New fortnightly podcast brings together retail leaders, buyers and experts to explore the trends, challenges and opportunities shaping the future of retail.
Spring & Autumn Fair has relaunched Inside Retail, a year-round content platform offering retail insights throughout the year. The platform now features a new fortnightly podcast, extending the conversation beyond the Spring Fair and Autumn Fair show floors.
The Inside Retail podcast brings together retailers, buyers, brands, industry experts and thought leaders. Each episode explores the ideas and issues shaping the retail sector today and tomorrow.
Topics will include retail trends, consumer behaviour, technology, independent retail, fashion, licensing, social commerce and the future of the high street. The series will feature retail leaders and practitioners from across the industry.
Inside Retail Podcast Features Industry Leaders
The podcast opens with Ami Rabheru, retail strategist and founder of Retail Huddle. She will be followed by British fashion designer and retail entrepreneur Jeff Banks and Charlotte Broadbent, Head of International Partnerships and Marketing at Faire.
Members of the Spring & Autumn Fair team will host the series. They include Jackson Szabo, Fay Tranter, Matthew Mein and Morgan Swinford.
The episodes aim to deliver practical insights that reflect the challenges facing retailers and brands today.
What Does the Retailer of the Future Look Like?
The opening episode features Ami Rabheru and looks at the state of retail as businesses prepare for 2027.
The discussion explores what currently concerns retailers and where they see new opportunities. It also covers changing consumer behaviour, physical stores, technology and the challenges facing independent retailers.
The episode also introduces a recurring feature called Buy or Bye. Guests receive a real product and must give an instant verdict. Would they buy it or give it a bye?
For the first episode, Ami will assess a £300 AI-powered smart shopping trolley. The feature looks beyond the product itself. It explores what makes consumers pick something up and what makes them put it back.
Jeff Banks Reflects on Five Decades of Fashion
The second episode launches on 29 October and features Jeff Banks. With more than five decades in British fashion, Banks brings a long-term view of the industry’s changing landscape.
He will discuss what it takes to build a lasting brand. The conversation will also examine how fashion and retail have evolved across generations.
In addition, Banks will explore the balance between creativity and commercial reality. He will discuss the changing relationship between online and physical retail and the lessons today’s designers and retailers can learn from previous generations.
For Buy or Bye, Banks will assess a £500 designer suit purchased entirely online. He will consider whether this type of shopping experience could represent the future of fashion retail.
What Are Retailers Actually Buying?
The third episode launches on 12 November with Charlotte Broadbent of Faire.
Broadbent has experience across investment, luxury retail, retail operations and independent retail. At Faire, she works with independent retailers and brands across the UK and beyond.
Her episode will examine wholesale transaction data to understand what retailers are buying. It will also explore which trends could grow over the next 12 months.
The conversation will look at the return of individuality in retail and the growing role of AI. It will also consider how technology can help smaller businesses compete while highlighting areas where retailers should retain the human touch.
Inside Retail Builds a Year-Round Retail Conversation
Following the launch episodes, Inside Retail will feature more industry voices and perspectives.
Upcoming guests include Alison Battisby, founder of Avocado Social. She will discuss social media, creators, social commerce and AI.
Laura Rudoe, founder of Evolve Beauty, will explore purpose-led brands and the conscious consumer. Meanwhile, Steve Manners of Licensing International will examine the commercial opportunities within licensing.
The programme will also feature John Abbate of Westminster City Council, who will discuss the future of the high street.
New episodes will be released fortnightly across Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube. The episodes will also appear prominently on the Inside Retail platform.
Fay Tranter, Event Director of Spring Fair, said:
“Inside Retail is about keeping the retail conversation going all year round. Our shows bring the industry together face to face, but the conversations, challenges and opportunities facing retailers don’t stop when the doors close. We wanted to create a platform that gives the industry access to great people, useful insight and fresh thinking 365 days a year. The podcast gives us the opportunity to have deeper, more honest conversations with the people shaping retail, from retailers and founders to technology experts, designers and industry leaders. We want listeners to come away with something they can think about, question or take back to their business.”
With a new episode every two weeks, Inside Retail aims to keep the retail community connected between Spring Fair and Autumn Fair. The platform will provide ongoing insight and inspiration for independent retailers, buyers, decision-makers, brands and the wider retail industry.
