Latest / The Retail Podcast / Retail, AI Reality & Gen Z Trends for 2026 | Five Things Friday UK

Transcript

Retail, AI Reality & Gen Z Trends for 2026 | Five Things Friday UK · The Retail Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello, it's 2026. This is the first.
• 0:03
  Believe it or not, we've waited until the 16th of Jan to start.
• 0:09
  Welcome to Five Things Friday, UK edition.
• 0:25
  Simone, hello. Welcome back.
• 0:28
  I've missed that music. You just can't be having a.
• 0:30
  It's been, it feels. Like, it's been years since I've
• 0:33
  spoken to you. Actually, since 2025.
• 0:36
  I know. How are you doing?
• 0:40
  Yeah, good. Apparently you've only just got
• 0:41
  back from travels, right? I have.
• 0:44
  I have got a little bit of a tan.
• 0:47
  Yes, I've been in South Africa. Lovely start to the year, back
• 0:51
  to reality, cold to London. We love it.
• 0:55
  It's beautiful. One more could you want.
• 0:57
  It's romantic. All right.
• 1:02
  For those who don't know who we are, my name's Alex.
• 1:06
  I run the retail podcast. I help retailers and people who
• 1:10
  sell to retailers maintain their relevance in this beautiful,
• 1:13
  ever changing world of retail. And Simone, who are you and what
• 1:18
  do you do? Hi, I'm Simone.
• 1:20
  I'm the founder of Need It for Tonight, also known as NIFT.
• 1:24
  I always say easiest way to describe as it's kind of like
• 1:27
  delivery for quality fashion. Absolutely.
• 1:30
  And I think there's only one nift.
• 1:33
  OK, so let's just jump straight in with a beautiful, beautiful
• 1:38
  event that we are both going to be at and we've got to do a
• 1:42
  collab. 5 things Friday. I don't know, Abu Dhabi.
• 1:45
  Audition. We've got to do it.
• 1:46
  It's got to happen. It's got it right.
• 1:50
  So shop talk like I'm super excited to be there.
• 1:53
  I'm an official media partner as always.
• 1:55
  So I'm people I think may have got their tickets by now.
• 1:59
  What are you doing there, Simone?
• 2:00
  What's your role there? I will be speaking on the
• 2:04
  Tuesday. If anybody is listening, please
• 2:06
  do come along. And there is a bunch of
• 2:09
  shameless plug. Yeah, there's a bunch of
• 2:13
  different tech start-ups who will be I guess pitching and
• 2:17
  speaking to various retailers and one of them is me.
• 2:20
  So I'm very excited. I'll be, I'll be, I'll be Woo
• 2:25
  hooing. It's really cool.
• 2:29
  Have they given you like? Do you have a Have they given
• 2:32
  you some like? These are the parameters of what
• 2:33
  you can cannot do. Like is it like a do you have a
• 2:36
  deck? Is it you talk it through a?
• 2:38
  Little presentation. Yeah, just five minute talk, 5
• 2:44
  minutes to the audience. Obviously we're we're going to
• 2:47
  be at Shop Talk Lux. What's really interesting for me
• 2:49
  in the region next year, NRF announced that they'll be in
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  Riyadh as well. So you're going to get NRF
• 2:55
  Middle East. So I think as a region and
• 2:58
  retail, they're obviously massive investment in Saudi.
• 3:02
  Obviously Abu Dhabi has its own thing.
• 3:04
  They, they all have massive retail plays and it feels like
• 3:08
  they're building it for this new generation that's coming.
• 3:11
  OK, moving on swiftly to I believe you, Molly May.
• 3:16
  Yes, yeah, I wanted to talk about this collab.
• 3:21
  So she's just launched a limited edition footwear collab with
• 3:25
  Adidas. As you can see, I'm not going to
• 3:28
  lie, it wasn't really the drop itself that drew me in.
• 3:31
  It was more the reaction. You know, I mean, it wasn't this
• 3:35
  post, but there was another post.
• 3:36
  She didn't really even need to announce the partnership.
