Gregor Ulitzka (President, Europe at Ocado Group) makes the case that online grocery isn't a sprint — it's a decathlon. The path to profitability requires retailers to master logistics, availability, pricing, last-mile, customer experience - the works!

From Ocado's origins as the UK's first pure-play online grocer to a technology platform and solutions business powering e-commerce for some of the world's biggest grocers — this is a masterclass in what it actually takes to make online grocery work.

Gregor and Natalie discuss:

• The "detail, detail, detail" principle behind sustainable online grocery profitability
• Shifting consumer habits & the 2-hour delivery myth
• Global partnerships: from Alcampo to Asda (hot off the press)
• In-store solutions vs CFCs: the infrastructure decisions
• Where AI genuinely adds value in grocery (and where human beats algorithm every time)
• Retail 2036: will AI agents be doing all the grocery shopping for us?

🤝 Today's episode is brought to you by Manhattan Associates https://www.manh.com/

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Gregor is president of Europe at the Ocado Group. As the first person to hold this role, he is responsible for the growth and operations of Ocado Solutions across the region. Prior to joining in 2023, Gregor built and scaled the vendor-facing supply chain at Amazon for over 10 years, with his most recent role for the business being director of supply chain and inventory management for Europe.

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: 👉 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@retaildisrupted 👉 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/retail-disrupted/id1676107321 👉 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5H0TALn63ov2VAIJPNi3FM 👉 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/retail-disrupted/ 👉 Newsletter: https://retaildisrupted.substack.com

Most DTC brands struggle to make the leap from online-only to physical retail. Vuori didn't just make the transition -they're now scaling stores across Europe, Asia, and beyond.

Recorded live at Shoptalk Europe, Global President Ashley Kechter shares the playbook behind the California athleisure brand's retail expansion, international growth, and what's required to scale a modern consumer brand.

Ashley explains why Vuori's stores function as community hubs and customer acquisition engines — not just sales floors — and how international markets act as early-warning systems for product trends before they hit the US.

Key topics covered:

• Vuori's brand DNA: how does it stand out in a crowded market?
• The "density within markets" approach: clustering stores before diversifying geographically
• How e-commerce data in 30 countries pinpoints the next store location
• Why international markets are Vuori's trend-forecasting advantage
• Balancing global brand consistency with hyper-local community activations
• The role of stores in acquiring omnichannel customers who still value the opportunity to "touch and feel" the product

🤝 This episode is sponsored by Manhattan Associates - the unified foundation for global supply chains and commerce.

ABOUT OUR GUEST As Vuori's Global President, Ashley Kechter is responsible for overseeing the brand's global business strategy, driving the financial process, and overseeing retail, eCommerce, planning and wholesale internationally and domestically. Prior to joining Vuori, Kechter served as global president of eComm, retail, wholesale and International for Fabletics, and previous roles include Chief Business Officer and GM for Banana Republic, and Chief Merchandising Officer and GM of Merch, Planning, eCommerce, Sourcing, Inventory Management, and Product Development at Restoration Hardware.

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

👉 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/retail-disrupted/

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A third of shoppers now expect grocery delivery within two hours. That's a huge shift in customer expectations – and one that Wolt is well placed to meet.

The Helsinki-based delivery platform (owned by DoorDash / sister company to Deliveroo) is now the #1 delivery app outside China and among the top 10 online grocers in Europe.

Marianne Vikkula, Head of Wolt, joins Natalie Berg to unpack the strategy behind one of Europe's leading local commerce platforms. And it's no longer just about takeaways and groceries - retail now makes up more than 25% of Wolt's global sales.

Marianne shares how Wolt+ has evolved from a subscription that waived delivery fees to a lifestyle membership program, why baskets are a third larger when they include a promotional item, and why the average Wolt order travels under three kilometres.

📺 Watch the episode on YouTube.

