Travelogue: My Retail Adventures in London

I’m just back from an inspiring trip to London. My first day was spent entirely in customer meetings—always the best part of any visit. The next day was a combination of time with my UK Retail team and some of their most interesting and progressive customers.

Among them was one of my favorite brands, and it was great fun to discuss new store experiences and brainstorm what is possible—and what may not be today, but will be, especially with joint innovation and experimentation.

Next stop was Retail Week’s Tech conference, where I had the opportunity to discuss how data, artificial intelligence and mixed reality are underpinning the world of retail transformation.

At Tech, examples of this were front and center. Retailers shared the journeys they are on in terms of the level of experimentation, efforts to move away from solutions so specialized they can’t keep pace with changing consumer demand, and the challenges of balancing the needs of business today with the expectations of tomorrow. 

Onstage at Retail Week's Tech conference and a fun illustration of my keynote created by The Smart Cube

I also experienced this spirit of innovation and transformation firsthand. After the Tech conference wrapped, we headed over to Westfield Stratford City, one of the largest urban shopping centers in Europe. Here I took a tour of the Marks & Spencer department store, and was so impressed by Mark Payne, our incredible host and store manager, and the caliber of his team. Their level of emphasis on the customer is, frankly, amazing.

Outside of specialty and high fashion, the employee engagement in putting the customer at the center was the best I have observed in years. It was so natural. Everyone always had an eye on the customer. And they took action rather than just telling the customer how to self-serve—from the shopper who was setting clothes on the floor so he could find something, to another who had trouble finding their way, to several in the café who called the Men’s wear leader by name from across the room. This consistent level of customer service was clearly recognized and appreciated. I even watched one gentlemen who literally trotted over to Mark just to shake his hand because, after all, Mark is the store manager.

Me with Mark Payne, Store Manager at Marks & Spencer, Westfield Stratford City, London

While at Westfield Stratford City, we also discovered a great new IKEA showroom just for orders and collections. You can pick up orders, but unlike very transactional click and collect, there is also a petite showroom, beautifully staged with just the right amount of merchandise to help people see, touch and experience what they are getting. I had not seen this format from IKEA before, but I believe it will be very successful. It brings the scale and scope of IKEA to something one can consume—without limiting what can be ordered. To get shoppers delighted, to move them forward when they have hesitated online, is genius.

IKEA Westfield Stratford City, Order and collection point

Special thanks to the Retail Week team, Marks & Spencer’s Mark Payne, and my Microsoft team in London for being such generous hosts. I had a wonderful time. I’m inspired by the retail innovation taking place, and I look forward to sharing more examples from my future travels.