he event could not have come at a more critical time, with the US and China announcing a 90-day pause in their trade war just a few hours before the first session began. However, as World Retail Congress founder Ian McGarrigle said in his opening address, “This is what retailing is all about. There are few other industries that have to face the daily competitive pressures that retailing does. It’s simply what we do.”  Here are three key takeaways from this year’s World Retail Congress.  1. The secrets of success behind Selfridges and John Lewis The day before the World Retail Congress officially began, attendees went behind the scenes of some of London’s most iconic and innovative bricks-and-mortar stores, including Selfridges’ and John Lewis’ flagship stores on Oxford Street.  These department stores have had a presence on Oxford Street for 116 and 161 years, respectively, and recently, they both underwent renovations to expand their offerings and services.  At Selfridges, the focus has always been on creating unique experiences that draw customers in-store and keep them coming back. From the skate bowl it installed in 2018, to the in-house cinema it opened in 2019, to the circular fashion initiative it launched in 2021, the department store regards itself as “more than a shop”, chief operating officer Leonie Foster said. “We’re a social destination, a permanent invitation to experience the new.”  This can be seen in the number of pop-ups it hosts in-store each year – 350 – and the collaborations it has created with the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Pharrell, Rihanna, Usher and even Claudia Schiffer’s cat.  “As a truly democratic and non-judgmental business, we’re here to create an entry point to luxury for customers of all backgrounds, and for brands of all shapes and sizes,” Foster said. One of Selfridges’ latest collaborations is a highly successful ‘Fish & Chips Shop’ with the popular plush toy brand Jellycat. The activation includes exclusive products that can be purchased only in-store, driving strong demand and foot traffic.  Similarly, a Labubu vending machine has proven to be extremely popular with both kids and adults. A store associate told Inside Retail that the retailer was previously refilling the vending machine three times a day, but now must do so five times a day.  Meanwhile, John Lewis has teamed up with Jamie Oliver to unveil a first-of-its-kind Cookery School and Cafe in its Oxford Street flagship. Opening in May, the Cookery School is part of a multimillion-pound store makeover, which will introduce hundreds of new brands and services to customers, including the healthtech brand Oura Ring and cosmetics line Trinny London.  Already, John Lewis has expanded its beauty, shoe and technology departments, and is getting positive results. A store associate told Inside Retail that the Oxford Street technology department has performed ahead of last year’s numbers every week since the relaunch. 2. Tariffs and the push to reconfigure global supply chains Unsurprisingly, US tariffs were a major topic of discussion at this year’s World Retail Congress. Deloitte chief economist Ira Kalish spoke about the challenges of business planning in the current environment and shared three plausible scenarios for how the tariff situation might evolve.  “It’s interesting that in the first quarter, we saw a very large increase in business investment in equipment like telecoms, computers, transport equipment…That was frontloading the purchases in anticipation of tariffs. But at the same time, we saw no growth in business investment in structures, factories, warehouses and so on. That’s the first evidence that businesses were holding back on supply-chain investment because of uncertainty about the trade environment,” Kalish said.  Even before US President Donald Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariff announcement, Kalish said that economists had observed a sharp drop in measures of consumer confidence in the US, as well as a sharp increase in measures of consumer expectations of inflation.  Since then, metrics such as the small business confidence index and the purchasing managers’ index have dropped significantly. And while retail sales rose in March, as consumers stocked up in anticipation of tariffs, in the first week of May, the number of ships arriving from China into the port of Los Angeles was down 30 per cent from a year ago.  In the coming quarters, Kalish said, “We’ll actually see what the real economy looks like.”  Of course, that will depend on what US trade policy looks like moving forward. One scenario Kalish shared is that tariffs remain relatively high, which could lead to a recession and would almost certainly create higher inflation. Another scenario is that the US negotiates much lower tariffs and secures commitments from other countries to buy more US goods. If that happens, the economic environment will be much more benign; however, Kalish believes the probability of this occurring is low.  The most likely scenario, Kalish said, is that things remain unpredictable: The US imposes some tariffs, reverses course, offers exemptions and makes demands of countries that can’t be satisfied. “If that happens, that puts businesses in a very difficult position. But at some point, in the context of uncertainty, they need to make a decision, make a choice, make some bets that might not pan out. They can’t just sit forever waiting to see what happens,” he said. 3. Questions around AI and retail Artificial intelligence (AI) was a throughline at this year’s World Retail Congress. Nearly every speaker mentioned the savings of cost and time that AI can deliver, though not everyone agreed on the limitations of this technology.  In a panel on retail growth drivers, Scott Price, group CEO of DFI Retail Group, highlighted the opportunity to use AI to leverage first-party data more effectively and, therefore, enable businesses to operate more profitably.  “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,” Price said. “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 that these are feeder roles to create excellent merchants, and at some point, we’re going to have to grapple with this challenge.”  Similarly, Anko Global chair Ian Bailey said retailers can use AI to simplify time-consuming and tedious tasks, such as producing tech packs, but he cautioned against using AI to design products themselves.  “If you imagine for a second that we use AI for product design, with no human intervention, what do we become in the end? We end up all gravitating to the same position and becoming very similar and there is no differentiation,” he said.  Meanwhile, J Crew Group’s senior vice-president and head of e-commerce and strategy, Tracy Bay, shared that the company is using AI to support dynamic merchandising and generative search to improve the user experience on its e-commerce sites. What retail is all about This year’s World Retail Congress ran under the theme, “Faster, Bolder, Smarter”. Businesses will need all three elements to succeed in a post-tariff retail landscape – based on the key takeaways above. As the event’s founder noted at the very beginning, “This is what retailing is all about.”