Key themes: → Why quick commerce isn't just about speed (selection, quality, and affordability are essential) → How Wolt's hyper-local model - 200,000+ merchants, sub-3km radius - unlocks categories beyond groceries → The role of AI, autonomous delivery, and logistics tech in making quick commerce profitable → What retailers get wrong about platform cannibalization — and why these channels are "much more incremental than many retailers fear"

ABOUT OUR GUEST Since joining Wolt in 2018, Marianne has led the company's expansion from 6 to more than 30 countries across EMEA, while launching new businesses including Wolt Market and Ads. She oversees a cross-functional team of over 15,000 people. Previously, she was CEO of Slush, helping grow it into one of the world's leading tech and investor events. Marianne also serves on the boards of Slush and Marimekko.

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 👉 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/retail-disrupted/ 👉 Subscribe to our newsletter: https://retaildisrupted.substack.com

What happens if customers never reach the checkout page at all?

Justin Benson, CEO of Spreedly — the payment orchestration platform trusted by BMW, The New York Times, HBOMax, Getty, Warner, and Il Makiage — joins Retail Disrupted to unpack why payments become more critical, not less, in an agentic era.

His framing: "Agentic commerce is like Google Search and Apple Pay had a love child." Instead of shoppers moving from discovery to checkout, AI agents may increasingly arrive pre-authorized and ready to buy which raises a few urgent questions for retail leaders.

IN THIS EPISODE

• Payment orchestration as an "operating system" and why flexible payment infrastructure is now mission-critical

• The checkout page rewrite — how AI agents will assess loyalty programs, BNPL options, and delegated preferences without a human in the loop

• Identity vs. fraud — why distinguishing human from agent transactions is the next big challenge for retail fraud teams

• Marketplace vs. niche — whether AI search could be a net negative for Amazon and a tailwind for merchants like Etsy

• Three priorities for retailers — payment stack flexibility, identity management, and AI-readable product catalogs

DISCLOSURE: This episode is sponsored by Spreedly. All views and analysis are Natalie Berg's own.

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Justin Benson is the CEO of Spreedly, a leading global open payments platform serving customers in over 100 countries. Since joining in 2011, Justin has led the company through a phase of rapid expansion, including securing $75 million in financing from Spectrum Ventures to drive Spreedly's growth. Justin began his career in the Bay Area and joined Intraware as its first technical support employee. He rose through the ranks into sales and senior leadership as the company scaled from 40 to 400 employees, completed a successful IPO, and achieved a strategic exit. He later served as Vice President of Sales for the Americas at SafeNet, an information security company.

ABOUT THE PODCAST

🎙️ Retail Disrupted — 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

👉 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/retail-disrupted/

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Instacart's average basket is $110 - the highest in quick commerce. In this episode, Natalie Berg sits down with Ryan Hamburger, Chief Commercial Officer of Instacart, at Shoptalk Europe to unpack how the company is evolving from delivery platform to omnichannel technology partner. With over 25 million consumers served, 1.6 billion orders fulfilled, and coverage of 98% of US and Canadian households, Instacart is betting that smart carts, unified experiences, and AI-powered personalization will define the next decade of grocery retail.

Ryan reveals why retailers with online-offline pricing parity grow 10–15% faster than those with markups, how activating a single digital order lifts share of wallet by 30%, and why Instacart is betting that the future of grocery isn't delivery-only — it's technology that makes every touchpoint, from phone to aisle to checkout, completely seamless. We also cover retail media as a margin engine, the sticky threat of competitor switching, and more about Instacart's venture into Europe (currently operating in France and Spain with Costco and in the UK with their Caper Cart trial at Morrsions).

🤝 Today's episode is brought to you by Manhattan Associates https://www.manh.com

Prefer to watch? This episode is also available in full on YouTube: https://youtube.com/watch?v=-0cj5FIai7w And if you enjoy the show, please hit subscribe so you never miss an episode. Your subscription genuinely helps us grow.

At Shoptalk Europe in Barcelona, Miya Knights — Retail Technology publisher and 3x retail author — cut straight through the AI hype with a blunt diagnosis: if you don't know your business and your customers, you're "stabbing in the dark" at which technology fits, and no AI tool fixes broken basics. Get the foundations right and the biggest early wins won't be the flashy customer-facing ones — they're in the back end (supply chain, operations, associate enablement) where AI quietly makes you faster, cheaper or smarter. Pick one, not all three.

And on agentic AI? The guardrails and playbooks aren't in place yet — and most retailers aren't ready for the handoff that's coming.

