Personalisation, Automation & The Human Touch - Getting The Balance Right Online & In-Store In A Changing Retail Environment
20-21 May | Marriott, Lisbon
Agenda Day 1
8:00 am - 8:30 am
REGISTRATION AND COFFEE
8:30 am - 8:35 am
HOUSEKEEPING REMARKS AND EXCHANGE WELCOME
8:35 am - 8:45 am
CHAIRS’ OPENING REMARKS
Giovanna Questioni -
Chief Customer Officer / Chief Transformation Officer,
Independent
8:45 am - 9:15 am
OPENING KEYNOTE INTERVIEW: MAINTAINING A TRANSFORMATION MINDSET IN THE CX SPHERE
Aymen Ismail -
Customer Services Director & Executive Board Member,
Smart Europe GmbH
Giovanna Questioni - Chief Customer Officer / Chief Transformation Officer, Independent
It has often been claimed that the field of CX is one of constant and ongoing transformation. Indeed change – ironically - is the one constant you can rely on in this field. Simultaneously customers’ expectations are shifting due to generational change and new technology also now allows you to adapt your operational activities and change your customer experience offering.
With this environment of constant change, standing still is not an option, and it's critical to maintain an innovation-focused mindset and maintain a flexible approach to CX across your team. Doing so will allow you to embrace the latest approaches, keep up to speed with technological developments and keep ahead of your competitors.
This keynote discussion will consider how you can maintain a constant state of innovation and find yourself comfortable “dancing on a moving carpet”. It will also consider how getting your training and staffing procedures right have a vital part to play in this, as well as giving you the tools to create overall awareness across the business of the vital importance of continued innovation in this field.
9:15 am - 9:45 am
KEYNOTE CX TRANSFORMATION PRESENTATION: UNCOVERING SOME OF THE STEPS IN GOING FROM INDIVIDUAL TOUCHPOINTS TO OMNICHANNEL JOURNEY AND EXPERIENCE PERFORMANCE
Anne-Kathrine Nissen -
Experience Design Director,
H&M
In this talk, we’ll explore how to cultivate and lead a transformation mindset within a large corporate organization, what steps to take. We’ll walk through examples for driving change and creating impact along the road of transforming traditional touchpoints into omnichannel customer journeys. Key topics include:
- Navigating the complex data landscape from both employee and customer perspectives
- Aligning transformation efforts with your company’s core values and culture
- Influencing the decision-making process
9:45 am - 10:15 am
KEYNOTE PRESENTATION: THE ART OF BEING REMEMBERED
Rodolfo Pereira -
Director of Enterprise Solutions,
Noesis
A winning customer experience in Retail is no longer just about efficiency - it's about connection. In an age of infinite choice, the brands that succeed are those that leave a lasting impression - those that are remembered.
Today, personalisation is more than a strategic tool, it's the gateway to emotion. The ability to anticipate needs, understand behaviors, and deliver hyper-relevant interactions across every touchpoint is what turns a one-time customer into a lifelong fan.
In this session, Rodolfo Pereira, Enterprise Solutions Director at Noesis, explores how Artificial Intelligence can drive deep personalisation at scale and help brands create experiences that resonate emotionally. How can AI shape memories, build emotional loyalty, and deliver personalized moments that truly matter?
Join us and discover how to make your brand not just seen - but remembered.
10:15 am - 10:45 am
EXPERT INTERVIEW: UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE ON YOUR CX DELIVERY
Gaelle Devins -
Chief Customer Officer and Board Member,
Breitling AG
Giovanna Questioni - Chief Customer Officer / Chief Transformation Officer, Independent
Creating a customer-centric culture is often thought of as central to CX. Ensuring employees – and the business as a whole – focuses on the exceeding the expectations of the customer makes absolute sense in today’s competitive market.
Alongside improving CX techniques and investing in technology, empowering employees and having a focus on the employee journey can also have a significant impact on customer interactions in a retail environment. Given that retail staff are often the front-line in terms of customer interactions, treating them well can often have a significant impact.
The challenge is that CX leadership can have a limited impact on employee experience and their journey, and this conversation will consider:
- What impact can a strong employee journey have when it comes to delivering retail-based Customer Experience?
- How can CX leadership help influence the employee strategy, given this is often not their formal responsibility?
