However, Specsavers believes it has found a model that can scale. The optical retailer has expanded its recycling scheme to all UK stores, adding around 300 locations to an initiative first introduced in 2022.

The move means customers can now drop off unwanted glasses, cases, cleaning cloths, contact lenses and contact lens packaging at every Specsavers branch, regardless of where the products were originally purchased.

In 2025, the scheme collected and recycled 72 tonnes of material from 659 stores and laboratories, almost five tonnes more than the previous year.

For Specsavers’ head of sustainability for the UK and Ireland Helen Curran, the scheme grew out of a gap in the market rather than a regulatory requirement.

“Products like glasses and contact lenses do not really fit into standard recycling schemes,” she said. While donation schemes for reusable spectacles have existed for years, there was no straightforward route for glasses, cases, cloths, contact lenses and blister packs to be handled together.

“We saw an opportunity to make it easier for customers and operationally easier for ourselves.”

Turning optical waste into raw materials

One question facing many retailer recycling schemes is what actually happens to the waste once it disappears into a collection box.

Specsavers’ programme is run with recycling specialist MYGroup, which separates and processes the material at its UK operation in Hull. According to Curran, the scheme captures a broad mix of products, from old spectacles and cases to contact lens packaging and worn lenses.

The retailer operates two collection streams: customer-facing recycling boxes in stores and separate collection points within its laboratories. The lab stream is designed to capture higher-value materials such as dummy lenses used in the manufacturing process.

Specsavers does not currently separate its reporting between customer returns and internally generated waste, nor does it break down the 72 tonnes by material type. Likewise, the company was unable to provide a figure for what proportion of its total UK waste footprint the scheme represents.

What it can say is that much of this material would previously have entered general waste streams.

“If a company was using a different partner that only took glasses and reused them in a developing country, you would only really use around 20 to 30 per cent of those frames,” Curran said. Cases, cloths, contact lenses and blister packs would typically have been discarded through conventional waste routes.

The collected material is ground down and repurposed into products including joinery boards and furniture. While the recycled content is not currently being incorporated back into Specsavers products, the company has worked with MYGroup to produce Specsavers-branded pens made from material recovered through the scheme.

“It is important for people to be able to say, ‘Wait, waste made this?'” Curran said.

The commercial case for sustainability

While sustainability projects are often presented as purely environmental initiatives, Curran argues that waste reduction and commercial efficiency increasingly go hand in hand.

“If we look at general waste for a commercial business, it costs more to have more general waste bins,” she said. “Recycling costs less.”

That thinking appears to be informing a wider sustainability programme across the business. Earlier this year, Specsavers won Retail Week’s Green Initiative of the Year award for changes to its ophthalmic lens manufacturing process. The project reduced hard-to-recycle plastic waste by 107 tonnes a year and cut annual carbon emissions by 230 tonnes through changes to lens production and stock management.

The retailer is also pursuing broader environmental targets. According to its sustainability commitments, Specsavers is targeting net-zero emissions across scopes 1, 2 and 3 by 2050, with interim goals to reduce operational emissions by 50% and supply-chain emissions by 25% by 2030.

Curran said the company is increasingly focused on reducing waste before it is created, particularly through packaging changes and material efficiency.

“This programme is just one area where we are looking to reduce waste overall, both by improving our recycling rates and looking at waste at source.”

The growing regulatory burden is also shaping decision-making. With measures such as digital product passports and wider sustainability reporting requirements moving up the agenda across Europe, Curran said the priority is understanding what data businesses need and ensuring suppliers are part of the process.

“Any big business will have the majority of its emissions sitting in scope three,” she said. “It is about working with suppliers.”

For Specsavers, the challenge appears less about persuading customers to participate than making participation simple. The company says customer feedback has been positive, although it has not published formal participation figures.

“I think everybody wants to do the right thing,” Curran said. “You just have to make it easy and accessible for them.”

As retailers face growing scrutiny over waste, packaging and supply-chain transparency, Specsavers shows the test lies in whether businesses can make these initiatives easy enough to become routine.

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter

According to Rithum’s retail director EMEA Mark Howell, the model is becoming an increasingly important part of modern retail strategy, allowing businesses to widen their assortment while saving on cash and warehouse capacity.

Retail Gazette caught up with Howell, who says the fundamental attraction of dropshipping is simple: retailers only pay for stock once it has been shipped by a supplier.

“The virtue and advantage of doing a model like dropship is you only pay for it when it’s shipped by the brand,” he explains.

For retailers faced with constraints such as warehouse capacity, store space and inventory budgets, dropshipping allows them to still provide for customers without ‘committing significant capital upfront’.

“Retailers want to solve a problem,” Howell says. “They want to be relevant for customers. They want to have choice and assortment.”

The approach has become particularly attractive as retailers seek to compete with ecommerce giants such as Amazon, where a significant proportion of products are supplied and fulfilled by third-party sellers operating from warehouses Amazon itself does not own.

“Mimicry is the highest form of flattery,” Howell says. “If it works, why aren’t I doing it?”

What does dropshipping actually change?

While dropshipping is often discussed as a commercial strategy, Howell argues the biggest shift happens operationally.

Instead of goods moving through a retailer’s own distribution network, suppliers become responsible for fulfilment and delivery. The retailer, however, remains accountable for customer experience.

“The physical movement of the goods is managed by a supplier,” he says. However, what does not change are customer expectations.

“Is it being delivered on time? Is the experience good for customers? Is it packaged well? Is it turning up in one piece? All of those things are still true.”

