Superdrug. Andrew

The annual UN World Day for Safety and Health at Work was created to help call attention to preventing accidents and diseases at work. And nowhere is this more relevant than in the retail sector. Ordinarily, you would not think about your safety and health when walking into a retail store. In the past, it probably wasn’t top of your shopping list. But, in early 2020, all that changed with the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This year’s Shoptalk was one of the first big retail shows to come back in real life after a two-year hiatus. Shoptalk brings people together (over 10,000 of them) from around the world and is a key fixture in the retail calendar. Here are some of the highlights: Day one There were panels focusing on retail innovation and trends from Europe, then China and finally Latin America. However, there was one common theme: personalization and humanizing the digital experience.

My first job in retail was in 1979 when I got a job as the “hardware storeman” at Beales of Bournemouth. I used to spend my days accepting deliveries of all sorts of things; from Star Wars™ Darth Vader toys to Le Creuset™ cookware. And each item had to be priced up using a hand-held device before it went out on the floor. It seems unimaginable that any retail business could ever have operated successfully in such a manner.