The opening day of the World Retail Congress started with a topic on everyone’s mind: tariffs. 

Welcoming nearly 1000 attendees to London on Tuesday morning, just a few hours after the US and China announced a 90-day pause in their trade war, WRC founder Ian McGarrigle noted that “this year’s World Retail Congress is going to be one of the most important and timely meetings”. 

He highlighted the benefits of bringing together so many retail leaders from different countries to share their experiences and help each other move forward, despite the uncertain trading environment. 

And indeed, the speakers included executives from the UK, Europe, the US, Asia and Latin America, discussing a wide range of topics – from global growth drivers to the future of loyalty and the other buzzword in retail right now: artificial intelligence. 

Here are some of the key takeaways from the opening day of WRC 2025. 

Retail leaders discuss global growth drivers

In a keynote panel, retail leaders from Ikea, Ocado, Spanish fashion group AWWG and Asian retail giant DFI Retail Group spoke about the biggest growth drivers they’re seeing in their businesses today. 

Ocado CEO Tim Steiner noted that consumers love the convenience of online shopping, but it’s not just convenience that is driving growth online. 

“It’s about having the biggest ranges, having the lowest prices, having the freshest food – and the biggest difference we brought to market is perfect execution. That’s what creates the loyalty and repeat shopping,” he said. “Customer satisfaction is what it’s all about.” 

Meanwhile, Scott Price, group CEO of DFI Retail Group, highlighted how data is accelerating the disruption of traditional economic retail models. 

“AI is allowing you to personalise in such a way that vendors are able to use their promotional dollars more effectively, which means they give you more money. You’ve got the ability now to do retail media, which helps you offset costs. We’re also now in a situation where AI is helping us operate more efficiently. We’re seeing assistant buyer and merchant jobs being done by AI. The challenge you have is those are feeder roles to create excellent merchants, and at some point, we’re going to have to grapple with this challenge,” Price shared.  

“Leveraging this economic model and trying to figure out how to profitably grow, instead of just grow, is probably the biggest challenge [for retailers].”

How On maintains the spirit of a disruptor as it grows

In an interview with JD Sports CEO, Regis Schultz, Britt Olsen, the chief commercial officer of On, spoke about how the Swiss-founded running shoe brand, backed by tennis legend Roger Federer, has taken market share off the biggest names in sports retail. 

“Seeing a brand grow in such a hyper-growth way in a market that was dominated by big players, I think everyone expects that I have this silver bullet answer of how we got here – we all know it’s never just one thing,” Olsen said. 

Looking back, she said that being an underdog was to On’s advantage. 

“We had this blind optimism that we could do anything and a bit of naivety, which I think has served us extremely well. Even though we’re a bigger brand, I think culturally, we’ve still been able to maintain those two things.” 

Today, the challenge for On is transitioning from being a disruptor brand to one of the industry’s top five players. 

However, Olsen noted that On is still experiencing triple-digit growth in some markets, such as Asia, and has room to disrupt the apparel sector: “We’re actually a head-to-toe sportswear brand,” she noted. 

Nurturing your community to drive growth

A panel discussion with leaders from Nykaa, By Rotation, Ida Sports and Chrono24 (pictured above) focused on how retailers can nurture their customer communities to drive growth. 

For Nykaa, a major fashion and beauty retailer in India with $2 billion in sales annually, events and activations are important ways of staying connected with customers. While it operates 200 stores, 90 per cent of its sales are online. 

In 2023, it launched Nykaaland, a two-day festival for customers to interact with beauty brands, try products, experience masterclasses and more. Nykaa Fashion co-founder and CEO Adwaita Nayar described it as the “Coachella for beauty”. 

“Everything we do and talk about is how to bring in community – on-site, off-site, events, digitally, all the time. Therefore, it’s really core to how we work in the business,” she said.

The future of loyalty, according to luxury department stores

One of the most in-demand sessions on Tuesday was a panel discussion with the leaders of three luxury department stores: Selfridges’ COO Leonie Foster, Lane Crawford CEO Jennifer Woo and El Palacio de Hierro CEO Juan Carlos Escribano. 

Speaking about Selfridges’ recently launched loyalty program, Selfridges Unlocked, Foster said the company was motivated to create something that felt right for the brand, as well as being unique and fit for the future.

“We resisted the more traditional format of loyalty schemes,” she said. 

Selfridges Unlocked has five tiers, and members can progress through the tiers by spending both money and time with the retailer. 

“The time element is about collecting keys, whether you visit a restaurant, or you use the skate bowl, you go to the cinema, or visit an event. And it’s entirely possible to progress the whole way to being a VSP, a very Selfridges person, without spending any money at all,” Foster said. 

Meanwhile, a central component of Lane Crawford’s loyalty proposition is its highly personalised customer service. Store staff are encouraged to develop relationships with the retailer’s top customers.  

Woo provided an example of a team member who realised that a customer was extremely time-poor, so she selected two truckloads’ worth of products and delivered them to his home to try on and consider at his leisure. The customer ended up buying every single product but two. 

This demonstrates the importance of human relationships in building loyalty; data can only take you so far. 

“We’re in the retail business. Our store is basically the data lake. All you have to do is go to the store and listen to our customers. Even the management team, we encourage them to go into the store,” Woo said. “You have to be present, you can’t be behind a screen and just looking at data.”

Stay tuned for more insights from the 2025 World Retail Congress.