From AI to Gen Z – the key takeaways from LIVE: Retail Week x The Grocer 2025

Catch up on a day of unmissable content and insight from LIVE: Retail Week x The Grocer  2025 – where the brightest and most curious minds across retail and FMCG talked about the things that really matter in the industry: from the Budget and AI, to sustainability and consumer behaviour. 

Currys boss: AI will be the ‘single biggest tech trend since the tablet’

Currys chief executive Alex Baldock has said the retailer expects AI to be the “single biggest tech trend since the tablet” as more customers adopt AI products.

Speaking at Retail Week x The Grocer Live 2025, Baldock said more customers want to learn more about increasingly popular AI mobiles and laptops.

“We think this is going to be the single biggest tech trend since the tablet in 2010,” he said. 

Shein: ‘We don’t cheat, we compete’

Shein’s head of strategic and corporate affairs in North America, the UK and Europe Peter Pernot-Day has said that there are “misperceptions” around the way the fast-fashion retailer operates, specifically in relation to tax loopholes, claiming: “we don’t cheat, we compete”. 

Pernot-Day spoke to delegates about the fast-fashion retailer’s journey, purpose and practices as a business in today’s market.

“Shein was founded around a simple premise – how do you make fashion accessible to everybody? How do you create a system that can be dynamic enough to meet the needs of customers around the world with trendy items, high-quality clothing that is safe and affordable? These are the questions that animated our founders and continue to drive our company as we expand and grow into new markets, as we capture new customers and find commercial purpose.”

Kingfisher eyes Screwfix expansion

Thierry Garnier said that Kingfisher operates internationally in eight countries and launched Screwfix in France in 2022. Having started as an ecommerce-only brand two years ago, Screwfix France has since opened 30 stores.

Garnier said if Screwfix continues to grow in France it could look to expand the brand into other European countries. Screwfix currently trades in the UK, Poland and France.

“We have high expectations that France will continue to be successful. If it does, we probably have the space to start to look at more European countries to expand into – both in terms of the online market and possibly even with stores. That’s something that we are developing.”

Boots exec says leveraging data for healthcare services is “next frontier”

Boots chief digital officer Paula Bobbett has said the retailer is looking to leverage data to evolve healthcare services.

Bobbett spoke about the success of Boots’ advantage card app, the implementation of an AI chatbot, and its multimillion investment in its digital platform.

Looking ahead to what innovations are next, Bobbett told the panel: “I think the next frontier for us is how we continue to evolve our healthcare services.

“We have a huge amount of data we use when we have consent, but I think the next frontier is how we use data to get better outcomes.

Waitrose sustainability lead: customers care more about value than sustainability

Waitrose ethics and sustainability lead Sam Ludlow-Taylor revealed that while customers “do really care” about sustainability, value is taking priority in today’s market.

Ludlow-Taylor said that when it comes to what customers are spending their money on, sustainability initiatives are not the main things in consideration.

“We have trialled various packaging production initiatives, and in our new store designs we really tried to talk to the consumer about this via buying loose fruits and vegetables and things like that,” she said. “One of the key points we learned was that the messages where we are really landing with our customers is when it comes to value and value-driven proposition as opposed to plastic reduction propositions.”

Focus on innovation not cost-cutting

The chief executive of the BRC has urged retailers to “stay focused on the innovative end and customer deliver” rather than just cut costs in response to the Budget.

Helen Dickinson said she was concerned that the retail sector is due “some short-term pain” because of the Budget, but urged retailers to focus on innovation and on customer delivery “rather than cost cutting, because that’s going to be a bit of a bad outcome for everyone”.

Dickinson stated that the changes would also “hit hardest the bit of retail that is so important to society” – the local, entry-level jobs and high street stores across the UK.

Don’t fear appearing like a ‘Luddite’ around AI

Domain experts should feel empowered to approach AI tools critically even if they do not fully understand the science behind them.

“Sometimes people can be really scared to appear critical about a new AI tool, because there’s always a fear that people will think you are a Luddite or that you don’t understand it or that you are anti-technology,” said Kerry McInerney, senior research fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge. 

“But I think the best way to appreciate new technologies to engage meaningfully with them.”

Majority of Gen Z want augmented reality to enhance in-store shopping

Snapchat data reveals that 81% of Gen Z want augmented reality (AR) to enhance the in-store shopping experience.

Snapchat UK and Ireland vice-president general manager Bridget Lea discussed how Gen Z, those born between 1997 and 2012, are changing how they shop.

A further 61% of this generation said they are more likely to purchase a product after having an AR experience with it, while 82% like AI tools that provide recommendations. “According to Nielsen, Gen Z’s spending power is expected to grow to $12trn (£9.6trn) in 2030,” she said.

Ocado Christmas vs Taylor Swift tickets

Ocado chief customer officer Amit Chitnis says that online delivery slots for Christmas were the second hottest ticket in town during the festive period, except for Taylor Swift tickets. 

“Our Christmas slots get released in September and there was the rush for Taylor Swift tickets and then the rush for our Ocado slots,” he said.

“We want to move from being shopkeepers to a really friendly housekeeper. I’m convinced that the basket of the future is not the same as the basket that we are selling today. It’s true for everybody and it’s true for Ocado.”