Guests : Léonard Jochem and Steve Collinge - Managing Director - Insight Retail Group

What are the key challenges facing retailers in 2026 ?

In this two-part episode of Let’s Talk Data, we explore the structural challenges shaping retail in 2026 - and what truly separates leaders from laggards in a permanently changed environment.

Retail is no longer defined by disruption alone, but by execution. Customer expectations, cost pressure, technology capability and data maturity are colliding, forcing retailers to rethink long-held assumptions.

Together with Steve Collinge, we examine why the physical store is being re-engineered rather than replaced, how convenience has become the primary competitive battleground, and why data is shifting from operational by-product to strategic commercial asset.

The discussion also tackles range rationalisation as a profit lever and explains why, in an AI-enabled world, people and expertise are becoming stronger differentiators - not weaker ones.

The takeaway: the gap between retail leaders and losers is widening, driven less by ambition and more by disciplined execution.

Part 2 dives deeper into the data foundations retailers must fix to compete in 2026.

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