The next phase of retail growth will be won or lost on the industry’s ability to understand, anticipate and adapt to the needs of its changing customers, be they Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials or the Gen Zers who are re-writing the rules once again! The speed and scale of today’s demographic shift is unlike anything the UK retail industry has faced before. Here, Oscar Strachen, Digital Strategy Consultant at Columbus, explores three ways retailers can successfully navigate the generational crossroad: buyer profiling, understanding what matters most to each generation, and closing the back-office gap.

The retail sector has always been shaped by generational waves that bring distinct habits, expectations and priorities. Baby Boomers built the modern department store era and fuelled the introduction of credit, Gen X drove high-value spend, Millennials accelerated eCommerce adoption, and now Gen Z are rewriting the rules of discovery and loyalty as they’re set to become one of the main revenue drivers. Consumer confidence remains uncertain and digital-first platforms have shaped customer expectations. Today’s revenue is still driven by Gen X and Millennials, but within five years, retailers expect Gen Z to almost triple its contribution, drastically reshaping demand patterns. But is the retail industry ready?

A recent Columbus study, which surveyed 100+ senior UK retail leaders across eCommerce, multichannel, and store-led businesses, reveals a sector that is both acutely aware of its demographic pivot, yet under-prepared to act on it. Only six in ten retailers feel confident in knowing which generations dominate their customer base, with just 52% having faith in their systems to keep pace with the shifting behaviours. So how can retailers close this gap?

It’s time to bridge the consumer divide!

The future of retail success is not just about serving one generation better than another. True success requires retailers to build organisations and systems that can flex across generations. However, the study pinpoints silos, legacy technology and cultural inertia as the main barriers holding many retailers back. The challenge now is to bridge the gap between what the front-end promises and what the back-end can deliver to serve the generational reliability expectations. Only this way will retailers be able to build trust, loyalty and sustained profitability.

1. Power shifts at checkout – new buyers will hold the purse strings 

Currently, Gen X (42.2%) and Millennials (34.9%) are retail’s biggest revenue contributors, with Gen Z lagging behind at 9.2%, but in just five years, this outlook is set to change dramatically. Leaders expect Millennials to remain dominant (39.5%), while Gen Z is expected to almost triple its contribution (22.9%) and usurp Gen X. The increase in social commerce adoption (such as TikTok Shop) is a driver behind this shift in buying power, with 66% of Gen Z consumers using social media as a research tool. So how can retailers adapt their strategies to keep pace?

It’s important retailers learn to map today’s revenue by generation and channel. When trying to understand younger consumers, retailers can start by identifying stock-keeping units (SKUs) with high discovery and conversion. Retailers can appeal to more Gen Z consumers with unified commerce, which transforms many channels into one brand by pooling inventory, orders and customer context, allowing shopping journeys to be smooth from click to purchase.

2. Long-term loyalty cannot be locked in with short-term wins

Against a backdrop of rising cost of living and increasing housing costs, younger consumers are facing acute financial strain, with 80% of UK adults believing younger generations are worse off today than two decades ago. Yet despite this, one in five retailers hasn’t changed their strategies to reflect this financial reality.

Many retailers offer ‘buy now, pay later’ (BNPL) checkout alternatives, which appeal to Gen Z and Millennials. In fact, the FCA reports that 20% of UK adults regularly use BNPL. But while usage has significantly increased, BNPL sits squarely in the regulatory crosshairs as draft FCA rules increase affordability checks and greater transparency, which could dent conversion rates. So, retailers must proceed with caution and treat BNPL as a tool not a crutch – but what alternative strategies can retailers explore?

3. Address the back-office gap to achieve store-front success

Operational readiness remains a key challenge for retailers, 22.4% of retailers don’t differentiate operations by generations at all. Process-driven mindsets, disconnected marketing and a lack of shared metrics linking back office to CX reveal a significant disconnect.

In a tight market, where retail sales growth is modest, every broken promise is magnified, especially for Gen Z. A wrong delivery date, slow refund or a botched click-and-collect can be detrimental and often result in not just a disappointed customer, but a competitor gaining a potential customer. This is why operational agility is no longer a back-office issue but vital for storefront success. 