This, Howell says, creates one of the biggest challenges for retailers adopting the model: learning how to relinquish some control without losing visibility.

Many businesses, Howell says, still operate around wholesale processes built over decades. Buyers and merchandisers remain accustomed to approving every SKU, product description and item before it reaches customers.

One of the common mistakes is attempting to replicate those same wholesale processes within a dropship environment.

“If you try and replicate your wholesale processes just into dropship, then you will suffer. You will fail because you’ll still be slow.”

Instead, retailers need to adopt a “trial and learn” mindset, using supplier inventory to test new products and categories before making larger commitments.

The model can also help retailers free up warehouse capacity by moving slower-selling lines out of their own fulfilment networks while continuing to offer them online.

Trust and data become the new battlegrounds

Howell believes that as retailers move away from inventory-led expansion, trust becomes the defining competitive advantage.

“We shop with retailers that we get a good experience with,” he says. For that reason, supplier performance cannot be left to chance.

Retailers typically establish strict operational playbooks, service-level agreements (SLAs) and key performance indicators (KPIs) for participating suppliers. Failure to meet those standards can result in financial penalties or removal from the programme.

“If you don’t do what customers expect, you’ll erode trust,” Howell says. He points to Marks & Spencer as an example of a retailer that established clear expectations from the outset when building its programme.

Alongside trust, product data is becoming increasingly important as consumers change how they discover products online.

Howell says retailers are now navigating a world where search is becoming more conversational, driven by platforms such as ChatGPT, Gemini and other AI-powered tools.

“It’s not just enough to say it’s a laptop with 16GB of memory and a certain screen size,” he explains.

If consumers search for a lightweight laptop with a high-quality display, or a breathable hiking backpack suitable for long walks, retailers need product attributes that reflect those needs.

“If that information isn’t there, the AI engine isn’t going to find it.” The challenge is compounded by the fact that many retailers are still working to improve the quality of legacy product data already sitting across their websites.

Learning from past failures

While dropshipping and marketplace models have become commonplace in the US, Howell believes the UK market has historically struggled to achieve the same level of success.

Part of the reason, he argues, is that many retailers attempted to bolt dropship programmes onto existing wholesale systems rather than redesigning processes around the new model.

“UK retailers were trying to make these quite big ideas work, but they were still being bound to the legacy of old wholesale processes.”

By contrast, retailers that have succeeded have invested in new fulfilment models while remaining realistic about the limitations of older technology infrastructure.

“It’s about finding the best path with what you have,” Howell says. The growing maturity of the sector is also helping. More retailers have now seen successful examples in the market, while specialist technology providers and industry professionals bring greater experience than was available a decade ago.

Howell points to Next as an example of a retailer that has successfully modernised its fulfilment approach. While the retailer still has deep roots in traditional wholesale operations, it has developed new fulfilment models and moved beyond some of the limitations of legacy processes.

He also highlights Marks & Spencer’s approach, praising the retailer for having a clear vision of what it wanted its dropship programme to achieve and for setting clear expectations for suppliers from the outset.

Howell says retailers such as M&S, Adidas and Pets at Home may use different commercial models and operate in different sectors, but all face the same challenge of balancing customer experience, supplier relationships and operational efficiency as they expand their assortments beyond inventory held in their own warehouses.
At the same time, retailers are facing new pressures ranging from rising fuel costs and geopolitical disruption to changing regulation around artificial intelligence.

Howell highlights the forthcoming requirements under the EU AI Act, which will introduce new transparency obligations around AI-generated content and product information.

He also points to the future development of Digital Product Passports, which are expected to require significantly greater product-level data and traceability across supply chains.

While the final shape of those regulations is still evolving, Howell believes retailers will increasingly require suppliers to provide the necessary information as a condition of participation.

“The retailer is still heavily liable due to our laws and legislation in the UK.”

For retailers balancing growth ambitions with mounting operational complexity, the challenge is no longer simply expanding assortment. It is doing so while maintaining trust, visibility and compliance.

As customer discovery shifts towards AI-driven search and product recommendations, retailers may find that the quality of their product data matters just as much as the size of their catalogue.

The retailers that succeed will not necessarily be those holding the most stock, but those that can connect customers to the right products, at the right time, through the right fulfilment model.

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter

Morrisons highlighted that the stores on the chopping block, which were acquired as part of its £190 million rescue deal for McColl’s in 2022, had been loss-making for some time.

It also noted that the stores’ performance had been “challenged for a number of years” despite efforts to boost their trading.

However, the move to axe these stores may seem like a surprising one, given that the supermarket unveiled plans to turn hundreds of corner shops throughout England into its own branded convenience stores in October.

A growing franchise model

Morrisons has roughly 1,700 Morrisons Daily stores, with a large proportion of these owned and operated by independent retailers.

In recent times, the supermarket has moved to grow a franchise model which is still expanding, according to Sky News.

In October, The Telegraph reported that Morrisons was set to launch 250 new “Morrisons Daily” convenience stores in 2026, by enabling corner shop owners to turn their stores into Morrisons franchises.

Morrisons’ expansion via its convenience franchise network makes sense. According to market research firm Mintel’s UK convenience stores market report for 2026, the UK convenience store market hit an estimated £54 billion in 2025 and is expected to increase to £61.8 billion by 2030.

The report also highlighted that grocery multiples were “investing more heavily” in smaller format stores “to capture everyday missions and food-to-go spend”. It noted that this underlined “how convenience has moved to become a more central pillar of grocery strategy”.

