All Newsletter briefing articles
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Newsletter
Intelligence Briefing: UK retail vs Amazon capex; Starmer out; supermarket spending
This morning, I am speaking at the Retail Week Digital Transformation Summit about AI and the retail sector. I have been covering AI since I started at Retail Week in late 2024, and one thing that has always been clear is that so much of what UK retailers are reacting ...
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Newsletter
Tech & Digital Briefing: Social media to be banned for youths; AI investment continues to ramp
One of the most controversial debates among parents, teachers, teenagers, retailers, and pretty much everyone in the UK at the moment is the potential social media ban for those under 16. It follows the same ban in Australia, which was implemented in December 2025, but research from the Molly Rose ...
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Newsletter
Editor’s Choice: Under-16s social media ban; Pureseoul co-founder Gracie Tullio interview, Tesco boss on softer sales, inflation and the World Cup
Politics has been making headlines all week, and the decisions of legislators typically have implications for retailers. While Andy Burnham’s victory in yesterday’s Makerfield by-election is dominating the news today, earlier this week PM Sir Keir Starmer revealed plans for a social media ban affecting under-16s. In an increasingly digitally ...
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Newsletter
Intelligence Briefing: Could AI upend online grocery?; Social media ban; Hormuz
New research out this week from Bain looks at what a partial realisation of the agentic shopping revolution (aka people instructing AI tools to do their shopping for them) could do to the grocery business model. The authors zero in on the potential threat to the “basket building model”, where ...
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NewsletterIntelligence Briefing: GLP-1 drugs hit grocery spending; An OK May
£780m. That is how much Worldpanel by Numerator think that Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs are reducing British grocery spending, according to new figures published yesterday. The data firm’s latest report on the subject shows that 6.3% of households in the country now have at least one user of the ...
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Newsletter
Tech & Digital briefing: Amazon hones in on upskilling; Currys names new leader
I’ve visited many Amazon fulfilment centres around the world: Milan, Dortmund, Seattle, Nashville, and now… Dartford, UK. While not as glam as the aforementioned, it had a lot to offer. A key focus was on upskilling its workforce and getting more young people into training. UK country manager John Boumphrey’s ...
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NewsletterIntelligence Briefing: The UK consumer really doesn’t understand grocery margins
The Great British public may be good at many things, but understanding the profit margins of food retailers and hospitality businesses is not one of them. New data from the Institute of Economic Affairs found that Brits think that hospitality companies like pubs, restaurants and hotels are operating on 40% ...
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Newsletter
Tech & Digital Briefing: World Cup opportunity for retailers; Google’s new suite of products; and more
We’re now in June, and the countdown to the World Cup is truly on. No matter what you think of the England squad line-up, England and Scotland’s chances of going far, or the fact it’ll be hosted mainly in the US, we can all agree it’s typically a time when ...
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NewsletterIntelligence Briefing: Lidl guarantees Champions League qualification; retail sales dip
After a year of running close, Lidl finally overtook Morrisons to become Britain’s fifth-largest grocer in the latest Worldpanel by Numerator figures for the 12 weeks ending May 17, 2026. Gallingly for the Bradford-based retailer, it was overtaken four years to the month after Lidl’s fellow discounter Aldi knocked it ...
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Newsletter
Tech & Digital Briefing: Virtual-try on to help returns?; AI smart glasses sales rise; and more
Is virtual try-on actually being used by consumers? Well, Zara has seen over 7 million sessions in just four months across 45 markets. As was first revealed by Retail Week, JD Sports has also just launched a trial of a new try-on service for tracksuits on its UK website. Though ...
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NewsletterEditor’s Choice: Retail PR disasters; Alex Baldock to lead Boots; and more
This week, I wrote about the PR disasters for several grocers – most recently Sainsbury’s – surrounding the sacking of store colleagues for challenging shoplifters and responding to abuse in ways that are against company policy. Every case is nuanced and complex, and news coverage very often only tells one ...
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NewsletterIntelligence Briefing: April was awful and election fallout
The big political story running on from last week into this was the local election results, bad for Labour, and subsequent efforts by MPs to remove Keir Starmer as leader. This is not a politics newsletter, but there is one very current economic ramification for the sector, and that ...
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Newsletter
Tech & Digital briefing: eBay’s breaking new ground; It’s farewell to Kingfisher’s CEO; and more
A lot of eyes have been on eBay last week, as it was widely reported that video game retailer GameStop made a bid for the marketplace to turn it into a “legit competitor to Amazon”. The $56bn bid is being considered, and not much else has been divulged. Chief executive ...
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NewsletterIntelligence Briefing: Next and Middle East costs, coolest stores and LADs
Next has no doubt been the most transparent major UK retailer on the potential costs of the conflict in the Middle East, and that trend continued yesterday with the release of its once again forecast-busting Q1 results. The company tripled its previous guidance of £15m costs to £47m, with ...
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Newsletter
Tech & Digital Briefing: An AI threat emerges; Which retailers are making the best use of tech?
One year on from a devastating cyber attack at M&S, the industry is still scarred from such a large-scale attack that ended up costing the retailer hundreds of millions. I don’t need to remind you about all the other brands out there that suffered hacks and cyber attacks following, but ...
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Newsletter
Tech & Digital Briefing: Unveiling the AI investment tracker; Sparks makes a huge return
Retail Week has come up with an incredibly handy AI investment tracker that does what it says on the tin. It follows every AI investment we have reported since June 2023 and provides more information on the retailer, supplier, and other details. The investments have really been ramping up in ...
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NewsletterIntelligence Briefing: AI Investment Tracker; Hackett and Boden’s speedy delivery
Introducing the Retail Week AI Investment Tracker. We’ve been reporting in depth about how UK retailers (and some big names abroad, too) are experimenting with AI for the past two years. It made a lot of sense to put all of those announcements in place, so you could see what ...
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Newsletter
Tech & Digital Briefing: Transformation of marketing through AI; latest partnership update; and more
I hope you all had a lovely Easter break. In the absence of last week’s briefing, we have a lot to unpack – starting with last week’s essential read around how AI has transformed retail marketing, advertising, and brand storytelling. There were some really compelling opinions on what AI can ...
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NewsletterIntelligence Briefing: We have a ceasefire; charting profitability of fashion etailers
On Tuesday, Iran and the US confirmed a two-week ceasefire. This included the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the closure of which has been driving petrol prices, jet fuel, and natural gas prices in the UK upwards. Share prices of retailers with Asian supply chain exposure or strong travel ...