior leaders from across the globe to explore the new growth drivers shaping the future of retail.
With a programme designed for decision-makers, the event offered global perspectives, practical strategies and bold ideas to help retailers navigate change and unlock growth.
We were proud to sponsor this year’s event and to be part of the conversation on what’s next for the industry.
In conversation
During the event, we hosted a panel on the topic of “People-first retail transformation strategies”.
We were joined by Jane Mustoe, Senior Technology Director at Tesco and Elsa Pedro do Souto, Global Senior Manager Insights & Analytics at MARS to explore real life examples of how this critical but difficult balance between people and technology can deliver powerful results.
Our Managing Partner, Ben Tye hosted the panel, and reflected afterwards on the discussion had as well as his experiences at the event.
Insights from the World Retail Congress
Over the course of the event, we caught up with retail leaders from around the sector and our own experts to discuss some of their key takeaways from the event. Discover their insights now.
With Aimee Barry
COO, Les Mills
Exploring lessons learnt from SNIPES on connecting community, culture and music in building an authentic brand, the importance of simplifying conversations around AI to focus on impact and how more powerful data insights can help drive product innovation and preserve customer centricity.
With Jane Mustoe
Senior Technology Director, Tesco
Diving into the ways Tesco eliminates time-consuming manual tasks through intelligent automation, how to transform raw data into insights that matter, the power of bite-sized learning modules and safe experimentation with AI tools like Co-pilot and GPT models and the ways smart workforce optimisation is helping to maximise efficiency where it counts.
With Nicolas Loufrani
CEO, THE SMILEY COMPANY
Discussing the enduring power of licensing for driving new business in retail, including the power of licensing in generating customer loyalty, how licensing helps to bring happiness to a brands audience and the omnichannel communication potential of licencing for retail.
with Suzi Bentley-Tanner
Partner, Gate One
Exploring how to handle the numerous competing priorities retail organisations currently face in 2025, looking at the vital importance of customer-centricity in driving success and unpacking what that really means in practice for leaders.
with Alex Zetter
Partner, Gate One
A look at what’s driving success in today’s retail landscape, including the power of hyper-personalisation, the ways leading retailers are using AI and smart operations to innovate quickly and how the breaking down of siloes has led to more innovation focused cultures.
with Francesca Gualano
Partner, Gate One
What’s the secret to success in today’s challenging retail landscape? Francesca looks at the importance of adaptability in deploying successful growth strategies, the three different dimensions that thriving retailers are balancing for success and why making a difference for the customer and society at large leads to outperformance.
with Scott Ellis
Partner, Gate One
How can retailers use data and AI to deliver next-level experiences for their consumers? Scott unpacks the ways that leading retailers like Trinny and Nike are enhancing experiences through new technologies and richer analytics.
Meet our team
Our retail leadership team brings the insight and agility to solve your toughest challenges.
Contact us
If you would like to speak to us about any of the topics discussed above, please reach out and we’ll be back in touch.