Likewise, a July report from estate agents Savills UK claimed that UK grocers were expanding their convenience store formats to “meet shifting consumer behaviours,” particularly “the demand for speed, proximity, and flexibility in shopping”.

Morrisons’ other convenience-related moves

Despite its franchise growth, the supermarket’s 100 convenience shops in the firing line are not its first round of company-owned c-stores to be axed of late.

In March 2025 the retailer revealed plans to axe 17 convenience stores, alongside 2 cafés, all 18 of its Market Kitchens, 13 florists, 35 meat counters, 35 fish counters, and four pharmacies as part of a major operational shake-up.

Commenting at the time, CEO Rami Baitiéh explained: “The changes we are announcing today are a necessary part of our plans to renew and reinvigorate Morrisons and enable us to focus our investment into the areas that customers really value and that can play a full part in our growth.”

More recently, Morrisons also revealed plans to restructure its convenience and general merchandise teams in March, placing around 100 roles at risk at its head office. The move effectively axed the business’s convenience buying team, according to The Grocer.

Explaining at the time, a spokesperson for the supermarket said: “To enable us to deliver a truly multichannel shopping experience for Morrisons customers, we are proposing to integrate the operation of our supermarkets and company-owned convenience stores and support office functions into a single team structure.

“The plans will allow us to leverage the existing skills and expertise we have in the business, remove duplication, simplify our store operations and capture efficiencies.”

However, they noted: “There will be no direct impact on Morrisons Daily stores.”

Additionally, Morrisons director of convenience and wholesale Matt Heslop stepped down from his role in February, after joining the business in March 2025.

What’s next for Morrisons’ c-stores?

Despite the “challenged” performance of Morrisons’ 100 company-owned c-stores, the supermarket also blamed the government for its decision to axe the sites. 

It claimed that “significant cost increases resulting from government policy choices” such as increases to the national living wage and employer National Insurance contributions had worsened the situation. 

It insisted that Labour’s budget decisions had made attempts to return the shops to profitability “even more difficult”.

So what’s next for the future of Morrisons’ convenience stores? For now, the business seems laser-focused on its franchise model.

As further incentive for its franchisees’, the company introduced “new and improved terms” for its independent retailers in July, including the chance to earn up to a six percent volume rebate, up from the previous cap of 1.5 percent.

Indeed, Morrisons’ director for wholesale convenience Paul Dobson insisted that its “new and existing franchise partners” were “pivotal” to its overall success.

“We’re excited to implement these enhanced terms for our independent retail partners and confident they will help us meet our ambitious growth plans for our Morrisons Daily estate,” he insisted.

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter

Despite this, the youth jobs crisis is undeniably a growing problem in the UK.

A new interim report into youth unemployment, published by former minister Alan Milburn, found that job and career opportunities for young people were “not growing” but were “shrinking”.

Additionally, the review claimed that 1 in 6 young people were set to be out of work, education or training in five years unless action was taken.

In response to the issue, the government has rolled out an “employment lifeline” for young people across the country, offering 300,000 new work experience and training placements as part of a £2.5 billion youth employment support package.

The placements come as the government accelerates its “Youth Guarantee,” designed to “give every young person the chance to earn or learn”.

The programme also aims to reverse the growing numbers of young people not in education, employment, or training (NEETs), which currently stands at just over/under one million.

However, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has cautioned that the government’s youth jobs push risks being undermined by rising employment costs and new regulation.

A “dramatic fall” in entry-level jobs

The BRC’s comments follow a warning from Next CEO Lord Wolfson earlier this month of a “dramatic fall” in entry-level job opportunities throughout the UK due to rising employment costs and weaker hiring conditions.

Demonstrating his point, the exec told the BBC that while his retailer typically received roughly 10 applicants for every shop vacancy two years ago, the figure had now soared to 19.

Recent Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures also revealed that the jobless rate for 16 to 24 year olds had hit 16.2 per cent during the first quarter of the year, marking an 11 year high.

Likewise, retailers have cautioned that higher National Insurance contributions and hikes to the minimum wage are making it more difficult for businesses to create lower-paid and part-time roles for workers.   

“The customer experience is suffering”

CEO of retail marketing agency Gekko, Daniel Todaro, agrees that the “increase in the minimum wage and employer national insurance contributions” alongside “growing operating costs and overheads” has “put retailers in a tight spot”.

“Retailers have been stretching their resources as far as possible, and they simply cannot afford to hire inexperienced workers” he argues.

“Regardless of age, staff numbers in retail stores have been reducing for some time, and with fewer roles – and a higher reliance on technology – the customer experience is suffering.”

Founder of luxury retail recruitment firm Fortem & Mode, Ceri Gravelle, acknowledges that retail “has long been one of the most important entry points into work for young people”.

However, she says: “When entry-level opportunities reduce, the impact is therefore much wider than on the immediate headcount.

“If fewer young people are allowed to gain early retail experience, the industry risks depleting its future talent pipeline.”

For retailers, it’s also worth bearing in mind that the physical retail sector is “evolving” in 2026, according to Rightmove Commercial. “At the centre” of its evolution is experiential retail, which “prioritises engagement, immersion and social interaction over simple transactions”.

Echoing this, Gravelle highlights that in-store retail “still depends heavily on people”.

“Technology can improve efficiency, but it cannot successfully replace warmth, brand storytelling or the ability to build trust and rapport with a customer,” she points out.

