Behind the Storefront
London 2026
Come behind the storefront with NewStore at this year’s fully reimagined Endless Aisle Live, where we explore what the best-run stores are doing differently, right now.
We’re inviting you to step inside some of London’s highest-performing stores to explore the strategies, systems, and decisions quietly driving performance in today’s market. Let’s be honest, it hasn’t been an easy run for retailers in recent years. However, there is a version of retail that is thriving right now. Not every store. Not every brand. But specific operators, making deliberate decisions, supported by the right systems and the right teams, are pulling away from the rest of the market.
The difference isn’t visible from the window. It’s happening behind the storefront. And this is your invitation to go inside. Not as an observer, but as an operator, to experience what’s really driving performance and why it matters more now than it ever has.
The difference isn’t visible from the window. It’s happening behind the storefront. And this is your invitation to go inside. Not as an observer, but as an operator, to experience what’s really driving performance and why it matters more now than it ever has.
Conference Details
- Wednesday, June 17th, 2026
- 09:30 - 17:30 BST
- The Century Club Soho, London
Why this matters now
In-store has become the most powerful expression of a brand. In a world shaped by AI, where discovery is digital, and expectations are instant, the physical store is where experience becomes real and where the gap between brands is increasingly defined. And that gap is growing.
57%
of UK consumers say in-store experience directly influences whether they return to a brand.” PwC UK Consumer Insights, 2025
£1.8bn
is lost annually by UK retailers due to poor in-store execution.” BRC / EY-Parthenon UK Retail Analysis, 2025
23%
only of UK retail leaders have achieved unified commerce across their store estate.” Adyen UK Retail Report, 2025
WHY ATTEND?
The Endless Aisle Live experience
This is not a conference. It’s a day with a difference.
Here's why you should attend:
Here's why you should attend:
A morning of store visits & investigation
You’ll spend the morning inside a curated selection of flagship stores across London, including Kurt Geiger, Axel Arrigato and AllSaints, experiencing them as a customer, not a guest.
You’ll be given a brief, a perspective to form, and a budget to spend. Because the most valuable insight you’ll gain won’t come from a slide. It will come from the experience itself.
You’ll be given a brief, a perspective to form, and a budget to spend. Because the most valuable insight you’ll gain won’t come from a slide. It will come from the experience itself.
An afternoon of conversation & collaboration
The afternoon brings the room back together for rooftop conversations in one of London’s most exclusive members’ club settings. Together, we’ll share reflections and hear from the people shaping some of the most successful retail stores and operations today.
Every part of the day is designed to move beyond surface-level thinking and into what’s really happening behind the storefront.
Every part of the day is designed to move beyond surface-level thinking and into what’s really happening behind the storefront.
SPEAKERS
Speakers & contributors
Fabrice Khullar
Director of Product, UX & CVR Optimisation Boots
Retail Panel
Steve Borg
Group Tech and Transformation Director Whitestuff
Panel
Sarah Langmead
Senior Retail Product Owner - Technology AllSaints
Speaker
Mike DeSimone
CEO NewStore
Keynote Speaker
Katie Street
Host at Marketing in the Madness
Fireside Chat
Cailin Broccoli
VP of Customer Success NewStore
Host
Meriel Neighbour
Director of Technology Delivery and Transformation River Island
Fireside Chat
Ben Hoskins
CTO NewStore
Fireside Chat
Sezin Cagil
Head of Unified Commerce Technology Dr. Martens
Fireside Chat
Richard Shotton
Author & Consultant 'The Choice Factory', Astroten
Headline Speaker
LOCATION
Your venue for the day
The Century Club, Soho
We’ll be hosting the day at The Century Club, Soho, one of London’s most distinctive private members’ spaces, set in the heart of the city’s retail and cultural district.
For this event, we are taking over some of the venue’s most impressive spaces, including its private theatre, The Green Room, and its rooftop garden restaurant. This is one of the few open-air dining spaces in central London, overlooking the capital’s retail heartland.
It’s a setting designed to inspire the kind of conversation this day demands.
For this event, we are taking over some of the venue’s most impressive spaces, including its private theatre, The Green Room, and its rooftop garden restaurant. This is one of the few open-air dining spaces in central London, overlooking the capital’s retail heartland.
It’s a setting designed to inspire the kind of conversation this day demands.
AGENDA
How the day will play out
09:30AM
Arrival & Breakfast
Start the morning with coffee, breakfast, and the kind of conversations that set the tone before the day begins.
10:15AM
Welcome to Behind the Storefront – Katie Street MC
Katie Street opens the day and sets the tone. Expect store tours, candid conversations, and a close look at how the UK's best retailers are running their stores differently.