Start owning the moments that matter most to customers

Too often, retailers measure process outputs such as stock turns, fulfilment cost and SLA adherence that rarely capture the lived reality of the customer. If the goal is to adapt to shifting generational behaviour, the metrics must change too, otherwise, retailers risk not only missing sales but also eroding the loyalty that underpins long-term growth. Instead, operational KPIs such as promise-data accuracy, refund time-to-wallet and first contact to resolution should sit on every retailer’s dashboard. Collectively, these KPIs close the gap between what the business thinks it’s delivering and what the customer actually experiences. 

From fragmentation to future-fit

UK retail sits at a crucial crossroads. Generations don’t just define who the customers are but also whether a business is built for the future or left behind in the past. The consumer divide is real, but by no means unbridgeable. Retailers don’t need to rip and replace everything overnight, but they need to build knowledge on exactly which generation drives which product or channel and design experiences that respect the emotional realities of each for long-term success. Retailers need to remember, Generation Alpha are only just around the corner

The event was part of Cokethorpe Enterprises’ Business Breakfast Forum series, a termly event held at Cokethorpe School near Witney.

It brings together employers, senior leaders, and the school’s network of business-owning parents for a morning of discussion, networking and fresh insight.

Leadership was the theme for this term’s forum and Witney and West Oxfordshire MP Charlie Maynard delivered the keynote address.

Mr Maynard said: “Leadership in business and in public life shares a common foundation; listening, accountability and a clear sense of purpose.

“It was a pleasure to join so many local business leaders at Cokethorpe to exchange ideas on navigating change, supporting growth and building stronger communities.”

Dr Sarah Squire, head of Cokethorpe School (Image: Cokethorpe School)

He shared perspectives from his career in international business and public life, including co-founding BDA Partners, an Asia-focused advisory firm, where he spent 24 years growing the business to more than 120 employees across nine global offices.

The event opened with a networking breakfast, followed by wider discussion around leadership, innovation and the future of business across the region.

Dr Sarah Squire, head of Cokethorpe School, said: “It was fantastic to see so many business leaders come together for this term’s forum.

“Our Business Breakfasts are hugely important to us, as a platform for businesses to connect and share insight, across learning, leadership and the local community.

“They also further inspire our pupils about opportunities in the world of work.”

The Business Breakfast Forums regularly attract major speakers from across business, politics and industry.

Previous guests have included entrepreneur, celebrity chef and musician Levi Roots and senior leaders from the agricultural and retail sectors.

Themes have ranged from leadership and disruption to artificial intelligence.

This term’s forum was sponsored by Clifton Bookkeeping, Philip Dennis Foodservice and JJ Hunt Photography.

The sessions are part of Cokethorpe’s wider efforts to build a professional network that benefits both business leaders and pupils, providing students with unique access to mentoring opportunities, workplace insights and professional connections that help bridge the gap between education and the world of work.

Cokethorpe Enterprises operates within the Cokethorpe group with a distinct commercial focus, hosting teambuilding, training, away days and weddings.

The school sits on 150 acres of Oxfordshire parkland and is an independent co-educational day school for pupils aged four to 18.

With around 600 students, it combines academic achievement with a focus on personal development, preparing young people to thrive in an ever-changing world.

John Moffat has urged the UK to move faster to help start-ups commercialise proven technology, warning that British risk aversion is pushing innovative companies towards the US.

Moffat, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Structural Battery Company, said the UK performs well in research and prototyping but falls short when companies try to turn tested technology into products that can be certified and sold at scale.

He described this stage as the main weakness in the British innovation system, arguing that the problem is not a lack of ideas but a lack of support once a technology moves beyond early development.

“The UK has many of the ingredients to lead the world in advanced technology, but we need to become better at turning innovation into commercial success.

“The critical issue is risk appetite. The UK is structurally risk-averse, especially when companies move from Technology Readiness Level 6 into commercialisation. We support research and prototypes well, but struggle to back the stage where a proven technology becomes a certified, scalable product.