“If retailers reduce headcount too sharply at store level, service standards can suffer, and that has a direct impact on conversion, loyalty and brand perception.”

How can retailers navigate the crisis?

Head of the retail division at Everpool Recruitment Samantha Whitman argues that retailers are “trying to adapt” to the situation by “providing more structured entry-level training, shorter, more flexible onboarding, stronger links with colleges, and in-house work placements”.

“The retailers that respond now will be those that treat young workers as a long-term investment, not just an immediate cost,” she explains.

“Building clear progression routes, offering mentoring and making part-time roles more attractive could help retailers protect service standards while developing the next generation of retail talent.”

However, Todaro argues that although “retailers are doing all they can to navigate the issues they are facing” the “onus lies with the government”.

“Casual employment is a vital entry point to the workforce, building transferable life skills and enabling independence amongst young people,” he says.

“Not only does current policy conflict with the government’s goals to grow the economy and get more NEETs into employment, it also penalises UK businesses that are finding it increasingly more difficult to function successfully in an economy burdened by restrictive legislation.”

Gravelle concludes: “Ultimately, rising costs are forcing retailers to think more commercially about workforce planning and ROI. 

“But if the sector becomes too cautious with entry-level hiring, it risks solving a short-term cost challenge alongside creating a long-term talent shortage. They must get this important balance right.”

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter

Retail, in that version of the future, becomes faster, more automated, more predictive and less dependent on the concept of needing to travel to a physical location. The customer asks, the machine finds, the platform fulfils. The shop floor becomes a relic of an earlier, messier age.

It’s perhaps a compelling argument, given the ever-rising market share of online. However, it’s also fundamentally flawed.

Yes, there’s no denying that AI is changing physical retail, and quickly. It’s currently doing a stellar job of exposing tired stores, weak service, poor stock accuracy and retail models that depend on customers tolerating friction. But that’s not the same as saying that it will ultimately make stores irrelevant. In many cases, it will do the opposite.

The real threat is not to bricks-and-mortar itself, but boring bricks-and-mortar. The store that offers little more than shelves, queues and indifferent service will continue to struggle in an AI-shaped market – just take TG Jones as a prime example. If a customer can compare prices, read reviews, check availability and receive a product without leaving home, a poor store has very little left to defend. Habit won’t be enough, location won’t be enough, even range won’t be enough.

But the best stores have always offered something harder to automate. They give customers confidence via vital human connection, they edit choice with physical comparison, they create immediacy, and they offer increasingly important advice, reassurance, human judgement and a reason to spend time with a brand in the real world.

A recent ICSC and McKinsey report argues that as AI takes on more of the search and comparison process, stores are likely to become places for fulfilment, returns, product validation, immediate access and differentiated experiences. The same research found that 68 per cent of consumers had used at least one AI-enabled shopping tool in the previous three months, with 62 per cent using it to compare brands, models, prices or reviews.

In other words, the customer entering the store may already know more than they used to. That raises the bar for physical retail. It doesn’t remove the need for it. The store visit becomes less about basic information and more about certainty. Does this fit? Does it feel right? Is it worth the money? Can I trust this recommendation? Can someone help me choose without overwhelming me? Those aren’t questions that disappear because AI exists.

This is where the industry needs to be careful. Too much of the retail AI conversation still slips into a replacement mindset. Fewer people, fewer interactions, fewer costs. More automation presented as progress.

There will be areas where automation makes obvious sense. AI can improve forecasting, stock allocation, staff scheduling, returns processing and fulfilment. It can help retailers understand local demand faster and remove some of the operational drag that makes stores expensive and inconsistent.

The commercial case is strong; research cited by McKinsey and ICSC suggests that AI, automation and advanced analytics could increase retailers’ gross operating profit by up to 20 percentage points. AI-based demand forecasting could reduce stock-outs by 20 per cent and cut inventory costs by up to 10 per cent. Real-time in-store data could increase conversion by 15 per cent.

If AI can give associates better product knowledge, help managers plan labour more intelligently and make stock more visible across channels, it frees people to focus on the parts of retail where they make the greatest difference. Advice. Service. Problem-solving. Selling with confidence. Reading the customer in front of them.

That is why the smartest retailers won’t use AI to gut the store, but to make the experience more efficient and effective for customers.

Tecovas offers a useful example. The western wear retailer uses AI in its Boot Runner programme so store associates can request specific boots and have them brought to the sales floor in around 85 seconds. The technology does the fetching. The human stays with the customer during a purchase that can feel unfamiliar for a first-time buyer. As Tecovas’ chief technology officer Kevin Harwood put it, the brand has used AI to create a better human connection in store.

That should be the test for retail AI. Does it protect the customer relationship, or does it weaken it? The answer will separate good strategies from lazy ones.

The recent Andon Market experiment in San Francisco shows why full automation is a much messier prospect than the theory suggests. Andon Labs handed an AI agent called Luna a budget, a corporate card and the task of running a physical store. Luna could hire contractors, source products and make certain logistical decisions. It also exposed ethical and operational problems, including failing to consistently disclose that it was an AI in hiring conversations. At the time of reporting, the store was not profitable, with estimated monthly operating costs of roughly 14,300 dollars against revenue of 6,000 to 8,000 dollars.

What does this prove? That a store is more than a collection of technical decisions held together by inventory, labour and margin. It’s things that remain intaginble for an analytical technology. Mood, timing, trust, presentation, local knowledge, human behaviour and thousands of small judgements made across a trading day. The best store managers know when a display is not working before the data catches up. The best associates know when to step forward and when to leave a customer alone. The best retailers know that efficiency is valuable, but only if it improves the experience rather than stripping it bare.