• 3:40
  She posted this photo with that same backdrop.
• 3:43
  And I think because she's worn Adidas consistently for years,
• 3:47
  people had already connected the dots before anything was
• 3:50
  actually made official. So when the partnership landed,
• 3:52
  it didn't really feel like this. I think when a collab feels
• 3:55
  obvious, that's not actually boring, you know, That's trust.
• 4:01
  This is authenticity people where especially I've seen, you
• 4:05
  know, do you know what The funny thing is?
• 4:07
  I used like obviously there's such a big generational gap, but
• 4:11
  people who if she's authentically wearing the brand,
• 4:15
  it's such a win for the brand to say, hey, why don't we do
• 4:17
  something together. Your 8.5 million followers on
• 4:20
  Instagram may appreciate seeing you know.
• 4:26
  She's done incredibly well. I mean, she's done Pretty Little
• 4:30
  things, she's done heaps and heaps and heaps of collapse.
• 4:33
  But for me it wasn't necessarily about it her being a celebrity,
• 4:37
  it was more about the consistency of it.
• 4:39
  And I think that's why, it's why I, I thought that was really
• 4:42
  interesting. Probably won't be wearing the
• 4:43
  collection myself. What's this?
• 4:47
  Is this her designs? Why?
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  Because it's linked on. Her Instagram, this is her
• 4:51
  fashion brand as well, which, I mean, when she launched it, I
• 4:55
  think a lot of it sold out. Very, very.
• 4:58
  Yeah, she's done very well. Fantastic.
• 5:01
  Brilliant Island Bay, well done, Molly May and Adidas.
• 5:05
  Good luck to you guys. Next one back to me.
• 5:09
  So I was at NRF taking the podcast in a bit of a different
• 5:13
  direction in terms of I was really curious.
• 5:16
  I mean, you shake, look, I've got to be honest, you shake a
• 5:18
  stick 10 podcasters are going to fall down and everyone's like,
• 5:22
  you know, I was part of the influencer networks.
• 5:25
  That's 50 people out of 400 who NRF wants you to be their
• 5:30
  official, not sorry, not their official wants to be a partner
• 5:34
  of yours for content creation. And I took it in a different
• 5:37
  way. I was like, OK, let's talk to
• 5:38
  people and see what what they wanted and what was top of mind.
• 5:42
  What was the key take away? So the people that I stopped,
• 5:46
  most of them said AI human connection with AI that would
• 5:52
  that was like the key thing for them.
• 5:54
  That was the the major take away and how especially like this guy
• 5:58
  was saying what he wants is don't tell me more about and you
• 6:02
  get a lot of this as as well. You know, when you meet people,
• 6:05
  what you, I'm a founder of an AI company, right?
• 6:07
  OK, what does your AI company do?
• 6:09
  Oh, they can do this, this and this and this.
• 6:13
  And people say, don't tell me what it can do.
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  What is it doing today? What can we like?
• 6:17
  What, what evidence do you have that what you doing?
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  So I went to quite a few different events.
• 6:22
  I went to Microsoft and Rethink Retail event where they were
• 6:27
  talking about agentic agents saving up to 30% of the
• 6:31
  workforce costs, right. By shifting that.
• 6:34
  And again, that's not people will go, Oh my God, that means
• 6:36
  they're going to be sacking 30% of workforce.
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  No, you just don't have to recruit.
• 6:41
  You just keep your current state and as as you keep growing.
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  So AI 100% is the theme of the moment within retail, whether
• 6:50
  it's in the back or the front. That's what people want to know
• 6:54
  what's the impact and how they can get ahead of it.
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  I met a group of different, oh, I met, I met a really cool
• 7:00
  retailer, actually, Marine layer.
• 7:03
  They're not, they're not in in the UK yet, but we had a
• 7:07
  conversation about female empowerment.
• 7:10
  You know how? Because Alyssa, here she is the
• 7:15
  head of, I can't remember store OPS or something, but she used
• 7:19
  to work on the shop floor and has now gone into management.
• 7:23
  And then her boss Corinne was that.
