Stay up to date with the ideas, partnerships and market shifts redefining how businesses compete for the customer.

From cross-sector collaborations to emerging customer behaviours and commercial strategies, this is where we share the latest thinking shaping CustomerX - and the industries converging around it.

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Beyond the Transaction: Decoding the Real Drivers of Customer Spend
Senior commercial leaders are looking at the same spreadsheet right now. Growth is stubbornly flat and capturing discretionary spend feels like a zero-sum game. Customers are spending differently, re- …
You know your customer. But do you know which version of them just turned up?
Hungry, tired, rushed or under pressure — the same person can make very different decisions depending on the moment. This week, we explore what happens when customer state changes customer behaviour. …
Customers don’t make sense. Until they do.
Your customer doesn’t care what sector you’re in. They’re making choices across travel, retail, food, entertainment and everything in between — often in ways that seem contradictory. This week, we fol …
The back to school moment: a summer-long tax on other moments
Back to school is usually presented as a late-August retail event. In reality, it competes with holidays, days out and family treats for the same finite budget and fires the starting gun on peak
Finding Growth Beyond the Usual Places
Every commercial director is staring at a familiar problem. Growth in the usual urban centres is flatlining. The cost of acquiring a customer in major metropolitan areas continues to climb and competi …
Your customers world is connected, is yours?
Last week, we looked at how place, passion and personal economics shape the decisions customers make. This week, we're looking at what happens when the organisations, services and brands around them d …
Place, Passion and Personal Economics
Have you ever noticed how differently you spend depending on where you are, what you’re doing or even how you’re feeling?Your customers are no different. This week, we’re looking at place, passion and …
Lifting a lamp beside the golden door
Understanding who your customers are is a fundamental part of marketing and customer engagement, but knowing what mood they are in, which brain they are using – rational or intuitive – is perhaps even …
The Streaming Standard: Why Zero-Friction is the New Baseline
Every commercial leader knows the frustration of watching a customer abandon a high-value basket at the final hurdle. We often blame pricing, timing, or broader economic conditions, but the situation …
The Commercial Leaders Spreadsheet Dilemma
Every commercial leader is staring at the same spreadsheet right now. The numbers suggest a simple story of customers tightening their belts. Growing market share is getting harder, and discretionary …
The real deal: Why brands need to be clear about their own values if they want to reach customers
By drilling into RetailX consumer surveys, you get a vivid sense of people’s attitudes to their day-to-day spending. But this data says far less about the political, social and economic context within …
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses... and a sandwich
Businesses spend fortunes working out who their customers are, but hunger, tiredness, stress and distraction determine what mood of customer turns up
Breaking Sector Silos: The New Strategy for Securing Share of Wallet
Every commercial leader is currently looking at a very familiar problem. Growth is stagnating across traditional categories and the cost of acquiring a new customer continues to climb. We are all oper …
Beyond sectors. Inside the customer mind.
Every decision is shaped by context. What customers are doing, how they're feeling and what else is competing for their wallet all influence what they buy next. The businesses pulling ahead are those …
Contradictory customers: How personal-level economics help explain ‘irrational’ spending
Part 2 – how the macroeconomic and political context shapes apparently contradictory behaviour and attitudes. Or, why recent graduates have entirely rational reasons to ask for both lower taxes and be …
The Big Sporting Moment: where cross-sector success is the goal
Big sporting events do not create one market, they temporarily reorganise dozens of markets around a shared clock, shared emotions and an unusually good excuse to spend
The Summer Holiday Moment: a journey to purchase not just a destination
In the new CustomerX world, it's the Customer Moments that matter. In the first part of an ongoing series, we take a timely look at the annual summer trip away and how to get there
Every senior commercial leader is looking at the same dual mandate right now. You have to drive sustainable growth and you have to drive operational efficiency. Achieving these objectives is difficult …
The (sucker) punchline for brands

The (sucker) punchline for brands

15 Jul 2026 Paul Skeldon
Economic pressures are changing how customers behave – with transformative impact on how they shop. In this three part look at a baker’s dozen of datasets, we delve into how consumers view their own b …
Customers are not cutting back – they are cutting differently
Economic realities bite... in mysterious ways! Part one of our investigation into how customers view their own behaviour, and what that means for spending.
The new Friday night - no-one
What is the new modality of a Friday night? We consider this emerging Customer Context, why it's more than advertising+, the players, the model and how Boards can position to thrive. Plus a 🐓 and 🐷.
The 'health hub economy' - where effort becomes identity, community and commerce...
After a long weekend in which many of us have been uploading our activities to Strava it felt like a moment to consider this new ecosystem's impact on the customer...   This is the second post in a se …
The
This week I'm taking a break from #AI to look at the airport’s commercial models, customer experience and unique setting for D2C innovation. This is the first of a series on the new consumer contexts …
AI: solvent and accelerant on the route to a CustomerX world
As AI dissolves the boundaries between retail, travel, finance and media, customers are no longer optimising within sectors — they are optimising across their lives. This article explores how horizont …
Decadian shifts in retail

Decadian shifts in retail

31 Jul 2025 Ian Jindal
Ecommerce has reached a turning point after 25 years of expansion — shifting from high-growth disruption to a mature, fiercely competitive market. Unpack how retailers are adapting as channel growth s …
Place is the space: why the real world is still the main event
The real world is a key part of the customer’s life, driving the digital and vice versa. And brands need to be there or be left behind