The Retail & Customer Delivery Theatre focuses on the point where the customer promise becomes operational reality. It helps retailers, brands and delivery partners make e-commerce and omnichannel fulfilment more dependable and profitable. Visitors can learn how to offer delivery and collection choices customers value, reduce failed deliveries and control fulfilment and returns costs. Practical examples examine where AI improves stock decisions and order promises. The theatre connects these lessons with carriers, collection networks and technology providers across the exhibition, helping buyers assess solutions against service performance, customer experience and margin.

Retail & Customer Delivery Theatre agenda

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10:00
  1. Profitable e-commerce delivery: where margin is lost and how to recover it
    • Build a cost-to-serve picture that captures picking, failed deliveries, customer enquiries and returns for each urban order
    • How to weigh lower delivery costs against the sales and repeat purchases a better service can generate
    • Which changes to prioritise when delivery reliability, customer retention and margin must improve together
10:20
  1. Can you afford the delivery promise you’re making?
    • How stock accuracy, picking capacity and carrier performance determine which promises a retailer can keep
    • The pricing and cut-off decisions that protect margin without driving customers away at checkou
    • Who should change the promise when capacity tightens – and how to keep commercial and operations teams aligned
10:40
  1. Ship from store: making omnichannel fulfilment pay
    • When local store stock can shorten delivery times and recover sales that a central fulfilment model would miss
    • What picking, collection and replenishment demand from store teams, stock accuracy and limited backroom space
    • How to judge the full benefit after split shipments, extra handling and the effect on in-store shoppers
11:00
  1. Same-day and on-demand delivery: which orders can you serve profitably?
    • How order density, delivery radius and available picking capacity determine where a rapid service can work
    • When batching orders or combining delivery partners improves utilisation without missing the promised window
    • How to decide whether to expand, reprice or restrict a same-day service using contribution per order, reliability and repeat purchasing
11:20
  1. Networking break
11:40
  1. Panel: Which delivery choices win customers – and which will they pay for?
    • When speed, certainty, flexibility or a lower price makes the difference between a sale and an abandoned basket
    • Where subscriptions, minimum spends and paid upgrades strengthen loyalty while covering the service cost
    • What purchasing data reveals about customer preferences, and how agentic commerce – shopping through AI agents – could change delivery choice
12:20
  1. Fireside: Retailer and carrier contracts that reward reliable delivery
    • Which service measures and incentives encourage successful delivery and effective recovery when something goes wrong
    • How to agree peak capacity, surcharges and exception costs before pressure on the network exposes the gaps
    • The shared performance and emissions data – including subcontracted deliveries – that turns account reviews into useful action
12:50
  1. Accessible delivery: making every stage work for more customers
    • Where checkout, notifications, collection points and doorstep handovers create barriers for customers with different access needs
    • How to capture delivery instructions once and make them useful to the people completing the order
    • Practical ways to improve successful delivery and customer confidence, with feedback from the people affected
13:10
  1. Networking break
13:30
  1. Parcel lockers and collection points: choosing locations that pay
    • What makes a locker or collection point convenient enough to become part of customers’ routines
    • How location, opening hours and peak capacity affect volumes, and when carrier-neutral networks open to multiple carriers improve utilisation
    • Assess a site’s viability using carrier access agreements, integration costs, repeat use and cost per parcel
13:50
  1. Click and collect: ready orders, shorter queues and fewer abandoned collections
    • Where stock reservation, picking and customer notifications break down between an online order and a store collection
    • How collection windows, staffing and handover arrangements affect waiting time and the experience of other shoppers
    • Which measures show that an order is ready when promised, collected successfully and handled at an acceptable cost
14:10
  1. Panel: Home delivery or out-of-home collection: who captures the savings?
    • How doorstep, store, locker and pick-up and drop-off (PUDO) delivery compare once handling and failed attempts are included
    • Who pays – and who benefits – when retailers, carriers, site hosts and customers switch to collection
    • Which pricing and incentives can increase consolidation without simply shifting cost or inconvenience to someone else
14:50
  1. Fireside: Marketplace and social-commerce growth: keeping the fulfilment promise
    • How to absorb sudden demand from marketplaces and social commerce without disappointing existing customers
    • Where marketplace fulfilment, a third-party partner or an owned operation best supports growth and control
    • The stock, tracking and returns responsibilities to settle before adding another sales channel
15:20
  1. First-time delivery to flats: fixing the final metres
    • Why a correct street address can still leave a driver without the entrance, access code or recipient information they need
    • How better instructions, notifications and proof of delivery improve handovers in flats and shared buildings
    • Which changes reduce repeat visits and customer enquiries without creating new security or privacy problems
15:40
  1. Networking break
16:00
  1. Urban grocery delivery: fresher orders, fewer failures, stronger margins
    • How picking capacity and delivery density shape the slots a grocery operation can offer profitably
    • How substitutions, cold-chain performance and the cost of a failed handover affect the service and its margin
    • Where packaging and delivery changes can reduce waste while protecting freshness and repeat custom
16:20
  1. Large-item delivery: getting access, installation and collection right first time
    • What parking, stairs, lifts and installation requirements mean for realistic delivery appointments in a city
    • How to combine delivery, packaging removal and old-product collection in one well-planned visit
    • The pre-delivery checks that prevent damage, repeat handling and costly return trips