• 7:25
  So we were we were talking about how can you what, what's the
• 7:29
  advice for the shop floor? How do you go from?
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  I never I worked, I've worked for like River Island, The Body
• 7:35
  Shop, but I never thought it was a career progression for me to
• 7:38
  go from store to head office. And I think that's something
• 7:42
  specifically for future female leaders.
• 7:45
  It was really cool, really interesting conversation which
• 7:47
  will come out. Moving on, back over to you.
• 7:50
  Yeah, this was just one that caught my eye.
• 7:53
  Have to admit I'm not a football fan.
• 7:55
  But do you like Tommy Hilfiger? Yeah, Tommy Hilfiger have
• 8:00
  announced that they are of the official brand partner of
• 8:04
  Liverpool Football Club. I don't know any of these
• 8:07
  football players. But I mean like Tommy.
• 8:10
  Sorry. Go on.
• 8:11
  I assume they're big and important.
• 8:14
  I'm pretty sure they probably earn quite a bit between
• 8:17
  themselves and they they must have a mass of if you're a
• 8:22
  Liverpool fan, we're sorry. We we're just not big football
• 8:26
  watchers. So I'm sure there's some
• 8:28
  fantastic cracking players here that we're doing a disservice
• 8:31
  to. But Tommy, he'll forget.
• 8:34
  If you're watching and you liked my previous video of the brown
• 8:38
  jacket, I'm always up for collabs as well.
• 8:41
  Goodness plug, I love it. I really liked this because
• 8:47
  like, I mean, I never think about football or football
• 8:51
  clubs, but I think they're for Liverpool.
• 8:54
  You know, this isn't, this is more about this kind of global
• 8:57
  lifestyle relevance, you know, not just a football club, but
• 9:01
  actually a cultural brand with reach far beyond that match day,
• 9:07
  whatever they call it, as Tommy Hilfiger obviously brings, you
• 9:11
  know, it's a legacy premium preppy meets sport that I think
• 9:18
  will travel very, very well. So yeah, I just wasn't what I
• 9:24
  expected, but I liked it. I thought it was a smart collab
• 9:28
  for on both sides. And, and, and, and the good
• 9:31
  thing is it's women's football as well as male football, which
• 9:34
  is fantastic. And, and also, I think the
• 9:38
  preppy trend that was part of 2025 for the New Gen Genzius,
• 9:45
  right? That preppy look is going in
• 9:48
  with the bomber jackets. You can see again, I thought the
• 9:51
  bomber jackets would go, I'm not a fashion icon, but there's
• 9:53
  things that I can observe and I see it's interesting that
• 9:57
  they've gone, sorry, it's called the varsity jacket official
• 10:01
  thing there. But it's still obviously really,
• 10:04
  I guess on trend and speaking about trends 2026, we're only in
• 10:09
  the 16th of February. Well, this is pin interests
• 10:15
  friends, do you let's take let's just do a quick one.
• 10:19
  You think it hit hit or miss? Gimme gummy hit or miss more
• 10:24
  sort of yeah. I don't know if this goes into
• 10:28
  like Jelly top Jelly Jelly, whatever they're called the the
• 10:32
  cuddly toys, but gummy bear aesthetic hit or miss.
• 10:38
  I mean, it's hard. It's probably a a hit for for
• 10:42
  personally it's a miss. OK, all right.
• 10:45
  You're not going to get into that glamorati decade of
• 10:49
  decadence, sort of, you know, going back to that 80s chic,
• 10:53
  sleek look. Shoulder pads.
• 10:57
  OK, what's this one poet core Aspiring authors take note. 2026
• 11:05
  Gen Z and millennials will channel their inner wordsmith
• 11:09
  with oversized turtle Oh no, I've got a turtle neck.
• 11:12
  I'm on the Actually you're, you're a stylist that picked one
• 11:17
  out for me there. We go, I'm good.
• 11:19
  I'm going to have to say hit. Yeah, one time.
• 11:23
  I'm part of it. I'm so.
