Chris Browne, former Global Retail Director at Ted Baker, joins Natalie to discuss:

• Visual AI and the opportunities for fashion retail
• How tech can enhance the shopping experience
• Addressing the perennial problem of returns
• What Western retailers can learn from Asia
• Chris' vision for the future of the high street

Prefer video? You can also watch Natalie and Chris' conversation on YouTube.

This episode is part of a special collaboration with the Richmond Retail & E-commerce Directors' Forum. Chris will be speaking at the event alongside leaders from across the industry - Tesco, Charlotte Tilbury, TikTok, N Brown and more.

Chris' bio:

Chris Browne is a retail obsessive and was involved from the very beginning of

Ted Baker in 1988. He headed up the Retail Team for over 30 years as Global Retail

Director. Key achievements include the successful expansion of the brand internationally, in particular in the USA and Canada, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

During this time, Chris was responsible for many aspects of Ted's unique style of

retail such as 'moving windows' 'gifts with purchase', exciting design-led stores

and he is considered one of the leading lights of the drive to create 'Retail Theatre'!

With its innovative, and sometimes controversial, windows and direct marketing,

which included the handing out of condoms with every purchase in support of

Aids Charities, and an early decision never to advertise, Ted truly led the way in

'Experiential Retail'.

Chris left Ted Baker in 2017 and has been busy since then as Non-Exec Director of several companies including Angels Face and &Sons, as well as providing global retail insight for leading consulting firms and private equity houses, such as Advent International.

His Angel investments include a Padel Tennis Club in Australia and the recently

launched 'Jelly Drops', hydrating sweets for Dementia sufferers.

Chris has had a lifelong interest/obsession with the future and has an abiding

passion for retail/commerce and its evolution, in particular the future use of

stores and their role in the wider context of a brand's overall 'UNIFIED' offer.

He sometimes feels he is alone in being excited by all the change and progression

that is happening in retail but enjoys sharing his vision with fellow retailers

through keynote speeches and his advisory work.

Previous to his Ted Baker career, Chris worked for The Tube, a London-based

fashion shoe business and John Farmer Shoes, formerly part of The Clarks Group.