AI can support those judgements. It can’t, and likely will never be able to, replace the need for them.

This is the strongest counterpoint to Jassy’s argument. AI may accelerate ecommerce, but it will also force physical retail to become more deliberate. Stores will need to know what they are for. Some will be built around convenience, with fast collection, returns, availability and operational ease. Others will be built around discovery, with curation, service, theatre and expertise. Many will need to combine both.

What they cannot be, is vague.

For years, too many stores have survived by being present rather than purposeful. That era is ending. If AI gives consumers more power before they arrive, the store must give them something better when they do.

That could be a faster trip, a better answer or a more confident purchase. It could be a product they can try, touch or take away immediately, perhaps a member of staff who knows enough to challenge the algorithm rather than simply repeat it. It could be a space that makes the brand feel more tangible, more trustworthy and more useful.

AI will become part of almost every serious retail operation. It will shape how retailers forecast demand, allocate stock, plan labour, personalise service and connect physical shops to digital channels. But in bricks-and-mortar, its highest value will not be in replacing the human encounter but materially making that encounter better.

The weak store will be exposed. The lazy store will be punished. The store that treats AI as a way to cut its way to mediocrity will find customers have better options elsewhere.

But the store that uses AI to become sharper, faster, more informed and more human has a very different future. And it’s this, that Andy Jassy simply doesn’t understand.

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter

From Mango teaming up with Hailey Bieber to L’Oréal collaborating with Charles Leclerc, most brands have an ambassador.

However, most brands also have the same concerns.

Pick the wrong ambassador and you lose your audience, pick the right one and you gain an entirely new one.

I sat down with some expert marketers to find out more about how retailers and brands can select the perfect ambassador.

Head of influencer at social agency SocialChain Sophie Berman believes that the rise of celebrity and influencer owned brands such as Rhode and Rare Beauty has made the landscape for more competitive. These brand’s weren’t built through traditional marketing methods, they were built through consumer trust, founder identity and social media .

She says: “Because of that, the most successful partnerships now are the ones that feel authentic and culturally relevant. Consumers are very quick to recognise when a collaboration feels transactional versus genuinely aligned.”

She highlights that their are three main things that make a partnership successful:

• Genuine alignment between the ambassador and brand values
• A clear understanding of the target audience
• Long-term consistency rather than one-off campaigns

Marketing director for fashion, home & beauty at M&S, Sharry Cramond explains that the most effective brand ambassador partnerships are those where the individual selected to be brand ambassador connects with the brand

She says: “Over at M&S a successful partnership is rooted in authenticity and shared values.”

Group creative director at marketing agency Mongoose Matthew Hocken adds that for a partnership to be successful, marketers need to understand what both parties are bringing to the table.

He says: “Too many brands stop at the announcement but need to figure out how it fits into your products, website, supply chain and employee schemes.”

He adds: “When doing the deal, brands need the confidence to be subversive or normative. Sometimes it’s going for the right tonal fit, other times you need to shake the change tree but know why you’re doing it. Some surprises are good surprises. Michael Cera, Cera Ve is a good example that was initially surprising, but completely obvious once you saw it.”

Cramond highlights that their content series with Melissa Holdbrook-Akposoe was so successful because Holdbrook-Akposoe was already engaging with the brand.

She says: “After seeing how naturally Mel was engaging with M&S, we brought her in to harness both her styling expertise and her highly invested audience, while also experimenting with new long‑form YouTube formats.”

“The result? A collective project reach of 22M and a higher‑frequency, younger shopper base. We absolutely Love That!”

She explains that when selecting an ambassador brands should look for someone who has a engaged audience that mirrors their target audience. M&S look at an ambassador’s content and consistency.

One question that run’s through Cramond’s mind when selecting an ambassador is do they align with M&S’s positioning? And do they have a track record of building trust with their audience.

Cramond says: “Our campaign with Mark (Wright) & Spencer (Matthews) is a great example of this, they brought their humour and names to a simple yet effective, social‑first piece of content to launch menswear that exceeded all expectations.

“The video generated more than 12 million views, alongside a quarter of a million engagements across likes, comments and shares, and drove over 25,000 clicks through to the M&S website. Crucially, it didn’t just perform – it created a cultural moment. The content resonated at scale, repositioning M&S menswear in a more culturally relevant, talkable space.”

Hocken believes that marketers should be looking for “opportunity”.

He says: “What opportunity is there for play, creativity, storytelling, friction and collaboration that takes the partnership away from corporate messaging and into the world of the audience? If you don’t understand that before you start, you’ve got a lot of hard, expensive work to come.”

Berman suggests that brands should look beyond follower counts as “audiences are increasingly sophisticated.”

She says: “Consumers are exposed daily to influencer and celebrity-led brands, so authenticity has become incredibly important.

“The right ambassador is someone who naturally fits the brand’s identity and already speaks to the retailer’s target audience in a credible way. For example, the success of brands like SKIMS shows the power of community and trust.

“Audiences feel invested because Kim Kardashian genuinely embodies the lifestyle and values behind the brand.”

Hocken adds that brand ambassadors enable brands to reach new audience as they can “speak human” for you.

Berman highlights that since social media has changed how consumers discover brands, people are increasingly trusting creators, celebrities and personalities they already follow. She believes that this gives brand ambassadors the ability to introduce companies to “entirely new communities”.