- How can you bridge the gap between head office and corporate strategy and front line-staff in retail locations, and ensure they feel part of the “bigger picture”?
In today’s experience-driven economy, transactions alone no longer satisfy customers - they crave meaningful connections. The most successful retailers don’t just sell products; they curate moments that resonate emotionally, turning shoppers into devoted advocates.
In this immersive session, you’ll:
✔ Decode the emotional DNA of your core customer segments—what truly drives their loyalty beyond rational factors
✔ Master the art of emotional touchpoints—learn how store environments, associate interactions, and micro-moments can trigger trust, joy, and belonging
✔ Pilot real-world tools to measure in-the-moment sentiment, transforming observational data into experience upgrades - from the "what" to the "How"
✔ Collaborate with peers to prototype emotionally intelligent retail scenarios tailored to your brand’s unique value proposition
Why attend?
→ Move beyond NPS and satisfaction metrics to design for human emotions
→ Gain actionable frameworks to bridge the gap between CX strategy and in-store execution
→ Leave with a personalised Emotional Engagement Blueprint for your business
11:55 am - 12:25 pm
EXPERT PRESENTATION: HOW TO DELIVER TRUE CONSISTENCY & MAKE THE MOST OUT OF EVERY FORM OF CUSTOMER INTERACTION
Marco Trada -
Director, eCommerce,
Leroy Merlin
Customers no longer move through a linear path to purchase—they jump between channels, devices, and touchpoints with the expectation of a seamless, connected experience. Yet many retailers still operate with siloed systems and disconnected strategies, leading to friction that frustrates customers and erodes loyalty. The shift from multi-channel to omni-commerce isn’t just about expanding reach—it’s about creating a unified, data-driven ecosystem that ensures every interaction adds value.
In this session, Marco Trada of Leroy Merlin will explore how leading retailers are breaking down barriers to create a frictionless customer journey, including:
- Identifying the most common breakdowns between digital and physical interactions and how to fix them
- The role of real-time data – How to use live insights to personalise customer engagement
- Ensuring organisational alignment so teams can execute a seamless omni-commerce strategy
- Rethinking success: If revenue isn’t the only metric, what are the key indicators of an effective omni-commerce experience?
What if just one minute could shape the entire perception of your contact center? In retail, each minute of silence or hold time isn’t just a gap - it's a signal. It reveals where your CX is under pressure: where systems are slow, journeys are fragmented, and agents feel unsupported. This session exposes how these fleeting seconds hold more weight than they seem, influencing not just individual interactions, but the overall relationship between customer and brand, while exploring how the latest technology can help us better understand and influence this critical moment.
1:00 pm - 1:50 pm
LUNCH NETWORKING BREAK
Whilst the value of embracing flexibility and being open to change within an ecommerce strategy is well known and understood, identifying the right signals, and making change based on this insight is often a tough practice to follow. Changing quickly in response to market requirements can offer commercial benefits, but being able to implement insight-driven change quickly can be very difficult and changing without the required proof can lead to mistakes being made. Likewise, spending too long in a testing phase before making a change can see an opportunity lost. Within this discussion led-think-tank, we will consider how to get the balance right in this process, and in doing so, create an ecommerce strategy which is both flexible and data driven. The session will consider how to ensure you have the right level of risk tolerance when making change, consider the pros and cons around fact tactical testing and validation and delve into the importance of validating assumptions in a safe environment.
Creating a genuinely consistent omnichannel experience is something of a must-have in today’s retail environment. Being able to employ consistent interactions with your customers and to respond to their needs is the goal of many customer experience leaders, and is the subject of significant focus in 2025.
However, there is a core challenge in that there is not “on-size fits all” approach which can be taken here. Different companies have different customer bases with different needs, and creating a unified approach is a significant challenge.