10:30AM
Beyond the storefront: Navigating an agentic world – Mike DeSimone, CEO, NewStore
NewStore’s CEO Mike DeSimone tackles the question every retailer is now facing: how do you hold on to your brand experience as agentic AI rewrites the way stores operate? This is the thinking that frames the rest of the day.
11:00AM
Store tours: let's go shopping!
This is your time. You'll head out to AllSaints, Axel Arigato and Kurt Geiger with £100 in your pocket and a simple brief: go and shop. Browse, buy, ask questions, and experience these stores exactly as a customer would. Notice what feels effortless, what surprises you, and where the technology quietly does its work. Everything you spot out here feeds the conversations in the afternoon.
1:00PM
The lunch aisle
Lunch moves up to the roof terrace, where you'll join moderated table discussions on what you saw across the morning. Each table shares its sharpest observations back with the room, and it all feeds directly into the Behind the Storefront report. Your experiences and insights become part of a published article.
2:00PM
Agentic commerce is disrupting retail – Ben Hoskins & Ryan Baldeo, NewStore
NewStore's Ben Hoskins and Ryan Baldeo unveil a preview of the company's agentic AI strategy, and how they plan to build it into everyday store operations. This is what's coming, and how it works in practice.
2:30PM
The tech transformations driving two of the UK's biggest high street brands: Boots and River Island – hosted by Rebecca MacVittie, NewStore
You'll hear from the tech leaders behind the store estate overhauls at two of the UK's biggest retailers. This is what it takes to transform retail at scale, told firsthand by the people who led the work.
3:00PM
The future of customer journeys: from attraction through to sale – Represent · Dr. Martens · Stripe, moderated by Sameer Bhaidani, NewStore
Represent, Dr. Martens and Stripe trace the full shopping journey, from the first moment of attraction to the final sale. You'll see how brand, store experience, payments and technology combine to move a customer from interest to action.
3:30PM
Quick restock
A short break to recharge before the final stretch.
3:45PM
Behind and beyond the storefront – AllSaints · White Stuff · Axel Arigato, moderated by Cailin Broccoli, NewStore
Two of the brands behind the stores you've just walked through, as well as another high street staple, take you behind the scenes. AllSaints, White Stuff and Axel Arigato share how they're transforming store operations and customer experience, with NewStore working inside each business right now.
4:15PM
Hacking the Human Mind: The Behavioural Science Behind In-Store Experiences (Headliner) – Richard Shotton, behavioural scientist and bestselling author
Anyone who works in retail is in the business of persuasion. But how can you do that without understanding what drives consumers' decisions?
In this session, bestselling author Richard Shotton (The Choice Factory) will discuss behavioural science insights as they apply to the in-store experience. Drawing on tactics used by Kurt Geiger, All Saints and Axel Arigato and backed by academic research, he'll show what works and why.
You’ll leave with a host of new ideas for creative approaches to your in-store experiences and an understanding of why they will work.
In this session, bestselling author Richard Shotton (The Choice Factory) will discuss behavioural science insights as they apply to the in-store experience. Drawing on tactics used by Kurt Geiger, All Saints and Axel Arigato and backed by academic research, he'll show what works and why.
You’ll leave with a host of new ideas for creative approaches to your in-store experiences and an understanding of why they will work.
4:45PM
Checkout drinks – Katie Street Our MC
Katie closes the formal programme and invites you back up to the roof terrace for networking drinks and last orders.
HEADLINE SPEAKER
Inspire change & elevate
Richard Shotton, Author
Richard specialises in applying behavioural science to marketing. He has worked in marketing for 25 years and over that time, he has advised a wide variety of clients from Amazon to Zwift.
He is the author of three books on applied behaviour change - The Choice Factory (2018), The Illusion of Choice (2023) and Hacking the Human Mind (2025). The Choice Factory is available in 16 languages, has sold over 100,000 copies and won best sales and marketing book at the Business Book Awards in 2019.
Richard writes a monthly column for Marketing Week, called Why it Works, and co-hosts the podcast Behavioural Science for Brands. In both outlets he focusses on turning complex, academic ideas into simple and practical marketing applications.
Hear Richard's unique perspective on what future store experiences could look like from a behavioural science viewpoint.
He is the author of three books on applied behaviour change - The Choice Factory (2018), The Illusion of Choice (2023) and Hacking the Human Mind (2025). The Choice Factory is available in 16 languages, has sold over 100,000 copies and won best sales and marketing book at the Business Book Awards in 2019.
Richard writes a monthly column for Marketing Week, called Why it Works, and co-hosts the podcast Behavioural Science for Brands. In both outlets he focusses on turning complex, academic ideas into simple and practical marketing applications.
Hear Richard's unique perspective on what future store experiences could look like from a behavioural science viewpoint.
SPONSORS
Our partners in Endless Aisle Live
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