Retail Disrupted

AI is a bigger wave of disruption than e-commerce or mobile because it isn't just changing how consumers behave; it's fundamentally changing how businesses operate.
Romain Roulleau, Group Digital & E-Commerce Director, Kingfisher, joins Natalie Berg to unpack how Kingfisher — the £13 billion home improvement giant behind B&Q, Screwfix, Castorama, and Brico Depot — is at the forefront of this next retail transformation. 
In this episode, Romain reveals how Kingfisher's marketplace now drives 50% of e-commerce GMV, why they're betting on AI-powered conversational commerce with Google Cloud's Vertex AI, and what "agentic commerce" means for the future of retail.
Romain also unpacks the store-centric marketplace model that's become a differentiator against pure players — including click-and-collect and in-store returns for third-party products — and explains why 78% of Kingfisher's business still happens in physical stores, making expert advice the next frontier for AI.
If you're a retail leader navigating the shift from omnichannel to AI-powered commerce, this is your briefing.
🤝 This episode is brought to you by Manhattan Associates and was recorded in Barcelona at Shoptalk Europe. https://www.manh.com/ 
ABOUT OUR GUEST
As Group Digital & E-Commerce Director at Kingfisher, Romain is responsible for leading all marketplace, retail media, e-commerce and innovation activity within the Group and its banner brands. Prior to his current role, Romain spent five years as Chief Marketing, Digital & Customer Officer at Castorama, one of the leading home improvement retailers in France, driving the brand's digital strategy and e-commerce growth. He has also previously held a number of senior digital and e-commerce roles within the travel industry globally, over the course of more than a decade, including as SVP, Digital & E-Commerce at AccorHotels, one of the world's largest hotel groups.
ABOUT THE PODCAST
🎙️ Retail Disrupted is a Top 5% Global Podcast with the leaders and disruptors shaping the future of retail. Hosted by retail analyst Natalie Berg.  
👉 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@retaildisrupted 
👉 Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/retail-disrupted/id1676107321  
👉 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5H0TALn63ov2VAIJPNi3FM  
👉 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/retail-disrupted/ 
👉 Subscribe to our newsletter: https://retaildisrupted.substack.com

Your brand believes it's trusted. Your customers disagree.
Dr Amna Khan is a renowned retail and consumer behaviour expert with a PhD in trust development from Alliance Manchester Business School. She's observed the trust contract between businesses and consumers unravel in real time. She joins Natalie Berg to unpack what this means for retailers and brands.
📺 Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g02sjV7Kako&t=1827s 
What you'll learn: 
Why emotional trust builds resilience. 
Why founder-led brands like P. Louise are flourishing and how transparency strengthens trust when things go wrong.
How Gen Z discover products through creators, not advertising — and how that permanently rewires the path to purchase.
The imperfection advantage. AI-generated content is flooding every channel. Human flaws — typos, rough edges, unscripted moments — are becoming the new trust signals.
Where AI helps vs where it hurts. Holland & Barrett uses AI to free up staff for personalised advice. But when AI generates flawless, homogenous content, consumers trust it less — not more.
What AI agents will do to your brand if you haven't built trust by 2027.
CONNECT WITH DR AMNA KHAN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dramnakhan/ 
ABOUT THE PODCAST
🎙️ Retail Disrupted is a Top 5% Global Podcast with the leaders and disruptors shaping the future of retail. Hosted by retail analyst Natalie Berg. 
👉 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@retaildisrupted
👉 Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/retail-disrupted/id1676107321
👉 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5H0TALn63ov2VAIJPNi3FM
👉 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/retail-disrupted/
👉 Subscribe to our newsletter: https://retaildisrupted.substack.com

Modern retail is globally efficient but emotionally bankrupt. Marc-Antoine Barrois, founder of the luxury fragrance house MARC-ANTOINE BARROIS, and architect Antoine Bouillot join Natalie Berg to discuss their shared belief: a store should prioritize emotion over the transaction.
In this episode, they reveal how they design flagship spaces in London, Paris, and New York that deliberately increase dwell time, why sales associates are trained to tell customers to leave without buying, and how they were inspired to create the "IRL is Better" campaign.
📺 Watch on YouTube to see inside Marc-Antoine Barrois stores: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pub_PiUReKA 
We discuss:
▶ Why efficiency has stripped retail of emotion — and how to put it back
▶ The architectural toolkit for deceleration: treasure-hunt layouts, suspended furniture, and materials built to last
▶ Sales advisors, not salespeople: training staff to prioritize connection over conversion
▶ "IRL is Better" — inside the anti-social media campaign that doubled down on real-world intimacy
▶ How handwritten notes and personal emails extend the flagship experience online
ABOUT THE PODCAST
🎙️ Retail Disrupted is a Top 5% Global Podcast with the leaders and disruptors shaping the future of retail. Hosted by retail analyst Natalie Berg. 
👉 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@retaildisrupted
👉 Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/retail-disrupted/id1676107321
👉 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5H0TALn63ov2VAIJPNi3FM
👉 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/retail-disrupted/
👉 Subscribe to our newsletter: https://retaildisrupted.substack.com

In 1985, two federal prosecutors walked away from their careers and mortgaged their homes to open a pizza restaurant in Beverly Hills. They wound up inventing an entirely new dining category.
Rick Rosenfield, co-founder of California Pizza Kitchen, joins Natalie Berg on Retail Disrupted to share the unfiltered story: the one menu hit that redefined casual dining, the culture that made CPK somewhere people genuinely wanted to work, how it beat the odds to survive bankruptcy and the reinvention chapter that followed.
Rick shares lessons from his new book: The California Pizza Kitchen Story: How Two Federal Prosecutors Changed the Way America Eats Pizza. https://amplifypublishinggroup.com/product/nonfiction/business-and-finance/leadership-and-management/the-california-pizza-kitchen-story/ 
This is a masterclass in innovation, differentiation, and ethical leadership for anyone building a brand, scaling multi-site retail, or navigating private equity-backed growth.
What retail leaders take away:
How two lawyers created upscale casual dining at shopping centers with zero restaurant experience
How BBQ chicken pizza became the brand's defining product
Why CPK became the first national chain to go non-smoking — and what it reveals about culture-led decisions
The private equity warning: what founders lose when new owners sideline the vision
How CPK is diversifying into packaged goods and airport retail to future-proof the brand
Watch this episode on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8WT_w571no&t=790s 
ABOUT OUR GUEST
Rick Rosenfield is a former federal prosecutor and defense attorney. He is the co-founder of California Pizza Kitchen, the restaurant brand that helped redefine how America eats pizza and reshaped modern casual dining.
Before entering the restaurant business, Rosenfield began his legal career at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, DC, where he worked on cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Courts of Appeals. 
In the mid-eighties, Rosenfield and his partner, Larry Flax, made the unconventional decision to leave the law field and open the first California Pizza Kitchen in Beverly Hills. What began as a single restaurant grew into a global brand while maintaining a distinctive culinary vision and culture.
ABOUT THE PODCAST 
🎙️ Retail Disrupted is a Top 5% Global Podcast with the leaders and disruptors shaping the future of retail. Hosted by retail analyst Natalie Berg.  
👉 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@retaildisrupted 
👉 Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/retail-disrupted/id1676107321  
👉 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5H0TALn63ov2VAIJPNi3FM  
👉 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/retail-disrupted/ 
👉 Subscribe to our newsletter: https://retaildisrupted.substack.com  


#CaliforniaPizzaKitchen #CPK #RestaurantStrategy #BrandBuilding #RetailDisrupted #RetailPodcast #FoodBrand #FounderStory

The UK's third biggest fashion retailer doesn't own a single store, design a single garment, or hold a single unit of inventory.
Natalie Berg sits down with Olivia May, Partner at OC&C Strategy Consultants, to deliver the strategy briefing retail leaders need on the resale revolution.
In this episode:
▶ Why Vinted overtook established names to become the UK's #3 fashion retailer
▶ The data advantage first-hand brands hold over pure-play resale platforms
▶ Why luxury resale is harder to scale than it looks — from retail theft to $78 item processing costs 
▶ Vinted vs Depop: what separates a platform winner from a challenger
▶ The "say-do gap": why the same customer shopping resale is also buying Shein
For retail leaders evaluating their own resale channel — or trying to understand where their margin is going — this episode is for you.
🤝 This episode is sponsored by OC&C Strategy Consultants. https://www.occstrategy.com  
📺 Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN3rfoutHxc 

ABOUT OUR GUEST
Olivia May is a Partner in the Global Retail Practice at OC&C with a particular focus on developing winning strategies and game-changing customer propositions for apparel businesses, marketplaces and digital native brands.
Olivia has over 14 years of experience working closely and collaboratively with retailers and brands to both develop customer-centric strategies and help put them into action in a way that transforms and future-proofs client businesses. In particular, she works closely with platforms, brands and investors looking to participate and win in recommerce markets.
ABOUT RETAIL DISRUPTED
Retail Disrupted is a Top 5% Global Podcast with the leaders and disruptors shaping the future of retail. Hosted by retail analyst Natalie Berg.
👉 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@retaildisrupted
👉 Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/retail-disrupted/id1676107321
👉 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5H0TALn63ov2VAIJPNi3FM
👉 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/retail-disrupted/
👉 Subscribe to our newsletter: https://retaildisrupted.substack.com