What an incredible few days it’s been at Shoptalk Europe 2025! Across every panel, presentation, and coffee conversation, one message was loud and clear: the world of retail is changing with rising customer expectations, channel fragmentation, and tighter margins; brands are navigating one of the most dynamic, yet demanding retail environments in recent memory.
These themes pulsed through every corner of Shoptalk Europe 2025, from the main stage panels to the one-to-one retailer conversations happening across Barcelona. And for us at TruRating, it was the perfect backdrop to share what we’ve learnt from working with our retail partners around the world, and to show how real-time, revenue-linked customer feedback is helping them stay ahead.
Moving beyond the “conversion mindset”
On Day 2, our CEO & Founder, Georgina Nelson, took to the Ignis Stage as part of the panel Technologies Enabling Unified Commerce, alongside leaders from OneStock, Quorso, autone, and moderated by Stephanie Habib from BCG X.
Georgina shared why it’s time for retailers to stop treating their websites as just conversion tools and start recognizing them as the start of the customer journey.
The takeaway? Digital influences behaviour long before a sale is made, and the smartest brands are building strategies that reflect this.
Key data insights from the session
We shared fresh data from our work with retailers across the globe. Here are just a few highlights that had the audience leaning in.
Influence starts before the door opens
- In a recent survey, we found that 42% of customers research a store online before visiting, exploring products, reading reviews, and checking store traffic. Plus, one in three people have previously ordered online prior to visiting the store.
- In a specialist retail example, those who had visited the website before buying in-store spent 48% more on average than those who hadn’t.
The opportunity here is clear: use your digital presence to inspire and educate, not just convert. Connecting the online and in-store experience is key to driving more footfall in-store. If your digital team is focused solely on conversion, you’re missing out on a chance to drive bigger baskets in-store.
The digital-to-human handshake
Your website sets the stage, but your staff are your greatest asset to close the sale. Once you’ve inspired a customer to visit your store through great online content, reviews, or product information, it’s up to your in-store teams to turn that intent into value. And the data proves just how powerful that final human touchpoint can be. At a top fashion retailer, we tracked two simple staff behaviors:
- Greeting customers by name
- Making two tailored product recommendations
When those behaviors were followed, stores saw a 23%+ boost in ATV.
And that’s the key lesson. It’s not enough to get the customer through the door, you need to convert that intent into value.
- Your online experience brings the customer in.
- Your store teams, armed with the right insights and training, bring the sale home.
We see across all sectors that retailers who invest in their people through service training, data-driven coaching, and a culture of connection drive stronger results in revenue and loyalty.
Feedback that drives performance
Too often, feedback lives in dashboards that no one acts on. That’s why TruRating is built to connect feedback directly to transactional data so teams can see exactly what’s driving revenue. With TruRating implemented at the point of sale, retail brands can:
- Hear from 80%+ of their customer base in real time.
- Tie every piece of feedback to 50 points of transaction data.
- Gather a representative sample of voices (not just promoters or detractors).
- Understand drivers for the KPIs that matter, such as conversion, ATV and CLV.
- Optimize staffing and coaching down to store, shift and hourly levels.
If feedback doesn’t proactively drive action, what’s the point? We help ensure it does.
What’s next?
We left Barcelona inspired and energised by the conversations we had with retailers across Europe and around the world. Across every conversation, on stages, in meeting rooms, and over countless coffees, we heard the same questions surfacing again and again:
- How do we drive loyalty when customers are more price-sensitive, choice-saturated, and digitally empowered than ever?
- How do we unify experiences when operational complexity is only increasing?
- How do we balance personalization with privacy, and use data responsibly to deliver value, not just more noise?
- How do we equip store teams to succeed when the expectations placed on them are higher than ever?
- Above all, how do we do more with less? With budgets tight and margins under pressure, retailers are having to make every investment count.
Yet amid these challenges, we also saw huge optimism. Retailers are experimenting boldly, moving faster, and, crucially, putting the customer experience back at the heart of the business.
If there’s one takeaway from Shoptalk this year, it’s this: those who connect the dots will win. Not just across channels, but across teams, technologies, and touchpoints. The future belongs to brands that act as one, giving customers the seamless journeys they expect, and staff the tools and actions they need to deliver them.
We’re proud to be part of that movement, and after this week in Barcelona, we’re more energised than ever to help retailers navigate what’s next!
If any of the challenges above resonate with you, or if you would like to see our retail analytics software in action, book a demo today.