This session will consider the questions you need to ask in order to create a customer engagement strategy which is both consistent across all areas of interaction, whilst being unique both for your company and for the various different customer groups you have, giving you the tools to do the same for your business
2:55 pm - 3:25 pm
EXPERT ONE ON ONE INTERVIEW: OPTIMISING A CUSTOMER JOURNEY ACROSS DIGITAL AND IN-PERSON IN 2025
Anthony Long -
Global Head - Customer Experience,
Philip Morris International
Understanding an ideal customer journey has never been more critical in the retail world. Given that customers rely less on brand alone today to make purchases, using ongoing interactions and your understanding of the customers’ needs to drive next-best action prompting is critical if you want to continue to grow your business. However, this is not an easy task to perfect. Identifying those points when you can make a difference in a fragmented landscape (across both digital and in-store) and then acting accordingly takes significant expertise to achieve. Within this session, Anthony Long of Philip Morris International will consider this issue, and discuss:
- Ultra-personalization vs creating a bigger bullseye – what can help you better achieve your desired outcomes?
- Defining success of a revised customer journey; if direct ROI can be difficult to achieve, how can you assess the overall impact?
- Gaining the necessary buy-in from key groups needed to implement and support these measures
- What’s next in this field? Is in-store the next big battleground for a better customer journey?
3:25 pm - 4:05 pm
PANEL SESSION: BUILDING A BUSINESS CARE - HOW CAN YOU PRESENT THE ROI FOR CX INITIATIVES TO SENIOR EXECUTIVES?
Gaelle Devins -
Chief Customer Officer and Board Member,
Breitling AG
Astrid Kowalczyk - Head of CX Insights and Analytics, Volvo
Giovanna Questioni - Chief Customer Officer / Chief Transformation Officer, Independent
Whilst the value of a strong focus on and investment into CX can be self-evident to those in the sector, defining this value to business leaders is often a challenge, and one which can inhibit the allocation of resources to this function. Likewise, whilst there are plenty of ways to measure the impact CX has (NPS, CSAT etc), often the impact of positive measurement on business growth is an area which can be difficult to define.
Translating the importance and impact of CX to a language understood by business leadership is a vital skillset for CX leaders to have if they want to continue developing their CX capabilities. Linking the existing metrics used in the CX space to areas such as ROI (and ROE) will inevitably lead to the critical senior-level support needed for projects, investment and the implementation of new technology, and this session will consider:
- How can you embed the role of CX within broader business decisions and demonstrate the importance of such an approach?
- Can the importance of CX always be boiled down to ROI, or is the value of CX’s impact more complex?
- How can you bring other groups (CDO / IT etc) onside when asking for their involvement in CX development projects?
4:05 pm - 4:30 pm
EXPERT PRESENTATION: BUILDING PERSONALISATION INTO PAID MEDIA CAMPAIGNS
Bita Paydar Huynh -
CX and Personalisation Manager,
Pandora
Personalisation and hyper-personalisation are key watchwords for all CX leaders. The critical importance of personalisation and how to deliver this across the various channels you employ is well understood and often discussed.
However, whilst this is an area often discussed within client / customer retention and via channels you take direct care of, this is more rarely considered when it comes to moving beyond a focus on client retention and using personalisation to grow your customer base. Specifically, personalising paid media or advertising campaigns is a step it can be extremely hard to overcome.
This session will explore both the challenges of personalising a client acquisition strategy, as well as the plans you need to have in place beforehand to deliver a successful strategy in this space
A frictionless CX approach is the end goal for many companies. Engaging in a consistent way across all channels and maintaining the same approach is critical for today’s consumers.
However, moving from simply having multiple points of engagement through to a genuinely integrated omnichannel methodology, whilst an ideal step for many in this sector, is not without its challenges. From the use and management of data, through to the practical challenges of tying different parts of a business and overcoming siloed infrastructures, omnichannel can be a tough ask.
This think-tank will delve into the practical barriers which stand in the way of moving to an omnichannel approach and explore how to overcome these and take the next step in your CX approach
5:10 pm - 5:10 pm
EXPERT-LED ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS: REAL-LIFE PROBLEM-SOLVING DISCUSSIONS
Whilst a problem shared does not always mean a problem halved, a problem shared with experts often means a solution to a challenge can be found.
In this round table discussion session, tables of experts will tangle with real-life, anonymous, challenges provided by attendees prior to the event. Each table will discuss the challenges and consider how they could overcome the issues put before them and offer insight into similar challenges they have also faced before.
The concept of this session is not just to provide an outcome, but to give ideas and direction to the issue at hand – to offer alternative perspectives, challenge existing ways to deliver outcomes and provide deliver food for thought