Cramond agrees with this sentiment, she highlights that ambassadors give M&S access to new audiences and demographics that may not already be following M&S channels.

However, brand ambassadors don’t just help them retailer gain new audiences, it helps them retain their existing consumer base as well as partnering with an ambassador helps keep the brand “fresh and relevant”.

She explains “They introduce new perspectives, storytelling and moments that reignite interest and deepen engagement. They also reinforce brand affinity.”

Cramond adds that the strongest collaborations allow ambassadors to have creative freedom and use their own voice, while working within a clear framework.

She says: “Ongoing collaboration is key.

“Regular check ins, shared insights and a clear feedback loop, ensure messaging remains aligned whilst feeling natural and engaging.

Berman agrees, saying: “One of the biggest mistakes brands can make in influencer marketing is over-controlling creators to the point where content no longer feels genuine. Audiences can spot overly scripted partnerships immediately.”

Hocken adds: “Ambassadors give existing customers a reason to stay engaged between purchases by anchoring the brand to a lifestyle, a face, and ongoing storytelling.

“It can also help maintain relevance in the market and in culture and a feeling of trust if the person is a long-term ambassador.”

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter

The event, which runs from 23 May to 30 May, follows the brand’s pop-up store in Soho last year, which saw a one-day takeover of The Luxe Lounge to display its womenswear. 

Although the Soho launch was hailed as a success by the group, Gym King is not resting on its laurels and is gearing up to launch an even “bigger and better” event this time around.

An opportunity to showcase its quality

Gym King has come a long way since being launched in 2015 by CEO Jay Parker.

It has grown into a globally recognised brand with a large social media following. It also has a host of influencer ambassadors, and pulled in sales of £26m in its latest financial period. 

Despite its online success, Gym King head of brand Charlotte Hutton notes that its pop-ups serve as important places for it to showcase the quality of its clothes.

“Obviously being an ecommerce first business means we don’t really have many bricks and mortar sites, other than a concession in New Look and Selfridges for men,” she says. 

“So for us it’s really important that we can showcase the quality of our products, because there’s only so much you could do through a phone screen which most people engage with our brand on.

“It’s those in-person moments that I think can really help to solidify the brand message and the premium products that we offer.”

She explains that Gym King has been improving and creating new fabrics over the last ten years, but highlights that this is sometimes “very difficult to show online”.

“It’s customers being able to feel the products, see how good the tech spec is of our gym wear and that it’s not thin,” she says.

“Sometimes you’re not sure how it’s going to look in person so I think it’s just that experience of being able to see that we have really good quality products.”

A host of influencer ambassadors

While Soho focused solely on womenswear, Gym King’s new Westfield pop-up is branching out to offer men’s, women’s and kidswear at its store.

The pop-up will be heavy on experiential retail, complete with live DJs, food and drink, a photobooth, and a free accessory for its first 100 customers.

Hutton also highlights that the pop-up will have “quite a few influencer ambassadors” turning up on its first day.

“We are today (19 May) announcing our new ambassador which is Jacques O’Neill,” she says. “So he will be there for a meet and greet on the first day.” 

She explains that customers being able to meet its ambassadors at the pop-up serves as a point of difference with its pop-up stores.

“I think being able to meet our ambassadors is quite important for us. We talk about ‘nothing beats belief’ as our core messaging and who we are as a brand. 

“We choose ambassadors based on that messaging and people who are aspirational and have achieved amazing things or have got the same mindset as us.”

She adds: “I think being able to actually see that in person is a good point of difference against other brands to show that the people that we engage with and that we believe should be wearing our products are real physical people.”

More physical spaces on the way

Although Gym King has already proved itself in many ways, it’s far from the end of the line for the ambitious sportswear retailer.

As it continues to evolve, Hutton reveals that the brand hopes to roll out more physical spaces in the near future.

“We definitely want to do another pop up either at the end of the year or at the beginning next year,” she says.

“That will be in Manchester because that’s another hot spot for us in terms of consumer base.”

Although she does not reveal any specific locations, the exec also says there has also been “talk of whether we go into flagship stores” in the “not too distant future”.

So if you’re a fan of Gym King’s selection of gym clothes, loungewear, and activewear pieces, the retailer’s head of brand encourages you to “watch this space”.

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter

The retailer has been losing ground to competitors in recent years, with discounter Aldi particularly hot on its heels to overtake it as the UK’s third biggest supermarket.

Despite reporting an EBITDA and sales drop in its latest trading update, executive chairman Allan Leighton went on to claim that Asda’s “progress in key areas like price, availability, and customer satisfaction” was “edging forward”.

He also insisted that it had “an improved customer offer, stable core systems, a strengthened balance sheet and a strong leadership team” to deliver its Formula for Growth strategy.

In its latest efforts to revitalise the business, Asda has unveiled a series of major changes across its product, price and in-store experience.

“Getting back to what Asda has always stood for”

Under one of its biggest product refreshes in recent years, Asda rolled out more than 400 new food and drink lines earlier this month.

This covered a host of categories such as frozen, bakery, produce, fresh meat and food to go.

Additionally, it upgraded two of its most-shopped categories – fresh produce and frozen.

Explaining why it made these changes, Asda chief customer officer Rachel Eyre says: “We know that families are making careful choices about how they spend, so our job is to make sure Asda is the easiest place to get great quality, real choice and outstanding value.