“Government policy can be well-intentioned but create unintended outcomes. For example, broadening Enterprise Investment Scheme eligibility risks drawing capital away from the smaller, early-stage businesses the scheme was designed to support.

“There are only two places where start-ups can reliably access growth capital: the US and China. For companies with sensitive technology, China is not viable, which is why British companies look to the US, where funding depth and commercialisation pathways are stronger.

“Risk appetite challenges are well documented for UK start-ups in the ‘valley of death’ – the treacherous path between scale-up capital and commercial procurement. In the UK, we know the solutions to these problems. The question is whether they can be implemented with sufficient urgency and precision.”

Moffat is seeking to draw attention to the commercial barriers facing emerging technology businesses in Britain, particularly those in sectors that require long development cycles, regulatory approval and large amounts of capital before revenue can build.

Funding gap

The “valley of death” is a familiar term in the start-up market, referring to the period between technical validation and sustainable commercial sales. For many hardware and deep-tech companies, this can be the hardest stage, as investors grow more cautious and customers often wait for certification, production capacity and procurement frameworks to be in place.

Moffat said the problem is especially acute in the UK, where risk appetite remains weaker than in larger capital markets. He also pointed to the US as the main alternative for British companies seeking later-stage backing.

His intervention adds to a wider debate over how Britain can retain more of the intellectual property and industrial growth created by its universities, engineers and specialist start-ups. Founders in advanced manufacturing, aerospace, energy storage and defence-related technologies have often argued that the UK is better at generating inventions than building large companies around them.

Battery design

Moffat’s company is developing structural battery technology for unmanned aerial vehicles and satellites. The idea is to use parts of an aircraft’s structure, such as crossbeams and panels, to store electrical energy, reducing the need for separate battery packs that add weight and take up space.

The company’s Drone Spine product is aimed at heavy-lift unmanned aerial vehicles. It is designed as a high-voltage structural battery backbone that combines energy storage with a load-bearing role in the airframe.

The company said the design could allow aircraft to travel further and carry more payload by making the battery part of the structure rather than a standalone component. The system has been developed for unmanned aerial vehicle platforms with a maximum take-off weight of up to 600kg in quadcopter configuration and uses a 100s5p battery configuration, with 100 modules connected in series and five cells connected in parallel within each module.

That focus on integration, rather than propulsion alone, is central to Moffat’s argument for the technology.

“The limiting factor with heavy-lift drones is not propulsion, it is integration. Drone Spine is designed to solve that problem by combining structure, energy storage and high-voltage power distribution in one system.”

Strategic uses

He said the implications go beyond engineering efficiency and extend into defence and civilian operations. Demand for drones has grown quickly across military logistics, surveillance, emergency response and industrial support, increasing pressure on manufacturers to improve range, payload and endurance.

Moffat linked those pressures to the strategic value of structural energy systems, while arguing that the commercial and public-service uses could also be significant.

“With drones increasingly becoming a core component of modern warfare, as demonstrated by Ukraine’s ongoing defence against Russian invasion, advances in structural energy systems are strategically significant.

“But this is not just a military opportunity. The same technology can help drones fly further, carry more and operate for longer in applications such as wildfire response, emergency medical logistics, construction support and access to remote areas.

“Flight range, payload capacity and onboard power are becoming decisive factors in the future of uncrewed aviation. If we can make the structure of an aircraft store energy, we change what that aircraft can do.

“The real-world benefits could be transformative: medical supplies reaching critically ill or injured patients faster, small wildfires being tackled before they become major incidents, and armed forces equipped with more capable uncrewed systems that help deter conflict. These are exactly the kinds of technologies the UK should be helping to commercialise and scale.”

His remarks reflect a broader concern among founders that Britain risks losing commercially valuable technologies to overseas markets unless investors, policymakers and procurement bodies move faster to support companies after the prototype stage.

For advanced engineering businesses, the issue is not simply invention but whether enough capital and institutional backing exist to bridge the gap between a proven concept and a viable product.