THE FUTURE OF SHOPPING — what retail leaders will take away:

The one question to ask before investiong in AI (most retailers skip it) The "pick one, not all three" rule that separates real AI gains from vendor hype How to spot AI slop before it erodes customer trust The agentic AI handoff that's coming — and the guardrails needed before it lands

You can watch this episode here.

ABOUT OUR GUEST Miya Knights has over 25 years of experience as a retail technology analyst, editor, author, and consultant. She owns and publishes Retail Technology magazine and has co-authored two bestselling books on Amazon and Omnichannel Retail. Miya also consults for and advises various technology companies and is a member of the Retail Influencer Network, Customer Strategy Network, and KPMG Retail Think Tank.

Miya regularly appears as a retail technology expert on news and current affairs television programmes, is quoted in the press, and moderates, chairs, or keynotes at various industry events. She also judges the European Retail Technology Awards by EHI, The Grocer Gold Awards, and the eCommerce Awards.

The Black British Business Awards recognised her as their 2021 Arts & Media Senior Leader, while RETHINK Retail has consistently acknowledged her as one of the top retail influencers each year. Miya holds a Master's in English Literature and Language from the University of Oxford.

Her new book, The Future of Shopping: Using Digital, Data and AI to Win with Customers, will be published by Kogan Page on 3 September 2026 and is available for pre-order: https://www.koganpage.com/marketing-communications/the-future-of-shopping-9781398627925

ABOUT THE PODCAST 🎙️ Retail Disrupted — 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 👉 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/retail-disrupted/ 👉 Subscribe to our newsletter: https://retaildisrupted.substack.com

A protein bar delivered in 4 minutes in India. A full grocery shop delivered in 17 minutes in London. Mariangela Marseglia, Amazon's VP of European Stores, explains why this kind of speed is no longer a premium — it's the new baseline.

Mariangela sits down with retail analyst Natalie Berg at Amazon's "Delivering the Future" event to explain why sub-same-day delivery — now as fast as 30-minute groceries via Amazon Now — and the race to reduce the shopper "cognitive load" are quietly redrawing the competitive map for every retailer operating in Europe.

📺 Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybcjA9WsDP8

In this Strategy Briefing, filmed inside Amazon's Dartford fulfilment centre, we cover: ▸ Sub same-day delivery — why "two days" no longer excites anyone, and how proximity + automation get orders to customers in under 30 minutes ▸ The 17-minute grocery shop — Amazon Now, "crisis missions" vs top-up shopping, and the protein bar delivered in 4 minutes in India ▸ The next battleground — why cutting friction isn't enough anymore and how reducing cognitive load becomes the real differentiator ▸ Amazon's grocery ambition — doubling down on e-commerce and consolidating grocery + non-food into a single basket (yes, "a hairbrush and some hummus") ▸ What "today's innovations become tomorrow's norms" means for every retail leader planning ahead for 2027

ABOUT OUR GUEST Mariangela Marseglia is the Vice President of European Stores at Amazon, where she leads the company's retail business across the region. She joined Amazon more than 14 years ago, overseeing the Media & Books and Hardlines categories before helping expand Prime Now across Europe and Asia-Pacific. In 2018, Mariangela was appointed Vice President and Country Manager for Amazon Stores in Italy and Spain, a role she held prior to stepping into her current position in 2025.

ABOUT RETAIL DISRUPTED Retail Disrupted is a top 5% global podcast, hosted by retail analyst Natalie Berg, founder of NBK Retail and co-author of Amazon: How the World's Most Relentless Retailer Will Continue to Revolutionize Commerce.

🔔 Subscribe for weekly episodes with the leaders shaping global retail.

👉 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@retaildisrupted 👉 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/retail-disrupted/ 👉 Subscribe to our newsletter: https://retaildisrupted.substack.com

E-commerce may have promised convenience, but increasingly consumers are experiencing something very different — missed deliveries, porch piracy, and what many are now calling "parcel anxiety."

In fact, 25% of first-attempt home deliveries fail and nearly 2 million parcels are stolen or go missing daily in the US. In this episode, Natalie Berg sits down with Miha Jagodic, Co-founder and CEO of Bloq.it — Europe's fastest-growing provider of smart locker networks technology. They unpack why home delivery is fundamentally broken and what must replace it.