16:40
  1. Lower-emission delivery: will customers choose it, and will it make a difference?
    • How to compare delivery emissions using vehicle, load and distance data, including subcontractors, failed attempts and customer collection journeys
    • How checkout wording and incentives influence real choices, conversion and repeat use
    • Carbon reporting that buyers can use to compare services and substantiate delivery claims, including the limits of incomplete data
10:00
  1. Peak demand: protecting sales without paying for year-round spare capacity
    • Where seasonal demand first strains picking, store replenishment, delivery capacity and customer support
    • How flexible labour, carrier agreements and order cut-offs can protect availability and service at the busiest times
    • What forecast error, backlog recovery and the full cost of the peak reveal about next year’s capacity plan
10:20
  1. The right stock, in the right place: keeping city stores and online orders supplied
    • Which products belong close to demand when urban space, stockholding and replenishment all carry a cost
    • How delivery frequency, store receiving windows and shared stock affect availability for shoppers and online orders
    • When a local inventory change reduces lost sales – and when it merely adds transfers, markdowns or duplicated stock
10:40
  1. Connecting orders, stock and carriers: fixing the gaps between retail systems
    • Where order management systems (OMS), warehouse management systems (WMS) and carrier platforms need consistent stock and order data
    • How to identify who owns each update, detect failed handovers and recover an order when systems disagree
    • Test system interoperability against accurate stock updates, dependable dispatch and fewer manual corrections
11:00
  1. Fireside: Preventing avoidable returns before the parcel leaves
    • What return reasons reveal about product information, picking errors, packaging and delivery damage
    • How merchandising, fulfilment and carrier teams can remove recurring causes without making legitimate returns harder
    • Where prevention protects margin and customer confidence – and how to distinguish improvement from a change in sales mix
11:30
  1. Returns and reverse logistics: recovering value faster
    • How store, locker and doorstep return routes affect convenience, processing cost and time to resale
    • Use early condition checks to route goods into restocking, repair or recommerce (resale), balancing recovery cost against likely resale value
    • The balance between faster refunds, customer trust and the value recovered from each returned item
11:50
  1. Networking break
12:10
  1. Panel: Keeping urban retail supplied when the network is disrupted
    • How to prioritise stores and customer orders when a carrier fails, roads close or heat and flooding disrupt service
    • When alternative carriers, local stock and spare capacity justify their cost against lost sales and missed promises
    • Who can change fulfilment plans and customer communications quickly enough to make recovery work
12:50
  1. AI in retail fulfilment: which decisions can you trust it to make?
    • Where AI can improve forecasting, order allocation or delivery recovery – and how to choose a useful first application
    • What changes when agentic AI moves from recommendations to automated action: data quality, system integration, human approval and a reliable way to stop errors
    • Assess service and cost gains after integration, staff training and ongoing oversight, using a clear baseline for comparison
13:10
  1. Networking break
13:30
  1. Delivery fraud and theft: protecting orders without frustrating customers
    • Where losses arise across picking, doorstep handover and return collection – and which controls address each weak point
    • How delivery evidence and risk signals can resolve disputes while respecting privacy and legitimate customer claims
    • The measures that reveal whether a control reduces loss or merely creates false alarms and extra support work
13:50
  1. Panel: Spot the problem, save the delivery: turning tracking into action
    • How real-time delivery visibility helps teams identify orders at risk early enough to prevent a missed promise
    • Which warehouse and carrier updates enable useful intervention – and where missing data holds teams back
    • How to assess the effect on successful deliveries, customer enquiries and cost per order
14:30
  1. Fireside: Micro-fulfilment in small urban spaces: when does automation pay?
    • Which volumes, product ranges and space constraints favour automation in a store backroom or compact urban site
    • What installation, maintenance and staff training mean for service during the changeover
    • How to compare throughput, accuracy and full operating cost against a well-run manual alternative
15:00
  1. Networking break
15:20
  1. Packaging for the urban journey: less damage, less waste, fewer repeat deliveries
    • How product protection, parcel size and handling requirements change across vans, cargo bikes, lockers and customer collection
    • Where right-sized or reusable packaging reduces total cost once packing labour, return journeys and recovery are included
    • Which damage, refund and redelivery measures establish whether a packaging change improves the whole order journey
15:40
  1. Buying delivery technology: from a convincing demo to a proven result
    • How to turn a delivery problem into a supplier brief with clear acceptance criteria
    • Assess the full cost of a transport management system (TMS) or delivery platform, including integration, training, support and data portability when switching suppliers
    • Set trial success criteria, test integration and agree the evidence required before committing to wider rollout