• 11:24
  And I'm here for it. Neo Deco, Art Deco trend, modern
• 11:30
  twist, shiny, sleek. What do you think?
• 11:33
  Hit. Next one scent.
• 11:38
  I my God, scent stacking hit hit hit.
• 11:41
  I've seen so many. It's just like everyone has a
• 11:44
  smell, right? And then everyone wants that
• 11:47
  sorry, that scent to be unique. So it's a hit for me on this
• 11:52
  one. Yeah, I like it.
• 11:54
  I'm. Not even going to try and say
• 11:59
  that there's a new way to wear your heart or your sleeve all
• 12:02
  the time. What is it?
• 12:03
  I think it's broached, isn't it? I don't know.
• 12:10
  Funnily enough, I think I think I've seen Marion with this.
• 12:14
  I haven't seen many with this that the brooch.
• 12:18
  Yeah, well, what's interesting, it's boom Boomer and
• 12:20
  millennials, right? So this is the older Gen.
• 12:24
  I'm not a boomer. Yeah.
• 12:27
  OK, that's a weird one. Fun house, big top, bigger
• 12:33
  personality, 20 circus inspired home decor.
• 12:37
  Jesus, sorry. OK, I don't know if I'll be
• 12:40
  changing my attire to resemble a circus miss for me.
• 12:47
  Quite like it. Yeah, you're going to have that
• 12:51
  in your living room so you can hang upside down and practise
• 12:54
  your trapeze. Yeah, right.
• 12:59
  Lace hit. I've seen lace everywhere.
• 13:01
  Yeah. Definitely.
• 13:02
  And so many people, so many young people are into embroidery
• 13:07
  or embroidery. Definite hit.
• 13:10
  We'll do two more and that's it. Pen pals writing to each other.
• 13:14
  I love it. Have you written anyone a letter
• 13:17
  recently? No, I haven't.
• 13:19
  I'm I'm half to going to say it's a mess just because I don't
• 13:22
  know if this is going to catch on.
• 13:24
  I you know what? I'm going to disagree.
• 13:26
  This is a hit. My 15 year old's friend wrote
• 13:30
  him and everyone in his friend Group A letter that he had gave
• 13:35
  them all. Yeah, because.
• 13:37
  So this will be the last one because I'm conscious of time.
• 13:40
  The one major trend that we'll see come in is the physicality
• 13:47
  for a digital generation. They are so fed up of digital
• 13:53
  that they love, they love vinyl. They love tape.
• 13:57
  I mean, tape for God's sake, right?
• 14:00
  My, my, my little boy was like, OK, I want to get a tape play
• 14:03
  because Stranger Things. Yes.
• 14:07
  It focuses in on tape players on tape, yeah, tape cassette
• 14:12
  recorders anyway, having tape. So one of the major trends for
• 14:16
  this generation, they they get digital, they've lived digital,
• 14:20
  but they want physical and I I see that as a really defining
• 14:25
  difference between the generations.
• 14:27
  Whereas we've all moved away. They they want to move towards
• 14:31
  yeah, physical. Can I change my answer now?
• 14:37
  Which one on pen pals? Yeah.
• 14:38
  OK, it's hit. Hit, right.
• 14:40
  I expect a a letter from you. This weekend I.
• 14:45
  Think it's beautiful? I think it's.
• 14:46
  Lovely that they oh, I really like it.
• 14:48
  I, I do. It'd be interesting to see if
• 14:53
  brands could adopt that with special customers and how that
• 14:58
  would. Yeah, we've talked about the
• 15:01
  handwritten notes, right, especially for e-commerce brands
• 15:04
  or online brands only how they're writing handwritten
• 15:08
  notes to their customers. And I remember seeing a start up
• 15:12
  that said that they actually they can do that at scale.
• 15:15
  I don't know. Oh.
• 15:17
  I think I've seen them like pay paper something.
• 15:20
  I don't know. It's like, how do you do that?
• 15:24
  Yeah. But I like.
• 15:26
  Yeah, fantastic, Simone. Thank you so much.
• 15:29
  Until next week. Until next week.