“These changes are about focusing on the areas that matter most to customers – the products they buy every week, the value they demand, and the experience they have in-store.” 

She adds: “It’s about getting back to what Asda has always stood for as a consumer champion, while making sure customers can see and feel those improvements every time they shop with us.”

Bringing a human touch to stores

The changes also involve the re-introduction of greengrocers to the supermarket’s aisles, to help ensure availability and quality in-store.

The grocer initially revealed plans to roll out greengrocers to 150 of its stores across the nation in 2021.

It went on to extend the offering to 250 shops in 2022, before phasing out the greengrocer position across its shops.

Upon their return, Eyre says that the greengrocers will “play an important role” in “bringing expertise back into the fruit and veg aisle”.

“They’re there to make sure products are well presented, availability is strong, and that customers can easily find the best of what’s in season,” she explains.

“Just as importantly, they provide a more helpful, human touch in-store, supporting customers with choice and giving them confidence in the quality of what they’re buying. 

Alongside its new greengrocers, Asda’s fruit and veg section has been fitted with “clearer information on quality and provenance” to highlight the retailer’s fresh promise – “100% satisfaction or your money back”.

Are the changes enough to revive Asda? 

Asda’s changes don’t stop there. The supermarket’s frozen category has also been revamped to make shopping “quicker and easier”.

This consists of a clearer layout and signage as well as more prominence given to the retailer’s best-selling lines on the shelf.

To top it off, over 230 new frozen products have been added to the category. 

In terms of pricing, hundreds of items that shoppers purchase the most have been reduced to a new lower Asda Price, with more reductions to follow in the coming weeks.

New £1 and £2 roundels have also been added to stores, while an enhanced rewards programme has introduced new missions and offers across different categories such as fresh, frozen and general merchandise.

Asda seems to have pulled out all the stops with its refresh. But is it enough to revive the struggling supermarket’s fortunes? 

The retailer still has a mountain to climb in terms of its turnaround. Its market share stands at 11.6 per cent as of April, a far cry from the 17.3 per cent share it held back in 2014.

However, Eyre notes that the customer reaction to its changes so far have been “really encouraging”.

“They’re noticing the improvements in ranges across areas such as frozen and they’re responding positively to the revamped rewards offering,” she says. 

“That being said, this isn’t a short-term stunt, we know that earning customers trust is a long-term mission that doesn’t just stop when they come into one of our stores.

“We’ve made these changes so that customers can feel confident that they’ll have a positive experience every time they shop with us.”

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter

Later in April, the brand went on to announce that Myprotein would be partnering with Footasylum, with its activewear range making its high-street debut.

The range is currently available across seven UK Footasylum stores, including Manchester Arndale, Cardiff, White Rose Leeds, Meadowhall, Oxford Street, Metrocentre and Silverburn, according to THG’s website.

Items available to purchase include hoodies, jackets, leggings, shorts and sports bras, in colourways such as butter yellow, blush, mint green, slate blue and black.

“Scaling Myprotein as a true omnichannel brand”

Although the Footasylum tie-up marks Myprotein’s first activewear brick-and-mortar launch, the brand already sells a wide range of its nutrition products across physical stores.

In 2024, the company launched into 1,200 Boots stores nationwide, selling goods such as its Clear Whey Protein and Impact Pre-Workout. The move marked its biggest in-store launch with a single retailer at the time.

More recently, the brand partnered with convenience food producer Greencore in February to introduce a new range of Myprotein branded food on-the-go products, with the items available in Sainsbury’s supermarkets and convenience stores.

Explaining why Myprotein made its activewear debut on the high street, THG Nutrition CEO Neil Mistry says that it had built a “strong” direct to consumer business over the last decade, and that the next step was “scaling Myprotein as a true omnichannel brand”.

“Physical retail allows us to reach new customers, build brand presence, and showcase the quality and design of our products in a way digital alone can’t” he says. 

“It’s less about shifting channel and more about expanding how and where customers engage with the brand.”

With its status as a leading sports nutrition brand, Myprotein choosing Footasylum for its high-street activewear debut makes sense.

In its latest annual results, the footwear giant hailed a “standout” year as its sales and profits hit a record high.

The shoe retailer is also pushing ahead with its store expansion plans. In March, it extended its revolving credit facility with HSBC UK from £35m to £60m.

The increased funding is set to support the next phase of Footasylum’s store rollout programme, with new locations planned in Leeds, Glasgow and Merthyr Tydfil.

Mistry affirms: “Footasylum has a strong, fashion-led customer base that aligns well with how our activewear has evolved; moving beyond performance into everyday lifestyle.

“They understand their audience, curate their offer well, and give us the right environment to introduce the brand in a way that feels authentic and relevant.”

He adds: “We’ll work closely with Footasylum to refine the range, understand customer response, and then scale into additional stores where we see the strongest opportunity.”

A focus on womenswear 

For now, Myprotein’s partnership with Footasylum has seen “a curated selection of women’s MP Activewear” launched across selected UK stores, aimed at 16 to 24 year olds.

The exec explains that the launch focused on womenswear due to this category being “one of the fastest-growing parts” of its activewear business and “a key area of focus for us”.

However, he notes: “Menswear remains a significant opportunity, and we’ll look to expand this with the right partners over time.”

Myprotein’s collaboration with Footasylum raises the question of whether the brand will partner with any other retailers for future high-street activewear launches.

Although Mistry refrains from naming any specific brands, he insists that the company is “focused on building long-term partnerships with a small number of key retailers, rather than scaling too quickly”.

