Buzzwords, cop outs, and new homes: ten key takeaways from an electric Retail Technology Show 2025

Retail Technology Show took place last week at London Excel. And it was really rather good. Here are our ten key takeaways from a fantastic two days of cutting-edge tech, fantastic networking opportunities, and thought provoking conference sessions.

1. Move to London Excel pays off

Whilst we will miss the eccentric charm of London Olympia, the move to Excel made perfect sense.

It's an exciting time to be in retail and the bustling, cooler, sleeker Excel proved to be a fitting new home for RTS. There was a real wow factor as you entered the hall and felt the buzz of the showfloor for the first time.

Olympia will always have a special place in our hearts, with highlights including hosting the first post-Covid RTS, but it was time to move on.

2. No. Stores don’t need special treatment in a digital world

So said Paul Sims, ex-Chief Architect at M&S and a former technologist at Halford, Travis Perkins and many other UK brands, while speaking at RTS 2025. They need integration. 

“You should treat all your customers the same,” said Sims, speaking exclusively to RTIH after his presentation in the Future of Trading conference stream.

“It’s a nonsense to talk about omnichannel today. It’s a multi-channel environment,” said Sims. He went on to discuss the pros and cons of each channel. But his essential point was to forget offline because such a thing doesn’t exist anymore in physical stores - if you’ve properly aligned your data, tracking, services and operations that is."

“Stores can help your NPS customer satisfaction score and online does occasionally go down. But connectivity at the Point of Sale (PoS) can also be an issue,” said Sims, as he debated the pros and cons of each channel - and how integrating them so the best of both of available to customer in a universal way was the key to future success anyway.  

“Think customer! Stop thinking about technology - your customer doesn’t care,” advised Sims to those gathered at the Magnificent Stage at RTS 2025. It is the service that matters and it is retailers’ jobs to align all that to ensure a good customer experience (CX), with appropriate efficiency, data and ease-of-use.    

3. Answer the question, Shein!

Peter Pernot Day, Global Executive Leadership Team and Head of Strategic and Commercial Affairs, North America & Europe, at Shein, rejected the label of ‘fast fashion’ often used to describe his company, adding: “I would say that we are smart fashion, not fast fashion.”

And he sparked controversy by declining to take questions from the audience at the end of his conference session, which was labelled a “cop out” by retail magnate Theo Paphitis on day two of RTS 2025.

That's Shein for you - good at headline grabbing one liners and sleek presentations, not so good at answering tricky questions.

4. 2025 will be the year that live shopping events become mainstream

TikTok Shop told RTS attendees that live shopping events are helping brands bring in huge sales numbers, with startups and founder led brands leading the way.

“The biggest trend is live shopping,” claimed Nora Zukauskaite, Integrated Marketing Director at TikTok Shop UK & EU. She explained how livestreamed shopping events are proving hugely successful for retailers using the platform. 

Zukauskaite predicted that 2025 will be the year that live shopping events become mainstream, adding that the format is especially helpful for products where demonstrations are key, such as fashion and beauty.

“It becomes an entertainment show in itself,” she said, with brands offering dynamic pricing, competitions and prizes throughout the live shopping events. “We really see it as entertainment powered by commerce.”

TikTok’s live shopping events go beyond the scope of traditional TV shopping channels, with hosts able to interact with customers and respond to comments and feedback, often recommending products in response to queries.

“It’s like a personal shopper,” Zukauskaite commented. “TV doesn’t give you those real-time conversations with your customers.” 

Another advantage TikTok Shop has is the relative ease with which a store can be set up. “Some brands literally start with just a phone in their kitchen,” Zukauskaite stated. “As the business scales, you might have a studio space of your own.”

5. Customers don't care about buzzwords like seamless and omnichannel

Omnichannel emerged ten years ago as a key retail term and aim. “But it was invented by us the industry, not the customer. Same with ‘seamless’” said Rob Barnes, Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Asda, in a data centric panel with representatives from Dunelm and Seasalt that also touched on AI.

“Just be brilliant at execution in channel,” added Barnes. “Customers are OK with it not being seamless.”  

Whatever you call it, aligning your physical stores with your digital offerings, social media platforms, data capture and marketing, plus fulfilment and other retail efforts in a comprehensive manner, often via a loyalty programme, is a key ongoing trend in the sector.

As long as the end result is a good customer experience (CX) the customer won’t care about the terminology. The business should get efficiency in the back end and bottom line benefits too.   

6. Retail media is a massive opportunity

That was the message being put out there by Tash Whitmey, Managing Director of Tesco’s Retail Media unit as she provided a Pepsi case study.

Consumer packaged goods (CPG) clients, such as Pepsi, “what we used to call suppliers” get to advertise close to the point of purchase -and now to link to the retailer’s data rich loyalty programme enhanced digital platform.

“It’s more effective than a TV advert,” explained Whitmey, as the immediacy helps sales growth, and the retailer has loyalty data as well that can tailor and measure results and contextual journeys, while providing lessons for in-campaign tweaks, or for the longer-term future.  

The origins of retail media were in-store 25 years ago, on simple promotions and such like. But the advent of online, apps and data rich environments that can now be mined by AI tools mean that the opportunities it offers have exploded. CPG partners can collaborate on data, access closed loop measurement and get creative in their campaigns. 

7. You can't spell retail without AI

If you decided to play a drinking game whereby you had a shot every time you came across an exhibitor touting AI as the core of its solution, you would have been very, very drunk by 10am on day one of RTS 2025.

But while there’s a lot of talk, there is sadly not much substance right now. One highlight, however, was Profitmind, who were crowned the winner of the 2025 RTS Innovation Awards.

This is a SaaS solution which uses machine learning, generative AI and agentic AI to drive profitability.  It was selected as the 2025 winner due to its ability to leverage AI to track competitors, analyse internal data and surface fast impact revenue and margin growth opportunities to increase productivity, transparency and profitability.

Described by RTS Innovation Award judge and OB&Co’s Oliver Banks as “a commercially minded AI [that lives] in your pocket, crunching through complex data to prioritise business opportunities,” the solution scored highly with the judges, comprising of RTS advisory board members and industry experts and analysts, for its margin boosting capabilities.

8. Retailer leadership teams need to pivot from technology as a service only mindset to a partnerial one

Empowered technology teams can facilitate and lead companies through complex digital transformations delivering future fit platforms that will set them up for future opportunities.

So said Jacqueline Joel, Head of Customer and Digital Transformation at A.S. Watson Group.

In a LinkedIn post, she said: "I enjoyed having the opportunity to share my thoughts on the impact of technology on the Future of Trading at the Magnificent Stage (hosted by the wonderful Commerce Futures team)."

"Some of the ideas I shared are: The retail industry has faced a challenging few years through a difficult economic background and fast paced change in customer expectations; Customer journeys are no longer linear and predictable - our organisations needs to adapt our structures to meet the needs of the unified commerce customer."

Technology is fundamental to future growth and success in delivering these seamless, integrated experiences, Joel believes. Technology teams need to be thought leaders, curious about new tech and it's application to improve business outcomes.

9. Many exhibitors pulled out all the stops with their stands

Go big or go home. That was the motto of many exhibitors this year.

And one of our personal favourites was Vista Technology Support, who showcased, amongst many other things, Simbe's Tally autonomous inventory robot.

It was great to meet you, Tally! Hope you enjoyed the show.

10. But always remember that small is beautiful

Wandering around the showfloor, it can be easy to miss the smaller stands and gravitate towards the usual suspects and their flashy offerings brought to life via big budgets (naming no names!), but they’re often where the magic happens, with innovative companies tackling real retailer problems in clever ways.