When Selfridges first opened its doors in 1909, it drew crowds by turning shopping into an adventure, using theatre and innovation. Bleriot’s monoplane was displayed there fresh from its maiden Channel crossing and John Logie Baird chose the store to first demonstrate television to the public.

Rapid technological changes, automation and artificial intelligence are offering us opportunities to not only improve our quality of life but also our purpose.

Retailers need to stop expecting business to return to “normal”. 

Today’s consumers are experiencing a renewed appreciation of the value of retail, as well as the importance that shopping brings to their quality of life.

Is online the future, and are high streets flourishing? Just as they have for centuries, bricks and mortar retailers are reinventing themselves – competing and complementing the online option, and even stealing a march on it.

Between the collapse of 83% of the UK’s department stores, consumers moving online and many high street shops now becoming obsolete, town centres are no longer the beating heart of local economies they once were.

Infographic: How to maximise community benefits through regeneration

Hearing that we had achieved 98% overall satisfaction was probably the first time in my professional career where I have had an emotional response.

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the decline of our high streets and town centres.

At a recent roundtable in partnership with Wired, Doug Brown, Head of Data, Cyber and AI Guild and Chief Data Scientist of Capita Consulting, was joined by Lisa Talia Moretti, a digital sociologist at the Ministry of Justice; Reid Darby, innovation lead at Golden Valley Development in Cheltenham; Carly Kind, Director at the Ada Lovelace Institute and Tavi Kotka, an engineer/entrepreneur and former Chief Information Officer for the Estonian government to discuss data, identity and the digital citizen.