“The priority is to get the model right, prove demand, and then expand in a considered way” he adds.

Myprotein Kitchen “helped us understand the role physical space can play”

As well as selling its range of nutrition products in-stores, Myprotein’s kitchen store format preceded its activewear launch in Footasylum.

The business initially launched its physical kitchen store in Manchester in 2023, with the shop selling goods including fresh food, protein shakes and coffee.

In October, the brand went on to reveal that it was partnering with Everlast Gyms to rollout its Myprotein Kitchens in the gym’s locations across the UK and Ireland.

Mistry assures that the Manchester kitchen concept had been “a really valuable brand asset” for the business.

Additionally, he says: “It’s helped us understand the role physical space can play – not just as a retail channel, but as a way to bring the brand to life through experience, community and product discovery.”

“Those learnings are directly shaping how we approach retail more broadly.”

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter

However, cash is actually witnessing a resurgence among holidaymakers, according to Fexco managing director Simon Phillips, with the payment method becoming particularly popular with younger shoppers.

Phillips is Fexco’s retail foreign exchange managing director and is also responsible for 226 Sainsbury’s Travel money branches, which are all in the supermarket’s physical stores, as well as 220 No1 Currency outlets. Fexco acquired Sainsbury’s travel money arm last year.

Retail Gazette chats to the managing director to find out what’s behind the cash resurgence and how retailers can leverage this opportunity.

Cash resurgence driven by a tight economy

According to a report by Swedish cash handling company Loomis in January, cash use in the UK has steadily declined over the past decade, with the payment method accounting for under 10 per cent of all payments by 2024.

However, it highlights that this trend “may be levelling off,” with data from building societies and industry bodies revealing that cash withdrawals and usage had risen for the third year in a row.

A 2026 report from market research firm Mintel also claims that cash remains “the most popular spending method among overseas UK holidaymakers” with “usage highest among older age groups, driven by long-established spending habits and wariness over digital solutions”. 

Phillips says there are “a couple of drivers” behind why cash is seeing a resurgence among holidaymakers. 

“The biggest one is, let’s face it, is that the economy is tight,” he says.

“People have a bit less money to spend, and one of the ways that individuals can help manage their expenses, which is a bit old school, is actually running with cash to help budget. And that’s particularly useful when you’re on holiday.

“So we’ve seen individuals recognising that to help them not worry about their spending on holiday, they would use cash as a basis.”

When it comes to younger shoppers, the exec notes that in the last six to 12 months it has seen research that Gen Z are “looking at cash differently, even at home domestically”.

“People have been doing these credit and debit card free weekends and living on cash,” he says.

“That has been about budgeting and being a bit more self aware and a bit more involved with the flow. 

“Because I don’t know about you, but when I tap, tap, tap my card everywhere, it can be a little challenging to know what my bill is going to be. Whereas with cash, you kind of know what’s coming out.”

Additionally, Phillips highlights that the cash resurgence is not just about consumers, but about retailers, particularly those overseas from the UK.

“Card processing costs are expensive. You buy your goods with cash, you buy your supplies with cash. It means you’re losing less of your income to the supply chain. Again, when things are a bit tough, that’s helpful,” he says.

An opportunity for supermarkets

Supermarkets have become increasingly popular places to collect travel money over the years.

Phillips explains: “What has happened over the last decade is that supermarkets in particular have become quite a destination for picking up travel money.

“20 years ago you wouldn’t have found anywhere to get your travel money in a supermarket or any other retailer outside of perhaps the bank or a post office.

“Now, you can go and do your weekly shop and pick up your travel money.”

He adds: “It’s not going to be for every single type of retailer because you need footfall, but travel money is a great product to get people into your stores.”

In terms of Fexco’s own operations, the exec highlights that its work with other business models such as greengrocers and chemists involves those companies using foreign exchange as a “secondary product”.

“This isn’t to serve their existing customers but it’s to bring customers in,” he says.

“We do that through the pre-order mechanism. So that footfall is of course a lot of existing Sainsbury’s customers in the case of Sainsbury’s but equally it could be someone whose nearest place to pick up travel money happened to be a Sainsbury’s.

“That is then a fantastic opportunity for the partner to cross sell. That’s what the good retailers will do.”

Citing a cross selling example from Sainsbury’s own operations, Phillips notes: “I was in Bristol Sainsbury’s last week and sure enough there were loads of sun tan lotion products near to the area where the travel money bureaux was.

“So if you’re picking up your travel money, there’s an opportunity to buy your sun cream ahead of the travel.”

Travel money bureaus “important” to Sainsbury’s

As a part of supermarket operations that are often overlooked, many consumers may not think of travel money bureaus as being a particularly significant part of their model.

However, Phillips highlights that its travel money bureaus in supermarkets serve “millions of customers a year”.

“Over a quarter of those customers are pre-ordering and collecting in-store. So, some of those will be existing Sainsbury’s or Nectar customers that are coming in and others will be being pulled in.”

He also points out: “Sainsbury’s were really, really clear with us on how important they see having bureaus as part of their product offering is.”

This sentiment was echoed by Sainsbury’s chief financial officer Bláthnaid Bergin at the time of its acquisition to Fexco, where she described its travel money service as “a service our customers value” and “a well-established part of our offer”.

Phillips concludes: “Of course when they were debanking, I guess they could’ve just said we’ll take the space back and sell something else.”

“They’re a smart bunch, so I reckon they probably know that it’s important to their footfall.”

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter