Retail loss has swiftly become one of the most pressing and expensive challenges facing the UK retail industry.

From theft and stock shrinkage to the growing pressure placed on frontline staff, the issue has far surpassed simply being an operational headache, and is now major drag on retail profitability.

In this episode of the Unpacked Podcast, host Kieran Howells speaks to Dominic Brynolf, vice president of sales at Trigo, about how retailers can take a smarter, more strategic approach to loss prevention, with the use of AI.

With more than 25 years of experience across retail technology, AI and business transformation, Brynolf offers a clear-eyed view of why loss is escalating, where traditional prevention methods are falling short, and how new technology can help retailers respond more effectively.

The conversation centres on the intersection of a worsening loss problem and the growing potential of AI-powered retail technology.

Rather than presenting loss prevention as something that requires a huge systems overhaul, Brynolf explains how retailers can begin making meaningful progress by using assets many already have in place, particularly existing CCTV infrastructure.

The discussion explores how AI can help retailers identify risk earlier, improve visibility across stores, reduce pressure on colleagues and support better decision-making without requiring major changes to existing tech stacks or heavy upfront investment.

While there is no single fix for loss, this episode looks at the practical steps retailers can take to minimise its impact, protect staff and unlock meaningful financial upside for the wider business.

To learn more about Trigo, check out the link in the comments. Or visit them at RTS London, Stand N55 with Vista Technology Services.

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Euroshop 2026 is once again behind us, and this year over 81,000 visitors descended on the show from 141 countries.

The show, which takes place in Düsseldorf, Germany, featured over 1,840 exhibitors from 61 nations. It’s a dizzying affair with so much to do and see, and it’s easy even for those in attendance to see just a tiny
portion of the innovation on offer.

That’s why, in this episode of the Retail Gazette Unpacked podcast, we sit down with Martin Ward, senior retail consultant at Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions, to discuss the very best that Euroshop had to offer, and his key takeaways, through the eyes of a true industry expert.

Toshiba took the show by storm this year with both stand presence, and with Ward sharing insight on stage, in a presentation titled ‘AI in retail: Are we doing it right?’.

Ward takes us through the innovations that truly caught his eye, the big talking points throughout the show, and his own experience of walking the many halls.

Listen now to find out what you may have missed, and what may well be the standout innovations of 2026.

Check out a short gallery of images snapped on the Euroshop floor by the Toshiba team below:

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The question is, what will that look like? In today’s episode of Retail Gazette’s Unpacked podcast, we sit down with AI guru and CEO of 7Learnings, Felix Hoffmann to dig into the realities that many retailers will have to face as soon as this year.

With his unmatched experience from within both retail and evolving technologies, Hoffmann explains in no uncertain terms how agentic AI will augment the shopping experience, and what will be the commonalities within the retailers who come out on top.

To truly get to grips with retail’s next big evolution, listen now.

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Customer expectations. We’re constantly talking about them. However, it’s a nuanced discussion as evidence shows they’re fragmenting, accelerating and, in some cases, colliding.

In the latest episode of the Retail Gazette’s Unpacked podcast, we sit down with an expert capable of putting these changes into perspective, Oscar Strachen, digital strategy consultant at Columbus Global. Together, we unpack what retailers must get right as they head into 2026 at speed.

From personalisation and privacy to fulfilment, marketplaces and the growing influence of Gen Z, the conversation focuses on what’s actually changing customer behaviour, and importantly, where retailers risk falling behind.

For retailers looking to understand what customer experience leadership really looks like heading into 2026, this is a conversation worth listening to.

Listen to the full episode above, and explore the full Retail Gazette × Columbus Global report via this link. 

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Retailers often think of the golden quarter in terms of stock, promotions and delivery speed. But behind every sale, every dispatch, and every customer interaction is a fundamental frontline team under immense pressure.

In 2025, with labour shortages, rising costs, and burnout at record highs, managing your workforce

effectively could be the single biggest determinant of whether you thrive or stumble this peak.

In this episode of Retail Unpacked, we speak with Erik Fjellborg, CEO and founder of Quinyx, to explore how AI-driven scheduling, smarter communication, and employee engagement can turn seasonal chaos into peak performance.

We’ll discuss how flexibility, fairness, and the right tech tools not only boost productivity but also protect the wellbeing of staff, and why that’s the real secret to long-term customer loyalty.

For more insight from Fjellborg, download our free Golden Guide here. 

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In this brand new episode of the Unpacked podcast, we dig into building customer adoption for out-of-home delivery services with Jacek Powałka, one of the top global gurus on OOH solutions, and Head of the Out Of Home Solutions business unit at Modern Expo, a company that has been providing solutions for UK retailers for over 10 years and played a key role in launching the Royal Mail parcel locker network.

In this episode, we talk about the surprising preferences of younger generations and why they’re leading to significant changes in how people shop, how Amazon, Valentine’s Day and COVID have all fuelled the popularity of parcel lockers, and cover some of the most pragmatic uses of the technology:

• Compact drop boxes for small convenience stores guaranteeing that so-called golden shelf is still free for the products and the shop assistants don’t have to waste time collecting each and every parcel.
• Fully modular parcel compartments that can fit both extra small and big spaces.
• Parcels with ambience deep frozen temperatures or -5 degrees that can be used for food delivery.

“There are over 60000 parcel lockers in the country of 38 million inhabitants which would translate into about 100000 parcel lockers in the UK to reach the same quantity in comparison to population,” Powałka states.

Take a look at the products mentioned from Modern Expo’s solutions here.

Liked this episode? Check out our previous episode with Modern Expo about the retail equipment that cuts your expenses here.

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Walk into almost any store today and you’ll find a contradiction playing out in real time. On one hand, retailers are pouring investment into automation, analytics and AI-driven tools promising precision and efficiency. On the other, they’re struggling to find, and keep, the people who make those experiences matter.

It’s a tension that defines modern retail: the race to innovate colliding with the human realities of the shop floor. And for Laurent Homeyer, senior industry advisor for retail, hospitality and transportation at Workday, and Max Weber, vice president for HR financial planning, analysis and data at Mister Spex, that tension isn’t a barrier to progress, it’s the point.

“COVID reminded our industry that we are in a human-first business,” says Homeyer. “The biggest challenge for retailers right now is attracting and retaining people. As we saw at NRF in New York earlier this year, there’s a huge emphasis on store experience and that experience always goes through employees. They’re the ones creating the connection with customers.”

For Weber, whose company has evolved from a pure-play online business into one of Europe’s leading omnichannel eyewear retailers, the challenge goes beyond hiring. “In optical retail, attracting opticians is tough,” he explains. “It’s a trade job that takes years of training, and there’s a shortage of skilled talent. We’ve had to create training programmes that open access to these workers so we can really serve our clientele, not just on the sales side, but by providing the expertise that defines our brand.”

That expertise becomes harder to maintain at scale. “We started stationary retail nearly ten years after we began online,” Weber says. “Since then, we’ve grown exponentially, and with that comes multiple operational challenges, access to talent, how you deploy that talent to the shop floor, how you govern day-to-day operations and maintain efficiency. It’s a constant balancing act between expansion and execution.”

To keep pace, Mister Spex turned to technology. “You can’t bootstrap your retail network all by yourself,” Weber says. “We had to look at scheduling, training, and new technologies that could help us keep pace with growth while still delivering the experiences our customers expect.”

Homeyer believes that’s exactly where retailers should be focusing their transformation efforts. “Everybody’s hearing about AI, which is the next frontier, so you need to be ready for it,” he says. “That means having clean, unified data at scale and platforms that let you bring that data together and keep it updated through regular interaction.”

For him, digital transformation isn’t just about software. “AI will have an impact on how you work, so you need to rethink your organisation and operating model,” he says. “It’s about empowering people to do things they weren’t doing before and changing the mindset. Retailers can’t think of transformation as something that happens every five or ten years anymore. It’s every year, maybe every six months, that you need to adapt how you operate.”

Weber agrees, warning that progress can backfire if it adds friction for staff. “One of the big challenges is not to overburden store teams with administrative tasks,” he notes. “We want them spending time with customers, not data entry. The goal is to simplify processes, give time back to workers, and let them focus on value-creating activities.”

Homeyer nods to the same point. “This transformation should benefit employees,” he says. “Technology should improve their work and make their lives easier. Frontline teams aren’t there to use tech, they’re there to engage with customers. You have to put them at the centre.”

For most retailers, however, the problem isn’t a lack of data, it’s too much of it. “In a survey we did last year, 52 per cent of retailers said one of their biggest problems was that data was everywhere,” Homeyer notes. “46 per cent said they had limited visibility. The result is inefficiency and loss of productivity, people spend more time trying to find information than acting on it.”

He adds that consolidation has measurable benefits. “When you provide data in one place and make it consumable for every stakeholder, productivity rises. In one study, we saw an eight-hour weekly productivity improvement for store managers, and an 8 per cent sales lift per associate.”

Weber notes that Mister Spex’s e-commerce roots gave it an advantage and a new challenge. “As an online brand, we’ve always had plenty of data. When we expanded into stores, the question wasn’t where the data was, it was how to use it,” he says. “We started involving store managers directly in interpreting data and using AI applications that help them make data-informed, not just data-driven, decisions. They can even override the system when local knowledge tells them something different.”

“Instead of centralising reports and telling people what to do, we’ve enabled store teams to work with the data themselves,” he adds. “AI translates the data into something actionable. For example, optimising weekly staffing schedules.”

Workforce management is one of the areas where both leaders see AI adding the most value. “In our survey, retailers told us the top two uses of AI were workforce scheduling and recruitment,” says Homeyer. “It’s about optimising your staff – making the best use of your people – and improving how you hire, onboard and train them. Some retailers are even hiring via social media in under ten minutes, because if they don’t move that fast, another brand will.”

Weber describes how Mister Spex applies that thinking in practice. “Creating an accurate, traffic-based, performance-oriented schedule is complex. AI and machine learning are wonderful tools to support that. They don’t take away decision-making, they enhance it.”

He also sees conversational AI as an unexpected ally. “We’re using information-based chatbots that let store employees access dispersed information quickly, even while they’re with customers,” he adds. “You train an AI once, and it can support thousands of employees every day. It’s like having an expert in every store.”

But even as AI gains ground, Homeyer warns that human needs must remain the focus. “The industry has been suffering from a bad reputation. Long hours, inflexible schedules, low wages,” he suggests. “So, retailers are rethinking their value proposition. Pay will always matter, but flexibility, benefits and career development are key. We’re seeing more flexible scheduling, the ability to swap shifts, new types of employee benefits and clearer career paths.”

Weber agrees that engagement builds from empowerment. “If a store team is performing well, that builds morale. It also gives us more room to be generous with pay through bonuses that reflect performance. For our optometrists, well-designed schedules mean they have time to apply their skills and see the impact of their work. When you combine flexibility, rewards and personal growth, you build teams that stay and thrive.”

Homeyer suggests that for retailers still working with siloed systems, the first step is to rethink how their operations are structured. “If you’re moving to one platform that unifies all your data and maps your employee journey, you need to prepare for that change,” he comments. “Think about how HR, managers and employees will use the system day-to-day. It’s about designing your future state and onboarding everyone in the change so it’s a positive experience.”

Weber closes with a practical example of that change in action. “We implemented Workday’s staff scheduling solution and focused on footfall as the key factor for when to bring workers onto the shop floor,” he says. “Our data scientists analysed how the machine learning algorithm predicted demand and used their own models to identify which stores could add margin by changing staffing patterns. We found 15 stores in Germany that could actually increase operating margin just by adding specific roles at specific times. Those tweaks are now helping turn underperforming stores profitable and at the same time, they’re reducing stress for our existing staff.”

For both leaders, the message is clear. Technology should enable better human outcomes, not replace them. “Technology should improve the lives of employees, not add complexity,” Homeyer emphatically summarises. “They’re not here to use technology. They’re here to engage customers. The tools we give them should make that easier, not harder.”

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Store consumables. They may not be the most invigorating part of the retail equation, but they are utterly essential. Each element of your consumables budget contributes to that vital employee experience, keeping stores running, keeping them clean and tidy, and ensuring that your staff have all that they need to thrive.

They’re necessary, to say the least, but if we’re honest, they can also be a hassle. Every store has a different set of requirements. Order too much, and you’re taking up valuable space. Order too little, and you’re leaving staff in a huge predicament they may not be prepared to handle. “I once had a store go out and buy a brand new vacuum cleaner, when all they needed to do was change the bag!” laughs Mark Swinden, Operations Manager at Aldo.

So, what if we told you that with one fundamental decision, you could completely transform antiquated supplier processes, take control of your likely spiralling consumables budget, up the quality of those products and reduce your environmental impact?

It sounds too good to be true, but today we’re sitting down with Terry Gardner, Retail Consultant and Account Director at Acopia, and Aldo’s Mark Swinden to explore how the global footwear brand has done just that through smarter, more strategic partnerships.

Casting his eyes back over the fruits of the relationship Aldo cultivated with Acopia, Swinden has only this to say: “Honestly, looking back, I just wish we’d made the move sooner.”

From tackling inefficiencies in in-store consumables to building supplier relationships rooted in trust, the conversation digs into how Aldo has sharpened its agility, reduced costs and set itself up for true sustainable long-term success.

By listening, you’ll gain valuable insight into what makes a partnership work, the red flags to watch out for, and why getting supplier relationships right can be a game-changer for retail operations.

This is a very special episode of Retail Gazette Unpacked, recorded inside the brand new Aldo store on London’s iconic Oxford Street. We hope you enjoy.

To learn more about what Acopia can do for you (and gain the efficiencies Mark himself has benefitted from), reach out to Terry and the Acopia team today.

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