Signals

UK – At the Business Design Centre in London, industry professionals gathered for this year’s edition of Live: Retail Week x The Grocer, an event aimed at exploring the future of retail through the lenses of innovation and transformation. The programme brought together talks, workshops and panels focused on the technologies, digital strategies and consumer trends shaping the industry’s next chapter.

: Sarah Boyd, UK managing director at global beauty retailer Sephora, spoke about the brand’s push beyond the capital. ‘While London is the largest part of the market, there are huge cities across the nation that are really important to the economy,’ she said.

Having first expanded beyond London with a Manchester opening in May 2024, Sephora has continued to scale its UK footprint, most recently opening in Northern Ireland in February 2026. Using the Belfast store as an example, Boyd explained that the opening had driven increased online shopping across the region, highlighting how physical presence can act as a catalyst for digital growth through heightened brand awareness.

: The evolving role of the store was also explored in a panel featuring Harj Josson, UK and Ireland retail director at health and wellness retailer Holland & Barrett, who emphasised the importance of brand-first, immersive retail experiences.

Pointing to the company’s Experience Store in Cardiff, which opened in March 2025, Josson argued that the future of physical retail lies in holistic, service-led environments. Alongside its core product range, the store offers health checks and blood testing via a partnership with health and toxicology company Randox, enabling customers to identify issues such as high cholesterol. As Health & Wellness continues to rise as a consumer priority, this shift signals how retailers are expanding from transactional spaces into preventative, advisory and care-orientated destinations.

: Community and loyalty were further examined in a workshop led by Dennis Claus, vice-president of strategy EMEA at Apply Digital, who shared findings from the company’s white paper, The Fandom Advantage, which revealed a notable gap between sports and brand fandom. While 71% of respondents identified as fans of at least one sports team or organisation, only 53% said the same of brands.

Claus encouraged retailers to invest in long-term digital ecosystems that support community, content, commerce and care, fostering deeper emotional connections – an approach that echoes insights from our Sports Community Hubs report.