You'll learn: → Why home deliveries fail on the first attempt — and the true cost of re-delivery → How out-of-home parcel volume is growing faster than home delivery globally → Why Western Europe is short 600,000 lockers → The density effect: why the more lockers you deploy, the more demand you create → How Vinted Go is using lockers to make low-value fashion purchases economically viable → Why we should look to Poland and the Nordics for inspiration → Locker use cases: click-and-collect, returns, in-store foot traffic, retail media

ABOUT THE GUEST Miha Jagodic is the Co-founder and CEO of Bloq.it. Founded in Lisbon in 2019, the company provides end-to-end solutions comprising hardware, software and operational services to logistics and retail giants across the globe. Its partners include online marketplace Vinted and logistics multinationals DHL and GLS.

As CEO, Miha oversees the overall strategy of the business alongside his co-founders, with special attention to areas such as Finance, Talent, and Legal. Miha holds a degree in Business Administration and Management from the University of Ljubljana, School of Economics and Business. In 2023, he made history as the first Slovenian to feature on a Forbes list in technology and innovation, when he was recognised in the Forbes 30 under 30.

ABOUT RETAIL DISRUPTED Hosted by retail analyst Natalie Berg — co-author of Amazon: How the World's Most Relentless Retailer Will Continue to Revolutionize Commerce — Retail Disrupted™ is a Top 5% Global Podcast exploring the trends reshaping the future of shopping.

👉 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@retaildisrupted

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Customers don't actually want ultra-fast grocery delivery. What they want is an easy solution for their daily, weekly, and monthly shopping missions. So what does this look like? Giuseppe Randazzo is Chief International Officer for foodpanda, foodora, and Yemeksepeti - all owned by Delivery Hero which operates in around 65 countries across four continents, with a mission to deliver anything, straight to your door. Giuseppe joins host Natalie Berg to map the next decade of quick commerce: from food and groceries to health, beauty, and pets; and from search bars to AI agents that predict your next order before you make it.

In this episode, you'll learn: → Why developing markets are winning at quick commerce. Bangladesh and Pakistan are more advanced than Northern Europe. Why? They never had the legacy retail infrastructure to unlearn. → Why groceries are just the start — health & beauty, pharma, pets, flowers are ripe for growth. Will q-commerce verticals will eventually be as large as food delivery itself? → Why "quick" commerce won't exist in 10 years. It'll just be called... commerce. Speed becomes tablestakes. The next battleground? AI-powered personalization. We also got into robot delivery, agentic commerce, and why the brands winning aren't competing on speed — they're competing on cognitive load reduction. 🎥 Full episode is also available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ARxkGRAWHmo?si=YTr_Hl5T94tc1LYP

Retail Disrupted is a top 5% global podcast. 👉 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@retaildisrupted 👉 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/retail-disrupted/ 👉 Subscribe to our newsletter: https://retaildisrupted.substack.com

The trust crisis in retail is real — only 1 in 3 consumers today believe what brands say about themselves. Philippe Gelder, President & CEO of Voted Product of the Year Worldwide, reveals how consumer trust became retail's most fragile asset — and why Europe is uniquely vulnerable just as Chinese retailers enter their third wave of expansion.

📺 Prefer video? Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/v8HtbhYqpd0?si=shlaGT-KK7aoZ7PN

In this episode, Philippe and Natalie Berg explore: • Why social media and AI are eroding brand trust — and what replaces it • Europe's "perfect storm": regulation, energy costs, and no narrative • The third wave of Chinese retailers: JD/Joybuy and the Trojan Horse strategy • China's "involution" problem — why they need Europe • De minimis exemption: why blocking parcels won't work • Why "e-commerce" should disappear as a concept • The collaboration imperative for brands and retailers

Philippe Gelder is President & CEO of Voted Product of the Year Worldwide, the world's largest consumer-voted award for products, brands and retailers. Trusted by 4.5 billion consumers across 40+ countries.

Retail Disrupted is a top 5% global podcast.

👉 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@retaildisrupted

👉 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/retail-disrupted/

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